L’opera italiana tradotta in tedesco: l’esempio pionieristico de La libertà contenta ovvero Der in seiner Freiheit vergnügte Alcibiades di Agostino Steffani (1693/1697)

Abstract

In the history of the translation of Italian opera into other languages, especially German, singable translations adapted to the original music are rare in the 17th century, both because of the lack of experience in such a complex translation process and the rare circulation of operatic manuscript scores. A very interesting case study are the operas composed by Agostino Steffani for the court of Hanover, which were translated into German a few years later in Hamburg and other German cities. In particular, this article focuses on the opera La libertà contenta (1693), whose translation by Gottlieb Fiedler shows an absolutely pioneering approach for its time, especially with regard to the translation of the recitatives and the respect of the parameters of singability in the arias.