#Johann Georg Schürer

[onthisdayinearlymusic]

February 16

1715 - Tigrane, ovvero L'egual impegno d'amore e di fede, one of the most successful drammi per musica by Alessandro Scarlatti, with a libretto by Domenico Lalli about a completely imaginary story involving Thomyris, Queen of Massagetae (whom Herodotus fans shall recall as the one who defeated Cyrus the Great and took her revenge by chopping his head off and soaking it in blood), was premiered at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples. You know, dramma per musica really is just another form of fan fiction, albeit the best one.

1722 - The Italo-German(?) soprano Regina Mingotti, a student of Porpora who enjoyed a stellar career in Dresden, Naples, Spain, Paris, and London, was born in Naples. According to the Italian musicologist Ulisse Prota-Giurleo, she was the sister of the composer Michelangelo Valentini.

1737 - Handel's dramma per musica, Giustino, with a libretto anonymously adapted from Pietro Pariati's 1711 revision of Nicolò Beregan's original text (set to music by Legrenzi) for Vivaldi, about the rise of the peasant Justin to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire, received its premiere at the Covent Garden Theatre in London, in the last season in which Handel had to compete with the rival company Opera of the Nobility. The alto-castrato Domenico Annibali sang the title role, the soprano-castrato Gioacchino Conti "Gizziello" was the emperor Anastasius, and Anna Maria Strada del Pò created the role of the empress Ariadne. (I feel this libretto can be made into either a Hollywood blockbuster or a video game. Just look at it - defeating a bear, shipwreck, saving the empress from a sea-monster, crushing down a rebellion, a mountain suddenly split open and your dad's voice coming out there telling you the one you're gonna kill is actually your brother, and Boom! a new emperor.)

1786 - The German composer Johann Georg Schürer, who had spent virtually his entire career serving at the Saxon court, died in Dresden.