Bajazet

Bajazet (Italian pronunciation: [baʒaˈzɛ]; also called Il Tamerlano) (RV 703) is an Italian opera in 3 acts composed by Antonio Vivaldi in 1735. Its libretto was written by Agostino Piovene. It was premiered in Verona, during the Carnival season of that year. It includes a three-movement sinfonia as an introduction. The story is about the fate of Bajazet (known as Beyazid I) after being captured by Tamerlane (Timur Lenk). The famous aria, "Sposa son disprezzata" is from this opera.

Act I. In garden of occupied capital of Bursa, where Tamerlane resides following the defeat of the Turks.

Act 2. Open countryside with Tamerlane’s pavilions which open to show Tamerlane and Andronicus seated.

Act 3. Garden on the banks of the River Euphrates.

Bajazet is a pasticcio. It was a common practice during Vivaldi's time for composers to borrow and adapt arias from other composers with their own works for an opera. Vivaldi himself composed the arias for the good characters (Bajazet, Asteria and Idaspe) and mostly used existing arias from other composers for the villains (Tamerlano, Irene, Andronico) in this opera. Some of the arias are reused from previous Vivaldi operas. The table below lists the origin of some of the arias used in Bajazet.

The first complete recording of this opera was released by Virgin Classics on 10 May 2005. Fabio Biondi conducts Europa Galante in Brussels for this recording. The singers are:

This recording received the award for Best Opera by Midem Classical Awards 2006 and shortlisted for the 48th Annual Grammy Awards 2006. Before this release, excerpts from this opera had been performed by other singers such as Cecilia Bartoli.

Pinchgut Opera's 2015 production of the opera was recorded live and broadcast on ABC Classic FM.

A recoding of the complete opera was released in 2020 on naive classics, featuring Bruno Taddia as Bajazet and Filippo Mineccia as Tamerlano. The orchestra is Accademia Bizantina. All conducted by Ottavio Dantone.

Notes

Sources

Piovene, Agostino (1742). Bajazet. Libretto. n.l.: n.p.