Le nozze in sogno

Libretto by Pietro Susini (I)

"For the first time in 351 years, the opera ‘Le nozze in sogno’ (The Wedding in a Dream) was to be heard, after being identified only in 2013 by two Florentine musicologists as the work of the Tuscan composer and Innsbruck court musician Pietro Antonio Cesti (1623–1669) ... That which a young ensemble of singers brought back to life was in fact wonderful music, a discovery that experts predict will have a future on the major venues for Baroque opera... this astonishingly complex work, which is designated in the manuscript as a ‘citizens’ opera’ and ‘dramatic spoof’: it has melancholy, intimacy, and hints of tragedy, and the then highly effective influence of Spanish theater culminates in a final sleep and dream scene in which comedy becomes allegory, and the music, until then an organic flow of recitatives, ariosos, and arias, unexpectedly takes on a madrigal character. A wonderful effect that suggests a close collaboration between the composer and librettist." (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

"Cesti’s music displays enchanting flair in partly short, partly longer arias, but even more in delightful duets and madrigal-like ensembles." (Die Presse)

"The librettist Susini contrived a true panopticon, a heart-warming comédie humaine, a tragicomedy that surpasses itself in dream.... just what every full-blooded theater producer was waiting for ... great, touching, post-Monteverdian music, which offers beautiful arias, ariosos, recitatives, ensembles, and quasi-madrigals." (Orpheus)