Ah! Perfido, op. 65
Scene and aria for soprano and orchestra
Orchestra: 1 flute, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, strings
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
Beethoven's Ah! perfido, a dramatic scene for soprano and orchestra, is a monologue for a woman who has been deserted by her lover. In its recitative and aria, she vacillates between asking the gods to punish her lover and wanting them to show him mercy. The work is modeled on the Scena di Berenice, which Haydn had composed only a year earlier, and, as in Haydn's cantata, the text for the recitative is by the popular librettist Metastasio. The author of the aria text is unknown.
Despite the high opus number given by a publisher, this is a relatively early work. It was premiered in Leipzig in 1796 by the well-known soprano Josefa Duschek, for whom Mozart had earlier written two concert arias. Some twelve years later, Beethoven brought the work to Vienna, as part of a four-hour marathon "Academy" concert of his music, but there the work did not fare so well. For the Vienna premiere, he hired the celebrated soprano Anna Milder, who a few years earlier had sung the role of Leonore in his opera Fidelio, but the irascible Beethoven, who had already alienated most of the orchestra, quarreled with her and she withdrew from the concert. On short notice, she was replaced by a seventeen-year-old singer who had not yet performed professionally. Not surprisingly, she suffered a tremendous attack of stage fright as she went on stage with Beethoven, and this difficult work, to say the least, did not go well. The reputation of Ah! perfido has, of course, long since recovered from that early disaster, and the work is today a popular show piece for sopranos. It might be added that the unfortunate young soprano, Josephine Killitschky, also recovered and built a successful career, which included singing the role of Lenore in Beethoven's Fidelio in Berlin.
Boston Baroque Performances
Ah! perfido
March 4 & 5, 2016
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloist:
Ana Marie Labin, soprano
October 15 & 16, 2010
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloist:
Barbara Quintiliani, soprano