«Bella mia fiamma, addio / Resta, o cara» tra Jommelli e Mozart: osservazioni e ipotesi sull’aria K. 528

Abstract

Mozart wrote the scena and aria K. 528 in Prague in 1787 for the singer Josepha Duschek. As previously known, this wonderful page is based on a text taken from “Cerere placata”, a “festa teatrale” created in Naples in 1772 by the man of letters and scientist Michele Sarcone and the renowned “maestro di cappella” Niccolò Jommelli to celebrate the birth of the first daughter of king Ferdinand IV of Bourbon. The article reconstructs in detail the circumstances of the Neapolitan performance, and shows that Jommelli’s setting of Titano’s recitative and aria “Bella mia fiamma, addio” / “Resta, o cara; acerba morte” enjoyed a large success and circulated as an autonomous piece. A comparison between Jommelli’s and Mozart’s versions highlights many similarities and leads one to believe that the younger composer carefully studied the Italian model.