Jozef Elsner’s Opera Amazons and Cultural Life in Lviv in the Late Eighteenth Century
May 22, 2015 / 7.00 pm
Center for Urban History, Lviv
Jozef Elsner is a Polish composer of German origin, the principle teacher of Chopin. From 1792 to 1799 he lived in Lviv. In Lviv he began his collaboration with the famous Polish theater activist and playwright Wojciech Bogusławski. From the two artists’ creative collaboration only one opera was preserved - Amazons or Herminia. This opera offers extremely interesting insight into the development of cultural life and the tastes of the Lviv audience at the end of the eighteenth century. Angelika Moths will speak about what one can learn from the manuscript of the opera and about the cultural environment in which it arose.
is a professor at Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Basel). She also works at the Institute of Musicology of the University of Basel and the University of Arts in Bremen. In recent years, her research focuses on the theory and notation of Baroque and early classical music. In addition to her research and teaching activities, she is involved in many musical projects. In particular she is a guest musician in the ensembles Sarband and Bella Gerit. She is the co-creator of the musical project Idiom (Intercultural Dialogues in music), the ensembles Al-Atlal (Arabic music) and De Lautanetto (instrumental music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance), Duo Pizzicato (mandolin and harpsichord), Musicanti Erranti (Trecento music) and Batava Tempe (Dutch music). After finding the manuscript of Jozef Elsner’s chamber opera Amazons, in 2014 Angelika Moths initiated an international project to recover and stage this opera, written and staged over two centuries ago in Lviv.Dr. Angelika Moths