This is the opera “Il gran Tamerlano” by the famous Czech composer Josef Myslivecek dedicated to the great conqueror. Josef Myslivecek (1737 – 1781) was an outstanding Czech composer of the late Baroque and Classical age in Europe, who wrote 26 operas, 10 oratorios and a number of symphonies, cantatas, and overtures, concerts for various solo instruments, as well as chamber and church music. He composed the opera “Tamerlane the Great” in Italy, where he worked for many years, and he was called the “divine Czech” (Il divino Boemo) for his composer’s talent.
The opera is written on a libretto by the Italian Agostino Gaetano Piovene, which is a free interpretation of the events that took place shortly after Amir Timur’s victory in the Battle near Angora in 1402 and the capture of his opponent. The protagonists are Tamerlane, Bayezid and his daughter Asteria, the Greek Prince Andronico and the Trebizond Princess Irene. The opera “Tamerlane the Great” premiered on 26 December 1771 in Milan on the stage of the famous Royal Court Theatre in Milan (Regio-Ducal Teatro Di Milano), which was famous for its five-story boxes. The music was performed by the theatre orchestra which consisted of 50 musicians and was conducted by Myslivecek himself. The first actor that played the role of Tamerlane was the sopranist D. Milizzio. In 1776, this opera was staged at the opera house of Pavia, another northern Italian city.
The music of “Tamerlane the Great” composed by the Czech composer was acclaimed by the sophisticated Italian audience. In particular, the duet “Di quel amabil ciglio” and the aria “Il caro e solo oggetto” from this opera were included in the most popular vocal collections of the late 18th and first half of the 19th century. The melodies of the overture to the opera were surprisingly similar to the first part of Mozart’s symphony No. 9, which the Austrian composer wrote about one year after the staging of the opera by Myslivecek. “Tamerlane the Great” by Myslivecek has not been lost in history. Two centuries later, its version in Czech called “Tamerlan” premiered in Czechoslovakia, in the country’s two largest cities: on 8 October 1967 at the Janacek Theatre in Brno, and on 1 December 1977 at the Tyl Theatre in Prague.
In the capital, “Tamerlan” was performed for four seasons – until 31 May 1980. The National Theatre archives have preserved seven photos of fragments of this opera taken on the premiere day. The actors on the stage were dressed in costumes of unusual shapes and decor, which, according to the artist’s plan, corresponded to the images of the main hero and other characters. Also in 1980, Czechoslovakian radio broadcast a radio version of the opera.
Interestingly, the opera “Tamerlane the Great” by J. Myslivecek was not the only one dedicated to the personality of Amir Timur. Italians Alessandro Scarlatti (1706), Francesco Gasparini (1711), Antonio Vivaldi (1735), Giovanni Battista Lampuniani (1746), Giuseppe Scolari (1763), Germans Johann Philipp Furch (1690), Georg Friedrich Handel (1724), and our contemorary Russian Alexander Tchaikovsky (2011) composed operas under the same or similar names dedicated to the great oriental conqueror. Although Myslivecek and the other mentioned European composers of the 17th and 18th centuries were separated from the Amir Timur’s times by several centuries, the personality of the greatest statesman and commander of the medieval East aroused in them great interest, reflected in their epic musical works dedicated to this outstanding historical character.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "The Collection of the Czech Republic" (Volume XVI) in the series "Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the World Collections".
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