L'Oca del Cairo

The Goose of Cairo

Dramma giocosa per musica, in 3 acts

L'Oca del Cairo was not completed. The complete libretto exists, but Mozart composed only seven of the ten numbers (in short score) from Act 1, along with some recitative; another number was sketched. The music was composed in 1783. The existing music was first published in 1855, and performed in concert in 1860. Since 1867, several stageable versions have been prepared from the extant music and other compositions.

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, K. 422
Librettist: Giovanni Battista Varesco
First performance [concert]: Frankfurt, April 1860
First performance of a stage version: Paris, 1867
Performance History
Libretto (composed numbers only)

Dramatis Personæ

Don Pippo, Marchese di Ripasecca, in love with Lavina (bass)
Donna Pantea, his wife, believed dead, living across the bay under the name of Sandra (soprano? no extant music)
Celidora, their only daughter, intended by her father to marry Count Lionetto of Casavuota, in love with Biondello (soprano)
Biondello, a wealthy gentleman of Ripaseca (tenor)
Calandrino, Donna Pantea's nephew, friend of Biondello and lover of Lavina (tenor)
Lavina, Celidora's companion (soprano)
Chichibio, Don Pippo's major-domo, in love with Auretta (bass)
Auretta, Donna Pantea's chambermaid (soprano)
[Wigmakers, Tailor, Shoemaker, Sailors and Dockers, Barrowboys, Populace, Courtiers, Servants of Biondello and Calandrino, Soldiers guarding the rock]

Setting: Ripasecca, a city on the coast of Spain.

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Monday, 08-Dec-2003 21:35:40 PST