Posted on 04/27/2021 7:36:10 AM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1792, Jacob Johan Anckarström lost his right hand and his center head for murdering Gustav III.
Like some other nobles, this officer considered the “theater king” and enlightened despot Gustav III a, well, despot.
Times being what they were, regicide was in order, to usher in an age of constitutional liberalism.
A conspiracy of Swedish nobles surrounded the royal victim at a masquerade ball on March 16, 1792, and shot him in the back. Alas for them, the scene was immediately sealed and the attendees unmasked before the gang could get away.
Although in the confusion nobody knew whodunit among those disguised revelers, it was only a matter of time before the discarded murder weapon was identified as Anckarström’s.
(Actually, it was a much longer matter of time before it became a “murder” weapon. The king only succumbed to the infection 13 days later.)
Five were condemned to death, but the four who hadn’t pulled the trigger were commuted to exile instead. Exile for regicide? Maybe that’s making you wonder why they all thought it was such an oppressive regime they all lived under....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
We, opera fans knew all about this. We just didn’t know that Anckarström got it in the end!
ML//NJ
Which opera is this?
It’s not an opera its a cantata or a composition for voices and orchestral accompaniment.
You have no clue.
It's best not to post in such cases.
ML/NJ
Few things gayer than being called the “theater king” and being murdered at a masquerade ball.
Un ballo in maschera (aka "Masked Ball")
ML/NJ
Sounds like congress and Donald Trump.
grazie
No, I have no clue what you are talking about. The Funeral Cantata for Gustav III by Joseph Kraus is a cantata and not an opera.
What was his center head? Did they just take a big chunk out? I thought he was beheaded.
Ballo is an opera.
I'm pretty interested in Classical Music. I've never heard of your Funeral Cantata or Joseph Kraus for that matter. The most recent Penguin Guide (1520 pages of 8 pt. type) I have does review a set of recordings of four of his symphonies, but seems to know nothing of the Glorious Cantata, or any other music he might have written.
Ballo has been performed 44 time at the Metropolitan Opera since January 2000. How many performances of the cantata have been given worldwide over the same time period?
ML/NJ
Oh Sorry. I included a link to a recording of the cantata in my original post. I don’t know anything about the performance history. An LP was recorded in 1988 by Musica Sveciae. The comments in the video suggest that there is another recording by Werner Erhardt (Capriccio label).
Kraus was known as the Swedish Mozart and the funeral cantata was his last composition. He also wrote an opera “Soliman II” and several other cantatas like “La Primavera” which are worth listening to.
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