Gassmann’s A Gas


Florian Leopold Gassmann
L’Opera Seria, Nationale Reisopera
By Shirley Apthorp [Financial Times, 29 Mar 05]
Florian Leopold Gassmann must have been a gas. There is nothing funny about his other 21 operas but L’Opera Seria is a scream. Everything is lampooned, from squabbling stage mammas to brainless tenors. We know little about the piece’s 1769 premiere, but the audience at Vienna’s Burgtheater must have hyperventilated.
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