Caldara, Antonio.

notated in dark brown ink on ten staves per page, including the opening of the recitative scene marked "Scena 9^{a" , with music for the characters Don Chisciotte (tenor), Gus[mano] (bass) and Alt[isidora] (contralto), the scene beginning "Ferma: Genta vigliacca", with the conclusion of the preceding scene for Gusmano and Altisidora}



 



2 pages, oblong 4to (c.23 x 31cms), 10-stave paper, inscribed by the celebrated nineteenth-century collector Aloys Fuchs, no place or date, [Vienna, c.1730], autograph gathering number cropped

Antonio Caldara (c.1670-1736) was one of the leading Italian composers working in Vienna.  His commedia per musica based on Cervantes, Sancio Pansa Governatore dell'isola Barattaria, was composed for the Vienna court in 1730.  However, its performance was delayed until 1733, and the consequent alterations probably account for the fact that this scene does not appear in Caldara's manuscript of the opera (in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde).  Altisidora is a trouser role: she is the wife of Laurino, but disguised as the warrior Casabilio.  The character of the captain Gusmano does not appear in Caldara's earlier opera on Cervantes, Don Chiciotte in corte della ducessa (1727).