Wie die Zeit vergeht: Rossinis Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra in Wien

Elisabetta is the first opera that Rossini composed for Naples in 1815, the new opera that was performed there after the return of the Bourbons to the throne following the period of French rule, and which was intended to inaugurate the new political course that the reinstalled rulers now wanted to initiate. Elisabetta was very successful in Naples and immediately began to circulate. She came to Vienna for the first time in 1818. However, its success in the Austrian capital did not materialise until 1822, when it was performed as the penultimate opera of the successful Rossini season organised by Barbaja in a version revised by the composer himself. Despite the attention that musicologists have devoted to Rossini's operas in Vienna, Elisabetta has been one of the least researched operas to date. The first part of my paper therefore focuses on the Viennese performances of Elisabetta, particularly those of 1822. On the basis of an analysis of the sources, I discuss the significance of the changes made by Rossini in the context of the changed political conditions since 1815. In the second part, I turn first to the reception of Elisabetta in Vienna; from here I finally discuss the music historiography of the 20th century, and the ideological difficulties that traditionally characterise the historiography of Rossini's success in Vienna in 1822.