PENELOPE 2025 is a project initiated at the Gustav Mahler Private University for Music Klagenfurt with the aim of performing the Tragicommedia in Musica Penelope (1724) by Francesco Bartolomeo Conti with students from Klagenfurt and Venice in collaboration with professional musicians, from the sources to the staged presentation with historical instruments. The idea emerged in the Department of Early Music after the successful previous project "Fux im Dom“ (2022/23), during which the Missa in C (K 47) by Johann Joseph Fux (~1660–1741) was edited and performed with students in Klagenfurt Cathedral and at the Fête baroque in Ossiach.

The carnival opera Penelope will be performed in cooperation with the Conservatorio di Musica "Benedetto Marcello", Venice, at the Konzerthaus Klagenfurt and in Venice. The second central aim of the project is to prepare and communicate the work for different audiences: On the one hand for a public audience in Klagenfurt and Venice, and on the other hand in a shortened and adapted version with participatory elements for school classes.

The project aims to deepen the students’ knowledge of baroque music and enable them to learn how to play historical instruments. The rehearsal of an unknown work also offers the opportunity to work on the interpretation from scratch, to make music from the scores edited by GMPU students themselves and to integrate experiences from musical practice into the edition.

Selection of the work

The selection of the work was based on several criteria: We were looking for a previously unedited baroque opera from the repertoire of the Viennese imperial court, whose content could also be communicated to school classes. In addition, the instrumentation should be suitable for the existing courses of study at the GMPU and the available instruments, so works with prominent solo wind parts and above all horns or special instruments such as the chalumeau were excluded. Regarding the cast of vocal parts, it also had to be taken into account that there are only a few male voice students at GMPU – as at many other universities – at present. 

Five-act operas, also often containing additional parts such as dances and intermezzi, were excluded from the very beginning from the project due to their length. One-act (chamber) operas, on the other hand, are not necessarily short and their subjects are strongly panegyric in nature due to their function as serenatas on the occasion of family celebrations at court. For this reason, the search for a suitable work concentrated on the three-act repertoire. Another decisive factor in the selection was the availability of digital copies of the sources. 

F. B. Conti’s Penelope offers everything that is necessary for the realization of the project at a relatively young music university: the plot is easily transferrable to the present day, there are two comic roles, it is scored principally for high voices without solo wind instruments and the writing style is accessible and not too virtuoso. A modern premiere in the strict sense was not the intention – works that have already been performed are also worth a (re-)performance! The staged performance of Penelope based on the manuscripts created for the Viennese court orchestra also differs from the concert performance presented in Weimar in 2013, for which the copy kept in Meiningen – a pure reception source from the property of Prince Anton Ulrich of Saxe-Coburg-Meiningen (1678–1763) – was used.  (See. Lawrence Bennett, "A little known Collection of Early-Eighteenth-Century. Vocal Music at Schloss Elisabethenburg, Meiningen", in: Fontes Artis Musicae 48/2 (July-September 2001), pp. 250–302. 

Project parts

The project is scheduled for four semesters, with editorial work and preparatory planning taking place in the winter semester 2023/24 and summer semester 2024. Rehearsals start in the winter semester 2024/25 with intensive workshops, with regular rehearsals taking place in Klagenfurt and Venice during the semester, before all performers rehearse intensively together in May 2025 before the performances. 

Project parts:

• critical edition of the work and preparation of individual parts for performance practice (conductor's score, instrumental parts)
• rehearsals: working on a stylistically adequate interpretation, incorporating the experience and knowledge gained from the rehearsals into the edition
• workshops with experts for baroque music (singing, violin, cello, dance) 
• scenical rehearsals
• development of educational programs for the audience and especially for school classes (c. 10–14 years)
• preparation of pedagogical material and accompanying activities (visits in the schools, workshops, visits of the rehearsals), realization in spring 2025
• creating participatory elements (dances, final chorus)
• project website, social media, PR, fundraising campaign
• costumes, scenery, mask
• programme notes
• subtitles, light,event management
• performances in Klagenfurt and Venice; video documentation

Progress of the project

In winter semester 2023/24, the editorial work began in a seminar and was completed at the end of summer semester 2024, so that rehearsals could begin in fall 2024. The principle of a scientifically based, reflective artistic practice as well as the constant feedback of experience gained from practice into science, is realized in this project on the one hand in the editorial work and on the other hand in the preparation of the work for different audiences. Integrating the work into artistic and scientific teaching over several semesters helps to ensure that students are involved in as many stages of the overall project as possible – including editing, education, organization, public relations and performance: In this way, students play an active role in generating synergies through interdisciplinary artistic work and between practice and science.

In addition to the original version, a version for school classes is also being prepared. The aim is to communicate the project results to the wider community and, in cooperation with schools from the region, to transfer the results of the artistic and academic exploration of the work and its contexts to the public.