Gassmann, Florian Leopold (1729-1774)

Gassmann's setting of Goldoni's La notte critica (The Critical Night) was given its Viennese premiere at the Burgtheater on 5 January 1768. The opera enjoyed considerable success and the overture was advertised for sale in the Breitkopf Catalogue (Supplement VIII 1773) and also found its way into the Gttweig and Quartbuch catalogues. The Viennese court copy of the score - upon which this edition of the overture is based - is bound in three volumes and 'La Notte Critica / Del Sig: Floriano Gasmann'. In producing the score the copyist adhered to the usual time-saving conventions of the period: where the violins play in unison, the second part is not notated; similarly, the viola line is left blank unless it is playing independently of the basso part. As the copy was doubtless prepared under Gassmann's direct supervision it should be considered a highly reliable source. Nonetheless, there are inconsistencies, errors and the odd omissions. The style and notation of articulation and dynamic markings have been standardised throughout, and, where missing from the source, markings have been reconstructed from parallel passages. These are indicated by the use of dotted slurs or brackets. Like most eighteenth-century sources, the present manuscript is inconsistent in its notation of appoggiature; these too have been standardised to minimise confusion. Obvious wrong notes have been corrected without comment; editorial emendations with no authority from the source are placed within brackets. Allan Badley