About the work
Arlecchino oder Die Fenster is a one-act „theatrical capriccio“ by Ferruccio Busoni to his own German libretto. Prompted by a commedia dell’arte performance and a puppet opera he saw in Italy in 1912, Busoni wrote the text in 1913/14 and completed the score in Zurich in August 1916. It premiered on 11 May 1917 at the Stadttheater Zürich under his own baton, paired with his opera „Turandot“ on the same evening.
Plot
In eighteenth-century Bergamo, the rogue Arlecchino throws the neighbourhood into chaos: he seduces the wife of the tailor Matteo, tricks him into being conscripted, and fights a duel with a rival. In the end he escapes with his beloved while the bewildered Matteo returns from a war that never took place.
Cultural significance
Unusually for an opera, the title role is purely a speaking part, serving as an ironic commentator who mocks ideals such as justice, soldiery and fidelity. The work was performed some ten times in German-speaking countries through 1928, then largely disappeared from the repertoire, resurfacing only sporadically from the 1960s onward.