ABSTRACT
Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Die unvermuthete Zusammenkunft, oder Die Pilgrime von Mecca (“The Unexpected Encounter, or The Pilgrims to Mecca”) was not only one of the most popular works in the repertoire of the National Singspiel troupe, which operated in the Vienna Burgtheater between 1778 and 1783, it was also one of the most emphatically didactic ones.1 The plot of Gluck’s opera revolves around the ideas of absolute fidelity and clemency: Prince Ali is in search of his beloved Princess Rezia, who was captured by pirates and sold into the harem of the sultan of Cairo. At the beginning of the opera, Rezia finds out that Ali has arrived in Cairo and tests his fidelity by sending three different female slaves (Dardane, Amine, and Balkis) to tempt him. When Ali withstands the seduction attempts, Rezia decides to flee with Ali. The lovers’ plans are betrayed by a mendicant dervish (called Calender), and the furious sultan wants to torture and execute them. Moved by the lovers’ devotion to one another, the sultan eventually changes his mind, grants mercy to them, and decides to punish the dervish for his treachery. The lovers then plead for the dervish, and the sultan grants clemency to him as well amidst general rejoicing.
