Astorga (Opera)

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Work data
Original title: Astorga
Original language: German
Music: Johann Joseph Abert
Libretto : Ernst Heinrich Anton Pasqué
Premiere: May 20, 1866
Place of premiere: Royal Court Theater, Stuttgart
Playing time: ≈ 2 hours 30 minutes
Place and time of the action: Parma around 1705
people
  • Francesco Farnese , Duke in Parma ( bass )
  • Eleanor , his niece ( soprano )
  • Carlos , Duke of Los Balbaces, Spanish grandee and governor of Sicily ( baritone )
  • Astorga , singer and musician ( tenor )
  • Angioletta ( soprano )
  • Count Lauristan , director of the Leopold I Chapel (bass)
  • an officer
  • Choir : , Cavaliers, noblewomen, entourage, satellites, pages, singers, musicians, students Astorga, guards, people
  • Ballet in the 1st final

Astorga is a romantic opera in three acts by Johann Joseph Abert based on a libretto by Ernst Heinrich Anton Pasqué .

Conception

The basis for the libretto is a legendary episode from the life of the composer Emanuele d'Astorga , whose composition Stabat mater has a key dramaturgical function. Abert's composition shows its theatrical qualities in the large vocal ensembles that have grown out of solo numbers . Even if the structure of the number opera is generally retained, the transitions through the cantabile design of the recitatives are mostly fluid.

Even if Abert composed his work in the first year of Richard Wagner's “Tristan und Isolde” , there are hardly any influences from Wagner on Abert's work. The masterful instrumentation and the reformist traits of the score go back to Giacomo Meyerbeer's role model .

Instrumentation

2  flutes , 2  oboes , 2  clarinets , 2  bassoons , 4  horns , 2  trumpets , 3  trombones , ophicles , timpani , percussion ( triangle , bass drum ), strings .

action

Act I

Garden terrace of the Farnese Palace in Parma:

Astorga and Eleonore love each other, but Francesco Farnese has chosen his niece Carlos as husband and commissioned Astorga to make the wedding feast more beautiful with a song. When Carlos appears at the festival, Astorga sings his new song, an encrypted homage to Eleanor. While Angioletta, an enthusiastic student of Astorga, is performing a prize song that her master has ordered for the festival, with which she is secretly in love, Astorga recognizes with horror in his rival the murderer of his parents. The latter had Astorga's father executed because he had rebelled against the tyrannical rule and forced Astorga and his mother to attend the execution, which had broken her mother's heart. When Astorga files public charges against Carlos, Carlos and Farnese decide on his demise. It comes to a duel, in the course of which Carlos wins the upper hand. When he wants to pierce the singer, Angioletta throws himself in between, stops Carlos from his act and thus saves Astorga's life. Astorga is led away by Carlos' supporters.

II act

Angioletta's house near Parma in a lovely landscape with a river in the background:

Astorga has fled here from the persecution of Carlos and composed in solitude, withdrawn from all society, on his hymn Stabat mater dolorosa . Angioletta appears and warns the lover to retreat into the house for his own safety. As soon as Astorga has followed her warning, male voices sound and Carlos, Lauristan and several cavaliers appear in a gondola.

Lauristan, who had difficulty in finding out where Angioletta was staying, has been commissioned by the emperor to hire the famous and popular singer Angioletta for the court opera, but she refuses the honorable proposal. The cavaliers ask them to sing and after they have delighted everyone with their beautiful singing, the gentlemen say goodbye. Carlos and Lauristan have fallen in love with the beautiful singer and Carlos decides to kidnap her by force tonight.

Angioletta has barely rushed into the house to save Astorga from the scouts when Eleonore appears. She found out that her husband Carlos found out about Astorga's whereabouts from scouts and is hiding near the hut to save the poor singer. Carlos, who has separated from his companions in order to carry out the planned kidnapping, discovers Eleonore and mistakes her for Angioletta. He confesses his love for her, but realizes too late that he has his wife Eleonore in front of him. Angry, he penetrates her, but Astorga rushes over and saves Eleonore.

Carlos challenges Astorga to an immediate duel and is killed in this. The rushing people find the dead Carlos and an officer orders the capture of Astorgas. When Angioletta promises to follow Lauristan to court, Astorga is released, but he goes mad. Eleonore now makes it her business to protect Astorga.

III act

Palace of Eleanors:

In true love, Eleanor tried in vain for two years to cure Astorga of his mental illness and left no stone unturned to save her lover. Now she wants to make one last attempt by hiring a famous singer who, through Astorga's own composition, the hymn Stabat mater dolorosa , is supposed to drive away his mental derangement. Now Angioletta appears, who has meanwhile become a famous singer and gladly declares herself ready to heal the revered master by singing the hymn, whereupon Astorga regains spiritual clarity. He immediately recognizes the beloved Angioletta and sinks into her arms. Although Eleanor obtained permission from the King of Spain for Astorga to be allowed to use his old name, Prince of Palagonia, from now on he decided to only live with Angioletta in the quiet seclusion of art. Eleanor, who dearly loved Astorga, takes leave of her beloved forever, filled with deep pain.

literature

  • Piper's Enzyklopädie des Musiktheater , Volume 1, Ed. Carl Dahlhaus and Research Institute for Music Theater of the University of Bayreuth under the direction of Sieghart Döhring, ISBN 3-492-02411-4

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ The music lexicon "operone" names May 27th as the date of the premiere. A ticket from the court theater in Stuttgart dated May 27, 1866 reads: For the first time: Astorga. According to Piper's music dictionary and the Niederrheinische Musik-Zeitung of July 7, 1866, the premiere took place on Sunday, May 20, 1866.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Piper's Encyclopedia of Music Theater , p. 2
  2. ↑ Astorga on operone.de , accessed on July 12, 2016