Betly ossia La capanna svizzera

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Work data
Title: Betly ossia La capanna svizzera
Shape: Opera
Original language: Italian
Music: Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto : Gaetano Donizetti
Literary source: Libretto of the opera Le Chalet by Adolphe Adam
Premiere: August 24, 1836 (1st version)
October 29, 1837 (2nd version)
Place of premiere: Naples (1st version)
Palermo (2nd version)
Playing time: approx. 1 ½ hours
Place and time of the action: In Switzerland near Appenzell in the 19th century
people
  • Daniele, a young farmer ( tenor )
  • Max, Sergeant of the Swiss Army ( baritone )
  • Betly, his sister ( soprano )
  • Country dwellers, Swiss soldiers ( choir )

Betly ossia La capanna svizzera (German: Betly or Die Schweizer Hütte ) is a dramma giocoso in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti .

content

first act

Betly's mountain hut

The young farmer Daniele has received a letter from Betly in which she promises him her hand. In fact, the letter was written by some jokers, which everyone but Daniele knows. Now, blissful with happiness, to the amusement of the villagers he comes running to her. Betly, who is determined to maintain her independence from Daniele, of course denies the letter, but is touched by his disappointment with which he is putting away the already prepared marriage contract.

Some soldiers come back from the war and lodge with Betly, including Betly's brother Max, who does not immediately reveal himself. As a soldier, Daniele wants to forget his disappointment, Max complains of his suffering and asks him for cash in order to join the soldiers. Max agrees and is amused at how angry his sister is about the exuberant happiness of his comrades.

Second act

Rural parlor in Betly's hut

Betly asks Daniele to protect her from being attacked by the drunken soldiers, who feel threatened by them. When she learns of his desperate step to join the soldiers, tender emotions awaken in her. Max orders his people to leave after Betly explains that Daniele is her lover. There is almost a duel between the sergeant and his recruit Daniele, until Max makes the suggestion that only a marriage that has already taken place could free Daniele from military service. Betly then shows him the marriage contract she has secretly signed, and when Max reveals himself to be her brother, the plot comes to a happy end.

Instrumentation

2  flutes (2nd also piccolo ), 2  oboes , 2  clarinets , 2  bassoons , 2  horns , 2  trumpets , 2  trombones , timpani , strings .

history

Donizetti created the little game opera as his own librettist in a few weeks from the successful libretto by Adolphe Adams Le Chalet . While the two French librettists from Le Chalet , Skribe and Mélesville , did not specifically refer to Goethe's Singspiel, which was set to music several times, as a source for their work, Donizetti was much more precise with his references to Skribe and Mélesville, as can be seen in a later print of the libretto.

At first Donizetti limited himself to graceful sketches in text and music and composed a one-act version, which was performed on August 24, 1836 at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples with Lorenzo Salvi as Daniele, Giuseppe Fioravanti as Max and Adelaide Giulia Toldi-D'Anvers as Betly Premiered . The success of this premiere prompted Donizetti to expand the score so that it could assert itself against Adam's work. This is how the two-act version was created, which was performed for the first time on October 29, 1837 in the Teatro Carolino in Palermo .

On November 17, 2015, the Berlin opera group performed the two-act version of Betly in the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt for the first time in Germany under the direction of Felix Krieger . Laura Giordano sang the title role .

literature

  • Piper's Encyclopedia of Music Theater , Volume 2, Ed. Carl Dahlhaus and Research Institute for Music Theater of the University of Bayreuth under the direction of Sieghart Döhring, ISBN 3-492-02412-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Piper's Encyclopedia of Music Theater , pp. 13/14
  2. ↑ August 24, 1836: "Betly". In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ., Accessed on July 30, 2019.
  3. ↑ Piper's Encyclopedia of Music Theater , p. 13