Caterina Cornaro (opera)
| Work data | |
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| Title: | Caterina Cornaro |
| Original title: | Caterina Cornaro ossia La Regina di Cipro |
Title page of the libretto, Naples 1844 |
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| Shape: | Tragedia lirica in a prologue in two acts |
| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | Gaetano Donizetti |
| Libretto : | Giacomo Saccero |
| Premiere: | 1st version: January 18, 1844 in Naples; Version 2: February 2, 1845 in Parma |
| Playing time: | about 2 hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Venice and Cyprus, 1472 |
| people | |
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Caterina Cornaro ossia La Regina di Cipro ( Caterina Cornaro or The Queen of Cyprus ) is an opera ("tragedia lirica") in a prologue and two acts by Gaetano Donizetti based on a libretto by Giacomo Saccero . The now largely forgotten work was performed for the first time on January 12, 1844 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and is the last of his operas, the world premiere of which Donizetti still witnessed. Of Caterina Cornaro , there are two versions with different circuit.
action
Historical background
The action of the opera takes place in the 15th century against the background of the subjugation of the Kingdom of Cyprus to the colonial rule of the Republic of Venice .
The historical Caterina Cornaro (born November 25, 1454 in Venice, † July 10, 1510 in Asolo ) was the eldest of five daughters of the Venetian patrician and Doge Marco Cornaro and his wife Fiorenza Crispo, a Byzantine princess. In 1468 Caterina, who was only fourteen years old, was married to the Cypriot King James II of Lusignan (1440-1473). This was the illegitimate son of King John II, his claims to the throne were controversial, so that he had to drive out his half-sister Charlotte in military conflicts before he could take power.
Caterina came to Cyprus in 1472 at the age of 18 and was crowned queen there. King Jacob died a few months later, presumably poisoned by Venetian agents. When the king died, Caterina was pregnant, her son Jacob III. (1473–1474), who was formally the last king of Cyprus, died before he was a year old; he too was probably poisoned.
Caterina Cornaro first became regent and was Queen of Cyprus from 1475. Since Venice saw its claims to Cyprus endangered in the event of Catarina's remarriage, she was forced to abdicate by her brother on behalf of the republic in 1489. Venice's rule over Cyprus lasted 82 years, from 1489 to the conquest of Famagusta by Ottoman troops in 1571.
In return, Caterina received the town and castle of Asolo in northern Italy, where she resided under the sovereignty of Venice until the end of her life in 1510. Her court in Asolo was a legendary meeting place for Renaissance artists such as Giovanni Bellini , Bonifazio Veronese and Giorgione .
Prologue (Venice)
First image: Hall in the Cornaros Palace
The Venetian patrician daughter Caterina Cornaro is preparing for the wedding with the French nobleman Gerardo. A masked guest calls for the wedding to be postponed. Caterina's father Andrea Cornaro reveals himself to him as Mocenigo, representative of the Council of Ten (the Venetian government). He demands that Catarina, in the interests of Venice, must marry the King of Cyprus, should she resist, Gerardo must die. Under this threat, Andrea Cornaro agrees and forbids the wedding, to the horror of Caterina and the wedding guests.
Second picture: Caterina's cabinet
Caterina Cornaro has agreed with Gerardo that he should kidnap her. Moncenigo visits her and also explains to her that he would have Gerardo murdered if she opposed the republic's plans; He's already brought the murderers with him, they're hiding in the next room. When Gerardo appears to kidnap Caterina, she told him that she would no longer love him. Gerardo is beside himself and curses Caterina.
Act One (Cyprus)
First picture: Square in Nicosia
Moncenigo already sees himself as ruler of Cyprus; his henchman Strozzi informs him that Gerardo, who has meanwhile joined the Order of St. John, is in Cyprus and wants to take revenge on the king. Since this would jeopardize their plans, Mocenigo and Strozzi set out with their followers to murder Gerardo. However, Gerardo is saved from Moncenigo's henchmen by the disguised King Lusignano. In an exchange of words, they recognize each other as rivals, but in the face of their mutual opponent, Mocenigo, they reconcile and become best friends.
Second picture: Queen's Cabinet
In her rooms, Caterina is lost in gloomy thoughts. Lusignano announces a strange visitor without giving his name. When Gerardo enters the queen's apartment, he is recognized by Strozzi, who immediately alerts Moncenigo. Gerardo and Caterina speak out and Gerardo confesses that as a knight he no longer has any ambitions for Caterina. Mocenigo arrives and accuses Catarina of adultery in the face of the strange knight in the room, that no one would believe her. But then Lusignano himself steps forward, he has long since seen through the intrigue and wants to have Mocenigo arrested. The latter flees to the balcony and signals the waiting Venetians to attack.
Second act
Atrium in the Lusignanos Palace
Gerardo rallies the Cypriots to fight the Venetian attackers. The court watches the fight from the window, Caterina prays for Lusignano's victory. The cry of victory sounds, but the fatally wounded Lusignano is carried in, and dying he calls on the Cypriots to recognize Caterina as queen. Gerardo says goodbye to Caterina. (In the second version, Gerardo no longer appears in the final scene; here he also died in a fight.)
Work history
The story of Caterina Cornaro, the legendary Queen of Cyprus and later Renaissance princess, was set to music almost simultaneously with Donizetti: Jacques Fromental Halévy and Franz Lachner (both 1842), Michael William Balfe (1844), and Giovanni Pacini (1846) ).
Donizetti wrote his Caterina Cornaro during an "incomprehensibly busy" phase of life. After the great success he had achieved with Linda di Chamounix in Vienna, between 1842 and 1845 he worked partly simultaneously on four operas: Caterina Cornaro , Maria di Rohan , Dom Sébastien and Don Pasquale . Originally, Donizetti had planned to write an opera for Naples under the title Ruy Blas (based on a material by Victor Hugo ), and for Vienna Caterina Cornaro , while Dom Sebastien and an unspecified material (later Don Pasquale ) for different theaters in Paris were planned.
Donizetti began the composition of Caterina Cornaro in May 1842 in Paris (1st phase), but had to learn while working that an opera by Franz Lachner with the same material had come out in Vienna . Lachner's opera was not well received by the audience, so Donizetti did not want to risk presenting the same material again to the local audience a short time later. He first interrupted his work to write Don Pasquale and then changed his mind: Caterina Cornaro should be brought out in Naples instead of Ruy Blas ( Ruy Blas can never be brought about again); Vienna received the opera Maria di Rohan for this , which was premiered there on June 5, 1843 with great success. While Maria di Rohan was still preparing , Donizetti resumed work on Caterina Cornaro in Vienna in May 1843 (2nd phase).
This opera was premiered on January 18, 1844 in Naples in the absence of Donizetti, who was still in Vienna. Antonio Niccolini and Angelo Belloni created the set, the machines Fortunato Queriau and Domenico Pappalardo and the costumes Carlo Guillaume and Filippo Buono. The singers were Fanny Goldberg (Caterina Cornaro), Marco Arati (Andrea Cornaro), Gaetano Fraschini (Gerardo), Filippo Coletti (Lusignano), Anafesto Rossi (Strozzi), Nicola Benevento (Mocenigo), Domenico Ceci (un cavaliere del re) and Anna Salvetti (Matilde).
However, Caterina Cornaro was not a success in Naples and was canceled after only six performances. The press accused Donizetti of not taking his commission for Naples very seriously or of deliberately putting a weak piece in front of the public there and the management of the San Carlo. Donizetti protested violently against these allegations, but admitted that the opera was probably "not a masterpiece". The revisions that he then made for Parma, some of them in a hurry in the last week before the premiere, mainly concerned the heavily criticized ending of the opera. Despite a star cast with Marianna Barbieri-Nini in the title role, Nicola Ivanoff as Andrea Cornaro and Felice Varesi as Lusignano ( Verdi's first Macbeth and Rigoletto ), the opera was unsuccessful in Parma either. The musical direction was Nicola De Giovanni. The other singers were Cesare Castelli (Gerardo), Stefano Luciano Bouché (Mocenigo), Vincenzo Gobetti (Strozzi) and Luigia Zay (Matilde).
However, there were no further arrangements that could have brought the end of the opera into a more audience-effective form. Donizetti fell ill and died in 1848, so that Caterina Cornaro was the last of his operas, the premiere of which took place during his lifetime.
While most of Donizetti's operas disappeared from the repertoire for the time being in the course of the following decades, Caterina Cornaro had not even arrived there. Even when numerous Donizetti operas were unearthed again in the course of the “Belcanto Renaissance” in the 1950s, Caterina Cornaro - after all, the “Seria sister” of the extremely popular Don Pasquale - was forgotten. It wasn't until the 1970s, around 130 years after the two premieres, that the next productions took place. However, Caterina Cornaro was not rediscovered , since then there have only been two performances.
layout
libretto
Saccero's libretto is based on the text that Jules Henri Vernoy Marquis de Saint-Georges wrote for Halévy's opera La Reine de Chypre (1841). The libretto is overall somewhat stringent and far less confused than many other librettos set by Donizetti. Nevertheless, in Caterina Cornaro , too, dramaturgical weaknesses cannot be overlooked: The conflicts prepared in the prologue are quickly eliminated in the first act and without further explanation. The development of some people is also inconclusive: Strozzi first appears as Mocenigo's henchman and a short time later as an employee of the king; Mocenigo, on the other hand, disappears completely from the play in the second act. The main point of criticism, however, was the end of the opera at the premiere: Gerardo, who at the beginning of the act calls the Cypriots to fight all by himself, says goodbye to Caterina and the play in the first version with a few dry words. Donizetti took up this criticism in the second version: Here the drama ends even faster, Gerardo no longer appears in the final scene.
music
In Caterina Cornaro , as in her "Buffo twin" Don Pasquale , the incidental mastery that Donizetti had achieved in characterizing the characters but also in the orchestration is evident. The prologue and the first act in particular are therefore among the “most important creations from Donizetti's late period”. Even more: "In some respects Donizetti has never ventured so far to new heights as with this inconsistent, not really complete work." The musical forms, such as arias and duets, are handled quite unusually and only seem loosely to the usual patterns to lean on. Donizetti also found new expressions for the orchestral colors, for example in the barcarole at the beginning of the second image of the prologue, in the short prelude to the first act, in the chorus of the murderers in the first act or in the description of the fight in the women's choir of the second act.
The end of the opera in the short second act, on the other hand, also falls off musically. Ten years earlier, Donizetti would have driven his protagonist into a stage-effective madness; Caterina's final aria in the first version may still be “an impressive example of this type of final”, but it hardly stands up to comparison with earlier works and in the end it remains unsatisfactory.
Instrumentation
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : two flutes (2nd also piccolo ), two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons
- Brass : four horns , two trumpets , three trombones
- Timpani , drums : bass drum , triangle , tam-tam
- harp
- Strings
- Incidental music: unspecified
Music numbers
- Preludio
prolog
- Introduction
- Choir: Salve, O beati, al giubilo (chorus)
- Scene and duet: Tu l'amor mio, tu l'iride (Cateria, Matilde, Gerardo, Andrea, choir)
- Scene: Fermatevi (Cateria, Matilde, Gerardo, Andrea, Moncenigo)
- Duet: Dell'empia Cipro il popolo (Andrea, Mocenigo)
- Scene: Parti? (Cateria, Matilde, Gerardo, Andrea, choir)
- Choir: Or che l'astro in mar si cela (choir)
- Recitative: Torna all'ospite tetto
- Romance: Vieni o tu, che ognora io chiamo (Cateria, Matilde)
- Scene and duet: Ahi - Qui ancor, padre mio? (Cateria, Andrea)
- Duet: Signore (Cateria, Mocenigo)
- Duet: Dolce amor mio! ... Spera in me, della tua vita (Cateria, Gerardo)
first act
- Aria: Be bella, O Cipro!
- Recitative and duet: Credi che dorma, o incauto (Mocenigo, Strozzi)
- Recitative: Lasciami, O cavalier (Lusignano)
- Aria: Da che a sposa Caterina (Lusignano)
- Choir: Core, e pugnale! (Choir)
- Scene: Mano a 'pugnali! (Strozzi, Gerardo, Lusignano, choir)
- Duet: Parla, ardisci: I son quel desso '… Vedi, io piango! (Gerardo, Lusignano)
- Finale I: Gemmata il serto… Ah! Non turbarti a questi accenti (Caterina, Lusignano, choir)
- Recitative: O Re! Strozzi? (Caterina, Lusignano, Strozzi)
- Recitative: T avanza (Strozzi, Gerardo, Caterina)
- Duet: Da quel dì che lacerato (Strozzi, Gerardo, Caterina)
- Finale: Troppo tardi… Indietro! io, vil carnefice (Caterina, Lusignano, Gerardo, Mocenigo)
Second act
- Choir: Misera patria! (Knight choir)
- Aria: Io trar non voglio campi ed onori (Gerardo)
- Scene: Guerra! Guerra! (Gerardo, knight)
- Chorus: Oh ciel! Che tumulto! (Choir of the ladies-in-waiting)
- Scene: Dolorosa incertezza! (Choir, Caterina)
- Finale II: Vittoria! Vittoria! (Choir)
- Scene: Esulta, Regina (choir, Lusiganao, Gerardo)
- Aria: Non più affanni (Caterina, choir, Gerardo)
Discography (selection)
For a “forgotten” work, Caterina Cornaro's discography is comparatively extensive with a total of eight recordings, especially when one takes into account that the opera has only been performed 16 times (14 times since 1972) since the series of first performances. The live recordings of the 1970s with Leyla Gencer , Montserrat Caballé , Renato Bruson , Giuseppe Taddei , Giacomo Aragall , José Carreras , and Samuel Ramey were very prominent. A studio recording under the direction of David Parry has also been available since 2013 ; Both versions of the conclusion of the opera are included in this recording.
(Year; conductor; roles: Caterina Cornaro, Gerardo, Lusignano, Andrea Cornaro, Mocenigo, Strozzi, Matilde; orchestra, label, date of performance)
- 1972; Carlo Felice Cillario; Leyla Gencer, Giacomo Aragall, Renato Bruson, Luigi Risani, Plinio Clabassi, Ferdinando Jacopucci, Eva Ruta; Orchestra e Coro del Teatro San Carlo; Myto, Live May 28, 1972
- 1972; Carlo Felice Cillario; Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras, Lorenzo Saccomani, Enrique Serra, Maurizio Mazzieri, Neville Williams, Anne Edwards; Orchestra e Coro London Symphony; Opera d'Oro, Live July 10, 1972
- 1973; Alfredo Silipigni ,; Leyla Gencer, Giuseppe Campora, Giuseppe Taddei, Samuel Ramey, James Morris, John Sandor, Maria Di Giglio; Orchestra e Coro dell'Opera del New Jersey; On Stage, Live April 15, 1973
- 1995; Gianandrea Gavazzeni ; Denia Mazzola Gavazzeni, Pietro Ballo, Stefano Antonucci, Marzio Giossi, Giorgio Giuseppini, Renzo Casellato, Giuseppina Cortesi; Orchestra “I Pomeriggi Musicali” di Milano; Agorà Musica, Live September 21, 1995
- 2013; David Parry ; Carmen Giannattasio , Colin Lee, Troy Cook, Graeme Broadbent, Vuyani Mlinde, Loïc Félix, Sophie Bevan ; BBC Symphony Orchestra; Opera Rara, studio
literature
- William Ashbrook: Donizetti and his Operas , Cambridge 1982.
- Jeremy Commons: Caterina Cornaro , in: Caterina Cornaro , supplement to the CD by Opera Rara, pp. 10–45.
- Norbert Miller : Caterina Cornaro. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater. Volume 2: Works. Donizetti - Henze. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-492-02412-2 , pp. 51-54.
- Robert Steiner-Isenmann: Gaetano Donizetti. His life and operas , Bern 1982.
Web links
- Caterina Cornaro : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Libretto (Italian), Naples 1844. Digitized version of the Munich digitization center
- Libretto (Italian) as full text on italianopera.org
- Caterina Cornaro (Giuseppe Verdi) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
- Discography about Caterina Cornaro at Operadis
- Detailed table of contents on zazzerino.info
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jeremy Commons: Caterina Cornaro , in: Caterina Cornaro , supplement to the CD by Opera Rara, p. 10.
- ↑ Jeremy Commons: Caterina Cornaro , in: Caterina Cornaro , supplement to the CD by Opera Rara, p. 11.
- ↑ a b c Norbert Miller : Caterina Cornaro. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater. Volume 2: Works. Donizetti - Henze. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-492-02412-2 , p. 52.
- ^ Robert Steiner-Isenmann: Gaetano Donizetti. His life and his operas . Bern 1982, p. 294 ff.
- ^ Record of the performance on January 18, 1844 in Naples in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
- ↑ Jeremy Commons: Caterina Cornaro , in: Caterina Cornaro , supplement to the CD by Opera Rara, p. 36 f.
- ^ Robert Steiner-Isenmann: Gaetano Donizetti. His life and his operas . Bern 1982, p. 326.
- ↑ February 2, 1845: "Caterina Cornaro". In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ., Accessed on August 1, 2019.
- ^ Robert Steiner-Isenmann: Gaetano Donizetti. His life and his operas . Bern 1982, p. 294.
- ^ A b Dan Foley: Caterina Cornaro - Chronology of Performances ; in: Caterina Cornaro , supplement to the CD by Opera Rara, p. 46.
- ↑ Jeremy Commons: Caterina Cornaro , in: Caterina Cornaro , supplement to the CD by Opera Rara, p. 31 f.
- ↑ a b c d Norbert Miller : Caterina Cornaro. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater. Volume 2: Works. Donizetti - Henze. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-492-02412-2 , p. 54.