Cathedral Sébastien
| Work data | |
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| Title: | Dom Sébastien, roi de Portugal |
Scene from the performance on November 25, 1843 in the Paris Opera |
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| Shape: | Opera in five acts |
| Original language: | French (1st version) German (2nd version) |
| Music: | Gaetano Donizetti |
| Libretto : | Eugène Scribe |
| Premiere: | November 13, 1843 (1.F.) February 6, 1845 (2.F.) |
| Place of premiere: | Opéra Peletier, Paris |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ¾ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Lisbon and Fez , 1578 |
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Dom Sébastien, roi de Portugal is an opera in five acts by Gaetano Donizetti in the style of the grand opéra . The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe based on a drama by Paul Foucher . The first performance of the French first version took place on November 13, 1843 at the Opéra Peletier in Paris , the second version in German on February 6, 1845 in the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna. The playing time is about two hours 45 minutes (first version) or two hours 15 minutes (second version).
Instrumentation
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : two flutes (2nd also piccolo ), two oboes (also English horn ), two clarinets , two basset horns in Bb, two metal clarinets , two bassoons
- Brass : four horns , two pistons (also trumpet ), three trombones , ophicleide
- Timpani , percussion : bass drum , cymbals , drum, snare drum , tam-tam , triangle , bells in c 'and e'
- harp
- Strings
- Incidental music on the scene: three trumpets, snare drum
- behind the scene: two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, two drums, bells in c 'and e', harp
Work history
Emergence
The libretto is based on the story of Dom Sebastião I , the "unfortunate king" of Portugal, who in 1578 undertook an expedition to Morocco with a force of 16,000 men, which was defeated in the battle of Alcácer-Quibir . Only 50 Portuguese escaped, 9,000 died, the rest went into captivity and slavery. In the period that followed, a number of legends were formed which said that King Sébastien, whose body was not found, survived the battle ( Sebastianism ).
The drama Don Sébastien de Portugal by Paul Henri Foucher, which premiered in Paris in 1838, is based on these legends . At the instigation of Léon Pillet, director of the Paris Opera, Eugène Scribe began working on a libretto for a five-act grand opéra , which was initially offered to Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer , but both of them refused. In December 1842 the piece was finally presented to Donizetti, who in early 1843 signed the contract for it to be completed by the end of the year. He then began composing the first act.
When Donizetti arrived in Paris on July 20, 1843, from Vienna, the opera was essentially finished, but the instrumentation and work on the fifth act dragged on until September, with rehearsals having already started in August. The collaboration with Scribe and the prima donna Rosine Stoltz proved to be difficult. Time and again, parts had to be rewritten, supplemented or converted. Now the weaknesses of Scribe's text, which Donizetti had underestimated at the beginning, also became apparent, such as the "neglect of a compelling plot in favor of impressive tableau effects, the exaggeration of all sensations driven into the grotesque, the renunciation of any careful motivation of the sudden mood swings." Since there are no other female roles apart from the main character Zayda, Donizetti and Scribe tried to bring them to the stage in every ensemble scene, even if this does not appear to be dramaturgically justified.
Performance history
For the Paris premiere on November 13, 1843 under the musical direction of François-Antoine habeneck , the Opéra was able to play with Rosine Stoltz as Zayda and Gilbert Duprez in the title role as well as Jean-Baptiste Ostave (Dom Antonio), Nicolas-Prosper Levasseur (Dom Juam de Sylva), Paul Barroilhet (Camoëns and Dom Luis), Hippolyte Brémond (Ben-Selim), Jean-Étienne-August Eugène Massol (Abayaldos) and Ferdinand Prévost (Dom Henrique) provide an outstanding cast.
Nevertheless, the work was received with reluctance, which Donizetti himself felt as a fiasco. After all, the opera had 32 performances and was performed in Lille , Lyon and Marseille in 1844 . Donizetti had already started to rework the opera for the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna for the libretto translated into German by Leo Herz, which was so profound (for example, it is half an hour shorter) that it is a second version . “The reworking was not a lucky star, however, as Donizetti had to adapt his music to the German text by (Leo) Herz, which he did not understand, and at the same time had to take into account the time limit. So the second version, although in parts a clear improvement over the first, is not to be regarded without reservation as the final editing of the opera. "
The premiere of the Vienna version was a great success, almost all numbers had to be repeated. The opera remained in the repertoire for a long time and was performed over 150 times by 1882. This version was played in Prague in 1846, in Dresden and Hamburg in 1848, and later in Linz, Graz, Riga, Helsinki, and Munich (1857). An Italian version was presented in Lisbon in 1845 and spread throughout the Italian and Spanish-speaking areas in the 1840s and 1850s.
At the end of the 19th century, Don Sébastien was rarely played, and the opera was gradually forgotten. Only two performances are mentioned for the first half of the 20th century (Bergamo 1909 and Rome 1911). The bel canto renaissance from the 1960s onwards, which made numerous Donizetti's operas known again, did little to change this. After Florence (1955) and New York (1984) there were several performances again only from the 1990s, for example in Stuttgart in 1996, in Aachen, Bergamo and Bologna in 1998, as well as in London in 2005, in New York in 2006 and in Nuremberg in 2009. In addition, several CD recordings are now available. In the end, only Don Sébastien's aria Seul sur la terre (Italian: Deserto in terra ) is somewhat known , which occasionally appears as a solo number in tenors' repertoire, for example with Enrico Caruso , and more recently with Luciano Pavarotti or Alfredo Kraus .
Although Donizetti considered his last opera to be one of his most important works, Don Sébastien is largely forgotten today. In addition to the mentioned weaknesses of the libretto, the stigma still clings to it that it was created at a time when Donizetti “no longer had unrestricted control over his imagination”, that is, the opera was already marked by Donizetti's incipient illness.
Discography
- 1984; Eve Queler; Richard Leech , Lára Takács, Lajos Miller, Sergei Koptchak; Opera Orchestra of New York and Schola Cantorum of New York; Legato Classics (recording of a concert performance)
- 1998; Elio Boncompagni ; Robert Woroniecki, Monica Minarelli, Ettore Kim, Randall Jabosh; Symphony Orchestra Aachen ; Kicco Classic
- 2005; Mark Elder ; Giuseppe Filianoti , Vesselina Kasarova , Carmelo Corrado-Caruso, Simon Keenlyside ; Alastair Miles; Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Opera Rara
The 2005 recording was nominated for a “Best Opera Recording” award at the 2008 Grammy Awards .
literature
- Dom Sebastian, King of Portugal . In: Illustrirte Zeitung . No. 37 . J. J. Weber, Leipzig March 9, 1844, p. 173-174 ( books.google.de ). .
- Norbert Miller: Dom Sébastien, roi de Portugal. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater. Munich / Zurich 1986, Volume 2, pp. 48-51.
- Jeremy Commons: Don Sébastien, roi de Portugal. Supplement to the CD by Opera Rara, 2006.
Web links
- Dom Sébastien : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Dom Sébastien, roi de Portugal (Gaetano Donizetti) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
- Discography on Dom Sébastien at Operadis
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Norbert Miller: Dom Sébastien, roi de Portugal. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Munich / Zurich 1986, Volume 2, p. 48.
- ↑ Jeremy Commons: Don Sébastien, roi de Portugal. P. 11.
- ^ Norbert Miller: Dom Sébastien, roi de Portugal. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Munich / Zurich 1986, volume 2, p. 50.
- ↑ November 13, 1843: “Donizetti”. In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ., Accessed on August 3, 2019.
- ^ A b Norbert Miller: Dom Sébastien, roi de Portugal. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Munich / Zurich 1986, volume 2, p. 51.
- ^ Thomas G. Kaufmann: A performance history of Dom Sébastien. In: Donizetti Journal , 7, London 2002, quoted from: Supplement to the CD by Opera Rara, p. 94 ff.