Eduardo e Cristina

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Opera dates
Title: Eduardo e Cristina
Title page of the libretto, Venice 1819

Title page of the libretto, Venice 1819

Shape: Dramma per musica in two acts
Original language: Italian
Music: Gioachino Rossini
Libretto : Giovanni Schmidt , Andrea Leone Tottola , Gherardo Bevilacqua-Aldobrandini
Premiere: April 24, 1819
Place of premiere: Teatro San Benedetto , Venice
Playing time: approx. 2 ½ hours
Place and time of the action: Stockholm
people
  • Carlo, King of Sweden ( tenor )
  • Cristina, his daughter, Eduardo's secret wife ( soprano )
  • Eduardo, General of the Swedish Army ( old )
  • Giacomo, Royal Prince of Scotland ( Bass )
  • Atlei, captain of the royal guard, friend of Eduardos (bass)
  • Gustavo, little son of Edward and Cristina (silent role)
  • Gustavo's governess (silent role)
  • Knights, officers, noble ladies, soldiers, ladies-in-waiting, people, royal guards, prisoners ( choir )

Eduardo e Cristina is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini (music) with a libretto by Giovanni Schmidt originally created for an opera by Stefano Pavesi , revised for Rossini by Andrea Leone Tottola and Gherardo Bevilacqua-Aldobrandini. The premiere took place on April 24, 1819 in the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice.

action

Cristina, the daughter of the Swedish King Carlo, has secretly married the successful general Eduardo. They have a son, Gustavo. Her secret comes to light when Carlo Cristina wants to give Giacomo to the Scottish prince as his wife. He sentenced Cristina, Eduardo and Gustavo to death. To save her, Giacomo wants to continue marrying her - but Cristina refuses. When enemies threaten the city, Eduardo is freed from prison by his friend Atlei and appointed to the head of the defenders. The victory succeeds. Then Eduardo Carlo swears his allegiance. Carlo forgives him and accepts his marriage to Cristina.

The following table of contents is based on the libretto of the original version from 1819.

first act

Magnificent courtyard decorated with trophies between the palace and a square. A throne on one side.

Scene 1. The people celebrate the end of the war and await the entry of the victorious hero Eduardo (introduction: “Giubila, o patria, omai”).

Scene 2. King Carlo appears with his entourage. Among them are the Scottish Prince Giacomo and Edward's friend, Captain Atlei.

Scene 3. Carlos daughter Cristina joins her ladies-in-waiting. She is plagued by remorse due to her secret marriage with Eduardo and despite the happy day she is in a gloomy mood. Carlo cannot comfort her and urges her in vain to name the reason - her mother's death was already a year ago and can no longer be the cause. Meanwhile, the victorious troops, led by Eduardo, enter.

Scene 4. The knights receive Eduardo with a hymn of praise. Eduardo approaches the throne (March, choir and cavatine Eduardo: “Serti intrecciar le vergini” - “Vinsi, ché fui d'eroi”). At the sight of him, Cristina becomes more and more restless, so that Carlo and Giacomo become suspicious. Carlo asks Eduardo to choose an appropriate wage. While he was still thinking about it, he announced that Giacomo should receive Cristina's hand. Eduardo and Cristina are frightened. At Cristina's request, Carlo grants her a brief postponement of the wedding. Everyone except Eduardo and Altei withdraw.

Scene 5. Eduardo asks Atlei for his help. He promises to encourage Cristina. Eduardo, however, has lost hope of a happy ending.

cabinet

Scene 6. The nobles greet the princess' upcoming wedding. They hope that she will be happy again soon (choir: “O ritiro che soggiorno”).

Scene 7. Cristina fears that her secret marriage will be revealed. The dignitaries try in vain to cheer them up (Cavatine Cristina with choir: “È svanita ogni speranza”). You leave the room.

Scene 8. Eduardo and Atlei come to Cristina. Eduardo tries to calm her down and wishes to see her child. Cristina opens a secret door on the back wall of the room.

Scene 9. A governess leads little Gustavo out of the secret room. Eduardo runs towards him and caresses him. Both ask heaven for pity (duet Cristina, Eduardo: “In que 'soavi sguardi”). Eduardo says they have no choice but to flee. Cristina should let her father believe that she is ready to bow to his will. Their conversation is interrupted by the return of the knights. Eduardo cannot reach the secret door in time to hide. Atlei pulls him aside.

Scene 10. The knights come to pick up Cristina from the church for the wedding (chorus: “Vieni al tempio”).

Scene 11. Carlo and Giacomo also appear. Without considering Cristina's fears, which she is unable to explain plausibly, Carlo asks her to come to church.

Scene 12. Little Gustavo runs from the secret room towards his mother. She sinks down on the sofa in horror. The governess escapes unnoticed (scene and aria Carlo: “D'esempio all'alme infide”). Carlo and Giacomo demand clarification. It is only when an officer threatens to kill the child that Cristina confesses to being his mother. Under no circumstances does she want to name her father. Carlo rages and declares that his anger can only be soothed by her death. He suppresses a brief trace of pity and lets the guards lead her away. Carlo, Giacomo and the courtiers leave the room.

Scene 13. Atlei is shocked by what has happened.

Scene 14. Giacomo returns and offers Atlei his condolences. Atlei claims that Cristina's seducer is not at court. He asks Giacomo to support Cristina and speak for her.

Great Hall

Scene 15. Carlo is sitting on the right at a desk. The dignitaries have settled down on both sides and lament the merciless fate (Finale I: “A che, spietata sorte”).

Scene 16. Cristina is led in by the guards. Giacomo comes from the other side and stops at the entrance. Carlo opens the trial against his daughter. Cristina sticks to her refusal to give her lover's name and also accepts the death penalty. The choir invites them to respond, but at the same time expresses its sympathy.

Scene 17. Eduardo appears, pushes past Atlei into the room and confesses that he is Cristina's seducer. Everyone is horrified. Eduardo begs Carlo to kill him, but to save his son and Cristina. Carlo is merciless. The mother and his son would also have to die. At his signal, a guard sets out to fetch Gustavo.

Scene 18. Gustavo is led in. Eduardo and Cristina rush towards him, but are held back by the guards. Carlo is not impressed by her pleading. All three are forcibly separated from one another and taken away.

Second act

Hall as in the first act

Scene 1. The courtiers lament the terrible day that claimed two victims: beauty and bravery (chorus: "Giorno terribile").

Scene 2. Atlei joins the complaints. The courtiers point out the mercilessness of the law (chorus: “Impera severa”) and move away.

Scene 3. Atlei tries at all costs to save his friends.

Scene 4. Giacomo begs Carlo for mercy for the condemned. Since Carlo remains adamant, he at least wants to save Cristina and her son. He explains that he still wants to marry her even though she is no longer a virgin. Carlo is relieved about this way out of the messed up situation. Giacomo asks him to tell Cristina because he himself lacks the courage to do so (Aria Giacomo: “Questa man la toglie a morte”). He leaves the hall.

Scene 5. Carlo can breathe easy again thanks to Giacomo's generosity.

Scene 6. The guards lead Cristina in. Carlo tells her that she can save herself and Gustavo if she agrees to marry Giacomo. But Eduardo must definitely die. Cristina declares that she would rather die than leave her lover (scene and duet Cristina, Carlo: “Ahi, qual orror, oh stelle!”).

Scene 7. Giacomo has sent a group of courtiers to find out the outcome of the conversation. They ask Cristina to give in. Cristina, however, chooses Eduardo and is ready to die for him. Carlo leaves furiously, followed by the courtiers. Desperate Cristina is led away by the guards.

Scene 8. Giacomo has realized that he cannot win Cristina over. Yet he continues to love her and asks heaven for her salvation.

Scene 9. Carlo returns with frightening news. He had the prisoners' chains untied on the condition that they did not leave the city. However, they had taken advantage of his generosity and asked an enemy admiral for help, who was now approaching the city with his troops.

Scene 10. Atlei reports that the city walls at the harbor have already been stormed. Carlo instructs Giacomo to take countermeasures. The two go.

Scene 11. Atlei ponders how he should proceed. He sees a way to save both Cristina and Eduardo.

Vestibule of the dungeon in which Eduardo is being held

Scene 12. Eduardo's friends lament his fate (chorus: “Nel misero tuo stato”).

Scene 13. Accompanied by the guards, Eduardo approaches his friends and asks them Cristina. You assure him that she is still alive. Relieved, he asks her to beg the king for mercy for her and Gustavo. He himself was ready to accept his death sentence (scene and Rondo Eduardo: “La pietà che in sen serbate”).

Scene 14. Atlei joins them, followed by soldiers and a crowd. They urge Eduardo to take command and save the country. Eduardo receives a sword and leaves with them.

The inside of a tower. At night

Scene 15. Cristina is sleeping on a rock. In the dream she already experiences the execution of her loved ones and awakens from the horror (large scene and aria Cristina: "Arresta il colpo"). When she heard the thunder of cannons in the distance, she initially took it as the signal for the execution of the sentence to begin. But then she realizes the truth. A large part of the tower wall collapses and gives a view of the sea with some ships. At the same time the dungeon door is broken open.

Scene 16. Eduardo and Atlei enter with Swedish soldiers to free Cristina. Atlei assures her that her son is also safe (duet Eduardo, Cristina: "Ah, nati è ver noi siamo").

lobby

Scene 17. Nobody knows where the king is. Nevertheless, Giacomo encourages his followers to keep fighting to crush the enemy.

A place. At night

Scene 18. The battle din of war drums and artillery fire approaches from all sides (battle music). Fugitives cross the square. Finally Carlo appears from one side and Giacomo from the other. While Carlo has already lost all hope of rescue, Giacomo explains that the tide has turned. At first it looked like the overwhelming force of the rebels would overwhelm them. But then Eduardo, freed from Atlei, appeared, rekindled her courage and finally won the day. After a further increase in the noise of the war, the vanquished, pursued from all sides, appear on the square and are finally overwhelmed. Eduardo signals to end the slaughter. He kneels in front of Carlo, hands him his sword and asks for mercy for Cristina and his son. He himself is now ready to die (Duettino Carlo, Eduardo: "Come? Tu sei?"). Carlo is overwhelmed by so much virtue and bravery and forgives him.

Scene 19. Cristina joins the others. Carlo brings her together with Eduardo and assures her of his fatherly love and forgiveness. In return, Eduardo swears his allegiance to him. After all the suffering, everyone is united in harmony (Finale II “Or più dolci intorno al core”).

layout

Instrumentation

The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:

  • Two flutes (also piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons
  • Two horns, two trumpets, three trombones
  • Timpani, bass drum , cymbals , triangle
  • Strings
  • Banda

Music numbers

The opera contains the following musical numbers:

  • Sinfonia

first act

  • No. 1. Introduction: "Giubila, o patria, omai" (scene 1)
  • No. 2. March, choir and cavatine (Eduardo): "Serti intrecciar le vergini" - "Vinsi, ché fui d'eroi" (scene 4)
  • No. 3. Choir and Cavatine (Cristina): "O ritiro che soggiorno" - "È svanita ogni speranza" (scenes 6–7)
  • No. 4. Scene and duet (Cristina, Eduardo): "In que 'soavi sguardi" (scenes 8–9)
  • No. 5. Choir: "Vieni al tempio" (scene 10)
  • No. 6th scene and aria (Carlo): "D'esempio all'alme infide" (scene 12)
  • No. 7. Finale I: “A che, spietata sorte” (scenes 15–18)

Second act

  • No. 8. Introduction (chorus): "Giorno terribile" (scene 1)
  • No. 9. Choir: "Impera severa" (scene 2)
  • No. 10. Aria (Giacomo): "Questa man la toglie a morte" (scene 4)
  • No. 11th scene and duet (Cristina, Carlo): "Ahi, qual orror, oh stelle!" (Scene 6)
  • No. 12. Choir, scene and rondo (Eduardo): "Nel misero tuo stato" - "La pietà che in sen serbate" (scene 12)
  • No. 13. Big scene and aria (Cristina): "Arresta il colpo" (scene 15) - duet (Eduardo, Cristina) "Ah, nati è ver noi siamo" (scene 16)
  • No. 14. Battle music: (Scene 18)
  • No. 15. Duettino (Carlo, Eduardo): “Come? Do be? "(Scene 18)
  • No. 16. Finale II: "Or più dolci intorno al core" (scene 19)

Work history

Rossini had less than a month between the performance of his previously written opera Ermione in Naples and the premiere of Eduardo e Cristina at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice. For this reason, he agreed with the local impresario that he would not have to compose the music from scratch. But it would be carefully chosen for the plot and characters of the new libretto. The basis of the libretto was a text by Giovanni Schmidt , which this originally for 1810 listed in Venice Opera Odoardo e Cristina by Stefano Pavesi had written. It was revised for the new opera by Andrea Leone Tottola and Gherardo Bevilacqua-Aldobrandini or adapted to the existing music. The title page of the textbook contains the initials of the three librettists in the form "TSB".

Eduardo e Cristina is essentially a pasticcio from his earlier operas Adelaide di Borgogna (a total of nine pieces, including the numbers 1-5), Ricciardo e Zoraide (three pieces, including the number 11) and Ermione (seven pieces, including the No. . 16), all of which had not yet been heard in Venice. Rossini only rewrote the secco recitatives and seven other pieces, including the choir “Nel misero tuo stato” (second act, scene 12), which he later also used in Le comte Ory . He compiled the overture from sections of the overtures by Ricciardo e Zoraide and Ermione . Rossini received 1,600 lire as a fee. His biographer Richard Osborne therefore called this quickly compiled work "'Instant Opera", the taste of which is comparable to a soup out of a bag, and with similar commercial success. "

The world premiere of Rossini's opera took place on April 24, 1819 at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice. The tenor Eliodoro Bianchi (Carlo), the soprano Rosa Morandi (Cristina), the contralto Carolina Cortesi (Eduardo) and the basses Luciano Bianchi (Giacomo) and Vincenzo Fracalini (Atlei) sang. The performance was a huge success, in which the singers also played a major role. Two reports are frequently cited in the literature:

The Venetian Gazetta wrote:

“It was a triumph like no other in the history of our music stages. The first performance began at 8 o'clock in the evening and ended two hours after midnight as a result of the enthusiasm of the audience, who demanded that almost all numbers be repeated and repeatedly called the composer onto the stage. "

- Venice Gazetta

Lord Byron reported on the events in a letter dated May 17, 1819 to John Cam Hobhouse :

“There has been a splendid Opera lately at San Benedetto — by Rossini — who came in person to play the Harpsichord — the People followed him about — crowned him — cut off his hair 'for memory' [;] he was Shouted and Sonnetted and feasted ––– and immortalized much more then either of the Emperors. "

“A great opera was recently performed at San Benedetto by Rossini, who was there in person to play the harpsichord. People ran after him and cut his hair 'as a reminder'. They called out for him, wrote sonnets, gave him festive entertainment and made him immortal more than any emperor. "

- Lord Byron

The opera was performed at the Teatro San Benedetto a total of twenty-five times this season and performed again in Venice at the Teatro La Fenice the next season under the slightly modified title Edoardo e Cristina . Many other performances in Italian theaters followed, including in 1828 with Caroline Unger as Edoardo at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. It was performed in Munich in 1821, in St. Petersburg in 1831 and in New York in 1834. There were German-language performances in Budapest in 1820, in Vienna in 1821, in Bucharest in 1830 and in Graz in 1833. After 1840 it was rarely played, if at all.

More recently, the opera was only performed again in 1997 at the Rossini Festival in Wildbad .

No original score by Rossini by Eduardo and Cristina has survived. There are, however, about seven complete and two incomplete scores as handwritten copies. Two piano reductions were published during Rossini's lifetime: a French edition from 1826–27 and an edition published by Ricordi between 1846 and 1864 as part of the “Nuova compiuta edizione”.

Recordings

  • July 1997 (live from the Rossini Festival in Wildbad , new edition by Anders Wiklund, Secco recitatives shortened): Francesco Corti (conductor), I Virtuosi di Praga, Czech Philharmonic Chamber Chorus. Omar Jara (Carlo), Carmen Acosta (Cristina), Eliseda Dumitru (Eduardo), Konstantin Gorny (Giacomo), Jorge Orlando Gomez (Atlei). Bongiovanni GB 2205-6 2 CD.

literature

Web links

Commons : Eduardo e Cristina  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reto Müller : table of contents. In: Marco Beghelli: Rossini's "Eduardo e Cristina". Contributions to the first performance of the century. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 1997, ISBN 3-931922-71-5 , p. 13 ff.
  2. ^ A b c d e Charles Osborne : The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini. Amadeus Press, Portland, Oregon, 1994, ISBN 978-0-931340-71-0 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Herbert Weinstock : Rossini - A biography. Translated by Kurt Michaelis. Kunzelmann, Adliswil 1981 (1968), ISBN 3-85662-009-0 .
  4. ↑ Patricia B. Brauner: The opera without a score. In: Marco Beghelli: Rossini's "Eduardo e Cristina". Contributions to the first performance of the century. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 1997, ISBN 3-931922-71-5 , p. 239.
  5. ^ Richard Osborne:  Eduardo e Cristina. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  6. ^ Richard Osborne: Rossini - life and work. Translated from the English by Grete Wehmeyer. List Verlag, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-471-78305-9 .
  7. ^ Record of the performance on April 24, 1819 in the Teatro San Benedetto in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  8. ^ Byron's Letters and Journals: The Complete and Unexpurgated Text of All the Letters Available in Manuscript and the Full Printed Version of All Others. Volume 6. Harvard University Press, 1976, p. 132. Translation from Weinstock, p. 111.
  9. ^ Eduardo e Cristina (Gioachino Rossini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna . Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  10. ↑ Eduardo e Cristina. In: Reclam's Opernlexikon. Digital library volume 52. Philipp Reclam jun., 2001, p. 699.
  11. ↑ Patricia B. Brauner: The opera without a score. In: Marco Beghelli: Rossini's "Eduardo e Cristina". Contributions to the first performance of the century. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 1997, ISBN 3-931922-71-5 , p. 238.
  12. ^ Gioacchino Rossini. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all opera complete recordings. Zeno.org , volume 20.