Gemma di Vergy

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Work data
Title: Gemma di Vergy
Frontispiece of the libretto, Milan 1834

Frontispiece of the libretto, Milan 1834

Shape: Opera seria ("tragedia lirica") in two acts
Original language: Italian
Music: Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto : Giovanni Emanuele Bidera
Literary source: Alexandre Dumas the Elder : Charles VII chez ses grands vassaux
Premiere: December 26, 1834
Place of premiere: Milan Scala
Playing time: approx. 2 ¼ hours
Place and time of the action: Vergy Castle in Berry ( France ); 1428 at the time of Charles VII .
people
Coat of arms of the noble family Vergy

Gemma di Vergy is an opera seria (original name: "tragedia lirica") in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti on a libretto by Giovanni Emanuele Bidera . The plot is based on the drama Charles VII chez ses grands vassaux (" Charles VII and his great vassals") by Alexandre Dumas the Elder . Ä. The opera was written for the carnival season 1834–1835 in La Scala in Milan and was premiered on December 26, 1834 with the famous soprano Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis in the title role . In the 19th century Gemma di Vergy was one of Donizetti's most popular operas.

The opera should not be confused with Donizetti's Gabriella di Vergy , which was never performed during the composer's lifetime.

content

The opera takes place in France in the middle of the Hundred Years War , in the castle of Count von Vergy im Berry . The Vergy were a significant medieval aristocratic family, from whose ranks several male members were married multiple times, but a woman named Gemma did not appear to exist.

first act

Rolando, the Count's squire , brings a papal letter from Avignon with the official dispensation for the Count's divorce from his wife Gemma. While Rolando tells the soldiers and archers present about the Maid of Orléans , Guido expresses his great pity for Gemma. When Guido asks everyone to pray for Gemma, there is an argument between Rolando and the Saracen Tamas because he does not pray. Tamas is unhappy about his fate as a Christian prisoner far from his homeland, for which he blames Rolando; he is also secretly in love with Gemma . Suddenly Gemma appears and orders the arguing to stop. When she hears of her husband's return, she is overjoyed .

But after everyone else has withdrawn, Guido tells the completely unsuspecting Gemma that her husband is abandoning her because she is childless and that he wants to marry another woman, and that Gemma should retire to a monastery . Gemma falls from the clouds and reacts with helpless despair and sadness .

In the meantime Tamas has stabbed Rolando in an argument and puts the bloody dagger in his mind on a table. He dreams of avenging Gemma and then killing himself .

The count appears. When he discovers the bloody dagger, he believes for a moment that Gemma has taken her own life out of desperation and feels guilty. When he learns that she is alive, he is relieved, but wants her to leave the castle immediately so that he can see his new bride without any problems .

In the courtroom Tamas has to answer to the count for the murder of Rolando. Since the count realizes that the Saracen is unhappy, out of pity he suggests that he go back to his homeland and offers him money. But Tamas turns down the offer and frankly tells the count that he wants to murder him. In the tumult that followed, Tamas threatens to kill himself. Suddenly Gemma steps in, prevents the suicide and asks for mercy for Tamas. Full of sadness, she confronts the Count about their sudden separation and kneels in front of him, but when he stays tough, her feelings turn into hate .

Second act

In the meantime, Guido has made sure that Gemma leaves the castle and on her behalf gives the Count von Vergy Gemma's wedding ring as a souvenir. When he tells of her grief, memories rise in the Count and he is touched. Only the thought of his future children comforts him.

Ida, the count's new bride, has meanwhile arrived. Gemma appears all in black and initially pretends to be her own servant to the naive Ida, until she breaks out into open indignation and accuses her rival of having stolen her husband. When Count Ida tries to rush to help, the dispute escalates and Gemma threatens to kill Ida. Tamas unexpectedly steps in and takes the dagger away from Gemma to save her from an act that she would later regret. All four are extremely excited.

At night Gemma is alone in the castle. Tamas appears and suggests that she flee with him, which she refuses at first. When he explains to her that the Count's wedding to Ida will soon be celebrated in the castle church, Gemma at first cannot believe this, but then tells him to kill her. Since Tamas loves her, he refuses; although he hints at his feelings, Gemma does not understand. Finally Gemma agrees to escape.

Alone again, Gemma hears the beginning of the wedding ceremony from afar. She's half-mad with desperation, curses the bride and groom, but when the wedding bells ring , she no longer knows where she is and finally finds peace in prayer. Suddenly Guido, Ida and their entourage appear with torches, and Gemma learns that Tamas has murdered the count. Before Tamas stabs himself, he confesses that he did it out of love for Gemma. Everyone is horrified, and Gemma protests her innocence and asks Heaven for help.

Musical structure

  • Sinfonia

first act

  • No. 1 - Introduzione and Cavatina of Gemma: Qual guerriero sul bruno destriero - Una voce al cor d'intorno (Guido, Coro, Rolando, Tamas, Gemma)
  • No. 2 - Duet Gemma, Guido: Ripudiata? Me infelice!
  • No. 3 - Choir and Cavatina of the Count: Lode al forte guerriero, ed onore - Qui un pugnale! Chi 'l confisse (chorus, conte, guido)
  • No. 4 - Finale I: Assassino, che il ferro immergesti (Choir, Tamas, Guido, Conte, Gemma)

Second act

  • No. 5 - Choir, Scena and Aria of the Count: Come luna, che al tramonto (Choir, Ida, Conte, Guido)
  • No. 6 - Choir and Quartet : Vieni, o bella, e ti ristora - Rea cagion de 'mali miei (Choir, Gemma, Ida, Conte, Tamas)
  • No. 7 - Choir and Duet Gemma & Tamas: D'Ida è pari la beltà - Non è ver: non è quel tempio (Choir, Gemma, Tamas)
  • No. 8 - Aria Finale of Gemma: Fian mia cura insino a morte (Gemma, Guido, Ida, Tamas, choir)

music

Gaetano Donizetti

Gemma di Vergy was created during a phase of Donizetti and the Italian opera, which is characterized by very expressive melodies and a special sweetness ( dolcezza ), supported by appropriate instrumentation. One can with a certain right speak of “melody bliss”. The special style of this opera is partly reminiscent of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia (premiered on December 26, 1833), which was also composed for Milan one year earlier , but Gemma di Vergy is musically more of a unified cast. The color of the opera is made up of two very contrasting characters: a very lively, lively and light-footed festive mood that contrasts with the extremely lyrical, melancholic , well-formed and long-spun melodies à la Bellini . These two moods not only sound alternately, but also often simultaneously, especially in the first act, with which Donizetti z. In the Introduzione, for example, a very nice effect is achieved when the bass Guido pities the outcast Gemma with a long cantilena, while Rodrigo and the choir talk about the Maid of Orléans in a briefly repulsed Parlando . In the second act, the melancholic and tragic tones prevail more and more due to the content , although Donizetti also lets various choirs sing about the anticipation of the Count's wedding with Ida, and thereby repeatedly sets contrasts .

The title character of Gemma experiences the most contradicting feelings, but is different from z. B. Donizetti's dazzling and dangerous Lucrezia Borgia is a fundamentally innocent and personable character, a victim of fateful circumstances. Donizetti wrote the very demanding role for his favorite singer Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis , who found here an ideal field of activity for her extraordinary expressive and vocal qualities. The tessitura of Gemma is relatively high and requires a voice that is very flexible in every respect and that can fill the graceful ornaments and long melodies with expression. Musical highlights of the opera are the finale of the first act and Gemma's great scena with Preghiera and Aria finale at the end of the second act, where the actress has to express the most varied of contradicting feelings (like in a mad scene).

Also for the deep male voices (Guido and the Conte) Donizetti created wonderful and carefully structured arias full of lyricism and expressiveness. The rather small, if dramaturgically decisive tenor role of the Saracen “slave” Tamas, who is portrayed as an unhappy and suicidal outsider from the start , who consumes himself in secret love for his (unsuspecting) “mistress” Gemma and ultimately even one Committing murder because he believes that he is helping her with it can be considered a forerunner of Verdi's outsider characters, the hunchbacked court jester Rigoletto and the gypsy Azucena in Il trovatore . Of course, Verdi gave his characters a little more weight 20 years later. In musical terms, too, the opera foreshadows Verdi in many ways.

Performance history

Giovanni Orazio Cartagenova (Conte di Vergy), Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis (Gemma), Felicita Baillou-Hillaret (Ida), Domenico Reina (Tamas), Ignazio Marini (Guido) and Domenico Spiaggi (Rolando) sang the premiere on December 26, 1834 ).

In the following 30 years up to the 1860s, the opera experienced over 100 verifiable productions, making it one of Donizetti's most popular operas. The Ronzi de Begnis later sang the role again in Rome (1836, Teatro Valle ) and Venice (1839 at Teatro Malibran , and 1840 at La Fenice ). Other well-known interpreters of the title role were Luigia Boccabadati ( Parma 1836 and Verona 1838), Teresa Brambilla ( Turin 1839) and Eugenia Tadolini ( Genoa and Reggio Emilia 1840). In the Théâtre-Italien in Paris sang Giulia Grisi Gemma 1845-46 at the side of the famous baritone Giorgio Ronconi (as Conte di Vergy).

Montserrat Caballé 1969

Later the opera was forgotten.

In the 20th century, the Catalan soprano Montserrat Caballé did a lot for a revival of Gemma di Vergy : together with other rarities by Donizetti she recorded the performance aria of Gemma in 1968, later the whole role was one of her brilliant roles, which she played in the 1970s sang several times in different productions. Live recordings of performances with Caballé in Naples (1975), Paris and New York (1976) exist on CD (see below).

Gemma di Vergy was also performed at the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo in 1987, with Adriana Maliponte as Gemma, Nucci Condò (Ida), Ottavio Garaventa (Tamas), Luigi De Corato (Conte di Vergy), Agostino Ferrin (Guido). There is a live video recording of this production on the market (see below).

An important interpretation of the Aria finale by Gemma was recorded in 1997 by the famous coloratura soprano and Donizetti interpreter Edita Gruberova to mark the 200th birthday of Donizetti (see below).

Despite its musical qualities, this opera can still be considered forgotten; it has not yet experienced a renaissance similar to that of Donizetti's Anna Bolena , Maria Stuarda or Lucrezia Borgia (as of 2019) .

Recordings

Significant individual interpretations

  • Montserrat Caballé : Performance aria by Gemma "Lascia Guido… Una voce al cor… Egli riede", in a 3-CD set: Montserrat Caballé: Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi - Rarities , with the Ambrosian Opera Chorus and the London Symphony Orchestra under Carlo Felice Cillario. Recordings originally from 1968–1970, remastered by BMG / RCA in 1992.
  • Edita Gruberova : (Sinfonia) Recitativo, Preghiera and Aria finale of Gemma “Eccomi sola alfine… un altare…”, on the CD: Edita Gruberova - Donizetti Portraits , with the Munich Radio Orchestra under Elio Boncompagni , Nightingale Classics, 1996–1997.

Total recordings

  • Montserrat Caballé , Bianca Maria Casoni, Giorgio Casellato Lamberti, Renato Bruson , Mario Rinaudo, orchestra and choir of the Teatro San Carlo of Naples under Armando Gatto . As LP: UORC 282, Historical Operatic Treasure ERR 137, MRF RECORDS 122-S. As CD: MYTO MCD 952.124, Opera d'Oro OPD 1379, Premiere Opera Ltd. CDNO 10562 (live recording from the San Carlo, Naples, 1975)
  • Montserrat Caballé, Natalya Chudy, Luis Lima , Louis Quilico , Paul Plishka , Eve Queler, Schola Cantorum and New York Opera Orchestra. As LP: Columbia MS 34575, CBS "Masterworks" 79303 (live recording from Carnegie Hall , New York, 1976)
  • Montserrat Caballé, Anna Ringart, Luis Lima, Juan Pons , Vicente Sardinero, Nouvel Orchester Philharmonique et Choeur de Radio France, Armando Gatto (conductor). As LP: Rodolphe 12499. As CD: Rodolphe RPC 32499-500, MYTO 952.124 (1995), Agorà 501 (live recording Paris 1976)
  • Adriana Maliponte , Nucci Condò , Ottavio Garaventa, Luigi De Corato, Agostino Ferrin, Orchestra e Coro della RAI di Milano, Gerd Meditz (conductor). As DVD: House of Opera DVDCC 601 (2005) (live video recording from the Teatro Donizetti , Bergamo, October 7, 1987)

literature

  • Geoffrey S. Riggs: Donizetti: Gemma di Vergy (Chapter 9), in: The Assoluta voce in Opera 1797–1847 , MacFarland, 2003, pp. 137–167 (English; limited preview in the Google book search

Web links

Commons : Gemma di Vergy  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brief information about Gemma di Vergy in the list of Donizetti's operas on operone.de (accessed on August 7, 2019)
  2. ↑ The former castle of Vergy was originally a fortress near Reulle-Vergy , of which only a few remains are preserved today; a model of the former appearance can be found on the website of the Société d'histoire et d'archéologie du Pays de Vergy (French; accessed on 6 August 2019)
  3. ↑ The following table of contents is based on the original libretto. See Giovanni Emanuele Bidera & Gaetano Donizetti: Gemma di Vergy, Giacomo Pirola, Milan 1834.
  4. ↑ This alludes to the so-called exile of the Popes in Avignon .
  5. ↑ See the list of singers in: Giovanni Emanuele Bidera & Gaetano Donizetti: Gemma di Vergy , Giacomo Pirola, Milan 1834 (Italian)
  6. ↑ See also the list of singers at the premiere on: Search for operas by Gaetano Donizetti (search term in the Autore field : "CMBM15810") in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
  7. ↑ See Gemma di Vergy (Gaetano Donizetti) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
  8. ↑ The lists of singers for the performances mentioned can be reached via the list of verifiable performances of Donizetti's Gemma di Vergy in the 19th century on Corago ; to do this, press on the respective left (after the mentioned year, city and theater) press (Italian; accessed on August 6, 2019)
  9. ^ Review of the Théâtre-Italien in: Le Charivari , Paris, December 19, 1845; online at Gallica.bnf.fr (French; accessed August 9, 2019)
  10. ↑ See the review of the Théâtre-Italien in: L'Argus des Théâtres et de l'association dramatique ( revue théâtrale et journal des comédiens ... ), 3me Année, October 22, 1846, p. 3; online at Gallica.bnf.fr (French; accessed August 9, 2019)
  11. ^ Discography on Gemma di Vergy at Operadis.