Giulietta e Romeo (Zandonai)
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Juliet and Romeo |
| Original title: | Giulietta e Romeo |
Title page of the libretto, 1922 |
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| Shape: | Tragedia in three acts |
| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | Riccardo Zandonai |
| Libretto : | Arturo Rossato , Nicola D'Atri |
| Literary source: |
Luigi da Porto : Historia novellamente ritrovata dei due nobili amanti Matteo Bandello : La sfortunata morte di due infelicissimi amanti |
| Premiere: | February 14, 1922 |
| Place of premiere: | Teatro Costanzi , Rome |
| Playing time: | approx. 1 ¾ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Verona and Mantua , unspecified time |
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Giulietta e Romeo is an opera (original name: "Tragedia") in three acts and four pictures by Riccardo Zandonai ( music ) with a libretto by Arturo Rossato and Nicola D'Atri (collaboration) based on Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet . It was composed from 1917 and premiered on February 14, 1922 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome.
action
The following table of contents is based on the libretto from 1922. The parts in italics are literal translations.
first act
Small square in Verona at the Palace of the Capuleti, night
In the background is a small low house with a porch and some rough tables near the door of a tavern, which is illuminated inside by reddish light. On the left a path formed by the walls of the little house and the high and massive walls of the Palace of the Capuleti. A bridge on the right. Nearby is another, also lit tavern with a glass door. It's night. Lights flickering in the distance behind the bridge. In the light of the tavern windows, the shadows of the men inside emerge and disappear. Silence. A veiled nobleman appears on the bridge, stops at the neighboring tavern, looks through the window, then crosses the square to the portico. Suddenly the door of this tavern opens. Light shines out. Inside you can see members of the family who sleepily put their heads on the table and others who are lying around a stove. The nobleman makes a reprimanding gesture.
The nobleman - it's Tebaldo - wakes the other Capuleti, including Gregorio and Sansone, with the hint that the members of the hostile Montecchi clan are celebrating in the other tavern. Masked people appear on the square. However, it is not about the opponents, but the late arriving ladies of the own family. Nevertheless, Tebaldo is preparing his people for a possible fight. He enters the palace. Sansone and Gregorio keep watch while the rest of the Capuleti make their way home. The Montecchi, on the other hand, continue to celebrate in the other tavern. Her singing is dominated by a woman's voice. The Capuleti are listening. When the bell rings two o'clock, the Montecchi and the lady they are courting leave the restaurant. Outside they meet Gregorio and Sansone. Gregorio watches as the woman says goodbye to a Montecchio with a kiss. With the remark that a kiss from a Montecchi would ruin the whole night, Gregorio also demands a kiss from the lady. The argument escalates and they both summon their people. Suddenly a masked young man with a black cloak appears and tries to force the fighters apart. Tebaldo, who has meanwhile returned, asks the masked man to identify himself. Since he refuses, however, Tebaldo draws his sword and the fight breaks out again. Gregorio reports that the guard is approaching. All flee in disarray. The lights in the taverns are also extinguished. Only the masked man remains hidden behind the pillars. A crier proclaims a shameful death to anyone who sheds the blood of a citizen.
After the crier leaves, a light becomes visible behind one of the windows in the palace of the Capuleti. A young woman with a white towel looks worriedly at the street. Soldiers go by. Then the masked man emerges. The young woman, Giulietta, opens the balcony door and greets him as her lover Romeo. He climbs up to her with the help of a silk ladder. Both swear eternal love despite the hostility of their families. Only after the bell has rung does Romeo leave his lover with a final kiss blown under the first rays of the morning sun. At the same time voices can be heard in the street ( Stornello: “Bocoleto de rosa”).
Second act
Courtyard in the Palace of the Capuleti
You can see a courtyard in the palace of the Capuleti in Verona. On the left a crenellated wall, covered with ivy and flowers, behind which a flower garden extends; on the right a portico that ends with a few arches over a door that is locked with heavy locks; in the background a roughly built house, surrounded by arcades that end a little way from the wall and thus form a path that loosens itself towards the garden. A door leads into the house under the light arcade. Torches on the pillars. On the wall a tower can be seen hidden behind flowering undergrowth. There is a well in the courtyard. A group of girls in light-colored robes linger at the beginning of the path and cheerfully shout into the garden, while strings can be heard from the nearby street.
Giulietta, her servant Isabella and other girls play happily with a torch, celebrate spring and Easter and listen to the approaching music. Then Tebaldo appears in the gate. After the greeting, Giulietta asks Isabella quietly whether Romeo has come. When she says yes, Giulietta asks her to leave her alone with Tebaldo for a moment. Tebaldo tells her that he knows about her connection with Romeo. He had come to clarify the matter with the sword because it brought shame on the family. Her parents were currently with Count Lodrone, whom they had chosen to be their husband. Her father will tell her about this shortly. Giulietta explains indignantly that she will never consent to the marriage and that Montecchio has already taken an oath. Just as Tebaldo is about to forcibly change her mind, shouts can be heard from the street. Fighting has broken out again between the two families. Gregorio appears wounded in the door and calls Tebaldo out. There have already been two deaths. Romeo in particular fights with heavy blows. Swearing vengeance, Tebaldo wants to go out. Giulietta tries desperately but in vain to hold him back. Since she is sure that Romeo is still in her house, she asks Isabella to fetch him. Romeo comes and the two embrace each other. Giulietta begs him to flee with her because she no longer feels safe within these walls. Romeo assures her that there is no danger for her. Giulietta sings of her love for him in a haunting aria (“Son la vostra sposa”). But then Tebaldo rushes in, surprises the couple and challenges Romeo to a fight. Romeo talks to him in vain, but has to fend off Tebaldo's attacks and finally hits himself violently. Suddenly Tebaldo trips and falls. He is dead. Romeo throws away his sword in horror. Giulietta and Isabella cry out. People are rushing in. During the tumult, Giulietta succeeds in pulling Romeo into a secret passage. Isabella follows them. Gregorio finds Romeo's sword and shows it to the others. The Capuleti swear vengeance. Romeo only has to flee from Verona. The couple vows to say goodbye to eternal love. Giulietta remains sobbing in Isabella's arms.
Third act
First picture: Square in Mantua, afternoon
On the right is a house with a large, wide-open door; on the door arch hangs an iron shield in the form of a horse and a bundle of hay with the inscription "Alla iscuderia de Verona" ["To the riding stables of Verona"]. On the left is another house with an ivy-covered pergola. A table and benches under the pergola. A rough stone seat next to the stable. It's afternoon. The sky in the distance is dark, but the sun is still shining on the houses and the busy square with people and vendors. Inside at the table - under the pergola - are a few men. Confusion, noise, songs.
Before the impending storm, the sellers put their things together. Some get on a car and drive away. A soldier pushes through the crowd with two horses led by the reins, stops in front of the stables, calls for the owner Bernabò, and then brings his horses into the stable. Bernabò sits down on the stone bench. A suntanned and dusty street singer with a lute asks for a drink. Shortly afterwards, Romeo arrives, who had found accommodation in Mantua after his escape, had sent a messenger to Verona and is now waiting for his return. The street singer sings about the death of Giulietta, the “most beautiful flower of Verona”. Romeo cries out in horror. He jumps up and forcibly urges the singer to tell more. So he learns that Giulietta died immediately before her wedding to Count Lodrone and that songs are now being sung about her in Verona. Romeo asks the singer to forgive him for his failure and gives him a bag of money. Then he asks him to perform the whole song, which he listens desperately (street singer: "Done, piansì"). The thunderstorm has now broken out completely. Romeo's messenger gallops into the square and confirms the singer's statement. Now Romeo has nothing to do with Mantua. Despite the nocturnal storm, he rides off to be in Verona the next morning.
The horses light up in the torchlight and then disappear again. Wild roar. And with a roar, Romeo rides to Verona. He walks in a storm and in despair, his face blown with mane and wind. His eyes are blind from rain and tears: his path leads through streets and villages and ditches, he gallops over paths and fields, filling the storm with his soul and his screams. "Giulietta" screams his heart. "Giulietta" screams the wind. “Giulietta! Giulietta! “Roars the thunder. The storm, the sky and the earth scream the name in desperation. And he rides.
But at dawn the roar subsides and the sky falls silent. The first villages appear, silent, under the dark peace of the storm; the first towers appear, still shaded by the smoke of the storm, and a bloodless moon glides through the churned clouds. And here the monastery of the convent appears.
Second picture: the chapel of the Capuleti, dawn
The delicate pillars stand out bare in the glow of the uncertain dawn. Deep peace. On the right is the illuminated chapel of the Capuleti and - inside - lying on the sarcophagus, under the light of the lamp, covered with veils and flowers, Giulietta sleeps. Romeo comes from below, followed by a family member. He still has the wind of the ride on his tousled hair and soggy face. The last dying thunder groans softly. Romeo sees the light, sees Giulietta and lets out a sigh.
Romeo asks his companion to leave him alone. Since he refuses, he leads him out with gentle force, then returns and desperately calls for Giulietta (Romeo: "Giulietta! Son io!"). However, since the grid is locked, he cannot get to her. He begs her in vain to wake up and listen to him. Finally he pulls out a jar of poison and drinks it greedily. He sits down in pain under a blossoming tree, his face turned to the ground. Now the sky is clearing up. Giulietta opens her eyes and stands up. She notices her lover, who in his delirium can only announce his own death. With a scream she jumps up, opens the gate from the inside and throws herself madly into his arms. After a few deep kisses, Romeo explains to her that he has taken poison. For her part, Giulietta says that in order to avoid the wedding, she drank a potion that left her in a state similar to death. While Romeo fantasizes about his wild ride, Giulietta adds that she had sent him a messenger with the explanation. In the meantime morning has broken. The bells are ringing and voices can be heard from the street. A bright ray of sun flickered under the arch. Giulietta cannot live without Romeo. She sinks down next to him. The lovers die together and embraced under the sun's rays.
layout
The work is not based on the well-known Shakespeare drama Romeo and Juliet , but on its models. Therefore, some of the familiar scenes and characters are missing. Besides the lovers, only Tybalt appears (in the form of Tebalo). Even brother Lorenzo is missing. Analogous to the melodramma of the 19th century, the central pair of lovers is juxtaposed with a single opponent (here Tebaldo), comparable to Iago in Giuseppe Verdi's Otello . The other characters only add to the local color. The enmity between the Capuleti and Montecchi is of no central importance here as it is in Shakespeare. The reason for Tebaldo's actions is essentially the illegitimate and thus shameful relationship of the couple. His anger is therefore directed not only against Romeo, but also against Giulietta. On the other hand, knowledge of Shakespeare's drama is a prerequisite for understanding the text, as many expressions - such as B. the reason for Giulietta's apparent death - cannot be fully explained. Her death is not portrayed as suicide, but is a real love death . In contrast to the Shakespeare version, the lovers die together. The opera is not limited to a realistic representation of the plot, but transfigured it strongly. In addition, there is a “downright programmatic tendency towards a national-folk mystification of the cities of Verona and Mantua”, which is expressed in many picturesque scenes and plot elements. Mention should be made here, for example, of the masks and the stornello in the first act, the torch dance in the second, the song of the street singer in the third act or Romeo's ride to the deathbed of his lover, composed as a symphonic interlude. The latter is the most famous piece of the opera and is sometimes played separately.
The opera is well composed. Apart from the street singer's lute song in the third act (“Done, piansì”), it has no self-contained forms. Leitmotifs are largely missing. Instead, motifs are presented in individual scenes, which Zandonai then varies and processes. Cross-scene topics also occur. The Stornello sounds again from the end of the first act when the lovers die together. Musically, a preference for ostinati and recumbent sounds becomes clear, as well as a tendency towards historicizing turns of archaic character. The vocal style is characterized by verismo and rich in melodies. In addition to the song of the street singer, the most haunting passages include Giulietta's “Son la vostra sposa” in the second act and Romeo's “Giulietta! son io! ”after his arrival in the chapel. Despite some qualities but the musical ingenuity Zandonai falls against that of his most famous opera, Francesca da Rimini , back.
The more recent criticism sees the action reduced to “a series of effective dramatic or lyrical situations of more or less great importance”, so that the “impression of a deliberate deconstruction [arises] that deliberately refers to the omnipresence of Romeo and Juliet -Myth is built and reduced to a station drama ".
Instrumentation
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : piccolo , two flutes , two oboes , English horn , two clarinets , bass clarinet , two bassoons
- Brass : four horns , three trumpets , three trombones , bass trombone
- Timpani , percussion : snare drum , bass drum , cymbal , triangle , tam-tam , tambourine
- Celesta
- harp
- Strings
- Incidental music: bells, snare drum, accordion , small orchestra (flute, clarinet, triangle, tambourine, harmonium, piano with paper on the strings, lute)
Work history
Emergence
After the success of his previous operas, especially Francesca da Rimini (1914), Zandonai was looking for Italian material for another work. In 1917 he found this in the classic Romeo and Juliet . However, he did not want to use Shakespeare's drama Romeo and Juliet for this, but instead use their templates directly without the later additions. Luigi da Porto's Historia novellamente ritrovata dei due nobili amanti (1531) served as his main source . He also used motifs from Matteo Bandello's La sfortunata morte di due infelicissimi amanti (published 1554) and Berto Barbarani's “poemetto” Giulietta e Romeo (1902). For the libretto, Zandonai turned to Giuseppe Adami , who initially began the task at the beginning of 1920 together with Arturo Rossato and, after serious differences, handed it over to him and Nicola D'Atri, who worked with him, in April 1920. The first version of the libretto was completed in November 1920. At the same time, Zandonai began composing in Sacco di Rovereto , but interrupted the work due to illness and travel reasons until March 1921. It was completed in summer or autumn 1921. He sent the instrumentation of the intermezzo and the third act to Ricordi in December.
A piano reduction with a German translation by Alfred Brüggemann was published by Ricordi in 1924.
reception
Zandonai conducted the world premiere on February 14, 1922 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. It was directed by Romeo Francioli. The set was designed by Pietro Stroppa. The main roles were played by Gilda Della Rizza (Giulietta) and Miguel Fleta (Romeo). Agnese Porter (Isabella), Carmelo Maugeri (Tebaldo), Luigi Nardi (singer and a Montecchio), Nello Palai (Gregorio and "famiglio"), Mario Pinheiro (Sansone), Michele Fiore (Bernabò), Lucia Torelli (one Wife) and Ernesto Besanzoni ("banditore").
The performance was a great success with the audience. The critics, however, rejected the work. They noted "a lack of coherence and inner development, a lack of characteristics, outward appearance in the coloring and an uncritical following of Mascagni".
In the same year there were further performances in Pesaro (conductor: Zandonai), Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, in 1923 in Parma (conductor: Vincenzo Bellezza) and at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples (conductor: Tullio Serafin ). The work was also played in smaller and medium-sized theaters. In 1932 the Teatro alla Scala in Milan played the opera (conductor: Zandonai), and in 1939 the Arena of Verona (conductor: Zandonai). Then the interest decreased. The opera was played somewhere almost every year until 1972 and between 1982 and 1992. There were performances, for example, in Naples in 1941, in Bologna in 1955, in Lisbon in 1956, in Treviso in 1966, in Trieste in 1967 and in Naples in 1972. The first production in the USA was not made until 1982 in San Diego. The opera was rarely performed in Germany, including as a guest performance at the Arena di Verona in Wiesbaden in 1986 (conductor: Gianfranco Masini ).
In the last five years (as of 2017) Zandonais Giulietta e Romeo was only given in Erfurt and Braunschweig . These stagings moved the action to a boarding school around 1900 (Erfurt) or to the battlefields and hospitals of the First World War (Braunschweig).
Recordings
- 1955 - Angelo Questa (conductor), orchestra and choir of the RAI di Milano.
Anna Maria Rovere (Giulietta), Angelo Loforese (Romeo), Ornella Rovero (Isabella), Renato Capecchi (Tebaldo), Dino Formichini (the singer), Salvatore de Tommaso (Gregorio), Antonio Massaria (Sansone), Ugo Novelli (Bernabò) , Mario Carlin (a Montecchio).
Live, in concert from Milan.
EJS 216 (2 LPs), GOP 66.352 (2 CDs), Cantus Classics 500932 (2 CDs). - 1961 - Loris Gavarini (conductor), Orchestra Sinfonica di San Remo, Choir of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna .
Antonietta Mazza-Medici (Giulietta), Angelo Loforese (Romeo), Maria Minetto (Isabella), Mario Zanasi (Tebaldo), Ottorino Begali (the singer), Giuseppe Bertinazzo (Gregorio), Bruno Cioni (Sansone), Alfonso Marchia (Bernabò) , Armando Benzi (a Montecchio).
Studio shot.
Cetra 1266 2 LPs, Warner Fonit 5050466-2963-2 (2CDs). - 1972 - Oliviero de Fabritiis (conductor), orchestra and choir of the Teatro San Carlo, Naples.
Maria Chiara (Giulietta), Carlo Bini (Romeo), Marisa Zotti (Isabella), Giulio Fioravanti (Tebaldo), Ermanno Lorenzi (the singer), Angelo Marchiandi (Gregorio), Gino Calò (Sansone), Gennaro Chiocca (Bernabò), Aronne Ceroni (a Montecchio).
Live from Naples.
Web links
- Giulietta e Romeo : Sheet Music and Audio Files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Giulietta e Romeo. Libretto (Italian), Milan 1922. Digitized in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
- Giulietta e Romeo (Riccardo Zandonai) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
- Discography on Giulietta e Romeo at Operadis
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c John CG Waterhouse: Giulietta e Romeo. In: Amanda Holden (Ed.): The Viking Opera Guide. Viking, London / New York 1993, ISBN 0-670-81292-7 , p. 1248.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Egon Voss : Giulietta e Romeo. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 6: Works. Spontini - Zumsteeg. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-492-02421-1 , pp. 782-783.
- ^ A b Renato Chiesa: Giulietta e Romeo (iii). In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
- ↑ Detlef Brandenburg: In the boarding school of burning hearts. Review of the performance at the Erfurt Theater . In: Die Deutsche Bühne on April 9, 2017, accessed on March 10, 2018.
- ^ Konrad C. Dryden: Riccardo Zandonai: A Biography. Lang, Frankfurt 1999, ISBN = 3-631-34374-4.
- ^ A b Emmanuelle Bousquet: Le Giulietta e Romeo de Riccardo Zandonai: une création nationaliste en ordre de marche. In: Revue LISA. Vol.IX - n ° 2, 2011 ( online ).
- ^ February 14, 1922: "Giulietta e Romeo". In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ..
- ↑ Detlef Brandenburg: Romeo's last dream. Review of the performance at the Braunschweig State Theater . In: Die Deutsche Bühne on April 22, 2017, accessed on June 4, 2017.
- ↑ a b c Riccardo Zandonai. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all complete opera recordings (= Zeno.org . Volume 20). Directmedia, Berlin 2005.
- ↑ Karsten Steiger: Opera discography. Directory of all audio and video recordings. 2nd, fully updated and expanded task. KG Sauer, Munich 2008/2011, ISBN 978-3-598-11784-8 , p. 610.
- ↑ CD information on Giulietta e Romeo on esdf-opera.de, accessed on March 20, 2018.