I cavalieri di Ekebù
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| Title: | The Lords of Ekeby |
| Original title: | I cavalieri di Ekebù |
Title page of the libretto, Milan 1925 |
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| Shape: | Dramma lirico in four acts (five images) |
| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | Riccardo Zandonai |
| Libretto : | Arturo Rossato |
| Literary source: | Gösta Berling by Selma Lagerlöf |
| Premiere: | March 7, 1925 |
| Place of premiere: | Teatro alla Scala , Milan |
| Playing time: | about 2 hours |
| Place and time of the action: | At the Ekeby fortress in Värmland , 19th century |
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I cavalieri di Ekebù is an opera in four acts (five images) by the Italian composer Riccardo Zandonai . The libretto wrote Arturo Rossato on the novel Gösta Berling by Selma Lagerlof . The first performance took place on March 7, 1925 at La Scala in Milan .
action
first act
In an inn. It's Christmas Eve
Gösta Berling is a poet and dreamer. Because of his strong addiction to drinking, he is unable to continue exercising his office as pastor and was released from his superior in the church service. Even on Christmas Eve he sits in a bad mood in the pub indulging in his love of alcohol. His lover Anna, who found him, got into an argument with him: she would have imagined Christmas Eve differently. Her father, Sintram, is also in a bad position towards Gosta and is at odds with him. The landlady closes and Gösta is thrown out of the bar. Without any courage to face life, he throws himself into the cold snow. The majoress appears: she has always had a fable for failed existences and offers Gösta shelter in her fortress. She tells him the story of her life and her suffering: in favor of her mother, she had to leave her lover and take a rich man as a husband. Samzelius, confused and melancholy of character, bequeathed to her, out of pity for her disappointed love, the Ekeby fortress and the associated ironworks. The lover who had been rejected by her soon died of lovesickness; she fell out with her mother and has not seen her since. When she tells Gösta that Anna is also at the castle, he decides to follow her.
Second act
At the Ekeby fortress. Heavy snowfall
The majoress's cavaliers, former soldiers, adventurers and other stranded people, to whom Gösta has now also joined, are looking forward to Christmas Eve together. Sintram meanwhile is willing to leave the castle with the same thing, against his daughter's will, which the cavaliers can prevent. Gösta stands by Anna and confesses his love in front of the assembled team. Sintram, however, is strictly against a bond between the two and thus opposes the majoress, who would advocate such a bond. Sintram is enraged: he insults Gösta as a bad seducer, prophesies to the majoress that bad times would come and casts his daughter out. The majoress, however, means well with them and gives the two lovers her blessing.
Third act
Ekeby. Late evening
The cavaliers drink, Liecrona plays his violin and everyone in attendance is enjoying the Christmas party. After the meal is finished, Sintram returns one more time, just as the church bell strikes midnight, drunk and red in the face like the devil. He asks the majoress to renew her contract with the devil with whom she bought the castle and cavaliers at the price of her soul. In addition, he says, one of the cavaliers has to go to hell every year. The cavaliers get into an argument. Angry and upset, they chase their mistress from the castle. However, they soon realize that they have gone too far, knowing that everything will end without their mistress.
Fourth act
A few months later
The population protested that the majoress should finally return, as Ekeby Castle has recently been neglected due to the cavaliers. Since Anna threatens to leave Gösta again, he promises to improve and realizes his mistakes. When the majoress finally returns, everyone is horrified to see that she has become seriously ill. But she shows her good side to everyone: She can forgive the men for their deeds, Anna and Gösta bequeath all their goods and possessions and give them her blessing again. While she was still dying, she heard the hammers being struck again in the Ekebu mine and the chimneys beginning to smoke again: a new Ekeby was being created; the time of the cavaliers is finally over.
Work history
The cavalieri di Ekebù is the opera that Zandonai worked out most precisely. He began composing at the beginning of 1923 and did not finish the first version until a year and a half later, in autumn 1924. After the first production, Zandonai made some changes. Zandonai was particularly precise when creating the Swedish version of his opera, which was staged with triumphant success in 1928 for Lagerlöf's seventieth birthday in Stockholm.
At the world premiere, u. a. Franco lo Giudice (Gösta), Elvira Mari Casazza (Major) and Maria Luisa Fanelli (Anna). Arturo Toscanini conducted it .
Instrumentation
The following instruments are required in the score:
- Woodwinds : piccolo , two flutes , two oboes , English horn , two clarinets , bass clarinet , two bassoon
- Brass : four horns , three trumpets , three trombones , bass trombone
- Timpani , percussion : snare drum , bass drum , cymbals , triangle , glockenspiel , tubular bells
- Celesta
- harp
- Strings
- Incidental music: two violins , Eb clarinet , two alto horns , two euphonies , a solo violin on the scene.
Web links
- I cavalieri di Ekebù. Libretto (Italian), Milan 1925. Digitized in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
- I cavalieri di Ekebù (Riccardo Zandonai) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
- Discography of I cavalieri di Ekebù at Operadis
- Cast for the premiere on March 7, 1925 in the Almanacco by Gherardo Casaglia ( Memento from March 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Lords of Ekebù. In: Heinz Wagner: The great manual of the opera. Nikol, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-933203-11-2 , pp. 1233-1234.
- ^ Libretto with work information (Italian) on bibliotecacivica.rovereto.tn.it
- ↑ Edgardo Pellegrini: The Knights of Ekebù. In: Opera. An illustrated representation of the opera from 1597 to the present day . Drei Lilien Verlag, Wiesbaden 1981, ISBN 3-922383-01-7 , p. 396
- ^ Diego Cescotti: Riccardo Zandonai: Catalogo tematico . Libreria Musicale Italiana Editrice, Lucca 1999, ISBN 88-7096-137-0 , p. 229.