L'assedio di Calais
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| Title: | The Siege of Calais |
| Original title: | L'assedio di Calais |
Title page of the libretto, Naples 1836 |
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| Shape: | Dramma lirico |
| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | Gaetano Donizetti |
| Libretto : | Salvatore Cammarano |
| Literary source: | Luigi Marchionni , Luigi Henry , Pierre-Laurent Buirette de Belloy |
| Premiere: | November 19, 1836 |
| Place of premiere: | Naples, Teatro San Carlo |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Calais and environs, 1347 |
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L'assedio di Calais (Eng .: The Siege of Calais ) is a "dramma lirico" ( opera ) in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti with a libretto by Salvatore Cammarano . It is about the sacrifice of some residents during the siege of Calais in 1346 during the Hundred Years War . The first performance took place on November 19, 1836 in the Teatro San Carlo in Naples.
action
The following table of contents is based on the description in Heinz Wagner's The Great Manual of the Opera and the program booklet for the Gelsenkirchen performance from 2008, compared with the libretto.
first act
In the outpost of the British camp in front of the sea-washed city walls of Calais, the English soldiers lie in a deep sleep. Aurelio, the son of the mayor of Calais, has sneaked into the enemy camp with the help of a rope ladder to get food for the completely starved citizens of the besieged city. One of the soldiers wakes up, discovers the intruder and sounds the alarm. Aurelio manages to save himself at the last moment by jumping into the sea.
In the city, Mayor Eustachio and Aurelio's wife Eleonora learn of his discovery. At first they believe that he is dead and are relieved when after a while he returns unharmed. Shortly afterwards, a group of townspeople appear who blame Eustachio for their misery and demand his removal. However, Eustachio manages to expose the leader of the insurgents as an English spy and to calm the people down.
Second act
In their apartment, Aurelio and Eleonora look at their sleeping little son and worry about his future. Giovanni reports that a delegation of the English has arrived to negotiate the terms of peace.
In the audience hall, Eustachio and the people listen in horror to the condition of the English king Edoardo: six citizens are to be executed in the presence of the queen. Only then will peace be granted. After some hesitation, Eustachio and his son were the first to report to save their families and the city. She and four other volunteers - Giacomo, Pietro, Armando and Giovanni - are taken to the English camp.
Third act
In the English camp, King Edoardo impatiently awaits the arrival of his wife Isabella, who is arriving from Scotland after a victorious campaign. Now the three countries France, Scotland and England can finally be united. The queen appears with her entourage and is greeted warmly by Edoardo. He then has the prisoners brought before the inhabitants of Calais to execute them. These families and their successors ask for mercy, which the king initially refuses to accept. Only when Isabella asks him for leniency does he change his mind and release the hostages.
History of origin
L'assedio di Calais is Donizetti's 49th opera. He composed it in 1836 and viewed it as an experimental subject in the direction of a possible activity in Paris. He may have seen Gioachino Rossini's Guillaume Tell as a model . He himself called it his “most precisely worked out opera” (“L'opera più travagliata”) and composed it “according to French taste” (“confacente al gusto francese”). In March 1835, his opera Marino Faliero had already been performed in Paris at the Théâtre-Italien . At the time, however, this was overshadowed by the success of Bellini's I puritani . Donizetti wanted to bring the new work out at the Paris Opera straight away. The choice of material played an important role. The history of the citizens of Calais was first mentioned in the Middle Ages in the Chroniques de France by Jean Froissart . Since the second half of the 18th century it was known in France to larger circles. In 1885/95 Auguste Rodin created a large sculpture on this subject.
The librettist Salvadore Cammarano wrote his text after the drama of the same name (around 1825) by the Neapolitan house poet of the Teatro San Carlo , Luigi Marchionni , and also used elements of a ballet by Luigi Henry published in 1827 . Both are based on the French play Eustache de Saint-Pierre, ou Le Siège de Calais by Philippe-Jacques Laroche (1822), which in turn is based on a drama by Pierre-Laurent Buirette de Belloy from 1765. The fact that Cammarano did not deal directly with the historical sources led to some discrepancies. In the opera, Edoardo's wife is not correctly named Philippa , but Isabella. This was actually the king's French mother, Isabelle de France .
Although L'assedio di Calais was intended for the French audience from the start, Donizetti initially remained true to the Italian tradition and cast the role of the young hero Aurelio with a "musico", ie. H. a mezzo-soprano. This pitch followed the castrati tradition, which, however, never caught on in France. Donizetti therefore planned to replace this role with a tenor at the hoped-for performance in Paris. However, that did not happen. It was only with La fille du régiment of 1840 that he achieved success in Paris. L'assedio di Calais was played in Naples until 1840.
Donizetti had already noticed that the third act of the opera greatly diminished the effect. It therefore began immediately after the premiere with a reduction to two acts. The cut marks and insertion points provided for this have been preserved. The king's appearance was brought forward to the first act and the happy ending avoided. Donizetti has not yet found a final solution for the design of the final scene. In the English Touring Opera series of performances in 2015, the original final chorus of the first act was used at this point. Overall, this two-act version is shorter and more concentrated than the three-act original version.
The singers of the premiere on November 19, 1836 in the Teatro San Carlo were: Paul-Bernard Barroilhet (Eustachio de Saint-Pierre), Almerinda Manzocchi (Aurelio), Caterina Barilli (Eleonora), Ferdinando Cimino (Giovanni), Freni (Giacomo), Giovanni Revalden (Pietro), Giuseppe Benedetti (Armando), Frederick Lablache (Edoardo), Nicola Tucci (Edmondo), Pietro Gianni (A Stranger).
Recordings and performances in recent times
After the Neapolitan series of performances, the work fell into oblivion. In modern times there were only a few performances and so far (as of 2015) a CD and a DVD release:
- 1988: CD recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra London and the Geoffrey Mitchell Choir under the direction of David Parry . The singers: Christian du Plessis (Eustachio de Saint-Pierre), Della Jones (Aurelio), Nuccia Focile (Eleonora), Rico Serbo (Giovanni), Paul Nilon (Giacomo), Ian Platt (Pietro), Mark Glauville (Armando), Russell Smythe (Edoardo), Eiddwen Harrhy (Isabella), John Treleaven (Edmondo), Norman Stanley Bailey (A Stranger). Opera Rara CD: OR 9
- 1990: Performances at the Donizetti Festival Bergamo and DVD release (live on September 20, 1990 from the Civico Teatro Gaetano Donizetti) with the Orchestra and Coro della RAI di Milano under the direction of Roberto Abbado . The singers were: Paolo Coni (Eustachio de Saint-Pierre), Luciana d'Intino (Aurelio), Nuccia Focile (Eleonora), Romano Emili (Giovanni), Sergio Rocchi (Giacomo), Giovanni Guerini (Pietro), Danilo Serraiocco (Armando ), Michele Pertusi (Edoardo), Barbara Frittoli (Isabella), Ernesto Gavazzi (Edmondo), Maurizio Antonelli (A Stranger). House of Opera DVDCC 177 (1 DVD), Charles Handelman - Live Opera 09121 (1 VC)
- 1991: Performances at the Wexford Festival Opera in Ireland
- 2008: Concert performances in the Musiktheater im Revier , Gelsenkirchen
- 2013/2015: Performances of the two-act version by the English Touring Opera
- July 16, 2017: American premiere of all three acts at the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown , New York; Director: Francesca Zambello, conductor: Joseph Colaneri
Web links
- L'assedio di Calais : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Libretto (Italian), Naples 1836. Digitized in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
- Full text libretto (Italian) on italianopera.org. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
- Work data for L'assedio di Calais based on MGG with discography at Operone.
- Table of contents of the two-act version on englishtouringopera.org.uk (English). Retrieved August 10, 2015.
- The Siege of Calais - The Wild Man of the West Indies. Review of the English Touring Opera performance on Opera Today . Retrieved August 11, 2015.
- Video recording of the two-act version of the English Touring Opera from the Armel Opera Festival 2015 on ARTE Concert. Available until December 31, 2015.
Individual evidence
- ^ Heinz Wagner: Gaetano Donizetti - "L'assedio di Calais". In: The great manual of the opera. 2nd Edition. Florian Noetzel Verlag Wilhelmshaven, 1995, ISBN 3-930656-14-0 , p. 178 f.
- ↑ a b c d e Jochen Casimir Eule: Program booklet of the concert performance of the Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen, program No. 62, season 2007/08
- ^ William Ashbrook: L'assedio di Calais. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
- ^ Franklin Mesa: Opera: An Encyclopedia of World Premieres and Significant Performances, Singers, Composers, Librettists, Arias and Conductors, 1597-2000. McFarland, 2007, p. 22 ( limited preview on Google Books ).
- ↑ a b Donizetti's The Siege of Calais (L'assedio di Calais) - English Touring Opera, March 9 - May 21, 2013 on donizettisociety.com. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
- ^ L'assedio di Calais (Gaetano Donizetti) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
- ↑ Gaetano Donizetti. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all opera complete recordings. Zeno.org , Volume 20, p. 3845.
- ^ A b L'assedio di Calais. In: Reclam's Opernlexikon. Digital library volume 52. Philipp Reclam jun., 2001, p. 200.
- ↑ The Siege of Calais. Glimmerglass Festival performance information , accessed July 17, 2017.