La cambiale di matrimonio

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Opera dates
Title: The marriage change
Original title: La cambiale di matrimonio
Title page of the libretto, Venice 1810

Title page of the libretto, Venice 1810

Shape: farsa comica in one act
Original language: Italian
Music: Gioachino Rossini
Libretto : Gaetano Rossi
Literary source: Camillo Federici and Giuseppe Checcherini
Premiere: November 3, 1810
Place of premiere: Teatro San Moisè , Venice
Playing time: approx. 1 ¼ hours
Place and time of the action: In Mill's house
people
  • Tobia Mill, English businessman ( bass )
  • Fannì, his daughter ( soprano )
  • Edoardo Milfort ( tenor )
  • Slook, Canadian merchant (bass)
  • Norton, Secretary Mills (bass)
  • Clarina, Fannì's maid ( mezzo-soprano )

La cambiale di matrimonio (Eng. The change of marriage ) is a “ farsa comica ” in one act by Gioachino Rossini ( music ). The libretto by Gaetano Rossi based on a comedy by Camillo Federici from 1790. It is Rossini's first opera listed. The premiere took place on November 3, 1810 in the Teatro San Moisè in Venice.

action

Scene 1. In a room in the house of the merchant Tobia Mill, his secretary Norton indicates to the maid Clarina that Mill's daughter Fannì is about to marry (introduction: “Non c'è il vecchio sussurrone”).

Scene 2. Mill comes into the room in night clothes with a map of the world and a compass (Cavatina buffa: “Chi mai trova il dritto, il fondo”). On the basis of information in a book, he tries in vain to find out how far apart Europe and America are (Terzett: “Ma riflettete… considerate”). Norton brings a letter, interrupting his concentration. But since the letter was delivered by a sailor on a colony ship, he takes a closer look and is pleased to see the handwriting of his American business partner. He arrived on the same ship to personally inspect the merchandise. Clarina is assigned to prepare a room, his daughter is to put on her most beautiful dress, and the other servants also receive her orders. This is the second letter Mill has received. The first one made a big impression on him. His business friend Slook from Canada intends to set up a marriage business in the colonies. He therefore asks for a wife with certain qualities to be sent. A dowry is not necessary, but “it should be from a good family, not older than 30 years, of gentle character and impeccable reputation, with an even complexion. In addition, she has a healthy and robust temperament so that she can withstand all the rigors of the crossing and the climate. ”As soon as these goods have arrived in good condition, he will marry them within two days. Mill puts the letter in a book on the table. He has already decided to offer Slook his own daughter, Fannì, and Norton can no longer change his mind. He regrets the girl and hopes that the American made his trip in vain.

Scene 3. Fannì and her admirer Edoardo Milfort swear their love and hope to be able to get married soon (duet: “Tornami a dir che m'ami”). Edoardo is counting on the support of his uncle, who will arrive in a few days. However, Fannì is concerned about some hints from her father about his guest.

Scene 4. Norton comes in looking for Mill and reveals their father's plan to Fannì and Edoardo. He shows them Slook's letter believing they would laugh at it. However, the two are appalled that Fannì should be sold like a commodity.

Scene 5. From outside you can hear Mill urging his servants to hurry. Shortly afterwards he enters the room. Since Edoardo cannot hide in time, Norton pretends to be the new accountant. Mill finds him too young and too modern, but since Norton thinks he is of good character, Mill actually hires him. Then he takes a few letters from his book, gives them to Fannì and announces a visitor that Fannì should give these letters to him. With that she will make her fortune. The carriage has meanwhile arrived, and Mill leaves with his servants to greet the guest. Edoardo is shaken, but Fannì already has a plan and asks him to trust her.

Scene 6. Slook enters in serious, but at the same time capriciously funny clothes (Cavatine: "Grazie ... grazie ... Caro amico!"). The servants try too hard for him. Mill even tries to straighten his wig and stick and kiss his hands. Slook is overwhelmed and confused about European customs. He bows stiffly. While Fannì, Clarina, Edoardo and Norton can hardly suppress laughter, Mill is impressed by Slook's good manners. Slook recapitulates: First you have to greet, kiss and hug the landlord - then do the same with the ladies ... However, as they shrink back, he realizes that this was probably wrong. In Canada, customs are much more open and friendly; but he would like to learn the local manners. Then he sees Fannì and is immediately enthusiastic about her beauty. Mill tells him that she has a letter of recommendation for him. As soon as Slook has examined the display, they will be able to come to an agreement. Norton should show the new accountant his work in the meantime.

Scene 7. Fannì and Slook are left alone. After some hesitation, she hands him her father's letters with downcast eyes. Slook asks her to come closer and asks her if she knows the contents of the letters. Since she says no, he reads aloud. Mill writes that he has found a wife who exactly meets the requirements. It was his only daughter, Fannì, who gave him this letter. Slook should therefore fulfill his obligations within two days. When Slook asks for her opinion, Fannì tells him to cancel the contract. It is not a suitable commodity for him and cannot do him any honor (duet: “Darei per sì bel fondo”). Slook demands further explanation. Does she despise marriage? Does she think he's a demon? Since none of this is the case, he asks her directly to marry him. Fannì's requests were of no use. She declares that she already knows what to do.

Scene 8. Edoardo storms into the room angrily, followed by Fannì. He explains to Slook that this pretty face was not meant for him and asks him to return to Canada (trio: “Quell'amabile visino”). Slook, however, feels right that the goods belong to him and the change is clear. There is an argument. Fannì declares that she does not want to marry him under any circumstances. If he touches her, she'll scratch his eyes out. Edoardo also threatens to cut his wrists if he doesn't let the contract break. Intimidated, Slook gives in. Everyone goes.

Scene 9. Norton and Clarina discuss the situation. Norton doesn't think the wedding will come. Fool Mill's preparations will be in vain, and the simple-minded slook will go back to Canada. However, he is not entirely wrong that women in Europe are considered to be commodities. Clarina expresses her sympathy for the lovers. She herself has often been in a similar situation and knows what love means (aria: “Anch'io son giovane”). She goes to Fannì to comfort her.

Scene 10. Slook comes into the room looking for Mill. Norton warns him that the capital to be acquired may be on a mortgage. Norton is leaving.

Scene 11. Slook is shocked by this announcement and by the threats from Fannì and Edoardo. Mill comes up and asks him if there is any good news. Slook replies that everything is fine. Fannì is pretty, of the right age, has engaging manners, a good figure and the desired temperament. Mill hugs and kisses him after every answer. Slook adds dryly that there is only one problem: he doesn't want her. He cannot give the reasons because he fears for his eyes. But he will reimburse all expenses. Mill does not agree with this - after all, he has fulfilled all the conditions (duet: "Dite presto, dove sta"). Since Slook doesn't give in, Mill challenges him to a duel on pistols or sabers. He has an hour to prepare and make his will. Slook decides to leave immediately.

Scene 12. After Slook and Mill have left, Clarina, Fannì and Edoardo talk about the state of affairs. They believe their threats worked. Still, Clarina feels sorry for Slook. Edoardo assumes that he will quickly find another bride. Hopefully and passionately, he kisses Fannì's hand.

Scene 13. Slook sees the couple through the open door. He enters with a smile and asks for a conversation. It is obvious that he is not in America because an American would never have threatened a guest's life. He now understands what kind of mortgage Fannì is burdened with, but wants to know why she gave him the bill in the first place. Fannì explains that her father forced her to do it. Slook thinks that is abhorrent. When he learns that they haven't told Mill about their relationship just because of Edoardo's poverty, he shows himself to be magnanimous. He likes the young man and wants to see them both happy. He transfers the bill to Edoardo and promises to appoint him as heir. The couple is overwhelmed with joy (Aria Fannì: “Vorrei spiegarvi il giubilo”). You leave the room.

Scene 14. Slook is pleased with his good deed. He goes too.

Scene 15. Mill comes into the room, followed by a servant carrying two pistols and two sabers. The servant puts the weapons on the table and goes out. Mill is so mad at Slook that he wants to kill him with the first blow. After a moment of hesitation, because there is also the possibility that he will be killed himself, he goes through the process in his mind. He wants to stand like a Rodomonte, roll his eyes and look angry until he finally stabs his opponent with his sword. Meanwhile, Slook comes in smoking a pipe and takes one of the pistols unnoticed. He laughs and declares that he has been resurrected and is at his service. A brief battle of words ensues (quartet "Porterò così il cappello").

Scene 16. Before Mill and Slook go outside to fight the duel, Fannì and Clarina appear. They fail to appease Mill. As his anger builds, Slook gets more and more amused.

Last scene. Edoardo and Norton also join (sextet: “Vi prego un momento”). Edoardo shows Mill the change. He doesn't want to let his anger dissuade him and pay him off immediately, but Norton explains that there isn't enough money in the till. Mill rages. Finally Slook speaks up. He explains that Mill was mistaken. His daughter is already a burdened capital. But he still found a buyer, transferred the bill of exchange to him and assigned the capital. This will bring in interest in the form of a grandchild in a year at the latest. Because Edoardo and Fannì have confessed to him that they love each other, he appointed him as heir. After a moment, Mill agrees. Everyone is happy about the happy ending.

layout

libretto

The opera's libretto was written by Gaetano Rossi . It is based on a comedy of the same name in five acts by Camillo Federici , which was published in Venice in 1790 and is in the tradition of Carlo Goldoni's late comedies and Commedia dell'arte . This text served as a template for a libretto three years before Rossi's adaptation. This came from Giuseppe Checcherini and was set to music by Carlo Coccia in 1807 . In his libretto, Checcherini dispensed with the critical undertones of the original and placed the emphasis on puns. Rossi most likely knew the text, but mainly used the original for his text. His work is not only comical, it also contains sentimental and moralizing elements - a contemporary predilection that ultimately led to the development of his own type of opera semiseria . From Federici Rossi also took over the pun with its allusions to the merchant's language: The bride is burdened with a mortgage, and Slook does not leave his bride to Edoardo, but gives him the change.

Instrumentation

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

music

The music of this early opera already contains the essential features of Rossini's language. For the overture he used a sinfonia in E flat major that had been written a year earlier for the Bologna Conservatory. Already here - as in many later works - he was falling back on his own older compositions. He later used motifs from La cambiale di matrimonio in other works such as Il barbiere di Siviglia or L'inganno felice .

Like the other four Farse Rossini's, La cambiale di matrimonio contains nine musical numbers:

  • Sinfonia
  • No. 1. Introduction (Norton, Clarina, Mill): "Non c'è il vecchio sussurrone" (scene 1)
    • Cavatina buffa (Mill): "Chi mai trova il dritto, il fondo" (scene 2)
    • Trio (Clarina, Norton, Mill): "Ma riflettete ... considerate" (scene 2)
  • No. 2. Duet (Edoardo, Fannì): "Tornami a dir che m'ami" (scene 3)
  • No. 3. Cavatine (Slook): "Grazie ... grazie ... Caro amico!" (Scene 6)
  • No. 4. Duet (Slook, Fannì): "Darei per sì bel fondo" (scene 7)
    • Trio (Slook, Fannì, Edoardo): "Quell'amabile visino" (scene 8)
  • No. 5. Aria (Clarina): "Anch'io son giovane" (scene 9)
  • No. 6. Duet (Mill, Slook): "Dite presto, dove sta" (scene 11)
  • No. 7. Recitative and aria (Fannì): "Vorrei spiegarvi il giubilo" (scene 13)
  • No. 8. Finale:
    • Quartet (Mill, Slook, Clarina, Fannì) "Porterò so il cappello" (scene 15)
    • Sextet (Mill, Slook, Clarina, Fannì, Edoardo, Norton): "Vi prego un momento" (scene 17)

The introduction is in three parts and consists of a duet, an arioso (Cavatine, Mill) and a trio. The fourth number, the “concertato”, is the centerpiece of the opera, a larger ensemble piece that could almost be considered the finale of a first act. It consists of a duet extended to a trio, to which the following aria by Clarina forms a counterpoint.

Work history

La cambiale di matrimonio is the first of the five one-act “farse” that Rossini composed between 1810 and 1813 for the Teatro San Moisè in Venice. The others are L'inganno felice , La scala di seta , L'occasione fa il ladro and Il signor Bruschino .

Rossini wrote it at the age of eighteen. It is his first opera to be performed. He had already composed the opera seria Demetrio e Polibio before, but it was only performed in Rome in 1812. According to a statement by Rossini to Ferdinand Hiller , he owed the commission for La cambiale di matrimonio to the Marchese Francesco Cavalli, whom he had met in Senegallia at the age of thirteen. But also his friend, soprano Rosa Morandi , who was employed at the Teatro San Moisè at the time, and her husband Giovanni supported him when the commission for the opera was awarded there in 1810. The premiere took place on November 3rd and was a great success. As a further work, the “farsa giocosa” Non precipitare i giudizi, ossia La vera gratitudine by Giuseppe Farinelli was performed that evening . In addition to Rosa Morandi as Fannì, the bass Luigi Rafanelli (Mill), the tenor Tommaso Ricci (Edoardo), the bass Nicola De Grecis (Slook), the bass Domenico Remolini (Norton) and the mezzo-soprano Clementina Lanari (Clarina) sang in La cambiale di matrimonio ). A total of thirteen performances were given. In 1816 there was another performance in Barcelona. In 1910 the opera was staged again at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice under the direction of Mezio Agostini .

Recordings

  • 1954 (shortened): Giuseppe Morelli (conductor), Orchestra de la Società del Quartetto Roma. Giorgio Onesti (Mill), Angelica Tuccari (Fannì), Giuseppe Gentile (Edoardo), Nestore Catalani (Slook), Tito Dolciotti (Norton), Maria Grazia Ciferi (Clarina). Nixa PLP 583 (1 LP), Period SPL 583 (1 LP).
  • 1960: Renato Fasano (conductor), I Virtuosi di Roma. Rolando Panerai (Mill), Renata Scotto (Fannì), Nicola Monti (Edoardo), Renato Capecchi (Slook), Mario Petri (Norton), Giovanna Fioroni (Clarina). IOR CD: LO 7738, Orizzonte Ricor LP: AOCL 216009 (2 LP).
  • 1971 (live, in concert from Milan): Vittorio Gui (conductor), Orchestra della RAI di Milano. Gianni Socci (Mill), Carla Chiara Grimaldi (Fannì), Ennio Buoso (Edoardo), Enrico Fissore (Slook), Giorgio Gatti (Norton), Elvira Spica (Clarina). Memories HR 4506 (1 CD).
  • May 1989 (video, shortened recitatives, live from Schwetzingen). Michael Hampe (production), Gianluigi Gelmetti (conductor), Symphony Orchestra of the SWR Stuttgart. John del Carlo (Mill), Janice Hall (Fannì), David Kuebler (Edoardo), Alberto Rinaldi (Slook), Carlos Feller (Norton), Amelia Felle (Clarina). Teldec VI: 9031 71479 3, Teldec CV: 9031 71479 6, EuroArts 2054968 (1 DVD).
  • 1990: Marcello Viotti (conductor), English Chamber Orchestra . Bruno Praticò (Mill), Alessandra Rossi (Fannì), Maurizio Comencini (Edoardo), Bruno de Simone (Slook), Francesco Facini (Norton), Valeria Baiano (Clarina). Claves CD: 50-9101, Brilliant Classics 92399 (8 CD).
  • 1991 (live from Pesaro): Donato Renzetti (conductor), Orchestra della RAI di Torino. Enzo Dara (Mill), Soeun Jeun (Fannì), Luca Canonici (Edoardo), Roberto Frontali (Slook), Stefano Rinaldi-Miliani (Norton), Marilena Laurenza (Clarina). Fonit Cetra CD: RF CD 2011.
  • 1991: Hervé Niquet (conductor), Le Concert Spirituel. Michel Trempont (Mill), Eleanor Oldham (Fannì), Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (Edoardo), Peter Harvey (Slook), Till Fechner (Norton), Miriam Ruggeri (Clarina). Adda CD: 581 290, Accord CD: 243022.
  • 1995 (video, live from Pesaro): Luigi Squarzina (staging), Yves Abel (conductor), ORT-Orchestra della Toscana. Bruno Praticò (Mill), Eva Mei (Fannì), Bruce Fowler (Edoardo), Roberto Frontali (Slook), Stefano Rinaldi-Miliani (Norton), Alessandra Palomba (Clarina).
  • August 8, 2006 (audio / video, live from Pesaro): Luigi Squarzina (production), Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli (conductor), Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento. Paolo Bordogna (Mill), Désirée Rancatore (Fannì), Saimir Pirgu (Edoardo), Fabio Maria Capitanucci (Slook), Enrico Maria Marabelli (Norton), Maria Gortsevskaya (Clarina). Dynamic CDS 529 (1 CD), Premiere Opera 2446-2 (2 CD), Naxos 2110228 (DVD).
  • July 2006 (video, live from Bad Wildbad): Christopher Franklin (conductor), Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen . Vito Priante (Mill), Julia Samsonova (Fannì), Daniele Zanfardino (Edoardo), Giulio Mastrototaro (Slook), Tolasz Wija (Norton), Francesca Russo Ermolli (Clarina).

Web links

Commons : La cambiale di matrimonio  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ A boastful superhero in Ludovico Ariosto's epic The Raging Roland

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Richard Osborne:  Cambiale di matrimonio, La. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Martina Grempler: Text accompanying the CD Naxos 8.660302
  3. ↑ La cambiale di matrimonio. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater. Vol. 5. Works. Piccinni - Spontini. Piper, Munich and Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-492-02415-7 , p. 353
  4. ^ A b La cambiale di matrimonio (Gioachino Rossini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna . Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  5. ↑ Agostini, Mezio. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 1:  Aaron – Albertucci. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1960.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Gioacchino Rossini. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all opera complete recordings. Zeno.org , volume 20.