La donna serpente (opera)
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | La donna serpente |
| Shape: | Fairy tale opera in a prologue and three acts |
| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | Alfredo Casella |
| Libretto : | Cesare Vico Lodovici |
| Literary source: | Carlo Gozzi |
| Premiere: | March 17, 1932 |
| Place of premiere: | Teatro Reale dell'Opera, Rome |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | In Téflis and the mountains of the Caucasus, fairytale time |
| people | |
|
The spelling of the names with accents corresponds to the handwritten corrected typescript on internetculturale.it.
|
|
La donna serpente (Op. 50; German titles: Die Frau als Schlange , Die Schlangenfrau , Frau Schlange or Frau und Schlange ) is a fairy tale opera (original name: “Opera fiaba”) in a prologue and three acts by Alfredo Casella . The libretto by Cesare Vico Lodovici is based on the fable of the same name by Carlo Gozzi . The premiere took place on March 17, 1932 in the Teatro Reale dell'Opera in Rome.
action
The opera takes place in a fairytale time in Téflis and the mountains of the Caucasus.
prolog
Gardens of the Fairies
The fairy Miranda, favorite daughter of the fairy king Demogorgòn, causes great unrest among the gnomes, goblins, driads and other mythical creatures in the kingdom because she wants to marry a mortal. For Altidor, the king of Téflis, she is ready to give up her immortality. Her father cannot change her mind. Altidor is also a protégé of the magician Geònca and the high priest Checsaia. However, Demogorgòn requires his daughter to initially live with Altidor for nine years and one day without revealing her true identity to him. Altidor then has to swear that, despite all the blows of fate, he will not curse Miranda under any circumstances. If he passes this test, he will be given her as a wife. However, should he break the vow, Miranda will be turned into a snake for 200 years and then supposed to return to her father. Miranda accepts the terms.
first act
First picture: Terrible desert, surrounded by high rocks
Scene 1 “Alditrúf's story”. Nine years later, the royal archer Alditrúf tells the servant Albrigòr how King Altidor met Miranda while hunting a doe in an enchanted castle. They fell in love, got married and had two children: Mirtillina and Bedridino. But the castle disappeared with Miranda and the children when Altidor inquired about their origin. Since then, the king and his tutor Pantúl have been traveling restlessly across the country in search of them.
Scene 2. Pantúl urges the gloomy king in vain to return to his capital Téflis, since the empire is threatened by the Tartars.
Scene 3 "Magic scene". After Altidor has said goodbye, two large blue dragonflies bring Minister Tògrul and his subordinate Tartagíl on behalf of Geònca. They too want to persuade the king to return home. They first discuss their plan with Pantúl and hide when Altidor approaches again. A richly laid table appears in front of this, and a voice asks him to eat from it. But the exhausted Altidor shows no interest in a meal, but goes to sleep. A booming voice wakes him up again.
Scene 4. In the guise of the high priest Checsaia, Pantúl tries to convince him that Miranda is an evil sorceress. Altidor should give her up and go home. Altidor remains adamant. Tògrul then pretends to be the ghost of his deceased father and also warns him about Miranda. Altidor is unsure. When he tries to shake hands with the two of them, the magic fades. Altidor realizes her true identity, angrily chases her away and desperately calls for Miranda.
Second picture: Garden at Miranda's Royal Palace
Scene 5. While Altidor indulges in sad thoughts, the desert turns into a beautiful garden next to a castle. Miranda appears among her ladies-in-waiting. She exhorts Altidor to face the difficult times that follow. Even if he saw terrible things, he must not curse them. Altidor swears this against her express advice (Miranda does not want to challenge fate). She tearfully says goodbye to her husband, but promises that he will see his children again tomorrow. The palace disappears again and Altidor is left alone in the desert.
Second act
First image: The desert as in the first act. Dawn
Scene 1. Alditrúf tells Albrigòr about a severe earthquake last night. They calm down quickly and start dancing. Pantúl and Tartagíl join in and tell of further unnatural events and bad omens. The four are beginning to panic. Behind the scene the voices of a group of wet nurses can be heard looking for the king.
Scene 2. Enter King Altidor and Tògrul. The wet nurses and their leader (La corifèa) bring news of his children and Miranda, who rules as queen in a distant palace. Before an unknown power drove the wet nurses into the desert, they could still watch how Miranda had cried and hugged her children in pain. Those present promise their support to the king, but a terrible earthquake hits everyone again with horror.
Scene 3. A rock appears with Miranda and her children. You and Altidor greet each other happily. But then Miranda's soldiers appear. Flames blaze around the rock. Miranda says goodbye to Mirtillina and Bedridino and orders the soldiers to throw the children into the fire. The appearance disappears again. Despite his horror, Altidor curses not Miranda, but himself.
Second picture: Great Hall in the Royal Palace in Téflis
Scene 4. In Téflis, besieged by the Tartars, the Amazon Canzade proposes that the priests and soldiers appoint his victorious sister Armilla (Tògrul's wife) as regent during the king's absence. This appears with a warlike retinue and reports on her fight against the Tartar king Morgone. Armilla is ready to continue the defense. Everyone celebrates with dancing and singing. In a ballet scene, Morgone's troops fight with Armilla's.
Scene 5. While the residents of Téflis are still celebrating, a messenger arrives: the Tartars have arrived at the gates of the city. In addition, the people are suffering from a famine that has already killed thousands of residents. The Minister Badúr responsible for supply has not yet arrived. King Altidor and Tògrul finally arrive. Altidor is appalled by the situation in the city, but again he curses not Miranda but himself. Badúr comes with the news that Miranda threw the food he had procured into the river and thus destroyed it. Now Altidor can no longer hold back. He curses Miranda. Lightning and earthquakes comment on his breaking the oath. General horror breaks out.
Scene 6. At that moment, Miranda herself appears. After listening to Altidor's allegations, she tells him her background story (the prologue of the opera). She had to fake the murder of the children on the instructions of her father Demogorgòn in order to test her husband's loyalty. The food she destroyed had previously been poisoned by the treacherous Badur. But now Altidor has broken his oath and she must accept the consequences. However, there is still hope that Altidor could turn fate. As Miranda gradually turns into a snake, she laments her fate in a lamento (quintet with double choir) and asks that the truth be kept from her children. After the nurses Mirtillina and Bedridino have brought in, Tògrul informs them that their mother has flown away on a cloud of flowers and will return soon.
Third act
Scene 1. Behind the curtain, Miranda laments her lot of having to live as a snake for the next 200 years. An invisible choir comforts them with the fact that fate will turn.
First picture: Palace in Téflis
Scene 2. The people celebrate Altidor's final victory over the Tartars with Armilla and Canzade. Pantúl and Tartagíl join in, shortly afterwards the king himself. But Altidor cannot join in the cheers. His thoughts are with Miranda. Miranda's sister, the fairy Farzana, appears. She tells Altidor that Miranda is on a peak in the Caucasus and announces that Demogorgòn wants to give Altidor another chance to change her fate. Although everyone present warned him not to trust Farzana, he set off with her. The people who refuse to abandon the king follow.
During a short interlude for the change of scene, the magician Geònca informs the fairy king Demogorgòn that he wants to support Altidor.
Second picture: Two plateaus separated by a ravine; on one a crypt in the form of a temple
Scene 3. King Altidor, Farzana and the people with Armilla and Canzade approach the temple in which Miranda is held captive by three monsters - the giant Giaromiro, the unicorn Liocorno and the bull Ignivomo. Farzana shows Altidor a gong next to the temple and the mallet that goes with it on the floor. After Altidor has struck the gong, the three monsters appear one after the other. Altidor can happily defeat them in a fight (a dance scene). Then he rushes towards the temple, from which flames are now blazing. The temple collapses from his blows. A giant snake escapes and is instantly burned to ashes.
Third image: As before, in the background Miranda's royal palace and garden
Scene 4. After the smoke clears, the realm of Miranda becomes visible. Miranda and Altidor are reunited. The wet nurses also bring their two children in. While the family happily embraces each other, Alditrúf, Tartagíl, Albrigòr, Pantúl, Tògrul and the people celebrate the happy ending.
layout
Instrumentation
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : three flutes (3rd also piccolo ), two oboes , English horn , clarinets in Eb and D, Bb clarinet in Bb, three bassoons , contrabassoon
- Brass : four horns , three trumpets , two tenor trombones , bass trombone, bass tuba
- Small timpani, three timpani
- Percussion (4-6 players):
- organ
- harp
- Strings with five-string double basses
- Incidental music:
- three trumpets
- three tenor trombones
- Drums: tam-tam, cymbals, snare drum, agitator drum, real bells (only alternatively tubular bells ) in a ', b', h ', c' ', d' ', es' ', e' ', f' 'and g' ', Storm bell, thunder
music
Casella's music is neither shaped by leitmotifs in the Wagnerian sense nor influenced by the verismo of the previous generation. For him it was more about a “renewal from the Mediterranean spirit” as well as a “fantastic theater in which there is no longer any need to justify the singing person on the stage”. However, echoes can be found in other works based on Gozzi models such as the Turandot operas by Puccini (→ Turandot (Puccini) ) or Busoni (→ Turandot (Busoni) ) and Sergei Prokofiev's The Love of the Three Oranges . Casella herself also confessed to the fairy tale operas by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov . Further roots can be found in older Italian works between Claudio Monteverdi and Gioachino Rossini .
The instrumentation is particularly imaginative in the magical scenes. Great importance is attached to the choir. In fact, the work was originally planned as a “choir ballet”. A highlight of the opera is Miranda's Lamento at the beginning of the third act, which has almost "neo-madrigalistic" traits. Most of the music is fast-moving and urgent, partly in the neo-baroque style, partly reminiscent of Rossini in its lightness. The characters Alditrúf, Albrigòr, Pantúl and Tartagíl, derived from the Commedia dell'arte , are assigned burlesque buffo scenes in the first two acts . The lovers Miranda / Altidor, on the other hand, are more reminiscent of the opera seria .
In the score there are some sections which, by their designation as “Aria”, “Duetto” or similar, show Casella's departure from the through-composed form of the previous generation. But these are not really these musical forms. The names are intended to be more programmatic.
In his contribution to Piper's Encyclopedia of Music Theater, the musicologist Horst Weber assesses Casella's conceptual goals such as the “loosening of the relationship between plot and music” and the “delightful way of dealing with Italy's great musical past” as “an expression of that 'naive' nationalism [...] who was occasionally used as an excuse for Casella's coexistence with fascism ”.
libretto
The libretto is by Cesare Vico Lodovici . It is based on the fable of the same name by Carlo Gozzi . The role names have been changed compared to the template. "Farruscad" became "Altidor", and "Cherestani" became "Miranda". Some names come from the Commedia dell'arte , but have been alienated exotic ("Pantaleone" → "Pantúl", "Truffaldino" → "Alditrúf", "Brighella" → "Albrigòr", "Tartaglia" → "Tartagíl").
Gozzi's fable was also one of the sources for Richard Wagner's first opera, Die Feen . While Wagner, however, reinterpreted the subject of the “tragedy of the artist who sings against literally petrified conditions”, there are no corresponding references to Lodovici. The ban on questions, which Wagner later also placed at the center of his Lohengrin , occurs in both versions.
Work history
La donna serpente is Casella's first opera. After studying the subject since the early 1920s, he composed it between October 16, 1928 and October 22, 1931, according to the score.
The first performance took place on March 17, 1932 in the Teatro Reale dell'Opera in Rome under the direction of the composer. Giovacchino Forzano directed the choreography, Nicola Guerra and the set design by Cipriano Efisio Oppo and Ettore Polidori. Antonio Melandri (Altidor), Laura Pasini (Miranda), Maria Serra Massara (Armilla), Anna Maria Martucci (Farzana), Ninì Giani (Canzade), Alessio De Paolis (Alditrúf), Adolfo Pacini (Albrigòr), Gino Vanelli ( Pantúl), Luigi Nardi (Tartagíl), Giorgio Lanskoy (Tògrul), Giovanni Inghilleri (Demogorgòn), Matilde Arbuffo (La corifèa), Duilio Baronti (voice in the desert and Geònca), Anna Maria Mariani (Smeraldina), Millo Marucci (Badúr ), Piero Passarotti (messenger 1 and Il corifèo), Augusto Prot (messenger 2). Despite the high entertainment value of the opera, the performance was not a great success.
The German premiere took place in Mannheim in 1934 in a translation by Hans Ferdinand Redlich . The work was only rarely performed in Italy, but was often played on the radio. In 1982 there was an impressive new production in Palermo. In April 2016 the work was performed as part of the “Festival Alfredo Casella” in the Teatro Regio di Torino . A recording was broadcast on Italian television and also on German radio.
Recordings
- 1959 - Fernando Previtali (conductor), orchestra and choir of RAI Milan.
Mirto Picchi (Altidor), Magda Laszlo (Miranda), Lauro Londi (Armilla), Renata Mattioli (Farzana), Aldo Bertocci (Alditrúf), Renato Ercolani (Tartagíl), Plinio Clabassi (Tògrul).
Broadcast by RAI on June 14, 1959.
FIORI FI-1266 (CD). - July 2014 - Fabio Luisi (conductor), Arturo Cirillo (director), Dario Gessati (stage), Gianluca Falaschi (costumes), Giuseppe Calabrò (lighting), Riccardo Olivier (choreography), Orchestra Internazionale d'Italia, choir of the State Philharmonic "Transylvania “From Cluj-Napoca .
Angelo Villari (Altidor), Zuzana Marková (Miranda), Vanessa Goikoetxea (Armilla), Anta Jankovska (Farzana), Candida Guida (Canzade), Simon Edwards (Alditrúf), Domenico Colaianni (Albrigòr), Pavol Kuban (Pantúl), Timothy Oliver (Tartagíl), Davide Giangregorio (Tògrul), Carmine Monaco (Demogorgòn), Carolina Lippo (La corifèa, voice in the desert and Smeraldina), Giorgio Celenza (Badúr and Il corifèo), Rocco Cavalluzzi (messenger 1 and Geònca), Francesco Castoro (Messenger 2).
Video; live from the Festival della Valle d'Itria from the Palazzo Ducale, Martina Franca.
Bongiovanni AB 20031 (DVD). - April 14, 2016 - Gianandrea Noseda (conductor), choir and orchestra of the Teatro Regio di Torino.
Piero Pretti (Altidor), Carmela Remigio (Miranda), Erika Grimaldi (Armilla), Francesca Sassu (Farzana), Anna Maria Chiuri (Canzade), Francesco Marsiglia (Alditrúf), Marco Filippo Romano (Albrigòr), Roberto di Candia (Pantúl) , Fabrizio Paesano (Tartagíl), Fabrizio Beggi (Tògrul), Sebastian Catana (Demogorgòn), Kate Fruchterman (Smeraldina), Donato di Gioia (Badúr).
Audio and video recording of the Alfredo Casella Festival from the Teatro Regio di Torino .
Web links
- Libretto (typescript, Italian). Digitized in the Internet Culturale portal
- Libretto (typescript with handwritten corrections, Italian). Digitized in the Internet Culturale portal
- Brief information on klassika.info
- Information on the works of the Teatro Regio di Torino (PDF)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Horst Weber: La donna serpente. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 1: Works. Abbatini - Donizetti. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-492-02411-4 , pp. 501-503.
- ^ A b c Kurt Pahlen : The new opera lexicon. Seehamer, Weyarn 2000, ISBN 3-934058-58-2 , p. 124.
- ^ A b c d John CG Waterhouse: Donna Serpente, La. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
- ↑ a b c Ulrich Schreiber : Opera guide for advanced learners. The 20th Century I. From Verdi and Wagner to Fascism. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1436-4 , pp. 654-655.
- ↑ March 17, 1932: “La donna serpente”. In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ..
- ↑ La donna serpente. Image gallery of the 2016 Turin performance on Rai 5 TV website , accessed November 27, 2016.
- ↑ BBC Radio 3 - CD Review , accessed July 14, 2019.
- ↑ CD5080 Casella Donna Serpente 1959 RAI , at House of Opera, accessed July 14, 2019.
- ^ Lorenzo Mattei: Martina Franca, Festival della Valle d'Itria: "La donna serpente". Review of the performance in martina Franca 2014 on gbopera.it, accessed on July 14, 2019.
- ^ Alfredo Casella: "La donna serpente" . Program information from May 28, 2016 on BR-Klassik , accessed on November 26, 2016.
- ↑ La donna serpente. Performance information of the Teatro Regio di Torino, accessed November 26, 2016.