Le pont des soupirs
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Bridge of Sighs |
| Original title: | Le pont des soupirs |
| Shape: | operetta |
| Original language: | French |
| Music: | Jacques Offenbach |
| Libretto : | Hector Crémieux, Ludovic Halévy |
| Premiere: | 1861 |
| Place of premiere: | Paris |
| Place and time of the action: | Venice, 1321 |
| people | |
|
|
Le pont des soupirs ( German: The Bridge of Sighs ) is an operetta by Jacques Offenbach .
The piece is Offenbach's third full-length work (after Orphée aux Enfers and Geneviève de Brabant ). The libretto written Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy . Because the work was a great success, Offenbach worked out the work in four acts in 1868 . Musically, Die Sufzerbrücke holds the level of other Offenbach works, but in terms of plot, the work falls a little behind other operas.
action
The action takes place in Venice in 1321. For this reason, the title is an anachronism , the Bridge of Sighs did not yet exist at that time.
1st act
- 1st picture - Venice, on the Grand Canal in front of the Doge's palace
The Doge Cornarini has secretly returned from the war with his squire Baptiste to test the loyalty of his wife Catarina. She has fun with the page Amoroso in her absence. Cornarini's rival, Malatromba, intervenes and sings a song to Catarina. When Malatromba leaves again and Amoroso, to the horror of Catarina, is dragged with him, Cornarini and Baptiste are faced with another problem: They are wanted in the city because Cornarini's return was seen as an escape from the enemy and treason. After all, they can still escape the "policeman" and his people.
- 2nd picture - ballroom in the Doge's palace
Cornarino and Baptiste have snuck into Catarina's house. Malatromba is also present and demands Catarina's love that nothing happens to Amoroso. In between, Cornarini and Baptiste kill the two spies Malatrombas and pretend to be them. In the end, however, they are exposed and arrested.
2nd act
- 3rd picture - In the Palazzo of the Council of Ten
The Council of Ten sleeps - as usual - and does nothing else. Only when a little ballet begins to dance does the tiredness halfway away. Cornarino, Baptiste, Amoroso and Catarina von Malatromba are brought before the council and charged. Through bribery, Malatromba is unanimously made the new doge when Cornarino claims to have killed himself rather than the spies. Only then does the council receive a letter from the fleet, in which it is stated that Cornarino's flight was only a tactical maneuver and that shortly afterwards complete victory over the enemy was achieved. Cornarino reveals himself: Venice now has two doges.
- 4th picture - Carnival in Venice, masks on the Lido
Venice celebrates Carnival. In the middle of the celebration, the Council of Ten appears and announces that there are two doges. A duel should decide who should be the new doge. Cornarino wins this with the help of Amorosos.
literature
- Leo Melitz: Guide through the operettas . Globus-Verlag, Berlin 1917, pp. 202-203.
- Jacques Offenbach: The Bridge of Sighs. Comic opera in 2 acts (4 images) . Bote & Bock, Berlin 1962.