Leonora (opera)
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Leonora ossia L'amor conjugale |
Title page of the libretto, Dresden 1804 |
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| Shape: | “Fatto storico” in two acts |
| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | Ferdinando Paër |
| Libretto : | Friedrich Rochlitz (?), Giacomo Cinti (?) |
| Literary source: | Jean Nicolas Bouilly : Libretto for Léonore, ou L'amour conjugal |
| Premiere: | October 3, 1804 |
| Place of premiere: | Small electoral theater , Dresden |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ⅓ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | a prison near Seville |
| people | |
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Leonora ossia L'amor conjugale is an opera (original name: "Fatto storico") by Ferdinando Paër from 1804. It is based on the same plot as the opera Léonore, ou L'amour conjugal (libretto: Jean Nicolas Bouilly , music: Pierre Gaveaux ).
action
first act
Since Florestano tried to expose the gloomy political machinations of the governor Pizarro, he was thrown by him into the dungeon of a Spanish prison, where he has languished for two years. While many believe that the person who has disappeared without a trace is dead, his wife Leonore firmly believes that he is being held captive and still alive.
She succeeds - disguised as a man under the name "Fedele" - in the prison where she suspects Florestano to get a job as an assistant to the jailer Rocco. Rocco's daughter Marcellina has fallen in love with "Fedele" and therefore has nothing left for her admirer Giachino.
Leonora aka Fedele works hard to win Rocco's favor, which he does. The prison guard sees him as his future son-in-law and allows him to accompany him in looking after the political prisoners. There is someone there whose name Rocco does not know, but who he knows will starve to death.
Pizarro learns from the mail he received that the minister has learned that he is illegally detaining people. In particular, he has to fear Don Fernando's anger over Florestano's imprisonment and decides to kill the hated enemy in the next hour. A trumpeter should keep an eye out and blow the signal when the minister approaches.
Second act
In the dungeon, Florestano laments his fate and sinks to the floor, exhausted. When Rocco and Leonora enter the dungeon, Leonora discovers the unconscious but cannot recognize him in the dark. Together with Rocco she begins to dig up a buried well in which Florestano is supposed to find his grave. When the prisoner asks for water, Leonora recognizes her husband by the voice.
A masked man enters and wants to kill Florestano, but Leonora throws herself in between and begs Rocco for help. The murderer unmasked: it's Pizarro. He orders Rocco to help him separate Florestano and Leonora. Leonora draws a pistol, but Pizarro does not shrink from it, but penetrates Florestano again with increased anger with the dagger. At the moment of greatest distress, the trumpet sounds to announce the arrival of the minister. Pizarro and Rocco hurry away and close the dungeon door.
Suddenly Marcellina appears in the dungeon, looking for her beloved Fedele. He asks her to get Don Fernando. After anxious minutes he appears with his entourage, recognizes the friend and frees him. Pizarro is arrested and put in shackles. Rocco assures that he only pretended to be the former governor's wishes. Marcellina's disappointment is softened by the fact that Leonore promises her a nice dowry, and Giachino can draw new hope.
orchestra
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwind : two flutes , two oboes , English horn , two clarinets , bassoon
- Brass : two horns , two trumpets
- Timpani
- Strings
- Basso continuo
Work history
The first performance took place on October 3, 1804 in Dresden in the small electoral theater ( Morettisches Opernhaus ), in Italian. The main roles were played by Francesca Riccardi-Paër (Leonora), Antonio Peregrino Benelli (Florestano) and Charlotte Häser (Marzelline).
The Italian textbook published for the premiere does not name an author and also contains an anonymous German translation. Like the original, it is laid out in verse and was also used for German-language performances of the opera, for example for the Berlin premiere on July 11, 1810 and for the first performance in Munich in 1813. Friedrich Rochlitz is given as the author of both . Paër's original libretto may also be a work by Rochlitz. Richard Engländer suspected that the libretto came from the singer Giacomo Cinti, as he was contractually obliged to revise texts for the Italian opera. However, there are no known literary works by Cinti, only a translation of Haydn's oratorio The Seasons into Italian. Paër's libretto, however, differs from Gaveaux's in many respects and is much more than a mere translation.
It was noticed early on that Beethoven's opera Fidelio , begun in January 1804 and premiered on November 20, 1805, is based on the same material. It is disputed whether and to what extent Beethoven was inspired by Paër's opera.
Klaus Martin Kopitz thinks that Beethoven at least knew Paër's libretto in the German version by Friedrich Rochlitz or that it was the inspiration for his own opera. This emerges from Beethoven's letter to Rochlitz of January 4, 1804, in which he informs Rochlitz that he would now start composing the Leonore material. The address on this letter comes from a handwriting comparison by Therese von Zandt , an employee of the Allgemeine Musikischen Zeitung edited by von Rochlitz . Kopitz also points out that the relationship between Beethoven and Rochlitz was very tense in the years that followed.
It is also noteworthy that Paër's opera had a private performance on March 25, 1806 in the Vienna Palais of Prince Joseph Lobkowitz , in which Louise Müller played the title role - the marzelline of the first performances of Beethoven's Fidelio . This is confirmed by a note in Count Karl von Zinzendorf's diary , as well as a report in the Journal des Luxus und der Fashions . As Lobkowitz was one of Paër's patrons, but also one of Beethoven's most important patrons, there is no question that Beethoven witnessed this Vienna premiere of Paërs Leonora . In addition, it took place four days before the premiere of the revised version of Fidelio , which took place on March 29, 1806 in the Theater an der Wien . Lobkowitz apparently wanted to know how Beethoven's opera differed from that of Paër. That Beethoven knew Paër's opera is also proven by a score found in his estate.
The public first performance of Paërs Leonora in Vienna did not take place until February 8, 1809 in the Kärntnertor Theater . The performance was in German, also in the version by Friedrich Rochlitz. The main roles were played by Cathinka Buchwieser (Leonore / Fidelio), Julius Radichi (Florestano) and Marianne Auernhammer (Marzelline).
First edition
Paër's opera was first published in 1806 by the Leipzig publisher Breitkopf & Härtel in the form of a piano reduction by August Eberhard Müller , which contains the overture and individual chants. The underlying texts are Italian and German, both anonymous.
literature
- Anonymous, Leonore, the latest opera by Capellmeister Pär in Dresden , in: Der Freimüthige , No. 204 of October 12, 1804, p. 293f. (Digitized version)
- Leonore, or Spain's prison near Seville. A heroically comic opera in two acts based on the Italian by Mr. Rochlitz. The music is from Mr. Ferdinand Pär , Munich 1813 (digitalized)
- Leopold von Sonnleithner , Beethoven and Paër. A correction , in: Reviews and Mittheilungen über Theater und Musik , Vol. 6, No. 27 of July 4, 1860, pp. 412f. ( Digitized version )
- Richard Engländer , Ferdinando Paër as Saxon court conductor , in: New Archive for Saxon History , Volume 50 (1929), pp. 204–224 (digitized version )
- Richard Engländer, Paërs “Leonora” and Beethoven's “Fidelio” , in: New Beethoven Yearbook , Volume 4 (1930), pp. 118–132
- Willy Hess , Das Fidelio-Buch , Winterthur 1986
- Klaus Martin Kopitz , The Düsseldorf composer Norbert Burgmüller. A life between Beethoven - Spohr - Mendelssohn , Kleve: Boss, 1998, ISBN 3-9805931-6-9 , Cologne: Dohr, ISBN 978-3-936655-34-6
- Wolfram Enßlin, The Italian Operas Ferdinando Paërs , Volume 1, Hildesheim 2003, pp. 532–552
- Klaus Martin Kopitz, Beethoven and his reviewers. A look behind the scenes of the Allgemeine Musical Zeitung , in: Beethoven and the Leipziger Musikverlag Breitkopf & Härtel , ed. by Nicole Kämpken and Michael Ladenburger, Bonn: Beethoven-Haus, 2007, pp. 149–167, ISBN 978-3-88188-108-1
- Paolo Russo, Ferdinando Paër tra Parma e l'Europa , Marsilio, 2008
- Giuliano Castellani, Ferdinando Paer: Biografia, opere e documenti degli anni parigini , Bern: Peter Lang 2008
- Simone Galliat, musical theater in transition. Studies on the opera semiserie Ferdinando Pae͏̈rs , Kassel: Bosse 2009 (= Cologne Contributions to Musicology , Volume 11)
- Michael Jahn , The Vienna Court Opera from 1794 to 1810. Music and dance in the Burg- and Kärnthnerthortheater . (= Publications by RISM Austria B / 11). Vienna 2011.
Web links
- Leonora : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Libretto (Italian / German), Dresden 1804. Digitalisat the State and University Library Dresden
- Leonora, ossia L'amore conjugale (Ferdinando Paër) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
- Manuscripts and performances (1770–1830) by Leonora ossia L'amore conjugale in the DFG opera project
Individual evidence
- ^ Helga Lühning: Leonora ossia L'amor coniugale. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 4: Works. Massine - Piccinni. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-492-02414-9 , pp. 624-626.
- ^ Engländer (1929), p. 222
- ↑ Kopitz (1998), p. 58
- ^ Engländer (1929), pp. 218 and 222
- ↑ Kopitz (1998), p. 59
- ↑ Kopitz (1998), p. 71
- ↑ Kopitz (1998), p. 175 (images)
- ↑ Kopitz (1998), pp. 93f. and 115-117
- ↑ Ludwig van Beethoven in the mirror of Count Karl von Zinzendorf's diaries , in: Mitteilungsblatt Wiener Beethoven-Gesellschaft , No. 3/1980, pp. 9–11
- ↑ Journal des Luxus und der Moden , Volume 21, May 1806, p. 287
- ↑ See notice (digital copy)
- ↑ Publisher's advertisement, in: Allgemeine Musikische Zeitung , vol. 8, Intellektivenblatt , No. 11 from June 1806, col. 44