Linda di Chamounix

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Work data
Title: Linda di Chamounix
Title page of the libretto, Vienna 1842

Title page of the libretto, Vienna 1842

Original language: Italian
Music: Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto : Gaetano Rossi , Gustave Lemoine
Literary source: Adolphe d'Ennery :
La grâce de Dieu
Premiere: May 19, 1842
Place of premiere: Theater am Kärntnertor , Vienna
Playing time: approx. 2 ¼ hours
Place and time of the action: Chamounix , Paris , around 1760
people
  • Carlo, Visconte di Sirval ( tenor )
  • Linda ( soprano )
  • Marchese di Boisfleury ( basso buffo )
  • Prefect ( bass )
  • Antonio, Linda's father, tenant ( baritone )
  • Pierotto, young orphaned Savoyard ( old )
  • Lies administrator (tenor)
  • Maddalena, Linda's mother ( mezzo-soprano )
  • Savoyard, children ( choir )

Linda di Chamounix is an opera semiseria (original name: "Melodramma") in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) based on a libretto by Gaetano Rossi from 1842.

action

The action takes place around 1760 in Chamounix / Savoy (first and third act) and Paris (second act).

First act: “La partenza da Chamounix” - The farewell to Chamounix

The interior of a peasant hut

Antonio, father of the pretty peasant girl Linda, has asked the Marchese Boisfleury for help in an economic need. He is ready to employ Linda as a maid, but wants to see her first. So he accompanies Antonio to his apartment.

Linda is secretly in love with the Visconte ( O luce di quest 'anima ). She does not know that he is not the poor painter Carlo, who he claims to be, but rather the Marchese's nephew. She is seized with premonitions when her old friend Pierotto sings a ballad in which a girl is betrayed ( Per sua madre andi una figlia ). The prefect imputes dishonorable intentions to the marquis, warns Antonio and offers to send Linda with Pierotto and other silk makers to the factory in Paris.

Second act: “Parigi” - Paris

Elegant apartment in a Parisian house

Linda gets into financial difficulties and makes her way as a street singer. Carlo travels to Linda, identifies himself as Visconte, promises her marriage and furnishes her with an elegant apartment. But the Marchese followed Linda and harassed her. But Linda rejects him ( Lo vi dico che partiate ). When Carlo, who does not say that he should marry someone else on the instructions of his mother, visits Linda, Antonio appears, who does not recognize his daughter at first. When he realizes who she is, he rejects her. Pierotto appears and reports on Carlos' wedding preparations. Linda goes mad ( Questa casa abandonate ).

Third act: "Il ritorno in Chamounix" - The return to Chamounix

Village square in the middle of the valley

Pierotto brings Linda back to the village, where her fate is widely regretted. But then the Visconte appears, who has since broken away from his family and frees them from madness by declaring his love for her. The whole village is celebrating and the young couple dreams of a carefree future ( Di tue pene sparve il sogno ).

orchestra

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

Work history

Eugenia Tadolini

Like many of Donizetti's operas, Linda di Chamounix , one of his late works, was very successful when it premiered in Vienna on May 19, 1842 with the celebrated Eugenia Tadolini in the lead role. The other roles were sung by Agostino Rovere (Marchese di Boisfleury), Napoleone Moriani (Visconte di Sirval), Prospero Derivis (Prefect), Felice Varesi (Antonio) and Marietta Brambilla (Pierotto).

Perhaps the most famous piece of the opera, Linda's Cavatine “O luce di quest'anima”, Donizetti only composed afterwards for a performance with Fanny Persiani in Paris.

In the following years it was played frequently in many European countries as well as in New York and Australia. After bel canto had almost completely disappeared from the stage in the second half of the 19th century, Arturo Toscanini rescued the opera from oblivion in 1902 at La Scala in Milan with Rosina Storchio in the title role. Until the middle of the 20th century there were regular performances, especially in Italy and at the New York Metropolitan Opera ; after that the opera disappeared from the repertoire for a long time. It has been played regularly since the 1950s.

In 1994 the Zurich Opera House brought out a production with Edita Gruberová , the Vienna State Opera followed in 1997, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in 2011.

Recordings

literature

  • William Ashbrook: Donizetti and his Operas . CUP, Cambridge 1982, ISBN 0-521-23526-X .
  • Robert Steiner-Isenmann: Gaetano Donizetti. His life and his operas . Hallwag, Bern 1982, ISBN 3-444-10272-0 .
  • Guglielmo Barblan: Gaetano Donizetti. Vita e opere di un musicista romantico . Società di Assicurazioni Liguria, Bergamo 1983.

Web links

Commons : Linda di Chamounix  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Norbert Miller : Linda di Chamounix. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 2: Works. Donizetti - Henze. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-492-02412-2 , pp. 37-40.
  2. ^ Record of the performance on May 19, 1842 in Vienna in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on July 25, 2019.
  3. ↑ Niel Rishoi: Linda di Chamounix - Donizetti's opera at the end of the romantic era. Booklet text for the Donizetti CD set : Linda di Chamounix with Edita Gruberova, Friedrich Haider u. a. Nightingale Classics, 1993. pp. 67-72, here: p. 71.