Luci mie traditrici
| Opera dates | |
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| Title: | The deadly flower |
| Original title: | Luci mie traditrici |
| Shape: | Opera in two acts |
| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | Salvatore Sciarrino |
| Libretto : | Salvatore Sciarrino |
| Literary source: | Francesco Stromboli ( attributed to Giacinto Andrea Cicognini ): Il tradimento per l'onore |
| Premiere: | May 19, 1998 |
| Place of premiere: | Schwetzingen Palace Theater |
| Playing time: | approx. 1 ¼ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | One day in 1590 |
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Luci mie traditrici (German: "My deceptive eyes") is a chamber opera in two acts by Salvatore Sciarrino (music) with its own libretto based on the drama Il tradimento per l'onore, ascribed to Giacinto Andrea Cicognini . It was premiered on May 19, 1998 under the German title Die tödliche Blume in the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen .
action
first act
Prolog. An unaccompanied voice behind the curtain laments the loss of the loved one in enthusiastic words.
Scene 1 (garden, morning). The count wants to pick a rose. The countess suggests doing it in his place. Despite his warning, she pricks her thorn. The count passes out because he cannot see any blood.
Buio (dark)
Scene 2 (garden, morning). After the count has recovered, the two talk about love. The Countess believes that lovers are daring - the Count, on the other hand, thinks lovers are fearful. Both assure themselves of their love. A servant overheard their conversation and complains about his suffering because he loves the countess.
Intermezzo I
Scene 3 (garden, noon). A guest arrives at noon. He admires the countess's beauty. This shows itself to be receptive to his advertising. Both are terrified and confused about the irresistibility of their feelings.
Scene 4 (garden, noon). The jealous servant overhears the countess's rendezvous with the guest. The two arrange another meeting behind the jasmine bushes.
Buio (dark) II
Scene 5 (inside, noon). The servant reveals to the shaken Count what he has observed. He feels compelled to murder his wife in order to save his honor. He sends the servant to the jasmine bushes to watch. After a while the servant comes back because he has not seen the countess. The count gives him her room key and tells him to open the door quietly.
Second act
Scene 6 (inside, at dusk). The count couple has made up again. The countess shows remorse, and the count has apparently forgiven her. The countess assures him that she loves him as much as he loves his own soul. The Count also swears her eternal love. They arrange to meet after dinner when he returns from his trip to Pietramala. The countess calls him "my paradise" - he describes her as "my love inferno".
Intermezzo II
Scene 7 (inside, evening). When the count comes to the meeting, he makes mysterious hints. She is embroidering a myrtle branch on a pillow for him. The count thinks that a cypress would go well with it - but it wouldn't have enough time for both. The countess withdraws to undress. He wants to wait for her.
Intermezzo III
Scene 8 (room, night). The Countess notices the Count's sadness. He implies that only she can cure him of it. She assures that she would give her life for him and offers to prove her love in bed. The count insists on lighting the torch to “certify loyalty”. He tells her to pull back the bed curtains and speak to whoever lies there - the one she loved too much. When she hesitates, he helps her. Then he kills her too: "This thorn belongs to you, I want to stab you." The count knows that from now on he will "live in agony".
layout
The title Luci mie traditrici is taken from a line of text by the Countess in the third scene. These “deceptive eyes” stand for “deviating from the path of virtue”. The countess and her guest begin their sin by looking at each other, and the count also only feigns forgiveness for his wife. It is a "tragedy of sight". The name of the count "Malaspina" literally means "bad thorn".
The text, taken from a play from 1664, is heavily compressed and reduced to short sentence fragments. The actual action is only hinted at in the words. These are reminiscent of the old madrigal style. The vocal lines are extremely reduced. They dispense with vibrato and often use a whisper. The same applies to the instrumental accompaniment with flageolets and scraping noises from the strings and air noises from the wind instruments. Sciarrino follows, as before, Luigi Nono ( Prometeo , 1984) and Luciano Berio ( Un re in ascolto, also 1984) of Arte Povera .
“The facture, which only consists of the sequence of tone jumps and chromatic tone steps, is exposed in an orchestral interlude as a strange sequence of major and minor chords and systematically atomized in two more. What we hear in between as noises from the instruments is the rest of this inflamed love that fades in a blood frenzy: psychogram of a mental breakdown. "
Instrumentation
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : two flutes (2nd also alto flute), clarinet (also bass clarinet ), two bassoons , two alto saxophones
- Brass : two trumpets , two trombones
- Drums : “T.-t. GC Lst. D'acciaio Crot. 2 Cmp.tbl. 2 cmp. a piastra "
- Strings (solo): two violins (four in the interludes of the second act), a viola (two in the interludes of the second act), a cello , a double bass
Work history
Salvatore Sciarrino's chamber opera Luci mie traditrici was commissioned by the Schwetzingen Festival . Sciarrino arranged the libretto himself. It is based on the drama Il tradimento per l'onore , published in Rome in 1664 , in which the murder of the Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo , Prince of Venosa, of his wife and her lover was dealt with. This work was attributed to Giacinto Andrea Cicognini , but is actually by Francesco Stromboli. The prologue quotes an elegy by the composer Claude Le Jeune based on a text by Pierre de Ronsard . The opera was written between 1996 and 1998. It bears the dedication “à Marilisa Pollini qui m'a sauvé la vie” (“to Marilisa Pollini, who saved my life”).
The world premiere took place on May 19, 1998 under the German title Die tödliche Blume in the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen . Pascal Rophé directed the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra . The production was done by Peter Oskarson, the equipment and costumes by Birgit Angele and the lighting design by Uwe Belzner. Sharon Spinetti (Countess), Kai Wessel (guest and voice), Georg Nigl (servant) and Paul Armin Edelmann (Count) sang .
Luci mie traditrici is one of Sciarrino's most successful works. The opera has been played more than 100 times around the world. There were performances in 1998 in Vienna, 1999 in Lucerne, 2000 in Paris, 2001 in Brussels and New York, 2002 in Wuppertal, Madrid, Kufstein ( Tyrolean Festival Erl ), Turin and Berlin, 2003 in Koblenz, 2006 in Warsaw, 2007 in Lyon , 2008 in Salzburg and Vienna, 2009 in Madrid and Posen, 2010 in Berlin and Montepulciano, 2011 in Frankfurt, Buenos Aires and Passau, 2012 in Moscow, 2013 in Buxton, 2014 in Tongyeong (South Korea) and Gothenburg, 2015 in Vienna , 2016 in Bologna and Berlin and 2018 at the Theater Lübeck .
Recordings
- 2000 - Beat Furrer , (conductor), Klangforum Wien .
Annette Stricker (countess and voice), Kai Wessel (guest), Simon Jaunin (servant), Otto Katzameier (count).
Studio recording.
Kairos 0012222 (1 CD). - 2002 - Tito Ceccherini (conductor), Ensemble Risognanze.
Junko Saito (Countess), Galina Tchernova (guest), Ralph Heiligtag (servant), Timothy Sharp (count), Beate Gabriel (voice).
Live from the Tyrolean Festival Erl .
Stradivarius STR 33645 (T01) (1 CD). - October 2002 - Rüdiger Bohn (conductor), Orchestra of the Contemporary Opera Berlin.
Márta Rósza (Countess), David Cordier (guest and voice), Dorin Mara (servant), Jonathan de la Paz Zaens (Count).
Live from the Hebbel Theater Berlin. - 2010 - Marco Angius (conductor), Ensemble Algoritmo.
Nina Tarandek (Countess), Roland Schneider (Guest), Simon Bode (Servant), Christian Miedl (Count).
Live from Montepulciano; Coproduction of the Frankfurt Opera and the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte .
Video: EuroArts 2059038 (DVD).
Audio: Stradivarius STR33900 (CD).
Web links
- Libretto (Italian, PDF) on salvatoresciarrino.eu
- Booklet of the CD Kairos 0012222 with libretto in Italian, French, German and English (PDF) at kairos-music.com
- Luci mie traditrici on IRCAM
- Work information and trailer for the Berlin State Opera from Ricordi
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Ulrich Schreiber : Opera guide for advanced learners. 20th Century II. German and Italian Opera after 1945, France, Great Britain. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2005, ISBN 3-7618-1437-2 , pp. 375-377.
- ↑ Reinhard Kager : Experimental music theater. In: Silke Leopold (Ed.): Music theater in the 20th century (= history of the opera. Volume 4). Laaber, 2006, ISBN 3-89007-661-0 , p. 404.
- ↑ Luci mie traditrici. Work information in the UMPG Classical catalog, accessed May 3, 2017.
- ↑ a b c d Luci mie traditrici on IRCAM , accessed on May 2, 2017.
- ↑ Diego Simini: Il corpus teatrale di Giacinto Andrea Cicognini. Pensa multimedia, Lecce et al. a. 2012, p. 126 ( online at Researchgate ).
- ↑ Work information from Ricordi, accessed on May 3, 2017.
- ↑ a b c Salvatore Sciarrino. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all complete opera recordings (= Zeno.org . Volume 20). Directmedia, Berlin 2005.
- ↑ Review of the CD Kairos 0012222 on klassik-heute.com , accessed on May 3, 2017.
- ↑ Review of the CD Stradivarius STR 33645 on lalibre.be, accessed on May 3, 2017.
- ↑ Review of the DVD EuroArts 2059038 on operanews.com, accessed on May 3, 2017.
- ↑ Information on the CD Stradivarius STR33900 in IRCAM , accessed on May 3, 2017.