Maria di Rohan
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| Title: | Maria di Rohan |
| Original title: | Maria di Rohan or Il Conte di Chalais |
Final scene (1845) |
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| Shape: | Melodramma tragico in three acts |
| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | Gaetano Donizetti |
| Libretto : | Salvatore Cammarano |
| Literary source: | Un Duel sous le Cardinal de Richelieu , drama by Lockroy (1832) |
| Premiere: | June 5, 1843 |
| Place of premiere: | Theater am Kärntnertor , Vienna |
| Playing time: | about 2 hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Paris around 1625 |
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Maria di Rohan is a tragic opera (original name: "melodramma tragico") in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti . The world premiere took place on June 5, 1843 in the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna .
action
first act
Louvre room
Paris , at the time of Louis XIII. : Maria di Rohan, a celebrated courtesan , stands in the king's anteroom and fears for the life of her husband, the Duke of Chevreuse, who was sentenced to death by Cardinal Richelieu for a duel - duels were strictly forbidden at the time. She asks her former lover, Count Chalais, who still admires her, to see King Louis XIII. to obtain the pardon for her husband, which he also succeeds in doing. Before that, however, he challenges Armando di Gondì, a young gentleman who has made fun of Maria's erotic past, to a duel. Chevreuse, pardoned at Chalais' intercession, appears and immediately makes himself available to his savior as a second . But Maria has fallen in love with Chalais again, and the two renew their love affair.
Second act
A room in the Palace of Chalais
Chalais awaits the hour of the duel in his palace and, in the event of his death, writes a farewell letter to Maria, which he hands over to his servant Aubry. His lover appears to warn him about Richelieu, who wants to get rid of him and will certainly use the upcoming duel as an occasion. Chevreuse enters and Maria has to hide from her husband. This goes to the site of the duel, while Chalais still lingers with Maria, who implores him to refrain from the duel. In the meantime, the two experienced, Chevreuse has agreed to fight with Gondì instead of the belated Chalais.
Third act
Room in Chevreuse's house
The duel took place. Chevreuse was slightly injured. Maria and Chalais look for him in his palace, while the people of Richelieu look for the latter. Chevreuse receives the two, but does not recognize the relationship between them and wants to help Chalais escape from the soldiers. Chalais disappears, not without whispering to Maria that he would pick her up in an hour. But during this hour Chevreuse learns how things are actually: De Fiesque, a hunter of Richelieu, has found Chalais' farewell letter in his house and brings it to the Duke; he vomits him and suddenly discovers his wife's affair with his former lifesaver, for whom he has just risked his life in a duel. Violent jealousy seizes him. Maria, confronted by Chevreuse, confesses frankly.
When the hour is up, Chalais reappears. Chevreuse immediately challenges him to a duel, off the stage there is a fight. Two shots were fired. Chevreuse reappears and explains to the people of Richelieu that Chalais put an end to his life himself. Then he accuses Maria of having caused everything through her amorous lifestyle. Maria falls to her knees, releasing her despair and dismay.
layout
Instrumentation
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : flute piccolo , two flutes , two oboes (2nd also English horn ), two clarinets , two bassoons
- Brass : four horns , three trumpets , three trombones , cimbasso , ophikleide
- Timpani , bass drum
- Strings
music
As one of his late operas, Donizetti's Maria di Rohan is one of his most musically mature works. The dashing potpourri - overture introduces the very catchy main themes, which afterwards, sometimes varied, return in solos and tutti . The motif alternates between elegiac, thoughtful narrative and virtuoso, pathetic coloratura . The arias , including many prototypical masterpieces of bel canto , shine with their flowing melodies and radiant virtuosity. Contrasting dynamics , elegant themes and brisk tempos characterize this opera and bring the resolute character of the heroine , incidentally the only female role - Armando has been sung by a female alto in many recordings since the Paris premiere in autumn 1843 - as well as the firm, energetic gesture of the action impressively.
Work history
Maria di Rohan is Donizetti's sixty-fourth opera. Donizetti's first thoughts on an opera about the successful Paris piece by Lockroy , a typical melodrama with a more or less precise historical reference, extend back to 1837, when he asked the tried and tested librettist Salvatore Cammarano for a text. Cammarano also drafted a libretto, which was initially set to music by Giuseppe Lillo , albeit with little success ( Il conte di Chalais , 1839). It was not until the beginning of the 1840s that Donizetti took up the subject and wrote his opera Maria di Rohan.
It was premiered on June 5, 1843 in the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna . Eugenia Tadolini sang the title role , the two protagonist roles Carlo Guasco (Riccardo) and Giorgio Ronconi (Enrico). Other contributors were Friedrich Becker (Visconte di Suze), Michele Novaro (Armando di Gondì), Gustav Hölzel (De Fiesque), Anton Müller (Aubry) and Friedrich Baldewern (confidante). The production was well received by Viennese critics.
In the following twenty years the opera was played a lot all over Europe until Donizetti's star, like that of bel canto in general, faded in the light of Verdi , Wagner and Gounod . It was not until the end of the 20th century that Maria di Rohan found new interest and was recorded several times.
Historical background
Marie de Rohan-Montbazon, duchesse de Chevreuse (1600–1679) was one of the most famous, influential and controversial courtesans of her time. The Duke of Chevreuse ( Claude de Lorraine from the House of Guise ) and the Count Chalais (from the House of Talleyrand-Périgord ) are historical figures, as well as the invisible shadow of Richelieu and the power struggles at the French court at the time of Louis XIII . floats. The political framework is the conflict between the almighty cardinal and the court party , which is particularly concretized in the duel problem : Richelieu, under the sign of the strictly rationalist doctrine of the state monopoly of power , which cut deeply into the warlike feudal customary rights of the aristocracy, had the battle of Combat was punishable by death and violations prosecuted relentlessly.
It is precisely this prohibition that is violated in the opera, precisely for the sake of a woman who, in her person, symbolizes the entire opposition to the rigid, early absolutist regime of the Prime Minister: as the offspring of a noble family with strong legitimist self-confidence, as the proud wife of a dismissed minister and passionate The lover of an oppositional gentleman and, last but not least, a woman who confidently and unabashedly leads an emotionally stressed, sexually permissive life and does not allow herself to be put in their place by moral and clerical conventions or political power.
The opera Maria di Rohan is part of its own contemporary tradition, which, following the classicist Empire style, returned to modern themes, from which it repeatedly worked out a themed combination in various nuances: honor and love . Both topoi are at the center of this lean, unusually straightforward and pointed plot, which the discussion of the Richelieu duel complex has in common with Victor Hugo's Marion de Lorme (1829), for example .
Recordings
- Mariana Nicolesco , Giuseppe Morini, Paolo Coni, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Massimo de Bernart . Nuovo Era 1988 (live).
- Edita Gruberová , Ottavio Arévalo, Ettore Kim, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra , conductor: Elio Boncompagni . Nightingale 1996 (live).
- Majella Cullag, Marco Di Felice, Salvatore Cordella, Orchestra Bergamo Festival, conducted by Gregory Kunde . 2011 (DVD).
literature
- William Ashbrook: Donizetti and his Operas. Cambridge 1982.
- Robert Steiner-Isenmann: Gaetano Donizetti. His life and his operas. Bern 1982.
- Guglielmo Barblan: Gaetano Donizetti. Bergamo 1983.
Web links
- Maria di Rohan : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Libretto (Italian), Parma / Milan 1844. Digitized in the Internet archive
- Work information and libretto (Italian) as full text on librettidopera.it
- Libretto (German) as full text at Operone
- Maria di Rohan (Gaetano Donizetti) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
- Discography on Maria di Rohan at Operadis
Individual evidence
- ^ Norbert Miller : Maria di Rohan. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater. Volume 2: Works. Donizetti - Henze. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-492-02412-2 , p. 45.
- ^ Michael Jahn : Viennese historical opera guide. Volume 1. The apple, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-85450-171-8 .
- ↑ June 5, 1843: “Maria di Rohan”. In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ., Accessed on July 28, 2019.