Melenis
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| Title: | Melenis |
Title page of the libretto, Milan 1912 |
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| Shape: | Dramma lirico in three acts |
| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | Riccardo Zandonai |
| Libretto : | Massimo Spiritini and Carlo Zangarini |
| Literary source: | Melænis by Louis Bouilhet |
| Premiere: | November 13, 1912 |
| Place of premiere: | Teatro Dal Verme , Milan |
| Place and time of the action: | Rome , 188 AD |
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Melenis is an opera in three acts by the Italian composer Riccardo Zandonai . The libretto written Massimo Spiritini and Carlo Zangarini after Melænis of Louis Bouilhet . The first performance took place on November 13, 1912 at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan.
action
first act
A tavern in Suburra
Out of sorrow for an unfulfillable love for Marcella, which her father Marcello prevents her from fulfilling, Marzio roams the suburbs of Rome. In a tavern he meets his sister Stafila, who works as a fortune teller in the pubs and brothels. So that he can find death in his unfulfilled love, he considers becoming a gladiator. In the tavern the young hetaera Melenis dances and sings for him to comfort his grief and gives him physical love because she immediately fell in love with him.
Second act
The Circus in Rome
As his servant Cleandro told him about her, the Emperor Commodo ordered Melenis to come to him. She asks her freedom if she is sick with love. Meanwhile, the crowd flocks to celebrate Marzio, who has just won the gladiatorial duel. As a reward, the good-natured emperor grants him a wish. For Marzio there is no doubt: he asks the emperor for Marcella's hand. When Melenis hears this, she utters a shriek of horror and escapes. The Emperor orders Marcello to marry his daughter to Marzio the following day.
Third act
The Marcellos villa outside the city
The next morning Melenis appears in front of Marcellos' villa and meets Marzio there, who is about to go to his bride. She confesses to him, in the hope of being able to dissuade him from Marcella and to win over her, her infinite love for him. However, the latter mocks her and goes to his bride. When Melenis, spurned by Marzio, sees the happy couple's wedding procession, she sticks her golden hairpin in her heart out of love.
layout
Instrumentation
The following instruments are required in the score:
- Woodwinds : piccolo , two flutes , bass flute , two oboes , English horn , two clarinets , bass clarinet , two bassoons , contrabassoon
- Brass : four horns , three trumpets , three trombones , bass trombone
- Timpani , percussion : snare drum , bass drum , cymbal , triangle , tambourine glockenspiel , cymbals , tam-tam
- a buccina
- Celesta
- harp
- Strings
- Incidental music: two flutes , two clarinets , harp or piano with muted strings, glockenspiel (ad lib.), Xylophone , triangle
libretto
Even if the libretto even takes over literally some passages from the original, there are some significant differences. So the librettists fixed the plot for the year 188. In addition, there are significant differences in the way people are constrained: some characters have been left out, while other relationships have been dissolved or recreated. This is the original name of the young rhetor Paulus, while in the opera he bears the name of the aedile, Marzio. This in turn is called Marcello instead, his daughter instead of Marzia Marcella. According to Bouilhet, Stafila is Marzio's mother, and Spiritini is his sister. Commodus' servant Cleandro is based on the dwarf Coracoïdès. Ultimately, the Roman dancer Melænis became the provincial heritarian Melenis, who sells in the capital.
history
Emergence
After the completion and successful premiere of his first full-length opera Il grillo del focolare (1908), Zandonai started looking for a subject for his next opera. He soon found this in Bouilhets Melænis , and in Spiritini he found an enthusiastic and arranged librettist. Despite the fact that Zandonai's publisher Ricordi was against this material, Zandonai began composing for Melenis in the spring of 1908. He made good progress with the work until, in the spring of 1909, Ricordi commissioned him to compose the opera Conchita . Because of this, Zandonai was only able to complete the opera in 1911 as his third full-length opera and fifth in general. In the end, Zangarini, who also wrote the libretto for Conchita , contributed, even if only slightly , to the final version of the libretto.
reception
The world premiere of Melenis took place on November 13, 1912 at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan. Ettore Panizza was the musical director ; Claudia Muzio sang the part of Melenis, Giovanni Zenatello played the Marzio. Although the premiere audience received the premiere positively, Melenis is Zandonai 's opera, which was probably the least performed. After the first production there was only one other production: from March 22, 1913 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Since then there has only been one other performance: The Centro internationale di studi Riccardo Zandonai performed Melenis on October 29, 2010 with piano accompaniment. A possible reason for the failure of the opera could be the complex harmony due to increasing chromatization and the testing of rhythmic and melodic-harmonic elements in the sense of Igor Stravinsky and the early Arnold Schönberg . All of this should have been quite strange to the audience at the time.
Web links
- Melenis (Riccardo Zandonai) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
- Melenis. Libretto (Italian), Milan 1912. Digitized in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
Individual evidence
- ↑ Helmut C. Jacobs : Salammbô of N. Massa and Melenis of R. Zandonai. In: Flaubert's Salammbô in music, painting, literature and film: essays and texts . Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen 1998. ISBN 3823351850 , pp. 130-131
- ^ Diego Cescotti: Riccardo Zandonai: Catalogo tematico. Libreria Musicale Italiana Editrice, Lucca 1999, ISBN 88-7096-137-0 , p. 96.
- ↑ Helmut C. Jacobs : Salammbô of N. Massa and Melenis of R. Zandonai. In: Flaubert's Salammbô in music, painting, literature and film: essays and texts . Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen 1998. ISBN 3823351850 , p. 130
- ↑ Advertising brochure for the performance on centrostudizandonai.it
- ↑ Helmut C. Jacobs : Salammbô of N. Massa and Melenis of R. Zandonai. In: Flaubert's Salammbô in music, painting, literature and film: essays and texts . Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen 1998. ISBN 3823351850 , pp. 131-132