Otto mesi in due ore

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Work data
Title: Otto mesi in due ore
Gli esiliati in Siberia
Title page of the libretto, Naples 1827

Title page of the libretto, Naples 1827

Shape: Opera in three parts
Original language: Italian
Music: Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto : Domenico Gilardoni
Literary source: Sophie Cottin : Élisabeth ou les Exilés de Sibérie
Premiere: May 13, 1827
Place of premiere: Teatro Nuovo in Naples
Playing time: approx. 2 ¼ hours
Place and time of the action: In Saimka, on the Kama River and in Moscow in the first half of the 18th century
people
  • The Tsar ( tenor )
  • The Grand Marshal ( bass )
  • Count Stanislaus Potoski (tenor)
  • Fedora, his wife ( mezzo-soprano )
  • Elisabeth, her daughter ( soprano )
  • Maria, whose nurse ( mezzo-soprano )
  • Michele, Maria's son, a courier ( tenorbuffo )
  • Iwano, former boyar , now ferryman (bass)
  • Alterkan, leader of a horde of Tartars (bass)
  • Orzak, another Tartar leader (bass)
  • Ladies and gentlemen at court, officers, soldiers, country people, Tartars, ferrymen, guards, servants, people ( choir )

Otto mesi in due ore or Gli esiliati in Siberia (“Eight Months in Two Hours” or “The Expellees in Siberia”) is a romantic opera ( Melodramma romantico ) in three parts by Gaetano Donizetti . The libretto written Domenico Gilardoni . The story is based on the story by Sophie Cottin Elisabeth ou Les exilés en Sibérie , from which René Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt wrote the play La fille de l'exilé ou Huit mois en deux heures . The premiere was on May 13, 1827 in Naples.

action

Stage design of the 1st act of the first performance

First part

In a hut of a Saimka

Count Stanislao Potoski, his wife Fedora and their daughter Elisabetta are innocently banished to Siberia after a slander by the Tsar. One day, Elisabetta decides to travel to Moscow alone to convince the Tsar of her innocence. She joins Michele, who covers the distance as a postilion. After an incident, the two are separated from each other.

Second part

Rough and wild area on the Kama River

Elisabetta meets Iwano, one of the men who slandered her father and who now works as a ferryman. After the death of his daughter he regrets what he did and confesses his guilt to Elisabetta. Then she is threatened by a horde of Tatars who, however, allow themselves to be impressed by their virtue and leave again. Elisabetta escapes an impending flood on the ruins of the coffin of the ferryman's deceased daughter.

third part

Large and magnificent courtyard of the Kremlin in Moscow

Michele arrives in Moscow almost at the same time as Elisabetta. He has received a letter from the dying ferryman confirming the count's innocence. The Tsar, on the other hand, has already been informed of this from other sources and has already summoned Elisabetta's parents. Everything dissolves into pleasure.

Work history

Caterina Lipparini, the first Elisbetta

Otto mesi in due ore was the first opera that Donizetti composed for Naples after becoming music director there in 1827. It was also the first collaboration with the librettist Domenico Gilardoni. For the first time, Donizetti had complete control over the entire production, which premiered on May 13, 1827 with Caterina Lipparini (1792–1855) as Elisabetta and Giuseppe Loira (Tsar), Vincenzo Galli (Grand Marshal), Manzi (Potoski), Francesca Ceccherini (Fedora ), Giuditta Servoli (Maria), Gennarino Luzio (Michele), Giuseppe Fioravanti (Iwano), Raffaele Scalese (Alterkan) and Giuseppe Papi (Orzak). It proved to be extremely successful, with around 50 performances following the première. The work caused a sensation, not least because of the elaborate staging with spectacular stage effects. “The precise guidance of the machines” is particularly praised.

On February 28, 1835, a revised version of new texts by Jacopo Ferretti premiered at the Teatro Carignano in Turin .

Discography

literature

  • Robert Steiner-Isenmann: Gaetano Donizetti. His life and his operas. Hallwag, Bern 1982. ISBN 3-444-10272-0 ; Pp. 92f and 502.

Web links

Commons : Otto mesi in due ore  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ May 13, 1827: "Otto mesi in due ore". In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ., Accessed on August 8, 2019.
  2. ^ Robert Steiner-Isenmann: Gaetano Donizetti. His life and his operas. Hallwag, Bern 1982. ISBN 3-444-10272-0 ; P. 502.
  3. ↑ Operone ( Memento from March 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive )