Parisina (Mascagni)

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Opera dates
Title: Parisina
Title page by Plinio Nomellini

Title page by Plinio Nomellini

Shape: Opera in 4 acts
Original language: Italian
Music: Pietro Mascagni
Libretto : Gabriele D'Annunzio
Premiere: December 15, 1913
Place of premiere: Teatro alla Scala , Milan
Playing time: approx. 3 ½ hours
people
  • Nicolò d'Este ( baritone )
  • Ugo d'Este ( tenor )
  • Parisina Malatesta ( soprano )
  • Stella d'Assasino ( mezzo-soprano )
  • Aldobrandino dei Rangioni ( bass )
  • The daughter of Nicolò d'Oppizi, called La Verde (mezzo-soprano)
  • Entourage, maidservants, servants, hunters, hunting boys, gunmen, musicians, hooded figures, monks, sailors, pirates (extras and choir )
Title page of the libretto, Milan 1913

Parisina is an opera in four acts by Pietro Mascagni . The libretto was written by Gabriele D'Annunzio . It premiered on December 15, 1913 at La Scala in Milan .

action

first act

Villa Estense on an island in the Po

Different young men and women are busy doing all kinds of things. Among them Ugo, Niccoló's illegitimate son with Stella, with some other men, among them his friend Aldobrandino, who are busy with archery. Ugo is soon asked by his mother about his opinion on Parisina, Niccòlos wife and thus victorious rival Stellas. However, this only speaks of his desire for fighting and death. However, when his mother persists, he says he hates Parisina. She reacts by handing him a bottle of poison. Soon afterwards, Parisina appears in the loggia, accompanied by musicians. Stella curses Parisina and leaves the park, while she, speechless with anger and shame, has to be supported by her servants. When Niccolò returns home, Parisina tells him about the incident with Stella. However, as she begins to insult them, Ugo loses his mind and wants to leave the court: he wants to find death in adventures. Parisina then bursts into tears.

Second act

The holy house in Loreto

Parisina, who came as a pilgrim from Ferrara, is dressed in lavish robes by La Verde. At the altar, Parisina offers her jewelry and clothes to the Madonna. Suddenly there is a battle roar from outside: Pirates had come to steal the Black Madonna. Aldabradino's report that Ugo and his men would resist the pirates puts Parisina in fear for her stepson. Those, however, can win the furious battle and force the pirates to flee. Together Parisina and Ugo thank the Madonna, to whom he sacrificed his sword, which is still soaked in blood. Blood drips from a wound on Ugo's neck onto the white dress Parisina, who wants to care for the wound. Ugo, "furious with desire and still drunk from the battle", confesses Parisina his love for her. At first Parisina defends herself against his embrace, but in the end she gives herself to him, overwhelmed by love.

Third act

The "A-Ursi room" in Belfiore, late in the evening

While Parisina reads the story of Tristan and Isolde, La Verde lies by her side and seems to be asleep. Ugo's late arrival makes Parisina anxious, and La Verde warns her that there are spies in the courtyard. Parisina experiences a vision: in her she is confronted with the sad fate of Isolde and Francesca, in which she thinks she recognizes her own. When Ugo appears and passionately hugs his stepmother, La Verde leaves her. Even before they have moved to bed, La Verde comes and warns the lovers of Niccolò's sudden appearance. Parisina tries to prevent the worst and hides Ugo behind a curtain. Niccolò appears and pretends to be looking for a runaway panther. Then he sees that something is moving behind the curtain and wants to stab with his sword. Parisina can call him “No, no! It's Ugo, Ugo, your son! ”Hold back. Recognized, both are trying to just take the blame on themselves. But Niccolò has no mercy: He condemns them to die together at the scaffold.

Fourth act

The tower of the lion with the place of execution and the scaffold

Parisina and Ugo, locked behind a gate, are removed from the world and time. Ugo cannot even move his own mother: for him there is only Parisina. The executioner leads the two lovers to the scaffold, they kneel on the floor, lower their heads, and the first morning light illuminates the scene.

history

Emergence

During a stay in London in February 1912, during which Mascagni was obliged to conduct two performances of Cavalleria rusticana every day , he spent the rest of the time looking for a new opera subject. Numerous texts were sent to him, including two by Luigi Illica (a fairy tale story and a processing of the biblical Judith material), but none of the texts appealed to him, they were too bloodless for him. He wrote to Illica, for example, that he still had the ability to write music that smelled of “sperm and coffee” and that he therefore needed characters who were living people with “our blood in their veins”. At that time, Mascagni's preferred publisher, Renzo Sozogno, came up with the idea of bringing Mascagni together with the most important Italian poet of the time, Gabriele D'Annunzio . D'Annunzio agreed and on March 25, 1912 submitted his drama Parisina to the publisher, which Mascagni soon received. At first, he was concerned that D'Annunzio's language would push too much into the foreground and make setting to music almost impossible. Since he liked the material and the language, he decided on Parisina and signed the contract on April 20th. At the beginning of May of the same year, Mascagni visited D'Annunzio in Paris, where he had him read the text to him. This was because Mascagni hoped to find the greatest possible unity between music and language in his latest opera. On December 8th he was able to finish the composition after 134 days. With a certain reluctance, however, he had to delete 330 of D'Annunzio's 1,400 verses. On May 1st of the following year, Mascagni began with the instrumentation, which he wrote with the greatest care and attention to detail. He completed this in early November 1913.

reception

Not only the national and international press, the competing publishing houses Ricordi and Sozogno, but also almost all of Mascagni's important colleagues, including Franco Alfano , Umberto Giordano , Giacomo Puccini and Riccardo Zandonai , came to the lavish premiere of the opera . It sang u. a. Ernestina Poli-Randaccio , Hipólito Lázaro and Carlo Galeffi ; Mascagni himself was the musical director. Even if it was not a failure, the audience only received the opera cautiously, which probably has to do with the length of the opera. So the world premiere began at 8:30 p.m. and didn't end until 1:35 a.m. From the second performance onwards, Mascagni deleted the last act to counter the accusation that his opera was an “Italian Tristan” because of its length. Nowadays, if the opera is played at all, the fourth act is being performed again. A few re-performances after the war were among others. a. 1952 in Livorno, under the direction of Gianandrea Gavazzeni and in the title role Maria Caniglia , in 1976 the Radiotelevisione Italiana Milano played the opera almost unabridged, Pierluigi Urbini conducted it , Emma Renzi played the title role, Michele Molese was a convincing Ugo. In 1978 there was an elaborate production in Rome, again conducted by Gavazzeni.

Instrumentation

The score requires an immense orchestral apparatus:

Web links

Commons : Parisina  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Rein A. Zondergeld : Parisina. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 3: Works. Henze - Massine. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-492-02413-0 , pp. 722-723.
  2. ^ Alan Mallach: Pietro Mascagni and his operas , Northeastern University Press, 2002, ISBN 978-1555535247 , p. 205