Santa Chiara (Opera)
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| Original title: | Santa Chiara |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Duke Ernst II. |
| Libretto : | Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer |
| Premiere: | April 2, 1854 |
| Place of premiere: | Gotha, Ducal Court Theater |
| Playing time: | ≈ 3 hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Moscow and Italy around 1715 |
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Santa Chiara is a romantic opera in three acts , which was premiered in 1854 in the Ducal Court Theater in Gotha . The libretto is by Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer based on a novel by Johann Heinrich Daniel Zschokke , the music was composed by Duke Ernst II.
history
After Duke Ernst had already composed three operas between 1846 and 1851, which also went beyond a few stages outside Coburg and Gotha, his most successful and ambitious work followed from 1852 to 1854 with the opera Santa Chiara . Ernst was aware that the three previously composed works owed their success less to the musical- dramaturgical quality than to the exposed position of the composer, which is why he planned his next project all the more carefully.
He engaged the accomplished writer Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer as a librettist , whose audience-oriented plays were omnipresent on German stages at the time. She recommended the novel The Princess of Wolfenbüttel by Zschokke as a template for the libretto. At the composer's request, the finished libretto was presented to his friend Gustav Freytag for a dramaturgical revision , who removed an originally planned fourth act because it would have dragged out the plot unnecessarily.
Ernst first tried to win Richard Wagner over for the instrumentation and after he had refused, he commissioned the concertmaster of the court orchestra, Traugott Krämer, with this task. He sent the finished score to Giacomo Meyerbeer in Paris, and after his final assessment, Ernst released the work for performance.
On April 2, 1854, the premiere took place under the direction of Franz Liszt and in the next few years the work was performed on most of the major theaters in Germany and neighboring countries. Through the mediation of Meyerbeer, the work was included in the program of the Paris Opera in 1855 , where it was performed more than 60 times.
The last performance took place in Coburg on May 29, 1927. Ernst II had transferred all copyrights and the associated financial benefits to the members of the court orchestra.
Characteristic
From a formal point of view, Santa Chiara is a well- composed grand opera, but the traditional numbering scheme linked by recitatives can be recognized. The score processes stylistic influences of the Italian opera of the type Vincenzo Bellini or Gaetano Donizetti , especially when it comes to the representation of passionate affects . But the similarity to the German song tradition is also unmistakable. For example, pleasing melodic inspirations such as Victor's romance “Am blum'gen Rain” from Act 1 or Bertha's Cavatine “Jedwede Hoffnung, every luck” from Act 2 suggest that the composer's talent for the lyrical rather than the dramatic corresponded.
Like many German operas of the time, the work suffers from the weaknesses of the libretto, which often does not meet the requirements of the dramaturgy and, on the one hand, shows an exaggerated tendency towards romantic, picturesque genre images and, on the other hand, accepts a number of inconsistencies and illogical details. which would hardly be conceivable in spoken theater .
The fact that even such an accomplished playwright as Freytag had no decisive objections to the text presented to him clearly shows the aesthetic status the libretto had as a literary genre in Germany. Strikingly often in detail continuous preforming of plot elements is by the opera Guido et Ginevra of Halévy that on October 31, 1852 just before the start of work on Santa Chiara first arrived in Coburg performed. This is particularly true of the final effect of the 1st act, where Charlotte collapses during the feast, her awakening from apparent death in the 2nd act and the admirer who is socially below her confession of love at the coffin of the supposedly dead.
effect
The Crimean War that broke out in 1853 and the associated aversion of the West to Russia may have contributed to the success of the work and it is likely that Ernst, himself a politician of European standing, had already speculated on its topicality when choosing the content. Alexis personifies the supposed depravity and unscrupulousness of the Russians, while the French aristocrat St. Auban represents the morally upright opponent. Against the background of the siege of Sevastopol , with which the Crimean War was approaching its climax, the constellation Alexis / St. Auban inspire the Parisian audience. The fact that opera was on the programs until the end of the 19th century, at least in German-speaking countries, suggests that the work, apart from its current political relevance, also has artistic qualities.
Orchestration
The orchestra consists of two flutes (including a piccolo ), two oboes , english horn , two bassoons , four horns , four trumpets , three trombones , tenor horn , bombardon , timpani , percussion ( triangle , snare drum , bass drum , tambourine , tam-tam ) , Harp , strings .
Incidental music behind the scene: organ , bells in D , F sharp and A .
action
1st act
The court is preparing for the birthday celebrations for Charlotte Christina in a splendid hall in the palace of the Tsarevich . The anticipation of the festival is clouded by the well-known fact that the popular princess has to suffer from the humiliation and abuse of her brutal husband. One even fears for her life after she refused to accept Alexis's mistress as a lady-in-waiting and thereby irritated his anger to the extreme. Charlotte therefore wanted to return to her father's court and sent her devoted secretary Herbert there to obtain permission to return, but this was refused out of consideration for reasons of state . This rejection plunges her into deep despair, from which she cannot be roused by the unexpected appearance of Victor de St. Auban, whom she secretly loves.
Alexis is meanwhile determined to get rid of his wife and has Aurelius' personal physician obtain a poison for her, which he drips into her wine during the birthday celebrations. Charlotte collapses lifeless in front of the guests.
2nd act
Charlotte is lying in the coffin in the funeral chapel when the friends appear to say goodbye. Overwhelmed by his feelings, Victor confesses his love for the dead and vows to avenge her. According to the court ceremony, Alexis also takes part in the funeral ceremonies that begin a little later. He shows no signs of remorse and only wants to convince himself of the death of his wife. Suddenly Charlotte raises her hand threateningly, which is only visible to Alexis. Aurelius, who owed his thanks to the princess, had only obtained a strong narcotic instead of the poison , the effect of which is now waning. Before the coffin is closed on the order of the horrified Tsarevich, Aurelius and Herbert can kidnap the awakening woman unnoticed.
3rd act
Ten months later, Charlotte lives with Bertha in the Resina area near Naples, unrecognized and happily in the asylum, where she is venerated as a saint ("Santa Chiara") by the rural population. In her honor there is a festival with song and dance, but her thoughts are with Victor, whose declaration of love she has heard in the coffin, seemingly dead but with alert senses.
Now she is confronted again with the past when suddenly Alexis appears, who fled after a failed plot against her father. On the orders of the tsar, Victor and Aurelius followed him and so there was a last fateful meeting. The encounter with the pursuers and the sight of Charlotte, whom he considers a phantom , cause Alexis to commit suicide . Although nothing stands in the way of the lovers' union, they are content with the assurance of eternal friendship.
literature
- Piper's Encyclopedia of Music Theater , Volume 2, Ed. Carl Dahlhaus and Research Institute for Music Theater of the University of Bayreuth under the direction of Sieghart Döhring, ISBN 3-492-02412-2