La Gioconda

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Work data
Title: La Gioconda
Title page of the libretto, 1876

Title page of the libretto, 1876

Shape: Opera in four acts
Original language: Italian
Music: Amilcare Ponchielli
Libretto : Tobia Gorrio (= Arrigo Boito )
Literary source: Victor Hugo : Angelo, Tyran de Padoue
Premiere: April 8, 1876
Place of premiere: Teatro alla Scala , Milan
Playing time: approx. 2 ¾ hours
Place and time of the action: Venice, 17th century
people
  • La Gioconda , street singer ( soprano )
  • La Cieca (The Blind), her mother ( old )
  • Enzo Grimaldo ( tenor )
  • Alvise Badoero , a senior inquisition official ( bass )
  • Laura , his wife ( mezzo-soprano )
  • Barnaba , a spy ( baritone )
  • Zuane , a gondolier (bass)
  • Isepo , a scribe (tenor)
  • A boatswain (bass)
  • A singer (bass)
  • A helmsman (bass)
  • A servant (baritone)
Dance of the Hours
João Pedro Cunha, violin

La Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli . The libretto written Arrigo Boito under the pseudonym "Tobia Gorrio" after the play Angelo, tyran de Padoue by Victor Hugo . The premiere took place on April 8, 1876 in the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

action

First act: La bocca del Leone (The Snapdragon)

Barnaba, a spy for the Inquisition , desires the beautiful street singer Gioconda, but since she rejects him, he devises a ruse: he slanders her mother as a witch in order to put Gioconda under pressure. The angry crowd willingly wants to lead the blind woman to the stake, but the inquisitor Alvise Badoero and his young wife Laura come masked for the carnival. Laura discovers a rosary in the hand of the blind and can then obtain her release from Alvise. In thanks, the blind woman gives Laura the rosary. Barnabas' plan has failed, but he quickly devises a new ruse when he recognizes Prince Grimaldo from Genoa in Gioconda's companion Enzo: he had been Laura's lover before she was forced to marry Alvise and had to dress up as a Dalmatian sailor, because he is banned from Venice. Barnaba promises to arrange a rendezvous for Enzo with Laura in the hope that Enzo's infidelity will break Gioconda's heart. After Enzo has willingly accepted it, Barnaba writes a denunciation letter in which he accuses Laura and Enzo of wanting to flee Venice together, and throws it into the "snapdragon" of the Doge's Palace, the Inquisition's mailbox for anonymous denunciations. Gioconda has overheard everything and is desperate over Enzo's infidelity.

Second act: Il Rosario (The Rosary)

Enzo and Laura meet on Enzo's ship and decide to leave together when Gioconda appears, and the two women get into a violent jealousy argument. When the Alvise's ship, alerted by Barnaba, approaches, Laura is finally desperate. With the rosary she implores the Mother of God for help. When Gioconda sees this, she recognizes Laura as the woman who saved her mother's life and helps her to escape. Enzo also advises her to flee, but he refuses and prefers to set his ship on fire so as not to let it fall into the hands of the Venetians, and saves himself by jumping into the sea.

Third act: Ca 'd'Oro

A festival is celebrated in the "Ca 'd'Oro", Alvise's "golden palace". But Alvise is not in a celebratory mood: angry at Laura's infidelity, he orders her to kill herself with poison. Enter Gioconda, who has decided to save Laura for Enzo's sake. She succeeds in exchanging the deadly poison for another agent that only puts Laura into a deep, death-like sleep.

In another room of the palace, Alvise welcomes his guests, to whose entertainment the “dance of the hours” is performed by a ballet. After the dance, Barnaba pulls into the room the blind woman who had come to the palace to pray for the soul of a dying man. Then the death knell rings, and Alvise reveals to his horrified guests Laura's breach of loyalty and her supposed death. Enzo tries to pounce on him, but is overwhelmed by the guards. Gioconda agrees to give himself up to Barnaba if he frees Enzo for it.

Fourth act: Il Canal Orfano (The Orfano Canal / La Giudecca)

Gioconda has returned to the ruins on Giudecca Island , where she lives. Friends bring her the seemingly dead Laura that they recovered from the grave. Gioconda struggles once more to seize the opportunity to get rid of the rival, but she resists the temptation. Enzo appears and is at first extremely upset that Gioconda had Laura's supposed corpse stolen. Only when Laura wakes up can Gioconda make it clear that everything was arranged only to help the couple escape. The lovers can only stammer their thanks and then set off in a boat. Barnaba appears and wants to demand the agreed "price" for Enzo's rescue, but Gioconda stabs himself in front of his eyes. Barnaba calls out to her that he drowned her mother in the lagoon, but she can no longer hear him.

Emergence

Various local successes with his early operas paved Ponchielli's way to La Scala in Milan. As a subject, he chose Victor Hugos Angelo , who had already served as a template for the opera Il giuramento by Saverio Mercadante . By 1880 Ponchielli created a total of five different versions of the opera for performances in Milan, Venice , Rome , Genoa and again in Milan.

music

La Gioconda is kept in a well- composed , number-like structure. Stylistically, the work is in the successor of Giacomo Meyerbeer's Grand opéra and Giuseppe Verdi at the transition to verismo . At the same time, it is a real folk opera thanks to its choirs in the style of Venetian chants and dances, effective crowd scenes and passionate solo performances.

Reception history

At the premiere of Gioconda on April 8, 1876 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Maddalena Mariani Masi (La Gioconda), M. Biancolini Rodriguez (Laura Adorno), Ormondo Maini (Alvise Badoero), Eufemia Barlani Dini (La Cieca), Juliàn sang Gayarré (Enzo Grimaldo), Gottardo Aldighieri (Barnaba), Giovan Battista Cornago (Zuane) and Amedeo Grazzi (Isepo). It was a great success and marked Ponchielli's breakthrough as a composer. Nevertheless, the work remained his only lasting success.

In Italy, La Gioconda is an integral part of the opera repertoire, especially in the Verona Arena . Maria Callas made her Italian debut here as Gioconda on August 2, 1947, and later (1952 and 1959) also took part in two complete studio recordings of the opera. Outside of Italy, the opera is still rarely on the program. At the Deutsche Oper Berlin , a production is given at intervals, the stage design of which comes from the time the opera was created.

However, the "Dance of the Hours", the allegorical ballet from the 3rd act, also achieved great popularity outside the context of the entire opera, for example:

literature

  • Avril Bardoni: Synopsis . In: La Gioconda . Booklet for CD 430 042-2. The Decca Record Company, London 1991
  • Rudolf Kloiber , Wulf Konold , Robert Maschka: Handbook of the Opera. New edition. 11th, revised edition. Bärenreiter / dtv, Kassel et al. / Munich 2006, ISBN 3-423-34132-7
  • Dieter Zöchling: The chronicle of the opera. Chronik Verlag, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-86047-129-5

Recordings / sound carriers

Web links

Commons : La Gioconda (opera)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Record of the performance on April 8, 1876 in the Teatro alla Scala in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .