Ugo re d'Italia

Opera dates
Title:	Ugo re d'Italia
Original language:	Italian
Music:	Gioachino Rossini

Ugo re d'Italia (Eng: Hugo, King of Italy ) is a lost opera by Gioachino Rossini , which he wrote and at least partially completed for the King's Theater in London in 1824 .

Work history

From December 13, 1823 to July 26, 1824, Rossini was with his wife, the singer Isabella Colbran , in London, where he conducted a total of eight operas at the King's Theater . Its impresario Giovanni Battista Benelli (1773-1857) had commissioned the two of them for a new opera that was to be performed in the 1824 season. According to the Rossini biographer Alexis Azevedo, a two-act opera based on a libretto entitled La figlia dell'aria was planned. The agreed wages were 6000 francs, which were to be paid in three parts: one third each on arrival in London and one third after the two files had been handed in. The biographer Giuseppe Radiciotti gives a total of £ 240. It is uncertain to what extent the composition had progressed at the time Rossini left for Paris. The performance was announced several times and postponed again. According to Azevedo, Rossini had already delivered the first act and was then waiting in vain for his payment. John Ebers, Benelli's predecessor at the King's Theater, reported that the opera, now known as Ugo, Ré d'Italia , had almost been completed and, for unknown reasons, had been handed over to the bankers Ransom.

In the meantime, documents have been found in the documents of Barclays Bank, which in the meantime had indirectly taken over Ransom & Co., which provide more clarity. These include, in particular, a declaration signed by Rossini that he has completed the work, as well as a deficiency guarantee between Rossini and Ransom's dated March 23, 1831. The process is now as follows:

At the beginning of June 1824, Rossini signed an agreement with Benelli and his lawyer Chippendale in which he undertook to complete the rehearsals of the opera Ugo ré d'Italia , which had already started and was largely completed, by January 1, 1825. He was to leave the existing parts with the bank before leaving for Paris, along with a £ 400 guarantee in case he did not finish the composition. A receipt for the receipt of this money and two packages of notes can be found on the back of the deficiency guarantee from 1831. If the opera was finished in time, Rossini would receive £ 600 on February 1st and £ 400 on March 1st. The following paragraph of the agreement makes the assumption that Rossini fulfilled his end of the agreement but received no money. An indication of the advanced composition is the fact that Rossini had already signed another contract in February 1824, according to which he was to compose exclusively for Paris for a year from July 1824. So when he signed the agreement at the beginning of June he had little time left to compose the Ugo . Benelli himself went bankrupt after the 1824 season and fled England, leaving behind major debts. His stake in the King's Theater was mortgaged to Rowland Yallop by the law firm Yallop & Chippendale. The lease and property rights were eventually taken over by John Ebers.

In March 1825, the Benellis' successors in title claimed the bank notes and the £ 400 guarantee. The latter was later returned to Rossini. However, the notes remained with the bank. On November 27, 1830, Rowland Yallop declared that he was no longer interested in opera. On December 18, Rossini demanded the bank notes to be returned and threatened legal action if they were not complied with. However, the bank replied that the release of the legal successor had been withdrawn and initially refused to hand it over. At the end of March 1831 the aforementioned guarantee was issued, in which the details of the dispute are also listed. Rossini undertook to indemnify the bank with up to £ 1000 against any future claims Yallos or the legal successor. On April 9th, Ransom & Co. handed over the alleged note packages to the law firm Fyson & Beck. The receipt from James Kemp is the last known evidence of the opera.

Rossini himself informed Edmond Michotte that he had only completed the first act of La figlia dell'aria , but later used several pieces from it for other operas. According to Herbert Weinstock , this could mean that he had given up La filgia in favor of Ugo and used the parts in the new opera, or that he used these pieces in his later Paris operas. Since Rossini had already written his last opera with Guillaume Tell in 1829 and Ugo definitely did not get the sheet music back before 1831, the latter case is very unlikely. Weinstock also thinks it is possible that Rossini - if he should have got it back - destroyed the opera. It is only conceivable to adopt individual parts in his later works such as the Stabat Mater , the Petite Messe solennelle or the later smaller compositions.

Rossini probably used parts from his opera Ermione from 1819 for the music. In the CD Serious Rossini , published by Opera Rara in 1994 , the tenor Bruce Ford recorded Ugo's reconstructed aria "Vieni, o cara" , which is based on the slow part of the aria des Pirro "Balena in man del figlio" is based in the first act of Ermione . He was accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra under the direction of David Parry and the tenor Paul Nilon.

literature

• Andrew Porter: A lost opera by Rossini. In: Music and Letters XLV. 1964, p. 39 ff

Remarks

1. ↑ In the wording: "It is alleged that the said Agreement was duly performed by and on the part of the said Gioacchino Rossini but that no part of the said sum of one thousand pounds the consideration money for the said opera was ever paid." quoted from Porter, p. 41)
2. ↑ Porter mentions March 23 on page 41, but March 25 on page 44.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Herbert Weinstock: Rossini - A biography. Translated by Kurt Michaelis. Kunzelmann, Adliswil 1981 (1968), ISBN 3-85662-009-0 .
2. ^ ^{A b c d} Andrew Porter: A lost opera by Rossini. In: Music and Letters XLV. 1964, p. 39 ff
3. ↑ Antonio Luque Domnguez: Gioachino Rossini - Más allá de Barber. Lulu.com, 2007, p. 184 ( online at Google Books )