Un giorno di regno

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Work data
Title: King for a Day (or: False Stanislaus)
Original title: Un giorno di regno
Title page of the libretto, Milan 1840

Title page of the libretto, Milan 1840

Shape: Melodramma giocoso in two acts
Original language: Italian
Music: Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto : Felice Romani
Literary source: Le faux Stanislas by Alexandre-Vincent Pineux Duval
Premiere: September 5, 1840
Place of premiere: Milan , Teatro alla Scala
Playing time: about 2 hours
Place and time of the action: Castle in Brittany , near Brest , 1733
people
  • Cavaliere Belfiore, who pretends to be Stanislaus, King of Poland ( baritone )
  • Baron Kelbar, host of Belfiore ( Bassbuffo )
  • Giulietta di Kelbar, his daughter, in love with Edoardo ( mezzo-soprano )
  • Marchesa del Poggio, Baron Kelbar's niece, young widow, engaged to Belfiore ( soprano )
  • Edoardo di Sanval, a young officer ( tenor )
  • La Rocca, Eduardo's uncle, treasurer of the Breton estates (bass)
  • Count Ivrea, military commander of Brest (tenor)
  • Delmonte, adjutant of the false Stanislaus (bass)
  • Guards, soldiers, servants ( choir and extras )

Un giorno di regno (German: King for a day ) is an opera buffa (original name: "Melodramma giocoso") in two acts by Giuseppe Verdi on a libretto by Felice Romani . The premiere on September 5, 1840 at La Scala in Milan was a fiasco. It was not until his last opera, the Falstaff , that Verdi set a musical comedy to music again.

Emergence

After Verdi's first success with Oberto , Bartolomeo Merelli , director of La Scala in Milan, ordered three more operas from Verdi for the next two years. Merelli initially proposed Il proscritto (The Outlaw) based on a libretto by Gaetano Rossi . When Verdi was about to start composing, Merelli changed his plans. Since there was no comic opera in the program, he sent Verdi several librettos by Felice Romani to choose from. Verdi chose Il finto Stanislao (The Wrong Stanislaus), the libretto that he least disliked. This opera had already been performed in a setting by Adalbert Gyrowetz at La Scala in 1818 , but was removed from the program after eleven performances.

At the time of composition, Verdi had to cope with several strokes of fate. The early death of his daughter in 1838 and his son in 1839 had put him in a depressed mood. Shortly after beginning the composition, Verdi fell ill with angina. When his wife Margherita died of meningitis , his depression intensified. Nevertheless, he tried to fulfill the contract and finish the composition.

reception

At the premiere of the opera on September 5, 1840, the work fell through and was whistled. The piece was immediately removed from the repertoire, and Merelli canceled the contract with Verdi. Verdi was so desperate that he decided to give up composing. Merelli had canceled the contract, but a year later he was able to persuade Verdi to compose the Nabucco on a libretto by Temistocle Solera , with which Verdi was able to celebrate his first great success.

Only part of the failure was due to Verdi's composition. Then there was the weak libretto and the inadequately rehearsed first performance. The criticism complained that the music was too epigonal and that Verdi had oriented too much to Donizetti and Rossini . Today's musicologists like Sokol take a more differentiated view. Although Rossini's influence is noticeable in the overture and in the finale, as is Donizetti's love potion in Edoardo's Proverò che degno i sono (first act, No. 6), Verdi showed a lot of independence in the opera, with the aria of the Marquise Se de cader la vedova (first act, No. 7) refer to the page Oscar in the third act of the masked ball and Edoardo's duet with Belfiore, in Sokol's opinion, refer to the friendship duet in Don Carlos .

Despite the fiasco at La Scala, the opera was re-enacted from several stages, such as in Venice in 1845, where it was a success according to a letter from Verdi, in Rome in 1846 and in Naples in 1859. In this respect, Verdi's letter to his publisher Ricordi , which he wrote 40 years later, does not quite apply, in which he claimed that he has not seen the opera on any stage since the first performance.

Nowadays the work is enjoying increasing popularity, not least because of Verdi's “fresh, spontaneous melodies”, which he invented despite the unfavorable conditions.

music

Stylistically, Un giorno di regno is a number opera in the tradition of the Italian opera buffa , whereby Verdi also used secco recitatives with harpsichord accompaniment .

The following orchestra is planned for the opera:

action

Historical context

Stanislaus Leszczyński around 1731

The opera is about a French Chevalier Belfleur (Belfiore) who, on behalf of the court , is supposed to play the role of the Polish King Stanislaus Leszczyńskis so that he can get to Poland from his French exile without being noticed .

Stanislaus I. Leszczyński (1677–1766) was the deposed King of Poland, who tried in vain to assert his claims to the throne against the Saxon Elector Augustus the Strong and his successor. From 1718 he lived in exile in France. In the War of the Polish Succession , the French King Louis XV supported. Leszczyński's claims. After the death of August the Strong (February 1, 1733), he returned to Poland from exile in France and was re-elected as king. In 1734 he had to flee Poland again and found asylum with the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I in Königsberg . With the French recognition of the Saxon Elector as King of Poland in October 1735, Leszczyński finally lost his claim to the throne and was resigned as a French vassal to the Duchy of Lorraine and Bar .

The opera is set in 1733, when Stanislaus Leszczyński was able to return to Poland with French support. Belfiore (Belfleur) appears as a double or "false Stanislaus" for a long time .

first act

First picture: a gallery

The act begins with an overture of about five and a half minutes. Then the servants and vassals of Baron Kelbar tell each other that a king is visiting and that a double wedding is to take place. Giulietta, the Baron's daughter, is supposed to marry the rich old treasurer La Rocca at her father's insistence, even though she loves Edoardo. The Baron's niece, the Marquise del Poggio, wants to marry Count Ivrea rather out of malice because she believes that she has left her fiancé Belfioro. However, he has taken on the secret mission of playing the Polish King Stanislaus until he has safely arrived in Warsaw. However, when Belfiore hears that his fiancée is about to marry someone else, he writes a letter to the court to be relieved of the chore of playing the king even longer (No. 5, recitative, speaking the text of the letter ). In desperation, Eduardo turns to him so that the supposed king can take him to Poland. Belfiore appoints him as his squire and secretly vows to rule as king for another day because of the exaggerated baron in order to thwart the planned marriage. In the meantime the Marchesa has arrived, who thinks she recognizes her fiancé in the fake Stanislaus who is hurrying away.

Second picture: garden

In the garden, Giulietta complains to a few peasant girls and maidservants that she should marry an unloved man. The baron and the treasurer join them, shortly afterwards the supposed king with Edoardo. Belfiore gives Giulietta and Edoardo the opportunity to speak briefly to each other by engaging the baron and the treasurer in a tactical warfare conversation. When the Marchesa is introduced to the supposed king, she is unsure whether he is not Belfiore after all.

Third picture: gallery, as before

Belfiore, who wants to thwart the wedding of Giulietta with the treasurer La Rocca, promises him a ministerial office and a Polish princess in his role as a false Stanislaus. When the baron tries to draw up the marriage contract, La Rocca refuses to marry the baron's daughter because he feels he has a higher calling. In Finale I, the Marchesa suggests that Giulietta could marry Edoardo, the treasurer's nephew, instead. The baron insists on his point of view and challenges La Rocca to a duel. The supposed king only manages temporarily to bring the brawlers to reason.

Second act

First picture: gallery

After Belfiore learned that the baron was sticking to his daughter's wedding only because of the wealth of old La Rocca, he, as a false Stanislaus, made the suggestion that La Rocca should prescribe his nephew Edoardo a castle and 5000 Scudi annual pension. The baron insists on the duel. La Rocca then makes the unconventional suggestion that everyone sit on a powder keg and that whoever blows up first loses. Instead, the baron insists on a duel with the sword, about which both continue to argue.

Second picture: entrance hall on the ground floor

The Marchesa is still in doubt as to whether the wrong Stanislaus is her fiancé. In a conversation with the supposed king, she explains that she wants to marry the commanding officer Count Ivrea instead of Belfiore. After the baron has given his consent to the wedding of Giulietta and Edoardo, Giulietta argues with her fiancé because she assumes that he wants to follow King Stanislaus to Poland as a squire. In a conversation with the fake Stanislaus, the Marchesa declares that she will marry Ivrea if her faithless fiancé does not show up within an hour. When Count Ivrea also shows up, Belfiore tries to prevent the marriage by claiming that he must leave immediately and that Ivrea should accompany King Stanislaus on the orders of the court. The entanglements are resolved in Finale II. A messenger brings the news from the court that Stanislaus Leszczyński has meanwhile arrived in Warsaw. Belfiore is allowed to “abdicate” as king and is promoted to marshal. After he has identified himself as Belfiore, nothing stands in the way of the wedding of the right couples.

literature

  • Rolf Fath: Reclam's Little Verdi Opera Guide. Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-15-018077-5 .
  • Arnold Jacobshagen : Un giorno di regno. In: Anselm Gerhard and Uwe Schweikert (eds.): Verdi manual . Metzler, 2001 Kassel, ISBN 3-476-01768-0 , and Bärenreiter, Stuttgart and Weimar 2001, ISBN 3-7618-2017-8 , pp. 304-308.
  • Martin Sokol: Verdi's first Opera Buffa. Analysis in the CD booklet, recorded by Philips 1973.
  • Heinz Wagner: The great manual of the opera. 2nd edition, Florian Noetzel Verlag, Wilhelmshaven 1995, p. 732 f.

Discography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Un giorno di regno  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sokol: Verdi's first Opera Buffa. 1973, p. 19 f.
  2. ^ Sokol: Verdi's first Opera Buffa. 1973, p. 23 f., See also Fath: Reclams Kleiner Verdi-Opernführer. 2000, p. 28.
  3. ^ Sokol: Verdi's first Opera Buffa. 1973, p. 21 f.
  4. ^ Sokol: Verdi's first Opera Buffa. 1973, p. 24.
  5. ^ Arnold Jacobshagen: Un giorno di regno. In: Anselm Gerhard and Uwe Schweikert (eds.): Verdi manual . Metzler, Kassel 2001, ISBN 3-476-01768-0 , and Bärenreiter, Stuttgart and Weimar 2001, ISBN 3-7618-2017-8 , p. 304
  6. ↑ See brief information at Klassika