Angelo (opera)
Encyclopedia
Angelo is an opera
in four acts by César Cui
, composed during 1871-1875, with a libretto
by Viktor Burenin based on Victor Hugo
's prose play, Angelo, tyran de Padoue. This same play formed the basis of Saverio Mercadante
's Il giuramento of 1837, Amilcare Ponchielli
's La Gioconda
, which premiered in the same year as Cui's opera (1876), and Alfred Bruneau
's Angelo, tyran de Padoue of 1928.
at the Mariinsky Theatre
. The conductor was Eduard Nápravník
. Apparently it did not survive that particular season, and was removed from the repertory.
A new production of Angelo was staged twenty-five years after the original premiere in 1901 at the Bolshoi Theatre
in Moscow, with Feodor Chaliapin
in the role of Galeofa. The Mariinsky staged Angelo again in 1910.
Setting: Padua
, 1549.
Tisbe enters. She is in love with Rodolfo, and would kill any rival for his love. In an aside, he admits to loving only Catarina, and leaves. Galeofa reappears, and gives Tisbe a bottle of poison and a bottle of sleeping potion. He tells her that Rodolfo will be meeting another woman that night.
Angelo arrives to the greeting sounds of a barcarolle. In order to assuage his jealousy of her attentions to Galeofa, she tells him of the time when her mother was rescued years ago from hanging when Tisbe was a child. The daughter of a Venetian nobleman had pleaded to spare Tisbe's mother, and in gratitude the latter gave the girl her crucifix. Tisbe has been searching for that person ever since.
When Angelo enters, Tisbe invents a story about a plot to assassinate Angelo. Aside, she promises Catarina a means to escape with Rodolfo.
Angelo explains to the priest how Catarina's funeral should be arranged. The two exit, and Tisbe appears, suspecting that Rodolfo is Catarina's lover. When Angelo returns and shows her the love letter, Tisbe knows that the handwriting is Rodolfo's, but pretends otherwise. She convinces Angelo that he should poison Catarina, not behead her, and goes to fetch the poison.
Angelo tells Catarina that her life will be spared if she reveals the identity of her lover. Alone, Catarina discovers the block and axe that are hidden behind a curtain.
Tisbe, accompanied by Angelo, brings a phial, which Catarina refuses to drink from. At Tisbe's urging, she drinks it, admitting her chaste love. Angelo tells his servants to take Catarina's body away to the crypt, but, after he leaves, Tisbe bribes them to do otherwise.
Tableau 2: In Tisbe's bedroom
Catarina lies covered by a shroud. The grave has been sealed, and the horses outside are ready for the escape. Rodolfo appears, convinced that Tisbe poisoned Catarina, and stabs Tisbe in the heart. Catarina awakes; Tisbe blesses them and dies as the funeral procession passes by the window to the strains of "De profundis
."
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in four acts by César Cui
César Cui
César Antonovich Cui was a Russian of French and Lithuanian descent. His profession was as an army officer and a teacher of fortifications; his avocational life has particular significance in the history of music, in that he was a composer and music critic; in this sideline he is known as a...
, composed during 1871-1875, with a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Viktor Burenin based on Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
's prose play, Angelo, tyran de Padoue. This same play formed the basis of Saverio Mercadante
Saverio Mercadante
Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. While Mercadante may not have retained the international celebrity of Gaetano Donizetti or Gioachino Rossini beyond his own lifetime, he composed as impressive a number of works as either; and his development of...
's Il giuramento of 1837, Amilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas.-Biography:Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.Two years...
's La Gioconda
La Gioconda (opera)
La Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli set to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Angelo, tyran de Padoue, a play in prose by Victor Hugo, dating from 1835...
, which premiered in the same year as Cui's opera (1876), and Alfred Bruneau
Alfred Bruneau
Louis-Charles-Bonaventure-Alfred Bruneau was a French composer who played a key role in the introduction of realism in French opera....
's Angelo, tyran de Padoue of 1928.
Performance history
Angelo was premiered on 1 February 1876 in Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
at the Mariinsky Theatre
Mariinsky Theatre
The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. The...
. The conductor was Eduard Nápravník
Eduard Nápravník
Eduard Francevič Nápravník was a Czech conductor and composer, who settled in Russia and is best known for his leading role in Russian musical life as the principal conductor of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg for many decades...
. Apparently it did not survive that particular season, and was removed from the repertory.
A new production of Angelo was staged twenty-five years after the original premiere in 1901 at the Bolshoi Theatre
Bolshoi Theatre
The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world...
in Moscow, with Feodor Chaliapin
Feodor Chaliapin
Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin was a Russian opera singer. The possessor of a large and expressive bass voice, he enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form.During the first phase...
in the role of Galeofa. The Mariinsky staged Angelo again in 1910.
Roles
- Angelo Malipieri, podestaPodestàPodestà is the name given to certain high officials in many Italian cities, since the later Middle Ages, mainly as Chief magistrate of a city state , but also as a local administrator, the representative of the Emperor.The term derives from the Latin word potestas, meaning power...
: bass - Catarina Bragadini: sopranoSopranoA soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
- Tisbe: mezzo-sopranoMezzo-sopranoA mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
- Rodolfo: tenorTenorThe tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
- Anafesta Galeofa, Tisbe's factotum, Angelo's spy: bass
- Ascanio Strozzi: bass
- Dafne [=2nd Masker]: mezzo-soprano
- 1st Sbirro: baritoneBaritoneBaritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
- 2nd Sbirro: bass
- Fra Paolo: tenor
- Peppo: tenor
- A Servant: non-singing role
- Patricians, signore, people, sbirri, etc.: chorusChoirA choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
Setting: Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
, 1549.
Act 1
In Tisbe's illuminated garden, masked guests entertain themselves. After they disperse, Rodolfo and the conspirators in the grotto complain about Angelo. The guests come back. Galeofa knows who Rodolfo is, and will help him to meet Catarina, his paramour, that night.Tisbe enters. She is in love with Rodolfo, and would kill any rival for his love. In an aside, he admits to loving only Catarina, and leaves. Galeofa reappears, and gives Tisbe a bottle of poison and a bottle of sleeping potion. He tells her that Rodolfo will be meeting another woman that night.
Angelo arrives to the greeting sounds of a barcarolle. In order to assuage his jealousy of her attentions to Galeofa, she tells him of the time when her mother was rescued years ago from hanging when Tisbe was a child. The daughter of a Venetian nobleman had pleaded to spare Tisbe's mother, and in gratitude the latter gave the girl her crucifix. Tisbe has been searching for that person ever since.
Act 2
In her bedroom, Catarina awaits Rodolfo. The chambermaids try to cheer her up by singing, but it does not help. Alone, Catarina then tries to cheer herself up by playing Rodolfo's sad song, and suddenly he is heard singing it from the balcony. After their love scene, A noise is heard and Rodolfo hides. It is Tisbe; although she doesn't know who Catarina's lover is, she calls for Angelo to tell him about the Catarina's affair. As Catarina prays before the crucifix, Tisbe notices that it is the one her mother once had.When Angelo enters, Tisbe invents a story about a plot to assassinate Angelo. Aside, she promises Catarina a means to escape with Rodolfo.
Act 3
Outside a tavern by the river at dusk the crowd is entertained with a tarantella. The subject of the Venetian tyrant comes up, and people are persuaded join the plot to assassinate him. Rodolfo enters, reporting that Galeofa has betrayed them. When the latter enters, the crowd mortally wounds him. After Angelo and his troops come on the scene, Galeofa gives Angelo an unsigned letter to Catarina from a young man, then dies. The rebellion is defeated.Act 4
Tableau 1: in Catarina's roomAngelo explains to the priest how Catarina's funeral should be arranged. The two exit, and Tisbe appears, suspecting that Rodolfo is Catarina's lover. When Angelo returns and shows her the love letter, Tisbe knows that the handwriting is Rodolfo's, but pretends otherwise. She convinces Angelo that he should poison Catarina, not behead her, and goes to fetch the poison.
Angelo tells Catarina that her life will be spared if she reveals the identity of her lover. Alone, Catarina discovers the block and axe that are hidden behind a curtain.
Tisbe, accompanied by Angelo, brings a phial, which Catarina refuses to drink from. At Tisbe's urging, she drinks it, admitting her chaste love. Angelo tells his servants to take Catarina's body away to the crypt, but, after he leaves, Tisbe bribes them to do otherwise.
Tableau 2: In Tisbe's bedroom
Catarina lies covered by a shroud. The grave has been sealed, and the horses outside are ready for the escape. Rodolfo appears, convinced that Tisbe poisoned Catarina, and stabs Tisbe in the heart. Catarina awakes; Tisbe blesses them and dies as the funeral procession passes by the window to the strains of "De profundis
Psalm 130
Psalm 130 , traditionally De profundis from its Latin incipit, is one of the Penitential psalms.-Commentary:...
."
Notable excerpts
- Introduction
- Tisbe's Narrative (Act I)
- Barcarolle (Act I)
- Rodolfo's Song (Act II)