The Complete Opera Book Part 80

The third act is laid in the forest. _Johnson_, who has recovered and left _Minnie's_ cabin, is caught, and is to be hung. But at the critical moment _Minnie_ arrives, and her pleading moves the men to spare him, in spite of _Rance's_ protests. They leave to begin a new life elsewhere.

In the score there is much recitative. It is not interesting in itself, nor is it made so by the insufficiently varied instrumental accompaniment. For the action of the play is too vigorous to find expression by means of the Debussyan manner that predominates in the orchestra. The most genuinely inspired musical number is _Johnson's_ solo in the last act, when it seems certain that he is about to be executed.--"Ch'ella mi creda libero e lontano" (Let her believe that I have gained my freedom).

LA RONDINE

THE SWALLOW

The opera begins in Paris during the Second Empire. _Magda_, the heroine, is a _demi-mondaine_ living under the protection of the rich banker _Rambaldo_. Satisfied with the luxuries he lavishes upon her, she longs for true affection, and is unable to stifle the remembrance of her first love, a poor young student. She meets _Ruggero_, who like her earlier love, is young and poor, and a student. At Bouilliers, the rendezvous of the gay life of Paris, _Ruggero_ declares his love for _Magda_. They leave Paris for Nice, where they hope to lead an idyllic existence.

_Ruggero_ looks forward to a life of perfect happiness. He writes to his parents asking their consent to his marriage with _Magda_. The reply is that if she is virtuous and honourable, she will be received with open arms. _Magda_ now considers herself (like _Violetta_ in "La Traviata") unworthy of _Ruggero's_ love and lest she shall bring dishonour upon the man she loves, she parts with him. Other princ.i.p.al roles are _Lisetta_ and _Prunia_, and there are numerous second parts requiring first-rate artists.

In the second act of "La Rondine" is a quartet which, it is said, Puccini believes will rival that at the end of the third act in "La Boheme." "I have let my pen run," he is reported to have said, "and no other method suffices to obtain good results, in my opinion. No matter what marvellous technical effects may be worked up by lengthy meditation, I believe in heart in preference to head."

The opera was produced in March, 1917, in Monte Carlo, and during the summer of the same year, in Buenos Aires. Puccini intended to compose it with dialogue as a genuine opera comique, but finally subst.i.tuted recitative. The work is said to approach opera comique in style.

Reports regarding its success vary.

After the first Italian performance, San Carlo Theatre, Naples, February 26, 1918, Puccini, according to report, decided to revise "La Rondine." Revision, as in the case of "Madama b.u.t.terfly," may make a great success of it.

ONE-ACT OPERAS

Three one-act operas by Puccini have been composed for performance at one sitting. They are "Suor Angelica" (Sister Angelica), "Il Tabarro"

(The Cloak), and "Gianni Schicchi." The motifs of these operas are sentiment, tragedy, and humour.

The scene of "Suor Angelica" is laid within the walls of a mountain convent, whither she has retired to expiate an unfortunate past. Her first contact with the outer world is through a visit from an aunt, who needs her signature to a doc.u.ment. Timidly she asks about the tiny mite, whom she was constrained to abandon before she entered the convent. Harshly the aunt replies that the child is dead. _Sister Angelica_ decides to make an end to her life amid the flowers she loves. Dying, she appeals for pardon for her act of self-destruction.

The doors of the convent church open, and a dazzling light pours forth revealing the Virgin Mary on the threshold surrounded by angels, who, intoning a sweet chorus, bear the poor, penitent, and weary soul to eternal peace. This little work is entirely for female voices.

The libretto of "Il Tabarro" is tragic. The great scene is between a husband and his wife. The husband has killed her lover, whose body he shows to his unfaithful wife, lifting from the ground the cloak (il tabarro) under which it is hidden.

The scene of "Il Tabarro" is laid on the deck of a Seine barge at sunset, when the day's work is over, and after dark. The husband is _Michele_, the wife _Giorgetta_, the lover, _Luigi_, and there are two other bargemen. These latter go off after the day's work. _Luigi_ lingers in the cabin. He persuades _Giorgetta_ that, when all is quiet on the barge, and it will be safe for him to return to her, she shall strike a match as a signal. He then goes.

_Michele_ has suspected his wife. He reminds her of their early love, when he sheltered her under his cloak. _Giorgetta_, however, receives these reminiscences coldly, feigns weariness, and retires to the cabin.

It has grown dark. _Michele_ lights his pipe. _Luigi_, thinking it is _Giorgetta's_ signal, clambers up the side of the barge, where he is seized and choked to death by _Michele_, who takes his cloak and covers the corpse with it.

_Giorgetta_ has heard sounds of a struggle. She comes on deck in alarm, but is somewhat rea.s.sured, when she sees _Michele_ sitting alone and quietly smoking. Still somewhat nervous, however, she endeavours to atone for her frigidity toward him, but a short time before, by "making up" to him, telling him, among other things, that she well recalls their early love and wishes she could again find shelter in the folds of his big cloak. For reply, he raises the cloak, and lets her see _Luigi's_ corpse.

I have read another synopsis of this plot, in which _Michele_ forces his wife's face close to that of her dead lover. At the same moment, one of the other bargemen, whose wife also had betrayed him, returns brandis.h.i.+ng the b.l.o.o.d.y knife, with which he has slain her. The simpler version surely is more dramatic than the one of c.u.mulative horrors.

When the action of "Gianni Schicchi" opens one _Donati_ has been dead for two hours. His relations are thinking of the will. A young man of the house hands it to his mother [Transcriber's Note: should be 'aunt'] but exacts the promise that he shall marry the daughter of neighbour _Schicchi_. When the will is read, it is found that _Donati_ has left his all to charity. _Schicchi_ is called in, and consulted.

He plans a ruse. So far only those in the room know of _Donati's_ demise. The corpse is hidden. _Schicchi_ gets into bed, and, when the _Doctor_ calls, imitates the dead man's voice and pretends he wants to sleep. The lawyer is sent for. _Schicchi_ dictates a new will--in favour of himself, and becomes the heir, in spite of the anger of the others.

Riccardo Zandonai

FRANCESCA DA RIMINI

FRANCESCA OF RIMINI

Opera in four acts, by Riccardo Zandonai; words by t.i.to Ricordi, after the drama of the same t.i.tle by Gabriele d'Annunzio. English version from Arthur Symons's translation of the drama. Produced, Reggio Theatre, Turin, February 1, 1914. Covent Garden Theatre, London, July 16, 1914.

Metropolitan Opera House, New York, December 22, 1916, with Alda (_Francesca_), Martinelli (_Paolo_), and Amato (_Giovanni_).

CHARACTERS

GIOVANNI, the lame } sons of { _Baritone_ PAOLO, the beautiful } Malatesta da { _Tenor_ MALATESTINO, the one-eyed } Verrucchio { _Tenor_ OSTASIO, son of Guido Minore da Polenta _Baritone_ SER TOLDO BERARDENGO, a notary _Tenor_ A JESTER _Ba.s.s_ A BOWMAN _Tenor_ TOWER WARDEN _Baritone_ FRANCESCA, daughter of Guido and sister of Ostasio _Soprano_ SAMARITANA, sister of Francesca and Ostasio _Soprano_ BIANCOFIORE } { _Soprano_ Ga.r.s.eNDA } women of Francesca { _Soprano_ ALTICHIARA } { _Mezzo-Soprano_ DONELLA _Mezzo-Soprano_ SMARADI, a slave _Contralto_

Bowmen, archers, and musicians.

_Time_--Thirteenth century.

_Place_--First act, Ravenna, then Rimini.

A pretentious but not wholly successful score based upon a somewhat diffuse drama--such is the net impression made by Zandonai's opera "Francesca da Rimini." The story of Francesca and Paolo is one of the world's immortal tales of pa.s.sion, and an opera set to it should be inspired beyond almost any other. But as W.J. Henderson wrote in the New York _Sun_ the day after the production of Zandonai's work in New York, "In all human probability the full measure of 'love insatiable'

was never taken in music but once, and we cannot expect a second 'Tristan und Isolde' so soon."

Act I. The scene is a court in the house of the Polentani, in Ravenna, adjacent to a garden, whose bright colours are seen through a pierced marble screen. A colloquy between _Francesca's_ brother _Ostasio_ and the notary _Ser Toldo Berardengo_ informs us that for reasons of state, _Francesca_ is to be married to that one of the three sons of Malatesta da Verrucchio, who although named _Giovanni_, is known as _Gianciotto, the Lamester_, because of his deformity and ugliness. As _Francesca_ surely would refuse to marry _Gianciotto_, a plot has been formed by which she is introduced to his handsome younger brother _Paolo_, with whom, under the impression that he is her destined bridegroom, she falls deeply in love at first sight, a pa.s.sion that is fully reciprocated by him, although they have only beheld each other, and not yet exchanged a word.

Such is the procedure of the first act. When _Francesca_ and _Paolo_ behold each other through the marble screen, which divides the court from the garden, in which _Paolo_ stands amid brightly coloured flowers, the orchestra intones a phrase which may properly be called the love motif.

[Music]

The act is largely lyric in its musical effect. Much charm is given to it by the quartette of women who attend upon _Francesca_. Almost at the outset the composer creates what might be called the necessary love mood, by a playful scene between _Francesca's_ women and a strolling jester, who chants for them the story of "Tristan und Isolde." The setting of the scene is most picturesque. In fact everything in this act tends to create "atmosphere," and were the rest of the opera as successful, it would be one of the finest works of its kind to have come out of modern Italy.

Act II. The scene is the interior of a round tower in the fortified castle of the Malatestas. The summit of the tower is crowned with engines of war and arms. There are heavy cross-bows, ballistas, a catapult, and other mediaeval machinery of battle. The castle is a stronghold of the Guelfs. In the distance, beyond the city of Rimini, are seen the battlements of the highest Ghibelline Tower. A narrow fortified window looks out on the Adriatic.

Soon after the act opens, an attack takes place. The battle rages.

Amid all this distracting, and therefore futile tumult, occurs the first meeting between _Francesca_ and _Paolo_, since the marriage into which she was tricked. Their love is obvious enough. _Paolo_ despairingly seeks death, to which _Francesca_ also exposes herself by remaining on the platform of the tower during the combat. The relation between these two princ.i.p.al characters of the opera is clearly enough set forth, and the impression made by it would be forcible, were not attention distracted by the fiercely raging mediaeval combat.

The Malatestas are victorious. The attacking foes are driven off.

_Gianciotto_ comes upon the platform and brings news to _Paolo_ of his election as Captain of the people and Commune of Florence, for which city _Paolo_ departs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Photo by White

Alda as Francesca and Martinelli as Paolo in "Francesca da Rimini"]

Act III. The scene is the beautiful apartment of _Francesca_, where, from an old tome, she is reading to her women the story of _Lancelot and Guenevere_. This episode has somewhat of the same charm as that which pervaded portions of the first act. Especially is this true, when to the accompaniment of archaic instruments, the women sing their measures in praise of spring, "Marzo e giunto, e Febbraio gito se n'e col ghiado" (March comes, and February goes with the wind today).

[Music]

The women dance and sing, until on a whispered word from her slave, _Francesca_ dismisses them. _Paolo_ has returned. The greeting from her to him is simple enough: "Benvenuto, signore mio cognato" (Welcome my lord and kinsman), but the music is charged with deeper significance.

[Music]