The Collins Guide To Opera And Operetta

Highlight

This is not an opera with stand-alone arias, and there are, after all, only two singing characters: the dead wives behind the sixth door are mute. But there is a great musical climax at the fifth door when the vision of Bluebeard’s kingdom floods the stage – a heart-stopping moment that never fails in its effect.

Did You Know?

Bartók wrote this grim tale of domestic serial killing shortly after his marriage. He dedicated the score to his wife.

Recommended Recording

Samuel Ramey, Eva Marton, Hungarian State Orchestra/Adam Fischer. Sony MK 44523. Idiomatically conducted, with explosively strong performances from the two singers.

Ludwig van Beethoven

(1770–1827)

Fidelio (1805)

Born in Bonn but living and working in Vienna from his early twenties, Beethoven is one of the towering, pivotal figures of music history, with a massive output (nine symphonies, thirty-two piano sonatas, sixteen string quartets, seven concertos …). His work carried the Classical forms of Haydn and Mozart into the new territory of Romanticism and confirmed the potential of music to speak in spiritual as well as political terms. A radical humanitarian with revolutionary sympathies, he used his work as a public platform for the expression of personal beliefs about society and the individual, and his only opera Fidelio was exactly that: a statement of the power of the human spirit to triumph over tyranny and oppression which stands beside the choral finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as an anthem to the ideals of universal brotherhood. Other scores express a more autobiographical struggle with human weakness: at the age of thirty he began to realise that he was going deaf, and as his hearing worsened he withdrew into a world of inner turmoil which found a mystical dimension in the late quartets.

Fidelio

FORM: Opera in two acts; in German

COMPOSER: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

LIBRETTO: Joseph Sonnleithner and Georg Friedrich Treitschke; after the play by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly

FIRST PERFORMANCE: Vienna, 20 November 1805

Principal Characters

Florestan, a Spanish nobleman

Tenor

Leonore, his wife, disguised as the male Fidelio

Soprano

Rocco, chief jailer

Bass

Marzelline, Rocco’s daughter

Soprano

Jaquino, Rocco’s assistant

Tenor

Don Pizarro, governor of the prison

Bass-baritone

Don Fernando, the king’s minister

Bass

Synopsis of the Plot

Setting: A fortress near Seville; 18th century

ACT I Florestan, a political prisoner and freedom fighter, has been flung into a dungeon by Pizarro and is slowly starving to death, while Pizarro spreads rumours that he has already died. Leonore, suspecting the truth, has disguised herself as a man, Fidelio, and has been taken on as an assistant by Rocco, swiftly becoming a trusted aide. Marzelline, Rocco’s daughter, is unaware of the disguise and has taken a considerable fancy to Fidelio, rejecting the overtures of Jaquino, her jealous former suitor. Leonore learns that Don Fernando, the king’s minister, is coming to inspect the prison, having heard that Pizarro is unlawfully locking up his own personal enemies. To Leonore’s horror, Pizarro gives Rocco money and instructs him to kill Florestan. Rocco declines to commit murder, but agrees to dig a grave in the prison dungeon if Pizarro will do the deed himself. Meanwhile Leonore has urged Rocco to allow the prisoners out for some light and air, but she is heartbroken to find Florestan is not among them. Rocco then tells her that she is to help with the gravedigging so at least she will be able to see Florestan and perhaps be able to help him; if nothing else she will die with him.

ACT II Rocco and Leonore enter the dungeon where Leonore is shocked to see her emaciated and chained husband, although she is careful to control her behaviour to avoid rousing Rocco’s suspicions. Leonore persuades Rocco to allow her to offer the condemned prisoner some bread and wine. Suddenly Pizarro bursts in, dagger in hand, and rushes towards Florestan – only to be stopped by Leonore who throws herself between them, declaring that she will shoot Pizarro, with a pistol she has kept hidden, before he kills Florestan. At this moment a fanfare is heard and Jaquino announces the minister’s arrival. Florestan is saved and, in a symbolic gesture, he is released from his chains by Leonore. The minister orders the immediate release of all the prisoners and the arrest of Pizarro. Justice is done.

Music and Background

Fidelio is a mixture of music and speech which can prove upliftingly sublime or stodgily leaden, depending on how it’s done and (critically) how much of the speech is left in. Beethoven had no previous experience of writing opera, and he took enormous trouble over it, passing through three different versions, a different name (Leonore) and four overtures before arriving at a final form. You could argue that the effort shows. There is also an uncomfortable relationship between the domestic and heroic elements in the opera, and a sense in which the great but static chorus of celebration at the end takes the whole thing out of the realms of theatre and into oratorio. But there is no denying the sincere depth of emotion involved, or the fact that Fidelio can be an exhilarating and radiantly affirmative experience – in the right hands.

Highlights

The canonic quartet ‘Mir ist so wunderbar’, Leonore’s aria ‘Komm, Hoffnung’, and the prisoners’ chorus ‘O welche Lust’ in Act I; the Leonore/Florestan duet ‘O namenlose Freude!’ and final chorus ‘Wer ein holdes Weib errungen’ in Act II.

Did You Know?

Fidelio’s subtitle is Die Eheliche Liebe (Married Love), and Leonore is very much the idealised woman Beethoven spent his life searching for but never finding. She also represents a comparatively rare example in opera of the female lead as active heroine rather than passive victim.

Fidelio is said to have been based on a true incident in the French Revolution.

Recommended Recording

Christa Ludwig, Jon Vickers, Philharmonia Orchestra/Otto Klemperer. EMI CMS7 69324-2. A classic 1962 recording with a warmth and dynamism that remain unmatched.

Vincenzo Bellini

(1801–35)

I Capuleti e I Montecchi (1830)

La Sonnambula (1831)

Norma (1831)

Beatrice di Tenda (1833)

I Puritani (1835)

If Rossini was the presiding genius of Italian bel canto opera in the first half of the 19th century, Donizetti and Bellini were his two lieutenants, and like Rossini, they made their mark in Naples before moving on to Paris, which was the centre of the operatic world. Bellini was Sicilian by birth and showed an early gift for melody that got him noticed while he was still a student. His first full-length opera was staged at Naples’ Teatro San Carlo when he was twenty-three and a commission from Milan followed immediately, spreading his fame beyond Italy. From then on came a steady flow of work, totalling ten operas in ten years – frantic productivity by modern standards but fairly modest by the standards of the time. In fact, Bellini took uncommon care over his work, suiting the music to specific voices (from which he nonetheless made great demands) and developing a close association with the poet Felice Romani, which became one of the most effective composer/librettist partnerships in opera history.

Norma

FORM: Opera in two acts; in Italian

COMPOSER: Vincenzo Bellini (1801–35)

LIBRETTO: Felice Romani; after Alexandre Soumet’s verse tragedy

FIRST PERFORMANCE: Milan, 26 December 1831

Principal Characters

Oroveso, chief of the druids and Norma’s father

Bass

Pollione, Roman pro-consul in Gaul

Tenor

Norma, high priestess of the druid temple

Soprano

Adalgisa, young priestess of the temple

Soprano

Clotilde, Norma’s confidante

Mezzo-soprano

Flavio, Pollione’s friend

Tenor

Synopsis of the Plot

Setting: Gaul; the Roman occupation

ACT I Oroveso comes to the sacred grove to pray to the gods to help him raise support to fight and defeat the Romans. After he has left, Pollione confides to Flavio that he no longer loves Norma, who has broken her vows of chastity for him and secretly borne his two children; he has transferred his affections to the young priestess, Adalgisa. When Adalgisa joins him, Pollione successfully persuades her to renounce her vows and go back to Rome with him. Adalgisa, in some distress, goes to see Norma to ask to be released from her vows. Norma, sympathising with her predicament, agrees to do so and asks the name of her lover. At that moment Pollione himself enters and Norma, stunned, realises the truth. She furiously denounces Pollione and the shocked Adalgisa declares that her first loyalty is to Norma, rejecting Pollione’s desperate attempts to persuade her to go with him.

ACT II In her hut Norma stands over her sleeping children, dagger in hand, contemplating the shame and humiliation they will suffer in the future because of her disgrace. She cannot bring herself to harm them, however, and suggests to Adalgisa that she should leave with Pollione and take the children with her to safety. Adalgisa’s response is to say that she will indeed go to Pollione – but only to try and convince him to return to Norma. In an atmosphere of gathering violence Norma learns that Pollione plans to abduct Adalgisa from the temple. Enraged, she strikes the great shield three times and declares war against Rome. Pollione is captured within the sacred temple but, to save his life, Norma offers herself, a disgraced and blasphemous priestess, as an alternative sacrifice. Confiding her children to Oroveso’s care, Norma prepares to mount the funeral pyre, as Pollione, overwhelmed by her selfless love and courage, commits himself to her once more and walks beside her to the flames.

Music and Background

Norma is Bellini’s masterpiece, written for what the composer called the ‘encylopaedic’ range of expression of the great bel canto singer Giuditta Pasta and closely responsive to the libretto of Felice Romani, which passed through many changes before the composer was satisfied with it. Norma herself is one of the most formidable roles in all opera, calling for extremes of tenderness and fury. Not for nothing does she get taken into the repertory of Wagner singers, and Wagner admitted a personal debt to Bellini’s combination of powerful passion with spacious melodies.

Highlights

Norma’s Act II ‘Casta diva’ is a benchmark aria for sopranos with the substance and finesse to tackle it (and there aren’t many of them). Also in Act II comes a superb scene for the two sopranos – ‘Mira o Norma’.

Did You Know?

The two great Normas of modern times once appeared in the opera together, in 1952. Maria Callas took the title role, Joan Sutherland the small part of Clotilde.

The 19th-century soprano, Therese Tietjens, playing Norma, swung her arm so wide as she struck the gong that she hit her leading man, who collapsed unconscious at her feet.

Recommended Recording

Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, John Alexander, London Symphony Orchestra/Richard Bonynge. Decca 425 488-2. A classic from the 1960s, magnificently cast in the two soprano roles, with Sutherland in better voice than when she recorded Norma a second time, aged fìfty-eight(!).

I Puritani

(The Puritans)

FORM: Opera in three acts; in Italian

COMPOSER: Vincenzo Bellini (1801–35)

LIBRETTO: Carlo Pepoli; after Ancelot and Saintine’s play, itself based on Sir Walter Scott’s novel

FIRST PERFORMANCE: Paris, 25 January 1835

Principal Characters

The Puritans

Lord Walton Bass

Sir George Walton, his brother

Bass

Sir Richard Forth

Baritone

Sir Bruno Robertson

Tenor

Lord Arthur Talbot, a Cavalier

Tenor

Henrietta of France, Charles I’s widow

Mezzo-soprano

Elvira, Lord Walton’s daughter

Soprano

Synopsis of the Plot

Setting: A fortress outside Plymouth during the English Civil War

ACT I Elvira has finally overcome her father’s objection to her marriage to the Cavalier, Arthur Talbot, leaving Richard Forth a disgruntled and rejected suitor. To Elvira’s joy, distant horns announce Arthur’s impending arrival and he sweeps in in great style, bringing gifts that include a superb white bridal veil for his betrothed. Lord Walton gives Arthur and Elvira a safe conduct pass, saying that he cannot attend the wedding because he must escort a female prisoner, a suspected spy, to London. The prisoner is brought in and Arthur recognises her as the widow of the executed Charles I. Arthur knows that, if anyone finds out who she is, she will be murdered, and he resolves to help her escape. Draping Elvira’s veil over Henrietta’s head, he smuggles her out of the fortress, intercepted only by Richard, who, seeing the woman is not Elvira, is glad to see Arthur go and hopes that he may now win Elvira’s love. On discovering her apparent desertion Elvira loses her reason.

ACT II Elvira’s madness is observed at length in the famous Mad Scene, but the act closes on George Walton and Richard Forth as they confirm their readiness to fight to the death for the Puritan cause and, if necessary, to kill Arthur Talbot.

ACT III Arthur has now delivered Henrietta into safe keeping and is a fugitive. Nevertheless he risks his life to return to Elvira who is so shocked that she seems, partially, to regain her senses. But her obviously fragile mental state deeply disturbs Arthur and he refuses to leave her, even when he hears his Puritan enemies approaching, although he knows that capture will mean death. But, just as he is about to be summarily executed, news arrives of Cromwell’s victory and the granting of a general amnesty. Elvira’s joy finally restores her to sanity, Arthur is a free man and the lovers are united.

Music and Background

Written for Paris, I Puritani is generally considered the most sophisticated – though perhaps among the less dramatic – of Bellini’s opera scores, with a finer grasp of orchestration (the composer’s undeniable weak point) than he showed elsewhere. There is a pervasive militarism in the music, with prominent brass and percussion, and marching rhythms that bear out Bellini’s own description of his work here as ‘robust’ and ‘severe’. But there is also brilliance in the vocal writing, which demands a strong quartet of principal singers and, especially, a tenor with good top notes.

Highlights

Elvira’s Act II ‘Qui la voce’ is one of the more affecting mad scenes in Italian opera; and the duet ‘Suoni la tromba’, also in Act II, is a famously stirring example of Bellini’s martial music.

Did You Know?

Bellini wrote no comedies. He always chose to place his characters in what he termed situazioni laceranti – heart-rending predicaments.

George Bernard Shaw disliked the opera intensely, saying that the music ‘has so little variety in its cloying rhythms that it vies for dullness with any Italian opera on the stage’.

Recommended Recording

Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano, La Scala Milan/Tullio Serafin. EMI CDS7 47308-8. A 1955 recording in mono, but with Callas in superbly stylish form; not always beautiful but powerfully dramatic.

La Sonnambula

(The Sleepwalker)

FORM: Opera in two acts; in Italian

COMPOSER: Vincenzo Bellini (1801–35)

LIBRETTO: Felice Romani; after Scribe and Aumer’s ballet-pantomime

FIRST PERFORMANCE: Milan, 6 March 1831

Principal Characters

Amina, an orphan

Soprano

Teresa, her foster-mother

Mezzo-soprano

Lisa, an innkeeper

Soprano

Alessio, a villager

Bass

Elvino, a wealthy landowner

Tenor

Count Rodolfo, the local lord

Bass

Synopsis of the Plot

Setting: A Swiss village; early 19th century

ACT I The villagers have gathered together to celebrate the forthcoming betrothal of Amina and Elvino. The only one not joining in is Lisa, who loves Elvino herself, and is not mollified by the unwelcome attentions of Alessio. The marriage contract is signed; Elvino pledges Amina everything he owns and gives her a ring and a bunch of wild flowers. In return, Amina promises him her love. At that moment a handsome stranger in a soldier’s uniform arrives on the scene, apparently on his way to the castle. No one recognises Count Rodolfo, who is persuaded by Lisa to stay the night at the inn. As dusk approaches, Teresa warns the villagers to go home, for fear of the white phantom that haunts the area. At the inn Lisa is flirting with Rodolfo in his room; she tells him that his identity has been discovered and the villagers will soon come to offer him their respects. They are interrupted by a noise and Lisa quickly leaves. Amina, sleepwalking, enters the room and Rodolfo realises she must be the ‘phantom’. Unwilling to cause her embarrassment, Rodolfo leaves her alone (he exits through the window), just before the villagers crowd in to discover the sleeping Amina in Rodolfo’s room. Lisa has thoughtfully brought Elvino and Teresa along to witness her rival’s disgrace and the girl is roundly condemned by all before the wedding is cancelled.