maria de rudenz - i

Gaetano Donizetti
MARIA DE RUDENZ
ORC 16
in association with
Box cover: The Bride, or Novice Taking the Veil, c. 1887
by Mattijs Maris (1839-1917). Bridgeman Art Library.
Booklet cover: Caroline Ungher, Donizetti’s first Maria de Rudenz
Opposite: Gaetano Donizetti commemorative medal
–1–
Gaetano Donizetti
MARIA DE RUDENZ
Dramma tragico in tre parti
Libretto by Salvadore Cammarano
Maria de Rudenz …………………......……………………Nelly Miricioiu
Matilde di Wolff, her cousin…………......………………....Regina Nathan
Corrado di Waldorf……………………….....………….Robert McFarland
Enrico, his brother……………..…………….....………………Bruce Ford
Rambaldo, an old retainer………..……………......….Matthew Hargreaves
Il Cancelliere del Castello………………...……….......……..Nigel Douglas
Knights, ladies, retainers, servants, nuns..................Geoffrey Mitchell Choir
Geoffrey Mitchell, chorus master
Philharmonia Orchestra
Leader: Christopher Warren-Green
Harp: Aline Brewer
Bass clarinet: John Stenhouse
David Parry, conductor
–2–
Producer and Artistic director: Patric Schmid
Managing director: Stephen Revell
Assistant conductors: William Lacey and Peter Selwyn
Repetiteur: Fiona MacSherry
Italian coach: Marco Impallomeni
Notes and English libretto: Jeremy Commons
Performing edition prepared by Robert Roberts and Patric Schmid
Recording engineer: Robert Auger
Assistant engineer and editing: Chris Braclik
Recorded at All Hallows Church, Gospel Oak, London
September 1997
Francesco Bagnara’s set designs for the original production in Venice are reproduced
with kind permission of the Museo Correr, Venice
–3–
Napoleone Moriani (Enrico), Carolina Ungher (Maria) and Giorgio Ronconi (Corrado),
the cast of the first performance of Maria de Rudenz at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice 1838
CONTENTS
Maria de Rudenz by Jeremy Commons......................................Page 10
Performance history by Tom Kaufman......................................Page 69
The story..................................................................................Page 75
Argument.................................................................................Page 81
Die Handlung...........................................................................Page 86
Agromento...............................................................................Page 92
Libretto....................................................................................Page 97
–5–
CD 1
57’49
PART ONE
Prelude and chorus
[1] ‘Laude all’ Eterno amor primiero
Aria – Corrado
[2] ‘Eglia ancora non giunge’
Duetto – Corrado, Enrico
[3] ‘Fratello!’
[4] ‘Qui di mie pene un angelo’
[5] ‘Fratello! Enrico! Abbracciami’
Aria – Maria, Rambaldo
[6] ‘Surse giorno fatal’
[7] Cavatina ‘Si, del chiostro penitente’
[8] Cabaletta ‘Sulla mia tomba gelida’
Scena e coro – Rambaldo
[9] ‘Qui de’vassali move’
Finale primo
[10] ‘Matilde!’… ‘(Chi vegg’io!)’
[11] Larghetto ‘Chiuse al dì per tel le ciglia’
[12] Stretta ‘Maria, di fidi sudditi’
-6-
Time
Page
4’45
99
5’38
100
3’13
5’16
3’52
101
105
109
5’10
4’04
4’14
111
115
116
5’04
118
4’54
6’18
5’11
121
125
127
CD 2
75’24
PART TWO
Time
[1] Preludio
3’55
Scena ed Aria – Enrico, Rambaldo, Maria
[2] ‘Ebben, colei?’
4’11
[3] Aria ‘Talor nel mio delirio’
4’37
[4] Cabaletta ‘Al nuova dì? Ah!…’
3’16
Duetto finale – Maria, Corrado, Rambaldo, Matilde, Chorus
[5] ‘Che fu!… Son io!’
5’51
[6] ‘Fonte d’amare lagrime’
7’51
[7] ‘È d’altra il cor… Nè franger’
4’03
Page
131
131
137
139
140
145
149
PART THREE
Chorus
[8] ‘Sì, quell’ombra sepolcrale’
Duetto – Enrico, Corrado, Rambaldo, Chorus
[9] ‘Tardi, ah! Tardi giungesti’
[10] ‘A me cui financo’
[11] ‘Vengo… sì’
Chorus
[12] ‘O giovinetta sposa’
–7–
4’29
151
3’41
4’10
3’07
155
158
162
3’00
164
Time
Aria finale – Maria, Corrado, Rambaldo, Chorus
[13] ‘Ah! fra gl’amplessi tuoi’
2’14
[14] ‘Mostro iniquo, tremar tu dovei’
3’59
[15] ‘Al misfatto enorme e rio’
6’00
Page
164
166
169
APPENDIX
Chorus
[16] ‘Fu vista in arme sul far del giorno’
Aria – Enrico, Chorus
[17] ‘Che pensi Enrico?.. Il pensar che per te peno’
–8–
2’10
172
7’54
173
Nelly Miricioiu
MARIA DE RUDENZ
Amor, vendetta, gelosia, furore:
Chi vincerà?
(Love, revenge, jealousy, fury:
Which of you will triumph?)
Maria de Rudenz, Part II
Non ha legge, né confine
Oltraggiato, immense amore.
(When an immense love is outraged
It knows neither law nor limit.)
Maria de Rudenz, Part III
ANY ART, it goes almost without saying, must always be changing and
developing. If it is going to reflect the age that produced it, it must keep
abreast of that age. That is to say, it must always be seeking new topics, or at
least new and contemporary insights into topics, and new modes of expression.
Its territory and its boundaries cannot remain fixed and immovable.
Within an enormous landscape of initiative and experimentation, however,
there will be some departures which prove more profitable than others. Some
will excite the enthusiasm of the public, while others will provoke its wrath
and indignation. History, too, will reveal that some new avenues led to fertile
ground, while others ended in barren waste. Some new departures, we may
–10–
decide, would have been better not tried. Those of us who believe that art
should be positive and constructive in its effect – should enlarge the human
spirit and expand our sympathies and understanding – have only to look at
many contemporary films and television programmes, with their emphasis
upon crime and gratuitous and sadistic violence, to find ourselves asking not
whether such films are well made, but whether indeed they ought ever to have
been made at all. History may eventually endorse our doubts. But while it
may be of great concern in the immediate present whether such films and
programmes should be made and screened, it is perhaps equally right and
necessary that we should find ourselves challenged, and our assumptions
questioned. The arts can scarcely be said to be flourishing and developing
unless they make us think and react – make us pause, reflect, and reformulate
our ideas.
It also follows that what seems provocative and perhaps shocking to one age
may come to be regarded as acceptable, perhaps even tame, to the next. Yet
it is equally possible, even as the provocative settles into its historical context,
that it may retain something – some element or degree – of the extreme
quality that affronted its original audience. Either way,
the
fascination to a later age is to try to rediscover the qualities that were found so
provocative – and to re-imagine the indignation that greeted them.
Maria de Rudenz is a work that demands just such an approach. It is an
important opera, since it is the last Donizetti produced – before beginning to
modify his concepts and his style under the influence of Nourrit – he wrote
–11–
Poliuto, and then, following the prohibition of that work, left Italy for Paris.
Maria de Rudenz represents, therefore, the culmination of a long-developing
stream of activity that had produced such operas as Anna Bolena, Parisina,
Maria Stuarda and Lucia di Lammermoor. But at the same time it is a
treatment of a subject that stirred up such a hornets’ nest of opposition that,
roundly condemned by its first Venetian audiences, it received only two, or at
the most three, performances. It was the most resounding fiasco of Donizetti’s
career. As we trace its history, we must keep asking ourselves such questions as
‘What induced him to accept such a subject in the first place?’ and ‘Does the
music he composed for it justify that choice?’
It is, fortunately, an opera for which much documentation survives, and
since its genesis is of considerable interest in itself, we shall trace it in some
detail. It begins in February 1837, when Donizetti was in Venice for the
premiere of Pia de’Tolomei, an opera which was given, not at the Teatro La
Fenice – which had burned down in December 1836 – but at the Teatro
Apollo. Only two days after that premiere, on 20 February 1837, the composer
signed a further contract with the impresario Alessandro Lanari, to write ‘una
grande opera seria’ for the opening of the carnival of 1838 when, it was
confidently expected, the Teatro La Fenice would be rebuilt and ready for reopening. Donizetti’s fee was to be 10,000 francs. And the librettist whose
services both composer and impresario hoped to engage was Salvatore
Cammarano.
–12–
The contract, it must be pointed out, was signed well before Lanari had any
idea whether or not he would be successful in securing the management of the
Fenice for its reopening season. Consequently he was at some pains to spell out
his position when he wrote (from Bologna) to Donizetti in Naples on 22 May
1837:
Before the end of this month it will be decided whether or not I am
to have the management of the Fenice. If I am, I shall have no need to
ask favours of you: let us wait, then, for the matter to be decided, and
then we can agree on the subject, which, as you know, must be
approved by the Presidency [the three-man directorate of the theatre].
In the meantime I can tell you that there will be two prima donnas,
Ungher and Tadolini, as well as Moriani and Ronconi.
Matters did not, however, work out either as quickly or as easily as Lanari
hoped. At the beginning of the following month, on 2 June, he wrote further,
reporting that the ‘Società’ – the controlling board of the theatre – had met on
28 May, but that doubts had arisen over whether the reconstruction could be
completed in time for the traditional opening date of Carnival, 26 December.
They had decided, therefore, to put back the reopening until the spring of
1838, when, moreover, it was hoped that ‘some Artist of European-wide fame’
might be available to lend extra brilliance to the occasion.
Lanari found himself in considerable embarrassment. Earlier, in his
confidence that the theatre would be ready for 26 December, he had gone
–13–
ahead and engaged his company of singers. He was, therefore, now faced with
having them on his payroll but with nowhere for them to sing. His letter went
on to explain that the ‘excellent’ Ungher had generously released him from his
obligation, and then asked Donizetti if he would be willing to postpone the
date on which his opera was to be produced: if Lanari gained the management
of the Fenice for spring 1838, it could be given in the Carnival of 1839. Such
an arrangement, he suggested, would leave Donizetti free to accept any
advantageous offer that might come his way for the approaching Carnival of
1838.
Donizetti’s reply, while appearing to be accommodating, in fact protected
his position in every eventuality. Writing from Naples on 8 June he said:
I do not wish to be a weight about your neck, just as you do not wish
to be a cause of loss to me.
You well know that I cannot accept engagements outside Naples for
two seasons in succession, that is to say Carnival and spring, so that I
could not serve someone else in the first and you in the second. Let us
agree as follows. I shall not hold myself engaged with you for the
Carnival… but shall write to Maestro Pedroni in Milan1, with the aim
that, should he be able to find me another contract with the same terms
(apart from the singers – I should have to hear who they were) for
_______________________________________
1
Pedroni was a member of the publishing house of Ricordi, and was clearly involved in the
negotiation of contracts.
–14–
Carnival, or even for spring, I shall accept, and shall regard myself as
released from my obligations to you.
If, on the other hand, Lanari could make him a firm and immediate offer
for spring 1838, he agreed to abandon any attempt to find an alternative
contract for Carnival, and to regard himself as committed to Lanari.
Fortunately all these speculations proved unnecessary, for by the time Lanari
next wrote, on 23 June, the Società had determined that the Fenice must at all
costs be ready to reopen on 26 December. They were, however, beginning
to meddle in other areas. They sought, as Lanari explained, a variation in
his Prospectus:
This initially consisted of wishing to see either Pedrazzi substituted
for Moriani, or Marini for Ronconi; now, however, they have restricted
themselves exclusively to the first of these alternatives.
Knowing how little the prospect of losing Moriani, at this time a young
singer of very great promise, would please Donizetti, he added the postscript:
See what kind of Directors I have to deal with. You know better than
I, and without wronging Pedrazzi, how much preferable Moriani is; yet
those gentlemen do not want him at any cost. If you could see your
way to write the Presidency a letter pointing out the mistake they’re
making, perhaps they might think again. If you do it, though, do it at
once because there’s no time to be lost.
–15–
There was still worse to come. On 12 July Lanari wrote further, saying that
he had just managed to gain provision for another bass in the company – he
had in mind either Marini or Cosselli – when Count Boldù, the Mayor of
Venice and president of the Società, had complicated matters by reverting to
his idea of engaging an ‘Artist of European-wide fame’.
The artist whom he had all along had in mind, to Lanari’s distress, was
Giuditta Pasta, even though by this time she was in vocal decline and having
increasing difficulty with pitch. By comparison with Carolina Ungher, the
fiery German soprano who had already proved herself in Parisina and Belisario,
Pasta could be regarded only as a liability. In high dudgeon, therefore, Lanari
had withdrawn his application to assume the management, saying that he
regarded himself as free and released from all obligation.
This threat to withdraw entirely brought matters, as he had doubtless
foreseen, to a crisis, and he found himself summoned to Venice – or, as it
turned out, to Padua, since entering Venice would have entailed a two weeks’
quarantine2 – to try to resolve the situation. The resulting confrontation was,
as he told Donizetti on 30 August, marked by ‘grandi contrasti’ – great
disagreements – between himself and the representative of Count Boldù, who
could not himself be present since he had fallen gravely ill. The Società was
______________________________________
2
As a result of the cholera epidemic that had swept through Italy in 1836-1837, there were strict
sanitary regulations in force in most of the states which made up pre-unification Italy. Any
traveller wishing to pass from one part of Italy to another was likely to be detained in quarantine
for several weeks at the frontier town or port of entry to any particular state.
–16–
apparently prepared to yield on the question of Moriani or Pedrazzi, but not
upon that of Carolina Ungher or Giuditta Pasta.
The result was a compromise. Pasta, it was proposed, should sing in 20
performances instead of 40, and Ungher in 30. Pasta should sing in an ‘old’
(ie: already produced elsewhere) opera – probably Mercadante’s Il Giuramento
– and in a new opera, also by Mercadante (Le Due Illustri Rivali). Ungher, on
the other hand, should launch the season with Rosmunda in Ravenna, an
opera by the young Neapolitan composer Giuseppe Lillo, and should then
appear in Donizetti’s opera. Donizetti’s opera, it will be noted, was no longer
expected to open the season – at some point of the negotiations the proposed
order had changed, and the risky honour of facing the public on St Stephen’s
day had now passed to Lillo.
Eventually this whole protracted argument regarding the preference to be
given to Pasta or Ungher proved ‘a tale… full of sound and fury, signifying
nothing’, for the ensuing negotiations with Pasta came to nothing: she did not
participate in the 1837-38 season. Consequently Lanari’s company, as he had
hoped from the start, consisted of Ungher, Tadolini, Moriani and Ronconi. Of
these, the only one not to take part in Donizetti’s opera was Eugenia Tadolini,
though he was offered her services and could have used her had he so wished.
Even while these negotiations and manoeuvrings had been underway,
consideration was also being given to the subject that Donizetti and
Cammarano were to set. On 25 August, the day Lanari had set out to attend
–17–
GIACOMO ROPPA
Enrico
Ancona, 1841
GIUSEPPINA
STREPPONI
Maria
Ancona, 1841
the meeting in Padua, he had written to the composer:
In the meantime I hope that you will have thought about a subject
for the opera you are to write, and that Camarano [sic] will have
prepared two [scenarios] – that is to say, one for three characters, for
Ungher, Moriani and Ronconi, and the other for four, or in other
words Ungher, Tadolini, Moriani and Marini, according to the manner
in which the Presidency will wish to be served.
The first subject that Donizetti and Cammarano proposed was not that
which eventually became Maria de Rudenz but a French melodrama, Un Duel
sous le Cardinal de Richelieu, by Lockroy and Badon. As a dramatic plot suited
to the temperaments of the singers at his disposal, it caught Donizetti’s
imagination. As he wrote to his brother-in-law Antonio Vasselli on 19
September, ‘It is effective drama, I particularly see in it both comic and tragic,
something that matters to me very much for both Roncorni and Ungher.’3 It
was not a suggestion, however, which was destined to be adopted. Less than
two weeks later, in some dismay, Donizetti informed Vasselli that:
The poet finds the subject for Venice difficult, and yesterday told
___________________________________________
3
An intriguing and not altogether explicable remark, since we nowadays remember both these
singers as having specialised in serious opera. The reference to Roncorni, if not to Ungher, may,
however, be partly explained by reference to the early years of his career. When he made his début,
in Pavia in 1831, he attracted attention for a beautiful and flexible but, as yet, not very large
baritone voice. Trained by his father, the tenor Domenico Ronconi, who monitored his career very
carefully, he sang at first in smaller rather than larger theatres, and in roles that did not unduly tax
his voice. These were often in semi-serious rather than serious operas – works
–20–
me… that I must set another. I have the pains of Purgatory in my body
on account of such uncertainties… All day yesterday I read, but all
subjects steeped in blood! God knows when the poet will come, and
what I shall have to compose!
If Un Duel sous le Cardinal de Richelien was thus set aside, we may note that
it was later taken up again, and in 1843 became Maria di Rohan. In the
immediate present, however, Vasselli, responding to his brother-in-law’s needs,
sent down to Naples the three volumes of Bulwer Lytton’s Rienzi. This
alternative proved no more satisfactory, for, as Donizetti commented on
5 October:
As for Rienzi, it doesn’t seem to me suitable, at least so far (I’m at the
third volume). What do you think? A man who seeks to establish free
government?
What is extraordinary is not that he should have abandoned or rejected these
subjects, but that, given his earlier remark about ‘subjects steeped in blood’, he
should have accepted Cammarano’s next suggestion: La Nonne Sanglante, a
______________________________________
such as Il Furioso all’Isola di San Domingo and Torquato Tasso, both given at the Teatro Valle in
Rome 1833. Not only was the Teatro Valle a small theatre: these operas were also rather more
intimate than fully serious operas, and did not call for quite such grandiloquent vocal histrionics.
By the last years of the decade, Ronconi was graduating to fully serious work, but Donizetti may
well still have thought of him as an artist who shone best in slightly less taxing operas.
–21–
French melodrama of 1835 by Anicet-Bourgeois and Mallian. Violent and
corpse-strewn, La Nonne Sanglante, which in Cammarano’s hands duly became
Maria de Rudenz, is an extreme example of sanguinary Gothic melodrama. In
its own day many more conservative readers, as we shall see, found it in
unacceptably bad taste; and there are still many of us today who would
condemn it in similar manner. It is, in a word, the most extreme and
extraordinary subject Donizetti ever set.
But let us not anticipate its reception and our ultimate judgment. The
programme of the proposed opera was sent to Lanari in the first days of
October. This, it should be noted, was only a scenario – not a completed
libretto. Consequently on 7 October Donizetti could still write to Vassellli:
‘Imagine how I stand, still not having a comma of the book for Venice, yet
having to deliver the score in December!’ We may also note that in this first
scenario which Cammarano drew up, all four principal characters died, for
Maria slew Enrico, Matilde and Corrado, and then herself. Lanari’s reaction,
dated 13 October, was to protest that too much blood was spilt, but tactfully
he downplayed his adverse reaction by speaking first and last of more practical
considerations:
I have glanced at Cammarano’s programme Maria di Rudens [sic].
Among the different characters I find there, I see a Matilde, who must,
it seems to me, have a fairly interesting part in the manner of that of
Adalgisa [in Bellini’s Norma]. I don’t know if you have ever thought of
giving this part to Tadolini: in this case I must remind you that
–22–
Tadolini is engaged as prima donna assoluta, just as Ungher is, so that
both the size and interest of the part must be comparable. If, as I
believe, I may have decided myself in supposing this, it is indispensable
that you tell me at once whether a seconda donna is sufficient for
Matilde, or whether you really want a so-called prima donna di spalla
[a supplementary prima donna], for in this case I should have to look
about me. Running through the programme, as I said, in haste, it
seems to me that too much blood is spilt. But enough: both you and
Cammarano are skilled in the art, and thus I rest tranquil. I imagine
you will give the part of Carrado to Ronconi, and Enrico to Moriani.
This last part seems to me rather cold, and I should be sorry if Moriani
were not to have a role in the drama equal in interest to that of
Ronconi.
But if Lanari was prepared to depend upon the judgment of Donizetti and
Cammarano, ‘skilled in the art’ as they were, the Presidency of the Fenice most
emphatically was not. Giuseppe Berti, one of the three-man directorate, can
scarcely have read the scenario before he brusquely returned it to Lanari’s agent
in Venice, Angelo Coen. His covering letter, dated 16 October, read:
I return to you the argument of the tragic drama Maria di Rudens,
which the undersigned finds inadmissible both for its excessive atrocity
and for its extraordinary length (if all the dialogue which is there
described is to be versified), and also because it is one of those subjects
which commonly form the basis of tragic operas and which are the
–23–
disgrace of the Italian Theatre. In returning it, I accompany it with a
copy of the drama Gismonda di Mendrisio by the young Signore Pietro
Beltrame, which could be substituted for it, and to much greater
advantage, given that the poet would be willing to make any changes
that the composer might wish… Since the principal passion of the
leading lady is of the same kind, and is built on the same base, as that
of Maria di Rudens, it is possible that Maestro Donizzetti [sic] might
view it with equal favour…
In reporting Berti’s reaction to Donizetti and in forwarding him a copy of
the above letter, Lanari on 20 October was able to add that his agent, Angelo
Coen, had immediately sought an interview, and had succeeded in seeing Berti
on the very evening he had received the letter. Berti had reluctantly conceded
that, if the composition of Maria de Rudenz were already far advanced, he
would be willing to accept it, ‘always provided that it were rendered less tragic
by sparing the death of at least one of the three victims, and especially provided
that the part of Matilde were rendered more interesting’.
This latter concern clearly stemmed from a supposition that the part of
Matilde was intended for Tadolini. Lanari himself, in his covering letter,
sought clarification on this point, since he had not yet received any reply to his
enquiry of 13 October. As for Beltrame’s libretto, Lanari’s comments made it
sufficiently clear that his own personal reaction was adverse, and that he
expected Donizetti’s to be so, too:
Berti has forwarded me a libretto with the express order to forward
–24–
TERESA
BRAMBILLA
Maria
Rome, 1843
EUPHROSINE
PAREPA
Maria
Barcelona, 1845
it to you to see if it pleases you. I forward it out of obedience, and so
as not to act against his wishes. You, on the other hand, may return it
to me, so that I may send it back to its author, and if you care to reply
to me on the subject, I shall transmit your letter verbatim to Signore
Berti. If you will give it a glance, you will see that Ronconi would have
to play the part of a father, and that Tadolini would have to don, and
don yet again, a man’s clothes, provided that she were to accept the part
of Gabriella, which she would certainly find beneath her competence.
At this point, letters clearly began to cross, and our following of the
developing threads of contention is not helped by the fact that Donizetti’s side
of the correspondence is for the most part lost. Writing on 24 October – a
letter that no longer survives – he must have taken up the question of the kind
of singer he required for Matilde, and to have requested a ‘seconda donna’ –
but a seconda donna who was beautiful, young, and a good singer. Lanari,
replying on 31 October, pointed out that the demand was not an easy one to
meet. ‘Beautiful you might have her, so as to leave nothing to be desired, but
a good singer – well, discreetly so.’ In the event, the part went to a Bolognese
singer whose name would otherwise be totally forgotten today: Isabella Casali.
Perhaps as a result of his experiences of working with two prima donnas in
such operas as Maria Stuarda and Rosmonda d’Inghilterra, perhaps because he
felt he had worked this particular vein hard enough, Donizetti on this occasion
firmly ruled out the possibility of writing for both Ungher and Tadolini.
On the same day that Lanari wrote or dictated this last letter – 31 October
–27–
– Donizetti also sat down at his desk and wrote, enclosing what must have
been a vitriolic missive from a thin-skinned Cammarano, occasioned by the
receipt of Beltrame’s Gismonda di Mendrisio. Lanari’s reaction, dated 6
November, was to pour as much oil as he could on troubled waters, but at the
same time the tone of his letter made it plain that he was understandably hurt.
‘I am sorry,’ he began, ‘that Cammarano should have given a sinister
interpretation to my having set you Beltrame’s libretto.’ Then, after repeating
and emphasising that he was only obeying Berti’s orders, he went on:
For the rest it is evident that Cammarano has read only the letter of
the Presidency addressed to my agent Coen, which I sent you in copy:
it is for this reason that he has taken such umbrage. If he had also read
the relevant paragraph in my own letter he would have seen the matter
in its true aspect and would not have written me a letter full of bitter
reproofs… I have for him the greatest esteem, and it seems to me that
I have clearly proved this to him in my actions.
As so often in this correspondence, one is impressed by Lanari’s tact and
patience, especially when, in a further note of 12 November, dealing primarily
with the question of whether or not Donizetti would have to go into
quarantine in Livorno on his way to Venice, he breaks off to send yet further
conciliatory signals to the offended librettist:
I hope that Cammarano, now that you have received my letter, will
–28–
once more feel towards me as he did before, and that he will have
dismissed from his mind all thought that for a single moment I may
have failed towards him in that esteem which, with good reason, I have
always professed, and which I shall profess for him eternally...
This high opinion of Cammarano was, of course, shared by Donizetti
himself. Donizetti’s feelings towards him were dictated both by an appreciation
of his abilities as a librettist, and by compassion for his personal difficulties. In
a letter written less than a fortnight before the premiere of Maria de Rundenz
– a letter in which he rejected a libretto by another author sent to him for
possible composition and performance in Naples – he wrote:
In Naples, moreover, I would not have the heart to take the bread out
of the mouth of the good Cammarano, the father of five children who
has only this to live on, and who is, besides, such an excellent fellow
[sì buono e Galantuomo’]
Donizetti’s surviving letters do not tell us exactly when he received
Cammarano’s text and began composition, but he clearly worked on the score
throughout November. In a letter to Vasselli of 21 November, he remarked
gloomily:
The opera for Venice is making progress, but does not please me
one… So if you hear that they are massacring me, say: I knew it.
On 3 December he left Naples and set out for Venice, where he arrived
–29–
before 20 December. One can only imagine that he travelled with heavy
foreboding, knowing that he himself was not pleased with the opera, that the
Presidency of the Fenice had accepted the subject with reluctance, and that it
was, of its very nature, designed to shock rather than to delight.
His correspondence tells us very little of the ordeal he must have endured in
Venice in the period leading up to the first performance on 30 January 1838,
and in the days immediately following. In a letter to Vasselli of 7 March,
written after his return to Naples, he refers, without elaboration, to the ‘fiasco
in Venice’; and in another, to another correspondent, of 9 March, he simply
says: ‘Maria de Rudenz was unfortunate by half. – The first, yes, the second,
no.’ This remark admits of two interpretations. It could mean that the first half
of the opera was unsuccessful but that the second was not, or that the first
performance was unsuccessful but that the second went better.
We are, however, fortunate to have fascinating and revealing accounts from
several people who were present in Venice at the time.
The first comes from Adolphe Nourrit, the great French tenor who, having
withdrawn from the Paris Opéra following the engagement of Duprez, was
travelling in northern Italy in the company of the German composer
Ferdinand Hiller. They reached Venice about 22 January, and attended a dress
rehearsal of Parts II and III, the final dress rehearsal of the whole opera, and
the first performance. On 23 January, after he had been to the rehearsal of the
last two parts, Nourrit wrote home to his wife in Paris:
Yesterday evening, after dinner, Hiller took me to see Madame
–30–
Ungher, the prima donna whom we had for a season in Paris (today the
first among the first in Italy). Unnecessary to tell you that she extended
me a warm welcome: in Paris she always evidenced much esteem and
sympathy for my talent. Thanks to her, we were able to pass an
agreeable evening. There was no performance taking place at the
theatre, and she enabled us to be present at a dress rehearsal of the last
two acts4 of Donizetti’s opera. This rehearsal held more attraction for
me than all the performances in the world; and now I know one side
more of the theatres in Italy. When he saw me, Donizetti threw himself
about my neck, and introduced me, with fine compliments, to the
principal performers, and to the director, who made me most welcome.
Hiller and I took our places in the stalls, and we heard with interest this
new opera of a composer who, scarcely 40 years old, is already at his
60th score.
There is nothing very new in what we have heard; but it is music
which must please, and I have no doubt but that it will have a great
success. The company struck me as the best of all those I have yet
encountered: there is a baritone, by the name of Ronconi, who has a
delicious and sometimes powerful voice; he sings well, and should have
intelligence as an actor. The tenor Moriani has a charming voice, and
sings with expression; but he seemed to me to be inferior to Ronconi,
both as an actor and as a singer. As for Ungher, she truly has very fine
_______________________________________
4
It will be noted that Nourrit speaks of ‘acts’. Cammarano in his libretto calls them ‘parts’.
–31–
SOPHIE
CRUVELLI
Maria
Trieste, 1849
FELICE
VARESI
Corrado
Florence, 1838
inspirations. Her voice is not good, but she finds powerful accents
when impassioned, and despite her faults I can understand the public’s
enthusiasm for her. I paid my compliments to everybody, trying in my
Italian to say all the gracious things I could.
On 30 January, on the morning after hearing the last dress rehearsal, he
wrote much more briefly:
In the evening we attended the last rehearsal of Donizetti’s opera,
which goes on stage this evening. The first act satisfied me less than the
last two I had already heard. But let us await this evening before passing
judgment.
His account of the first performance, written the following day, read
as follows:
Donizetti’s opera has not been happy. Right from the first act they
began to stifle with protests of ‘chut!’ the rare burst of applause which
tried to sustain the piece, and what was good in the last two acts was
insufficient to avert the storm. It can only be called a complete fiasco,
especially for Donizetti, who is very much loved here, and who had
scored two great successes in the previous years; yet it seems that in
Venice there has never been an example of a maestro who has
succeeded three times running. My conscience prevents me from
declaring the public wrong; for, apart from two or three pieces which
–34–
are good (but which, however, have nothing new to offer), the whole
opera is extremely pallid. And then you cannot imagine the stupidity
of the libretto: it is a loathsome bit of butchery, an imitation of the
Nonne Sanglante, a frightful melodrama from the Porte-Saint-Martin.
The second account, which is undated, comes from the pen of
Mercadante, who, as already mentioned, was in Venice to supervise the first
performances of Le Due Illustri Rivali. It is not an account which does its
author any credit, though he does have the compunction to impress upon his
correspondent, Francesco Florimo, the librarian of the Royal College of
Music in Naples, that he writes in the strictest confidence. The relevant
section, which is here quoted almost in its entirety, reads:
I wish to oblige you by giving you the most sincere report of this
Theatre, but I insist upon your honour that you make no use of it,
since it is very bad for one Artist to spread ill news about his
competitors. Donizetti’s opera was awaited with immense expectation
on the part of the Impresario, who is his ally, and in consequence on
the part of the Company, who are his fanatical flatterers. Never as on
this occasion did the Cavalier Maestro make such use of his jack-hoist
[bindell] and his title. Never as on this occasion did he so assiduously
frequent all the cafés, the inns, the taverns, high society and low
society, the public and private academies, the company of the paid
claques, who were employed to extol his inexhaustible genius, his
great and extraordinary facility, his practical knowledge of voices, of
–35–
Theatre, etc etc, adding that the profound and academic Mercadante
(this by way of jest) would end up the victim of the Bergamasque
Harlequin, who would chop him to pieces and send him packing back
to Novara by dint of old cabalettas. Finally last week the awaited opera
appeared: Maria Rudenz[sic].
It did not fall, rather it utterly collapsed and foundered. The fiasco
was so complete that the Maestro did not remain at the harpsichord
for the third act, but fled from the Theatre, and did not reappear at
either the second or the third of the performances, which were given
despite the public, to honour the contract, but with the promise to
perform the opera no more. In fact this evening they’re giving I
Puritani. The way they’re cursing the Maestro, the indignation against
him, the things they’re saying about him – it’s all indescribable. There
are those who say he’s emptied his sack of ideas; others who say that he’s
grown insolent always repeating the same things; those who claim he
had no intention of [writing a valid opera]; those who say he couldn’t,
or didn’t know how to; yet others who say that he may have had it
orchestrated by his pupils at the Naples Conservatorium. To sum up, it
has been a serious – a very serious – affair. To put it in a nutshell for
you, I would never have imagined that a Cavaliere could fall so. I have
not heard the opera – I made it a scruple not to, since I do not wish to
be quoted as the author of criticisms of a colleague, and I have no reason
to repent of my decision. Now it’s my turn, at the worst to cut the same
figure – certainly no worse can befall me… and even if we must make
–36–
every effort not to show ourselves inferior to these titled Charlatans…
It will be noted that Mercadante here speaks of a total of three performances,
whereas all biographies of Donizetti speak of only two. We are unable to decide
this question one way or the other, but must note that at least two reviews that
appeared at the time would seem to support Mercadante: Il Pirata (6 February
1838) spoke of ‘succeeding evenings’; and Il Corriere dei Teatri (7 March 1838)
of ‘several performances’.
A third witness comes in the form of Girolamo Viezzoli, a faithful friend and
correspondent of the composer Vaccaj. He, too, sent news of the fiasco,
although, like Mercadante, he had not actually seen the opera. Writing from
his home in Treviso on 7 February, he not only reported the criticism and
gossip that were circulating around Venice, but drew a telling comparison
between Donizetti and Mercadante:
I was in Venice a few days ago, but I didn’t hear Donizetti’s opera
because they told me such bad things about it that I couldn’t summon
up the heart to go and hear it. All accuse him of having dashed off his
work carelessly, without taking the trouble to write a single piece that
is studied and masterly. He trusts too much to his facility, and
presumes that the notes that come from his pen are pearls and rubies,
and goes charging ahead without further thought. Mercadante, on the
other hand, is the man who studies and strives to produce something
that is elaborated and worthy of him, so that, even if the result does not
–37–
please, one can say that he has spared no effort, and that he has
produced the work of a Maestro, and that that is what all must do who
have at heard their own honour.
If these accounts are valuable because they give us personal ‘inside’ views, we
must turn to the reviews that appeared in the press to savour the indignation
and disgust that were felt by so many of the audience. The Gazzetta
Privilegiata di Venezia (31 January 1838), for example, began its review with a
resounding condemnation of the whole genre of sanguinary melodrama:
I do not know where we will be led by the new school, which has
made itself the tyrant of the stage, and which I would willingly dub the
school of the evil death. The public is already weary, tired and exhausted
by all these crimes committed for no reason in its dramas: always
daggers, poisons, and tombs, and often multiple deaths, and funerals;
in a word the most lugubrious and atrocious matters, of which polite
company would forbid so much as a mention in conversation, and
which are nevertheless, as a subject for pleasurable pastime and
enjoyment, placed before the eyes of people who have come together to
be entertained in the theatre. The aim is to seek novelty and the result
is to end up in absurdity…
Here is a drama in which matters are carried to such an extreme that
it appears to be nothing but a parody, a caricature of the genre… Of
five characters5 three die, and one – I don’t know if the concept is more
–38–
MME MARIOTTA
Maria
Smyrna, 1851
ROSINA
MAZZARELLI
Maria
Madrid, 1841
new or ridiculous – dies twice, that is to say emerges half dead and
half alive from the grave, delights in wandering about for some time
in the garb and likeness of a ghost, in order to terrify folk and, in due
course, to slay her rival… and then, when her vengeance is complete,
and the errand thus accomplished for which she gave herself the
trouble of leaving the tomb, returns there a second time as if she is
going back to bed, tearing the bandages from her wound, as the libretto
tells us…
In the midst of all these horrors and crimes the generous muse of
Maestro Donizzetti [sic] remained as if overwhelmed and lost – her
inspiration was frozen – and she knew not where to turn to find a
splendid garment with which to cover all that infinity of miseries, of
horror, of blood, of hell, with which nearly every verse of the libretto
is filled. And so let us make a courageous confession: [Donizetti’s]
music as a whole did not please.
Il Gondoliere (3 February) suggested that Cammarano had set himself a
problem: ‘Given four characters, to extract six dead characters from them and
one who survives – needless to say, the most evil of the lot’. Donizetti, the
writer went on, had set himself a similar problem: ‘Given able and applauded
singers, a comfortable and smiling theatre, and a favourably disposed public,
to write an opera which exasperates and makes the public desire the return of
_______________________________________
5
The writer clearly includes Rambaldo among the principal characters, so swelling the more
obvious count of four or five.
–41–
its predecessor [Lillo’s Rosmunda in Ravenna], the work of a novice and,
according to some, a novice of little imagination.’ Both poet and maestro, we
are told, ‘solved their problems in a manner which, if we cannot describe it
as the most satisfying, was certainly the most conclusive.’
There seems no doubt that the opera was rather better received at its
second performance than at the first. But when a Milanese journal, Il Pirata
(6 February), dared to suggest that it ‘shone with a vivid light on the
following evenings, and is now appreciated, applauded, and numbered
among the best operas of Donizetti’, Il Gondoliere (17 February) retorted that
the writer appeared to be speaking about another Teatro La Fenice in another
Venice, where the same operas met with a totally different reception from
that which befell them in the Teatro La Fenice he knew, in the Venice he
lived in!
Not surprisingly, Maria de Rudenz was the last opera Donizetti ever wrote
for Venice: he left the city without being offered another contract. An
association which had begun with his very first produced opera, Enrico di
Borgogna, and which had included a brilliant triumph in Belisario and a
worthy success in Pia de’Tolomei, thus ended on a note of galling defeat,
embarrassment and humiliation.
The fiasco was also unfortunate since the rumours and calumny that
accompanied it brought to an end the amicable working relationship that
had long existed between Carolina Ungher and the composer. As Donizetti
–42–
wrote to a friend on 10 April 1838:
You must know that Ungher had the scant perception to believe that
I spoke ill of her, or wrote ill of her, of her conduct, etc, and so ended
our friendly relationship which has been cultivated for so many years.
That grieved me, and not a little, since I believed I had given her
sufficient proofs of attachment…
Lanari and Donizetti, on the other hand, even if they were not to work
together again, at least retained their respect for each other. In a letter of 8 May
1838 Donizetti remarked to a correspondent:
I hear from Lanari that perhaps he will return to the Fenice, and oh
that it may be so, for there is no impresario shrewder than he is or more
dedicated to serving the public well.
Despite its disastrous baptism in Venice, Maria de Rudenz enjoyed many
productions in Italy in the years that followed. It was seen in Florence, Milan,
Naples, Genoa, Turin, Palermo, Rome and elsewhere: Tom Kaufman’s
complete chronology will be found on page 65. It is interesting to note, as
John Black has pointed out, that at the time of a production in Naples in
1848, Cammarano, notwithstanding his having suggested the subject in the
first place, sought to exonerate himself from responsibility by inserting the
following prefatory note into the printed libretto:
Reasons which it would be out of place for me to note here
–43–
compelled me, many years ago, to reduce a foreign play, La Nonne
Sanglante, for the lyric stage. Those who know the tumultuous and
murky situations in that drama will easily comprehend that I wished to
temper its bizarre nature and its horrors; and if I did not succeed better
in accomplishing my design - perhaps no man could - these brief words
may serve to signify my abhorrence for a gory and northern genre.
Violent and unsavoury though the subject was, it should not be assumed
that all subsequent productions were ill-received and unsuccessful. The
sensational and the shocking will always draw an audience. The opera proved
particularly popular in Livorno in 1838, at the Teatro Valle in Rome in 1841,
in Faenza and Ancona when Giuseppina Strepponi sang it in both towns that
same year, and at the Teatro Apollo in Rome in 1843 with Teresa Brambilla.
Yet Donizetti, when he heard how well Strepponi had fared with it in Ancona,
could not help but lick old wounds:
I read now of the success of Maria di [sic] Rudenz in Ancona, its very
happy reception, and I still bleed for the severity with which they
judged me in Venice.
Outside Italy, Maria de Rudenz was seen in Madrid and Corfu (both 1841),
Lisbon (1842), Malta (1843), Alexandria (1844), Barcelona (1845), and even
as far afield as Rio de Janeiro (1851) and Buenos Aires (1854). We may,
however, note the significant absence from this list of such capitals as Vienna,
Paris and London. It never reached, therefore, the most important and
–44–
influential cities of Europe.
Though the opera as a whole never reached Paris, it should be added that
two of its pieces became familiar to audiences there, since Donizetti, following
the initial fiasco in Venice, briefly resorted to a practice that he had used freely
in his earlier years and that he was never entirely to abandon: that of using an
unsuccessful score as a source from which to draw material for later works. If
he resorted to this habit less frequently in his later years, it was probably
because he found that the more consciously and closely he composed music to
fit a particular context, the less easily and satisfactorily it would transfer to
other situations. There were occasions, however, when it is clear that a
particular piece still seemed suitable for recycling. In the initial months
following the Venetian debacle, it must have seemed extremely unlikely that
Maria de Rudenz would ever surface again. Consequently Donizetti transferred
its most powerful section of all – the concertato of the finale to Part I – to his
very next score, Poliuto, and, eventually, following the prohibition of that work
in Naples, to its Parisian adaptation, Les Martyrs. Several sections were also
borrowed for his second version of Gabriella di Vergy, probably put together in
1838 as a possible substitute for Poliuto in Naples, but not in fact produced.
Then, after his arrival in Paris and his agreement to compose a piece for the
Opéra-Comique, he lifted another item, the off-stage introductory prayer for
Matilde and the women’s chorus, and inserted it, in rather modified form, into
the introduction to his new opera, La Fille du Régiment. If the process stopped
short at this point, it was perhaps because by this time the fortunes of Maria
de Rudenz itself were improving, in Italy at least.
The last 19th-century productions would appear to have been in Sinigaglia
–45–
ENRICO DELLE SEDIE
Corrado
Chieti, 1853
VIRGINIA DE BLASIS
Maria
Florence, 1838
(1867), Rieti (1867) and Macerata (1870). There then followed a silence of
more than a century. It has been left to the second half of the 20th century,
beginning with a concert performance by Opera Rara in London on 27
October 1974, to revive and re-evaluate this opera.
And so we return to the two important questions with which we started:
‘What induced Donizetti to accept such a subject in the first place?’ and ‘Does
the music he composed for it justify that choice?’
We do not, it must be emphasised, have more than the most tenuous direct
evidence on which to draw to answer the first of these questions, and
speculation, as a result, is liable to run riot. Was Donizetti, we may find
ourselves asking, so frustrated and irritated by the seemingly endless and
inconclusive negotiations between Lanari and the presidency of the Teatro La
Fenice that his critical judgment deserted him? Or did he find himself so
pressed for time that he simply reconciled himself to setting whatever
Cammarano suggested? Or could it have been that, following the death of his
wife Virginia in July 1837, his frame of mind was so black that he accepted
this murky subject simply because its mood seemed to complement his own?
While any or all these suggestions may have played a contributory role, there
is at least a very little less speculatory evidence to put us on firmer ground.
It is, however, perplexing, since it leaves us with a paradoxical picture of a
composer who may well have found himself in two minds at once. On the one
hand we have his rejection of other subjects on the grounds that they were cose
–48–
sanguinarie – ‘steeped in blood’. With this we may couple his knowledge that
the Presidency of the Teatro La Fenice had no sympathy for the choice, and his
own adverse reactions as he composed the score: it ‘does not please me one …’.
On the other hand, we have a famous and much-quoted remark that he had
made two years earlier, on 21 July 1835: ‘I want love, for without this [all]
subjects are cold, and [let it be] violent love.’ Maria de Rudenz is, surely, the
extreme example the ne plus ultra – of a subject inspired and fired by violent
love, and may properly be seen as the culmination of a taste which had already
manifested itself in such operas as Fausta, Ugo Conte di Parigi, Parisina and
Rosmonda d’Inghilterra.
A paradox? How else can we describe the action of a composer who accepts
a subject presumably because he recognises it as an extreme example of the
‘violent love’ he seeks in a libretto; and yet who finds himself uneasy in the face
of this very extremity – this exaggeration – which is part and parcel of the
subject. From the start, therefore, he must have realised that he was embarked
upon a risky undertaking: a project that was both an invitation and a
challenge.
And the music he brought to it? Fascinatingly, many of us have had to
change our minds about this opera. Initially we have found ourselves repelled
and offended by the subject, and have been adversely disposed as a result.
Then, after hearing the music, we have had to admit that our preconceptions
were over-hasty, and have had to reformulate our assessment in rather more
–49–
favourable terms. To give but one example among a number, William
Ashbrook, in his first book on Donizetti, published in 1965, wrote: ‘While it
is risky to write a final epitaph for any opera, it is difficult to believe that Maria
di [sic] Rudenz will ever see the stage again.’ That, of course, was penned before
any 20th-century revival had taken place. In his second book, published in
1982, by which time he had an opportunity to see and hear the opera, he
found himself obliged to write: ‘Increased familiarity has altered my original
dim impression of this three-act tragedy.’
One of the major reasons we are moved to make this reassessment is that,
as Donizetti has treated them, neither Maria nor Corrado is the stark onedimensional pasteboard figure of popular melodrama that the plot leads us to
expect. They are both complex characters, presented, surprisingly, in such a
way that they capture our sympathy. Maria, it must be emphasised, is not
merely a baleful figure of vengeance – though she is, of course, very much that;
she is also, and just as importantly, a figure of love. She is sustained throughout
the opera by her love for Corrado, and by the hope that he may once again
extend his affections to her. Even as she reveals the most appalling truths – that
he is, for example, the son of a notorious assassin – she pleads with him to give
her back his love. It is a recognition of this overwhelming love that finally wins
him over in the last bars of the opera.
It follows that it would be a mistake to play the part of Maria simply as one
of stark melodramatic gestures. Much of her music is written piano or
pianissimo, and has an elegiac quality, almost as if she is standing outside
–50–
herself, conscious of the role that circumstances are forcing her to play, and
regretting it. In her final cabaletta, for example, we may note that she begins
with a detached, impersonal statement: ‘When an immense love is outraged /
It knows no law or limits.’ Then, as she goes on to speak more directly of
Corrado, she addresses herself to the bystanders, and refers to him in the third
person. It is not until the second stanza that she confronts him directly, and
then it is once again to balance his wrongs against her love, and to stress that
she loves him despite his ‘depriving her of life and heaven’.
Corrado is similarly complex. In Part III, even as Enrico taunts him to arms
and declares that one of them must die, he feels himself filled with love for this
man whom he has for so long regarded as his brother. He, too, at this point
seems almost detached from the action, as if he exists in a larger and wiser
dimension and can see – and regret – all the tragic mistakes he has been cast
to commit. Nor is this the only point at which he is a larger and more complex
figure than we might expect. Though his past conduct towards Maria has been
despicable, he is humanised, right from the start of the opera, by his genuine
love for Matilde. When we first see him, it is to hear him sing the romanza,
‘Ah! Non avea più lagrime’, one of Donizetti’s most suave and tender love
songs, which moves from an account of his previous sufferings to a declaration
of his present ecstatic happiness. Indeed, until the moment, some scenes later,
when Maria interrupts his avowal of love – one of several effective coups de
théâtre in the opera – he is a totally sympathetic man who is deeply in love,
and who places himself wholly and devotedly at the service of his bride.
If Enrico is a rather less interesting figure, it is surely not, as Lanari thought,
–51–
because he is ‘rather cold’, but because we do not feel that he has this element
of large-souled generosity. His ruling passion is jealousy – jealousy of Corrado,
since they are both in love with Matilde. But his is a more selfish passion, for
we know that she has never reciprocated his love. He became infatuated with
her at a time when she had withdrawn herself from the world in preparation
for entering a convent. She did not encourage his passion and did not respond
to his advances. When she did fall in love, as she eventually most genuinely
did, it was with Corrado.
Matilde, a secondary character by comparison with the other three, does not
require such extended consideration. It should, however, be pointed out that,
whereas each of the other characters is ‘larger than life’, Matilde is not. The
love that she and Corrado feel for each other is the only ‘normal’ affection in
the opera.
Although the seeds of the complexity of character we have traced in Maria
and Corrado are present in the libretto, it is in the music that they really grow
and find expression. For this opera not only ranks among the more intense and
dramatic of Donizetti’s scores, building upon the experience he had gained in
such works as Lucrezia Borgia and Rosmonda d’Inghilterra and eventually put
to good use in Maria di Rohan: it also impressed for its maturity. All the
devices we associate with the later Donizetti are here in abundance: his liking
for expressive moderato cabalettas; his use, in duets, of totally different
melodic and rhythmic material for each voice; his constant and unerringly
effective use of modulation for expressive purposes; and his sure mastery of
–52–
instrumentation, nowhere better illustrated than in the extended prelude for
bass clarinet at the beginning of Part II.
Let us expand just one of these topics: the use, in duets, of different material
for each character. Earlier in his career, in cabaletta movements particularly,
Donizetti would frequently allot the same melodic line first to one character,
then to the other. In the operas of his maturity, this becomes increasingly rare.
His new approach is to identify and pinpoint the emotional position of each
character through the use of individual melodies that cannot possibly be
interchanged. It is, of course, a richer and much more satisfying approach, but
also a more challenging one, since he is forever faced with the problem of
reconciling different melodies and even different rhythmic patterns when the
two voices, after singing separately, join together. In Maria de Rudenz there are
three duets: for Enrico and Corrado in Part I; for Maria and Corrado in Part
II; and for Enrico and Corrado in Part III. All are extended two-part items, so
that we are really talking about six movements, not to mention introductory
scene and tempi di mezzo. And yet in only one – in the cabaletta of the Part III
duet for Enrico and Corrado – do we find the characters singing the same
melody. Even here Donizetti is thinking cogently. Enrico has succeeded in
provoking Corrado to fight with him – each realises that one or the other must
die – and they depart to do battle in a similar enmity of mind. The use of the
same vigorous melody for each is fully justified.
There is, therefore, a heightened awareness of psychological conflict in this
–53–
LUIGIA MATTHEY
Maria
Turin, 1841
TERESA DE
GIULI-BORSI
Maria
Milan, 1842
opera. Yet this more ‘analytical’ approach in no way curbs Donizetti’s melodic
flow. We are still definitely in his ‘middle’ period, before he left Italy and
became an international composer, and, as in all the operas of his middle years,
melody is exuberant and omnipresent.
Several recent commentators have found Parts II and III inferior to Part I.
Yet Nourrit was convinced that it was the other way about. We can only give
our own opinion that both are wrong, for each act has its succession of
highlights. In opera of this period the first act can often seem conventional,
since it is necessarily an exposition, presenting the characters to us, at a time
when the emotional and dramatic tension has yet to build. Yet here we are in
the midst of heightened emotions from the start: Corrado’s love and happiness
in his romanza, ‘Ah! Non avea più lagrime’; Enrico’s jealousy in the duet, ‘Qui
di mie pene un angelo’; all Maria’s woes in her cavatina, ‘Sì, del chiostro
penitente’. When, at the end of the act, she interrupts Corrado’s avowal of love
for Matilde, all the characters’ emotions erupt in a finale of broad melodic
sweep and immense power.
Parts II and III are shorter in length, but in Part II we have both Enrico’s
eloquent ‘Talor nel mio delirio’, and another finale of exceptional
expressiveness and intensity, the duet for Maria and Corrado, ‘Fonte d’amare
lagrime’. Not merely does this end, as we should expect, in heightened
confrontation, but, as we should not expect, in another coup de théâtre: the
murder, or at least the attempted murder, or Maria. Part III brings us not only
a second effective duet for Enrico and Corrado, but the final culminating
–56–
scene which has already been mentioned: Maria’s aria finale. One of Donizetti’s
finest essays in this genre, it is worthy to rank with the final arias of Parisina,
of Lucrezia Borgia, and of Eleonora di Guienna, the revision of Rosmonda
d’Inghilterra. This is, we would contend, a score in which the emotional level
and the musical interest hardly ever slacken – a score which is prevented only
by its story and its unfamiliarity from being recognised as one of Donizetti’s
most fluent and effective. When he composed it, towards the end of the decade
1830-1840, he was at the height of his lyrical powers. At such a time, when
virtually everything he wrote achieved a consistently high level of inspiration,
it is impossible to suggest that this or that opera is ‘better’ than the others.
Maria de Rudenz may start at a disadvantage because of its story, but in musical
terms it is every bit as valid and as worthy as its companions.
Throughout this account, it will have been apparent that the principal
difficulty with this opera – but, paradoxically, also one of the principal reasons
for its interest – is its story. It follows that no introduction would be complete
without some consideration of the evolution of the plot from French
melodrama to Italian opera, and we therefore end this introduction with a few
brief words on this topic. The consideration is all the more important since it
provides an intriguing insight into Cammarano’s methods as a librettist, and
into Donizetti’s as a composer: into the way Cammarano rethought the
material as he reduced it to operatic requirements, and into the manner in
which Donizetti honoured – or abused – his librettist’s text.
La Nonne Sanglante is a five-act play, and the action is therefore considerably
–57–
more extended and complicated than that of the opera. It begins in the
catacombs of Rome, so that we actually see Conrad’s desertion of Marie (or
Stella, to give her the name she has assumed at the start of the play), whereas
we are merely told of it in the opera. There is an extensive subplot involving
gypsies, one of whom is erroneously accused of stabbing Marie (the stabbing
that occurs at the end of Part II of the opera). Perhaps most interesting of all,
there is another principal character: the historical figure, Cagliostro6.
Though prominent, Cagliostro’s part is strictly peripheral to the
requirements of the plot: he shadows Conrad throughout the action,
constantly extricating him from dangers, both because he has been
blackmailed by Conrad’s mother into agreeing to watch over him, and because
he is employed by Marie to spy upon him.
Most of the main events of the plot – Conrad’s desertion of Marie in the
__________________________
The self-styled Count Alessandro Cagliostro (1743-1795) was one of the most colourful and
disreputable of 18th-century adventures and impostors. Born in Palermo, his true name was
Giuseppe Balsamo. Forced to flee from Sicily to escape punishment for his crimes, he studied
alchemy in Rhodes and then presented himself to the grand master of the Kings of Malta as Count
Cagliostro. His travels, which took him to many parts of Europe, found him in 1771 in London
and Paris, ‘selling love-philtres, elixirs of youth, mixtures for making ugly women beautiful,
alchemistic powders, etc, and deriving large profits from his trade’ (Encyclopaedia Britannica,
14th edition). Much of the last ten years of his life was spend in prison, first in Paris, then in
London, and finally in Rome, where he was condemned to death as a heretic, but had his sentence
commuted to life imprisonment. He died in the fortress prison of San Leo, while his wife was
immured in a convent.
6
–58–
catacombs; his stabbing her; and the murder of Mathilde – are present in the
play, just as they are in the opera, though the third, as will soon be mentioned,
is differently handled. One of the characters, on the other hand, is markedly
different. Henri is not, like Enrico in the opera, the supposed brother of
Conrad, and he is not in love with Mathilde. He is a distant relative of the
family of Rudenz, and it is he, rather than Mathilde, who inherits the castle
when Marie fails to appear to claim her rights. When she eventually returns,
he unsympathetically rejects her, and tries to withhold the small portion of her
father’s legacy to which she still has a claim. He himself is in monetary
difficulties, and sells the castle to Mathilde’s father, thus bringing about the
situation where Mathilde and Conrad can expect to live there. The duel that
he fights in the opera also features in the play, but he is poisoned by Marie
before ever he can take part in it.
Apart from Cagliostro, every one of the principal characters perishes. Henri,
as just mentioned, is poisoned by Marie. Mathilde is stabbed, but the incident
is more contrived and convoluted than in the opera. Here Marie enters
Mathilde’s bedroom and administers her a sleeping potion, then taunts
Conrad, and at the critical moment extinguishes the only light. Conrad,
lunging out in the dark, thinks he is killing Marie, but stabs Mathilde by
mistake. As for Marie herself, she sets fire to the castle, but still hopes to
win back Conrad’s love and escape with him to happiness. He, however,
bars her escape route through a secret panel, and they are consumed in
the flames together.
Cammarano’s task in reducing such an amorphous mass of melodramatic
–59–
MARIETTA ALBINI
Maria
Rome. 1841
PIETRO BALZAR
Corrado
Rome, 1841
incidents to the proportions of a three-part libretto was a formidable one, and
it says much for his dramatic instinct and constructional ability that he
managed it so well.
He began by stripping away all the inessentials, including Cagliostro and the
gypsy subplot. He then entirely rethought the character and role of
Henri/Enrico, integrating him into the central plot by making him
the supposed brother of Conrad/Corrado, and his secret and jealous rival
for the love of Mathilde/Matilde. And then, by beginning the action in medias
res and merely narrating the events that had transpired in the catacombs in
Rome, he cut down the quantity of action that had to be shown.
He also modified a number of small but significant details. In the play,
following her survival of her ordeal in the catacombs, Stella/Marie takes
the veil and becomes Mother Superior of the Convent of Aarau (Arau in the
libretto). Since the censorship of the day would not allow the presentation
upon the public stage of persons in holy orders, Cammarano had no
alternative but to suppress this detail. Following her stabbing by Conrad,
moreover, she wanders about, mistaken in the play as in the opera for a ghost,
but with the blood-stained dagger still embedded in her side. Cammarano
spares us this unrealistic and gothic detail.
He also modified – and in some cases simplified – the deaths of the
characters. Enrico now fights his duel with Corrado, and meets his death as a
result. Matilde is still stabbed, but now it is Maria who deliberately strikes the
–62–
blow – not Corrado who strikes blindly in the dark. As already mentioned,
Cammarano originally intended that Maria should also slay Corrado, and then
herself. But at the urging of the presidency of the Teatro la Fenice, he was
obliged to allow one character – Corrado – to survive. Maria commits suicide
by tearing the bandages from her still unhealed stab wounds.
What is particularly interesting is that, omitting earlier parts of the plot by
turning them into a pre-action that has transpired before the curtain rises,
Cammarano was nevertheless scrupulous to provide all the information the
audience required to follow the action. With Lucia di Lammermoor and Il
Trovatore in mind, most of us think of him as the author of fast-moving plots
that leap from one passionate situation to another, and in which the
connecting links of plot-information, relegated to recitatives, frequently get
lost down the cracks. In Maria de Rudenz the same thing happens but
fascinatingly, it is Donizetti rather than Cammarano who is responsible.
Let us elaborate. Cammarano was careful to provide passages of explanation.
At a very early stage, for example, we learn that there is a ‘mystery’ surrounding
Corrado’s birth, and that he himself is ignorant of his true origins.
Cammarano, in the scena preceding Maria’s cavatina in Part I – is careful
to explain:
Egli nacque da tal, che morte infame
Sul partibolo avea
(He was born of a father who suffered
–63–
An ignominious death upon the scaffold)
As befits information of such importance, it is repeated in Part II, in the
scena preceding the duetto-finale:
Ma, ben lo sai, di vili, atroci colpe
Costui macchiato, sul germano lido
Fu spento dal carnefice
(But he, as well you know, stained
With vile and atrocious crimes, met his death
At the executioner’s hands on the German coast)
Donizetti, as will be shown by the virgolati in our libretto – the double
quotation-marks which are traditionally used to enclose sections of a text that
a composer omitted – chose not to set the earlier of these lines. We are
therefore left in the dark right up until the ending of Part II, aware that there
is some mystery surrounding Corrado but ignorant of its exact nature.
Nor is this an isolated example. We may also find ourselves asking: ‘Why, if
Corrado loved Maria and eloped with her, did he come to regard her with such
intense hatred?’ ‘Why did he inveigle her down into the catacombs of Rome,
and – at least as he acted initially – leave her there to die?’ Once again
Cammarano is careful to provide us with the answer: in Venice he saw her
descending furtively into the garden to keep an assignation with an unknown
–64–
man; he consequently leaped to the conclusion that she was betraying him.
But was this so? A few moments later Cammarano also informs us that the
unknown man was no lover, but the elderly family retainer Rambaldo, come
as a secret messenger from her father. Cammarano, as always, conveyed the
information as briefly and as concisely as he could. But Donizetti, with what
we may well wish to condemn as a cavalier disregard for his audience’s
comprehension, in this instance omitted all the lines in question.
When one takes all this into consideration – Cammarano’s habitual
concision and Donizetti’s further omission of many lines – it comes as no
surprise to learn that Maria de Rudenz is one of the shortest full-length operas
in the Donizetti canon, possibly the briefest of all. Giuseppe Berti, when he
first received Cammarano’s synopsis in Venice, had anticipated ‘extraordinary
length (if all the dialogue which is there described is to be versified)’; but he
was mistaken, misled by the way Cammarano had laid out his synopsis. For
the finished opera is concise and swift-moving.
We have sought to give this present recording extra interest by including two
items that did not form part of the original text: a chorus believed to have
been composed for a production in Milan, and a cavatina for Enrico that was
composed for Moriani in Venice but apparently not sung. Since, however, they
are given in an appendix rather than in the body of the opera, the opera itself
is heard in its original form, sparse and fast-moving.
Let us sum up. When we see Maria de Rudenz in the theatre, it is a fast–65–
moving opera in which the intricacies of the plot are difficult, not to say
impossible, to follow. A recording, accompanied by a libretto in which the
virgolati passages are included, makes for easier understanding. In either
context – in the theatre or on record – it is also an opera in which the
characters – monstres sacrés, if ever characters deserved the description, but
monstres sacrés with a fascinating degree of human complexity – are driven, we
may not always fully comprehend why, by towering and turbulent passions.
This, of course, only serves to place it fairly and squarely in the mainstream
development of Italian opera.
As a work we may find it repellent and fascinating at the same time: an opera
which begins by provoking our scepticism and perhaps our scorn, but which
ends up by enthralling us for the power and passion of its music. It is, above
all, the supreme embodiment and illustration of Donizetti’s artistic credo:
‘I want love, for without this all subjects are cold, and let it be violent love.’
© Jeremy Commons
–66–
LUIGIA
BOCCABADATIGAZZUOLI
Maria
Lisbon, 1842
LUIGI
FERRARI-STELLA
Enrico
Bologna, 1845
A PERFORMANCE HISTORY OF MARIA DE RUDENZ
Date
City
Theatre
Maria
Enrico
Corrado
30.01.1838
- -.03.1838
14.07.1838
26.10.1839
10.02.1840
17.04.1841
24.04.1841
01.06.1841
03.10.1841
23.10.1841
Aut. 1841
27.02.1842
10.10.1842
26.12.1842
26.12.1842
03.10.1843
10.10.1843
07.11.1843
Carn. 1844
-- .03.1844
28.12.1844
05.11.1845
Venice
Florence
Livorno
Florence
Verona
Ancona
Madrid
Faenza
Rome
Turin
Corfu
Lisbon
Milan
Genoa
Ferrara
Malta
Rome
Foggia
Terni
Catania
Alexandria
Lisbon
La Fenice
Pergola
Avvalorati
Pergola
Filarmonico
Muse
De La Cruz
Comunale
Valle
Carignano
San Giacomo
Sao Carlos
La Scala
Carlo Felice
Comunale
Manoel
Apollo
Dauno
Nobili
Comunale
Europeo
Sao Carlos
Ungher
Blasis
Strepponi
Strepponi
Strepponi
Strepponi
Mazzarelli
Strepponi
Albini
Matthey
Ercolani
L. Boccabadati
De Giuli-Borsi
Schieroni-Nulli
Mattioli
Ruggeri
T. Brambilla
Servoli
Polidori
Parepa
Sedelmayer
Ranzi
Moriani
Zoboli
Morini
Corelli
Corelli
Roppa
Ojeda
Roppa
Morini
Severi
Del Riccio
Ferretti
Severi
Roppa
Montanari
Carli
Roppa
Pompejano
Pozzolini
Nerozzi
Ronconi
Varesi
Ronconi
Ronconi
Ronconi
Ronconi
Miral
Ronconi
Balzar
Alberti
Raimondi
Antoldi
Ferlotti
Colini
Pellegrini
Palchetti
Ronconi
Cammarano
Taddei
Capelli
Severi
Salandri
–69–
Date
City
Theatre
Maria
Enrico
Corrado
22.11.1845
27.12.1845
1845-46
25.07.1847
20.11.1847
26.12.1847?
15.08.1848
10.01.1848
18.10.1849
04.03.1849
28.07.1849
-- .08.1849
Barcelona
Bologna
Trani
Florence
Bitonto
Livorno
Naples
Palermo
Fabriano
Trieste
Naples
Lucca
Nuevo
Comunale
Parepa
Mascarich
Schinardi
Parodi
Lusignani
Basseggio
Del Fante
Parodi
Vitali-Vergari
Cruvelli
Siesta
Assoni
Torre/Zucchini
24.11.1849
03.11.1850
26.12.1850
1850-51
30.05.1851
11.10.1851
02.12.1851
27.12.1851
01.04.1852
Carn. 1853
-- .05?1853
20.05.1853
Cefalonia
Italiano
Barletta
Reggio Emilia Comunale
Trani
Naples
San Carlo
Smyrna
Cammarano
Rio de Janeiro San Januario
Ferrara
Comunale
Rio de Janeiro Provisorio
Macerata
Chieti
San Fernado
Arezzo
Petrarca
Solieri
Ferrari-Stella
Cimini
Brunacci
Vergari
Bianchi
Agresti
Vitali
Vergari
Alzamora
Rinaldi
StecchiBottardi
Aducci
Apice
Bocioni
Nuovo
Avvalorati
Nuovo
Carolini
Grande
Partenope
Pantera
Evangelista
Lusignani
Vaccaro
Bendazzi-Secchi
Mariotti
Zecchibu
Evangelista
Zecchini
Armandi
Stanghi
–70–
Labocetta
Aducci
Labocetta
Mariotti
Labocetta
Terenzi
Banti
Bettazzi
Cresci
Tucci
Cresci
F. Lablache
Bencich
Zacconi
Cresci
Durante
Colini
Coliva
Amodio
Coliva
Gnone
Ricci
Mazzio
Vitali
Squarcia
Delle Sedie
Giotti
Date
City
-- .05.1853
28.08.1853
26.12.1853?
Carn. 1854
-- .05.1854
25.10.1854
06.01.1855
27.03.1856
-- .01?1857
-- .02.1857
-- .01.1858
-- .12.1858
Carn. 1859
01.01.1859
15.05.1860
07.06.1860
-- .08.1860
Carn. 1861
-- .04.1861
-- .01.1862
-- .01.1863
-- .02.1864
-- .09.1864
-- .07.1865
Cingoli
Lima
Rimini
Spoleto
Oporto
Buenos Aires
Foligno
Florence
Ancona
Athens
Tolentino
Ajaccio
Treia
Gubbio
Florence
Forli
Livorno
Siena
Rijeka
Perugia
Assisi
Bari
Lanciano
Vicenza
Theatre
Principal
Sao Joao
Argentino
Apollo
Leopoldo
Muse
Royal
Comunale
Pergola
Comunale
Rossini
Rinnovati
Civico
Verzaro
Matastasio
Piccinni
Pamato
Maria
Enrico
Corrado
Zudoli
Lorini
Armandi
Tilli
Giordani
Edelvira
Ercolani
Mori-Spallazzi
Rinaldi
D.Lorini
Conti
Perozzi
Dall’Armi
Guglielmini
Gennari
Sergardi
Rinaldini
Avignone
Staffolini
Antico
Gorin
Rivas
Giacomelli
Giori
Ortolani-Brignole
Tarsi
Quadrio
Martelli
Colli
Fricci
Fricci
Fricci
Cajanti-Bianchi
Witthy
Colli
Ercolani
Bellatti
Faleni
Bedetti
Liverani
Ferri
Bichielli
Mugniai
Lombardi
Limberti
Limberti
Limberti
Colombini
Ciarlini
Sergardi
Muscardini
Concordia
Baffetti
Giorgetti
Crivelli
–71–
Vieri
Pascolani
Balderi
Cresci
Cresci
Cresci
Brabdini
Vitti
Vieri
Peppolini
Sansone
Corti
Sacchetti
Date
City
Theatre
Maria
Carn. 1867 Sinigaglia
26.01.1867 Rieti
-- .06.1870 Macerata
Comunale
27.01.1974
23.12.1980
06.03.1981
04.09.1981
23.05.1982
28.05.1982
Opera Rara
La Fenice
ORTF
La Fenice
Staats
Semper
Colleoni-Corti
Parmizini
Morea-Concordia Picconi
Morea-Concordia RampiniBoncori
Andrew
Greager
Ricciarelli
Cupido
Castro-Alberty
Cupido
Sovilla
Cupido
Castro-Alberty
Terranova
London
Venice
Paris
Venice
Wiesbaden
Dresden
Concordia
–72–
Enrico
Corrado
Camins
Quintili
Leoni
De Plessis
Nucci
Martin
Martin
Padovan
LUIGIA SCHIERONI-NULLI
Maria
Genoa, 1842
Christian du Plessis and Ludmilla Andrew as
Corrado and Maria in the first 20th-Century
performance of Maria de Rudenz, given by
Opera Rara in 1974
THE STORY
PART ONE The Testament
Scene 1 It is early morning in an inn on the banks of the River Aar. Through
the windows can be seen part of the Convent of Arau and, on the other side
of the river, the castle of Rudenz. Matilde and the nuns of the convent are
heard at their morning prayers.
Corrado awaits the arrival of his brother Enrico, impatient since he is eager
to join Matilde at the castle. When Enrico appears, the two brothers greet each
other warmly. In answer to Enrico’s enquiry, Corrado confirms that he has
deserted Maria, the daughter of the last, recently deceased Count of Rudenz.
He tells how, after eloping with her to Venice, he had come to believe her
faithless, so had taken her to Rome and abandoned her during a visit to the
catacombs. His initial intention had been that she should perish, lost in the
labyrinth of subterranean passages, but he had subsequently relented and sent
a guide to rescue her. Since then he has been wandering from country to
country, ever changing his name to prevent her from tracing him. Now,
however, this wretched and fugitive existence has been replaced by a new
happiness, for he has fallen in love with an orphaned heiress, Maria’s cousin
Matilde di Wolff. He has wooed her, without revealing his true identity or past
history, and they are about to be married. Enrico, as soon as he hears Matilde’s
name, is consumed by jealousy, for he, too, it seems, is desperately in love
with her.
–75–
Corrado explains that the Count of Rudenz, in his last testament, decreed
that, should Maria not reappear within a year, his estate should go to Matilde,
who, instead of entering a convent, be free to choose a husband. The year has
now passed. In eager anticipation of his approaching happiness, Corrado urges
Enrico to accompany him to the castle.
Scene 2 In the castle. Rambaldo, an elderly retainer of the house of Rudenz, is
surprised to find a woman weeping before the portrait of his late master. It is
Maria, who has found her way here by a secret underground passage.
Rambaldo tells her of Matilde’s imminent inheritance and choice of a
husband, and Maria initially – for at this stage she is unaware of the identity
of the intended husband – wishes her cousin well: she herself has no further
worldly ambitions, for she intends to take the veil and enter the convent
of Arau.
As Maria withdraws, the retainers of the household gather to greet Matilde.
But their mood is one of mourning for Maria, whom they believe dead – not
joy at the prospect of bending the knee before a new master, Matilde’s future
bridegroom. Matilde enters and presents Corrado as her chosen husband and
their new lord. The testament of the Count of Rudenz is read, and Corrado is
in the middle of swearing his love and undying fidelity when, summoned by
Rambaldo, Maria appears. A major confrontation ensues, during which Maria
succeeds in separating Corrado and Matilde. The retainers declare their
allegiance to Maria, rather than to Matilde and Corrado, and Corrado is
forcibly ejected.
–76–
PART TWO A Crime
Enrico returns to the castle to plead with Maria to show leniency towards
Matilde. He remarks that, by keeping her cousin a prisoner and forcing her
to take the veil, she may be pretending to fulfil her father’s wishes, but really
she is perverting them to her own ends. Never, he declares, will Matilde enter
a convent: he himself will prevent it, for he, too loves her. Maria’s reaction is
to reveal that she has information that will enable him, rather than Corrado,
to become Matilde’s husband – but before divulging it, she insists that she
must see Corrado once more.
This interview – this confrontation – promptly ensues. Maria informs
Corrado that she intends that Matilde should marry Enrico. Corrado is
incredulous and protests that Enrico, his own brother, would never be his
rival. But Maria proceeds to disillusion him: Enrico is indeed the true son of
their father, but she has proofs that Corrado was taken in as a foundling
when his own father, a notorious criminal called Ugo di Berna, who has since
been ignominiously put to death on the scaffold, fled the country. Corrado
is shattered. Maria, taking advantage of his humiliation, pleads her own
cause: if Corrado will give her back his love, she will willingly destroy the
proofs of his birth. But although he can find it in his heart to pity her,
Corrado is unable to love her. Her wish for revenge now begins to gain the
upper hand. By pressing a secret spring, she makes the stones that form the
threshold of Matilde’s room sink out of sight, leaving a gaping pit. She has
only to call Matilde, and Corrado will see his hoped-for bride fall to her
–77–
death as she answers the summons. She will be spared only if Corrado
renounces her and instead swears eternal fidelity to Maria. As she begins to
call, Corrado, driven to desperation, draws his dagger and plunges it into her
breast. She falls, apparently fatally wounded. Rambaldo and the retainers
come running. But Maria declares Corrado’s innocence, claiming that she
stabbed herself.
PART THREE The Spectre
Scene 1 An atrium, adjoining the castle chapel where the marriage of
Corrado and Matilde is being celebrated. All the retainers are in a state of
consternation and dismay, for they regard this match as guilty and illomened. Their disquietude is increased by the fact that the ghost of Maria,
swathed in a dark mantle and with streaming hair, has been seen hovering
near the bridal chamber.
Enrico arrives, breathless and dust-covered, but Rambaldo tells him that he
comes too late: by this time the marriage vows will have been exchanged. At
this moment, indeed, the wedding procession returns and mounts a staircase
to the apartments where the wedding banquet is to be held. Enrico waylays
Corrado. He taunts him over his shameful birth, and challenges him, vowing
that he will never allow him to enjoy Matilde’s love. Corrado, who still feels
a brotherly affection for Enrico, tries to avoid a quarrel, but Enrico tears the
insignia of the Counts of Rudenz from Corrado’s chest and tramples them
underfoot. Provoked beyond endurance, Corrado accepts the challenge, and
the two depart to fight a duel.
–78–
Scene 2 A gallery in the castle. While the wedding guests celebrate the
marriage of the as-yet-absent Corrado and an apprehensive Matilde, a masked
female figure furtively crosses the stage and enters the nuptial chamber. In due
course Matilde retires, attended by her ladies.
Corrado returns, conscience-stricken, since he has killed Enrico, and
wishing only to forget what he has done in Matilde’s embraces. But at this
moment a suffocated scream comes from the bridal chamber. Corrado hastens
to investigate, but before he can cross the threshold he is confronted by what
he takes to be the ghost of Maria.
But Maria is very much alive. She throws open the chamber door and bids
him enter. He returns ashy-pale, for he has found Matilde murdered. He
rounds on Maria and goes to draw his sword, only to find that he is unarmed.
But, as Maria tells him, he has no need to slay her: she is dying already, for her
unhealed stab-wound has reopened. Even as she reproaches him, she continues
to declare her unquenchable love, and at last he begins to appreciate the
immensity of the love that has driven her to such frightful lengths. Filled with
remorse, he goes to embrace her, declaring that it is his punishment to have to
continue to live. But even in this last act of remorse and contrition he
is thwarted, for Maria tears the bandages from her wound and falls dead
at his feet.
–79–
Katia Ricciarelli sang Maria
in the first modern production
of Maria de Rudenz, given at
La Fenice in 198080
ARGUMENT
PREMIERE PARTIE Le Testament
Scène 1 Au petit jour dans une auberge sur la rive de l’Aar. Par les fenêtres, on
aperçoit une partie du couvent d’Arau et, sur la rive opposée, le château de
Rudenz. On entend la voix de Matilde et des nonnes en train d’entonner les
prières du matin.
Corrado attend avec impatience la venue de son frère Enrico car il brûle de
rejoindre Matilde au château. Lorsqu’Enrico arrive, les deux frères se saluent
chaleureusement. En réponse aux questions d’Enrico, Corrado confirme qu’il
a quitté Maria, la fille du dernier Comte de Rudenz récemment décédé. Il
raconte qu’après s’être enfui avec elle à Venise, il en est venu à douter de sa
fidélité; il l’a alors emmenée à Rome et l’a abandonnée au cours d’une visite
des catacombes. Il voulait d’abord qu’elle se perde dans le labyrinthe souterrain
et y périsse, mais il s’était radouci par la suite et avait envoyé un guide à son
secours. Il avait ensuite erré de pays en pays, en changeant constamment de
nom pour empêcher la jeune femme de retrouver sa trace. Cette misérable
existence de fugitif a toutefois fait place à un bonheur nouveau depuis qu’il
s’est épris de la cousine de Maria, Matilde di Wolff, héritière orpheline. Il l’a
courtisée sans lui révéler sa véritable identité ou son passé, et ils sont sur le
point de se marier. Dès qu’il entend son frère prononcer le nom de Matilde,
Enrico est fou de jalousie car lui aussi est éperdument amoureux d’elle.
–81–
Corrado explique que dans son dernier testament le Comte de Rudenz a
décrété que si Maria ne s’était pas manifestée au bout d’un an ses biens iraient
à Matilde qui, au lieu d’entrer au couvent, serait libre de se choisir un époux.
L’année est écoulée. Manifestement impatient de voir ses vœux se réaliser,
Corrado presse Enrico de l’accompagner au château.
Scène 2 À l’intérieur du château. Rambaldo, vieux serviteur de la maison de
Rudenz, est surpris de découvrir une femme en larmes devant le portrait de feu
son maître. C’est Maria, qui est parvenue jusqu’ici par un passage souterrain
secret. Rambaldo lui révèle l’imminence de l’héritage de Matilde ainsi que le
nom de son futur époux, et Maria – qui ignore encore tout de l’identité de
celui-ci – se réjouit du bonheur de sa cousine car elle a l’intention de prendre
le voile et d’entrer au couvent d’Arau.
Tandis que Maria se retire, les serviteurs du château se rassemblent pour
accueillir Matilde. Ils sont remplis de tristesse à la pensée de Maria qu’ils
croient morte, et non de joie à la perspective de devoir s’incliner devant un
nouveau maître, le futur époux de Matilde. Matilde entre et leur présente
Corrado, son promis et leur nouveau seigneur. Après lecture du testament du
Comte de Rudenz, Corrado est en train de jurer amour et fidélité éternels à
Matilde lorsque, à l’appel de Rambaldo, Maria apparaît. Il s’ensuit une
confrontation majeure au cours de laquelle Maria parvient à séparer Corrado
de Matilde. Les serviteurs font serment d’allégeance à Maria plutôt qu’à
Matilde et Corrado, lequel est chassé par la force.
–82–
DEUXIEME PARTIE Un crime
Enrico retourne au château pour supplier Maria de faire preuve de clémence
envers Matilde. Il lui fait remarquer qu’en gardant sa cousine prisonnière et en
l’obligeant à prendre le voile, elle peut prétendre exaucer les vœux de son père,
mais qu’en fait, elle est en train de servir ses propres fins. Jamais, déclare-t-il,
Matilde n’entrera au couvent: il l’en empêchera car il est, lui aussi, amoureux
d’elle. Maria répond en lui dévoilant qu’elle possède des informations qui
permettront à Enrico d’épouser Matilde à la place de Corrado – mais avant de
tout révéler, elle insiste pour revoir, une fois de plus, Corrado.
Cet entretien – cette confrontation – a lieu sans tarder. Maria déclare à
Corrado que sur ses instances Matilde épousera Enrico. Corrado refuse de la
croire et affirme qu’Enrico, son propre frère, ne se comportera jamais en rival.
Mais Maria s’empresse de lui ôter ses illusions: Enrico est bien le fils de son
père, mais elle a la preuve que lui, Corrado, est un enfant abandonné par son
propre père – criminel notoire du nom d’Ugo di Berna, mort depuis sur
l’échafaud – et recueilli après que celui-ci a fui le pays. Corrado est anéanti.
Profitant de son humiliation, Maria plaide sa propre cause: si Corrado consent
à lui rendre son amour, elle détruira volontiers les preuves de sa naissance.
Malgré toute la pitié qu’elle lui inspire, Corrado est incapable d’aimer Maria.
La soif de vengeance est alors plus forte qu’elle. En appuyant sur un ressort
secret, elle déplace les dalles formant le seuil de la chambre de Matilde, révélant
ainsi une fosse béante. Il lui suffira d’appeler Matilde pour que celle-ci, venant
à elle, périsse en se précipitant dans le vide sous le regard de Corrado. S’il veut
–83–
qu’elle soit épargnée, Corrado doit renoncer à sa bien-aimée et jurer, au
contraire, fidélité éternelle à Maria. Lorsque celle-ci se met à appeler Matilde,
Corrado au désespoir sort un poignard et le plonge dans son sein. Elle
s’effondre apparemment blessée à mort. Rambaldo et les autres serviteurs
s’approchent précipitamment, mais Maria innocente Corrado en prétendant
s’être poignardée elle-même.
TROISIEME PARTIE Le spectre
Scène 1 La cour intérieure qui jouxte la chapelle du château où se déroule la
cérémonie de mariage de Corrado et Matilde. Tous les serviteurs sont dans la
consternation et le désarroi, car ils considèrent cette union illégitime de
mauvais présage. Ils sont d’autant plus inquiets que le spectre de Maria, revêtue
d’un manteau sombre et les cheveux dénoués, a été aperçu flottant au-dessus
de la chambre nuptiale.
Enrico arrive hors d’haleine et couvert de poussière, mais Rambaldo lui dit
qu’il arrive trop tard: les vœux de mariage auront déjà été prononcés. À cet
instant précis, la procession nuptiale sort en effet de la chapelle pour gravir les
marches menant aux appartements où va se dérouler le banquet. Enrico arrête
Corrado au passage. Il raille sa naissance honteuse et le provoque en jurant
qu’il ne lui permettra jamais de jouir de l’amour de Matilde. Corrado, qui a
une affection fraternelle pour Enrico, tente d’éviter la querelle, mais Enrico lui
arrache de la poitrine l’insigne des comtes de Rudenz et le piétine. Excédé,
Corrado accepte la provocation et ils partent ensemble se battre en duel.
–84–
Scène 2 Une galerie à l’intérieur du château. Tandis que les invités fêtent les
noces d’un Corrado qui se fait attendre et d’une Matilde pleine
d’appréhension, une silhouette de femme masquée traverse furtivement la
scène et entre dans la chambre nuptiale. Matilde finit par se retirer avec ses
dames de compagnie à ses côtés.
Corrado réapparaît. Bien que la mort d’Enrico lui pèse sur la conscience, il
est déterminé à tout oublier dans les bras de Matilde. Un cri étouffé venant de
la chambre nuptiale se fait alors entendre. Corrado se précipite pour voir ce qui
se passe, mais à peine atteint-il le seuil qu’il se trouve face à face avec ce qu’il
croit être le fantôme de Maria.
Maria est toutefois bien vivante. Elle ouvre en grand la porte de la chambre
et l’invite à y pénétrer. Il en ressort livide, car il y a découvert Matilde
assassinée. Il s’en prend alors à Maria et va pour sortir son épée lorsqu’il
s’aperçoit qu’il est sans arme. Maria lui dit alors qu’il n’a nul besoin de la tuer:
sa blessure non cicatrisée s’est rouverte et elle agonise déjà. Tout en lui
adressant des reproches, elle continue à lui déclarer son amour inextinguible,
et il commence enfin à mesurer l’immensité de l’amour qui l’a poussée à une
si terrible vengeance. Pris de remords, il va pour la prendre dans ses bras en lui
affirmant que son châtiment sera d’être resté vivant, mais Maria le prive de ce
dernier acte de repentir et de contrition : elle arrache les bandages qui
recouvrent sa plaie puis s’effondre morte à ses pieds.
–85–
DIE HANDLUNG
ERSTER TEIL Das Testament
1. Szene Früher Morgen in einem Gasthaus am Ufer der Aar. Durch die
Fenster sind Teile des Klosters Arau zu sehen, auf dem gegenüberliegenden
Ufer das Schloss Rudenz. Matilde und die Nonnen des Klosters sind bei der
Morgenandacht.
Mit Ungeduld erwartet Corrado die Ankunft seines Bruders Enrico, da es
ihn drängt, zu Matilde ins Schloss zu eilen. Als Enrico erscheint, begrüßen die
Brüder sich herzlich. Als Antwort auf Enricos Frage bestätigt Corrado, dass er
Maria, die Tochter des letzten, kürzlich verstorbenen Herzogs von Rudenz
verlassen hat. Er erzählt, dass er zunächst mit ihr nach Venedig durchgebrannt
sei, dort aber von ihrer Treulosigkeit überzeugt wurde; deshalb sei er mit ihr
nach Rom gefahren, wo er sie bei einer Besichtigung der Katakomben in den
unterirdischen Gängen zurückgelassen habe. Zunächst habe er beabsichtigt,
sie dort dem sicheren Tod zu überlassen, doch dann seien ihm Bedenken
gekommen, und er schickte einen Führer aus, der sie sicher ins Freie geleitete.
Seitdem zieht er von Land zu Land, ständig unter anderen Namen,
damit sie ihn nicht aufspüren kann. Jetzt aber hat dieses elende Flüchtlingslos
ein Ende: Er hat sich in eine verwaiste Erbin, Maria Cousine Matilde di
Wolff, verliebt. Er hat um sie geworben, ohne ihr seine wahre Identität oder
seine Vergangenheit zu offenbaren, und sie werden in Kürze vermählt
–86–
werden. Kaum hört Enrico Matildes Namen, wird er von Eifersucht
übermannt, denn auch er ist in Liebe zu ihr entbrannt.
Corrado erklärt, dass der Graf von Rudenz in seinem letzten Testament
verfügte, sein Vermögen solle, wenn Maria nicht innerhalb eines Jahres wieder
erscheine, an Matilde übergehen, die aus dem Kloster austreten und sich einen
Gemahl erwählen soll. Dieses Jahr ist nun vorüber. In Vorfreude auf sein
kommendes Glück bittet Corrado seinen Bruder, ihn ins Schloss zu begleiten.
2. Szene Im Schloss. Rambaldo, ein Faktotum des Haushalts von Rudenz,
entdeckt überrascht eine weinende Frau vor dem Bild seines verstorbenen
Herrn stehen. Es ist Maria, die durch einen geheimen unterirdischen Gang ins
Schloss zurückgekehrt ist. Rambaldo berichtet ihr, dass Matilde in Kürze das
Erbe antreten und heiraten wird. Zunächst ist Maria ihrer Cousine durchaus
wohl gesonnen, denn noch weiß sie nicht, um wen es sich bei diesem Gemahl
handelt; überdies will sie ohnehin dem weltlichen Leben entsagen und ins
Kloster von Arau eintreten.
Als Maria sich zurückzieht, versammelt sich der Haushalt zu Matildes
Empfang. Doch die Aussicht, bald einem neuen Herrn, Matildes künftigem
Gemahl, die Ehre erweisen müssen, stimmt sie nicht froh; vielmehr trauern
alle um Maria, die sie tot wähnen. Matilde tritt ein und stellt Corrado als ihren
erwählten Gemahl und künftigen Schlossherrn vor. Das Testament des Grafen
von Rudenz wird verlesen, soeben schwört Corrado Matilde ewige Liebe und
Treue, als Maria, von Rambaldo herbeigerufen, erscheint. Es kommt zu einer
–87–
heftigen Auseinandersetzung, in deren Verlauf es Maria gelingt, Corrado und
Matilde zu trennen. Der Haushalt erklärt Maria seine Treue, nicht Matilde
und Corrado, der mit Gewalt entfernt wird.
ZWEITER TEIL Ein Verbrechen
Enrico kehrt ins Schloss zurück und bittet Maria, Matilde gegenüber
Nachsicht walten zu lassen. Er erklärt, indem sie ihre Cousine gefangen setze
und sie zwinge, den Schleier zu nehmen, erfülle sie vielleicht dem Anschein
nach die Wünsche ihres Vaters, in Wirklichkeit aber missbrauche sie sie zu
ihrem eigenen Vorteil. Nie, schwört er, werde Matilde ins Kloster eintreten, er
selbst werde sie davon abhalten, denn auch er liebe sie. Daraufhin enthüllt
Maria, dass sie Beweise besitzt, aufgrund derer er und nicht Corrado Matildes
Gemahl werden kann – doch bevor sie diese Beweise preisgibt, besteht sie auf
einem Gespräch unter vier Augen mit Corrado.
Diese Auseinandersetzung findet sogleich statt. Maria teilt Corrado mit, dass
sie eine Vermählung Matildes mit Enrico betreibt. Ungläubig beteuert
Corrado, dass sein Bruder nie in Rivalität zu ihm treten werde. Doch Maria
raubt ihm alle Illusionen: Nur Enrico sei der wahre Sohn seines Vaters, sie,
Maria, könne beweisen, dass Corrado lediglich als Findelkind aufgenommen
wurde, als sein eigener Vater, ein berüchtigter Schurke namens Ugo di Berno,
der mittlerweile einen schmachvollen Tod am Galgen gefunden habe, des
Landes floh. Corrado ist vor den Kopf gestoßen. Angesichts seiner
Verzweiflung fleht Maria ihn an, ihr wieder seine Liebe zu schenken, dann
–88–
werde sie die Beweise seiner niederen Geburt eigenhändig vernichten. Corrado
jedoch kann nur Mitgefühl für sie empfinden, nicht Liebe. Da gewinnt bei
Maria die Rachsucht die Oberhand. Sie betätigt eine geheime Feder,
woraufhin die Steine, die die Schwelle vor Matildes Zimmer bilden, im Boden
versinken und sich ein Abgrund vor ihrer Tür auftut. Sie brauche nur nach
Matilde zu rufen, dann müsse Corrado mitansehen, wie seine Braut in den
Tod stürze. Maria erklärt, ihre Cousine nur dann zu schonen, wenn Corrado
von ihr abschwört und Maria ewige Treue gelobt. Als sie Matildes Namen
rufen will, greift Corrado verzweifelt zum Dolch und stößt ihn ihr in die
Brust. Scheinbar tödlich verwundet bricht sie zusammen. Rambaldo und der
Haushalt kommen herbeigelaufen, aber Maria erklärt, dass Corrado
unschuldig sei, sie selbst habe sich erdolcht.
DRITTER TEIL Das Gespenst
1. Szene Ein Atrium neben der Schlosskapelle, in der die Hochzeit von
Corrado und Matilde stattfindet. Der Haushalt ist bestürzt und unruhig, denn
in ihren Augen ist diese Verbindung mit Schuld beladen. Ihre Erregung steigt
noch, als in der Nähe des Brautgemachs das Gespenst Marias, in einen
dunklen Umhang gehüllt und mit wallendem Haar, gesehen wird.
Enrico trifft atemlos und staubig ein, aber zu spät, wie Rambaldo ihm
erklärt: Die Trauung habe bereits stattgefunden. Und in der Tat kehrt in
diesem Augenblick die Hochzeitsprozession zurück und steigt die Treppe zu
den Gemächern empor, in denen das Bankett abgehalten wird. Enrico fängt
–89–
Corrado ab, verhöhnt ihn mit seiner schändlichen Herkunft, fordert ihn zum
Duell heraus und gelobt, er, Enrico, werde verhindern, dass sein Bruder sich je
Matildes Liebe erfreuen kann. Corrado, der sich seinem Bruder noch immer
verbunden fühlt, will einen Streit vermeiden, aber Enrico reißt ihm die
Insignien des Grafen von Rudenz von der Brust und trampelt sie in den
Boden. Zur Weißglut getrieben, willigt Corrado in das Duell ein, und die
beiden treten ab, um es auszufechten.
2. Szene Eine Galerie im Schloss Während die Gäste die Hochzeit des noch
abwesenden Corrado mit der beunruhigten Matilde feiern, schleicht eine
maskierte weibliche Gestalt über die Bühne und betritt das Brautgemacht.
Eine Weile später zieht Matilde sich im Kreis ihrer Damen zurück.
Corrado kehrt zurück. Er ist zutiefst gequält, denn er hat Enrico getötet und
möchte nun in Matildes Armen Vergessen suchen. In diesem Augenblick
erklingt aus dem Brautgemach ein erstickter Schrei. Corrado eilt hinzu, doch
bereits an der Schwelle wird er von etwas aufgehalten, das er für das Gespenst
Marias hält.
Doch Maria steht in Fleisch und Blut vor ihm. Sie wirft die Türen des
Gemachs auf und bittet ihn einzutreten. Er wird aschfahl, als er Matilde
ermordet vor sich sieht. Verbittert will er das Schwert ziehen und Rache üben,
muss aber feststellen, dass er keine Waffe bei sich trägt. Maria jedoch erklärt,
er brauche sie gar nicht zu töten – die Wunde, die sie von seinem Dolchstoß
–90–
erhalten habe, sei nie verheilt und habe sich nun wieder geöffnet. Zwar
überhäuft sie ihn mit Vorwürfen, beteuert ihm aber auch ihre unstillbare
Liebe, und nun endlich beginnt er die Größe ihrer Liebe zu begreifen, die sie
zu diesem Racheakt trieb. Von Reue übermannt, will er sie in die Arme
schließen und ihr erklären, seine Strafe bestehe darin, weiterleben zu müssen.
Doch selbst diese späte Reue wird ihm verwehrt, denn Maria reißt die Binden
von ihrer Wunde und fällt ihm zu Füßen tot zu Boden.
–91–
ARGOMENTO
PARTE PRIMA Il Testamento
Scena 1 È mattina presto in una locanda sulle rive del fiume Aar. Dalle finestre
si può scorgere l’eremo di Arau e, sull’altra sponda del fiume, il castello di
Rudenz. Dal convento giunge l’eco delle preghiere di Matilde e delle suore.
Corrado attende con impazienza l’arrivo di suo fratello Enrico, perché ha
fretta di raggiungere Matilde al castello. All’arrivo di Enrico, i due fratelli si
salutano con affetto e Corrado racconta quanto gli è accaduto negli ultimi
anni. Dopo essere fuggito a Venezia con Maria, figlia dell’ultimo Conte di
Rudenz, recentemente defunto, aveva scoperto che la donna gli era infedele.
L’aveva quindi condotta a Roma e poi abbandonata durante una visita alle
catacombe. Inizialmente aveva sperato che lei morisse, sperduta nel labirinto
dei corridoi sotterranei, ma poi si era impietosito e aveva inviato una guida al
suo soccorso. Da allora era stato costretto a vagare da un paese all’altro,
cambiando continuamente nome per impedirle di rintracciarlo. Adesso però la
sua triste esistenza di esule è stata illuminata da una nuova felicità: si è
innamorato di un’ereditiera orfana, Matilde di Wolff, cugina di Maria. L’ha
corteggiata senza rivelarle la sua vera identità o il suo passato e stanno per
sposarsi. A sentir nominare Matilde, Enrico è preso dalla gelosia:
apparentemente anche lui ne è disperatamente innamorato.
–92–
Corrado spiega che, secondo il testamento del Conte di Rudenz, se Maria
non fosse ricomparsa entro un anno, i suoi beni sarebbero andati a Matilde e
la giovane, anziché entrare in convento, sarebbe stata libera di scegliere un
marito. L’anno è ormai trascorso. Pregustando la sua prossima felicità, Corrado
chiede a Enrico di accompagnarlo al castello.
Scena 2 Nel castello. Rambaldo, anziano servitore della casa di Rudenz,
rimane sorpreso nel trovare una donna in lacrime davanti al ritratto del suo
defunto padrone. Si tratta di Maria, che è riuscita ad arrivare fin qui attraverso
un corridoio sotterraneo segreto. Rambaldo le parla dell’imminente eredità di
Matilde e del consorte scelto dalla cugina. Inizialmente ignara dell’identità del
promesso sposo, Maria augura ogni bene alla cugina: lei non ha più ambizioni
terrene perché intende prendere il velo ed entrare nel convento di Arau.
Maria si ritira mentre i vassalli si riuniscono per accogliere Matilde. Lo stato
d’animo generale però non è gioioso: tutti pensano che Maria sia morta e la
prospettiva di dover obbedire a un nuovo signore, il futuro sposo di Matilde,
non è gradita a nessuno. Entra Matilde e presenta Corrado, lo sposo che ha
scelto e il futuro signore del castello. Dopo la lettura del testamento del conte
di Rudenz, Corrado sta pronunciando il suo giuramento di amore ed eterna
fedeltà quando entra Maria, chiamata da Rambaldo. Durante il successivo
confronto, Maria riesce a separare Corrado e Matilde. I servitori dichiarano
fedeltà a Maria anziché a Matilde e Corrado e quest’ultimo viene fatto uscire
con la forza.
–93–
PARTE SECONDA Un delitto
Enrico ritorna al castello per supplicare Maria di mostrare clemenza nei
confronti di Matilde. Tenendo prigioniera sua cugina e obbligandola a
prendere il velo, forse può illudersi di esaudire i desideri di suo padre, ma in
realtà li sovverte in base ai suoi fini personali. Dichiara che Matilde non entrerà
in convento: lo impedirà lui stesso, perché anche lui l’ama. Maria reagisce
rivelando di avere in suo possesso alcune informazioni che consentiranno a lui
piuttosto che a Corrado di sposare Matilde. Prima, però, vuole vedere ancora
una volta Corrado.
Il tempestoso colloquio si svolge immediatamente. Maria comunica a
Corrado il proprio desiderio che Matilde sposi Enrico. Incredulo, Corrado
protesta che suo fratello non sarà mai suo rivale e a questo punto Maria lo
disillude: solo Enrico è il vero figlio di suo padre. Corrado è stato accolto e
allevato dalla famiglia, ma il suo vero genitore era un famigerato criminale in
fuga, di nome Ugo di Berna, che in seguito era stato ignominiosamente
giustiziato. Corrado è sconvolto. Approfittando della sua umiliazione, Maria
perora la propria causa: se Corrado le promette di tornare ad amarla, è disposta
a distruggere le prove della sua origine. Ma, per quanto mosso a compassione,
Corrado non può accontentarla. A questo punto la donna comincia a essere
sopraffatta dal desiderio di vendicarsi. Premendo una molla segreta, fa
scomparire le pietre della soglia della stanza, lasciando un pozzo aperto. Le
basterà chiamare la cugina e Corrado vedrà la sua amata sposa precipitarvi e
–94–
morire. Matilde sarà risparmiata solo se Corrado rinuncerà a lei e giurerà
eterna fedeltà a Maria. Mentre la donna inizia a chiamare, Corrado, disperato,
estrae la spada e gliela immerge in petto. La donna cade, apparentemente ferita
a morte. Entrano di corsa Rambaldo e i servitori. Maria però dichiara che
Corrado è innocente e sostiene di essersi pugnalata da sola.
PARTE TERZA Lo spettro
Scena 1 Un atrio adiacente alla cappella del castello dove si celebrano le nozze
tra Corrado e Matilde. Tutti i servitori sono costernati e sgomenti, perché
considerano l’unione colpevole e infausta. La loro inquietudine è accresciuta
dal fatto che lo spettro di Maria, avvolto in un mantello nero e con i capelli
sciolti, è stato visto aggirarsi nei pressi della camera nuziale.
Arriva Enrico, senza fiato e coperto di polvere, ma Rambaldo gli dice che è
troppo tardi: ormai i voti nuziali sono stati pronunciati. In questo momento,
appunto, ritorna il corteo nuziale e sale per la scalinata che porta alle sale in cui
si svolgerà il banchetto nuziale. Enrico riesce a trattenere Corrado, lo provoca
parlandogli dell’onta della sua nascita e lo sfida, giurando che gli impedirà di
avere l’amore di Matilde. Corrado, che prova ancora un affetto fraterno per
Enrico, cerca di evitare un litigio, ma Enrico gli strappa dal petto l’ordine dei
conti di Rudenz e lo calpesta. Davanti a quest’ultimo insulto, Corrado accetta
la sfida e i due si allontanano per combattersi a duello.
–95–
Scena 2 Una galleria nel castello. Mentre gli ospiti celebrano le nozze di
Corrado, ancora assente, e della preoccupata Matilde, una figura femminile
mascherata attraversa furtivamente la scena ed entra nella camera nuziale. Alla
fine Matilde si ritira, con il suo seguito.
Rientra Corrado, pieno di rimorso: ha ucciso Enrico e desidera soltanto
dimenticare ciò che ha fatto tra le braccia di Matilde. Ma a questo punto dalla
camera nuziale arriva un grido soffocato. Corrado si precipita a vedere quanto
è accaduto, ma prima di poter attraversare la soglia si trova davanti a quello che
pensa sia lo spettro di Maria.
Maria è però viva. Spalanca la porta della camera e gli ordina di entrare.
L’uomo ritorna pallidissimo perché ha trovato Matilde assassinata. Assale
Maria e fa per sguainare la spada, ma si accorge di essere disarmato. Maria però
lo rassicura: non c’è bisogno di ucciderla. La sua ferita non si è mai rimarginata
e adesso si è riaperta. Pur rimproverandolo, continua a dichiarare il suo amore
inestinguibile e alla fine Corrado comincia a rendersi conto dell’immensità del
sentimento che l’ha spinta ad azioni così spaventose. Pieno di rimorso, si
avvicina per abbracciarla, dichiarando che il suo castigo è la condanna a
sopravvivere. Ma anche quest’ultimo atto di rimorso e contrizione gli viene
impedito: Maria si strappa le bende che avvolgono la ferita e cade morta ai
suoi piedi.
–96–
FIRST PERFORMANCE
30 January 1838, Teatro La Fenice, Venice
Maria de Rudenz………………………..............………….Carolina Ungher
Matilde de Wolff, her cousin………………...........................Isabella Casali
Corrado di Waldorf…………………………....…………Giorgio Ronconi
Enrico, his brother……………………………....……..Napoleone Moriani
Rambaldo, an old retainer………………………...............Domenico Raffaeli
Il Cancelliere del Castello………………………….......Alessandro Giachini
The action takes place in 15th-century Switzerland
* * * *
The following libretto contains all the text of Cammarano’s original libretto.
Those lines not set by Donizetti are preceded by double quotation marks.
–97–
CD 1
57’52
PART ONE
Il Testamento
The Will
[1]
SCENE I
A room in an inn. Through large windows may be seen part of the convent of Arau, on the
banks of the Aar, and on the further shore the castle of Rudenz. Dawn is breaking. From a
distance may be heard a religious canticle.
MATILDE & CHORUS
Laude all’Eterno, amor primiero,
Praise to the first and everlasting Love,
Fonte di luce, somma virtù,
The fountain of light, the highest virtue,
Che disse appena in suo pensiero
Who scarce uttered in his thought –
Il mondo fia – e il mondo fu.
Let the world be – than the world was.
Te dei celesti cantan le schiere
The ranks of the blessed sing Thy praise,
Santo de’santi, e re de’re.
Holy of holies, king of kings.
Il tuono, i venti, il mar, le sfere,
The thunder, the winds, the sea,
the spheres,
La terre e il cielo parlan di te.
The earth and the sky give witness
of Thee.
–99–
SCENE II
Corrado opens a window and looks anxiously along the road leading to the inn.
[2]
CORRADO
Eglia ancora non giunge, e tu
Still he comes not, and you await me,
m’attendi,
Adorata Matilde
My adored Matilde –
Spirto sceso dai cieli a consolarmi!…
A spirit come down from the heavens to
console me!…
L’ira placar del mio
God granted that you might calm the
Destin perverso a te concesse Iddio!
anger of my perverse destiny!
Ah! Non avea più lagrime
Il ciglio inaridito,
Mancò la speme all’anima,
La pace al cor ferito…
Il ciel di fosco ammanto
Per me si circondò:
Ah! Valle d’amaro pianto
La terra a me sembrò.
Ti vidi, o cara, e in estasi
D’amor che l’alma invase:
M’ami? ti dissi, e tacito
Il labbro tuo rimase,
Ma il guardo lusinghiero
Mi favellò d’amore…
Ah! L’universo intero
Mi parve un riso allor!
Ah! My dried-up eyes
Were incapable of further tears,
No hope was left in my soul,
No peace win my wounded heart…
For me the sky girt itself
In a dark and gloomy mantle:
Ah! To me the earth seemed
A vale of bitter tears.
I saw you, my dear, and in an ecstasy
Of love that filled my soul,
Do you love me? I asked, and though
Your lips remained silent,
Your winsome glance
Spoke to me of love…
Ah! The entire universe
Seemed to smile upon me then!
–100–
SCENE III
Enrico and Corrado
[3]
Fratello!…
ENRICO
Brother!...
CORRADO
Enrico!…
Enrico!…
They embrace each other in brotherly love
ENRICO
Appena
Scarcely
Il foglio tuo mi giunse,
Had your letter reached me,
Volai dal campo ad abbracciarti…
Then I flew from the camp to embrace
Un lustro
you… Five years
Volge che più non ti rividi!
Have passed since last I saw you!
CORRADO
Oh, quante
Oh, how many
Il viver mio turbaro
Stormy circumstances
Procellose vicende!
Have unsettled my life!
ENRICO
Qui la fama
Here rumour had it
Rapitor di Maria ti disse.
That you had abducted Maria.
CORRADO
Il vero
Rumour told
Disse. “La chiesi al padre: Ah! pria,
True. “I asked her father for her: Ah!
l’altero
the haughty count replied,
“Conte rispose, pria svenarla.
“I would rather see her dead.
–101–
Nelly Miricioiu (Maria)
ENRICO
“And she?…”
CORRADO
Meco fuggì… L’italo suol ne accolse… Fled with me… Italian soil received us…
O veneta laguna,
O Venetian lagoon,
“Stupor del mondo, ed incantato
“The wonder of the world, the
specchio
enchanted mirror
“Del tuo ciel di zaffiro,” me felice
“Of your sapphire sky,” you saw me
Vedesti!… Ahi, breve sogno
Happy!… But alas! my joys
Furo i contenti miei!
Were a fleeting dream!
ENRICO
Come?
How come?
CORRADO
Tradito
I was betrayed
Dall’infedel…
By the treacherous woman…
ENRICO
Che sento!…
What do I hear?
CORRADO
“Era vestito
“The world was invested
“Di fosca notte il mondo, e
“With gloomy night, and I saw my
la spergiura
perjured mistress
“Calar vidi furtiva entro il solingo
“Furtively descend into the
unfrequented garden
“Domestico giardin… Lo crederesti?
“Of the house… Would you believe it?
“Ivi un uom l’attendea!
“A man awaited her there!
ENRICO
“Cielo! E che festi?”
“Heavens! And what did you do?”
“Ed essa?…”
–103–
CORRADO
In my secret heart I swallowed my
wrath…
Sul Tebro la condussi, ed ambo scesi
I took her to the Tiber, and when we
A visitar le catacombe…
had gone
Down together to visit the catacombs…
suspending his narrative, as if horrified by the memory
ENRICO
Oh! Segui.
Oh! Go on.
CORRADO
Nel sotterraneo labirinto ascoso
In the hidden subterranean labyrinth
Di quell’orride volte: a morte
Of those horrid vaults I said to her:
in braccio
Qui sei, dissi; e rinfacciai l’iniqua
Here you are in the embrace of death:
and I threw
Del turpe inganno. Mendicata scusa
Her shameless deception in her face:
Ella movea, che dal terrore a mezzo
She fabricated an excuse which died on
her lips
Fu tronca: e svenne…
For terror; then she fainted…
ENRICO
E tu?…
And you?…
CORRADO
Viva sepolta
I abandoned her,
L’abbandonai.
Buried alive.
ENRICO
Gelo d’orror!
I freeze with horror!
Nel cor segreto divorai lo sdegno…
–104–
CORRADO
Ma colta
But then, my soul
L’anima mia da subito rimorso,
Seized by sudden remorse,
La guida rintracciai, “che secondato
I sought out the guide “who had been
Il mio disegno avea”.
my accomplice in my design”.
Premio novello
I offered him a fresh reward to gold, and
D’oro gli posi, e giuramento ottenni,
extracted his oath
Ch’egli a morte la vittima ritolta
That he would pluck back my victim
Avrebbe.
From death
ENRICO
Quindi!
And then!
CORRADO
La romana piaggia
I quit the precincts
Lasciai, “di terra in terra
Of Rome, “wandering from country to
Vagando ognor” sotto mentiti nomi,
Country” ever under false names,
Onde di me colei
So that she should lose
Smarrisse ogn’orma.
All trace of me.
ENRICO
Sventurato! Eppure
Unhappy man! And yet
Di tua letizia in seno
You summoned me to share
Tu m’appellasti!
Your joy!
CORRADO
Ed or son lieto appieno,
For now my cup of joy is full,
[4]
Qui di mie pene un angelo
Consolator trovai:
Here I found an angel
To console me for my sufferings:
–105–
Robert McFarland (Corrado)
Qui del passato immemore
Un’ altra volta amai…
Torna, si torna a splendere
De’ giorni miei la stella!
Sarà mia sposa l’orfana
Di Wolff…
Here, forgetful of the past,
I fell in love again…
The star that rules my days returns,
Yes, returns to shine once more!
For I shall wed the orphan
Of the house of Wolff…
ENRICO
(Oh, colpo!)
(Oh, what a blow!)
L’orfana di Wolff! (Io moro!)
The orphan of Wolff! (I could die!)
Ed ella t’ama?…
And she loves you?…
CORRADO
Se m’ama!… “Quant’io l’adoro.”
Does she love me!… “As much as I
love her.”
ENRICO
Si… “(Matilde!… Oh, rio martir!…
Yes… “(Matilde!… Oh, fearsome
torture!…
“Io l’ho perduta!… Io moro…
“I’ve lost her… I feel I’m dying…
“Moro, e nol posso dir!)”
“I’m dying, yet I cannot say so!)”
CORRADO
Ah! Non esprime il detto
Ah! Words cannot express
L’ardor che in noi s’apprese!
The passion that took hold of us!
Così potente affetto
Never did such overpowering
Non mai due cori accese!
Affection set two hearts alight!
Il suo pensiero è il mio…
Her thought is my thought…
Abbiamo un sol desio…
We share but a single desire…
Vivo per lei soltanto,
I live for her alone,
Ella respira in me.
She breathes but in me.
–107–
ENRICO
(Was ever anyone destined to endure
More terrible torment!…)
CORRADO
Matilde!…
Matilde!…
ENRICO
(Il core ho lacerato
(My heart is pierced
Da cento colpi, e cento!…
By a hundred wounds, and a hundred
more!…
Ed, ahi! Qual man brandisce
And, alas! What hand is it that
L’acciar che mi ferisce!…
Brandishes the sword that wounds me!…
Per consumarla in pianto
Heaven gave me my life
La vita il ciel mi die!)
Only that I should consume it in grief!)
CORRADO
indicating the castle of Rudenz
Vieni… In quel soggiorno
Come… Within those walls
Essa mi attende.
She awaits me.
ENRICO
In quello!…
Within those walls!…
CORRADO
Matilde al nuovo giorno
As this new days breaks, Matilde
Signora è del castello,
Becomes mistress of the castle
Del padre di Maria
Such was the last decree
Tal fu la legge estrema…
Of Maria’s father…
Ah! Non tardiam la mia
Ah! Let us not delay
Felicità suprema…
My crowning happiness…
Donna, fia tolto il velo
Lady, let us tear away the veil
(Chi mai, chi fu serbato
A più crudel tormento!…)
–108–
Che mi nascose a te,
Quindi all’altare…
(Oh, cielo!)
Vieni…
(Son fuor di me!…)
[5]
Fratello!… Enrico! Abbracciami,
Dividi il mio contento…
Ah! tu non puoi comprendere
Il ben d’un tal momento!…
Già col desio d’amore,
Vola a Matilde il core…
Tutto il piacere io godo
Che Dio del ciel creò!
Appien comprendo il giubilo
Di tua beata sorte!…
Divido teco i palpiti,
Invidio a tue ritorte:
(Son troppo sventurato…
M’astringe orrendo fato
A maledir quel nodo
That has concealed my identity from
you,
And so to the altar…
ENRICO
(Oh, Heavens!)
CORRADO
Come…
ENRICO
(I am beside myself!…)
CORRADO
Brother!… Enrico! Embrace me,
Share my happiness with me…
Ah! you cannot conceive
The blessing of such a moment!…
Already my heart flies to Matilde
Fired with the desires of love…
And I enjoy all the pleasure
That God created for Heaven!
ENRICO
I can fully conceive your delight
At your happy fate!…
I share the throbbings of your heart,
I envy the knot you are about to tie:
(I am too unfortunate…
An awful fate obliges me
To curse the bond
–109–
Bruce Ford (Enrico)
Che il Ciel/Dio tra noi formò!)
That Heaven/God established
between us!)
They leave
SCENE IV
A gallery in the castle of Rudenz with many doors on either side, and one at the back, with
a curtain lowered over it. Upon one wall there is a portrait of the last Count of Rudenz.
Rambaldo, and then Maria.
[6]
RAMBALDO
advancing lost in gloomy thought
Surse il giorno fatal, né di Maria
The fatal day has dawned, and still
Novella giunge! An, non mentì la voce No news of Maria! Ah, the report that
Che in Roma estinta la dicea!…
She had died in Rome was not
mistaken!…
The course of his thoughts is interrupted by a sound of weeping. He turns and is
surprised to see a woman prostrated before the portrait. She is crying most bitterly.
Chi piange
Who is this who weeps
Innanzi a quell’imago
Before the portrait
Del mio spendo signor? Donna,
Of my last master? Lady, raise your
la fronte
face.
Solleva. Che!…
What!
MARIA
T’acqueta…
Calm yourself…
Non appellarmi. Per la via segreta,
Name me not. I found my way here
Che sotterranea del castello aggiunge
By the secret passage that, running
underground,
–111–
Ogni recesso, io qui traea. Si taccia
Reaches every recess of the castle.
Pronounce not
Un nome d’onta ricoperto. Ahi, padre! A name which is covered in shame.
Alas, father!
Il tuo rigor dischiuse
Your severity opened
A me un abisso, a te la tomba!
An abyss for me, for you your tomb!
RAMBALDO
Inguisto
His severity
Il suo rigor non fu! Vive Corrado
Was not unjustified! Corrado lives
A se medesmo ignoto:
In ignorance of his true identity:
“Egli nacque da tal, che morte infame “He was born of a father who suffered
“Sul patibolo avea."
“An ignominious death upon the
scaffold."
MARIA
Ciel!… E fia vero!…
Heavens!… Can this be true!…
RAMBALDO
L’orribile mistero
The Count revealed the horrible mystery
Presso a morir mi disvelava il Conte.
To me as he lay dying.
Ma dimmi, ov’è colui? “Dopo la notte But tell me, where is Corrado? “After
that night
“Che messaggero del padre m’accoglievi “When I came as your father’s
messenger, and you
“Nel veneto giardino, ambo spariste!
“Received me in the garden in Venice,
you both disappeared!
MARIA
“La mia crudel ferita
“Why do you seek to probe
“Perché ricerchi? Ahi, notte!
“My cruel wound? Alas, that night!
“Cagion tremenda, o forse
“It was the terrible cause, or perhaps
–113–
“Prestesto vil d’atrocità sì nera,
“Che in rimembrarla ancor di morte
“The vile pretext, for an atrocity so black
“That still, when I recall it, the icy cold
of death
“Tutta m’agghiaccia!…
“Freezes me all over!…
seized with horror
“Un velo
“Let a veil…
“Sovr’essa… un velo.” Abbandonata
“A veil be drawn over that night.” I was
io fui,
abandoned,
E del barbaro invan cercai sinora
And in vain till now have I sought to
trace
Investigar le ascose tracce!
The hidden tracks of the brutal man!
RAMBALDO
Ancora
Yet even now
In tempo riedi. Un cenno
You have returned in time.
An instruction
Del pedre tuo…
From your father…
MARIA
Ne corse
I heard
La fama.
Tell of it.
RAMBALDO
Giunge di Matilde in breve
Matilde’s husband
Lo sposo…
Will soon be here…
MARIA
E giunga. Me desio non tragge
And let him come. I am not drawn
Di terrena grandezza.
By wish of earthly grandeur.
Nel domestico tetto a gemer vengo
I return to my family home to weep
Sul paterno sepolcro, indi m’aspetta
Upon my father’s tomb, then
Il convento d’Arau.
the convent of Arau awaits me.
–114–
RAMBALDO
Heavens!… What are you saying!
Within those walls you wish…
MARIA
La vergogna celar di mia… sciagura.
To conceal the shame of my… downfall.
[7]
Sì, del chiostro penitente
Yes, I shall assume forever the veil
Cingerò per sempre il velo:
Of the penitent cloister:
Del mio cor la smania ardente
Heaven alone can calm
Può calmar soltanto il cielo.
The burning frenzy of my heart.
Chiederò gemente a Dio
With groans of remorse I shall beseech God
Il perdono dell’ error…
To forgive me my error…
Sarà tutto il viver mio
My whole life will be spent
Un sol pianto di dolor.
In shedding tears of grief.
A sound of joyful music is heard
RAMBALDO
Vien lo sposo!…
Matilde’s husband approaches!…
MARIA
Dell’Eterno
May Eternal God
Splenda un riso a questi nodi.
Smile upon these nuptials.
Ove giace il fral paterno
I shall betake myself where the remains
Io mi traggo, e poscia… m’odi:
Of my father lie, and then… hear me:
Quando avrà la notte oscura
When dark night has unfurled
La sua veste in ciel spiegata,
Her vestment over the sky,
Ciel!… Che dicesti!…
E vuoi fra quelle mura?…
Del convento fra le mura,
Vieni a trarmi inosservata.
Come and escort me unobserved
Within the convent walls.
She is about to depart
–115–
RAMBALDO
Deh! Ti cangia… Deh! M’ascolta…
Ah! Change your mind… Ah! Hear me…
MARIA
in a resolute tone
Non conosci ancor Maria?
Do you still not know Maria?
RAMBALDO
E vivrai colà sepolta
And you will live out your life
La tua vita?
Buried in yonder convent?
MARIA
La mia vita? Oh, breve fia.
My life? Oh, it will not last long.
RAMBALDO
Ah!
Ah!
MARIA
Sì, breve fia la mia vita.
Yes, my life will not last long.
[8]
Sulla mia tomba gelida
Too late, and in useless compassion,
Tardi, ed invan pietoso,
Corrado will sometimes come to weep
Nel suo rimorso a piangere
In his remorse
Egli verrà talor…
Upon my cold tomb…
Al suono di quei gemiti
At the sound of those groans
Dall’ultimo riposo
My ashes will be roused
Fian deste le miei ceneri,
From their last sleep
E sentiranno amor!
And they will feel love!
RAMBALDO
Ove ti tragge, o misera,
Where, poor woman, is this insane love
Un forsennato amor!
Leading you!
MARIA
Se quel crudo rivedrai
Should you see again that villain
–116–
Matthew Hargreaves
(Rambaldo)
Che l’avello m’apprestò:
Ella è spenta, gli dirai,
Ma fedele a te spirò.
Who sought to prepare my grave:
Tell him, she is dead,
But she died faithful to you.
Sulla mia tomba gelida
ecc.
Too late, and in useless compassion,
etc.
Maria departs
[9]
RAMBALDO
Qui de’vassalli move
All the vassals of Rudenz approach
La schiera. Oh, come lenta
In this direction. O, how slowly
Procede! Oh, come lo girar degli occhi They advance! O, how gravely they look
È grave! Mal diresti
About them! You scarce would guess
Esser festivo la cagion che aduna
They were gathered together
Tal gente!
For any festive cause!
SCENE V
The gallery fills with armed retainers and vassals of Rudenz.
Innazi a sconosciuto sire
Chinar dovrem le fronti?
Ah! sì: de’nostri conti
Tutta mancò la stirpe!
Dunque spenta è Maria?
Voi lo diceste.
RETAINERS
Must we bend the knee
Before an unknown lord?
RAMBALDO
Ah! yes: the line of our counts
Is quite extinct!
RETAINERS
Maria is dead, then?
RAMBALDO
As you say.
–118–
Oh, certezza fatal!
(Spenta pur troppo
È l’infelice al mondo.
Sta nel volto a ciascun dolor
profondo!)
Ah! Che di pianto è questo,
Non è di gioia il dì!
Orrido vel funesto
Il sol per noi coprì!
In sen del freddo avello
Anche Maria dimora!
L’ultima speme ancora
La morte a noi rapì!…
Ah! Che di pianto è questo,
Non è di gioia il dì!
Giunge il signor novello,
Pianger nessuno ardisca…
Si taccia, e s’obbedisca…
Volle il destin così!
Olrrido vel funesto
Il sol per noi coprì!
Ah! Che di pianto è questo,
Non è di gioia il dì!
RETAINERS
Oh, fatal certainty!
RAMBALDO
(Alas, the unhappy woman
Is dead to this world.
In the faces of all I read profound grief!)
RETAINERS
Ah! But this is a day of grief
It is not a day of joy!
An awful ill-omened veil
Has obscured our sight of the sun!
And Maria is laid
In the depths of the cold tomb!
Death has deprived us
Even of this last hope!…
Ah! But this is a day of grief,
It is not a day of joy!
RAMBALDO
Our new lord approaches,
Let no one dare to weep…
Let all be silent and obey…
Destiny has wished it thus!
RETAINERS
An awful ill-omened veil
Has obscured our sight of the sun!
Ah! But this is a day of grief,
It is not a day of joy!
–119–
Regina Nathan (Matilde)
SCENE VI
Matilde, surrounded by her pages, goes towards Corrado, who comes forward followed by
Enrico.
[10]
Matilde…
CORRADO
Matilde…
MATILDE
(Chi vegg’io!)
(Who do I see!)
RAMBALDO & RETAINERS
(Corrado!…)
(Corrado!…)
Rambaldo, unobserved, departs
ENRICO
(Ah! sembra
(Ah! in my eyes
Celeste immago aglì occhi miei!…)
She seems a heavenly vision!…)
CORRADO
Felice
I am happy
Oltre ogni dir son io!
Beyond all telling!
Quanto per me rinserra
All that the earth contains
Di più caro la terra
That is most dear to me
Mi sta dappresso!
Stands here beside me!
presenting Enrico to Matilde
Mio fratello è questi.
This is my brother.
MATILDE
Egli!… Enrico! Tu dunque sei?
He?… Enrico! Then you are…?
CORRADO
Corrado di Waldorf. Una possente
Corrado di Waldorf. A weighty reason
Ragion m’astrinse di celar sinora
Obliged me to conceal until now
Qual fossi!
My identity!
–121–
to Enrico
Matilde
Was not unknown to you!
ENRICO
Da tremenda pugna
When my troop
Reduce la mia schiera,
Returned from a terrible battle,
Dimorò nel villaggio, in cui romiti
It was stationed in the village in which
Giorni traea Matilde. Il suo pensiero
Matilde passed her days in seclusion. At
that time
Allor fuggìa da mondani affetti!
Her thoughts shunned earthly affections!
MATILDE
È vero…
It is true…
Allor non m’appellava ad altre sorti
At that time the Count’s last testament
Del Conte il cenno estremo.
Did not call me to a different destiny.
CORRADO
Ognun lo ascolti.
Let all hear the Count’s last wishes.
A te, Matilde
Non era ignota!
IL CANCELLIERE DEL CASTELLO
reading aloud the will
Del retaggio avito
Maria is the mistress
È l’arbitra Maria.
Of her ancestral inheritance.
A lei Matilde raccomando, e sia
I recommend Matilde to her –
Primo de’suoi doveri
That she should make it her first duty
Secondarne la brama, e qual s’addice
To second my wish, and place her nobly,
A patrizia donzella, e mia nepote,
As becomes a high-bred maiden
Locarla nobilmente
And my niece, in the cloister of Arau.
D’Arau nel chiostro. Pur, se volge
And yet, should a year go by
l’anno
–122–
E mia figlia non riede,
And my daughter not return,
Scelga uno sposo, e del mio stato erede Let Matilde choose a husband, and
I invest her
Matilde investo. Il Conte
As heiress to my estates. Count
Piero di Rudenz.
Piero di Rudenz.
CORRADO
Oggi
Today marks the end
Compie l’anno prefisso.
Of the prescribed year.
RETAINERS
(Ahi, dura legge!…)
(Alas, harsh decree!…)
ENRICO
(Ho sotto il piè l’abisso!)
(The abyss opens beneath my feet!)
MATILDE
Di Matilde lo sposo adorato
Let everyone recognise in Corrado
In Corrado ciascuno rimiri.
My adored husband.
Ah! Giungesti momento beato
Che affrettai con sì lunghi sospiri!
(Io mi perdo!… Fatal gelosia
Le mie luci ricopre d’un vel!…)
Al signor che vi dono giurate,
O vassalli, obbedienza e rispetto
CORRADO
Ah! You have arrived, blessed moment,
Whose approach I hastened with such
drawn-out sighs!
ENRICO
(I am lost!… Fatal jealousy
Covers my eyes with a veil!…)
MATILDE
My vassals, swear to obey and respect
The lord I give you.
–123–
David Parry (conductor) and Bruce Ford (Enrico)
Com’io giuro, e voi tutti ascoltate,
La mia fede, il mio tenero affetto…
CORRADO
Just as I swear, and call you all to witness
My faith and my tender affection…
SCENE VII
The door at the back of the stage opens. Maria appears, followed by Rambaldo
.
MARIA
Empio, cessa, che t’ode Maria.
Stop, wicked man – you are overheard
by Maria.
There is general surprise
CORRADO
Non vaneggio!…
Surely I’m not delirious!…
ENRICO & RETAINERS
Maria!…
Maria!…
MATILDE
Giusto ciel!…
Good heavens!
MARIA
Si… Maria.
Yes… Maria.
She comes forward, casting a terrible look upon Matilde as she does so. Then she turns to
Corrado and in a tone of concentrated anger says:
[11]
Chiuse al dì per te le ciglia
You were the cause that here, all alone,
Qui deserto il genitore!
My father closed his eyes to the light of
day!
E tradirne qui la figlia
And yet here, black-hearted man, you
thought
–125–
Tu volevi, atroce core!
Nè l’Eterno ancor punisce
L’alma rea che tanto ardisce?…
Pena forsa Iddio non trova
Che pareggi il tuo fallir.
To betray his daughter.
And does Eternal God still not punish
A guilty soul who dared so much?…
Perhaps God finds no punishment
To equal your crime.
CORRADO
Se di Dio la man suprema
If I have provoked the almighty hand
A punirmi ho provocata…
Of God to punish me…
MARIA
Oh Corrado!
Oh Corrado!
CORRADO
Già mi coglie pena estrema,
Already extreme punishment overtakes
me
Rivederti, o sciagurata.
In seeing you again, wretched woman.
Ma talvolta un fine arcano
But sometimes a secret purpose
Tien sospessa quella mano!
Keeps the hand of God suspended!
Se non fosse, al mio cospetto
If it were not so, here before my eyes
Ti dovrebbe incenerir.
He should burn you to ashes.
MARIA
Sciagurato! Empio!… Va!
Wretch! Villain!… Begone!
ENRICO
(Io son pari ad uom cui scende
(I am like a man who already sees
Già la scure sulla testa…
The axe descending on his head…
Ed un grido, un cenno intende
And who hears a cry, an order
Che di morte il colpo arresta!
That arrests the blow of death!
Ah! Ne’palpiti che provo
Ah! In the throbbings I feel
Al mio duolo conforto io trovo!…
I find comfort for my grief!…
–126–
Ed un raggio di speranza
Mi colora l’avvenir!)
And a ray of hope
Colours my future!)
MATILDE
(Quello sguardo, e quello sdegno
(That look, and her anger
Ah! Mi fè rabbrividir!
Ah! They have set me shuddering!
Ahi! Che sguardi…)
Alas! what glances…)
RAMBALDO & RETAINERS
Al voler dello straniero
We shall no longer have to submit
Non dovremo più servir.
To a stranger’s will.
[12]
RETAINERS
Maria, di fidi sudditi
Maria, receive the homage
Ricevi or tu l’omaggio,
Of your faithful subjects,
E tremi il temerario
And let the rash man tremble
Che farti osasse oltraggio!
Who dared to do you such an outrage!
MARIA
to Corrado
Udisti? Or va, mi libera
You’ve heard? Now go, from this moment
Di tua presenza omai…
Rid me of your presence…
Furo da te quest’aure
You have contaminated this air
Contaminate assai! Va!
Quite sufficiently! Go!
drawing Matilde to her side
Te poi, modesta vergine,
As for you, modest virgin,
Aspetta il sacro velo:
The sacred veil awaits you:
Restar non puoi fra gli uomini,
You cannot remain among men,
Cosa tu sei del cielo!
You belong to heaven!
ENRICO
protesting, and quivering with passion, to Maria
Donna!…
Lady!…
–127–
CORRADO
rushing forward to regain possession of Matilde
E schernirla, o perfida,
And do you dare to deride her,
Osi?… Matilde è mia…
Perfidious woman?… Matilde is mine…
RETAINERS
Che ardisci!… Va!
What is this you dare?… Go!
MARIA
Allontanatelo…
Drive him away…
Respinto a forza ci sia…
Eject him by force…
CORRADO
Sciagurata!
Cursed woman!
MATILDE
to Corrado
Ah! cedi…
Ah! yield…
ENRICO
Per poco almeno…
At least for a little…
MARIA
Esci…
Begone…
MATILDE
as if she is about to faint
Ho la morte in cor!…
Death grips my heart!…
MARIA
Io trionfo appieno!…
My triumph is complete!…
CORRADO
Son ebbro di furor!…
I am drunk with fury!…
MARIA
Respinto sia…
Let him be thrown out…
–128–
CORRADO
Throw me out? Maria!
MARIA
Il tuo core a me togliesti,
You deprived me of your heart.
Tolgo a te la donna amata…
I deprive you of the woman you love…
Infelice mi volesti?
You wished me unhappy?
Io lo son… ma vendicata.
So I am… but revenged.
Va, se il ciel che a te contrasta,
Go, if the opposition of heaven
Se a dividervi non basta,
Is not sufficient to separate you,
Sogerà tra voi l’inferno…
Hell will rise up between you…
E l’inferno sento in me!
The same hell that I feel inside me!
CORRADO
Va… ti disprezzo!
Go… I despise you!
MATILDE
Volse un guardo a me sì fiero
She turned such a ferocious look
upon me
Che me fè rabbrividire;
That she has set me shuddering;
Mi separa, ed in eterno,
O Corrado, heaven divides me
O Corrado, il ciel da te!…
From you, and for all eternity!…
ENRICO
(Fra la speme ed il timore
(Between hope and fear
Ardo e gelo in un momento!…
I burn and freeze in one and the same
moment!…
Del fratello a questo core
The grievous torment of my brother
Quasi è gioia il rio tormento!…
Comes almost as joy to my heart!…
Ahi! Qual era, più non sono!…
Alas! I am no longer the man I was!…
Non m’intendo!… Non ragiono!…
I don’t understand myself… I cannot
think clearly!…
Io respinto? Maria!
–129–
Altro amor, l’amor fraterno
Ha pur troppo estinto in me!)
Love for another has unfortunately
Stifled my love for my brother!)
CORRADO
to Maria
Godi pur… Godrai per poco!…
Exult then… You will not exult for long!…
La tua gioia è fuggitiva…
Your joy will be fleeting…
ENRICO
Oh! Speme…
Oh! Hope…
MARIA
to Matilde
Tu vieni…
You, come with me…
ENRICO
to Corrado
Fratello…
Brother…
MARIA
to Corrado
Sciagurato…
Wretch…
CORRADO
Matilde è mia!
Matilda is mine!
MARIA
Sì dal cielo…
Yes, from heaven…
CORRADO
No!… mai!
No… never!
MARIA
… respinto a forza ei sia!
… let him be forcibly ejected!
ENRICO
to Maria and Corrado
No!… Fermatevi… No!
No!… Stop… No!
–130–
CORRADO
to Maria
Stolta! Apprendi che il mio foco
Foolish woman! Learn that my fire
Per ostacoli si avviva.
Is fanned by obstacles
Riedo in breve, riedo in armi
I’ll return in brief, I’ll return under arms
La mia sposa a ripigliarmi…
To retake possession of my bride…
E vedrem se poi l’inferno,
And then we shall see if hell,
Se può Dio negarla a me.
If God can deny her to me.
RAMBALDO & RETAINERS
Va! T’allontana… ed in eterno,
Go! Be gone… and for all eternity,
Se la vita è cara a te.
If you value your life.
They force back Corrado, who departs, dragged away by Enrico. Maria pulls Matilde
away in the other direction
CD2
75’24
PART TWO
Un Delitto
A Crime
[1] Preludio
SCENE I
A room in the castle, the ceiling of which is supported by thick columns. There are two side
entrances and a door at the back. Maria enters by one of the side doors, Rambaldo from
the door at the back.
[2]
Ebben, colei?…
MARIA
Well, how is she?
–131–
RAMBALDO
Tuttora
Always
La stessa! Tace nel suo duolo immersa, The same! Immersed in her grief,
E piange.
She keeps silent and weeps.
MARIA
“Udì l’irrevocabile cenno?
“Did she hear the irrevocable order?
“Il cenno di Maria?
“The order of Maria?
RAMBALDO
“L’udi.
“She heard it.
MARIA
“Che mai
“And whatever
“Risponde?
“Does she reply?
RAMBALDO
“Piange”.
“She weeps”.
MARIA
Un lustro io piansi! Ormai
I wept for five years! Now
Fremo soltanto! Va, qui traggi Enrico; I only quiver with fury! Go, bring
Enrico here;
“Ed il geloso incarco
“And remember your zealous duty
“D’assecurar gli spaldi, ed ogni varco
“To secure the flanks and every entrance
“Del castello, rammenta.” Il sai, fu
“To the castle.” You know that armed
vista
men have been seen
Gente in armi dappresso!
In the vicinity!
Rambaldo goes out through one of the side doors
Avvi Corrado istesso
Corrado himself is certainly
Certo fra quella!… Ma la preda invano Part of that band!… But he will try
in vain
Si tenterà strapparmi.
To seize my prey from me.
–132–
SCENE II
Enrico and Maria
MARIA
Approach. You asked to speak
To me, Enrico: speak,
What brings you here?
ENRICO
Pietà dell’infelice
Pity for unhappy
Matilde.
Matilde.
MARIA
Io servo alla paterna legge.
I am obeying my father’s order.
ENRICO
Ed osi un cenno ricordar, Maria.
And do you dare refer, Maria, to an order
Che pervertisti, e che annullato fia
Whose intent you have deliberately
twisted
In breve dal Senato?
And which will soon be annulled by the
Senate?
MARIA
Ma tardi! L’ombre sorgeranno, tratta
But too late! The shades will have
gathered,
Matilde a viva forza
Matilde will have been lodged by force
Sarà nel vicin chiostro.
In the neighbouring cloister.
ENRICO
Il rio disegno
You will not complete
Non compirai… La vittima strappata
Your evil design… Your victim will be
torn
T’avanza. Favellarmi
Chiedesti, Enrico: parla,
Che ti guida?
–134–
Nigel Douglas (Il Cancelliere) and
Matthew Hargreaves (Rambaldo)
Presso all’ara ti fira, dinanzi al nume,
From you at the foot of the altar, before
the God
Di crudeltà nemico…
Who is the enemy of the cruelty…
MARIA
E chi tanto ardirà? Corrado?
And who will be so bold? Corrado?
ENRICO
Enrico.
Enrico.
Sappilo, in core avvampo,
Know that in my heart I am aflame,
Mi struggo per Matilde…
I am beside myself with love for Matilde…
MARIA
L’ami?
You love her?
ENRICO
D’immenso amor!
With a love that knows no bounds.
“Se morir cento volte in sua difesa
“If I could die a hundred times
“Potessi, cento volte
“In her defence, a hundred times
“Morrei, benedicendo
“I’d die, blessing
“Il mio destin.
“My fate.
MARIA
“Che intendo!”
“What do I hear!”
L’ami, e la cedi
You love her, yet you give her up
Al tuo rivale?
To your rival?
ENRICO
Al mio fratello. “Io vidi
To my brother. “I saw
“Matilde, allor che orbata
“Matilde when, bereft of both
“D’ambo i parenti, e derelitta in terra “Her parents, and left alone upon earth,
“Volgea lo sguardo al cielo… E il ciel
“She turned her gaze to heaven… And
sembrava
heaven seemed
“Di sua beltade innamorata! Il core
“To have fallen in love with her beauty.
–136–
Ne chiesi...indarno! Piansi...
...al pianger mio Ella rispose!
…La pietà sovente
“È foriera d’amore! Squillò repente
“La tromba… Io mossi al campo…
e venne meco
“Dolce lusinga!…”Un fulmine colpito
I asked her for her heart...in vain! I wept
...and she responded to my tears!...
… Pity is so often
“The forerunner of love! Then suddenly
“The trumpet called… I reported to camp
… and carried with me
“A sweet hope!…”Would that a
thunderbolt had stuck me
M’avesse, pria che intender da Matilde Before ever I knew that Matilde returned
Riamato il fratel!… D’ogni conforto,
My brother’s love!… Deprived of all
comfort,
D’ogni speranza privo
Bereft of all hope,
Tremenda vita a lui dapresso io vivo!
I lead an unspeakable life at his side!
[3]
Talor nel mio delirio
Non veggio che il rivale…
E corre involontaria
La destra sul pugnale…
Ed un pensier terribile
Vien dall’inferno a me!
Inorridita l’anima
Tal segreto in petto io celo,
Da temprar le tue sciagure.
Sometimes in my raving
I see in my brother only a rival…
And, despite myself, my hand
Races to my dagger…
And a terrible thought
Arises from hell to possess me!
My soul in horror
MARIA
in a mysterious tone
But in my heart I conceal such a secret
As will temper your misfortunes.
–137–
Che di’tu!…
S’io lo rivelo
Senza offender la natura,
Stringer puoi l’ambita mano
Di colei che sì t’accese.
Ah! fia ver!…
Ma il gran arcano
Far non posso ad uom palese,
Olve pria l’infido amante
Non ritorni al mio cospetto
Ei mi segue… In breve istante
Io condurlo a te prometto…
Riveder potrò l’ingrato!…
Rivederlo!… In breve!…
Ah! Sì.
Ma l’arcan?…
Ti fia svelato:
ENRICO
What are you saying!…
MARIA
If I reveal it
Without offending the claims of nature,
You may clasp the hand you covet –
The hand of she who has set your heart
afire.
ENRICO
Ah! may it be true!…
MARIA
But I cannot reveal
The great mystery to anyone
Before I have once again seen
My faithless lover.
ENRICO
He follows me… In a moment
I promise to bring him to you…
MARIA
Shall I be able to behold the thankless
rogue once more?…
See him again?… And soon?…
ENRICO
Ah! Yes.
But the mystery?…
MARIA
Will be revealed to you.
–138–
Quando?
Quando? Al nuovo dì.
[4]
Al nuova dì? Ah!…
Tu la speme a me ritorni!…
Tu la vita in me ridesti!…
La parola che dicesti
Dalla tomba mi chiamò!
Come all’angel de’miei giorni
Grato sempre il cor ti fia,
Se Matilde sarà mia…
Se di gioia non morrò.
Va… Che tardi?… A me l’invia…
Vado, sì…
(Ove son!… Che mai farò!…)
Ah! Tu la speme a me ritorni,
ecc.
ENRICO
When?
MARIA
When? Tomorrow morn.
ENRICO
Tomorrow morn? Ah!…
You restore my hope!…
You have given me back my life!…
The word you have spoken
Has called me back from the grave!
If Matilde shall be mine…
If I do not die of joy,
My heart will forever be grateful to you,
Acknowledging you as the angel who
watches over me.
MARIA
Go… What are you waiting for?… Send
him to me…
ENRICO
Yes, I go…
MARIA
(Where am I!… Whatever am I about
to do?…)
ENRICO
Ah! You restore my hope!…
etc.
–139–
Enrico leaves
MARIA
“Olà!
“Ho there!
Several armed retainers appear
“Corrado a me venir si lasci.”
“Let Corrado come to me.”
The armed retainers go out. Maria now walks rapidly up and down, now stops, a prey
to the greatest agitation.
[5]
Che fu!… Son io!… Me stessa
What has happened!… This is I… yet
I do not
In me non trovo! Il senno fugge, il core Recognise myself! My senses desert me,
Palpita più frequente!…
My heart increases its beat!…
Ogni stilla di sangue è fiamma ardente! Every drop of blood is a burning flame!
“Questa piena d’affetti e di pensieri
“Let me try to calm this excess
of emotions
“Calmar si cerchi…
“And thoughts…
She sits
De’bollenti spirti
The power of my seething spirits
“Scemò la possa… non è ver. Più lieve “has subsided… No, that’s not true.
It would be
“Saria frenar de’venti,
“Easier to harness the winds,
“Della folgore il corso!”
“Than rein back the course of the
thunderbolt!”
After a long pause, she rises
Amor, vendetta, gelosia, furore:
Love, revenge, jealousy, fury:
Chi vincerà?…
Which of you will triumph?…
As she sees Corrado approaching, she says in impassioned tones:
Corrado! Ha vinto amore!
Corrado! It is love that has won!
–140–
SCENE III
Corrado and Maria. Corrado, when he stands before Maria, stops in silence, fixing a
terrible look upon her.
MARIA
Quel fero sguardo nel pensier mi desta That baleful look reminds me
Le caverne di Roma! Oh, quale
Of the catacombs of Rome! Oh, what a
ingiusto
causeless
Furor geloso t’avvampò! Scolparmi
And jealous fury burns in your glance!
Deggio, e posso.
I must exculpate myself, and I can.
CORRADO
Inutil cura e tarda!
A useless and tardy undertaking!
Per te non vengo.
It is not for you that I come here.
MARIA
restraining herself and indicating the door at the back
Intesi!
I understand!
Di lei favellerò. Colà Matilde
Let me speak of her. There, Matilde
Aspetta i cenni miei! Sposa d’un nume, Awaits my orders! She will be the bride
O d’un mortale andrà, che più
Either of God, or of a mortal who
la merta,
deserves her
Né men l’ama di te.
More than you, and who loves her
no less.
CORRADO
scornfully
Questo mortale
The name
Chiamasi?…
Of this mortal?…
MARIA
Enrico.
Enrico.
–141–
CORRADO
My brother!
MARIA
No, tale
No, that
Egli non è.
He is not.
CORRADO
Deliri!
You’re raving!
MARIA
M’odi. Proscritto
Hear me. Outlawed
In un co’suoi congiunti, Ugo di Berna Together with his accomplices, Ugo di
Berna
Il pargoletto figlio,
At his departure left his infant son,
“Che mal regger potea nell’aspro
“Whom he could ill support in his bitter
esiglio,”
exile,”
Lasciò partendo all pietosa cura
In the tender care
D’un amico fedel: questi sua prole
Of a faithful friend: this friend made
the boy
Creder fece il bambin: ma presso a
Believe himself his son: but, when death
morte,
approached,
“E già corsi due lustri,”
“Ten years ago now,”
L’arcan dischiuse al padre mio,
He disclosed the mystery to my father,
lasciando
leaving
Secure prove, onde potesse un giorno
Sure proofs, to enable Ugo one day
Ugo suo figlio ravvisar
To recognise his son.
CORRADO
in awful anxiety
Finisci.
Finish your account.
Mio fratel!
–142–
Robert McFarland (Corrado),
Bruce Ford (Enrico) with the
Geoffrey Mitchell Choir
MARIA
But Ugo, as well you know, stained
With vile and atrocious crimes, met
Costui macchiato, sul germano lido
his death
Fu spento dal carnefice.
At the executioner’s hand on the
German coast.
CORRADO
Quel figlio
And that son
D’Ugo?…
Of Ugo?
MARIA
Tu sei.
You are that son.
CORRADO
Mio padre…
My father…
Un assassin!
An assassin!
MARIA
T’accheta…
Calm yourself…
CORRADO
Orrido gelo
A terrible spasm of ice
Mi ricerca ogni fibra!
Penetrates my every fibre!
MARIA
Eterno velo
Let an eternal veil
Covra l’arcan: distrutte
Be drawn over the mystery: I myself
Ne fian de me la prove.
Shall destroy the proofs.
Sempre lo stesso innanzi al mondo,
Ever the same in the eyes of the world,
Ah! Riedi
Ah! Be once again
Pur con Maria qual fosti.
What you were to Maria.
Ma, ben lo sai, di vili, atroci colpe
–144–
CORRADO
What?
MARIA
Rimembra, infedel, quanto mi costi!
Remember, faithless man, how much
you cost me!
[6]
Fonte d’amare lagrime
You turned my eyes
Apristi agli occi miei…
To fountains of bitter tears…
La fama, il padre, ahi, misera
Alas, poor wretch that I am, through you
Per te crudel perdei…
I lost my reputation, my father…
Ma t’amo ancora, e supplice
But I love you yet, and a supplicant
Alle tue piante io cado…
I fall at your feet…
Tutto m’hai tolto… Ah! Rendimi,
You have taken everything from me…
Ah! Give me back,
Rendimi almen Corrado…
At least give me back Corrado…
E come il ciel s’adora,
And as one worships heaven,
Giuro adorarti ognor.
I swear to love you forever.
CORRADO
(Ah! chi sopisce l’odio,
(Ah! who mollifies my hatred?
Chi l’ire in sen mi smorza?
Who assuages the anger in my breast?
Qual mai potere insolito
Whatever unfamiliar power is this
A lagrimar mi sforza!
That moves me to tears!
Quell’angoscioso gemito
That anguished groan tests
Le vie del cor mi tenta!
The motions of my heart!
Provo un arcano palpito
I feel a strange heartbeat
Che un’altra età rammenta!…
That reminds me of bygone times!…
Così l’intesi allora
I felt it like this in the days
Che m’arse il primo amor!)
When first I fell in love!)
Che?
–145–
Moved in the extreme, Corrado makes a rapid movement in an attempt to leave, but
Maria seizes his hand and holds him back.
MARIA
Parti?…
Are you going?
CORRADO
(Corribili momenti!…)
(Dreadful moment!…)
MARIA
E pieta di me non senti?…
And feel you no pity for me?…
CORRADO
Sol pieta…
Pity, but no more…
MARIA
Colei mi priva
Matilde steals my chance
D’altro affetto!… E questa mano?…
Of any other affection… and this
hand?…
CORRADO
Fia…
Will be given…
MARIA
Non dirlo. Sin ch’io viva,
Say no more. Traitor, while I live
Traditor, lo speri invano…
Your hopes are in vain…
Or che tardi? Avventa omai
Now what are you waiting for? Wretch,
Quell’acciaro in me, spietato…
Bury your sword in my bosom…
Ma risorger mi vedrai
But you will see me rise again,
Truce spettro, insanguinato…
A fearsome spectre, dripping blood…
Di tue nozze il giorno, il rito
I shall crown your marriage day,
Di spavento colmerò…
Your wedding ceremony with terror…
E del talamo abborrito
I shall cut short the evil joys
L’empie gioje troncherò.
Of your hateful nuptial chamber.
–146–
CORRADO
Empty fury, foolish words!…
A threat does not change my purpose.
Before the sky becomes dark
Matilde will be in my arms.
MARIA
“Ah!… Di rabbia son furente!…
“Ah!… I am raging with anger!…
“Me tu sfidi!… Separati
“You defy me!… I can separate you
“Da Matilde eternamente
“From Matilde for all eternity,
“Posso, iniquo, e pria che parti.
“Wicked man, and before you leave
this spot.
CORRADO
“(Ciel!…)”
“(Heavens!…)”
MARIA
Non pensi, sciagurato,
Have you no heed, wretched man,
In qual tetto il piè mattesti!
Of the roof under which you have
ventured!
Qui l’oltraggio invendicato
Here no outrage ever went
Mai non fu!
Unrevenged!
CORRADO
Che dir vorresti?…
What do you mean?
MARIA
De’ terribili avi miei
I shall follow the example
Seguirò l’esempio.
Of my fearsome ancestors.
She presses a spring, and the stones that form the threshold of the door at the
back disappear.
Mira.
Behold.
Furor vano, stolti accenti!…
Me non cangia una minaccia.
Pria che fosco il ciel diventi
Fia Matilde in queste braccia.
–147–
CORRADO
What an abyss!
As Maria presses the spring once more, the stones reappear.
MARIA
Di colei
It will be
Fia la tomba.
Her tomb.
CORRADO
No!
No!
MARIA
“Quest’ira
“Would you extinguish
“Che m’avvampa spegner vuoi?”
“The anger that flares within me?”
Vuoi salvarla?
Do you want to save her?
CORRADO
Sì… Che imponi?
Yes… What must I do?
MARIA
“Morirà sugli occhi tuoi
“She will die before your eyes
“Se vacilli, se t’opponi!…
“If you hesitate, if you offer any
opposition!…
CORRADO
“Parla, parla.”
“Speak, speak.”
MARIA
Dei giurarmi
You must swear me
Fede eternal, eterno amor.
Eternal faith, eternal love.
CORRADO
Ah!
Ah!
MARIA
Resisti!… E provocarmi,
Do you resist?… Do you dare,
Scellerato, ardisci ancor!
Scoundrel, still to provoke me?
Quale abisso!
–148–
Corrado has reached the state of a man in the last stages of desperation.
CORRADO
Io giurar? Ah!
Must I swear? Ah!
[7]
È d’altra il cor… Nè franger
My heart belongs to another… It is not
M’è dato i lacci suoi…
In my power to break those bonds…
Barriera insuperabil
Destiny places an insuperable barrier
Pose il destin fra noi…
Between us…
Desisti… Non astringermi
Desist… Do not compel me
A rio misfatto estremo…
To commit the most evil deed of all…
Più che per lei non tremo,
Even more than I tremble for her,
Tremar tu dei per te!
You must tremble for yourself!
MARIA
Giura, o l’istante orribile
Swear, or the horrible moment
Della vendetta è giunto!…
Of vengeance has come!…
Distruggerà la vittima
A sign, a word, a touch
Un cenno, un detto, un punto!…
And my victim’s destroyed!…
Fu mio quel cor, dev’essere
That heart of yours was mine – it must
Eternamente mio…
Be mine for ever…
Ora il destin son io:
Now I play the part of destiny:
Fuggir non puoi da me.
You cannot escape me.
Giura!
Swear!
CORRADO
Non mai…
Never…
MARIA
Non mai? Matilde!
Never? Matilde!
calling towards the door at the back, and placing her right hand on the spring
–149–
CORRADO
Ah! Be silent!
Stop… Do not call her!
MARIA
Giura!… Giura!
Swear!… Swear!
CORRADO
No, no, no.
No, no, no.
È d’altra il cor… Nè franger
My heart belongs to another…
ecc.
etc.
MARIA
Matilde!
Matilde!
CORRADO
Tu lo vuoi! Mori…
You will it! Then die…
He plunges the dagger in her breast.
MARIA
uttering a piercing cry as she falls
Ah!…
Ah!
Ah! Taci!
Ah! Cessa… Taci!
SCENE IV
Matilde, Rambaldo and the armed retainers all come running, Matilde from the door at
the back, Rambaldo and the retainers from the doors on either side.
“Oh, ciel!…”
Maria trafitta!…
RAMBALDO & RETAINERS
“Oh heavens!…”
MATILDE
Maria stabbed!…
–150–
RAMBALDO
indicating Corrado, who has remained motionless, as if stupefied by the horror of what
he has done
Ed ecco l’assassin!…
And here stands the assassin!…
CORRADO
Che feci!…
What have I done!…
RAMBALDO & RETAINERS
raising their swords and pointing them toward his head
Mostro, paventa…
Monster, fear…
MARIA
Fermate… Io mi svenai… Ch’ei viva… Stop… I killed myself… Let him live…
MATILDE, RAMBALDO & RETAINERS
Spenta!
She is dead!
PART THREE
Lo Spettro
The Spectre
SCENE I
An atrium in the castle. To one side the castle chapel, lit up within. At the back a view,
through a colonnade, of the park lapped by the river. The moon is shining.
Armed retainers and vassals of the family of Rudenz are standing in groups at some
distance from the door of the chapel
[8]
ARMED RETAINERS
Sì, quell’ ombra sepolcrale
Yes, that ghost from the tomb,
Scarmigliata, in bruno ammanto,
With streaming hair, in a dark mantle,
–151–
Marco Impallomeni (Italian coach)
and Nelly Miricioiu (Maria)
Alla soglia nuziale
Fu veduta erra d’accanto.
Was seen wandering near the threshold
Of the nuptial chamber.
VASSALS
Qual presagio! E ancor vi fia
What an evil omen! And are there
still those
Quell’ ardito, quel demente,
Who are so rash or so demented
Che lo spettro di Maria
As to maintain the spectre of Maria
Creda un sogno della mente?
A figment of the imagination?
ARMED RETAINERS
Oh! se v’ha, non è Corrado,
Ah! if there are, they do not include
Corrado,
Che all’udirne ammutolisce,
Who is struck dumb to hear of it,
E si turba, e suo malgrado
And who is troubled, despite himself.
Trema tutto, e impallidisce.
Who trembles all over and grows pale.
VASSALS
Non oblia però l’amore
Yet he cannot forget his love,
Cagion rea di lutto e pianto!
The guilty cause of this grief and
mourning!
Ma nel tempio il mancatore
But even now in the chapel, false to
his vows,
Tristi nodi forma intanto.
He enters into unpropitious marriage
bonds.
ARMED RETAINERS
Ad Enrico tale imene
To Enrico such a marriage
Parve ancor sì sciagurato,
Seemed so ill-omened
Che fuggendo questo arene
That, flying from these parts,
Ha il fratello abbandonato!…
He has abandoned his brother!…
Religious music is heard
–154–
Dileguiam… Si ceda il campo
Alla gioja d’empio amor...
Sarà breve come lampo,
Se v’è un Dio vendicator!
ALL
Let us disperse… Let us surrender
the field
To the celebration of guilty love…
If there is a God of vengeance,
It will be brief as a flash of lightening!
All depart
SCENE II Enrico, breathless and covered with dust, enters from the back, and Rambaldo
from the chapel.
[9]
Tardi, ah! tardi giungesti!…
RAMBALDO
Too late, ah! you arrive too late!…
ENRICO
E che!…
What do you mean?…
RAMBALDO
Fu sciolto
The vows
D’Imene il voto.
Of marriage have been exchanged.
ENRICO
producing several sheets of paper
Iniqua sorte!… Oh! Dimmi,
Evil destiny!… Oh! Tell me,
Tu forse?…
You perhaps?…
RAMBALDO
Riede il nuzial corteggio!…
The wedding procession is returning!…
Va… T’allontana… Io deggio
Go… Withdraw… I am due
Recarmi altrove… (Ahi misera! Che fia, Elsewhere… (Alas, unhappy Maria!
Che fia di te!…)
What, what will become of you!…)
He leaves hastily
–155–
ENRICO
Was it Rambaldo, then, who sent
The unknown messenger to me? Those
fatal proofs.
D’alto mistero, ah! Perché mai non
Of the great mystery, ah! Why did I not
v’ebbi
receive them
Un di soltanto, un’ora pria?
A single day, even an hour earlier?
“M’avverte
“The attached
“Il foglio annesso, che l’arcan sapea
“Sheet informs me that Corrado knew of
“Corrado, e quella face
the mystery, and of the passion
“Che m’arde in sen…” Tacesti, o vil,
“That burns in my breast…” You kept
tacesti
silent, vile man, you kept silent
Onde rapirmi l’adorata donna
So that you could tear the woman I love
from me
Impunemente!
With impunity!
The nuptial procession crosses the atrium
Orrida notte è questa!…
What a horrible night this is!…
Benda feral mi copre i lumi!…
A fatal blindfold covers my eyes!…
L’ignoto messo dunque
Rambaldo a me spedia? Prove fatali
SCENE III
Corrado, Matilde, pages with lighted torches, ladies, knights and Enrico.
ENRICO
to Corrado, intercepting him and holding him back. Everyone else continues to accompany
the bride, mounting a staircase that leads to the apartments where the festivity is to take
place
Arresta!
Stop!
–156–
CORRADO
Where have you come from? Whatever
do you want?
ENRICO
Il tuo sangue!
Your blood!
CORRADO
Il sangue mio?…
My blood?…
Ah! fratel!…
Ah! brother!…
ENRICO
Fratel mi chiami?
Do you call me brother?
Nacqui forse, nacqui anchi’io
Was I, too, perhaps, born of that knave
Dal ribaldo, a cui la scure
Whose wicked head
Fe’cader l’iniqua testa?
Fell to the axe?
CORRADO
Oh! Che intendo!… Sai tu pure
Oh! What do I hear!… So you, too,
Verità cosi funesta!
Know this fatal truth!
ENRICO
showing him the papers
N’ho le prove.
I hold the proofs.
Un altro arcano
But there’s another mystery
Tu sapesti! Quell’amor,
You knew of! That love
Che sì m’infiamma…
Which so inflames me…
CORRADO
E ardisci…
And do you dare…
ENRICO
Lo sapesti! Quell’amor..Io..Io
You were aware of it! That love..I..I
Onde riedi? Che mai brami?
–157–
CORRADO
Madman!
Stop… Be silent; or my fury…
ENRICO
Io lo sfido.
I scorn your fury.
Both have their hands on the pommels of their swords, but Corrado suddenly stops himself
CORRADO
No… T’amai
No… I loved you
Qual fratello… e t’amo ancor.
As a brother… and I love you still.
Vivi… e fuggi.
Live… and fly this place.
ENRICO
Tu non sai
You do not know
Di qual tempra è questo cor!
Of what temper his heart is made!
[10]
A me, cui financo la speme togliesti
For me, whom you robbed even of
hope,
Sarebbe la vita supplizio di morte!…
Life would be the torture of death!…
Tu lieto frarranto i giorni trarresti
You, meanwhile, a husband blessed
in marriage,
In sen di Matilde, beato consorte!…
Would joyfully pass your days in
Matilde’s arms!…
No: fin che una stilla di sangue
No: while a drop of blood is left me,
mi resta,
Indarno lo speri… Oppormi saprò…
You hope in vain for such happiness
I am here to thwart you…
Fu scritta nel cielo condanna funesta:
A fatal sentence has been signed
in heaven:
Ed uno fra noi più viver non può!
And one of us can live no longer!
Insano!
Cessa…Taci; o il mio furor…
–158–
David Parry, conductor
CORRADO
Ah! Il primo de’beni ancora t’avanza,
Ah! The most important treasure of all is
still yours,
Un cor innocente!… Di perderlo
An innocent heart!… Be fearful of losing
trema!…
it!…
Non sai del rimorso quant’ è grave la
You do not know how heavy weighs
possanza!
remorse!
Non sai quante è grave la mano
You do not know how heavy weighs the
suprema!
hand of the Almighty!
Ahi! Misero l’uomo di colpe bruttato, Alas! Wretched the man, besmirched
with crimes,
Che al cenno dell’ira il ferro vibrò!
Who has been moved by anger to smite
with the sword!
Eterna è la maccia del sangue versato… The stain of spilt blood last forever…
Un fiume di pianto lavarla non può!
A river of tears cannot wash it away
SCENE I
Several knights, Corrado and Enrico
KNIGHTS
to Corrado
Te, signor, Matilde appella.
Matilde calls you, sir.
CORRADO
softly to Enrico
Vanne, e scorda un folle amore.
Go, and forget your mad love.
ENRICO
stopping Corrado as he is about to depart
Ferma, indegno…
Stop, coward…
–160–
KNIGHTS
What language!…
ENRICO
Siam rivali…
We are rivals…
KNIGHTS
Oh ciel… Che orrore!
Oh heavens… What horror!
ENRICO
Mio fratel, non è costui…
This fellow is no brother of mine…
The knights express surprise
Un infame, un assassino
His father was a notorious criminal,
Fu suo padre… Più di lui
A murderer… And he is even more vile
Egli è vile.
Than his father.
He throws himself upon Corrado, tears from him the insignia of the Counts of Rudenz,
and tramples them underfoot
KNIGHTS
Ah! Che orror!
Ah! What horror!
CORRADO
shaking with anger
Rio destino!
Evil destiny!
Tu colpevole mi rendi!
It is you who makes me guilty!
KNIGHTS
(Egli d’onta lo copri!…)
(Enrico has steeped him in shame!…)
ENRICO
Snuda il ferro. Ebben, che attendi?
Unsheath your sword. Well, what are
you waiting for?
Vieni.
Come.
He gestures towards the park.
Qual favella!…
–161–
Ah! pensa…
Vieni.
[11]
Vengo… sì.
Un di noi più viver non può!
Un di noi più viver non può!
O tremenda gelosia
Che m’aresti, e m’ardi ancora,
O furor dell’alma mia,
Di sfogarvi è giunta l’ora!
Se a Matilde rieder vuoi
Nel mio sangue dèi bagnarti…
Sommo ben mi fia svenarti,
Sommo ben mi fia morir.
Ch’ei snudar mi fe’la spada,
Terra e cielo, io voi ne attesto.
Ah! L’orror su lui ricada
Della pugna ch’io detesto.
KNIGHTS
Ah! consider…
ENRICO
Come.
CORRADO
Yes… I’m coming.
ENRICO
One of us can live no longer!
CORRADO
One of us can live no longer!
ENRICO
O fearful jealousy
That set me afire, and burns me still,
O fury, that fills my soul,
The time has come to give you vent!
to Corrado
If you wish to return to Matilde,
You must first bathe yourself in my
blood…
My greatest good fortune would be to
kill you,
My greatest good fortune would be
to die.
CORRADO
Heaven and earth, I call you to witness:
It was he who made me draw my sword.
Ah! May the horror of this duel,
Which I deplore, fall upon him,
–162–
Note, addensa i veli tuoi,
Copri tu sì tristo evento…
Ah! Di vincere pavento…
Non pavento di morir!
Night, thicken your mantle,
Conceal such an evil event…
Ah! I fear to win…
But I do not fear to die!
KNIGHTS
(Ah! Di morte i detti suoi
(Ah! His words were a bitter
Furo acerba e ria disfida!
And impious defiance of death!
Tanto oltraggio sangue grida!
Such outrage calls for blood!
Sprona all’armi tanto ardir!)
Such boldness spurs to arms!)
ENRICO & CORRADO
Vieni!
Come!
ENRICO
All’armi!
To arms!
CORRADO
Andiam… all’armi!
Let us go… To arms!
They enter the park
SCENE V
A magnificent gallery. A staircase at the back, leading to other apartments. To one side the
door leading to the nuptial chamber; on the other side a balcony. The walls are hung with
garlands of flowers, and everywhere torches are burning brightly.
The orchestras have already struck up in festive sound, and the dances are already
underway. In every direction there is an animated coming and going of pages, ladies and
knights. Matilde is seated in the middle of a joyful throng, but every few moments looks
about her in disquiet, as if she is searching for Corrado. During the dances, the ladies sing
as follows:
–163–
[12]
O giovinetta sposa,
Soave sei, gentile!
Gentil come la rosa
LADIES
Oh young bride,
You are sweet and fair to the eye!
As fair as the rose
D’un bel mattin d’aprile,
Upon a fine April morn,
Soave al par di candido
As sweet as modest
Modesto gelsomin:
White jasmine:
Sei grata più dell’aura
You are more welcome than the breeze
Che spira dal giardin.
That blows from the garden.
Meanwhile a masked woman crosses the back of the stage, and while the attention of all is
occupied with the dancing, rapidly and furtively enters the nuptial chamber. A page
approaches Matilde, and speaks to her in a low voice. She rises, and, accompanied by some
of the ladies, retires to the nuptial chamber. After some moments Corrado appears at the
head of the staircase, surrounded by the knights who were in attendance on him in
the previous scene. The ladies come forth from Matilde’s chamber. All take their leave of
the bridegroom, and he is left alone.
SCENE VI
Corrado. After a moment spent in gloomy silence he opens the casement window in the
balcony, and throws away his sword.
[13]
CORRADO
Ah! Fra gli amplessi tuoi scordar
Ah! In your embraces, Matilde,
Matilde
A me fia dato, qual orrendo prezzo
Let me forget the terrible price
Essi costaro!…
At which I had to buy them!…
A suffocated cry issues from Matilde’s chamber
–164–
Acuto mi feria
That was a cry of agony
Grido gemente!…
That loudly assailed my ear!…
He runs towards the chamber door, but then falls back in horror.
Ah!… L’ombra di Maria!…
Ah!… The ghost of Maria!…
SCENE VII
Maria and Corrado. Maria is enveloped in a long mantle, and stands motionless upon the
threshold of the nuptial chamber.
MARIA
Tel dissi che risorta
I told you I should rise again
Dalla tomba sarei! Che riveduta
From the tomb! That you would see me
again
M’avresti accanto al nuzial tuo letto!
Beside your nuptial bed!
Eccomi. Tremi?
Here I am. Do you tremble?
CORRADO
Ho il gel… di… morte… in petto!… I feel the ice… of death… in
my heart!…
MARIA
Eccomi!
Behold me!
[14]
Mostro iniquo, tremar tu dovevi
Vile monster, you should have trembled
In quel fero, in quell’orrido istante,
In that frightful, in that horrible moment,
Che a Matilde sull’ara porgevi
When at the altar, you gave Matilde
Del mio sangue la mano stillante,
That hand still dripping with my blood,
Quando irato l’Eterno ascoltava
When an angered Almighty God heard
Empio voto d’amore e di fé…
Your wicked vow of love and faith…
Oh! Se il tempio in quel punto crollava, Oh! If the chapel in that moment had
crumbled,
–166–
Scellerato, era meglio per te!
It would have been better for you, you
scoundrel!
CORRADO
Ah! Di lei… di Matilde, che festi?
Ah! What have you done to her… to
Matilde?
MARIA
Entra… e vedi.
Enter… and see.
Mostro iniquo!
Vile monster!
She throws open the door. Corrado rushes in, but immediately returns, his face ashy-pale,
and his hair erect upon his head
CORRADO
Gran Dio!… Trucidata!…
Good God!… Butchered to death!…
O mia sposa!… Ah!
O my bride!… Ah!
SCENE THE LAST
Rambaldo, pages, servants, armed retainers, Maria and Corrado.
RETAINERS, SERVANTS, ETC
still off-stage
Quai gridi son questi!…
What shouts are these?…
CORRADO
Fu svenata Matilde!…
Matilde has been slain!…
RETAINERS, SERVANTS, ETC
entering
Svenata!…
Slain!…
Ahi! lo spettro!…
Alas the spectre!…
in fright, and about to flee
–167–
MARIA
Spenta non son…
I am not dead…
Respiro!
I breathe!
She lets fall her veil. All stop. She holds her right hand over the spot where Corrado
stabbed her, and speaks with difficulty. Little by little her speech become more clear and
more emotional
“Quest’uomo pietoso
“This man of mercy
indicating Rambaldo
“Fe’recar la mia spoglia mortale
“Had my mortal remains carried
“Ove dormono eterno riposo
“To where my forebears sleep
“Gli avimiei… già la pietra funesta
“Their eternal sleep… Already he was
tearfully
“Sul mio capo ei piangendo chiudea… “Lowering the fatal stone over my
head
“Quando un gemer sommesso lo
“When a low groan stops him
arresta…
“Egli accorre… Io tuttora vivea!…
“He comes running… and finds me still
living!…
RETAINERS, SERVANTS, ETC
“Oh!
CORRADO
“Che intendo!…” Spietata!
“What do I hear!…” Implacable woman!
MARIA
L’arcano serbai
I kept my existence a secret
Onde oppormi ad iniqui legami…
In order to thwart his wicked marriage
plans…
“Oh!…
–168–
with a ferocious laugh
I have shattered them!…
CORRADO
Ah, perversa!… E vivrai?…
Ah, perverse creature!… And shall I let
you live?…
He goes to draw his sword but, not finding it, throws himself upon one of the armed
retainers in order to take possession of his
Un acciaro… Deh…
A sword… Ah…
Other retainers and servants restrain him
MARIA
Tu spenta mi brami!…
You wish me dead!…
Sarai pago…
You will have your wish…
RAMBALDO
“Che dici!…”
“What are you saying!…”
MARIA
La vita,
This hateful life…
Che abborrisco… già fugge da me…
Is already slipping from me…
CORRADO
Matilde…
Matilde…
MARIA
Sarai pago…
You will have your way…
Riaperta è la cruda ferita…
My unhealed wound has reopened…
Breve istante… e Maria più non è…
A brief moment… and Maria will be no
more…
There is a general reaction of horror: she leans against Rambaldo for support
[15]
Al misfatto enorme e rio
I was drawn despite myself
Trascinata fui pel crine…
To a monstrous and heinous crime…
Gli ho spezzati!…
–169–
Non ha legge, né confine
Oltraggiato, immense amor.
Quest’ingrato, l’onor mio
Ricovrì di negro velo…
Ei m’ha tolto vita… e cielo…
But when an immense love is outraged
It knows neither law nor limit.
This ingrate cast a black veil
Over my honour…
He has deprived me of life…
and heaven…
Quest’ ingrato… io l’amo ancor!
This ingrate… and yet I love him still!
CORRADO
in a state of consternation and fear
Ah! Mi punisce con la vita,
Ah! God Almighty, your severity
Dio tremendo, il tuo rigor.
Punishes me by making me live.
WOMEN
L’alma ho tutta sbigottita!…
I am dismayed to the depths of
my soul!…
MEN
Oh, qual notte di terror!
Oh, what a night of terror!
The signs of Maria’s approaching death become more apparent
RAMBALDO
Ah! fetch a physician’s aid…
Fetch help…
RAMBALDO & RETAINERS
O terror!…
MARIA
tearing the bandages from her wound
No… no… no…
Ah! d’un farmaco l’aita…
Un soccorso…
Ah! Oh terror!…
No… no… no…
–170–
Or m’aspetta infame tomba
Now there awaits me a tomb of evil
fame
Senza prece… e senza pianto…
Without prayers… without tears…
to Rambaldo
Frai i mortali… tu soltanto
Among the living… you alone
Resti... a spargerla d’un fior!
Remain… to cast a flower upon it!
Io già manco!… In sen mi piomba
Already I am failing!… The icy hand of
death
Della morte orrendo il gelo!…
Falls heavy upon my breast!…
dragging herself close to Corrado
Mi togliesti vita… e cielo!
You deprived me of life… and heaven!
CORRADO
Ah! perdon…
Ah! forgive me…
MARIA
Ti perdono… e… t’amo… ancor…
I forgive you… and… I love you…
still…
RETAINERS & SERVANTS, ETC
L’alma ho tutta sbigottita,
I am dismayed to the depths of my soul!…
Ah! Cielo! Qual notte di terror!
Ah! Heavens! What a night of terror!
CORRADO
Ah! Vieni abbracciami…
Ah! Come and embrace me…
Mi punisce con la vita,
Ah! God Almighty, your severity
Dio tremendo, il tuo rigor.
Punishes me by making me live.
Maria falls dead at his feet
THE END
–171–
APPENDIX
[16]
Coro, ‘Fu vista in arme sul far del giorno’, for insertion at the beginning of Part Two.
This extra chorus is to be found in one copyist manuscript of the opera. As there
is no known autograph of the complete opera – or, indeed, of this chorus – Donizetti’s
reasons for adding a new scene at the beginning of Part Two are not clear. It is believed
to have been composed for a production at La Scala in Milan.
RETAINERS
At break of day a large number of armed
men
Per ogni intorn gran folla errar;
Were seen prowling through these
surrounding parts;
E mentre il cielo era ancor fosco
And while the sky was yet dark
Nel vicin bosco guardinga entrar.
Cautiously the band entered the nearby
wood.
Quell’orda forse Corrado invia…
Perhaps it is Corrado who sends that
horde…
(Corrado, oh ciel!)
(Corrado, oh Heavens!)
Forse a Maria fatal sarà!
Perhaps its approach will prove fatal
for Maria!
Ma pria che cada su lei la spada
But before the sword falls upon her
Pie nostri petti passar dovrà.
It must first pass through our hearts.
Giuriamo al ciel che n’ode
We swear to heaven that hears us
Che l’empia frode distrutta andrà!
That the dastardly plan will be frustrated!
E se la gloria per noi tramonta
And if our glory is about to set,
Fu vista in arme sul far del giorno
–172–
La morte all’onta si preporrà.
Ma sgomberiam da questo suol
Come una nebbia che sperdi il sol
Senza sterpare nel suo furore
Una sol fronda del nostro allor.
We shall choose death rather than
shame.
But let us disappear from this earth
Like a mist dispersed by the sun
Which, in his fury, does not strip
A single frond from our laurels.
[17]
Scena e cavatina (Enrico) con coro, ‘Che pensi Enrico?… Il pensar che per te peno’, for
insertion at the beginning of the finale of Part One.
This aria exists in autograph manuscript, and is headed ‘Atto Pmo… Dopo il coro…
Scena e cavatina Enrico con Cori’. It is signed ‘Donizetti – all’amico Moriano – Venezia
1838’. From this it is clear that it was intended to follow the chorus, ‘Ah! che di pianto
è questo’, and to precede the entry of Matilde and Corrado. Presumably, since the
words do not appear in the first libretto, it was either dropped from the score – and the
manuscript given to Moriani as a gesture to compensate him for his disappointment –
or it was composed at the last moment for possible insertion if the premiere proved a
success. There is no evidence that Moriani ever performed it.
Che pensi Enrico? Riedere al campo?
Al primo acciar nemico
Offrire il petto? Ah no!
Donna adorata, purch’io respiri
ENRICO
What do you intend, Enrico? To return
to the camp?
To bare your breast to the first
Enemy sword? Ah no!
Adored lady, provided that I may
breathe
–173–
L’aure del tuo soggiorno,
Purch’io ti vegga – ti vegga e ascolti
Mi fia supreme bene
Il soffrir mille angoscie e mille pene!
Il pensar che per te peno
Sarà pace al cor deliro;
Mi fia dolce ogni sospiro,
Il dolor fia voluttà!
Sotto gl’occhi di Matilde
Io trarrò nel pianto l’ore,
Non chiedendo a tanto amore
Che mercede di pietà.
Fuggì gual sogno infido
La speme invan nudrita:
Di lagrime una vita
Soltanto a me restò.
In queste soglie il cielo
Corrado a te s’apria,
Amor la tomba mia
In esse m’apprestò!
Ah! nel crudel dolore
Suoi lacci Imen formò.
The air where you dwell,
Provided I may see you – see you and
hear you,
It will be a supreme blessing for me
To suffer a thousand pangs, a thousand
pains!
To think that I suffer for you
Will bring peace to my raging heart;
Every sigh will become sweet to me,
And grief an indulgence in luxury!
Beneath the gaze of Matilde
I shall count the hours in tears,
Asking no reward for so much love
Except her compassion.
The hope that I nourished in vain
Has vanished like a fickle dream:
A life of tears
Is all that is left to me.
Upon this threshold heaven
Opened for you, Corrado,
But upon this same threshold
Love prepared for me my tomb!
RETAINERS
Ah! Hymen shaped his bonds
In cruel grief.
–174–
Matilde – io t’ho perduta!
Fuggì qual sogno,
ecc.
ENRICO
Matilde – I have lost you!
The hope that I nourished in vain,
etc.
–175–
Sir Peter Moores