100 Great Operas and Their Stories: Act-By-Act Synopses (28 page)

Then, as the opera closes, Schicchi addresses the audience in spoken words: he asks whether Buoso’s money could serve a better purpose and suggests that though Dante consigned him to Hell, perhaps the amusement he has afforded the audience will make them reach a verdict of Extenuating Circumstances. And he starts the applause himself.

LA GIOCONDA
(The Ballad Singer)

Opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli with
libretto in Italian by “Tobio Gorria” (anagram
for Arrigo Boito) based on a play by Victor
Hugo entitled
Angelo, tyran de Padoue

Time: 17th century

Place: Venice

First performance at Milan, April 8, 1876

    
La Gioconda
is well over three quarters of a century old, and it is still one of the most popular operas ever composed. Its story, based on a play by Victor Hugo, has been set by other composers, before and since Ponchielli. In fact, the Russian composer, César Cui, produced one version, entitled
Angelo
, in 1876 just two months before the Italian. Only Ponchielli’s still holds the stage. The reason is doubtless the overwhelming passion of the music and its wonderful melodies. These include the
Cielo e mar
, the
Suicidio
, and the ever-popular
Dance of the Hours
.

Hugo’s original play took place in Padua. Arrigo Boito, Ponchielli’s famous librettist, transferred it to Venice of the
seventeenth century. He also rechristened Hugo’s play, originally called
Angelo, Tyrant of Padua
, with one of the most ironic titles any opera ever had.
La gioconda
means, literally, “the joyous female,” but never had an operatic heroine more unbearable miseries than the one who goes by that name. And there is quite a lot of competition for that honor in the annals of the lyric stage.

The prelude, a fairly short one, is based on the contralto aria in the first act,
Voce di donna o d’angelo
(“Voice of woman or of angel”). Each act is supplied with its own title: Act I—“The Lion’s Mouth”; Act II—“The Rosary”; Act III—“The House of Gold”; and Act IV—“The Orfano Canal.”

ACT I

The opera opens with a jolly chorus,
Feste e pane
—“Feasting and bread.” A crowd before the palace of the Doges of Venice is celebrating a holiday. A nasty fellow, Barnaba (the villain of the opera and a spy for the Inquisition), tells them the regatta is about to begin. As they rush off to the shore, he remarks unpleasantly, “They are dancing over their graves.”

Now enter the heroine. She is a beautiful street singer known as “La Gioconda” for her joyous disposition. At the moment she is leading in her blind mother, La Cieca, and they sing a brief, affectionate duet. Now, Barnaba is in love with La Gioconda—or at least he has dishonorable designs on her. He approaches her, but La Gioconda will have nothing to do with him. So he plans revenge. As soon as the crowd comes back from the regatta, Barnaba tells the loser—Zuàne-that Gioconda’s blind mother is a witch and that she has cast a spell on him. The crowd turns on La Cieca, but she is saved just in time by the hero of the opera, Enzo Grimaldo. Enzo is a slightly mysterious figure with a complex past, present, and future. First of all, he has been outlawed by Venice, and he is there in disguise. Secondly, he is secretly engaged to La Gioconda. And thirdly, he was once engaged to Laura, the wife of the Duke Alvise—and Laura still loves him.

The crowd is growing more threatening, when the Duke
himself and Laura appear at the palace doors, and they save both La Cieca and Enzo. The blind old woman, in gratitude, gives Laura a rosary. Here she sings her fine aria
Voce di donna
.

Meantime, Laura and Enzo exchange loving glances which do not go unnoticed by Barnaba. This, he decides, is his chance. When everyone else has left, he approaches Enzo and tells him he knows who he is—a proscribed nobleman in disguise. And, much to Enzo’s surprise, Barnaba promises to bring Laura that very night to Enzo’s ship. Enzo is happy but suspicious. He has good reason to be. For as soon as he has left, Barnaba turns to a public scribe and dictates an anonymous letter to the head of the Inquisition’s police. In it he tells of the proposed meeting that night. Gioconda, however, overhears him. She is heartbroken, and the act ends as she voices her lamentations above the evening prayers being sung by the populace.

ACT II

Ponchielli’s colorful music at once suggests the marine setting with Enzo Grimaldo’s ship on the lagoon. Sailors are singing, and soon Barnaba, the Inquisition spy, appears, disguised as one of them. He leads a merry ballad
(Pescator, affonda l’esca)
, but his real purpose is to find out the strength of Enzo’s crew. Soon Enzo appears on the deck. He tells the sailors that he himself will bear watch that night, and when he is alone, he sings his great aria
Cielo e mar
. He awaits his beloved there, on the sea and under the sky. But when Laura does come, she is soon prey to misgivings; and when Enzo goes below-deck to prepare for flight, Laura begs for protection in the lovely prayer
Stella del marinar
.

La Gioconda has meanwhile entered, and an angry scene between the two women follows. Gioconda threatens Laura with a dagger; but, even worse, she informs Laura that her husband is about to come. At this news Laura brings out the rosary La Cieca had given her and starts again to pray. Gioconda recognizes her mother’s rosary and recalls the service
that Laura had done her. Her whole attitude toward her rival now changes. Quickly she shoves her into a boat and makes good her escape. And so, when Enzo comes on deck once more, searching for Laura, he is met by the angry Gioconda. At that moment the guns of the Duke’s fleet are heard. Enzo realizes he is lost, and in desperation he sets fire to his own ship.

ACT III

Scene 1
takes place in the palace of the Duke Alvise, known as the House of Gold. Here the Duke is planning both festivities and a dramatic revenge on his faithless wife, Laura. He explains this in a dramatic monologue
(Sil morir ella de’l
—“Yes, to die is her fate”). As nocturnal serenaders are heard melodiously at work out of doors, he summons his wife, draws a curtain to reveal a bier all ready to receive her body, hands her a phial of poison with instructions that it must be drunk before the serenading is over, and leaves her to herself. He had not counted on our heroine, La Gioconda, who, anticipating something of the sort, had hidden herself in the palace prepared with the proper pharmaceuticals. Swiftly she hands a flask to Laura, explaining that this drug will produce only the semblance of death, not the real thing; and when Laura has taken it and laid herself dutifully on the bier, Gioconda pours the real poison into a phial of her own and leaves the empty one on the table. Thus, when the serenade is over and Alvise returns to inspect the situation, he believes everything is ready for titillating his guests with a shocking surprise.

Scene 2
Then comes the big party. Alvise welcomes his guests, and a ballet is danced for their entertainment to the music of the
Dance of the Hours
. At the end of the dance Barnaba drags in the blind old Cieca, who has been found praying for “the woman who has just died.” At that moment a funeral toll is heard. For whom is it? asks a guest. It is for Laura, says Barnaba. At this juncture the masked Enzo reveals himself, and Alvise furiously demands his arrest. A great ensemble number develops, everyone expressing his own emotions
about the complex situation. Gioconda, who is also there, offers herself to Barnaba if only he will save her beloved Enzo and, naturally, he agrees. Then, when everyone is hushed, Alvise makes a shocking announcement: he will show the company the wife who had betrayed him. The curtains are pulled aside—and Laura is seen lying on her bier. “It was I who killed her!” cries the outraged Duke. Enzo lunges at him with a dagger, but the guards intervene, and Enzo is arrested as the act closes. There is a good deal of dramatic irony in this close. For neither the Duke nor Enzo nor Barnaba knows that Gioconda had once more saved her rival, Laura.

ACT IV

The last act takes place in a dilapidated palace on an island off Venice. Here Gioconda lives and here she has secretly brought her rival, Laura. She has also saved her lover’s life, but only that he may elope with this rival, while she must give herself to the hated Barnaba. Finally, to make matters still worse (if that is possible), she has lost her beloved blind mother. In fact, she has not seen her since Alvise’s frightful party. It is therefore no wonder that she sings, at the beginning of the act, her great
scena
—the
Suicidio
—in which she plans to commit suicide.

Off-stage are heard two gondoliers. “What’s the news?” cries one. “More corpses in the canal,” is the cheery answer.

Enzo comes on the weeping girl, demanding to know where Laura is; and when Gioconda says that she has had the body taken from the burial vault, Enzo almost stabs her in his rage. Gioconda would have welcomed the dagger; but at that moment Laura recovers from the effects of the drug and rushes into Enzo’s arms. Off-stage is heard the serenade to which Laura had been ordered to commit suicide. This time it serves as the prelude to a dramatic trio. The lovers thank their lovelorn savior and then depart in a small boat that she had arranged to have ready complete with a crew of two.

Now the miserable Gioconda recalls her compact with Barnaba. She is about to flee from the place, when he comes
himself demanding his prize. Yes, she says, she will honor the pact; but first she must decorate herself in her finest clothes. As she does so, she takes up her dagger—and stabs herself to the heart. The frustrated Barnaba shouts into her ear, “Yesterday your mother insulted me. I have drowned her!” But Gioconda—lucky for the first time in this opera-is beyond hearing this news, and Barnaba, in a wild rage, rushes out.

THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST

(La fanciulla del West)

Opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini with
libretto in Italian by Carlo Zangarini and
Guelfo Civinini based on the melodrama of the
same name by David Belasco

Time: about 1850

Place: California

First performance at New York, December 10, 1910

    On his first visit to the United States, in 1905, Puccini saw a performance of David Belasco’s horse opera
The Girl of the Golden West and
was fascinated by the old stage wizard’s
tricks with moving scenery and an elaborate snowstorm. He was also fascinated by the rather simple-minded melodrama of playing poker for the stakes of a man’s life and a woman’s body. Finally, he was fascinated by the warmth of the reception that America accorded him.

But it was not till he had returned to Italy that he finally decided to make this play the vehicle for his next operatic score. He had his customary trouble hiring and firing librettists till he got just what he wanted, and he also had serious domestic trouble. His wife became hysterically jealous of a maidservant, accused her publicly of being Puccini’s mistress (which was not true), and drove the girl to suicide. There was a trial; Mme. Puccini was found guilty; the case was appealed, and then withdrawn by the girl’s family. The Puccinis were, however, both severely punished: they were separated for a long time, and the misery they went through left its mark on both of them.