The Faber Pocket Guide to Opera (34 page)

An opera of confrontations rather than arias – the quintet of conspiracy in the second scene, the enthralling first-act finale in which Enrico (bass) bursts in on Anna (soprano) and Percy (tenor); the duet between Anna and Giovanna (mezzo-soprano) which travels through a remarkable range of emotions; the trio ‘Ambo morrete’ in which Enrico expresses his desire for revenge as Anna despairs and Percy asserts his love for her – all these show Donizetti as a great musical dramatist only surpassed in nineteenth-century Italian opera by the mature Verdi.

The role of Anna is very difficult to cast.
It lies generally low for most sopranos, with sudden flights high into the top register – a passage that most singers find difficult to negotiate – and culminates in a taxing twenty-minute final scene containing three short arias (the second of them based on ‘Home, sweet Home’) linked by some highly dramatic recitative.
The final cabaletta is thick with trills and runs descriptive of Anna’s defiance in the face of her unjust execution.

The roles of Enrico and Giovanna are also unusually challenging and rewarding: oddly, Enrico has no solo aria, but in all his utterances in ensemble and recitative, he is every inch the king.

In performance

Anna
Bolena
may be historically inaccurate, but it is strongly characterized and theatrical.
The title role is a great vehicle for a soprano with the histrionic abilities to match its tricky vocal requirements.
Donizetti tailored the role for one of the greatest of all sopranos, Giuditta Pasta, and in 1957–8 Maria Callas gave electrifying performances of the role at La Scala, Milan.
Recordings show that even she had to make some cuts in order to conserve her strength for the demands of the final scene.

Recording

CD: Maria Callas (Anna); Gianandrea Gavazzeni (cond.).
EMI 66471

L’Elisir
d’Amore
(
The
Elixir
of
Love
)

Two acts. First performed Milan, 1832.

Libretto by Felice Romani

Composed in only six weeks, this is one of the most charming and shapely of comic operas, sharply characterized and holding a delicate balance between farce and sentiment.

Plot

In an Italian village, the simple and timid peasant Nemorino pines with love for the rich and beautiful landowner Adina.
But she is more taken with the dashing Sergeant Belcore, who has been billeted nearby, so Nemorino buys a ‘love potion’ from a visiting quack, Dulcamara.
It is nothing more than a bottle of claret, and when Nemorino gulps it down, he suddenly becomes much less inhibited and, in his cups, appears to forget about Adina altogether.
The secretly piqued Adina agrees to marry Belcore before his regiment transfers.

The wedding is celebrated, but Adina puts off signing the contract.
Nemorino sobers up, then feels the need for more of the surprisingly intoxicating potion.
As he is penniless, the only way to some cash is to enlist in Belcore’s regiment.

Then news comes that Nemorino’s rich uncle has died, leaving him a lot of money.
Suddenly Nemorino finds himself the focus of widespread amorous attentions – a phenomenon he ascribes to the miraculous effect of the potion.
Dulcamara tells Adina about the potion, and she is deeply touched by this evidence of Nemorino’s devotion.
She buys back his enlistment document and after both of them play a little hard to get, they fall into each other’s arms.
Belcore stands down, and there is a run on Dulcamara’s potion.

What to listen for

Unlike so many of Rossini’s comic operas,
L’Elisir
is free of dud or flat passages.
Good tunes abound from the beginning, and recitative and coloratura are sparingly used.
The opera’s most famous aria, memorably sung by great Italian tenors from Caruso to Pavarotti, is ‘Una furtiva lagrima’, sung towards the end of Act II as Nemorino notices for the first time that Adina is softening towards him.
Nemorino is a relatively easy role in most respects, but this aria is deceptively difficult to sing – much of it lies just at the point at which the voice has to modulate from a sound produced in the chest to one produced in the head, and vice versa.
The art lies in making the transition sound impeccably smooth, rather than a scrunching gear-change.

The opera is also full of delightful duets, notably Adina and Dulcamara’s catchy barcarolle, ‘Io son ricco, tu sei bella’ and Adina and Nemorino’s melting ‘Prendi, per me sei libero’.

This opera was a great favourite of the Victorians, and the early Gilbert and Sullivan operetta
The
Sorcerer
is broadly based on it.

In performance

A piece which requires the lightest of touches from conductor, director and singers.
It has responded happily to a variety of updatings and relocations – from the dustbowl of the American Depression to a backwater Italian seaside resort in the 1950s – but is always the better for a dry, tart flavour.
For all its essential good nature,
L’Elisir
has a sharp edge: Nemorino is a fool, Adina a minx, and both the baritones, Belcore and Dulcamara, are cynical rogues exploiting peasant gullibility.

Recordings

CD: Placido Domingo (Nemorino); John Pritchard (cond.).
Sony 34585

Roberto Alagna (Nemorino); Marcello Viotti (cond.).
Erato 998 483 2

Video: Luciano Pavarotti (Nemorino); James Levine (cond.).
DG 072 423 3

Lucia
di
Lammermoor

Three acts. First performed Naples, 1835.

Libretto by Salvatore Cammarano

The best known of Donizetti’s tragic operas, distantly based on Sir Walter Scott’s now little-read novel
The
Bride
of
Lammermoor
, skilfully trimmed of its sub-plots.

Plot

On the wild borders of sixteenth-century Scotland, the Protestant Lord Enrico Ashton is determined to revive the family fortunes by marrying his over-sensitive sister Lucia to Arturo.
Lucia, however, loves Edgardo, the Laird of Ravenswood, a Catholic house against whom the Ashtons have long been feuding.
Edgardo wants to resolve their enmity and ask for Lucia’s hand in marriage, but Lucia knows that her brother is implacable.
Lucia and Edgardo exchange rings and vows as Edgardo leaves to fight for the Stuart cause in France.

Enrico has been spying on the affair between Lucia and Edgardo.
He forges a letter from Edgardo announcing that he has fallen in love with another woman.
Lucia is devastated when she reads this, and Enrico forces her to proceed with the marriage to Arturo.
Lucia considers herself spiritually married to Edgardo, but even the chaplain Raimondo refuses to support her.

At the wedding of Lucia and Arturo, Edgardo unexpectedly bursts in.
Misunderstanding the situation, he sees Lucia’s name on the marriage contract, curses her apparent treachery and storms out.
Enrico challenges him to a duel.
In the bridal chamber, Lucia goes mad and kills Arturo.
In her deranged state, she returns to the wedding party in a bloodstained dress and hallucinates marriage to Edgardo before collapsing.