Recently in Repertoire

Rimsky-Korsakov – Mozart and Salieri

Mozart and Salieri, an opera in one act consisting of two scenes.

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), composer. Libretto derived from Alexander Puskhin's play of the same name.

First performance: 7 December 1898 in Moscow.

Strauss – Ariadne auf Naxos

Ariadne auf Naxos, Oper with a prologue and one act. Music composed by Richard Strauss. Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.

Spontini – La Vestale

La Vestale, a tragédie lyrique in three acts.

Mussorgsky – Boris Godunov

Boris Godunov, an opera in four acts with prologue


Modest Mussorgsky, composer. Libretto by the composer, based on Alexander Pushkin's drama Boris Godunov and Nikolai Karamazin's History of the Russian Empire


First performance: 8 February 1874 at the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg

Verdi – Il Trovatore (La Scala 1930)

Il Trovatore, dramma in four parts.

Strauss – Ariadne auf Naxos (Salzburg 1954)

Only a few months following the premiere of Der Rosenkavalier, Hugo von Hofmannsthal proposed a new opera to Richard Strauss based on Molière’s comedy-ballet, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (in German, Der Bürger als Edelmann).

MOZART: Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Berlin 1949)

Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Singspiel in 3 Acts.

Music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Libretto by Johann Gottlieb Stephanie the Younger, based on an earlier libretto by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner.

MOZART: Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Aix-En-Provence 1954)

Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Singspiel in 3 Acts.

Music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Libretto by Johann Gottlieb Stephanie the Younger, based on an earlier libretto by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner.

STRAUSS: Arabella – Dresden 2005

Arabella: Lyrische Komödie in three acts

MOZART: Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Vienna 1956)

Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Singspiel in 3 Acts.

Music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Libretto by Johann Gottlieb Stephanie the Younger, based on an earlier libretto by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner.

PONCHIELLI: La Gioconda

La Gioconda, dramma lirico in four acts.
Music composed by Amilcare Ponchielli (1834–1886). Libretto by Arrigo Boito (under the pseudonym Tobia Gorrio), based upon Victor Hugo's Angelo, Tyrant of Padua (1835).

VERDI: Don Carlo

Don Carlo, an opera in four acts. Music composed by Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901). Libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille Du Locle after Friedrich von Schiller’s dramatic poem Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien. Revised version in four acts (French text revised by Du Locle, Italian translation by Achille de Lauzières and Angelo Zanardini).

VERDI: Un ballo in maschera

Un ballo in maschera, a melodramma in three acts.

Music composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Libretto by Antonio Somma, based upon the work of Eugène Scribe Gustave III ou Le bal masqué (1833)

Giovanni Pacini: Medea

Medea: Melodramma tragico in three acts.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Die Tote Stadt

Die Tote Stadt, an opera in three acts.

Music composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957). Libretto by Paul Schott (Julius and E. W. Korngold) after the novel Bruges la morte by Georges Rodenbach.

Stendhal on the Rossini Revolution

Some Details concerning the Revolution inaugurated by Rossini

PUCCINI: Manon Lescaut

Manon Lescaut, dramma lirico in quattro atti

STRAUSS : Elektra

Elektra: Tragedy in one act.

Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2020 Ring Cycle

Lyric Opera of Chicago has announced both schedules and cast-lists for is Spring 2020 performances of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Given the series of individual productions already staged by the company since Fall 2016, that pave the way for the complete cycle, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s complete production should affirm the artistic might of the great composer.

Carlo Diacono: L’Alpino

“Diacono himself does not know what musical talent he possesses” – Mascagni

OPERA TODAY ARCHIVES »

Repertoire

Lucrezia Borgia by Bartolomeo Veneto
12 Nov 2010

DONIZETTI: Lucrezia Borgia

Lucrezia Borgia: Melodramma in a prologue and two acts.

Gaetano Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia

Alfonso, Duca di Ferrara: Michele Pertusi; Donna Lucrezia Borgia: Mariella Devia; Gennaro: Marcelo Álvarez; Maffio Orsini: Daniela Barcellona; Jeppo Liverotto: Carlo Bosi; Don Apostolo Gazella: Piero Terranova; Ascanio Petrucci: Fabio Capitanucci; Oloferno Vitellozzo: Antonio Feltracco; Gubetta: Alessandro Svab; Rustighello: Iorio Zennaro; Astolfo: Eldar Aliev; Una voce: Ernesto Panariello. Chorus of il Teatro alla Scala, Milano. Orchestra of il Teatro alla Scala, Milano. Conductor: Renato Palumbo. Teatro degli Arcimboldi, 28 September 2002, Milano.

 

Music composed by Gaetano Donizetti to a libretto by Felice Romani after Victor Hugo’s play Lucrèce Borgia.

First Performance: Milan, Teatro alla Scala, 26 December 1833.

Principal Roles:
Don Alfonso, Duca di Ferrara Bass
Donna Lucrezia Borgia Soprano
Gennaro Tenor
Maffio Orsini Contralto
Jeppo Liverotto Tenor
Don Apostolo Gazella Bass
Ascanio Petrucci Bass
Oloferno Vitellozzo Tenor
Gubetta Bass
Rustighello Tenor
Astolfo Bass
Una Voce Bass

Setting: Italy, early 16th Century.

Synopsis:

Prologue

A terrace of the Grimani palace in Venice. A festival by night.

Gennaro and his friends celebrate on the brightly lit terrace, in front of which lies the Giudecca canal. The friends’ conversation turns to Don Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara, to whose house they will be travelling the next day, and to his wife, the infamous Lucrezia Borgia. On hearing Lucrezia’s name, Orsini tells of how Gennaro and he, alone in a forest, were warned by a mysterious old man to beware her and the entire Borgia family. Professing his boredom with Orsini’s tale Gennaro wanders off and falls asleep nearby. His friends are invited to rejoin the festivities, and he is left alone. A gondola appears and a masked woman steps onto the terrace. She hurries over to the sleeping Gennaro and observes him with affection. (Com'è bello! Quale incanto in quel volto onesto e altero!) She kisses his hand, he wakes and is instantly struck by her beauty. He expresses his love for her and sings of his childhood as an orphan brought up by fishermen. He adds that he loves dearly the mother he has never met. (Di pescatore ignobile esser figliuol credei.) The others return and instantly recognise her as Lucrezia Borgia, listing in turn the members of their families she has killed to Gennaro’s horror.

Act I

A square at Ferrara.

The Duke, believing Gennaro to be Lucrezia’s lover, plots his murder with his servant Rustighello (Vieni: la mia vendetta è mediatata e pronta.) Gennaro and his companions leave the house for a party and pass the Duke’s palace with its large gilded coat of arms reading ‘Borgia’. Keen to show his contempt for the Borgia family, Gennaro removes the initial ‘B’, leaving the obscene ‘Orgia’ (“orgy”).

A hall in the ducal palace.

In the palace, Lucrezia is shown into the Duke’s chamber. Having seen the defaced crest, she demands death for the perpetrator, not knowing that it is Gennaro. The Duke orders Gennaro to be brought before her and accuses him of staining the noble name of Borgia, a crime to which he readily confesses. Lucrezia, horrified, attempts to excuse the insult as a youthful prank, but Don Alfonso accuses Lucrezia of infidelity, having observed her meeting with Gennaro in Venice. In a scene full of drama and tension, she denies any impropriety, but he demands the prisoner’s death and forces her to choose the manner of Gennaro’s execution. Pretending to pardon him, the Duke offers Gennaro a glass of wine and he swallows it. After a stunning trio (Guai se ti sfugge un moto, Se ti tradisce un detto!) the Duke leaves and Lucrezia hurries to Gennaro, giving him an antidote to the poison the Duke has mixed with the wine. He drinks, and in a last duet she implores him to flee the city and her husband. (Bevi e fuggi ... te’n prego, o Gennaro!)

Act II

A small courtyard leading into Gennaro’s house. A hall in the Negroni palace brightly lit and decked out for a festive banquet.

Ignoring Lucrezia’s advice, Gennaro attends a party at the palace, swearing never to be parted from his friend Orsini. Orsini leads the party in a brindisi or drinking song (Il segreto per esser felici) and they drink. Lucrezia enters and announces that in revenge for their insults in Venice she has poisoned their wine and arranged five coffins for their bodies. She has hitherto believed that Gennaro fled Ferrara on her advice, and is thus dismayed when he steps forward and announces that she has poisoned a sixth. Orsini, Liverotto, Vitellozzo, Petrucci and Gazella fall dead. Gennaro seizes a dagger and attempts to kill Lucrezia, but she stops him by revealing that he is in fact her son. Once again she asks him to drink the antidote, but this time he refuses, choosing to die with his friends. In a final cabaletta (Era desso il figlio mio,) Lucrezia mourns her son and expires.

[Synopsis Source: Wikipedia]

Click here for a more detailed synopsis (free registration required).

Click here for the complete libretto (free registration required).

Click here for a discography through 1989 (free registration required).

Click here for production photos of this performance (free registration required).

Send to a friend

Send a link to this article to a friend with an optional message.

Friend's Email Address: (required)

Your Email Address: (required)

Message (optional):