L'Orfeide
Encyclopedia
L'Orfeide is an opera composed by Gian Francesco Malipiero
who also wrote the Italian libretto
, partly based on the myth of Orpheus
and incorporating texts by Italian Renaissance
poets. The work consists of three parts – La morte delle maschere (The death of the masks), Sette canzoni (Seven songs), and Orfeo, ovvero L'ottava canzone (Orpheus, or The eighth song). It received its first complete performance on 5 November 1925 at the Stadttheater
in Düsseldorf
.
), Malipiero himself described the work as one opera in three parts, with parts I and II also able to be performed independently. L'Orfeide was composed between 1918 and 1922. The first part to be composed, and what would eventually become Part II of the complete work, was Sette Canzoni, composed by Malipiero between 1918 and 1919. However according to Waterhouse (1999), Malpiero's correspondence indicates that he had originally conceived Sette Canzoni as a stand-alone work, rather than as the central panel of a triptych. Sette Canzoni premiered at the Palais Garnier
in Paris on 10 July 1920 in French translation by Henry Prunières as Sept chansons, conducted by Gabriel Grovlez
. The strangeness of its music and dramatic structure and its deliberate break with the verismo
style popular at the time caused an uproar at the premiere which nearly drowned out the performance.
In 1919, Malipiero started composing Orfeo, ovvero L'ottava canzone, which was to become Part III, and finished it shortly before the premiere of Sette canzoni. Part I, La morte delle maschere was the last to be composed and was completed in 1922. The world premiere of L'Orfeide in its entirety took place on 5 November 1925 at the Stadttheater in Düsseldorf. The performance, conducted by Erik Orthmann, used a German translation of Malipiero's libretto by Erik Orthmann and Willi Aron.. Later complete performances of the work included its Italian premiere at La Fenice
in Venice (1936) and the Teatro della Pergola
in Florence (1966).
Performances of the complete trilogy are rare. However, there have been a considerable number of performances of Part II, Sette canzoni, considered one of Malipiero's masterpieces. It premiered in the United States in 1925 in a concert performance organized by the League of Composers
at the Forty-Eighth Street Theatre in New York City. In Italy it was first performed in Turin
in 1926 (in a double bill with Ravel's L'heure espagnole
); in Rome in 1929 (in a double bill with Puccini's Gianni Schicchi
); and in Florence in 1948 (in a triple bill with Donizetti's Il campanello
and a ballet based on Cocteau's Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel). It received its British staged premiere at the King's Theatre
in Edinburgh in 1969 (in a double bill with Dallapiccola
's Il prigioniero
) for the 23rd Edinburgh Festival
. An unusual version of the work performed entirely by marionette
s with recorded voices was premiered by the Gran Teatrino "La Fede delle Femmine" at La Fenice as part of the 1993 Venice Biennale
.
Apart from the impresario
and Orfeo
, the roles are those of the standard commedia dell'arte
characters, all of whom traditionally performed in masks. The Italian word "maschera" (mask) is also used to denote a commedia dell'arte player.
Synopsis
An impresario presents a performance of his commedia dell'arte troupe. The performance is interrupted when a man dressed in red, wearing a frightening mask and brandishing a whip, bursts in and scatters the players. The impresario flees as the masked stranger locks all seven players in a large cupboard. To the sounds of protest emanating from the cupboard, the masked man declares the death of the masks and their irrelevance to real life. He removes his own mask and costume and reveals himself to be Orpheus, exchanging the whip for his traditional lyre
. Orpheus then introduces seven new characters who will be better representatives of the human condition (and who will become the main characters of Part II, Sette canzoni). They file silently onto and off the stage as the commedia dell'arte players protest from the cupboard that they will starve to death. Arlecchino manages to escape from the cupboard exclaiming, "It will never be true that Arlecchino will die of hunger" ("Non sarà mai vero che Arlecchino muoia di fame"). The curtain falls as Arlecchino scampers off-stage.
1. Il vagabondo (The vagabond) – A story-teller convinces a young girl to abandon her blind companion. This was suggested to Malipiero by a group of vagabonds he once encountered in Venice
, a crippled man who played the violin, a blind man who played the guitar, and a young woman who served as a guide for the blind man. They always played badly and always in the darkest, most out of the way streets. One day, he encountered the blind man alone, desperately playing his guitar. His companion had run off with the crippled violinist.
Roles: Il cantastorie (the story-teller), (baritone
); Una giovane donna (a young woman), (soprano
); Il cieco (the blind man), (tenor
); passers-by (mime
d)
2. A vespro (At Vespers
) – A chorus of friars is heard intoning the Vespers. Another friar, impatient to lock up the church for the night, interrupts a woman in prayer by rattling his keys and ultimately tapping her on the shoulder and pointing to the door. Malipiero witnessed a similar incident at the Chiesa di Sant'Agostino
in Rome
.
Roles: Il frate (the friar), (mimed); old woman (mimed)
3. Il ritorno (The return) – An old woman is driven mad by worry for her son who is away at war. So much so that when he returns, she fails to recognize him. Malpiero recalls passing by a house at the foot of Monte Grappa outside Venice, where he used to hear an old woman weeping, screaming, singing lullabies
, and cradling a doll. Her son had been killed in World War I
and she had become mad with grief.
Roles: La vecchia madre (the old mother), (soprano); young passers-by (chorus); her son (mimed)
4. L'ubbriaco (The drunkard) – A man runs away from his lover's house chased by her elderly husband. In his flight he knocks over a drunkard who had been singing on the steps of the house. The husband mistakes the drunkard for his wife's lover and savagely beats him with his cane. This episode was inspired by Malipiero's observations of drunkards in Venice interrupting romantic encounters.
Roles: L'ubbriaco (the drunkard), (bass or baritone); a young man in love (mimed); a young woman (mimed); old man (mimed)
5. La serenata (The serenade) – A man serenades his beloved outside her house. Unbeknownst to him, she is weeping by the body of a dead relative and is not listening to his song. This episode was inspired by Malipiero's observations of the contrast between Venetian serenade
s and laments for the dead.
Roles: L'innamorato (the man in love), (tenor); young woman (mimed)
6. Il campanaro (The bellringer) – As a man rings the church bells to warn the townspeople of a terrible fire, he sings a ribald song, seemingly indifferent to the impending disaster. This episode was inspired by a funeral which Malipiero had attended in Ferrara
. He heard the bellringer whistling "La donna è mobile
" as he rang the funeral toll
.
Roles: Il campanaro (the bell-ringer) (baritone)
7. L'alba delle ceneri (The dawn of Ash Wednesday
) – In a small town, a lamplighter
extinguishes the street lamps as a funeral carriage passes by accompanied by penitents calling people to prayer. A troupe of masked clowns are dancing in the street and momentarily block the carriage. A mysterious figure symbolizing death appears and they scatter. One of clowns loses his cap in the melee. Once the procession has passed, he cautiously returns to retrieve it and in the process meets a young masked woman returning from the carnival
. The two go off together. Malipiero wrote that this scene reflects the relief he always felt when Ash Wednesday liberated him from the "invasive banality" of the carnival season. One of the traditions of the carnival in several countries, including Italy, is a symbolic funeral on the eve of Ash Wednesday to mark the "death" of the carnival.
Roles: Il lampionaio (the lamplighter), (tenor or baritone); penitents (chorus); religious old women (mimed); clowns (mimed); young masked woman (mimed)
Synopsis
Courtiers gather in a 14th century theatre. A knight unsuccessfully tries to gain the attention of one of the ladies of the court. A drinks seller noisily hawks his wares. When the king and queen arrive, the performance begins. It is a bloodthirsty tale of ancient Rome
sung by marionettes and involving Emperor Nero, his mother Agrippina, and an executioner. The king and queen and their aristocratic companions watch the drama impassively. Two other audiences are shown in separate areas of the stage, each in their own theatre - reactionary old men and their female companions in a luxurious baroque
theatre who are indignant and outraged by the spectacle and a group of rowdy boys sitting on plain benches who thoroughly applaud the violence and demand more. At the end of the performance, Orpheus appears dressed as a clown. He congratulates the aristocrats on their passivity and then begins to sing, "Uscite o gemiti, accenti queruli, lamenti flebili..." ("Begone o groans, querelous words, languid laments..."). His song puts everyone to sleep except the queen who is fascinated by him. She and Orpheus escape together as the candles go out and the curtain comes down.
conducted the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Orchestra with a cast that included Magda Olivero
and Renato Capecchi
.
Gian Francesco Malipiero
Gian Francesco Malipiero was an Italian composer, musicologist, music teacher and editor.-Early years:Born in Venice into an aristocratic family, the grandson of the opera composer Francesco Malipiero, Gian Francesco Malipiero was prevented by family troubles from pursuing his musical education in...
who also wrote the Italian libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
, partly based on the myth of Orpheus
Orpheus
Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music; his attempt to retrieve his wife from the underworld; and his death at the hands of those who...
and incorporating texts by Italian Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
poets. The work consists of three parts – La morte delle maschere (The death of the masks), Sette canzoni (Seven songs), and Orfeo, ovvero L'ottava canzone (Orpheus, or The eighth song). It received its first complete performance on 5 November 1925 at the Stadttheater
Opernhaus Düsseldorf
right|thumb|200 px|Opernhaus Düsseldorf in 1959Opernhaus Düsseldorf ' is located in Düsseldorf, Germany and is one of two opera houses where performances are given by the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. The other is the Theater Duisburg in Duisburg...
in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
.
Background and performance history
Although it is often referred to as a trilogy (or an operatic triptychTriptych
A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...
), Malipiero himself described the work as one opera in three parts, with parts I and II also able to be performed independently. L'Orfeide was composed between 1918 and 1922. The first part to be composed, and what would eventually become Part II of the complete work, was Sette Canzoni, composed by Malipiero between 1918 and 1919. However according to Waterhouse (1999), Malpiero's correspondence indicates that he had originally conceived Sette Canzoni as a stand-alone work, rather than as the central panel of a triptych. Sette Canzoni premiered at the Palais Garnier
Palais Garnier
The Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...
in Paris on 10 July 1920 in French translation by Henry Prunières as Sept chansons, conducted by Gabriel Grovlez
Gabriel Grovlez
Gabriel Marie Grovlez was an eminent French composer and conductor.He studied with Gabriel Fauré at the Conservatoire de Paris, and taught at the Schola Cantorum. His main work was with the Societé National de l'Opéra, and his compositions were mainly for voice...
. The strangeness of its music and dramatic structure and its deliberate break with the verismo
Verismo
Verismo was an Italian literary movement which peaked between approximately 1875 and the early 1900s....
style popular at the time caused an uproar at the premiere which nearly drowned out the performance.
In 1919, Malipiero started composing Orfeo, ovvero L'ottava canzone, which was to become Part III, and finished it shortly before the premiere of Sette canzoni. Part I, La morte delle maschere was the last to be composed and was completed in 1922. The world premiere of L'Orfeide in its entirety took place on 5 November 1925 at the Stadttheater in Düsseldorf. The performance, conducted by Erik Orthmann, used a German translation of Malipiero's libretto by Erik Orthmann and Willi Aron.. Later complete performances of the work included its Italian premiere at La Fenice
La Fenice
Teatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres...
in Venice (1936) and the Teatro della Pergola
Teatro della Pergola
The Teatro della Pergola is a historic opera house in Florence, Italy. It is located in the centre of the city on the Via della Pergola, from which the theatre takes its name...
in Florence (1966).
Performances of the complete trilogy are rare. However, there have been a considerable number of performances of Part II, Sette canzoni, considered one of Malipiero's masterpieces. It premiered in the United States in 1925 in a concert performance organized by the League of Composers
League of Composers
The League of Composers/International Society for Contemporary Music is a society whose stated mission is "to produce the highest quality performances of new music, to champion American composers in the United States and abroad, and to introduce American audiences to the best new music from around...
at the Forty-Eighth Street Theatre in New York City. In Italy it was first performed in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
in 1926 (in a double bill with Ravel's L'heure espagnole
L'heure espagnole
L'heure espagnole is a one-act opera, described as a comédie musicale, with music by Maurice Ravel to a French libretto by Franc-Nohain, based on his play of the same name first performed at the Théâtre de l'Odéon on 28 October 1904...
); in Rome in 1929 (in a double bill with Puccini's Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
); and in Florence in 1948 (in a triple bill with Donizetti's Il campanello
Il campanello
Il campanello or Il campanello di notte is a melodramma giocoso, or opera, in one act by Gaetano Donizetti. The composer wrote the Italian libretto after Mathieu-Barthélemy Troin Brunswick and Victor Lhérie's French vaudeville La sonnette de nuit...
and a ballet based on Cocteau's Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel). It received its British staged premiere at the King's Theatre
King's Theatre, Edinburgh
The King's Theatre was opened in 1906 and stands on a prominent site on Leven Street in Edinburgh. It is one of Scotland's historic and most important theatres...
in Edinburgh in 1969 (in a double bill with Dallapiccola
Luigi Dallapiccola
Luigi Dallapiccola was an Italian composer known for his lyrical twelve-tone compositions.-Biography:Dallapiccola was born at Pisino d'Istria , to Italian parents....
's Il prigioniero
Il prigioniero
Il prigioniero is an opera in a prologue and one act, with music and libretto by Luigi Dallapiccola. The opera was first broadcast by the Italian radio station RAI on 1 December 1949...
) for the 23rd Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh International Festival
The Edinburgh International Festival is a festival of performing arts that takes place in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, over three weeks from around the middle of August. By invitation from the Festival Director, the International Festival brings top class performers of music , theatre, opera...
. An unusual version of the work performed entirely by marionette
Marionette
A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms...
s with recorded voices was premiered by the Gran Teatrino "La Fede delle Femmine" at La Fenice as part of the 1993 Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
.
Part I. La morte delle maschere
RolesApart from the impresario
Impresario
An impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays or operas; analogous to a film producer in filmmaking, television production and an angel investor in business...
and Orfeo
Orpheus
Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music; his attempt to retrieve his wife from the underworld; and his death at the hands of those who...
, the roles are those of the standard commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte is a form of theatre characterized by masked "types" which began in Italy in the 16th century, and was responsible for the advent of the actress and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. The closest translation of the name is "comedy of craft"; it is shortened...
characters, all of whom traditionally performed in masks. The Italian word "maschera" (mask) is also used to denote a commedia dell'arte player.
- Impresario (narrator, spoken role)
- ArlecchinoHarlequinHarlequin or Arlecchino in Italian, Arlequin in French, and Arlequín in Spanish is the most popularly known of the zanni or comic servant characters from the Italian Commedia dell'arte and its descendant, the Harlequinade.-Origins:...
(tenorTenorThe tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
), - BrighellaBrighellaBrighella is a comic, masked character from the Commedia dell'arte. His early costume consisted of loosely-fitting, white smock and pants with green trim and was often equipped with a battachio or slapstick, or else with a wooden sword. Later he took to wearing a sort of livery with a matching cape...
(baritoneBaritoneBaritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
), - Dottor BalanzonIl DottoreIl Dottore or the Doctor is a commedia dell'arte stock character, one of the vecchi or old men whose function in a scenario is to be an obstacle to the young lovers...
(baritone) - Capitan Spaventa di Valle InfernaIl CapitanoIl Capitano is a masked character from the commedia dell'arte. He is often an outside who can maintain his claims only by benefit of the fact that none of the locals know him. He is usually a Spaniard given the fact that for most of the late Renaissance to well into 17th century, Italy was under...
(bassBass (voice type)A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...
) - PantalonePantalonePantalone, or Pantalone del bisognosi, Italian for 'Pantalone of the needy', is one of the most important principal characters found in commedia del arte...
(baritone) - TartagliaTartaglia (commedia dell'arte)Tartaglia is a minor character in the Commedia dell'arte. He is nearsighted and with a terrible stutter , he is usually classed as one of the group of old characters who appears in many scenarios as one of the lovers . His social status varies; he is sometimes a bailiff, lawyer, notary or chemist...
(tenor) - PulcinellaPulcinellaPulcinella, ; often called Punch or Punchinello in English, Polichinelle in French, is a classical character that originated in the commedia dell'arte of the 17th century and became a stock character in Neapolitan puppetry....
(tenor) - Orfeo (tenor)
Synopsis
An impresario presents a performance of his commedia dell'arte troupe. The performance is interrupted when a man dressed in red, wearing a frightening mask and brandishing a whip, bursts in and scatters the players. The impresario flees as the masked stranger locks all seven players in a large cupboard. To the sounds of protest emanating from the cupboard, the masked man declares the death of the masks and their irrelevance to real life. He removes his own mask and costume and reveals himself to be Orpheus, exchanging the whip for his traditional lyre
Lyre
The lyre is a stringed musical instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later. The word comes from the Greek "λύρα" and the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists", written in Linear B syllabic script...
. Orpheus then introduces seven new characters who will be better representatives of the human condition (and who will become the main characters of Part II, Sette canzoni). They file silently onto and off the stage as the commedia dell'arte players protest from the cupboard that they will starve to death. Arlecchino manages to escape from the cupboard exclaiming, "It will never be true that Arlecchino will die of hunger" ("Non sarà mai vero che Arlecchino muoia di fame"). The curtain falls as Arlecchino scampers off-stage.
Part II. Sette canzoni
The seven songs in this part (which lasts 40 minutes in all) are designed as individual mini-operas. They are themed musically, but do not form a connected narrative. Malipiero claimed that each was inspired by an incident that he had observed.1. Il vagabondo (The vagabond) – A story-teller convinces a young girl to abandon her blind companion. This was suggested to Malipiero by a group of vagabonds he once encountered in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, a crippled man who played the violin, a blind man who played the guitar, and a young woman who served as a guide for the blind man. They always played badly and always in the darkest, most out of the way streets. One day, he encountered the blind man alone, desperately playing his guitar. His companion had run off with the crippled violinist.
Roles: Il cantastorie (the story-teller), (baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
); Una giovane donna (a young woman), (soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
); Il cieco (the blind man), (tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
); passers-by (mime
Mime
The word mime is used to refer to a mime artist who uses a theatrical medium or performance art involving the acting out of a story through body motions without use of speech.Mime may also refer to:* Mime, an alternative word for lip sync...
d)
2. A vespro (At Vespers
Vespers
Vespers is the evening prayer service in the Western Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran liturgies of the canonical hours...
) – A chorus of friars is heard intoning the Vespers. Another friar, impatient to lock up the church for the night, interrupts a woman in prayer by rattling his keys and ultimately tapping her on the shoulder and pointing to the door. Malipiero witnessed a similar incident at the Chiesa di Sant'Agostino
Sant'Agostino
Sant'Agostino is a church in Rome, Italy, not far from Piazza Navona. It is one of the first Roman churches built during the Renaissance. The construction was funded by Guillaume d'Estouteville, Archbishop of Rouen and Papal Chancellor. The façade was built in 1483 by Giacomo di Pietrasanta, using...
in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
.
Roles: Il frate (the friar), (mimed); old woman (mimed)
3. Il ritorno (The return) – An old woman is driven mad by worry for her son who is away at war. So much so that when he returns, she fails to recognize him. Malpiero recalls passing by a house at the foot of Monte Grappa outside Venice, where he used to hear an old woman weeping, screaming, singing lullabies
Lullaby
A lullaby is a soothing song, usually sung to young children before they go to sleep, with the intention of speeding that process. As a result they are often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in every culture and since the ancient period....
, and cradling a doll. Her son had been killed in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and she had become mad with grief.
Roles: La vecchia madre (the old mother), (soprano); young passers-by (chorus); her son (mimed)
4. L'ubbriaco (The drunkard) – A man runs away from his lover's house chased by her elderly husband. In his flight he knocks over a drunkard who had been singing on the steps of the house. The husband mistakes the drunkard for his wife's lover and savagely beats him with his cane. This episode was inspired by Malipiero's observations of drunkards in Venice interrupting romantic encounters.
Roles: L'ubbriaco (the drunkard), (bass or baritone); a young man in love (mimed); a young woman (mimed); old man (mimed)
5. La serenata (The serenade) – A man serenades his beloved outside her house. Unbeknownst to him, she is weeping by the body of a dead relative and is not listening to his song. This episode was inspired by Malipiero's observations of the contrast between Venetian serenade
Serenade
In music, a serenade is a musical composition, and/or performance, in someone's honor. Serenades are typically calm, light music.The word Serenade is derived from the Italian word sereno, which means calm....
s and laments for the dead.
Roles: L'innamorato (the man in love), (tenor); young woman (mimed)
6. Il campanaro (The bellringer) – As a man rings the church bells to warn the townspeople of a terrible fire, he sings a ribald song, seemingly indifferent to the impending disaster. This episode was inspired by a funeral which Malipiero had attended in Ferrara
Ferrara
Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
. He heard the bellringer whistling "La donna è mobile
La donna è mobile
"La donna è mobile" is the cynical Duke of Mantua's canzone from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto . The inherent irony is that it is the callous playboy Duke himself who is mobile...
" as he rang the funeral toll
Funeral toll
Church bells are sometimes rung slowly ' when a person dies or at funeral services.Church bells are rung in three basic ways: normal ringing, chiming, or tolling...
.
Roles: Il campanaro (the bell-ringer) (baritone)
7. L'alba delle ceneri (The dawn of Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter...
) – In a small town, a lamplighter
Lamplighter
A lamplighter, historically, was an employee of a town who lit street lights, generally by means of a wick on a long pole. At dawn, they would return and extinguish them using a small hook on the same pole. Early street lights were generally candles, oil, and similar consumable liquid or solid...
extinguishes the street lamps as a funeral carriage passes by accompanied by penitents calling people to prayer. A troupe of masked clowns are dancing in the street and momentarily block the carriage. A mysterious figure symbolizing death appears and they scatter. One of clowns loses his cap in the melee. Once the procession has passed, he cautiously returns to retrieve it and in the process meets a young masked woman returning from the carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
. The two go off together. Malipiero wrote that this scene reflects the relief he always felt when Ash Wednesday liberated him from the "invasive banality" of the carnival season. One of the traditions of the carnival in several countries, including Italy, is a symbolic funeral on the eve of Ash Wednesday to mark the "death" of the carnival.
Roles: Il lampionaio (the lamplighter), (tenor or baritone); penitents (chorus); religious old women (mimed); clowns (mimed); young masked woman (mimed)
Part III. Orfeo, ovvero L'ottava canzone
Roles- Orfeo (tenorTenorThe tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
) - Il re, the king (baritoneBaritoneBaritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
) - La regina, the queen (sopranoSopranoA soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
) - Il cavaliere, a knight (tenor)
- Il bibitaro, a drinks seller (tenor)
- AgrippinaAgrippina the YoungerJulia Agrippina, most commonly referred to as Agrippina Minor or Agrippina the Younger, and after 50 known as Julia Augusta Agrippina was a Roman Empress and one of the more prominent women in the Julio-Claudian dynasty...
(soprano) - NeroneNeroNero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
(baritone) - Dama, a lady of the court (spoken role)
- Il carnefice, the executioner (spoken role)
- Mimed roles and chorus: servants, courtiers, spectators, boys, reactionary old men and their ladies.
Synopsis
Courtiers gather in a 14th century theatre. A knight unsuccessfully tries to gain the attention of one of the ladies of the court. A drinks seller noisily hawks his wares. When the king and queen arrive, the performance begins. It is a bloodthirsty tale of ancient Rome
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
sung by marionettes and involving Emperor Nero, his mother Agrippina, and an executioner. The king and queen and their aristocratic companions watch the drama impassively. Two other audiences are shown in separate areas of the stage, each in their own theatre - reactionary old men and their female companions in a luxurious baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
theatre who are indignant and outraged by the spectacle and a group of rowdy boys sitting on plain benches who thoroughly applaud the violence and demand more. At the end of the performance, Orpheus appears dressed as a clown. He congratulates the aristocrats on their passivity and then begins to sing, "Uscite o gemiti, accenti queruli, lamenti flebili..." ("Begone o groans, querelous words, languid laments..."). His song puts everyone to sleep except the queen who is fascinated by him. She and Orpheus escape together as the candles go out and the curtain comes down.
Recordings
The only commercially released recording of the complete Orfeide (a remastered live recording of the 7 June 1966 performance at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence) was published in 1996 by the French company Tahra (Tah 190/191). Hermann ScherchenHermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen was a German conductor.-Life:Scherchen was originally a violist and played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens...
conducted the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is an annual opera festival which was founded in April 1933 by conductor Vittorio Gui with the aim of presenting contemporary and forgotten operas in visually dramatic productions. It was the first music festival in Italy. The first opera presented was Verdi's early...
Orchestra with a cast that included Magda Olivero
Magda Olivero
Magda Olivero is a soprano of the verismo-school of singing. She was born in Saluzzo, Italy. Olivero made her operatic debut in 1932 on Turin radio in Cattozzo’s oratorio I misteri dolorosi. She performed widely and increasingly successfully until 1941, when she married and retired from performing...
and Renato Capecchi
Renato Capecchi
Renato Capecchi was an Italian baritone, actor, and opera director.He sang in the Italian premiere of Shostakovich's The Nose and Prokofiev's War and Peace, and in the world premieres of Gian Francesco Malipiero's La donna è mobile, Giorgio Federico Ghedini's Billy Budd and Lord Inferno, and...
.
Sources
- Casaglia, Gherardo, "L'Orfeide", Almanacco Amadeus. Accessed 28 June 2009.
- Chester Music, Gian Francesco Malipiero: L'Orfeide
- Cooke, Mervyn, The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-century Opera, Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-521-78009-8
- Courir, Duilio Nono, profeta in patria , Corriere della SeraCorriere della SeraThe Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...
, 14 June 1993, p. 14. Accessed 28 June 2009. - Gatti, Guido Maggiorino (ed.), L'Opera di Gian Francesco Malipiero (essays by various authors and the catalogue of Malpiero's works with commentary and annotation by the composer), Edizioni di Treviso, 1952.
- Gelli, Piero (ed.), "Orfeide, L'", Dizionario dell'Opera, Baldini Castoldi Dalai, 2007, ISBN 88-6073-184-4. Accessed online 16 March 2009.
- Gulevich, Tanya, Encyclopedia of Easter, Carnival, and Lent, Omnigraphics, 2002. ISBN 0-7808-0432-5
- Malipiero, Gian Francesco, L'Orfeide (Libretto in the original Italian)
- Manfriani, Franco, Mito e contemporaneità, Edizioni Pendragon, 2007. ISBN 88-8342-547-2
- Oja, Carol J., Making Music Modern, Oxford University Press US, 2000. ISBN 0-19-505849-6
- Oliver, Michael E., Gian Francesco Malipiero: L'Orfeide, Gramophone, April 1997, Page 94. Accessed 28 June 2009.
- Sadie, Stanley, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Macmillan Press, 1992. ISBN 0-333-48552-1
- Warrack, John and West, Ewan, "Orfeide, L'", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 1996. Accessed online via subscription 25 June 2009.
- Waterhouse, John C. G., La musica di Gian Francesco Malipiero, Nuova Eri, 1990. ISBN 88-397-0444-2
- Waterhouse, John C. G., Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973): The life, times and music of a wayward genius, Taylor & Francis, 1999. ISBN 90-5702-210-9
External links
- Extracts from the libretto and extensive notes on the work curated by Laureto Rodoni