La Lodoiska
Encyclopedia
La Lodoiska is an opera in three acts by Simon Mayr
to an Italian libretto
by Francesco Gonella De Ferrari. It was Mayr's second opera and premiered at La Fenice
in Venice
on 26 January 1796.
's novel, Les amours du chevalier de Faublas, which had also formed the basis for Cherubini
's 1791 opera Lodoïska
. The opera had a very successful premiere at La Fenice
on 26 January 1796 and had 13 more performances that season. Its music and story were also used for a ballet of the same name choreographed by Lorenzo Panzieri, which premiered at La Fenice in January 1797. and the opera itself was revived at La Fenice in November of that year. On 4 November 1798 it had its first performance at the Teatro Real de São Carlos
in Lisbon
in celebration of the name day
of Carlota Joaquina of Spain.
Mayr then revised the opera to a two act version which nevertheless had more musical numbers than the original three act version. The new version premiered at La Scala
on 26 December 1799. It was Mayr's first opera to be performed there and its success led to more commissions from La Scala and other Milanese theatres. La Lodoiska in its revised version was then permormed in Turin
at the Teatro Regio in 1804 and in Naples
at the Teatro San Carlo in 1818 when the title role was sung by Isabella Colbran
. The opera was very popular in its day but then fell into obscurity.
Princess Lodoïska has been entrusted by her father to the care of Boleslao, lord of the Castle of Ostropoll. Boleslao wants to marry Lodoiska, but she is love with Lovinksi and rejects his advances. Lovinski arrives (under the name "Siveno") to ask for Priness Lodoiska on behalf of her father, but Boleslao refuses to let her go. When Lodoiska's father, Sigeski, arrives and confronts him, the tyrannical Boleslao imprisons both Sigeski and Lovinski and plans the death of the young lovers. All are saved at the end when they are rescued by Giskano, a Tartar warrior-prince, whose life Lovinski had once saved.
Simon Mayr
Johann Simon Mayr , also known in Italian as Giovanni Simone Mayr or Simone Mayr was a German composer.- Life :...
to an 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...
by Francesco Gonella De Ferrari. It was Mayr's second opera and premiered 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
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...
on 26 January 1796.
Background and performance history
The libretto for La Lodoiska was based on an episode from Jean-Baptiste Louvet de CouvraiJean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai
Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai was a French novelist, playwright, journalist, politician, and diplomat.-Early life and literary works:...
's novel, Les amours du chevalier de Faublas, which had also formed the basis for Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries....
's 1791 opera Lodoïska
Lodoïska
Lodoïska is an opera by Luigi Cherubini to a French libretto by Claude-François Fillette-Loraux after an episode from Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai’s novel, Les amours du chevalier de Faublas. It takes the form of a comédie héroïque in three acts, and was a founding work of rescue opera...
. The opera had a very successful 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...
on 26 January 1796 and had 13 more performances that season. Its music and story were also used for a ballet of the same name choreographed by Lorenzo Panzieri, which premiered at La Fenice in January 1797. and the opera itself was revived at La Fenice in November of that year. On 4 November 1798 it had its first performance at the Teatro Real de São Carlos
Teatro Nacional de São Carlos
The Teatro Nacional de São Carlos is an opera house in Lisbon, Portugal. It was opened on July 30, 1793 by Queen Maria I as a replacement for the Tejo Opera House, which was destroyed in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake...
in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
in celebration of the name day
Name day
A name day is a tradition in many countries in Europe and Latin America that consists of celebrating the day of the year associated with one's given name....
of Carlota Joaquina of Spain.
Mayr then revised the opera to a two act version which nevertheless had more musical numbers than the original three act version. The new version premiered at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
on 26 December 1799. It was Mayr's first opera to be performed there and its success led to more commissions from La Scala and other Milanese theatres. La Lodoiska in its revised version was then permormed 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...
at the Teatro Regio in 1804 and in Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
at the Teatro San Carlo in 1818 when the title role was sung by Isabella Colbran
Isabella Colbran
Isabella Colbran was a Spanish opera singer, who was known in her native country as Isabel Colbrandt. Many sources note her as a dramatic coloratura soprano but, some believe that she was a mezzo-soprano with a high extension, a soprano sfogato...
. The opera was very popular in its day but then fell into obscurity.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast 26 January 1796 |
|---|---|---|
| Lodoiska, a Polish princess in love with Lovinski | 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... |
Teresa Maciorletti Blasi |
| Lovinski, a Polish lord using the name "Siveno" | soprano castrato Castrato A castrato is a man with a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto voice produced either by castration of the singer before puberty or one who, because of an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity.Castration before puberty prevents a boy's... |
Luigi Marchesi Luigi Marchesi Luigi Marchesi was an Italian castrato singer, one of the most prominent and charismatic to appear in Europe during the second half of the eighteenth century.-Biography:Luigi Ludovico Marchesi was born in Milan... |
| Boleslao, lord of the Castle of Ostropoll | 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... |
Giuseppe Carri |
| Resiska, confidante of Lodoiska | soprano | Teodosia Ferraglia |
| Narseno, Lovinski's companion | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... castrato (1st version) bass Bass (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... (2nd version) |
Pietro Bonini |
| Radoski, confidante of Boleslao | tenor | Filippo Martinelli |
| Giskano, a Tartar Tatars Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,... warrior-prince |
bass | Antonio Ricci |
| Sigeski, Lodoiska's father | bass | Giacomo Zamboni |
Synopsis
- Setting: 17th century Poland in a castle on the border with TartaryTartaryTartary or Great Tartary was a name used by Europeans from the Middle Ages until the twentieth century to designate the Great Steppe, that is the great tract of northern and central Asia stretching from the Caspian Sea and the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean inhabited mostly by Turkic, Mongol...
Princess Lodoïska has been entrusted by her father to the care of Boleslao, lord of the Castle of Ostropoll. Boleslao wants to marry Lodoiska, but she is love with Lovinksi and rejects his advances. Lovinski arrives (under the name "Siveno") to ask for Priness Lodoiska on behalf of her father, but Boleslao refuses to let her go. When Lodoiska's father, Sigeski, arrives and confronts him, the tyrannical Boleslao imprisons both Sigeski and Lovinski and plans the death of the young lovers. All are saved at the end when they are rescued by Giskano, a Tartar warrior-prince, whose life Lovinski had once saved.
Sources
- Balthazar, S.L., "Mayr, (Johann) Simon", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansGrove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansThe New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, it is the largest single reference work on Western music. The dictionary has gone through several editions since the 19th century...
2nd Edition, 2001. ISBN 0333608003 - Casaglia, Gherardo, "Lodoiska", Almanacco Amadeus, 2005. Accessed 12 November 2009 (in Italian).
- Gelli, Piero (ed.), "Lodoiska, La", Dizionario dell'Opera, Baldini Castoldi Dalai, 2007, ISBN 8860731844. Accessed online 12 November 2009 (in Italian).
- Giornale dei Teatri di Venezia, Il teatro moderno applaudito, Vol. 2, Venice, 1796 (in Italian).
External links
- Libretto
- Score for the overture of Lodoiska on the Werner Icking Music ArchiveWerner Icking Music ArchiveThe Werner Icking Music Archive , is a web archive of liberally-licensed sheet music of public domain music. The scores are electronically typeset by volunteers and distributed in PDF, often accompanied by their typesetting files. WIMA continues the defunct GMD Music Archive and is named after...