Sakùntala is a three act
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
composed by
Franco AlfanoFranco Alfano was an Italian composer and pianist. Though today best known for completing Puccini's unfinished opera Turandot in 1926, he had considerable success with his own works during his lifetime....
, Alfano, who wrote his own
librettoA libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, sacred or secular oratorio and cantata, musical, and ballet. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata.Libretto ,...
, based his opera on
KalidasaKālidāsa was a renowned Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language. His floruit cannot be dated with precision, but most likely falls within the Gupta period, probably in the 4th or 5th century or 6th century.His place in Sanskrit...
's 5th-century BC drama
Abhijñānaśākuntalam Abhijñānashākuntala or Abhijñānaśākuntalam) , is a well-known Sanskrit play by Kālidāsa. Its date is uncertain, but Kalidasa is often placed in the period between the 1st century BC and 4th century AD....
.
It was first performed as
La leggenda di Sakùntala at the
Teatro ComunaleThe Teatro Comunale di Bologna is an opera house in Bologna, Italy, and is one of the most important opera venues in Italy. Typically, it presents eight operas with six performances during its November to April season....
in
BolognaBologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of northern Italy...
on 10 December 1921. The full score and orchestral materials were believed to have been destroyed when an allied bomb damaged the archives of Alfano's publisher
RicordiCasa Ricordi is a classical music publishing company founded in 1808 as G. Ricordi & Co. by violinist Giovanni Ricordi in Milan, Italy...
during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Sakùntala is a three act
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
composed by
Franco AlfanoFranco Alfano was an Italian composer and pianist. Though today best known for completing Puccini's unfinished opera Turandot in 1926, he had considerable success with his own works during his lifetime....
, Alfano, who wrote his own
librettoA libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, sacred or secular oratorio and cantata, musical, and ballet. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata.Libretto ,...
, based his opera on
KalidasaKālidāsa was a renowned Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language. His floruit cannot be dated with precision, but most likely falls within the Gupta period, probably in the 4th or 5th century or 6th century.His place in Sanskrit...
's 5th-century BC drama
Abhijñānaśākuntalam Abhijñānashākuntala or Abhijñānaśākuntalam) , is a well-known Sanskrit play by Kālidāsa. Its date is uncertain, but Kalidasa is often placed in the period between the 1st century BC and 4th century AD....
.
Performance history
It was first performed as
La leggenda di Sakùntala at the
Teatro ComunaleThe Teatro Comunale di Bologna is an opera house in Bologna, Italy, and is one of the most important opera venues in Italy. Typically, it presents eight operas with six performances during its November to April season....
in
BolognaBologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of northern Italy...
on 10 December 1921. The full score and orchestral materials were believed to have been destroyed when an allied bomb damaged the archives of Alfano's publisher
RicordiCasa Ricordi is a classical music publishing company founded in 1808 as G. Ricordi & Co. by violinist Giovanni Ricordi in Milan, Italy...
during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Alfano reconstructed the opera, and it was performed at the
Teatro dell'OperaThe Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat Costanzi Theatre, it has undergone several changes of name as well modifications and improvements...
in
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
on 5 January 1952 as
Sakùntala. During preparations for a revival in Rome in April, 2006, a copy of the original 1921 score was discovered in the Ricordi archives, and the opera was performed for the first time in its original form in modern times under its original title.
Critically regarded as Alfano's best work, though seldom staged in recent years,
Sakùntala was performed seven times for Italian radio between its premiere and 1979. These broadcasts featured such sopranos as
Magda OliveroMagda Olivero is considered by many to be one of the greatest sopranos of the verismo-school of singing. She was born in Saluzzo, Italy. Her early teachers found her voice wanting. Yet, she persevered, eventually studying with Luigi Gerussi. Olivero made her operatic debut in 1932 on Turin...
, Anna de Cavalieri, and Celestina Casapietra in the title role. The opera was also revived at the
WexfordWexford is the county town of County Wexford in Ireland. It is situated near the southeastern tip of Ireland, close to Rosslare Europort. The town is connected to the capital Dublin via the M11/N11 National Primary Route , and the national rail network...
Opera Festival in 1982.
Roles
| Role |
Voice type |
Premiere Cast, 10 December 1921
(Conductor: Tullio SerafinTullio Serafin was an Italian conductor.-Biography:Tullio Serafin was a leading Italian opera conductor with a long career and a very broad repertoire who revived many 19th century bel canto operas by Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti to become staples of 20th century repertoire...
) |
Reconstructed version, 5 January 1952
(Conductor: Gianandrea GavazzeniGianandrea Gavazzeni was an Italian pianist, conductor , composer and musicologist.Gavazzeni was born in Bergamo. For almost 50 years, starting from 1948, he was principal conductor at La Scala, Milan, in 1966-68 being its music and artistic director.He had his Metropolitan Opera debut on 11...
) |
| Sakùntala, a young woman of royal origin |
soprano A soprano is a singing voice with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music...
|
Augusta Concato-Piccaluga |
V P Aguero |
| Priyamvada, Sakùntala's friend |
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...
|
Anna Manarini |
Fernanda Cadoni |
| Anusuya, Sakùntala's friend |
soprano |
Gina Pedroni |
Mafalda Micheluzzi |
| The King |
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...
|
Nino Piccaluga |
Roberto Turrini |
| His weapon bearer |
baritoneBaritone is a type of classical male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek βαρύτονος, meaning 'deep sounding', music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second G below middle C to the F above...
|
Luigi Bolpagni |
Titta Ruffo Titta Ruffo , was an Italian opera singer, generally regarded as the greatest Italian baritone of his generation - or any generation since...
|
| Kanva, leader of the hermits |
bass |
Bruno Carmassi |
Giulio Neri |
| A young hermit |
tenor |
Carlo Bonfanti |
Adelio Zagonara |
| Durvasas, an ascetic |
bass |
Enrico Spada |
Bruno Sbalchiero |
| Harita |
bass |
Ugo Cannetti |
Carlo Platania |
| A fisherman |
tenor |
Edmondo Orlandi |
Paolo Caroli |
| A guard |
bass |
|
Virgilio Stocco |
Synopsis
Act I. The King encounters Sakùntala while hunting with his men near the remote woodland monestary where she lives. The King woos her, and overcoming her initial fear, promises that he will return, giving her a ring by which to remember him.
Act II. Daydreaming about the King, Sakùntala fails to hear the hermit Durvasas's entreaties to open the monestary's gate to admit him. Angered, he curses Sakùntala, proclaiming that the King would not remember her. Sakùntala begs a cloud to carry a message to the King. Harita returns to the monestary, and tells Sakùntala that she is with child.
Act III. The King is restless, and not entertained by the dancing girls who perform for him. Sakùntala arrives with her entourage, but when she attempts to present her ring of rememberance to the King, she realizes that she has lost it. The curse is fulfilled, and Sakùntala rushes out of the palace to drown herself in a lake. However, belatedly, a fisherman arrives, having found the ring, and presents it to the King, who suddenly remembers Sakùntala. Servants enter, bearing Sakùntala's infant child, and the King cries out in anguish. But Sakùntala's voice descends from heaven (having been taken up into the heavens by a cloud of fire), and tells the King not to despair, for their child will become the hero of the future age. All the people kneel and worship the infant.
External links