GIUSEPPE VERDI
I VESPRI SICILIANI
CONTENTS
P.
4
SYNOPSIS P.
9
COMMENTS ON I VESPRI SICILIANI CHRISTIAN SPRINGER P.
16
A NEW VERDI? LEOPOLD M. KANTNER P.
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I VESPRI SICILIANI IN VIENNA MICHAEL JAHN
P.
22
LES VÊPRES SICILIENNES IN PARIS BIRGIT PAULS P.
26
LEGEND AND TRUTH STEVE RUNCIMAN P.
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LIBERTY GIOVANNI VERGA P.
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IMPRINT
GIUSEPPE VERDI
I VESPRI SICILIANI OPERA in five acts Text EUGÈNE SCRIBE & CHARLES DUVEYRIER Italian by EUGENIO CAIMI
ORCHESTRA
2 flutes (2nd also piccolo)
STAGE ORCHESTRA
2 oboes / 2 clarinets 2 bassoons / 4 horns 2 trumpets / 2 cornets 1 ophicleide / timpani percussion / 1 harp violin I / violin II / viola cello / double bass percussion / bell / 1 harp
AUTOGRAPH Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris WORLD PREMIÈRE (FRENCH VERSION) 13 JUNE 1855 Opéra, Salle de la rue Le Peletier, Paris PREMIÈRE AT THE HOUSE ON THE RING 23 NOV 1878 Vienna Court Opera DURATION
3 H 30 MIN
INCL. 2 INTERMISSIONS
I VESPRI SICILIANI
SYNOPSIS ACT 1 The main square of Palermo In front of the governor’s palace, Tebaldo, Roberto, Béthune, Vaudemont and other French soldiers drink a toast to their homeland, watched sullenly by the Sicilians, who dream of liberation from their French oppressors. Duchess Elena enters accompanied by Ninetta, her maid, and Ninetta’s fiancé Danieli. Elena is dressed in mourning and laments the death of her brother, who has been executed for high treason by the French. The soldiers are entranced by Elena’s beauty. Roberto, who is completely drunk, outrages the duchess by compelling her to sing a song in public. Elena consents, but her song is a definite incitement to revolt. By the time she has finished singing, the Sicilians have drawn their daggers, ready to hurl themselves upon the French soldiers. To Elena’s disappointment, it takes only the arrival of Gover nor Monforte to cool the rebellious ardour of the Sicilians and scatter the crowd. Elena is surprised to see her beloved Arrigo; the young Sicilian was arrested for treason but has been cleared of all accusations. The governor makes himself known and is left alone with Arrigo. Monforte admires Arrigo’s daring. He tries to convince Arrigo to join ranks with the French and to stop seeing Elena, whose love will be his downfall. Arrigo indignantly spurns Monforte’s offer.
ACT 2 A valley near Palermo Accompanied by Manfredo, after years of exile Giovanni da Procida returns by boat to Palermo. Deeply moved, he salutes his native land. Elena and Arrigo welcome him, and Pro cida informs them of his plans for revolt. Without hesitation Arrigo swears allegiance to Procida’s cause. Procida departs, well satisfied. Elena expresses her admiration for Arrigo’s heroism; despite his mysterious background, she wants to marry him if he will avenge her brother’s death. Arrigo accepts. Béthune enters with his soldiers, bringing a letter to Arrigo: Monforte has Previous pages: SCENE
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SYNOPSIS
invited him to a ball at the governor’s palace. Arrigo indignantly declines and is immediately led away by the soldiers. As part of the betrothal ceremony, the girls, one of whom is Ninetta, walk up the hill and dance with their fiancés. Roberto, Tebaldo and other French soldiers are present. Impressed by the beauty of the Sicilian girls, they join in the dancing. Mean while Procida suggests to the soldiers that they should abduct the girls, believing this will finally cause the Sicilians to rebel. The French soldiers promptly put the idea into practice, but to Procida and Elena’s disappointment the Sicilians’ reaction is timid and indecisive. At that moment a festively decorated boat sails by, carrying ladies and noblemen to the governor’s ball. Procida decides to go to the ball in disguise and organise the Sicilians’ revolt there.
ACT 3 Scene one - A room in Monforte’s palace Monforte is alone, tortured by old feelings of guilt. He reads a letter from a woman whom he abducted many years ago. Written just before she died, the letter reveals that she had a child by him who was brought up to hate the French occupiers. Filled with paternal emotions, Monforte dreams of finding his long lost son. Arrigo is brought before the governor, who receives him with unusual warmth and soon reveals that he is his father. He shows Arrigo his mother’s letter by way of evidence. Arrigo is shaken, and when Monforte tries to embrace his son, the young man pushes him away and rushes out. Scene two - A festively decorated room A sumptuous ball is in progress at the governor’s palace. Three masked figures approach Arrigo: Elena, Procida and Man fredo. The duchess pins the sign of the Sicilian conspirators to Arrigo’s chest. When the three depart, Monforte enters and tries once more to win Arrigo’s affection – but in vain. His son proudly shows him the conspirators’ ribbon, which Monforte immediately tears off. Arrigo warns him of an assassination that is being planned.
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SYNOPSIS
As Elena is about to throw herself on the governor, dagger in hand, Arrigo steps in to prevent the assassination. The conspir ators are arrested, Arrigo tries to help them, but Elena and Pro cida scornfully reject his help. In despair, Arrigo throws himself into his father’s arms.
ACT 4 In prison Arrigo goes to the prison where Elena and the other patriots await execution. Elena is brought to Arrigo, but responds to the tormented young man harshly and disdainfully. Arrigo then reveals to her that he is Monforte’s son. Devastated, Elena for gives him and declares her love for him. Overwhelmed by emo tion, the lovers determine that they will die together. Everything has been prepared for the execution, but Procida con tinues to plan his rebellion. He shows Elena a letter assuring him of the support of the Spanish army with the upcoming rebellion. Arrigo informs Monforte that he wishes to die with the other condemned prisoners. Determined to defend his paternal rights, Monforte tells Arrigo that if he will recognise him officially as his father, he will pardon all the rebels. Arrigo initially refuses. The executioners enter, and the monks sing the “De profundis”. As Elena approaches the block, in his despair Arrigo cries out: “Oh father, my father!” As promised, Monforte releases the Sicilians and announces the marriage of Elena and Arrigo. Amidst the general rejoicing, Procida continues to scheme.
ACT 5 In Monforte’s palace Near the chapel where the wedding between Elena and Arrigo is to take place, a group of young girls sings festive songs and greets the bride with flowers. The happy duchess wishes for a peaceful future for her homeland. Procida informs Elena of his latest plan: the wedding bells will signal the start of the rebellion. Procida cannot understand why Elena is not enthusiastic about his plan.
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I VESPRI SICILIANI
Elena feels torn: she neither wants to betray her compatriots, nor does she want to lose Arrigo. Finally, using her dead brother as an excuse, she tells Arrigo that she cannot marry him. Arrigo feels betrayed in his love, Procida feels that his honour as a patriot has been slighted. Monforte refuses to accept Elena’s decision and pronounces the couple man and wife. When Procida gives the sign for the wed ding bells to ring, Elena, in despair, begs Monforte to flee. But the noisy throng can already be heard making their way to the chapel. Arrigo takes the clamour for shouts of joy. The rebels then swarm in from all sides and fall upon Monforte and his retinue.
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CHRISTIAN SPRINGER
COMMENTS ON I VESPRI SICILIANI VERDI TAKES A NEW APPROACH Twenty years after I vespri siciliani, Verdi commented approvingly of his refusal at the time to go after an easy success. “I’ve said several times that if I’d been writing purely for profit, nobody could have prevented me from following La traviata (1853, composed directly before I vespri siciliani) by writing an opera a year and making a fortune three times the size of my current one” (letter to Tito Ricordi, 11 March 1874). In fact, after Oberto (1839) and Nabucco (1842), I vespri siciliani was the first opera that Verdi was able to compose without time pressure. In 1853 he had arrived a decisive point in his career. At the age of 40 his trilogia popolare (Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata) had taken him to the pin nacle of what could be achieved with the compositional and stylistic means available at the time. He was facing the choice of either repeating the tried and tested recipe for success ad nau seam (as for example Auber had done, seeking through his long career to re peat the successes of Fra Diavolo and La Muette de Portici in a different guise, or the masters of verismo who tried to transfer the stylistic techniques of Cavalleria rusticana, Andrea Chénier KS FERRUCCIO FURLANETTO as PROCIDA
and Pagliacci to other stories, with steadily diminishing success) or to find new approaches. Facing the same dilemma after Guillaume Tell in 1829, Rossini had preferred to stop writing operas altogether. Verdi chose the uncomfortable and uncertain alternative of seeking a new approach. “The artist must look to the future, peer into the chaos of new worlds, and if he sees a distant glimpse of light on his new way, he must not fear the darkness that surrounds him, he must go on, and if he should stumble and fall, he must get up and go on.” (letter to Achille Torelli) A NEW OPERA FOR THE PARIS OPÉRA 19th century Italian composers seeking international recognition and acknowl edgement had to be able to show a suc cess at the Paris Académie Impériale de Musique, or Opéra for short, the mecca of the international opera world. Verdi, who was very aware of his status as a composer, although he occasionally described himself ironically as a mu sically illiterate peasant, had début ed with Jérusalem at the Opéra (or the Académie Royale de Musique, as it was known at the time). This opera was nothing more than I Lombardi alla prima crociata (1843), remodelled as
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CHRISTIAN SPRINGER
a French opera. The lack of time had derailed the plan to write a new opera for Paris. Verdi had been unable to accept the first invitation to compose an opera for Paris, forwarded in 1845 by his French publisher Léon Escudier, because of continuing pressure of work (the much-quoted anni di galera, Ver di’s own description of himself as a galley slave). The events of 1848 (the deposition of Louis-Philippe and coro nation of Napoleon III) prevented fur ther negotiations for the time being. It was not until Verdi was visiting Paris in 1852 that a contract for a new opera was finally signed. The French original agreement with Opéra director Nestor Roqueplan can be seen in Copialettere (Verdi’s collec tion of letters and drafts), and includ ed the following conditions to Verdi’s advantage. The five or four act opera (in this order) would be written by the famous Eugène Scribe personally, although he was allowed to engage a co-author. (Scribe had not deigned to write Jérusalem himself, and had merely recommended the librettist team of Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz.) The dates for completion of the libretto were set, with rehearsals to start in July 1854. The opera house had to be at Verdi’s disposal for three months from mid-August, before the première, scheduled for the end of November or start of December 1854. No other new opera could have its world première in this season, Verdi was guaranteed free choice of the Opéra’s singers, and the management guaranteed forty performances within ten months of the première. A penalty of 30,000 francs was set should the terms of the agreement not be fulfilled.
A SECOND-HAND LIBRETTO In 1853 Scribe had passed the peak of his career and was short of new ideas. He fell back on suggesting a piece – Le Duc d’Albe – which he had written for Halévy in 1838. Halévy had turned down the four-act libretto about the duke of Alba, the tyrannous Spanish governor-general of the Netherlands in the 16th century (known from Schiller’s Don Karlos and Goethe’s Egmont), and the libretto had been offered to Doni zetti. Although Donizetti started work on Le Duc d’Albe, he never finished the score, as he had more important tasks, including in Vienna. In 1844 Scribe filed a lawsuit against the Opéra man agement, which disliked the complet ed parts of the score and had refused a performance. He won this, and was awarded a partial payment of 15,000 francs. Donizetti died in 1848, and Scribe got permission from Donizetti’s heirs to perform the work, only to dis cover that it was just a fragment. To get something out of his libretto anyway, he offered it to Verdi. “Scribe is writing the libretto for me,” Verdi lamented in a letter to his librettist and friend Francesco Maria Piave (December 1853), “and unless some unforeseen circumstance comes to my assistance, I have to com pose the opera in French… Oof! I could have written two or three operas in Italian in the same time with more pleasure, and made more money.” Ver di’s bad conscience towards Piave for collaborating with another librettist is unmistakeable. A letter by Scribe to his co-author Charles Duveyrier (3 December 1853) gives details of his first contact with Verdi. Scribe writes that he told the
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composer about the eventful early history of the libretto, which was highly improbable, in view of the story of “a corpse [the old libretto] to be resus citated.” Verdi demanded a different title, a change in the character of the protagonist, relocation of the setting to a climate full of warmth and music, such as Naples or Sicily, the revision of the second act, since there were no beer halls in Italy, and a fifth act, as he wanted to create a major piece compa rable with Le Prophète. Scribe is more precise in a subse quent but undated letter to Duvey rier. As Auber’s La Muette de Portici was already set in Naples, Sicily had been chosen as the setting. The duke of Alba became Guy de Montfort, the hated governor of Sicily in the reign of Charles d’Anjou. The brewer became Jean de Procida, the central figure of the conspiracy, and the new title Les Vêpres siciliennes was simply lifted from the tragedy with the same title by Casimir Delavigne (1819). When Donizetti’s Il Duca d’Alba was completed and orchestrated by Matteo Salvi, it was given its world première in Rome in 1882, in an Ital ian translation. The parallels with I vespri siciliani, which by then was part of the standard repertoire, were obvious to everyone, and Verdi wrote to his friend Giuseppe Piroli, “I didn’t know that Scribe had used Il Duca d’Alba to write I vespri siciliani. It’s true that Vasselli [Donizetti’s brother-in-law] talked to me about it in passing, when I was in Rome for Un ballo in maschera, but I didn’t pay attention, and thought it was just a suspicion and an idea of Vasselli. Now I understand, and I really believe that I vespri siciliani came from Il Duca d’Alba” (16 January 1882).
Verdi’s unawareness of the libretto’s earlier history is doubted by some au thors, but they are unable to support their opinion. In his four-volume Verdi monograph Franco Abbiati comments drily, “You can bet that if Verdi had known [the libretto’s earlier history], he would have left Paris at once.” Scribe was in any case thoroughly satisfied with the libretto, which suggests that it was revised and partly rewritten. He delivered it on New Year’s Eve 1853 and was virtually unavailable from that point for Verdi’s desired changes.
LES VÊPRES SICILIENNES RELUCTANTLY COMPOSED Despite having sufficient time, Verdi was unwilling to compose Les Vêpres siciliennes. He wrote to Countess Appiani from Paris in a letter dated 25 February 1854, “I’m writing really slowly, and sometimes I don’t write at all. I don’t know why it is, I just know that the libretto is lying there, always in the same place.” Nevertheless, the work made progress. On 9 September 1854 he announced to his friend Cesa rino De Sanctis, “I’ve written just un der four acts of my French opera. Now I just have to write the fifth act and the ballet, and orchestrate everything. I’ll be so happy when I’ve finally finished. An opera for the Opéra is enough to kill a bull. Five hours of music? Oof!” The reasons for Verdi’s reluctance were the unfamiliar language (although he spoke and wrote French very well), the pompous Parisian style required of him with the obligatory ballet inserts (hardly ever performed today), the not particularly enjoyable atmosphere of the “big shop” as he liked to call the Opéra disparagingly, the general lack
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of discipline in rehearsals, and the li bretto, whose defects the composer had become increasingly aware of while working. His reluctance was further rein forced by the unprofessional behaviour of the German soprano Johanne Sophie Charlotte Crüwell, or Sofia Cruvelli, as she styled herself. She disappeared from Paris quietly and secretly during rehearsals in October 1854 (the reason was a love affair with Baron Vigier, whom she later married) and was un discover able for some time, which caused a major scandal. Verdi demanded to be released from his contract, claim ing that Cruvelli was irreplaceable (“the most beautiful voice of our time in the dramatic fach”, as the impresario Strakosch described her), the Minister for the Arts intervened, crisis meetings were held. Verdi persisted, and pre pared to leave (a new opera house was to open in Genoa, and Verdi had been asked for a new opera – he was consid ering setting Shakespeare’s King Lear). Then Cruvelli reappeared. The re hearsals continued, and none of those involved said anything. (At the Strand, a London theatre, a comedy opened shortly after to general amusement with the title Where is Cruvelli?) Direc tor Roqueplan was the only one affect ed. He had to resign, and was replaced by Louis Crosnier, previously the di rector of the Opéra-Comique. However, the differences of opin ion continued with the new Opéra director. In a long letter to Crosnier (3 January 1855), Verdi complained vehemently about Scribe, among other things. He objected that “the second, third and fourth acts” all had the same structure, “an aria, a duet and a finale. The fifth act is universally agreed to be
entirely without interest.” Verdi was annoyed that the librettist “couldn’t be bothered to improve the fifth act and had a thousand other things to do.” Scribe did not attend the rehearsals and did not keep his promises “to change anything that impugned the honour of the Italians”, had painted the historical figure of Procida so blandly “that he was just your usual conspirator with a dagger in his hand,” and so on. Verdi again demanded to be released from his contract. The Opéra refused, the rehearsals dragged on. Verdi and Scribe met several times to make changes, although Verdi thought they were inadequate. He regarded the libretto as a ridicu lous travesty of the historical events in Palermo in 1282, with a cobbled-together love story added, and began to prepare himself for a failure. The modifications to the libretto are not well document ed because of Verdi’s personal contacts with Scribe, none of the letters are dated and they cannot be clearly ordered.
VERDI’S “ADVANCES” Despite all the problems with the libretto, I vespri siciliani was a further step in the direction of innovation and evolution. (Verdi wrote to Cesarino de Sanctis on 1 January 1853, “I want plots which are new, exciting, varied, daring in the extreme, with new forms that can still be set…”) While this was not a revolution, it was a successful move towards the completely new style of the works to follow, each of which had its own striking musical personality: Simon Boccanegra, Un ballo in maschera, La forza del destino, Don Carlo, Aida, Otello and Falstaff. The eminent Verdi scholar Massimo Mila summed it
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COMMENTS ON I VESPRI SICILIANI
up as follows: “I vespri siciliani is not as beautiful as Rigoletto, but more advanced. It is the beginning of a new concept of drama where music seeks not only to flesh out the main charac ters but also place them in a historical and social context.” Verdi’s writing for voices began to diverge increasingly from the estab lished bel canto forms of Bellini and Donizetti and showed greater psycho logical depth. This is clear in consider ing the musical characterisation of the two antagonists Procida and Montfort. The opera’s most popular aria, and at the same time one of the most beau tiful in the entire bass repertoire, Pro cida’s “O tu, Palermo” is still conven tional in form, a typical aria di sortita (entrance aria) which gives more em phasis to the singer than to the char acter in his emotional experience on returning to his motherland. Primarily as a result of the libretto, the charac ter is musically weaker from the start than his antagonist Montfort, and never achieves that psychological depth. On the contrary, Procida’s character becomes more and more superficial to the point of Scribe’s rushed finale, where he appears as exactly what Verdi had complained of – a banal murderer who takes the sound of the wedding bells as the signal for the massacre. Montfort is subtly presented right in the first act, where the dialogue with Arrigo shows signs of imperious pride and condescending benevolence alternating with nuanced sarcasm. It is clear that Verdi not only had a pref erence for the baritone voice, but was also particularly interested in the is sue of the relationship between bari tone – son and baritone – daughter (the reasons for this lie in Verdi’s own
history). You need only think of Fran cesco Foscari in I due Foscari, Giacomo in Giovanna d’Arco, the old Miller in Luisa Miller, Stankar in Stiffelio, Rigo letto, Germont in La traviata, Simon Boccanegra, and Amonasro in Aida. Montfort, although the oppressor of freedom of the Sicilians, is not the conventionally gloomy opera tyrant, but a multi-layered, thoroughly sym pathetic, noble and sensitive figure – the most elaborate in the entire op era. In his French three-part romanza in the third act, “In braccio alle dovizie” with its major-minor alternation, Ver di’s presentation of the lonely power seeker Montfort foreshadows Simon Boccanegra or Filippo II in Don Carlo. The expectation of a fiery cabaletta with a showy final note a piacere is dis appointed. A dominant half-cadence is followed by a reprise with written-out figures in the orchestra. Montfort’s character is developed even more subtly in the following duet with Arrigo (which is the basis for the allegro in the overture) than in this aria. The vocal lines of baritone and tenor overlay each other in highly emo tional accusations, weaving together until the dispute reaches a climax, as if the two lack the breath to continue. Montfort’s imploring D-flat major ada gio releases the tension, the dark mood is shown in the descending chromatic figures for the celli. Arrigo’s striking cry “L’imago di mia madre” introduces an F major allegro agitato, with Mont fort’s painfully accented interjections. As Mila wrote: “He [Verdi] took what interested him from Scribe’s lum bering drama – the conflict between father and son, separated by political events and brought together again by ties of blood. Who still thinks at
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this point of Scribe, of the [historical] Sicilian vespers, of opera and its rules? Verdi has taken command, customised the situation that appealed to him, and immersed it in the melting pot of his dramatic inspiration. The opera as a whole may be full of contradictions, but the duel between father and son in the third act is one of Verdi’s noblest masterpieces, superb, one of the abso lute finest products of his genius.” The orchestra at the Opéra, which was superior to any other European orchestra at the time, inspired Verdi to a denser, more varied and demanding instrumentation. He also knew well how to satisfy the Opéra’s audience for grandiose and multi-part concertati as act finales. One example is the finale to Act 2, whose appeal lies in the con flict and reconciliation of contrasting moods. While the Sicilians, outraged at the abduction of their women, are brooding on revenge in musically dark colours, a festive ship is approaching on the sea, with the French officers and noblewomen singing a cheerful and elegant barcarole. Verdi’s mastery at shaping different emotional levels into an expressive whole (think of the Rigoletto quartet) is evident here again. The deeper male voices lose their autonomous vocal line and are used purely instrumentally (like the double basses in the orchestra) for their har monic effects as a bass line. The result is not a concerto-like static finale, but a highly original dramatic process which advances the action. FROM THE WORLD PREMIÈRE TO THE ITALIAN PREMIÈRE
escapades. This proved to be an advan tage because it made the première on 13 June 1855 an attraction of the Paris World Exposition. Ironically, it was a great success with the audience and critics. Immediately after the première Verdi and his publisher Giulio Ricordi started exploring the issue of I vespri siciliani and Italian censorship. In the Italy of 1855 reference to historical events on Italian soil was banned in theatrical presentations. To avoid problems with performances in Italy, they took the simplest approach. The action was moved to another country (Sicily became Lusitania, which is now Portugal) and the characters were re named. In the first performances in Parma (1855), Turin and Milan (1856) the title was Giovanna di Guzman. Verdi had initially proposed a differ ent name. “The title we first chose was Maria di Braganza, but then I replaced Maria by Giovanna, which is why you find Maria in the vocal score and Gio vanna in the libretto. This doesn’t mat ter, and you can use whatever name you please. You just need to make the changes in the vocal score, depending on which name you choose.” (Verdi to Giulio Ricordi, 6 July 1855). Arrigo became Enrico, a young Portuguese, Monforte became Vasconcello, Proci da became Ribera Pinto. The piece was given many other titles, including Giovanna di Sicilia (Naples, Teatro Nuovo) and Batilde di Turenna (Naples, Teatro San Carlo), before being performed in Italy for the first time without censor ship under its original Italian title, and subsequently being performed world wide, mostly in Italian.
The contractual date for the première was postponed because of Cruvelli’s
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DIRECTOR HERBERT WERNICKE
Many describe the piece as unplayable, difficult to understand, a Verdi remote from the popular spirit. But for me, I vespri siciliani is a true popular drama, similar to Simon Boccanegra, the tragic story of a people oppressed and abused by occupiers. It all ends in a catastrophe, total destruction on a scale which to my knowledge occurs in hardly any other work in the history of theatre. Everyone, everyone dies.
LEOPOLD M. KANTNER
A NEW VERDI? “On arrival at the Opéra, Verdi’s music has exploited the genius of the French language without losing anything of its Italian fire.” This was the judge ment of the critic of the Parisian La Presse three days after the première. Berlioz went into more detail. “With out seeking to downplay the value of Il trovatore and so many other scores, it must be said that in Les Vêpres siciliennes the consistent intensity of the melodic expressiveness, the elaborate and skilful diversity of instrumen tation, the warm colours that gleam through everywhere and the passion ate but restrained force of the pres entation, which is one of the char acteristic features of Verdi’s genius, give the opera a greatness, a compel ling majesty which is more evident here than in the master’s earlier works” (in La France Musicale of 7 October 1855). Adolphe Adam wrote: “I must confess that it was Les Vêpres siciliennes that made me aware of Verdi’s genius” (in Assemblée Nationale, 16 June 1855). Those attending the world première on 13 June 1855 were quick to recog nise what made this opera a balanced masterpiece. Briefly, Verdi adopted Meyerbeer’s tonal language without betraying himself and his past, and used it to create a homogeneous music drama, a grand opéra. In fairness to the much-criticised Scribe, it must be said that his libretto virtually forced Verdi
to find this style, which remains ele gant despite all its liveliness. None of Verdi’s librettists had ever used such exquisite language. This is not sur prising, considering that Scribe was not only a librettist but stands high in the annals of French literary history. Unfortunately, it was Verdi himself who most unfairly hurled unjust accu sations against Scribe 40 years later, claiming that Scribe had dared to foist off on him a libretto which Donizetti had previously wanted to set in his in complete opera Il Duca d’Alba. In fact, Scribe had first offered Le Duc d’Albe to Halévy, and only offered it to Donizetti after Halévy had rejected it. As Doni zetti was unable to complete the work, and the libretto would have lain unused in those days, Scribe – who thought highly of it – had obviously recom mended it to Verdi in the hope that he would give it a worthy setting. Another point is that Verdi had no reserva tions with either Un ballo in maschera or Otello about setting a libretto (or at least a subject) which unlike Il Duca d’Alba was in the living memory of its hearers, at least in the music of Rossini or Auber. It is a pity that Verdi’s attacks on Scribe so damaged his own credibility, and unfortunately these accusations are still repeated today. It would certainly be better to acknowl edge the quality of the libretto, making it easier to understand the high quality
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of the music. It is the flawless blend of text and music that distinguishes Les Vêpres siciliennes – each character and the chorus as a group are unmistakably clearly drawn. In contrast to Italian opera, there are four leading characters, rather than one – Hélène, Henri, Guy de Montfort and Procida, who all contribute equally to the dramatic events. Their very dif ferent personalities are masterfully shown, with the passionately patriotic but still tender Hélène, Henri, torn between his love for Hélène and his love for his father, the unscrupulous revo lutionary Procida, who is still given a positive edge through his love for his motherland, and finally the suffering father Montfort, whose heart is not smothered by politics. This Montfort is the noblest figure Verdi ever characterised musically. It is no accident that the duet finale to Act 1 and Montfort’s aria in Act 3 are among the musical high points of the piece. Henri also benefits decisively from his father’s nobility. Verdi had never painted a tenor so seriously, as even in the song in Act 5 where the young bridegroom carols his happiness (un derlaid by Meyerbeer-style instrumen tal effects) Henri remains his father’s
elegant son. We owe it to Scribe that this Henri stands apart from the many bumbling tenor roles in Verdi’s earlier operas. The prima donna Hélène cov ers all the registers of musical expres sion. In Act 1 we see how her song in cites a rebellion (we also see here what Verdi can do with a cabaletta in the Grand opéra). In the Act 2 duet (unmistakably influenced by Halévy’s La Juive), she is the suffering loved one. In the great duet in Act 5 (Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots dominates here), she moves from hesi tation to resolute acceptance of death. Finally, in the Act 5 siciliana (a fore shadowing of Eboli in Don Carlo), the vocal acrobatics are used to express overwhelming joie de vivre. The great chorus ensembles are comparable in standard to the soloists’ music – Verdi adds such nobility here to his earlier notorious staccato choruses. You may also say that Verdi’s work is at least comparable in standard with the masterpieces of Grand opéra, as it truly stands above all its predecessors as a brilliant concept. A ”new“ Verdi? No – but a richer, more brilliant and more elegant Verdi emerges from the work on Les Vêpres siciliennes.
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MICHAEL JAHN
I VESPRI SICILIANI IN VIENNA GIUSEPPE VERDI’S OPERAS AT THE KÄRNTNERTORTHEATER BEFORE I VESPRI SICILIANI On 4 April 1843, Giuseppe Verdi per sonally conducted the première of Nabucco at the Kärntnertortheater. After the tremendous success of the piece in Milan, great things were ex pected in Vienna, but despite a success ful performance the young composer was unable to match the applause two months later for Maria di Rohan, by the most popular Italian composer of the day, Gaetano Donizetti. As one critic briefly noted, “The composer was warmly received by the public” (Signale der musikalischen Welt). Nabucco was performed seven times, revived in German in 1848/49, but then the piece – so successful in Italy – disappeared from the Vienna opera house’s programme. Verdi’s second piece was Ernani (in Italian from 1844-1847, the German translation premièred in 1849). As the performance statistics show, Ernani was significantly more popular with audiences than its predecessor. The opera stayed on the programme until 1925 (the last revival was conducted by Pietro Mascagni, incidentally).
I due Foscari (1845) was a major flop (this time the public gave full expres sion to its dissatisfaction, which in cluded the weak performance of the singers), while several scenes in I Lombardi alla prima crociata (1846) were met with loud applause. This piece was then performed for four seasons, while most of the following operas were only on the schedule in one or two Italian festivals, like Attila (1851), Luisa Miller (1852), I masnadieri (1854), La traviata (1855, and then not until 1864), and Giovanna d’Arco (1857). Macbeth was premièred in German in 1849, but with little success, as in the Italian ver sion in 1851. The only absolute public favourites were Rigoletto (1851) and Il trovatore (1854), both of which stayed consistently in the programme. During the term of office of the first director and conductor in the history of the Vienna Court Opera, Karl An ton Florian Eckert (1857-1860), Die sicilianische Vesper (sic!) was performed on 19 November 1857 as Verdi’s 13th opera in a German version. The leading roles were sung by Johann Nepomuk Beck (Guy von Montfort), Alois Ander (Heinrich), Josef Draxler (Procida) and Therese Tietjens (Herzogin Helene).
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I VESPRI SICILIANI IN VIENNA
“IF HE’D STAYED THE OLD, HONEST VERDI…” Even though the Viennese audiences received several of Verdi’s operas with enthusiasm, the snobbishly Germanic critics clearly felt differently. The unfor gettable Eduard Hanslick, whose ven omous aversion to Verdi outdid even his loathing of Wagner, commented on the German language performances of Ernani and Nabucco, “Verdi’s operas are self-parodies”. At another point he wrote about I Lombardi, undoubtedly seriously meant by Verdi, “moreover, I Lombardi is a true delight for all who enjoy musical comedy.” He was bored by Rigoletto, but acknowledged the suc cess of Il trovatore, despite a certain lack of vocal balance, returning to dismiss I masnadieri with “there’s not an origi nal bar in the entire opera.” Given this background, it is not sur prising that Die sizilianische Vesper met with relatively little enthusiasm from both the critics and the public. Just as Donizetti had been attacked a decade and a half earlier, the critics accused Verdi of having bowed to the demands of French taste, at the expense of his natural instincts. At the time of the Vienna première of L’Africaine, it was insinuated that Giacomo Meyerbeer had adopted Wagner’s operatic style, and Verdi was accused in due course of imitating Meyerbeer.
The public had expected a dramatic opera in the Italian style, like Ernani or Il trovatore, and applause was thin, and more for the singers than the opera. “If he’d stayed the old, honest Verdi, without French sauce piquante, he would have been more fortunate here” (Signale für die musikalische Welt). Die sizilianische Vesper was only weakly applauded in the subsequent performances in Vienna, and the opera was performed only 13 times at the Kärntnertortheater with almost the same cast until 23 October 1858. There was a new production at the new opera house on 23 November 1878, in which two of Arrigo’s solo scenes and one aria each for Helene and von Montfort were cut, together with a large part of Act 5, although not the ballet. The singers (Anna d’Angeri, Georg Müller, Louis von Bignio and Hans von Roki tansky) were praised together with the musical director Gericke and the sets, but even then the piece lasted only one year (until 10 November 1879) in the Vienna Court Opera schedule. This would be the last staging of this opera, there was just one new production at the Volksoper (première 26 October 1934 under conductor Walter Herbert), so that the première of the current production (12 February 1998) at the Wiener Staatsoper was the première in Italian.
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Next pages: KS FERRUCCIO FURLANETTO as PROCIDA
BIRGI T PAU LS
LES VÊPRES SICILIENNES IN PARIS The mood on the Italian peninsula shortly after the revolution and Ra detzky’s victory, which initially put an end to all hopes for self-adminis tration, was anything but cheerful. In a newspaper article in October 1852, Karl Marx reported on a campaign by Mazzini, who had sent a Hungarian general and female singer under false names on a tour of the peninsula to enquire about the revolutionary senti ment in Italy. Mazzini hoped the two “spies” would provide details of bour geois life there. The resulting report was devas tating for would-be revolutionaries – Italians were entirely materialistic in their outlook. Their conversation was said to be totally dominated by re ports on trade in silk, olive oil and oth er products. The middle classes were constantly totalling the economic and financial losses they had suffered from the revolutionary movements. The conclusion from the trip was that most Italians were all the more interested in money after these losses, and the rev olutionary part of the population was disheartened by the constant failures. There was no support from the masses for a coup.
Given this political attitude, the mood of the Italians which disturbed Johann Jakob Bachofen in Siena at the time was not surprising. He wrote to Wil helm Henzen that he could only regard the Italians’ ostentatious hatred of the Austrians as “superficial and for many entirely forced.” Bachofen reviewed the political mood and decided that this aversion was a purely a pose to look down on foreigners. Verdi had survived the 1848 up heavals without economic loss, and was better established than ever in the opera business at the start of the 1850s. Except for the closure of the Teatro alla Scala, the revolutionary months in 1848 had no further unpleasant consequences for him. We know of no threats of criminal prosecution, bans on performances, informants’ reports or comparable repressive measures against him by the Habsburgs. On the contrary, as we saw with Il corsaro, he was able with Austrian help to get by even during the periods of open conflict with the Italians. This was evident financially as well. Since Verdi’s début in 1839 his fees had more than doubled, far ex ceeding those of his Italian colleagues,
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LES VÊPRES SICILIENNES IN PA R IS
not to mention the sums that Rossini or Donizetti had earned at the peak of their careers. Despite their fame and position as maestri, these two were still part of the tawdry, bohemian demi-monde which had no hesitation in taking their fees from gambling concessions in opera houses, while Verdi had become an independent en trepreneur in the opera industry. In the course of the 1850s he was awarded the Piedmontese title of Knight of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, and the Grand Cross of the French Legion of Honour. Verdi was as much at home in the salons of Milan, Vienna and Paris as the ruling classes there, who greatly appreciated his music. Verdi’s path to respectabil ity and ultimately legendary status led through these circles, rather than Garibaldi’s irregulars or the peasants of Emilia. The growing value of his work and fees was due not least to his interna tional successes. In his early years he had already worked exclusively for London and Paris, and his scores were sent as far abroad as Santiago and Constantinople. There was only one opera composer at the time who was better known internationally and more successful than Verdi, and that was Meyerbeer. Verdi’s ambition was to equal his fame when he decided in 1852 to write a new opera for the Grand Opéra in Paris. Before the world première of Les Vêpres siciliennes on 13 June 1855, Verdi had written Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata, known as the popular trilogy and the first high point in Verdi’s artistic development. Although Les Vêpres siciliennes was about an “Italian” uprising against foreign rule, Verdi did not compose
any of the typical nationalist choruses, like those in Nabucco or La battaglia di Legnano. Instead, there are homo phone patriotic arias for the three separate protagonists, united only by their fatal political fanaticism. Unlike the choruses of the Hebrews and Lom bards in the earlier operas, this trio is completely unsuitable for integration into the legends of Italian reunifica tion, and they were never described as hymns to liberty. It is notable that this opera for Paris was Verdi’s first opera in which he tried for a musically typical “Italian” regional flavour, instead of the instances in many earlier operas where he integrated other European musical traditions – for example, Nabucco, where he took the polka, a Bohemian folk dance that had come into fashion at the start of the century. Verdi’s tarantella admittedly did not have much in common with the southern Italian folk dance – at the time, this was one of the commercial ized musical clichés which composers such as Meyerbeer and Rossini also used. However, the popular spirit which Verdi’s operas are credited with in the reunification legends is found only here (at least in hints) and La forza del destino, written in 1862 for St Petersburg. It almost seems that Verdi wanted to offer foreign opera audiences not only Italian opera but also a touch of potential romanticism in the “popular spirit”. The Austrian music critic MoritzGottlieb Saphir, who saw Die siziliani sche Vesper at the Kärntnertortheater in 1857, did not appreciate Verdi’s attempts. He wrote, “This is not Italy, not Sicily, this is not the local sound, the local colour, not the fiery blood, not the
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LES VÊPRES SICILIENNES IN PA R IS
shimmering landscape, not the lush heat of the musical vegetation.” After such a review you might think Saphir knew Sicily better than Verdi. In fact, Verdi took time during his preparation for his composition to research the rhythm and speed of the southern Ital ian tarantella with the help of his Ne apolitan friend Cesare De Sanctis, and asked him for music in order to insert some scenes inspired by the dance. In fact, Verdi’s rare tribute to “Ital ian” folk music is hardly ever men tioned in the history of the critical response to his music. As the legend has it that all his operas were national istic and motivated the masses to move towards nationhood, Verdi’s involve ment in Paris with an opera house that explicitly favoured upper class luxury is occasionally treated almost apolo getically. In this version, Verdi was only dealing with the materialistic Parisians because he was attracted to the extensive possibilities offered there for staging. The subscribers to this legend clearly overlook the fact that Verdi was popular with Parisian audi ences – that the Italian composer was brilliantly successful in feeding into a French genre which is so very different from the Italian nationalistic opera.
Like Il corsaro, Les Vêpres siciliennes is dismissed as a “transitional opera” and relegated to the second league in the legends about the reunification. After his experiences with Scribe, Verdi (unlike Rossini) had little desire to stay in Paris and make a career there. Despite the conveniences of Paris, his geographical focus was Sant’Agata in Emilia. He did not become the parvenu with big city yearnings that legend tried to make him. Verdi explained his departure from Paris officially with the unaffordable Paris lifestyle which pre vented him from staying further. He also did not have the success he had hoped for with Les Vêpres siciliennes. The Paris newspapers still talked about Meyerbeer, who he was mea sured against. However, shortly after this the opera was performed in Italian in many cities in Italy, from Bologna in the Papal States through Milan and Trieste under Habsburg rule to Naples and Palermo under the Bourbons. A new Verdi opera finally joined the list of essential titles for every opera season. Demand in Italy for I vespri siciliani shows very clearly that after the “pop ular trilogy” marked a provisional end, this work set a capstone on the nation alist debate.
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ANGELA MAEDE as ELENA
STEVE RUNCIMAN
LEGEND AND TRUTH THE VESPERS Easter was early in 1282, on 29 March. Sicily was apparently quiet during Holy Week. Royal officials moved through the country, confiscating all the stores of grain they could find and driving herds of cattle and pigs to feed the mili tary campaign. In Palermo the king’s vicar began the Easter celebrations in the royal palace. None of the French officials or commanders of the 42 fortresses which oversaw the country noticed more than the usual coolness displayed towards them by the conquered populace. How ever, the tension in the streets, where the Sicilians were celebrating Christ’s Resurrection with their traditional folk songs and dances, was stretched to breaking point. The Church of the Holy Spirit was about half a mile to the south, out side Palermo’s old city wall. It was the custom of the church to hold a popu lar festival on Easter Monday, and on Easter Monday 30 March 1282, people came as always from the city and sur rounding villages to attend vespers. The square was filled with chatter and singing, when suddenly a group of
French officials appeared to join in the celebrations. They were very drunk, and soon treated the younger wom en with the familiarity which always enraged the Sicilians. One of them dragged a young married woman from the crowd and assaulted her. This was too much for her husband, who drew a knife and attacked the Frenchman. The other French came to avenge their friend, and suddenly found themselves surrounded by a crowd of furious Sicil ians, all armed with swords and dag gers. Not a single Frenchman survived. At this moment, the bells of the church and all the city’s churches started to ring, marking the start of vespers. While the bells were ringing, mes sengers ran through the city, calling the people to rise up against the op pressors. In a moment the streets were full of armed men calling out “moranu li francisi” (the Sicilian dialect for “death to the French”), who fell on all the French they could find. By dawn next day, some two thou sand French men and women were dead. The leaders had Palermo solidly in their hands, declared a commune and elected a knight to be their new captain.
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LEGEND AND TRUTH
GIOVANNI DA PROCIDA The question how far the bloodbath of the vespers was organised by forces outside Sicily has been bitterly disputed ever since. The conventional view is that the massacre was the result of a major con spiracy masterminded by Giovanni da Procida, banned from Sicily, and work ing in the interests of the royal house of Aragon. Legend has made the doctor and skilled politician Procida a conspirator on a grand scale, travelling in disguise and secret from one European court to another, and acquiring supporters for freeing Sicily from French domi nation. Tales of his adventures were circulating almost during his lifetime. They have survived in Sicilian tradi tion, as reflected in works by Villani, Petrarch and Boccaccio. In fact, his role was neither so adventurous or as picturesque as his admirers and foes like to present it. This view is strongly supported by Michele Amari, the Sicilian histori an, in his La guerra del vespro siciliano (1842). Amari pointed out that Procida is not mentioned at all in several of the reliable sources, that other sources ex plicitly deny that there was a conspir acy, and that in any case the interval between the events of the vespers and the intervention of the kings of Aragon argues against a conspiracy. In 1279 and 1280 when Procida was allegedly on his conspiratorial travels, his signature as chancellor appears regularly and without interruption on
records and documents drawn up and signed in Aragon. Even if we assume that he had made arrangement for the forgery of his signature to keep his ab sence secret, we should still remember that he was an old man, getting on for 70. It could be that Procida never left Aragon and someone else travelled in his name and on his behalf, as the in formation about routes and details of the ships on which they travelled are too exact to be pure invention. It is difficult to tell how much truth there is in the numerous legends. It seems to lie in the opinion that the Sicilians, aware of being oppressed and neglected, were driven to despair, that Aragonian secret agents acting on Procida’s instructions fanned the discontent and organised it into a true rebellion with the help of Byzantine gold and intermediaries. At the same time, also through Procida’s activities, a diplomatic alliance was established with Pope Nicholas III against Charles of Anjou, largely financed with Byzan tine gold, and intended to stop an attack on Constantinople by Charles. This is where Procida showed his polit ical genius. His main project was to stir up unrest within Charles’s territories. The exact timing of the outbreak of the Sicilian uprising may have been accidental, but it was very opportune for Emperor Michael VIII of Byzantium. The alliance with Aragon was initially thoroughly unwelcome with the Sicil ians, and (as subsequent events showed) they were not ready to maintain it if it threatened their independence.
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Next pages: SCENE
G IOVA N N I V E RG A
LIBERTY The tricolour waved from the church tower, the bells pealed, and on the square they were shouting, “Long live liberty!” White caps were waving in front of the upper class club, town hall and the church. And axes and scythes glittered. The mob rushed forward and stormed into an alley. “ Your neck’s first, baron! Your crude people have humiliated and flogged people long enough!” A fury with wild white hair outran them all, her only weapons her nails. “Down with the bloodsuckers!” “Down with the priests!” “ Down with you, you greedy pig, stuffed with the blood of the poor to the point where you can’t run!” “Down with the bailiffs!” “Down with the traitors!” She cursed wildly. The blood flowed in streams, steaming, driving the mob wild. Everything was red with blood – the axes and scythes, hands, rags and stones. “Down with the nobles!” “Down with their guards!” Don Antonio crept through the narrowest alley. The first blow floored him, his face was bleeding. “What have I done? Why are you murdering me?” “You go to hell, too!” A ragged street urchin took his hat and spat in it. “Down with the top hat!” “Down with the tricorn!” “Long live liberty!” “ Down with the priest! He threatened everyone who stole bread with hell!” The priest came from mass with the consecrated host. They slew him too. And the priest’s mistress, who was pregnant, was killed too. “Mercy!” she screamed, “Have mercy on the baby!” “ You’ve brought enough children into the world!” they shouted at her. The mob killed, but did not plunder. They could have filled their bellies, but they didn’t think of it. Like a wolf who falls on a flock of sheep, but doesn’t think of filling its belly, but just kills blindly. The apothecary’s son was just watching, but they fell on him. The same happened to the terrified shopkeeper who was trying to close
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LIBERTY
up. His wife saw him fall, while she was putting their only meal, a pot of steaming soup on the table, sur rounded by their five children. “Paolo! Paolo!” she screamed. One of them struck with his scythe, another with a flail, and the shopkeeper was dead on the spot. Like wild an imals they struck out wildly, blindly, sparing nobody.
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GIUSEPPE TOMASI DI LAMPEDUSA
Sicily, the environment, the climate, the scenery. These are forces which have equally shaped our spirit, perhaps more than the foreign rule and humiliations. The ruggedness of the landscape, the rigours of the climate, the constant tension wherever you look, even the monuments of the past, glorious but incomprehensible because we did not build them, surrounding us like beautiful, mute ghosts.
All the realms, armed foreigners, coming from who knows where, who we served, quickly loathed and never understood, who expressed themselves only in works of art, remaining enigmatic to us, but vigorous in collecting their taxes, which were then spent elsewhere – all these things have shaped our character, and this is why it remains the result of outside strokes of fate, far more than the desperate insularity of spirit.
IMPRINT GIUSEPPE VERDI
I VESPRI SICILIANI SEASON 2023/24 PREMIÈRE OF THE PRODUCTION 12 FEBRUARY 1998 Publisher WIENER STAATSOPER GMBH, Opernring 2, 1010 Wien Director DR. BOGDAN ROŠČIĆ Music Director PHILIPPE JORDAN Administrative Director DR. PETRA BOHUSLAV Concept of the programme CHRISTOPH WAGNER-TRENKWITZ & VERENA KURTH General Editors SERGIO MORABITO, ANDREAS LÁNG, OLIVER LÁNG Design & concept EXEX Layout & typesetting MIWA MEUSBURGER Image concept: MARTIN CONRADS, BERLIN (Cover) All performance photos MICHAEL PÖHN Printed by PRINT ALLIANCE HAV PRODUKTIONS GMBH, BAD VÖSLAU TEXT REFERENCES All texts were taken from the première programme of the Vienna State Opera 1998. COVER IMAGE Courtesy Magdalena Jetelová and Gallery LOHAUS SOMINSKY. ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS Andrew Smith. Reproduction only with approval of Wiener Staatsoper GmbH / Dramaturgy. Abbreviations are not marked. Holders of rights who were unavailable are requested to make contact regarding retrospect compensation.
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