287. Marcella / Mese mariano / Il re (Giordano)

Umberto Giordano, like many Italian composers of the time, wrote several short operas.

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Marcella

• Idillio moderno in 3 episodi
• Libretto: Henri Caïn, Edouard Adenis, Lorenzo Stecchetti
• First performed: Teatro Lirico, Milan, 9th November 1907, conducted by Ettore Perosio

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MARCELLA	Soprano	Gemma Bellincioni
CLARA	Soprano	Muggia
RAIMONDA	Soprano	Cristina Pittarollo
ELIANA	Soprano	Maria Roberto
LEA	Soprano	Amelia Chiostri
GIORGIO	Tenor	Fernando De Lucia
DRASCO	Baritone	Nunzio Rapisardi
VERNIER	Baritone	Leo Eral
BARTHÉLEMY	Tenor	Aurelio Sabbi
FLAMENT	Baritone	Romeo Boscacci

SETTING: Paris, circa 1910

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Called a “modern idyll”, Marcella is more akin to an Edwardian romance novel than full-blooded opera. It’s the Cinderella story of a humble girl who has an affair with a prince in disguise, updated to French restaurants at 2am and country houses. She gives him up when he returns to his country, because of the difference in their status. It’s wistful and rather flimsy, although there are a few passages of social commentary: Marcella, out of work during summer, when the fine ladies leave town, considered drowning herself or becoming a ‘hostess’. But the shadow of Ethel M. Dell (or even Rosie M. Banks) hovers over it. The better parts of the score are the prince’s aria, “Dolce notte misteriosia”, and the parting duet in Act III.

Listen to: Serena Daolio (Marcella), Danilo Formaggia (Giorgio), Pierluigi Dilengite (Drasco), and Natalizia Carone (Clara), with the Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia, conducted by Manlio Benzi, Martina Franca, 2007. Dynamic CDS 573.

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Mese mariano

• Bozzetto lirico in 1 act
• Libretto: Salvatore di Giacomo
• First performed: Teatro Massimo, Palermo, 17th March 1910, conducted by Leopoldo Mugnone

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CARMELA	Soprano	Livia Berlendi
LA CONTESSA	Mezzo	Vittoria D’Ornelli
Il Rettore DON FABIANO [The Rector]	Baritone	Gennaro Curci
La SUPERIORA [Mother Superior]	Mezzo	Maria De Loris
Daughters of Charity, also known as the French Nuns
SUOR PAZIENZA	Mezzo	Rosa Garavaglia
SUOR CELESTE	Soprano
SUOR CRISTINA	Mezzo	Maria Llacer
SUOR AGNESE	Soprano
SUOR MARIA	Soprano
The girl VALENTINA	Soprano
PIETRO, sailor	Tenor / baritone	Arturo Romboli
Nuns The Countess’s servant Children from the Infant Asylum of the Reale Albergo dei Poveri

SETTING: Naples, in modern times. The Infant Asylum, attached to the Reale Albergo dei Poveri.

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Like Puccini’s Suor Angelica seven years later, Mese mariano appeals to Italian religiosity and mammismo. A ‘lyrical sketch’ of 35 minutes, it takes place in a Naples convent, with orphanage attached. Carmela arrives to see her son, a boy in the nuns’ care, whom she had out of wedlock and was forced to give up; but he died the night before. Rather than telling her, the nuns say she cannot see him, because reasons. She leaves, disappointed – and the situation unresolved. The work is gentle and lacks dramatic impact. (Still, it could be worse: it could have ended with the appearance of the Virgin Mary, leading the dead boy by the hand.) Mascagni, however, considered it one of Giordano’s best operas, but, bar a pleasant, unassuming prelude, there’s little in the score (largely in C major) that makes one sit up.

Listen to: Patrizia Ciofi (Carmela), Rossella Ressa (Contessa), Maria Miccoli (Madre Superiora),  Monica Sesto (Suor Pazienza), Raffaella Liccardi (Suor Cristina), Giuliana Carone (Suor Agnese), Rossana Potenza (Suor Celeste), Loredana Cinieri (Suor Maria), and Giacomo Rocchetti (Don Fabiano), with the Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia, Martina Franca 1988. Dynamic CDS 231/1-2.

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Il re

• Novella in 3 acts
• Libretto: Giovacchino Forzano
• First performed: Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 12 January 1929, conducted by Arturo Toscanini

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The King	Baritone	Jean-Armand-Charles Crabbé
ROSALINA	Soprano	Toti Dal Monte
COLOMBELLO	Tenor	Enzo De Muro Lomanto
The miller	Bass	Tancredi Pasero
The miller’s wife	Mezzo	Angelica Cravcenco
The fortune-teller	Mezzo	Lucia Abbrescia
The lawyer	Bass	Salvatore Baccaloni
The priest	Tenor	Giuseppe Nessi
A master of ceremonies	Tenor	Giovanni Azzimonti
Another master of ceremonies	Tenor	Palmiro Domenichetti
The majordomo / The voice of a town crier	Baritone	Aristide Baracchi
A Moorish servant
Chorus Dancing children Servants Courtiers Guards Three trumpeters

SETTING: The Eighteenth Century. – In a kingdom.

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“C’est un peu bizarre,” my father commented from the kitchen. The score is eclectic: a mixture of Stravinskyan modernism (Giordano had obviously heard Pétrouchka) and conventional harmony, opera buffa, and grand opera (the coloratura aria in part three sounds like Meyerbeer’s Shadow Song or one of the showpieces Gounod wrote for Miolan-Carvalho). The effect is disjointed, but interesting. As for the plot: six days before her wedding, the miller’s daughter Rosalina (a part written for Toti Dal Monte) announces that she has fallen in love with the king; the sight of his nude majesty cures her of that infatuation.

Listen to: Nicolas Rivenq (Re), Patrizia Ciofi (Rosalina), Francesco Paolo Panni (Colombello), Marco Pauluzzo (Mugnaio), Maria Miccoli (Mugnaia), Monica Sesto (Astrologa), Giacomo Rocchetti (Uomo di legge), and Emil Alekperov (Prete), with the Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia conducted by Renato Palumbo, Martina Franca 1998. Dynamic CDS 231/1-2.

See Phil’s Opera World.