“Mese mariano” (from Italian. - “The Month of Mary”) is an opera in one act by the Italian composer Umberto Giordano . The Italian libretto was written by Salvatore Di Giacomo based on his play “O Mese Mariano”, which, in turn, was an adaptation of his novel “Senza vederlo”.
| Opera | |
| Mese mariano | |
|---|---|
| Mese mariano | |
| Composer | Umberto Giordano |
| Librettist | Salvatore Di Giacomo |
| Tongue libretto | Italian |
| Genre | |
| First production | March 17, 1910 |
| First Place | Teatro Massimo , Palermo |
| Scene | shelter in naples |
| Time of action | XIX century |
The premiere of the performance took place on March 17, 1910 at the Massimo Theater in Palermo . The opera was described as bozzetto lirico ( Italian lyrical sketch ) and has a duration of only 35 minutes. The plot tells the story of a woman who visits an orphanage to see her abandoned child. Offended by guilt for leaving him, she still does not know that her child died last night.
Content
- 1 Creation
- 2 Speeches
- 3 roles
- 4 Story
- 5 Entries
- 6 notes
- 7 Sources
Creation
The play underlying the libretto was popular at the time. Written in a Neapolitan dialect , it was first played at the San Fernando Theater in Naples on January 20, 1900 [1] . Giordano, who saw the play in Milan, was deeply moved by her and asked Di Giacomo to adapt it for the opera. The author accepted the request and agreed to modify the original. The opening stage, which allowed Giordano to include a children's choir, was a courtyard of a shelter with wine on a Neapolitan landscape in the distance.
Speeches
The premiere of “Mese mariano” was held at the Massimo Theater in Palermo on March 17, 1910, under the direction of Leopoldo Munnone with Livia Burlendi starring Carmela. The opera was warmly received both in Palermo and in Rome , where it was shown a month later at the Teatro Costanzi [2] .
However, after the opera was shown in Naples (April 10, 1911 at the San Carlo Theater), it did not have decisive success, and Giordano and Di Giacomo made additional changes to the opera in 1913 [3] . Although Mascagni considered Mese mariano one of Giordano's best operas [2] , she did not come close to the success of the play of the same name by Di Giacomo or other longer operas by Giordano.
Roles
| Role | Singing voice | Executor March 17, 1910 Conductor: |
|---|---|---|
| Carmela | soprano | Libya Burlandi |
| Abbess | mezzo soprano | Maria De Loris |
| Patient's sister | mezzo soprano | Rosa Garavajila |
| Countess | mezzo soprano | Vittoria d'Ornelly |
| Sister Christina | mezzo soprano | Maria Slacker |
| Sister Celeste | soprano | |
| Sister maria | soprano | |
| Sister Agnes | soprano | |
| Don Fabbiano | baritone | Gennario Curci |
| Valentine, baby | soprano | |
| Pietro, the sailor | tenor or baritone | Arturo Romboli |
| Children, nuns, servants, and street vendors | ||
Story
Easter Sunday, children play and sing, waiting for the arrival of the countess, patron of the shelter. When she arrives, the children serenade in her honor, and she gives them presents. Girl Valentine reads a sonnet written in honor of Countess Don Fabbiano. After the countess leaves and the children are taken to their rooms, Carmela appears in the courtyard with a freshly baked Easter cake for her little son. She asks her sister Patienza if she can see him. Struggling with guilty feelings, Carmela tells how she was seduced and abandoned, leaving her with a child in her arms. Later, she married a worker who did not want to keep a child from another man in the house and forced the woman to send her son to an orphanage. Carmela goes to pray in the chapel, and during her absence the nuns inform the abbess that the boy died at night. The abbess decides not to reveal the truth to her mother and says that she cannot see the child, because he rehearses with the choir. Carmela leaves the shelter in tears.
Records
- Umberto Giordano: Il re and Mese mariano - Italian international orchestra and choir of the Petrutzelli Theater, conductor . Recorded live at the , in the role of Carmela Patricia Chofi . Dynamic Label (CDS-231) [4] .
Notes
- ↑ Borrelli, 2007 , p. 71.
- ↑ 1 2 Gelli, 2007 .
- ↑ Budden, 2002 , p. 391.
- ↑ There are 4 recordings of Il re by Umberto Giordano on file . operadis-opera-discography.org.uk . Date of treatment March 31, 2019.
Sources
- Borrelli, Clara. Di Giacomo e “Flegrea” // Salvatore Di Giacomo settant'anni dopo. - Liguori, 2007 .-- 583 p. - ISBN 8820739984 .
- Budden, Julian. Puccini: His Life and Works. - Oxford University Press, 2002 .-- 527 p. - ISBN 0-19-816468-8 .
- Gelli, Piero. Mese mariano // Dizionario dell'opera. - Baldini Castoldi Dalai, 2007 .-- 1718 p. - ISBN 8860731844 . Archived March 27, 2007.