La romanziera e l'uomo nero
La romanziera e l'uomo nero (also known as La romanzesca e l'uomo nero) is an 1831 one-act farsa with music by Gaetano Donizetti and an Italian libretto by Domenico Gilardoni, possibly based on the 1819 play La donna dei romanzi by Augusto Bon.[1] Other suggested sources include L'homme noir (1820) by Eugene Scribe and Jean-Henri Dupin[2] and Le coiffeur et le perruquier (1824) by Scribe, Édouard-Joseph-Ennemond Mazères and Charles Nombret Saint-Laurent.[3]
| La romanziera e l'uomo nero | |
|---|---|
| Farsa by Gaetano Donizetti | |
 Gaetano Donizetti c. 1835 | |
| Librettist | Domenico Gilardoni |
| Language | Italian |
| Premiere | |
Performance history
The opera was premiered on 18 June 1831 at the Teatro del Fondo, Naples, and there was only one further performance. The words and music of the arias and ensembles have survived, but the spoken dialogue has been lost. The opera's music was performed in 1982 at the Camden Festival, and in Fermo in 1988. In November 2000, staged performances took place in Rovigo with dialogue re-created by Michelangelo Zurletti from the Scribe plays on which the opera may have been based.[3]
Of this work Ashbrook writes:
- The plot is a satire on Romanticism: in the rondo-finale Antonina assures her father that she will give up willows, cypresses, urns and ashes, and take up more appropriate pursuits like singing and dancing and going to the opera.
He also points out that Filidoro's canzonetta is a parody of the Gondolier's song from Rossini's Otello.[4]
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 18 June 1831[5] |
|---|---|---|
| The Count (il Conte) | bass | Gennaro Ambrosini |
| Antonina, his daughter | soprano | Luigia Boccabadati |
| Chiarina, his niece | mezzo-soprano | Marietta Gioia-Tamburini |
| Fedele, hoping to marry Chiarina | tenor | Francesco Salvetti |
| Carlino, the son of a friend of the Count | tenor | Lorenzo Lombardi |
| Filidoro, the man in black (l'uomo nero) | baritone | Antonio Tamburini |
| Tommaso, his uncle | bass | Gennarino Luzio |
| Trappolina, Antonia's governess | soprano | Anna Manzi-Salvetti |
| Giappone, the Count's majordomo | bass | Tauro |
| Nicola, a servant | bass | |
List of musical numbers
| Scene | Description | Performed by | First lines of sections |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction | Giappone, Carlino, Il Conte, Fedele, Chiarina, Trappolina, Tommaso |
"Vi prego, avanti avanti" ... "M'insulta, corbella!" |
| 2 | Cavatina | Antonia, Tommaso, Trappolina | "Oh Elodia solitaria" |
| 3 | Canzonetta | Filidoro | "Non v'e maggio dolore" |
| 3 | Duet | Antonia, Filidoro | "Ciel! Fia ver? Mio Filidoro!" ... "Ahi la mia nascita" ... "Fuggir da queste mura" |
| 4 | Trio | Tommaso, Chiarina, Fedele | "Cinque sensi appena nato" ... "L'occhietto semi-chiuso" |
| 5 | Duet | Chiarina, Filidoro | "Che paura! Che paura!" ... "Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!" |
| 6 | Trio | Nicola, Antonia, Tommaso/ Tommaso, Nicola, Trappolina |
"Fuggiam, fuggiam!" ... "Ei stresso! La mia vittima" ... "Destrieri infocati" |
| 7 | Rondo finale | Antonia, Conte, Fedele, Carlino, Filidoro/ Filidoro, Antonia, All |
"Si, colpevole son io" ... "Lascio l'ombre ed I fantasmi" |
Recordings
| Year | Cast: (Antonia, Chiarina, Fedele, Carlino, Filidoro, Tommaso) |
Conductor, Orchestra, Chorus | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Elisabetta Scano, Adriana Cicogna, Bruce Ford, Paul Austin Kelly, Pietro Spagnoli, Bruno Praticò | David Parry, Academy of St Martin in the Fields | Audio CD: Opera Rara Cat: ORC19[6] |
| 2000 | Patrizia Cigna, Claudia Marchi, Giovanni Gregnanin, Patrizio Saudelli, Alessandro Calamai, Gian Paolo Fiocchi | Franco Piva, Orchestra Filarmonica Veneta "G. F. Malipiero", Coro del Teatro Sociale di Rovigo | Audio CD: Bongiovanni Cat: GB 2287/88-2 (2 CDs) Recorded live on 25 and 26 November 2000 |
References
Notes
- Ashbrook & Hibberd 2001, p. 231.
- Osborne 1994, pp. 201–202, and Ashbrook 1982, p. 551.
- Michele Zurletti, Rovigo.
- Ashbrook 1982, p. 324.
- Premiere cast list from Casaglia 2005. Note that Ashbrook 1982, p. 511, and Weinstock 1963, p. 328, have incomplete premiere cast lists with Tamburini as Carlino rather than Filidoro.
- "Review - Donizetti". Gramophone. November 2000. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
Cited sources
- Ashbrook, William (1982). Donizetti and His Operas. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052123526X (hardcover). ISBN 0-521-27663-2 (paperback). Snippet view at Google Books.
- Ashbrook, William; Hibberd, Sarah (2001). "Gaetano Donizetti", pp. 224–247 in The New Penguin Opera Guide, edited by Amanda Holden. New York: Penguin Putnam. ISBN 0-14-029312-4.
- Casaglia, Gherardo (2005)."La romanziera e l'uomo nero". L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian).
- Osborne, Charles (1994). The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. ISBN 0-931340-71-3.
- Weinstock, Herbert (1963). Donizetti and the World of Opera in Italy, Paris, and Vienna in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century, New York: Pantheon Books. OCLC 601625.
External links
- La romanziera e l'uomo nero ms score: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project (original at the Naples Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella)
