Does Iife imitate art, or vice versa? Notes for a l€cttrr€

NiDetenth century .omporrs, it is sad 10 sy, diminished all the historical .hdaclelsrhey depicted in thei apdds. "Dan I put yot darghtet o, the stage' ought to have been the noto inscribed under the coals of ahs of many unsuspecting noble fmilies So nany ilhrealed ladies !oo. Lad, Macbelh for example. poor Lucrezia Borgi!, pooi Queen Elizabeth I ad most of her srep nothqs'have foud fien reputaiioE in rafters as a result of ihen operaric lreahedl by carelree musiciaus.

This. I !€ry much fed, is the c6e with ou heroine. Ir is bul one short step from the Vien.a Kiimtnefhortbeater to aptetuing in "Do.tor Who (in 2A02) bul this, I can assure you, has been lhe case *i1h Lhe bea itul and intrepjd Ma e Aimde de Rohar-Montbuon. dz.r?s. de Chevreue. She was one ol those peopte sho fdci.ared evelyone even mlking a, hvoluniary appearmce in The thrce Musl@teea l*here she had m entnely ficdonal soD by Athos ol all

But shy did ou generous Berganasc devole m to Marie de Rohd, d iconic fisue olm unimaginable pasr? Il is becase be felt hihslf 10 be close 10 her. The story ofthe ope.a Cives only a hinl oftris. ft h nor conplicated a lale. Ser in the precincls offie Palais du Louvre, Maria "co,teso.li Rahan' (as she is called in the opqa) is in atrendece on the Sp&ish Queen of F.drce kno\ntohislory asAme d',\uidchewhile halinga guilty ailai.$iththe .o,re l, Crala,r, a mi.isler of Louis Xlll. Unlno*n b Chalais, Meia has secetly ndried his best fliend, the drca dj Cherreuk - a msial both to please her dying molher add to escape the attentio.s of rhe all-pow{tuI Cddiml de Richelieu Chalais chauenges the offensive aurrier condi to a duel, before Ieaving forrhe duel, he sriles a conpromising lerter to Maria ro be deliveled to her in the evenl of his being killed. While he is away fiom hone the agefis of Richelieu seechhis rooms, slealthe leter, and send i1b Clen€ue. The latrer n inc@descenl wirh rage ddjealousy dd obliges Cnahis to to have a shoor oul wiih hin instead, but Chatais tuns rn€ lislol on hinselt Chevreuse luiously condonns bis wife 1o perperual ignomnry and dissnce for ho! innd.lityl

What a pack of nonsense

What you have here is the defaull ploi of lralid Opera snich someone sunmed up as fi. sapra,a natjes the hatnohe b,t late! the te"at'(btr don t snile so condescendinsly - rhis is rhe plot of r'i$a" ud Irolde). Based o. a lo,.ne boulevtud shocket called Un duel sous k caniindl de Richelier slaged in Paris on 9 April 1832 lnd much 10 fie lasle of rhe iines offering as il did ! lhoro!8hly bourgeon ui,"ae-a-rlor suitable for polultr ansmplion in thereiCn oft,ouis-Philippe. il was equally inlended 10 tuipangEndees in then Mari€ deRohan ssDiana the Huntr€ss lChate.u de ver$iuesl phce a to find h argmenl \'irh which eleryone in the audience colld

lirsl, d anemlt 1o descrile the people feaMed in this opela: in ieal life Maie de Rohan wa a -o$ between Angela Merkel and llata Eri (ifyoucan inagine dy slch thine). Bom in 1600dd one ofthe nosl beauitul*onen of ihe .lay, she mdied at seventeen the Cahnetubk de Luynes, a vindiclive henchmm oflouisI:III who Col himself killed not long afier lea nglerwitha son, thus, of cous, she w6 no spinster ".,nresra d,,Rolra, " as in Doniretti's pdsionalE melodrda but the widowed d,.,te$e de Luynes shen she ndied Chelreuse md this was several lees befoE she becme involved wilh Chal5is. Her secondmeiag. qas a,attiage de cawend ce, tu nate, her husbmd was a *ory of hei falher dd if she neried aeajn to please anyone it was lo please lim Indeed the mosl ludifous iNention ol all in lhe libreto is her motheas "deaihbed $ish"r Madeleine de Lenoncou died $hen Mdie was one tear old aod il is hiehly imtrobable rhal either €ver set ey* or each other. Thh no$ilhsranding, lhe ChovreNc couple liled - when they fomd fiemselvs und tu Mne rcof id p{fecr hmory, alcove actililies lhey took in their siide - he had lols ofloveN. so did she, it $as the way oflhe \orld in olich lhey liled. He! main preo.crpalion was poliiics. Almosl a1l her energ sas slenl ploting againsr lhe iefomirs plans olRichelicu ro increase the poser of fie Chich md Stale at the explns of the tetril,rial nobilily. She Ms about as fd froE CaoDar o s "d,Ael, l,pa.?" as po$ible, stining u! lrouble ercss Euope, e&loiling ler siatus as a crony of the Queen, od agitaling in Madrid, London and Bruseh, aloiding the clutches of the Cardinal-lrrmt in rhat beine maried 10 a 1breisn" Prince she {as oll oI his rdge. Callolingtolhe liontieN disguised as a man, such Atuazon exlloils brouehl fane to the rendkable duches, noi just for her courace and fascinalion, but also for her nanifesl polili€l heft. Ingenious. reso@ctul and dashing sh€ was iNolved in every subvesive coup iD her heyday and becme one of the senuinely emblmalic ficures ofh.r day and age. Pdinted by velasquez (the Wallace Colleclior). if you can rcoenise her in Cmnddois librexo for Doniulii you musl have m specially powertul inacination.

Nex! Heri de TaUeyrand, .rure de Chalais (yes he was a forebear of Napoldo. s ibrcigD minisler. Bom in 1599, he did not commil suicide as in lhe opera he was decapilated by Richelieu in 1626. He w.s no kind of cddidate for tle hinistry of dy King, indeed he ns a remdkabl, foolish youns mo. hotheaded, poliric.lly nail dd mor like a daft juvenile deliqEnt tha, a h*o. If they did aclually hav€ m affair ir was brief dd lunctional and took place shor{y before his death. Thouch she was biefly pan of his plolling it was scarcely a conjunction of equals, she \'d feade$ and a wimer, he ws impetuou and a loser. $hen he wN msted br the Cddinal she left him to his iate. No one actuaily bothered to remember Chalais before the time of Louis-Philippe neve. nind associated him with Marie de Rohan- \,lonlbd?o. CLd ai.: Farbiogr.phiF rdy no h'ng "bou' "She nanied in 1617, Charles dAlbe.t Duc de Lulnes, CannCtabk de ll.ance, theh, her husband being dead, she norried in 1622, Cloude de Lo oine, Ducde Chevreuse, She intrisuedotfrrstagainst Richelieu ohd hdd to ly into exik. Rkheljeu beins dead, she intisued then ogoinst 16

Mamrin and prt he6ey ot the heod of a "cabale des lmpotants node up oJ old fiiends of Anne ol Austria dbappoihted with the canJidence the queen had ih the lattel Duing the Fronde, she oko ployed dn jnpo ontrole and suppolted with oll her powet Gandi and cohd4. she

Briel and to the point, she would hate liked this account of her life. No sentimental diSressions, no lovers, no fantasy offspring with Athos, no galloping about the .ount.y in drag, Ashbrook asetts hagisterially that tbe "basic denatul ol the ronontic hela.lromo is thot the conposer give usicol caherence ond credibiliq, b on intense plot whase denauenent is no.qic ond inevitdble': Marie died in her bed, the only person actually to hayehad a " ttagic ond inevitable denouenent' was Chalan, whi.h is why he has been dug up by the eager authors oflibrettj and t.ashy plays.

So nu.h for rommce in the sevenleenlh Century. Then claude de Loraine, /,,.e de JoiNille, i/r. de clEvreuse. Bomin 1578 he qas rhc lasl son of [re /". de Cuise, fmatical Head of the Catholic LeaSue againn the Prolesluls sho *as assassinaled logether will his biolho lhe Cardi.al de Lodine in a bloody coup at Blois in 1588 wirh rhe conllicily of Hetri III who detested them both. The sventh child of the severely nied Cafi ine de Cldves, cherreuse Nas a lightweisht, a.enarkably brave soldi.! Nho undedook some diplomatic dnties but wd olheNjse utterly incompelent ea.ept in bed. He was dsars in dcbt - indeed he was oor€ fanous as a spendthrift than mything else and in and out of the skins of a whole serns of imponmlladies. Maded to Mdie de Rohd in 1622 he wa exactl, twice her aee He liked his nch md celebrat.d wife, he was devoGd to the French Crcwn (unlike Marie sho loailEd Louis xlll), bur then nariace was a huee succe$, lhey lived cheerfully enoueh in a kind of allidce foud.d on nutual concems. He took.o inte.esl in her lovers, she ws invariably pohe b hh. The, had no less the lhree daughtes. He oflen lried to gel her oul of polilical bol sal€. md his semi royal slalus €nabled her lo get away Fidr - ifnol ex&dy nuider - at le6t widr every kind of treason.

1tu8 de a few ninor chd&lers in tbe opera, one of them Amddo di Gondi had indeed b hisloric ,ole bnt is given m entiiely ficlilious lun for the heroine thal Donizeri amplified out ofall proponion. The Cddinal de Richelieu himself doesnol.ppearinDoni4tti's oPeraalall.

How did caelaro Do,izetti cet invohed with drese overlifesized people of a renote past? And whai do P js dd Viedna havc 10 do wilh n?

One cd hakd all sons of gue$es why he chose this Plol. The most persusivc ofall is thal Mdia srs otr his doorslep. He was living in Pdis in lhe H6tel Mechester. fomerly the tow-house of one of the clos.sr fiends of ihe beaudtul duche$ lallen on hard dn* afler the Revolution by becomins a comercial holel. Ever though n had been extensively rebuilt dd even though ils destiny had been clouded by commerce if ou comloser listened verv calefully he mighl have been able 10 hed h.r fool on the slair Situaled ned the Opera of his day he $as wilhin a stone's throN of lhc sile Nhere lhe severteenrh l7

cenlury H6tel de Chereuse used lo stud, side by side with the H6iel de Chalais wilh a s*ret door linking then - both houses built in the !5st qudnngl. of the Louue whete ao* the Arc de Triotuphe du Caftouel ni.s to look imporlarl. If you due dom mdd llagslones, you mighl find a veslige or two ofthe foudations oflh.se two houses mda its marble va,ult. 1'lE hise en s.!,e of the opera wd very real lo the Italian mmposer. Ee could se the double sraircEe wfthin the Louvre (which now leads to rhe rabulous NaPoldon III apslnen, wh*e the op{a opens, in edshor was rhe Gallene d'Apollon ehose disranl mumN of voices, daces dd striking clocks he could actually hed an{i which *e too ce het inhis Mdtio di Rohan. Ar nishr lno one eved dremed of touisrs in his darl t\€ shadows md enpt, gmdeu of lhe Tuileries {ere still nagical ed lhanks to lhe Rwolution a its menoiies of the fatal depanure oI Mdie Antoinelle dd her children in flight 10 vdemes it was indeed a llace turr of impendiry doo6. A vaceJbtalcli ote " rhd colous rhe whole ofhis music. As fd 6 Mdie de Rohd wd concemed. Ie wd not jusl wrilins o opda bul evokins a livins bei.s.

11 is possible of @use rhar his plot had come to him in Vienna where Roho family exiles w*e present al Coun, Donizeni rapidly became popular in inperial circles in the magnificent cily, he gave lessons to the mhduchesses and $s eraciouly received by Meitemich who wd a nusic lover (rhouch no one ever bolhes 10 say so). Viclollouis-Meriadec de Rohd P/m., de Guimen6. dz. de Montben now e Auslrian Vice-Malshall, lhough ralhe. old, sas slill aound, his hen Cmille-Joseph-Philippe, p/u.e d. Rohan- Rochefot who largely is responsible for the pEsent day Rohd descendents was very much presdi d a Kniehl of rhe Golde. Fleece. Ei$* or both of lhese qrviwnrs c.nld hawe re-asakened the Cammarao text in the mind of the conloscr. Did the conposer ever discus his opeo wilh thm? Maybe in corlersalion or maybe by thei! meea presence codd this heoine of the pre Floode Xlr,rra,c. have been broughl to mind. Did eilher of ihen altend the 6rsl p{lomance? No one knows, Perhaps the dchiles of Cdtle Sychrcv might one day ihiow a lighl on this. But ifrhe p nces were around, lhey qould have roared Nirh laughtd al lhe plot.

In defence of a po$ible plinely inpur i o Donirehi s cotupleted maslerpiece theie is the extraoidinary drmatic codicil in lhe Viemese score wlich no one seems to know whether was, oi *as nol actually perlomed Eiglt lines oI climaclic lexl for Mdia in which far froh &cepting the impqious disnissal by her husband - she flings back al ChcvroEe: "Elemal slde? I don'l lole i ,ou rou are a murderer. . .

onlaetem?..Io non l'mail...

Per me infamia e morte awai,

Cielol Orusadel tuo drillo, Questa vittima ti sfida. . . \vho supplied rhis bnef t€xt? It is noqhere to be found in the Lillo perlbrm ce nateial, nor .loes it exisl in the nduscripl Calm&do fuhished for the Pacini prcject at in l84l It is uique to VieMa and I sugg€sl tlEi this was d aftempl ro set the recold $raight at the behest ofthese exiled descedd$ dhconcdted by lhis Crolesque ldody of ihe life of lhe lanous duchess, their forbed, which Donizetli pul inlo ve$e as a concilialory gesture.

Presumably it fell at tle tusl hudle? Was il too brillialt? Too much an eti clim? Ws il too rcminhcent of the *licr flond oulbusls of yore? Too like lhe convuhive Irolh of opehlic tradition? Too late for ihe wom to lum? Il ws sug al Wexfold nol long ago wilh renrklble success But fie crux of all these melodnnas lay wilh the finrl sene, the final coup. Donia$i dyeh lolg and tovingly upon the vdions alternalive ways of ending this o!da. Indeed, all tlree oI lhe DdnciDal edilions of rlahn di ,(ora, have a diflerenr

ln and among th. Paris edition (Thaatre'lt2lien 14 November 1843) Donizetti relinquished the austere authority ofthe odginal Vienna setting by uprating the dhtinctly ir.elevant role ofArmando di Gondi fo. with a change of sex and two shiny new arias (neither addins anything to the plotli moving music up and down here and there throughout,.evising sohe oftle oore importantmoments - sometimes for the better (the Act Il duetro for Maria and Chalais), sometimes lor the worse - most notably by amputating the key monent olthe ope.a, that is rurning Chalais' Act Il slow .abdie.i4 sung while burning nidnight oil in writing his crucialletter - the highly pessimistic'E tu, se.ado esanime'- into a b.illiahl ifgiddily optimistic and irrelevant cap to Ctisi's preghierd in Act ltl, 'Benigno il cielo arridere', an erhavagance that got the Paris audience going at the expense of the argument This ve.sion ends much the sameas in Vienna. In the Naples edition of nearly ayearlater [rea$o S.Carlo 11 Novenber 1844) Donizetti rejnstated at least soee of the Viennese economy to the score. Reverting to Canmarano's origi.al title ol ll conte di Cholob and with Condi's pretensions reduced by 500/0 and heavily re-orchestrated, even though was indisposed (pregnan! she was heard in sile..el and Gaetano F.aschini as Chalais was out of voice [giving a poor impact to his new .dratino 'La speme di quesfanima'], but hope revived, with 's Chevreuse at an utterly optimuh level the total effect ofthe ope.a was at last urassailable with a final enhanced dramatic clinax that belongs to a later era of the stagel there is now no Mills and Boon invective like " coll' infanio" ot "dohnd infedel" or anything like tha! a brutal cheweuse pushes aside Maria who ries to get between the two nen, he drags Chalais through the seoet door, two shots are heard and Chevreuse reappeaB with eyes bhzins. Maria ralhto thesround ina dead faint.

h was a version ofthis fantasy about her life and tines that, for the fr.st time, may have 1eft herleeling that she might once have had a role onthe Alexanderw.atherson