MERCADANTE EMMA D’ANTIOCHIA ORC 26 in association with Slipcase : Destiny, 1900 (oil on canvas) by John William Waterhouse (1849-1917). Towneley Hall Art Gallery and Museum, Burnley, Lancashire/Bridgeman Art Library Booklet cover : Giuditta Pasta, Mercadante’s first Emma Opposite : Saverio Mercadante –1– Saverio Mercadante EMMA D’ANTIOCHIA Tragedia lirica in three acts Libretto by Felice Romani Emma, Princess of Antioch ......................................................Nelly Miricioiu Corrado di Monferrato, Count of Tyre .....................................Roberto Servile Ruggiero, his nephew ..................................................................Bruce Ford Adelia, the daughter of Corrado, betrothed to Ruggerio .........................................Maria Costanza Nocentini Aladino, a young Muslim slave belonging to Emma ............................Colin Lee Odetta, lady-in-waiting of Adelia ...................................Rebecca von Lipinski The Geoffrey Mitchell Choir Knights, crusaders, ladies and maidens, troubadours, soldiers, pages, squires and minstrels The London Philharmonic Orchestra Pieter Schoeman, leader David Parry, conductor The bass clarinet solo in Act II is played by Richard Addison –2– David Parry Producer and Artistic Director: Patric Schmid Managing Director: Stephen Revell Assistant Producer: Jacqui Compton Assistant Conductor: Robin Newton Répétiteur: Stuart Wild Italian coach: Maria Cleva Assistant to the Artistic Director: Marco Impallomeni Article, synopsis and libretto: Jeremy Commons Recording Engineer: Chris Braclik Assistant Sound Engineer: Chris Bowman Editing: Patric Schmid and Chris Braclik The performing edition for this recording was prepared by Ian Schofield Recorded at Henry Wood Hall, London October 2003 –4– CONTENTS Emma d’Antiochia by Jeremy Commons..............................................Page 10 Performance History by Tom Kaufman...............................................Page 46 Synopsis.............................................................................................Page 50 Résumé de l’intrigue...........................................................................Page 54 Die Handlung....................................................................................Page 58 Argomento.........................................................................................Page 63 Libretto..............................................................................................Page 67 –5– CD 1 77’29 Dur Page [1] Sinfonia 7’20 69 ACT ONE Introduzione – Adelia, Odetta, Ruggiero, Corrado, Coro [2] Coro – ‘Della Sidonia porpora’ 5’27 69 [3] Duetto – ‘I tuoi sospetti, Adelia’ 4’02 73 [4] Coro – ‘Quai lieti suoni?’ 1’55 75 [5] Stretta – ‘Vieni e per noi cominciano’ 2’43 76 [6] Recitative – ‘Son ne’ miei Lari!... ch’io t’abbracci ancora’ 2’31 77 [7] Cavatina – ‘Il mio cuore, il cor paterno’ 3’06 79 [8] Cabaletta – ‘Se una madre io diedi a voi’ 3’44 80 Scena – Corrado, Adelia, Ruggiero, Aladino, Coro [9] ‘Or che di tanto evento’ 1’14 81 Scena e Cavatina – Emma [10] Recitative – ‘Ah! sì, mi abbraccia’ 1’29 83 [11] Aria – ‘Ah! se commossa io sono’ 3’30 85 [12] Cabaletta – ‘Nobil signor perdonami’ 5’36 86 Scena ed aria – Ruggiero [13] Scena – ‘Nel mio cuore lacerato’ 0’53 87 [14] Aria – ‘Io soffrir: mortale in terra’ 3’45 89 [15] Cabaletta – ‘Partirò: dell’empia sorte’ 3’50 91 Scena e duetto – Emma, Ruggiero [16] Scena – ‘Sola son’io’ 8’17 91 –6– Dur Page [17] Duetto – ‘Amai quell’alma ingenua’ 4’25 98 [18] Andante – ‘Emma!… Ruggier!’ 2’52 99 Finale Primo – All [19] Scena – ‘Ciel! qual suon? Ah!’ 3’06 100 [20] Quartetto – ‘Ei qui dianzi… a me… l’amante’ 3’33 104 [21] Coro – ‘Al tempio! 1’04 106 [22] Stretta – ‘Ah! nel tuo volto splendere’ 3’07 108 CD 2 29’24 ACT TWO Introduzione – Aladino, Coro [1] Introduzione – Banda sul palco 1’14 111 [2] Recitative – ‘Oh! qual disegno in mente’ 1’14 113 [3] Coro – ‘Addio!… Le stelle ascondono’ 3’59 114 [4] Scena – ‘Sei tu? Son io’ 7’01 116 Finale Secondo – All [5] Scena – ‘Salva è ancora – Io non mi sento’ 3’29 118 [6] Duetto – ‘Fuggi meco’ 2’09 121 [7] Trio – Cielo! sei tu che il vindice’ 3’39 122 [8] Scena – ‘Ov’è Corrado?... Accorrasi’ 2’18 124 [9] Stretta – ‘La vittima vostra’ 4’21 126 –7– CD 3 56’16 Page Dur ACT THREE Introduzione – Coro [1] ‘Ella a ciascuno involasi…’ 3’02 128 Scena ed aria – Corrado, (Ruggiero) [2] Recitative – ‘A me Ruggiero’ 4’42 130 [3] Aria – ‘Non sai tu che il mondo intero’ 3’55 134 [4] Cabaletta – ‘Ah! non fia che maledetto’ 4’10 135 Scena e duetto – Ruggiero, Emma [5] Scena – ‘Viver promisi… Ebben vivrò…’ 0’59 137 [6] Duetto – ‘Emma! Tu qui?’ 4’19 138 [7] Andante – ‘Il cor, il cor che svegliasi’ 2’59 139 [8] Scena – ‘Or va: – comincia a sorgere’ 2’05 139 [9] Cabaletta – ‘Se mai piangente e supplice’ 3’56 141 Recitativo – Emma, Aladino [10] ‘Al più difficil punto, al più tremendo’ 2’39 141 Finale Ultimo – Emma, Adelia, Corrado, Coro [11] Scena – ‘Emma... t’affretta’ 3’42 145 [12] Aria – ‘In quest’ora fatale e temuta’ 4’03 146 [13] Cabaletta – ‘Parta, parta. – Ed io pure, ed io pure’ 3’39 148 [14] Duetto – ‘Mi lasciate!… Empia donna!’ 4’24 148 [15] Lento – ‘Ah! perdona al duol estremo’ 7’42 151 –8– Giuditta Pasta Many important roles were written for this soprano, one of the great singing actresses of the 19th century. She was Mercadante’s first Emma. She also created Donizetti’s Anna Bolena , Coccia’s Maria Stuart , Pacini’s Niobe and Bellini’s Norma EMMA D’ANTIOCHIA Uman core! oh! come è presto, Come industre a tormentarsi! O the human heart! How ready it is, How industrious to torment itself! EARLY IN 1831 , when Saverio Mercadante returned to Italy after several years in Spain and Portugal, audiences were quickly aware that he had matured in the time he had been away. They perceived a stronger and more individual personality at work, for the most part stemming from greater attention to unusual instrumentation and harmony, from cultivation of flowing, sonorous and expressive melody, and from the use of this melody in broadly proportioned, surging ensembles. He was also one of a number of composers who were uncomfortably aware of the tendency of the cabaletta – the final fast movement of arias and duets – to degenerate into the commonplace and trivial. So, though he never followed through his wish to banish the cabaletta – that was left for an even stronger personality, Giuseppe Verdi – he at least strove to bring to the form unexpectedly springy rhythms and arresting melodies. The result of this increasing awareness of his craft was a succession of interesting operas leading up to a full flowering of his powers in the work which is generally accounted his masterpiece, Il giuramento (Milan, 1837). –10– And one of the more noteworthy landmarks in this succession of developing operas was the present work, Emma d’Antiochia , first seen at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice on 8 March 1834. Not, let it be admitted, that it was greeted with great enthusiasm at its premiere. The story struck both audience and critics alike as extravagant in the extreme, an illustration of the worst excesses of romanticism. And their appreciation of the work as a whole was not helped by the manifest indisposition of the prima donna, the reigning diva Giuditta Pasta, who was so unwell that at the first two performances the opera could be performed only in severely mutilated form. Nevertheless, with Pasta’s recovery and the presentation of the work in its entirety at the third performance the tide changed: the strengths of the work were recognised and its reputation established, so that it soon went the rounds of the theatres of Italy. But let us start, where those original audiences began, with the story and its extravagances. The libretto was the work of Felice Romani, the greatest author of operatic texts at the time, already renowned as the author of such works as Mayr’s Medea in Corinto (Naples, 1813); Donizetti’s Anna Bolena (Milan, 1830), L’elisir d’amore (Milan, 1832), Parisina (Florence, 1833) and Lucrezia Borgia (Milan, 1833); and Bellini’s Il pirata (Milan, 1827), I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Venice, 1830), La sonnambula (Milan, 1831), Norma (Milan, 1831) and Beatrice di Tenda (Venice, 1833). Mercadante had already set no fewer than ten of his libretti, including Amleto (Milan, 1822), La testa di bronzo (Lisbon, 1827), Zaira (Naples, 1831 – originally written for Bellini in 1829) and I Normanni a Parigi (Turin, 1832). –11– Felice Romani The librettist of Emma d’Antiochia. His wonderful collaboration with Bellini and Giuditta Pasta yielded Norma , La Sonnambula and Beatrice di Tenda . A projected Ernani , with Pasta in the title role, was never completed. The source from which Romani drew the plot of Emma d’Antiochia has never yet, it would seem, been identified; but for an author who claimed to be more at home with classical rather than with romantic literature and ways of thought, it was certainly a strange, not to say perverse, choice. Reduced to its simplest, it tells of Corrado di Monferrato, Count of Tiro (Tyre), one of the prime movers in the Third Crusade of 1189-1192, and of his second wife, Emma di Antiochia (Antioch). Returning home after their marriage, Emma meets her husband’s nephew, Ruggiero, only to recognise in him a previous lover of her own. Ruggiero, after five years’ aimless wandering and lamenting his loss of Emma, has now found solace in the arms of Adelia, Corrado’s daughter by his first marriage, and, despite the reappearance of Emma on the eve of his wedding, duly goes through with the ceremony. But the flames of old love rekindle and refuse to be suppressed. Swept away by renewed passion, ‘aunt’ and ‘nephew’ determine to elope. They find their path, however, obstructed by an irate Corrado. Ruggiero is banished to sail away upon a Venetian vessel which is about to leave the harbour. And Emma, with no prospect of finding a peaceful haven either upon earth or in heaven, ends her life by taking poison. She expires, off-stage, upon the body of Aladino, a faithful Muslim slave who has acted as her go-between in all her amorous dealings, and who has stabbed himself rather than outlive his mistress.