Gioachino Rossini 1792–1868

MAOMETTO SECONDO Dramma in two acts Libretto Cesare della Valle First performance 3 December 1820, Teatro San Carlo, Naples Edition Bärenreiter-Verlag Kassel, edited by Hans Schellevis

Erisso Governor of the Venetians Paul Nilon Anna his daughter Siân Davies Maometto (Mehmet) Sultan of the Turks Darren Jeffery Calbo Venetian general Caitlin Hulcup Condulmiero Venetian general Christopher Diffey Selimo (Selim) follower of Mehmet Richard Dowling

Garsington Opera Chorus Chorus Director Susanna Stranders

Garsington Opera Orchestra Leader Robert Salter

Conductor David Parry

Recorded live at Garsington Opera at Wormsley, June and July 2013

Booklet cover: Darren Jeffery (Maometto) · Opposite: Siân Davies (Anna)

2 page no. page no.

ATTO PRIMO ATTO SECONDO

1 Scena I: No.1 – Introduzione: Al tuo cenno (Duci) 3.13 14 27 Scena I: No.6 – Coro: È follia sul fior degli anni (Conzelle musulmani) 4.12 28 2 Recitativo: Volgon due lune or già (Erisso) 2.11 14 28 Recitativo dopo il Coro: Tacete. Ahimè! (Anna/Maometto) 3.37 28 3 Andante maestoso: Risponda a te primiero (Duci/Condulmiero/Calbo/Erisso) 3.41 14 29 No.7 – Duetto: Anna, tu piangi? (Maometto/Anna) 3.02 29 4 Recitativo: Basta, non più. (Erisso) 1.00 15 30 Andantino: Lieta innocente (Anna/Maometto) 3.41 29 5 Moderato: Sì, giuriam! (Tutti) 1.45 15 31 Allegro: Gli estremi accenti (Maometto) 3.20 30 6 Recitativo: Or partite, o guerrieri (Erisso) 1.23 15 32 Recitativo dopo il Duetto: Ma qual tumulto ascolto? (Maometto) – 3.18 30 7 Scena II: No.2 – Cavatina Anna: Ah! che invan su questo ciglio (Anna) 5.38 16 Scena II: Signor, non liete nuove io reco (Selimo/Maometto/Soldati/Anna) 8 Recitativo dopo la Cavatina Anna: Figlia!…Chi veggio! (Erisso/Anna/Calbo) 3.31 16 33 Ah che più tardi ancor? (Duci musulmani) – 3.11 31 9 Scena prima del Terzettone: No, tacer non deggio (Anna/Erisso) 1.59 17 No.8 – Aria Maometto: A che più tardi ancor? (Maometto) 10 No.3 – Terzettone: Ohimè! Qual fulmine (Anna/Erisso/Calbo) 4.38 17 34 Andante mosso: Dell’ontà (Maometto) 2.54 31 11 Allegro: Dal cor l’iniquo affetto (Erisso/Anna) 1.58 18 35 Scena III: Sieguimi, o Calbo (Erisso/Calbo) 10.30 32 12 Scena III – Coro: Misere! or dove (Donne) 2.17 18 36 No.9 – Aria Calbo: Non temer (Calbo) 8.22 33 13 Andantino: Giusto cielo, in tal periglio (Anna/Donne) 2.46 19 37 Scena IV: Padre…Qual voce! (Anna/Erisso/Calbo) 5.59 33 14 Allegro: Ahi, padre!… Oh vista! (Anna/Erisso/Donne) 1.38 19 38 No.10 – Terzettino: In questi estremi istanti (Calbo/Anna/Erisso) 5.47 34 15 Allegro giusto: Figlia… mi lascia, deh! (Erisso) 4.33 19 39 No.11 – Scena e Coro: Alfin compita (Anna) 1.19 34 16 Andantino: Mira, signor, quel pianto (Calbo/Anna/Erisso/Donne) 3.19 20 40 Andante: Nume, cui ’l sole (Donne/Anna) 2.18 34 17 Allegro: Partiam, guerrieri… (Maometto) 4.51 20 41 Recitativo: Taccion le preci omai (Anna/Donne) 1.06 35 18 Scena IV: No.4 – Coro: Dal ferro (Soldati musulmani) 2.54 21 42 No.12 – Finale secondo: Sventurata! (Donne) 2.15 35 19 Maestoso: Sorgete, sorgete (Maometto) 3.46 21 43 Recitativo: Vinto i Veneti han dunque? (Anna) 0.45 35 20 Duce di tanti eroi (Maometto) 3.35 21 44 Andantino: Quella morte (Anna/Donne/Musulmani) 4.48 35 21 Recitativo dopo la Cavatina Maometto: Compiuta ancor del tutto la vittoria non è 4.03 23 45 Allegro: Sì, ferite (Anna/Donne/Musulmani) 2.39 36 (Maometto/Selimo/Guerrieri) 46 Andantino: Madre, a te (Anna) 4.04 37 22 Scena V – Recitativo: Appressatevi, o prodi (Maometto/Erisso) 3.45 23 47 Scena ultimo: Già fra le tombe? (Maometto/Anna/Donne/Musulmani) 4.11 37 23 No.5 – Finale primo: Giusto ciel (Erisso/Calbo/Maometto) 5.50 24 24 Allegro: Guardie, olà (Maometto/Calbo/Erisso) 1.00 25 25 Largo: Ritrovo l’amante (Tutti) 3.52 26 26 Allegro: Rendimi il padre (Tutti) 7.37 27

3 Synopsis Act One The Venetian outpost of Negroponte has been besieged by Maometto’s army for two months. The city faces disease and hunger and the Governor, Erisso, holds a council of war. Condulmiero counsels surrender but Calbo interrupts him and inspires the Venetians to keep fighting. Maometto’s final assault is threatened for the following day. Erisso’s daughter Anna is distraught about her father’s beleaguered situation. Erisso urges her to marry Calbo immediately, in the place where her mother’s ashes are interred. Neither Erisso nor Calbo can understand Anna’s reluctance until she admits that she is in love with a man called Uberto, who she met in Corinth when her father was away in Venice, raising his army. Erisso tells her that she must have been taken in by an impostor, as Uberto was with him in Venice. He gives his daughter a knife so that she can defend herself. The men go off to fight. Anna and the women pray for God’s mercy. Erisso and Calbo return to announce that the fight is lost – Maometto’s forces are superior and he is only waiting till daybreak before breaching the city walls. Erisso tells his men to retreat to the citadel, where they will mount a final act of resistance. He insists that the women stay behind, hoping that they will be spared. Anna begs to join the defending men but is refused. The Muslim soldiers invade and Maometto displays an insider’s knowledge of the city, based on having been sent to Negroponte as a spy when he was a young man. Erisso and Calbo have been captured and Maometto, recognising Erisso, asks him if he was once Governor of Corinth and whether he has a daughter. He offers him mercy if he will persuade his men to surrender the citadel. Erisso and Calbo refuse and Maometto orders them to be tortured. When the women are discovered, Maometto and Anna recognise one another. He is Uberto, her lover, now revealed as the enemy. Anna threatens to kill herself if Maometto will not release her father and Calbo, whom she refers to as her brother. Maometto relents but Erisso rejects Anna in shame. Act Two Maometto begs Anna to become his wife and queen. She refuses, but he interprets her sorrow as a sign of love. The sound of fighting interrupts them – the Venetians have broken out of the citadel and are mounting a desperate last defence. Maometto leaves his imperial seal with Anna to guarantee her safety; with this authority, his soldiers will obey her commands. Maometto rallies his soldiers for the fight. Erisso rails against Anna’s betrayal, but Calbo insists that she is innocent and that she did not know that Uberto was really Maometto. Anna finds them and Erisso makes her swear on her mother’s tomb that she is faithful. To further prove this, she gives her father Maometto’s seal and begs him to marry her to Calbo. Against all the odds, Erisso and Calbo manage to turn the tide and defeat the invaders. The Muslim soldiers are now calling for Anna’s death, as she has inspired this last-minute surge of strength from the Venetians. When Maometto returns, Anna publicly acknowledges Calbo as her husband before stabbing herself and falling dead beside the tomb of her mother.

Opposite: Darren Jeffery (Maometto)

4 Maometto secondo and the Rossini revolution To 19th-century Italians Mehmet II was very much part of modern history, a man under whose sway Italy might Richard Osborne well have fallen. After his capture of Constantinople in 1453, the principal ambition of this self-appointed ‘Roman Caesar’ was the conquest and reunification of all the territories that had once belonged to Rome. In 1480 a Muslim The nine serious operas on subjects drawn from history, myth and stage tragedy which Rossini created for the Teatro army landed at Otranto in southern Italy. It was only after the fracture of Mehmet’s supply lines by Albanian rebels San Carlo in Naples between 1815 and 1822 changed the face of 19th-century Italian opera. Maometto secondo was the and his own mysterious death in May 1481 that the plan for a larger invasion of Italy was abandoned. last but one of these operas. It was also the grandest, epic in scale and revolutionary in the seamlessness of its musical Rather closer to home in 1820 was the growing threat of civil unrest in Naples itself. Two months after Rossini structuring. The Neapolitan audience was clearly daunted by it. But Rossini had toiled long and hard over Maometto began work on Maometto secondo in May 1820, the city was invaded by a ragtag army of Carbonari, the secretive and secondo and he knew that it was good. sinister precursors of the foot-soldiers of the Italian Risorgimento, bulked out by disaffected army officers and anti- In 1823 he prepared a new bespoke edition for the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and in 1826 created a scaled-down Bourbon fellow-travellers. Their demand was the provision by King Ferdinand IV of a constitution similar to the one French-language version for the Paris Opéra retitled Le Siège de Corinthe. With the Greek War of Independence, the that had been granted to Spain in 1812. With his rough-and-ready habits and fondness for rubbing shoulders with decade’s most fashionable foreign cause, in the forefront of public attention, the change of title and locale – the 1470 ordinary folk, Ferdinand gave way on the spot. ‘He thinks the throne is an easy chair to sprawl and sleep in’, remarked siege of Negroponte replaced by Mehmet II’s earlier incineration of the city of Corinth – was an unashamed attempt Metternich, whose Austrian-led forces retook Naples the following spring. to exploit the work’s new-found political relevance. Not for the first (or last) time in his life, the congenitally nervous Rossini had the unwelcome experience of Rossini had fashioned the libretto of Maometto secondo from Anna Erizo, a new play by the Neapolitan classicist and finding himself in a war zone. The sight of Carbonari leader General Pepe marching through Naples at the head of a man of letters Cesare della Valle, Duke of Ventignano. A follower of the Arcadian movement in Italian literature, Della gun-toting, knife-brandishing, tricolour-carrying mob shouting ‘Liberty or Death’ was hardly reassuring, though it Valle disapproved of what he judged to be the over-sensational treatment of classical subjects by a new generation of probably gave an added edge to Rossini’s work on the new opera’s opening scene, in which the commanders of the opera composers. Rossini was one of those composers, but the opportunity to work with him on an historical subject of besieged Venetian enclave debate their strategy. Should it be abject surrender or death with glory? Inspired by Calbo’s Della Valle’s own devising was clearly too good to pass up. The play, unsurprisingly, follows fairly closely the facts of rallying cry ‘May the ashes of the barbarians cover my grave’, Erisso opts for death with glory, at which point the Mehmet’s conquest of the Venetian colony of Negroponte in northern Greece. The name of its principal character the gloomy grandeur of the opening chorus is transformed into a brazen march. Venetian commander Paolo Erizzo, if not that of his comrade-in-arms Alvise Calbo, is there in the historical records. Unsurprisingly Maometto secondo missed a number of deadlines before finally reaching the San Carlo stage on Della Valle portrays Mehmet as a bloodthirsty tyrant (‘As in Byzantium, here too I have seen/My steeds swim in 3 December 1820. Three months earlier the theatre had been instructed to comply with a new ‘Regolamento Christian blood’). There was some truth in this. After Erizzo agreed to surrender Negroponte on the understanding Organico de’ Teatri’. The implications of the directive were not immediately clear, but the July revolution had already that his head would not be cut off, Mehmet’s men kept their word by cutting him in half at the waist instead. When persuaded Rossini to modify the libretto, playing down its political and nationalistic elements and accentuating the Alexandre Soumet came to adapt Della Valle’s text for the Paris revision of Maometto secondo, he was at pains to paint human aspect of a tragedy which he would bring to a sublime conclusion in the opera’s exquisitely fashioned closing a more sympathetic portrait of Mehmet. ‘Respect these palaces, these prodigies of art,’ he says at one point. ‘I wish to scenes. Beyond that, he had struggled long and hard with the sheer scale of the treatment he had envisaged for the engrave my conquest on them, I wish to leave them to posterity in commendation of my memory.’ subject. Maometto secondo is the first Rossini opera for which working sketches survive. Even Mozart had begun Since Soumet was the author of the verse drama which gave us Maometto secondo’s earliest stepchild, Bellini’s revising in his early thirties; now, as he approached his 30th year, Rossini was heading down a similar track. Norma, he would have been familiar with the plot archetype which underpins Maometto secondo. In Della Valle’s Such is the size of the building blocks which go to make up Maometto secondo, the 90-minute first act falls into play Erisso hopes that his daughter will marry Calbo, the young Venetian general. Anna loves Calbo, but finds it just two parts: a depiction of the beleaguered Venetian community, followed by the effect on that community of impossible to forget a charismatic stranger she met in Corinth. She thinks of him as ‘Uberto’; he is, of course, Maometto’s arrival. The equally long second act reverses that process, beginning in Maometto’s Muslim encampment Maometto. As in Bellini’s Norma and Verdi’s Aida (which, like Maometto secondo, ends with an entombment), and ending in the catacombs of the Venetian citadel. What is remarkable about both acts is the proto-Wagnerian what is explored here is the age-old conflict between private love and public duty in a war-torn world. scale of the structures Rossini chooses to deploy. Act One is built out of five varied but substantial interlocking

5 movements. Act Two culminates in a linked sequence of vocally complex episodes during whose 40-minute progress the tragic heroine never leaves the stage. At the heart of Act One stands the massive 867-bar ‘Terzettone’, a joky Rossinian neologism which roughly translated means ‘exceedingly fat Trio’. During the course of this exceedingly fat Trio, Anna reveals to both her father and her lover the existence of the mysterious stranger she met in Corinth. Her father makes it plain that he cannot abandon his military strategy because of her tears; he does, however, provide her with a dagger for her own protection, fatally as it turns out. It is a pivotal moment in the opera, at which point the Terzettone is required to survive the temporary departure of two of the principals, intrusive cannon fire, an outbreak of popular dismay, and a prayer, before it resumes its majestic course. Indeed, it never properly ends. Conceived in E major, it has important episodes in B and G major, the latter acting as the dominant of the stirring Muslim war-song that follows. The Terzettone is pivotal in other ways too. It is here that Rossini establishes a father-daughter relationship that is as strongly felt as it is eloquently delineated. It is not a huge leap from Rossini’s Erisso addressing his daughter to Verdi’s Rigoletto addressing Gilda or Germont père addressing Violetta. Like Verdi, Rossini knew how to affect us with the teasing repetition of rhythmic-melodic fragments which are as slight as they are emotionally charged. Nor is there any let-up in the emotional impact of the drama. Given the neo-classical temper of Della Valle’s plays, the Naples audience would not have been expecting an onstage suicide. But this is what Rossini gives us when Anna, after a final confrontation with Maometto, kills herself in front of her mother’s tomb. Maometto secondo is superbly orchestrated, the brooding colours which characterise the mood of the Venetian camp strikingly juxtaposed with the brazen detonations and subtle tintinnabulations of the Muslim music. The San Carlo orchestra was without peer in Italy at the time and Rossini used its resources to the full. The only retrogressive element in Maometto secondo is the casting of the young warrior Calbo as a mezzo-soprano en travesti. Rossini created the role for Adèle Chaumel (Adelaide Comelli as she called herself in Naples), a 26-year-old French-trained mezzo with whom – so Stendhal tells us – Rossini was head over heels in love. For the Paris revision the role was remade for a tenor, Adolphe Nourrit, its vocal lines much chastened. Rossini had as many faces as a Picasso portrait. If Le Siège de Corinthe is the work of Rossini the commercially- minded craftsman skilled in adapting his material to the temper of the times, Maometto secondo is the work of Rossini the frontiersman and visionary, the man who changed the rules of opera in Italy and beyond for a generation. ‘So I made the music of the future without knowing it’, he quipped after Wagner had lavished praise on Guillaume Tell when the two men met in Paris in 1860. He had indeed, and Maometto secondo is the place where the revolution began. Ꭿ Richard Osborne, 2014

Opposite: Paul Nilon (Erisso)

6 Handlung

Erster Akt Der venezianische Vorposten Negroponte wird seit zwei Monaten von Maomettos Armee belagert. Die Stadt sieht sich einer Hungersnot und Krankheiten gegenüber und der Statthalter Erisso hält Kriegsrat ab. Condulmiero rät zur Kapitulation, doch Calbo unterbricht ihn und ermutigt die Venezianer weiterzukämpfen, was auch geschieht. Maomettos letzter Angriff droht für den kommenden Tag. Erissos Tochter Anna ist bestürzt über die bedrängte Lage ihres Vaters. Erisso drängt sie, Calbo zu heiraten, der sie beschützen kann. Sie soll zu der Kirche gehen, in der die Asche ihrer Mutter ruht, und Calbo sofort heiraten. Weder Erisso noch Calbo verstehen Annas Widerstreben, bis sie gesteht, dass sie einen Mann namens Uberto liebt, den sie in Korinth kennengelernt hat, als ihr Vater in Venedig war, um seine Streitkräfte zu sammeln. Erisso erklärt, sie müsse von einem Betrüger zum Narren gehalten worden sein, da Uberto mit ihm in Venedig war. Er gibt ihr ein Messer, damit sie sich selbst verteidigen kann. Ein Kanonenschuss unterbricht ihn und die Männer ziehen in den Kampf. Anna und die Frauen verstecken sich. Sie entdecken, dass ein Verräter die Stadttore geöffnet hat und beten um Gottes Gnade. Erisso und Calbo kehren zurück und verkünden, der Kampf sei verloren – Maomettos Streitkräfte seien überlegen und er warte nur auf den Tagesanbruch, um die Stadtmauern zu durchbrechen. Erisso befiehlt seinen Männern den Rückzug in die Zitadelle, wo sie einen letzten Akt des Widerstands organisieren werden. Er besteht darauf, dass die Frauen zurückbleiben, in der Hoffnung, dass Maomettos Soldaten sie verschonen. Anna fleht ihn an, sich der Verteidigung anschließen zu dürfen, aber er verweigert seine Einwilligung. Die muslimischen Soldaten fallen ein und Maometto stellt seine guten Stadtkenntnisse unter Beweis, die darauf beruhen, dass er als junger Mann als Spion nach Negroponte geschickt wurde. Erisso und Calbo sind gefangen genommen worden und Maometto, der Erisso erkennt, fragt ihn, ob er einst Statthalter in Korinth gewesen wäre und eine Tochter habe. Er verspricht, Erisso Gnade zu gewähren, wenn dieser seine Männer in der Zitadelle zur Kapitulation überredet. Erisso und Calbo weigern sich und Maometto befiehlt, sie zu foltern. Als die Frauen entdeckt werden, erkennen Maometto und Anna einander. Er ist Uberto, ihr Geliebter, der sich nun als Feind entpuppt. Anna droht, sich umzubringen, sollte Maometto nicht ihren Vater und Calbo, den sie als ihren Bruder ausgibt, freilassen. Maometto stimmt zu, aber Erisso verstößt Anna in Schande.

Zweiter Akt Maometto bittet Anna inständig, seine Frau und Königin zu werden. Sie weist ihn zurück, aber er interpretiert ihren Kummer als ein Zeichen ihrer Liebe. Sie werden von Kampfgetöse unterbrochen – die Venezianer sind aus der Zitadelle hervorgebrochen und beginnen die letzte erbitterte Gegenwehr. Maometto überlässt Anna zu ihrem Schutz sein Kaisersiegel; mit dieser Befehlsgewalt werden seine Soldaten ihren Befehlen gehorchen. Maometto zieht seine Soldaten zum Kampf zusammen. Caitlin Hulcup (Calbo)

7 Erisso und Calbo verstecken sich in der Nähe des Grabes von Erissos verstorbener Ehefrau. Erisso verflucht Annas Della Valle stellt Mehmed als blutdurstigen Tyrannen dar („Ebenso wie in Byzanz sah ich auch hier/mein Verrat, aber Calbo beharrt darauf, dass sie unschuldig sei, da sie Ubertos wahre Identität nicht gekannt habe. Anna Streitross in Christenblut baden.“), was der Wahrheit recht nahe kam. Nachdem Erizzo in dem Glauben, man werde findet die beiden und Erisso lässt sie auf das Grab ihrer Mutter schwören, dass sie ihm treu ergeben sei. Um dies zu ihn nicht köpfen, der Kapitulation Negropontes zustimmte, hielten Mohammeds Männer ihr Wort, indem sie ihn bekräftigen, übergibt sie ihrem Vater Maomettos Siegel und bittet ihn, sie mit Calbo zu verheiraten. stattdessen an der Taille entzwei schnitten. Als Alexandre Soumet della Valles Text für die Pariser Bearbeitung von Allen Widrigkeiten zum Trotz gelingt es Erisso und Calbo, das Ruder noch einmal herumzureißen und die Maometto secondo umschrieb, war er bestrebt, Mohammed in einem günstigeren Licht erscheinen zu lassen. Eindringlinge zu besiegen. Die muslimischen Soldaten fordern nun Annas Tod, weil sie den Venezianern in letzter „Respektiert die Paläste, jene Wunder der Kunst. In sie will ich meine Eroberung gravieren. Die Nachwelt soll sich Minute Kraft eingeflößt habe. Als Maometto zurückkehrt, bekennt sich Anna öffentlich zu ihrem Ehemann Calbo, auf mein Andenken berufen.“ (Le Siège de Corinthe: tragédie lyrique en trois actes G. Rossini, Luigi Balocchi, Alexandre bevor sie sich selbst erdolcht und tot neben das Grab ihrer Mutter fällt. Soumet. Paris: D.Jonas, 1836. Akt 2, Szene 2, S.12.). Soumet als Autor des Versdramas, welches der Nachwelt Maometto secondos erstes Stiefkind, Bellinis Norma, Maometto secondo und Rossinis Revolution bescherte, muss die Urform, auf die Maometto secondo sich stützte, bekannt gewesen sein. In Della Valles Stück hofft Erisso, dass seine Tochter den jungen venezianischen General Calbo heiraten wird. Anna liebt Calbo, kann aber den Die neun auf Ereignissen aus Geschichte, Mythologie und Bühnentragödien basierenden ernsten Opern, die Rossini charismatischen Fremden nicht vergessen, den sie in Korinth kennengelernt hat. Sie nennt ihn „Uberto“,in zwischen 1815 und 1822 für das Teatro San Carlo in Neapel schrieb, veränderten die italienische Opernlandschaft des Wirklichkeit ist er natürlich Maometto. Ebenso wie in Bellinis Norma oder Verdis Aida (die genau wie Maometto 19. Jahrhunderts. Maometto secondo ist die vorletzte Oper dieser Serie. Gleichzeitig war sie die aufwendigste, episch im secondo in einem Begräbnis enden) wird hier der uralte Konflikt zwischen persönlichen Gefühlen und öffentlicher Ausmaß und revolutionär in der Nahtlosigkeit ihres musikalischen Aufbaus. Das neapolitanische Publikum war Pflicht in einer vom Krieg gebeutelten Welt bearbeitet. Für die Italiener des 19. Jahrhunderts gehörte Mohammed II davon offensichtlich eingeschüchtert. Aber Rossini hatte lange und ausgiebig an Maometto secondo gearbeitet und eindeutig zur neueren Geschichte und verkörperte eine Persönlichkeit, unter deren Herrschaft Italien durchaus hätte wusste, dass die Oper gut war. fallen können. 1823 bereitete er eine für das Teatro La Fenice in Venedig angepasste Fassung vor, 1826 schuf er eine gekürzte Nachdem er 1453 Konstantinopel eingenommen hatte, bestand das Hauptziel dieses selbsternannten „römischen französische Version für die Pariser Oper mit dem neuen Titel Le Siège de Corinthe. Das damals hoch im Kurs Kaisers“ in der Eroberung und Wiedervereinigung aller Gebiete, die einst Teil des römischen Reiches gewesen waren. stehende Thema der griechischen Revolution, mit dem bereits im Vorfeld die Aufmerksamkeit der Zuschauer 1480 landete ein muslimisches Heer in Otranto, im Süden Italiens. Erst nachdem albanische Rebellen Mehmeds gesichert war, sowie die Änderung von Titel und Schauplatz – die Belagerung von Negroponte im Jahre 1470 wurde Nachschubtruppen zerschlagen hatten und er selbst im Mai 1481 auf mysteriöse Weise ums Leben gekommen war, durch die einige Zeit zuvor stattfindende Eroberung und das anschließende Niederbrennen Korinths durch Mehmed II wurde der Plan einer großräumigen Invasion Italiens aufgegeben. ersetzt – zeigen das unverhohlene Bestreben, die neuentdeckte politische Relevanz des Werkes auszuschöpfen. Noch näher an der Heimat war dagegen 1820 die wachsende Bedrohung durch Bürgerunruhen in Neapel. Zwei Rossini hatte das Libretto zu Maometto secondo von Anna Erizo ausgehend, einem neuen Stück des Monate, nachdem Rossini seine Arbeit an Maometto secondo im Mai 1820 begonnen hatte, griff eine aus dem Pöbel neapolitanischen Klassizisten und Homme de lettres Cesare della Valle, Herzog von Ventignano, gefertigt. Als entstandene Armee der Carbonari, geheimnistuerische und finstere Vorläufer der Risorgimento-Fußsoldaten, die Anhänger der arkadischen Strömung in der italienischen Literatur missbilligte della Valle eine Tendenz, die er als Stadt an. Ihre Truppenstärke war durch unzufriedene Offiziere der Armee und anti-bourbonisch eingestellte den sensationslüsternen Umgang mit klassischen Themen durch eine neue Generation von Opernkomponisten Mitläufer aufgestockt worden. Sie forderten König Ferdinand IV. auf, eine Verfassung bereitzustellen, die der 1812 in verstand. Zwar gehörte Rossini ebenfalls zu dieser Gruppe, aber offenbar war die Gelegenheit, mit ihm an einem von Spanien bewilligten gleichen sollte. Ferdinand mit seinen derben Angewohnheiten und seiner Neigung zur della Valles eigenen Bearbeitungen eines historischen Stoffes zu arbeiten, allzu verlockend, als dass er sie ungenutzt Volksnähe gab auf der Stelle nach. „Er glaubt, der Thron sei ein Stuhl, auf dem es sich wohl schlafen und lümmeln hätte verstreichen lassen können. Das Stück ist wie nicht anders zu erwarten sehr eng an die tatsächlichen lässt“, bemerkte Metternich, dessen österreichische Truppen Neapel im darauffolgenden Frühjahr zurückeroberten. historischen Fakten von Mehmeds Eroberung der venezianischen Kolonie Negroponte in Nordgriechenland Weder zum ersten noch zum letzten Mal machte der von Geburt an nervöse Rossini die unerwünschte Erfahrung, angelehnt. Der Name des Protagonisten, des venezianischen Befehlshabers Paolo Erizzo, ja sogar der seines sich inmitten eines Kriegsschauplatzes wiederzufinden. Der Anblick des Carbonari-Anführers General Pepe, der an Waffenbruders Alvise Calbo, findet sich in den geschichtlichen Aufzeichnungen. der Spitze eines Gewehre schüttelnden, Messer schwingenden, die Trikolore schwenkenden und „Freiheit oder Tod“

8 schreienden Mobs durch Neapel marschierte, dürfte kaum beruhigend gewesen sein, obgleich er wahrscheinlich der Tonart als Dominante des sich anschließenden mitreißenden Kriegsliedes der Muslimen fungiert. Eröffnungsszene von Rossinis Werk, in welchem die Befehlshaber der belagerten venezianischen Enklave ihre Doch das Terzettone ist noch anderweitig ausschlaggebend. Rossini baut an dieser Stelle eine Vater-Tochter- Strategie diskutieren, zusätzliche Würze verlieh. Demütigende Kapitulation oder ruhmreicher Tod? Von Calbos Beziehung auf, die ebenso deutlich spürbar ist, wie sie treffend geschildert wird. Es ist nur ein kurzer Sprung von Schlachtruf „Möge die Asche der Barbaren mein Grab bedecken!“ beflügelt, entscheidet sich Erisso für den Rossinis Erisso, der mit seiner Tochter spricht, zu Verdis Rigoletto oder zu Giorgio Germont, die sich an Gilda ruhmreichen Tod. An diesem Punkt wandelt sich die schwermütige Erhabenheit des Anfangschores zu einem beziehungsweise Violetta wenden. Rossini wusste, genau wie Verdi, wie er das Publikum mit der neckenden forschen Marsch. Wiederholung melodisch-rhythmischer Fragmente erreichen konnte, die so leicht daherkommen und dabei so Es überrascht nicht, dass die Oper eine Reihe von Abgabeterminen verpasste, bevor sie endlich am 3. Dezember emotional beladen sind. Genauso wenig flaut die emotionale Kraft des Dramas jemals ab. Angesichts des 1820 im Teatro San Carlo auf die Bühne kam. Drei Monate zuvor war das Theater angewiesen worden, die Auflagen neoklassizistischen Charakters von Della Valles Stücken erwartete das Neapler Publikum keinen Selbstmord auf eines neuen „Regolamento Organico de’ Teatri“ zu erfüllen. Die Auswirkungen dieser Anweisungen waren zwar offener Bühne. Doch genau das setzt Rossini ihnen im letzten Akt vor, als Anna sich nach einer letzten Konfrontation nicht unmittelbar ersichtlich, aber die Julirevolution hatte Rossini bereits davon überzeugt, das Libretto so mit Maometto vor dem Grab ihrer Mutter umbringt. umzuschreiben, dass die politischen und nationalistischen Elemente heruntergespielt wurden und der menschliche Maometto secondo besitzt eine großartige Orchestrierung. Die grüblerischen Klangfarben, welche die Stimmung im Aspekt der Tragödie in den Vordergrund rückte. Dies brachte er in den exquisit gefertigten Schlussszenen der Oper venezianischen Lager illustrieren, unterscheiden sich auffallend vom metallischen Scheppern und den raffinierten zu einem herausragenden Abschluss. Davon abgesehen hatte er lange mit dem schieren Ausmaß der Bearbeitung glockenartigen Klängen der muslimischen Musik. Damals war das Orchester des Teatro San Carlo in Italien gerungen, die er für dieses Thema vorgesehen hatte. Maometto secondo ist die erste Rossini-Oper, von der konkurrenzlos und Rossini schöpfte seine Kapazitäten voll aus. Das einzige rückschrittliche Element war die Arbeitsskizzen erhalten sind. Selbst Mozart hatte mit Anfang dreißig begonnen, Kompositionen zu überarbeiten; als Besetzung des jungen Kriegers Calbo mit einem Mezzosopran en travesti. Rossini komponierte die Rolle für Adèle Rossinis 29. Lebensjahr anbrach, schlug er einen ähnlichen Weg ein. Chaumel (oder Adelaide Comelli, wie sie sich in Neapel nannte), eine 26-jährige, in Frankreich ausgebildete Die Blöcke, aus denen Maometto secondo zusammengesetzt ist, sind so groß, dass der neunzigminütige erste Akt Mezzosopranistin, in die – Stendhal zufolge – Rossini bis über beide Ohren verliebt gewesen sein soll. Für die Pariser sich lediglich in zwei Teile gliedert: die Beschreibung der belagerten venezianischen Gemeinschaft, gefolgt von der Bearbeitung wurde die Rolle für einen Tenor, Adolphe Nourrit, umgeschrieben und besaß nun eine deutlich Wirkung, die Maomettos Ankunft auf diese Gemeinschaft ausübt. Der ebenso lange zweite Akt kehrt das Verfahren schlichtere Melodieführung. um, indem er in Maomettos muslimischem Feldlager beginnt und in den Katakomben der venezianischen Zitadelle Rossini hatte ebenso viele Gesichter wie ein Picasso-Porträt. Wenn Le Siège de Corinthe das Werk eines endet. Bemerkenswert bei beiden Akten ist die regelrecht Wagner’sche Größenordnung des Aufbaus, den Rossini geschäftstüchtigen Handwerkers ist, der seinen Stoff geschickt der jeweiligen historischen Stimmung anpasst, so ist nutzt. Der erste Akt besteht aus fünf verschiedenen, jedoch gewaltigen, ineinandergreifenden Sätzen. Der zweite Akt Maometto secondo das Werk eines Grenzgängers und Visionärs, eines Mannes, der die Regeln der Oper einer ganzen gipfelt in einer Sequenz stimmlich komplexer, miteinander verwobenen Episoden, während deren vierzigminütiger Generation in- und außerhalb Italiens revolutionierte. „Da habe ich Zukunftsmusik geschrieben, ohne es zu Dauer die tragische Heldin ununterbrochen auf der Bühne steht. bemerken“, witzelte er, als Wagner bei einer Begegnung der beiden Männer 1860 in Paris Guillaume Tell Inmitten des ersten Aktes befindet sich das gewaltige, 867-taktige „Terzettone“, ein scherzhafter Neologismus überschwänglich lobte. Das hatte er tatsächlich, und die Revolution begann mit Maometto secondo. Rossinis, der grob übersetzt „ausgesprochen beleibtes Terzett“ bedeutet. Im Verlauf dieses ausgesprochen beleibten Richard Osborne Terzetts gesteht Anna ihrem Vater und ihrem Geliebten die Existenz eines geheimnisvollen Fremden, den sie in Übersetzungen: Anne Thomas Korinth kennengelernt hat. Ihr Vater macht deutlich, dass er bloß um ihrer Tränen willen nicht von seiner Militärstrategie abweichen kann, stattet sie jedoch immerhin zu ihrer eigenen Sicherheit mit einem Dolch aus – was sich als verhängnisvoll herausstellt. Dies ist ein entscheidender Moment in der Oper, an dem das Terzettone das zeitweilige Aussetzen zweier Hauptstimmen, aufdringliches Kanonenfeuer, einen Ausbruch allgemeinen Unmutes und ein Gebet überstehen muss, bevor es majestätisch seinen Fortgang nimmt. Tatsächlich endet es niemals ganz. In E-dur abgefasst, beinhaltet es dennoch bedeutsame Abschnitte in H- und G-dur auf, wobei die letztgenannte

9 L’Argument

Premier acte L’avant-poste vénitien de Negroponte est assiégé par l’armée de Maometto depuis deux mois. La ville est en proie aux maladies et à la famine et le Gouverneur Erisso tient un conseil de guerre. Condulmiero conseille de déposer les armes mais Calbo l’interrompt et appelle les Vénitiens à continuer le combat, quelqu’en soit l’issue. L’ultime assaut de Maometto est prévu pour le lendemain. Anna, la fille d’Erisso, est bouleversée par le siège auquel doit faire face son père. Erisso la presse d’épouser Calbo, un homme capable de la protéger. Il souhaite qu’elle aille à l’église où reposent les cendres de sa mère et qu’elle s’unisse à Calbo sur-le-champ. Ni Erisso ni Calbo ne comprennent les réticences d’Anna, jusqu’à ce qu’elle confesse être amoureuse d’un homme du nom d’Uberto, qu’elle a rencontré à Corinthe lorsque son père était à Venise, occupé à lever une armée. Erisso lui dit qu’elle a dû être flouée par un imposteur car Uberto se trouvait avec lui à Venise. Il remet un poignard à sa fille pour qu’elle puisse se défendre. Des coups de canon mettent fin à leur discussion et les hommes partent au combat. Anna et les femmes partent se mettre à l’abri. Elles découvrent qu’un traître a ouvert les portes de la ville et prient Dieu de se montrer miséricordieux. Erisso et Calbo reviennent pour annoncer qu’ils ont perdu la bataille – les forces armées de Maometto leur sont supérieures, et celui-ci attend simplement l’aube avant de d’ouvrir une brèche pour pénétrer dans la ville. Erisso appelle ses hommes à se replier dans la citadelle, où ils organiseront une ultime résistance. Il insiste pour que les femmes restent en arrière, dans l’espoir qu’elles soient épargnées. Anna implore de se joindre au groupe de défenseurs mais sa requête est rejetée. Les soldats ottomans envahissent la ville, menés par Maometto qui la connaît manifestement très bien, car il fut envoyé comme espion à Negroponte pendant sa jeunesse. Erisso et Calbo ont été capturés et Maometto, reconnaissant Erisso, lui demande s’il était autrefois le Gouverneur de Corinthe et s’il a une fille. Il propose à Erisso de l’épargner s’il persuade ses hommes de capituler et de lui ouvrir les portes de la citadelle. Erisso et Calbo s’y refusent et Maometto ordonne qu’ils soient torturés. Lorsque les femmes sont découvertes, Maometto et Anna se reconnaissent mutuellement. Il est Uberto, son amant, et se révèle être maintenant l’ennemi. Anna menace de se tuer si Maometto ne relâche pas son père et Calbo, dont elle parle comme d’un frère. Maometto y consent mais Erisso honnit Anna.

Opposite: Caitlin Hulcup (Calbo), Paul Nilon (Erisso) and Siân Davies (Anna)

10 Deuxième acte sur un sujet historique de sa propre invention était clairement trop belle pour ne pas être saisie. La pièce, bien sûr, est Maometto supplie Anna de devenir sa femme et sa reine. Elle le rejette mais il interprète son chagrin comme une étroitement inspirée par Mehmet et sa conquête de la colonie vénitienne de Negroponte dans le nord de la Grèce. preuve d’amour. Les échos d’un combat les interrompent – les Vénitiens sont sortis de la citadelle et se préparent à un Le nom de son principal acteur, le chef militaire vénitien Paolo Erizzo, si ce n’est celui de son frère d’armes, Alvise dernier acte de résistance désespéré. Maometto confie son sceau impérial à Anna pour garantir sa sécurité ; investie de Calbo, figure dans les écrits historiques. cette autorité, ses soldats devront obéir à ce qu’elle ordonnera. Maometto réunit ses hommes pour le combat. Della Valle dépeint Mehmet II comme un tyran sanguinaire (« Comme à Byzance, ici aussi j’ai vu/mes coursiers Erisso et Calbo sont cachés près du tombeau de la femme d’Erisso. Il s’indigne de la trahison d’Anna mais Calbo nager dans le sang des chrétiens »). Il y a une part de vérité dans cela. Après qu’Erizzo eut livré Negreponte avec la insiste sur le fait qu’elle est innocente et qu’elle ne savait pas qu’Uberto était en réalité Maometto. Anna les retrouve promesse qu’il ne serait pas décapité, les hommes de Mehmet tinrent parole et le tranchèrent en deux à hauteur de la et Erisso lui fait jurer sur la tombeau de sa mère qu’elle lui demeure loyale. Pour lui en donner une autre preuve, elle taille. Lorsque Alexandre Soumet dut adapter le texte de Della Valle pour la révision parisienne de Maometto secondo, remet le sceau de Maometto à son père et le supplie de la marier à Calbo. il eut bien du mal à brosser un portrait plus sympathique de Mehmet. « Respecter ces palais, ces prodiges des arts » Contre toute attente, Erisso et Calbo parviennent à renverser la situation et vaincre les envahisseurs. Les soldats dit-il à un moment. « Je veux y graver ma conquête/je veux, à la postérité/qui’ils recommandent ma mémoire. » ottomans exigent maintenant la mort d’Anna, car elle est à l’origine de ce regain d’énergie de dernière minute chez Dans la mesure où Soumet est l’auteur du drame en vers sur lequel est fondé le premier rejeton lyrique de les Vénitiens. Au retour de Maometto, Anna présente publiquement Calbo comme son époux avant de se poignarder Maometto secondo, Norma de Bellini, il connaissait sûrement le modèle d’intrigue qui sous-tend Maometto secondo. et de choir, morte, à côté du tombeau de sa mère. Dans la pièce de Della Valle, Erisso espère marier sa fille à Calbo, jeune général vénitien. Anna aime Calbo mais n’arrive pas à oublier un mystérieux étranger rencontré à Corinthe. Pour Anna, il s’appelle « Uberto » mais il s’agit, Maometto secondo et la révolution rossinienne bien sûr, de Maometto. Comme dans Norma de Bellini et Aida de Verdi (qui, à l’instar de Maometto secondo, s’achèvent par la mort de l’héroïne), c’est l’éternel conflit entre amour et devoir, sphère privée et sphère publique, Les neuf opéras sérieux, abordant des sujets inspirés de l’histoire, de la mythologie ou du théâtre tragique, que Rossini dans un monde déchiré par la guerre qui est abordé ici. écrivit pour le Teatro San Carlo de Naples entre 1815 et 1822, transformèrent considérablement l’opéra italien du Pour les Italiens du XIXe siècle, Mehmet II faisait partie de l’histoire moderne – l’Italie aurait très bien pu tomber XIXe siècle. Maometto secondo fut le dernier de ces opéras. C’est également le plus grandiose, un opéra d’une envergure sous le joug d’un tel homme. Après la prise de Constantinople en 1453, la principale ambition de celui qui s’était épique et dont la cohérence de la structure musicale est absolument révolutionnaire. Le public napolitain fut autodéclaré « César romain » était la conquête et la réunification de l’ensemble des territoires qui appartenaient clairement déconcerté mais Rossini avait consacré beaucoup de temps et d’efforts à Maometto secondo, qu’il savait être autrefois à Rome. En 1480, une armée ottomane débarqua à Otranto dans le sud de l’Italie. Ce n’est qu’après la un bon opéra. rupture de la chaîne d’approvisionnement de Mehmet par les rebelles albanais, et sa mort mystérieuse en mai 1481, En 1823, il prépara une nouvelle édition spécialement adaptée au théâtre de La Fenice de Venise et, en 1826, il que le projet d’une plus vaste invasion de l’Italie fut abandonné. composa une version française plus réduite pour l’Opéra de Paris, rebaptisée Le Siège de Corinthe. Avec la guerre Un peu plus au nord, en 1820, une menace grandissante de mouvements insurrectionnels se faisait ressentir dans d’indépendance grecque, conflit étranger des années 1820 qui enthousiasma le plus l’opinion publique, le Naples même. Deux mois après que Rossini s’attela à Maometto secondo, la ville fut envahie par une armée hétéroclite changement de titre et de lieu – le siège de Negroponte en 1470 fut remplacé par un événement antérieur, à savoir la de Carbonari, précurseurs mystérieux et inquiétants des fantassins du Risorgimento italien constitué d’officiers destruction de Corinthe par Mehmet II – était une tentative éhontée d’exploiter la « nouvelle » pertinence politique désaffectés et de compagnons de route hostiles aux Bourbons. Ils exigeaient du roi Ferdinand IV une constitution de l’œuvre. semblable à celle accordée en Espagne en 1812. Ferdinand, qui était d’un naturel simple et aimait à côtoyer son Rossini tiré le livret de Maometto secondo d’Anna Erizo, pièce récente du spécialiste de l’Antiquité et homme de peuple, accéda immédiatement à cette requête. « Il pense que le trône est un siège confortable pour s’affaler et lettres napolitain, Cesare della Valle, duc de Ventignano. Partisan du courant littéraire arcadien en Italie, Della Valle dormir », disait Metternich dont les troupes sous commandement autrichien reprirent Naples au printemps suivant. désaprouvait ce qu’il considérait être un traitement trop sensationnel des sujets classiques par une nouvelle Ce n’était pas la première fois (ou la dernière) de sa vie que Rossini, d’une nature très nerveuse, avait la fâcheuse génération de compositeurs d’opéra. Rossini en faisait partie mais, pour Della Valle, l’occasion de travailler avec lui surprise de se trouver dans une zone de guerre. La vue du Général Pepe, chef des Carbonari, marchant sur Naples à la

11 tête d’une foule agitant des drapeaux tricolores, brandissant couteaux et fusils, criant « la liberté ou la mort » n’était Le Terzettone est également charnière à d’autres égards. C’est dans ce passage que Rossini établit la relation père- guère rassurante, bien qu’elle ait probablement étoffé le travail de Rossini sur la première scène du nouvel opéra dans fille dont la description est aussi émouvante qu’éloquemment décrite. Il n’y a qu’un pas entre le discours d’Erisso à sa laquelle les commandants de la colonie vénitienne assiégée discutent leur stratégie. Doivent-ils capituler dans la honte fille chez Rossini et ceux de Rigoletto à Gilda et de Giorgio Germont à Violetta chez Verdi. Comme Verdi, Rossini ou mourir dans la gloire ? Inspiré par le cri de ralliement de Calbo – « Que les cendres des barbares recouvrent ma savait comment nous toucher par la répétition insistante de fragments mélodiques et rythmiques qui sont aussi légers tombe » –, Erisso choisit la mort et la gloire, et la grandeur sombre du premier chœur se transforme alors en marche que riches d’émotions. La force émotionnelle du drame ne fléchit pas non plus, à aucun instant. Étant donné le provocante. caractère néoclassique des pièces de Della Valle, le public napolitain ne s’attendait certainement pas à voir un suicide Maometto secondo connut un certain nombre de contretemps avant d’être finalement présenté sur la scène du San sur scène. Mais c’est pourtant le choix que fait Rossini lorsqu’Anna, après une ultime confrontation avec Maometto, Carlo le 3 décembre 1820. Trois mois auparavant, le théâtre avait reçu l’ordre de se plier au nouveau « Regolamento se tue devant le tombeau de sa mère. Organico de’ Teatri ». Les retombées de cette directive ne furent pas visibles immédiatement mais la Révolution de Maometto secondo présente une orchestration superbe, où les couleurs lugubres caractéristiques de l’atmosphère du Juillet avait déjà convaincu Rossini de modifier le livret, d’y minimiser les éléments politiques et nationalistes pour camp vénitien sont remarquablement juxtaposées aux détonations éclatantes et aux subtils tintinnabulements de la accentuer la dimension humaine d’une tragédie qu’il mènerait à une sublime conclusion dans les dernières scènes musique ottomane. Le théâtre San Carlo disposait d’un orchestre sans égal en Italie à cette époque et Rossini utilisa délicatement élaborées de l’opéra. En outre, il avait travaillé avec acharnement à la conception colossale qu’il avait ses ressources au maximum. On trouve le seul élément régressif de Maometto secondo en la personne du jeune guerrier envisagée pour le sujet. Maometto secondo est le premier opéra de Rossini dont nous conservons des ébauches. Même Calbo, confié à une mezzo-soprano en travesti. Rossini écrivit le rôle pour Adèle Chaumel (Adelaide Comelli comme Mozart avait commencé à réviser ses œuvres après son trentième anniversaire ; et Rossini, à presque vingt-neuf ans, elle se faisait appeler à Naples), mezzo-soprano de formation française âgée de vingt-six ans dont – selon s’engageait sur une voie similaire. Stendhal – Rossini était éperdument amoureux. Pour la version parisienne, le rôle fut remanié pour un ténor, Les composantes de Maometto secondo sont d’une telle envergure que le premier acte, d’une durée de quatre-vingt- Adolphe Nourrit, et ses lignes vocales beaucoup plus modérées. dix minutes, est divisé en deux parties seulement : un tableau de la colonie vénitienne assiégée, suivie de l’effet causé Rossini possédait autant de facettes qu’un portrait de Picasso. Si Le Siège de Corinthe est l’œuvre d’un artiste doublé par l’arrivée de Maometto sur la communauté. Le deuxième acte, d’une durée équivalente, inverse ce procédé en d’un homme d’affaires qui a su adapter son matériau à l’air du temps, Maometto secondo est l’œuvre du pionnier présentant d’abord le campement ottoman de Maometto puis les catacombes de la citadelle vénitienne. Ces deux actes visionnaire qui transforma les règles de l’opéra en Italie et à l’étranger pendant une génération. « J’ai donc écrit la sont remarquables de par l’ampleur pré-wagnérienne des structures que Rossini choisit de déployer. Le premier acte musique du futur sans le savoir », plaisanta-t-il après que Wagner eut encensé Guillaume Tell lorsque les deux hommes se est construit en cinq mouvements imbriqués, variés mais conséquents. Le second acte culmine avec une séquence rencontrèrent à Paris en 1860. Il l’avait effectivement créée, et c’est avec Maometto secondo que commença la révolution. d’épisodes liés, d’une grande complexité vocale, dont la progression d’une durée de quarante minutes est marquée par Richard Osborne la présence constante de l’héroïne tragique sur scène. Traductions : Noémie Gatzler Le cœur du premier acte abrite un « Terzettone » monumental de 867 mesures – ce néologisme spirituel est de Rossini, et pourrait grossièrement se traduire par « Trio mastodontesque ». Tout au long de ce Trio mastodontesque, Anna révèle à son père et à son amant l’existence d’un mystérieux étranger qu’elle a rencontré à Corinthe. Son père est très clair sur le fait qu’il ne peut renoncer à sa stratégie militaire au nom de son chagrin ; il lui remet, cependant, un poignard pour sa propre protection, qui s’avère cependant avoir l’effet inverse. C’est le moment charnière de l’opéra, où le Terzettone doit se poursuivre malgré le départ temporaire de deux des protagonistes, l’assaut des coups de canon, le désespoir palpable du peuple et une prière, avant de pouvoir reprendre son cours majestueux. De fait, le Trio ne se conclut jamais vraiment. Élaboré en mi majeur, il présente d’importants épisodes en la et sol majeur – cette dernière tonalité étant la dominante de l’émouvant chant de guerre ottoman qui intervient ensuite.

12 Men of the Chorus of Garsington Opera

13 MAOMETTO SECONDO d’oste infinita e fera has surrounded these walls Dramma in two acts · Libretto by Cesare della Valle (1820) · English translation by Lionel Salter (1983) queste mura circonda. with a vast and savage army. Noi noverar co’ giorni We can still count i cimenti e i trionfi ancor possiamo dangers and triumphs every day, Characters Ma… l’avvenir qual sia? but… what will be the future? Erisso (tenor) Governor of the Venetians Spento de’nostri il più bel fior già cadde; The finest flower of our men is already dead; Anna (soprano) his daughter crollan le mura col tempestar de’ bronzi; the walls are crumbling beneath the cannons’ battering; Maometto (Mehmet) (bass) Sultan of the Turks il morbo struggitor, la dura fame ravaging disease and cruel hunger compete Calbo (mezzo-soprano) Venetian general mietono a gara il popolo innocente; in mowing down the innocent people; Condulmiero (tenor) Venetian general e Maometto minaccia incendio e morte, and Mehmet threatens fire and death se schiuse al nuovo dì non sian le porte. if the gates are not opened tomorrow. Selimo (Selim) (tenor) follower of Mehmet Io veggio in sì rio stato, veggio egual periglio In so dire a state I see equal peril, se all’onor chieggo o alla pieta consiglio. whether I seek honour or counsel pity. The English translation is a literal rendering of the original Italian. Risolversi che deggia Let each one freely declare Stage directions are from the original libretto and bear no relation to the Garsington production. ognun libero esponga, ed il pensiero what should be decided, and I will be bound del numero maggior per me fia legge. by the opinion of the majority. COMPACT DISC 1 Atto primo Act One I DUCI LEADERS Scena: Sala nel palazzo. Il Provveditore Paolo Erisso siede Scene: a hall in the palace. The Venetian Governor, Paolo 3 Risponda a te primiero Let the first to reply to you taciturno presso una tavola. Altri capitani gli siedono Erisso, is sitting silently near a table. Other captains are il prode Condulmiero, be brave Condulmiero, intorno. Calbo e Condulmiero chiudono il circolo, sedendo sitting around him. Calbo and Condulmiero complete the che pari ha nel periglio whose arms and counsel l’uno incontro all’altro. circle, facing each other. il braccio ed il consiglio. are of equal weight in this danger.

No. 1 Introduzione Introduction CONDULMIERO CONDULMIERO Quando ogni speme è tolta, When all hope is lost, CORO DE’ DUCI CHORUS OF LEADERS allor l’audacia è stolta, then daring is foolish, 1 Al tuo cenno, Erisso, accolti At your command, Erisso, you see ed il men reo consiglio and the least reprehensible advice qui già vedi i tuoi guerrieri. your warriors already assembled here. sta nel minor periglio. lies in the least peril. Ma… tu taci, e non ascolti? But… you are silent, and not listening? Il folle e non il forte The madman, not the hero Mille torbidi pensieri I see a thousand troubled thoughts va cieco incontro a morte. goes forth blindly towards death. gli vegg’io scolpiti in fronte. furrowed on his forehead. Cedasi in tal momento. At such a moment we should surrender. Giusto ciel! di Negroponte Merciful heaven, what is to be A più feral cimento Let our swords and our blood il destin qual mai sarà? the fate of Negroponte? serbiam le spade e il sangue: serve some future deadly danger. io primo allor esangue, I then will be the first to give my blood, ERISSO ERISSO io primo allor cadrò. I then will be the first to fall. 2 Volgon due lune or già, veneti eroi, For two months now, Venetian heroes, che di Bisanzio il vincitor superbo the arrogant conqueror of Byzantium

14 CALBO CALBO cittadini e guerrieri. o valiant and true citizens and warriors. Guerrier, che parli? Warrior, what are you saying? Udir da’ labbri vostri il generoso I longed only to hear that gallant advice Estremo consiglio The sword is the last resort consiglio io sol bramava, e tanto ottenni. from your lips, and I have obtained it. del forte è la spada. of the courageous; Dunque giuriam su brandi Then let us swear on our swords Non temo il periglio: I do not fear danger. per la patria, per l’are to fight for our country and our altars Sì pugni, si cada Let us fight and fall pugnar fin che di sangue as long as a drop of blood nell’ arduo cimento; in fierce struggle, stilla ci avanza in petto; remains in our breasts; e covran mia fossa and may the barbarians’ ashes chè nel bivio crudel d’infamia o morte, for at the cruel crossroads of death or disgrace de’ barbari a cento and bones in hundreds dubbio non è qual via trasceglie il forte. there is no doubt which path the brave will choose. le ceneri e l’ossa. cover my grave. Snuda la spade e la presenta ai duci, che lo imitano e He draws his sword and holds it out to the ERISSO ERISSO giurano, toccando colle loro spade quella di Erisso. leaders, who follow his example and swear, touching Erisso’s A tanta costanza, At such steadfastness, sword with their own. ai forti suoi detti at your brave words ribolle ne’ petti our old confidence TUTTI ALL l’antica baldanza. wells up in our breasts. 5 Sì, giuriam! Yes, let us swear! Sì, giuriamo sugl’itali brandi, Let us swear on our Italian swords, CALBO CALBO degl’infidi nel sangue già tinti, already stained with the infidels’ blood, Si cada, si pugni, Let us fall as we fight; che trafitti, non supplici o vinti, that Mehmet shall see us dead at his feet ribolle ognor my old confidence Maometto al suo piè ci vedrà. rather than suppliant or vanquished. l’antica mia baldanza; wells up once again; si pugni, si cada, let us fight and fall, Sì, giuriam! Yes, let us swear! ma covran mia fossa but at least let the ashes Sì, giuriamo su’ veneti brandi. Let us swear on Venetian swords, le ceneri almen. cover my grave. se non cangia la sorte severa, that if harsh fate does not change, Negroponte alla veneta schiera Negroponte shall be a monument CALBO, ERISSO, CONDULMIERO CALBO, ERISSO, CONDULMIERO monumento e sepolcro sarà. and a sepulchre to the Venetian forces. Si pugni, si cada Let us fight and fall nell’arduo cimento, in the dire danger, ERISSO ERISSO ma covran mia fossa but at least let the ashes 6 Or partite, o guerrieri. Al dì novello Now go, my warriors. Tomorrow le ceneri almen. cover our graves. l’ultimo assalto il Musulman minaccia; the Muslim threatens his final assault. nuovo vigor quindi a voi porga il sonno. Let sleep then bring you new vigour. I DUCI LEADERS Allo spuntar del giorno At daybreak you will fight Si pugni, si cada, Let us fight and fall, pugnerete da forti a me d’intorno. bravely around me. And if it be ma covran mia fossa but at least let the ashes E al numero il valor se fia che ceda, that valour must yield to numbers le ceneri almen. cover our graves. e abbandonar l’ampia città si debba, and the spacious city be abandoned, ratto allor nella rocca let anyone not killed here ERISSO ERISSO al novello cimento then rapidly withdraw 4 Basta, non più. Enough, no more. ritraggasi chi ancor to the citadel V’intesi, o prodi, o veri I have heard you, non fu quì spento. for a new struggle.

15 Scena: Gabinetto di Anna Erisso Scene: Anna Erisso’s room Or più non basto io solo, or che un istante, am no longer sufficient, now that a un trar di spada può troncar mia vita. drawn sword can cut short my life in a moment. No. 2 Cavatina Anna Anna’s Cavatina ANNA ANNA ANNA ANNA Misera me! Che dici? Alas! What are you saying? 7 Ah! che invan su questo ciglio Ah! In vain I ask for sweet release chiamo il dolce oblìo de’ mali. from the woes which afflict me. ERISSO ERISSO Non ho pace al rio periglio I have no peace because of the cruel peril Addoppiar le difese a te d’intorno Love suggests to me doubling the protection in cui veggo il genitor. in which I see my father. amor mi suggerisce, e un altro braccio around you and preparing for your defence E il timor se tace appena, And if that dread is barely silent, al tuo schermo apprestar, che compier possa another arm which could act for you son d’amor gli occulti strali I feel the sweet darts of love teco mie veci, ov’io cadessi. in my stead if I were to fall. onde ognor di pena in pena so that my throbbing heart palpitante ondeggia il cor. constantly veers from distress to distress. ANNA ANNA Ahì, padre! Oh father! Entrano Erisso e Calbo. Enter Erisso and Calbo. ERISSO ERISSO Recitativo dopo la Cavatina Anna Recitative after Anna’s Cavatina Il tuo secondo difensor fia Calbo Let your second defender be Calbo. Egli, gran tempo è già, t’ama, e no’l He has loved you for a long time, and has not ERISSO ERISSO Disse che al padre tuo. Sposa ti chiede. spoken of it save to your father. He asks for you in marriage. 8 Figlia! Daughter! ANNA ANNA ANNA ANNA Lassa! Alas! Chi veggio! Padre, Whom do I see? Father, qual grave cura a me nell’alta notte what grave apprehension brings you ERISSO ERISSO sollecito ti guida? to me anxiously at dead of night? E più degno consorte aver giammai, And a more worthy husband you could never have, no, non potresti, o figlia. Or vieni al tempio. my daughter. Now, come to the temple. ERISSO ERISSO Là dove il sacro cenere riposa There, where the sacred ashes Il tuo periglio. Your peril. della spenta tua madre, of your departed mother rest, stringer mi lascia un sì bel nodo, o cara, let me tie so sweet a knot, my dear, ANNA ANNA e il mio timor sia spento appiè dell’ara. and my fear be dispelled at the foot of the altar. Il mio periglio! Ahimè! My peril? Alas! CALBO CALBO ERISSO ERISSO Oh Dio! Oh God! M’abbraccia, e ascolta. Embrace me, and listen. Or che ad estremo disperato assalto Now that the enemy is preparing ANNA ANNA il nemico s’appresta, io pe’ tuoi giorni, for the last desperate assault, Io son perduta! I am lost! Anna, pavento. Io sol finora, io fui I fear, Anna, for your life. Until now di tua virtù, dell’innocenza tua I alone was the counsellor and defender ERISSO ERISSO il consiglio e lo scudo. of your virtue, of your innocence. Now I alone A che t’arresti? Why do you hesitate?

16 CALBO CALBO ANNA ANNA Anna, tu taci? Alto stupor ti leggo Anna, you are silent? I read utter amazement Allora che tu in Vinegia, When you stayed in Venice in volto espresso. Il tuo bel cor dischiudi written on your face. Open your dear heart per due lune e due, for two moons, and two more, al padre ad all’amico; e se pur fia to your father and your friend; and if it be ed oro ed armi a dimandar restavi, to ask for money and arms, che tal nodo tu abborri, il tuo pensiero that you abhor this knot, freely disclose me lasciando in Corinto. leaving me in Corinth. libera esponi, e me primiero udrai your thought, and you will hear me a tua difesa ragionar. be the first to argue in your defence. ERISSO ERISSO Allor? Che ascolto! Really? What do I hear? ERISSO ERISSO Che veggo! What do I see? ANNA ANNA Figlia, tu piangi? Oh, qual crudel Daughter, are you weeping? Prosiegui. Ahimè! Go on. Alas! sospetto in me tu desti! Oh, what cruel suspicions you arouse in me! ERISSO ERISSO Scena prima del Terzettone Scene before the Great Trio Meco in Vinegia Uberto Uberto came to Venice with me venìa sul legno istesso; e vi rimase on the same ship; and he remained there ANNA ANNA quando a te fei ritorno. when I returned to you. 9 No, tacer non deggio No, I can no longer conceal the truth. più il vero omai. Tradirvi I cannot deceive you both, ANNA ANNA non posso entrambi, nè immolar me stessa. nor sacrifice myself. Misera! Il ver tu dici? Unhappy me! Is what you say true? Già d’altra fiamma accesa. I am already stirred by another flame. Chi dunque, ahimè! meco il nome Then ah, who wished to deceive me volle mentir d’Uberto? under the name of Uberto? ERISSO ERISSO Oh, mio rossor! Prosiegui… Shame upon me! Go on… ERISSO ERISSO Chi sia non so; ma un mentitor fu certo. I know not who it was, but certainly it was an impostor. ANNA ANNA Indegno, credi, You may think my first wooer No. 3 Terzettone Great Trio non è d’Erisso l’amator mio primo. not unworthy of Erisso. ANNA, ERISSO, CALBO ANNA, ERISSO, CALBO ERISSO ERISSO 10 Ohimè! Qual fulmine, Alas! What a thunderbolt, Chi è costui? Favella. Who is he? Speak! per me funesto! fatal for me! Ahi, qual terribile Ah, how terrible ANNA ANNA colpo funesto! a deadly blow! Il Sir di Mitilene, il prode Uberto. The lord of Mytilene, the valiant Uberto. ANNA ANNA ERISSO ERISSO Conquisa l’anima My soul’s overcome Uberto! E quando il conoscesti? Uberto! And when did you meet him? dal vile inganno, by this vile deceit, prorompe in lagrime my inner anguish l’interno affanno; bursts forth in tears;

17 e il guardo, ahi misera, and ah, unhappy me, Un lontano colpo di cannone interrompe il colloquio. Un grido A distant cannon-shot interrupts them. A cry of alarm is heard. nel mio rossore in my shame di allarme si sente poco dopo. Erisso e Calbo pongono mano Erisso and Calbo put their hands to their swords and hurry non so più volgere I can no longer turn my eyes alle spade e partono precipitosamente senza far motto. Anna li away without a word. Anna follows them for a few steps, then al genitor. towards my father. siegue per pochi passi, indi ritorna indietro agitatissima. turns back in great agitation.

ERISSO ERISSO ANNA ANNA Conquisa l’anima My soul’s overcome Che avvenne? Oh Dio! Lo strepito What is happening? Oh heaven! dal vile inganno, by this vile deceit, della battaglia ascoltasi; The din of battle is heard. il cor mi squarciano rage and anguish Ahi, forse un tradimento Ah, perhaps a betrayal ira ed affanno. rend my heart. nel notturno cimento. in the dangers of the night. Ma pur la misera But yet the unhappy girl Io gelo. Oh, duol! Nel tempio I freeze. Oh grief! I must fly col suo dolore with her sorrow del ciel si voli ad implorar l’aita, to the church to implore heaven’s aid raffrena gl’impeti saps the strength che salvi almen del padre mio la vita. to save at least my father’s life. del genitor of a father, del mio furor. of my wrath. Scena: la piazza della città di Negroponte. A dritta un Scene: the main square of the city of Negroponte. On the right, tempio: in fondo una larga via. La musica indica il lontano a church. In the background, a wide road. The music suggests CALBO CALBO tumult della battaglia. Alcune donne accorrono allo strepito. the distant noise of battle. Several women rush onto the stage. Conquisa l’anima My soul’s overcome dal tristo inganno, by this sad deceit, Coro Chorus il cor mi squarciano rage and anguish ira ed affanno. rend my heart. LE DONNE WOMEN Non sa la misera In her shame 12 Misere! Or dove, ahimè, Woe is me! Now where, alas, nel suo rossore the unhappy girl volger l’incerto piè? shall I turn my uncertain steps? più il guardo volgere can no longer turn her eyes Dell’armi il rimbombar, The clash of arms, al genitor. towards her father. de’ bronzi il fulminar, the roar of cannons, tutto tremar ci fa. all affright me. ERISSO ERISSO 11 Dal cor l’iniquo affetto You must root out this discreditable affection ANNA accorrendo anche essa ANNA also running in sveller t’è forza, o figlia: from your heart, my daughter: Donne, che sì piangete, You women who weep so, tanto l’onor consiglia. so much honour advises. che avvenne? Deh, rispondete. what is happening? Tell me.

ANNA ANNA LE DONNE WOMEN Figlia mi chiami ancor? Do you still call me daughter? Al Musulman le porte A traitor opened the gates Sì, svellermi dal petto Yes, I can root out my heart dischiuse un traditor. to the Muslim: il cor saprò se… from my breast if… Tutto già intorno è orror everything around is already incendio e morte. horror, conflagration and death.

18 Sempre più spaventata, Anna corre ad inginocchiarsi Anna, still more frightened, runs and kneels before the church. ANNA ANNA avanti il tempio. Ah, padre mio, Oh father, fermati… ascolta. stop… hear me. ANNA ANNA 13 Giusto ciel, in tal periglio Merciful heaven, in such peril ERISSO ERISSO più consiglio, no counsel, Udir non posso. Addio. I cannot listen. Farewell. più speranza, no hope non avanza is forthcoming Terzetto Trio che piangendo, save by imploring che gemendo your compassion 15 Figlia, mi lascia. Io volo Leave me, daughter. I hasten implorar la tua pietà. with tears and with sighs. ove il dover m’invita. to where duty calls me. Dal pianto tuo tradita Our country shall not be failed LE DONNE inginocchiandosi pur esse WOMEN also kneeling la patria non sarà. because of your tears. Giusto ciel, in tal periglio Merciful heaven, in such peril implorariam la tua pietà. we implore your compassion. ANNA ANNA Padre! Father! Si sente un tamburo, che si accosta. Incomincia a sfilare A drum is heard. Members of the garrison begin to file across E in tal periglio e duolo And can you leave your daughter una parte della guarinigione. Anna e le donne, vedendo i the stage. On seeing the soldiers, Anna and the women run lacsiar tu puoi la figlia? in such danger and distress? soldati, accorrono verso di quelli. Erisso e Calbo towards them. Erisso and Calbo appear, with drawn swords. Qual Nume a te consiglia What god counsels you sopraggiungono con le spade ignude. cotanta crudeltà? to such cruelty? Teco venir… Let me come with you… ANNA ANNA 14 Ahi, padre! Ah, father! ERISSO ERISSO T’arresta: Stop: ERISSO ERISSO Seguir non dêi tu il padre. You must not follow your father. Oh vista! Dread sight! ANNA, LE DONNE ANNA, WOMEN ANNA ANNA Qual dura legge è questa! How harsh a command this is! Ad abbracciarti io torno. I embrace you again. Narra. Tell me the news. ERISSO ERISSO Sol le raccolte squadre Only the squadrons gathered ERISSO ERISSO sull’alta rocca andranno in the high citadel Fuorchè l’onor, tutto è perduto. All is lost but honour. a far le prove estreme are about to give the final proofs Ogni speranza un traditor invola. A traitor has robbed us of all hope. d’intrepido valor. of their intrepid valour. Sulle mura è il nemico, e grazie al cielo The enemy is at the walls, and I give thanks io sol porgo, che d’occulti inganni to heaven that Mehmet, fearing hidden traps, ANNA, LE DONNE ANNA, WOMEN tremendo Maometto, il corso arresta has halted the course of his victory E noi quì fuor di speme And does a tyrannical duty di sua vittoria e attender vuole il giorno. and has decided to wait for daylight. dover tiran ci lascia leave us bereft of hope Or, miei fidi, alla rocca! Now, my loyal men, to the citadel! dell’onta al nuovo orror? to a new horror of shame?

19 CALBO CALBO de’ barbari all’oltraggio will you leave me thus 16 Mira, signor, quel pianto, My lord, see those tears così lasciarmi? to the barbarians’ outrage? e cangia il tuo consiglio. and change your mind. Le invola a tal periglio; Remove them from such peril; ERISSO ERISSO parli al tuo cor pietà. let pity speak to your heart. O cara, My dear, take this dagger. prendi il pugnal. Retaggio Let this be bequeathed you ANNA ANNA paterno a te fia questo by your father Vedrai su quelle mura You will see us too, in giorno sì funesto. on so fatal a day. pur noi pugnar da forti, fighting bravely on those walls, Va: corri appiè dell’ara; Go: run to the foot of the altar, vibrar pur noi le morti; battling even when dead, e pria che in te la mano and before the Muslim can stretch out far siepe i nostri petti by our breasts creating distenda il Musulmano… his hand to you… a’ tuoi guerrieri eletti, a barrier for your chosen warriors; figlia… my daughter … e in essi il nostro esempio and our example will spur on valore accrescerà. courage in them. ANNA ANNA Padre, ti muova il pianto Father, let my tears move you Prosiegui. Continue. a men crudel consiglio; to a less cruel decision; m’invola al rio periglio: remove me from this dire peril: ERISSO ERISSO parli al tuo cor pietà. let pity speak to your heart. Addio. Farewell.

ERISSO ERISSO ANNA ANNA Ma indarno or voi piangete: But now you weep in vain: Dicesti assai. T’intendo. You have said enough: I understand. al rio destin cedete. submit to your harsh fate; Vedrai che appien somiglia You will see that your daughter se i voti vostri ascolta if my blind pity al genitor la figlia, closely resembles her father, la cieca mia pietà, heed your pleas, e pria che in me la mano and before the Muslim can stretch out con voi la fame accolta you and my warriors distenda il Musulmano his hand to me da miei guerrier sarà. will starve together. questo pugnal da forte I will bravely plunge nel cor m’immergerò. this dagger into my heart. CALBO CALBO Mira, signor, quel pianto, ecc. My lord, see those tears, etc. ERISSO ERISSO In sì crudel tormento In so cruel a torment LE DONNE WOMEN squarciarmi a brano a brano I feel my heart C’invola al rio periglio, Remove us from the dread peril: il cor mi sento. torn to shreds. parli al tuo cor pietà. let pity speak to your heart. O patria, a te qual figlia My country, I will sacrifice to you vittima immolerò! my daughter as a victim! ERISSO ERISSO Figlia… rammenta… Addio… Daughter… remember… Farewell… 17 Partiam, guerrieri. Addio. Let us go, warriors. Farewell. ANNA ANNA ANNA ANNA A sì crudel momento At so cruel a moment Ah, padre, ah, padre mio, Oh father, father dear, squarciarmi a brano a brano, I feel my heart, oh God,

20 o Dio, il cor mi sento. torn to shreds. I SOLDATI MUSULMANI MUSLIM SOLDIERS Ah, qual perversa sorte Ah, what a perfidious fate 18 Dal ferro, dal foco Bathed in blood il ciel mi destinò! heaven has destined for me! nel sangue sommersa from sword and fire, Padre… Father… l’avversa città, the enemy city’s slaughter al mondo suo scempio shall be an example CALBO CALBO esempio sarà. to the world In sì crudel momento In so cruel a moment Chè all’urto invincibile that it is perilous squarciarmi a brano a brano I feel my heart within my breast del nostro valor with blind fury to resist in petto il cor mi sento. torn to shreds. periglio è resister the invincible onrush Misero, ahi, qual consorte Ah, unhappy me, what a bride con cieco furor. of our prowess. il fato m’involò! fate has snatched from me! Sopraggiugne Maometto alla testa delle sue truppe, e Mehmet appears at the head of his troops, surrounded by all LE DONNE WOMEN cordondato da tutta la pompa militare ed asiatica. Alcuni Asiatic military splendour. Some of his soldiers make to set A sì funesta scena At so sorrowful a scene, de’ suoi soldati fanno sembiante di volere appiccare il fuoco fire to the buildings and church, but Mehmet stops them. He attonita, gemente, in perplexity and lamentation, agli edifizi ed al tempio. Maometto gli arresta. Egli pone sets foot on the ground, followed by his vizier Selim and other fra meraviglia e pena between wonderment and pain piede a terra, seguito dal suo visir Selimo, e dagli altri generals. All prostrate themselves, awaiting his orders. mancarmi il cor mi sento. I feel my heart fail me. generali. Tutti si prostrano, attendendo i suoi ordini. Per me qual empia sorte, By what evil destiny dal figlio e dal consorte must I be parted MAOMETTO MEHMET dividermi dovrò! from my son and from my husband! 19 Sorgete: e in sì bel giorno, Arise, my valiant warriors. o prodi miei guerrieri, On so great a day, TUTTI ALL a Maometto intorno come and exult Addio! Farewell! venite ad esultar. around Mehmet.

Erisso ed Anna si abbracciano teneramente. Calbo cade Erisso and Anna embrace tenderly. Calbo falls at Anna’s feet; 20 Duce di tanti eroi As leader of many heroes appiè di Anna, che gli porge la mano. Intanto alcune madri she gives him her hand. Meanwhile some of the women who crollar farò gl’imperi, I shall make empires crumble o spose corrono ad abbracciare taluni fra’ soldati. Poi tutti are mothers or wives run to embrace some of the soldiers. Then e volerò con voi and speed with you si separano, dandosi a vicenda l’ultimo addio. Erisso e they separate, taking last, sad farewells of each other. Erisso del mondo a trionfar. to conquer the world. Calbo partono per la rocca. Anna, seguita dalle alter and Calbo leave for the citadel. Anna, followed by the other donne, si ritira nel tempio. women, withdraws to the church. I SOLDATI MUSULMANI MUSLIM SOLDIERS Del mondo al vincitor Eternal acclaim and honour No. 4 Coro e Cavatina Maometto Chorus and Mehmet’s Cavatina eterno plauso e onor! to the conqueror of the world!

Scena: giorno. Una schiera di cavalieri musulmani Scene: daylight. A band of Muslim horsemen enters and halts sopraggiunge: si arresta alquanto per riconoscere qual via for a while to discover which path to choose in order to pursue debba trascegliere per inseguire i fuggaschi. Indi al segnale del the fugitives; then, at a signal from the commander, it sets out comandante si avvierà sulle tracce di Erisso. Sopraggiunge on Erisso’s trail. More soldiers, armed with firebrands, enter buon numero di soldati alla rinfusa, ed armati di faci. confusedly.

21 Siân Davies (Anna) with the Chorus of Garsington Opera

22 Recitativo dopo la cavatina Maometto Recitative after Mehmet’s Cavatina I GUERRIERI WARRIORS Signor, di liete nuove My lord, we bear MAOMETTO MEHMET nunzi noi siamo a te. glad tidings to you. 21 Compiuta ancor del tutto Victory is not yet fully complete. I nemici fuggenti, The fleeing enemy, taken la vittoria non è. La tua falange, Ahmet, lead your company to assault sorpresi, ed avviliti, unawares and humiliated, Acmet, conduci ad assalir la rocca the citadel from the eastern slope, caddero in parte estinti; has fallen, partly slain, dall’oriental pendice, ov’è men forte. where it is least strong. e in duri ceppi avvinti partly bound in cruel fetters. Con l’altre schiere intanto Meanwhile I will remain here with or siano a te guidati Now their leaders, vainly trembling, starommi io qui della città nel centro the other troops in the centre of the city i duci invan frementi. will be led to you. ad ogni uopo ed evento. for any need and emergency. Il prode Omar già muove Valiant Omar is already ad incontrarti il piè. advancing to meet you. SELIMO SELIM Signor! Di Negroponte My lord! Are even the roads of Negroponte MAOMETTO MEHMET le vie pur anco a te son note? E come? also known to you? How is this? O gioia! Alfin vi tengo, Oh joy! At last I have you, Il ciel t’inspira, o qui stranier non sei? Does heaven inspire you, or are you not a stranger here? Veneti alteri, audaci e sempre infidi, proud, bold and always perfidious Venetians; vi gengo alfin. Compiuto è il mio trionfo. I have you at last. My triumph is complete. MAOMETTO MEHMET Come in Bisanzio, il mio destrier quì ancora As in Byzantium, here too I have seen La conquista di Grecia, è a te ben noto You will know that my great father too nuotar nel sangue cristiano io vidi. my steed swim in Christian blood. che il mio gran padre ei pur rivolse in mente. contemplated the conquest of Greece, Or colle fronti nella polve immerse Now I shall see you too, your foreheads Quindi in mentite spoglie so sent the most artful vedrò pur voi, duci orgogliosi, e vinti. humbled in the dust, haughty and defeated chiefs. ad esplorarne i lidi of his trusty men in disguise Ciò sia più grato che il rimirarvi estinti. And that will be more welcome than to see you dead. i più scaltri inviò fra’ suoi più fidi; to reconnoitre its shores; e me fra quelli, ed Argo e Negroponte and among those I travelled through were I GUERRIERI WARRIORS e… Corinto percorsi… ah! Argos and Negroponte and… ah… Corinth! Il prode Omar già muove Valiant Omar is already ad incontrarti il piè. advancing to meet you. SELIMO SELIM Tu sospiri! You sigh! Scena: Omar, seguita da’ suoi soldati, conduce incatenati Scene: Omar, followed by his soldiers, leads in Calbo and Calbo ed Erisso, i quali si presentano con dignitoso contegno. Erisso in chains. They bear themselves with dignity. MAOMETTO MEHMET Sospiro io, sì, nel rammentar Corinto. Yes, I sigh on remembering Corinth. MAOMETTO MEHMET 22 Appressatevi, o prodi. Approach, gallant sirs. At last SELIMO SELIM Ammirarvi d’appresso alfin m’è dato. it is granted me to admire you at close quarters. Forse… Perhaps… Un esempio tremendo in voi dar voglio In you I will give a terrible example a chi, senza sperar soccorso o scampo, to those who, without hope of aid or escape, MAOMETTO MEHMET ogni patto ricusa per sol diletto di versar più sangue. for the sole pleasure of shedding more blood, refuse Non più. Ma qual tumulto è questo? No more. But what is this uproar? Atroce, inaudito all terms. supplizio fia mercè del vostro ardir. Hideous, unprecedented torture Alcuni guerrieri ritornano in fretta. Some warriors return in haste. shall be the reward of your presumption.

23 ERISSO ERISSO MAOMETTO MEHMET Quest’ultimo tuo detto These last words of yours finally confirm Benchè nemico, Erisso, Although my enemy, Erisso, m’accerta alfin che parla Maometto. to me that it is Mehmet who speaks. d’assai miglior destino you are worthy of a far better fate; Or la risposta ascolterai d’Erisso. Now you shall hear Erisso’s reply. degno tu sei; lo veggio, ed io te l’offro. I see it and I offer it to you. One word Un accento e sei salvo, e teco il prode, and you are saved, and with you MAOMETTO MEHMET che stringi or fra le braccia. Odi e risolvi, the brave man whose arm you now hold. Erisso! Oh ciel! Sei forse tu l’istesso Erisso! Oh heaven! Could it be you Riedi appiè della rocca. Listen and decide. Return to the foot che già duce in Corinto? who was governor in Corinth? Parla a’ guerrieri, che sono chiusi in quella: of the citadel. Speak to the warriors la stoltezza e il periglio enclosed within it. Show them the foolishness ERISSO ERISSO d’inutile difesa ad essi esponi, and peril of a vain defence, Io son quel desso. Ed in Corinto I am he. And in Corinth e che mi schiudan quelle porte imponi. and enjoin them to open those gates to me. e in Negroponte, e ovunque and in Negroponte, and wherever Tutti fien salvi, il giuro. E se a te piace All will be spared, I swear. And, if you wish, il tuo furor ti tragga, infin ch’io viva, your frenzy may lead you, la patria riveder potrai con essi, you can again see your country with them mi scorgerai tu sempre so long as I live you will always e rieder lieto a’ filiali amplessi. and return gladly to your children’s embraces. starti intrepido a fronte see me fearlessly confronting you colla morte sul brando; with death in my sword; No. 5 Finale primo First Finale e se convien che pera, and if I must perish fra i più fieri tormenti, in the most savage torments ERISSO ERISSO intrepido del pari you will still see me fearless, 23 Giusto ciel, che strazio è questo! Merciful heaven, what torment this is! a’ Veneti pur sempre like Venetians always, Nel propormi un tradimento In suggesting betrayal to me, porger di fede e di fortezza esempio. setting an example of faith and fortitude. sempre i figli a me rammenta, he constantly reminds me of my children, trafiggendomi nel cor. transfixing my heart. MAOMETTO MEHMET a Calbo to Calbo Sta ben. Ma dimmi, Erisso… Very well. But tell me, Erisso… Ah! in momento si funesto, Ah, in such a fateful moment, non sei padre? are you not a father? Calbo, or, deh, per me rispondi, Calbo, pray, reply for me now, ed a lui quel pianto ascondi and hide from him those tears ERISSO ERISSO che or tradisce il genitor. which now betray a father. Che ascolto! E come, e donde il sai? What do I hear? How and where did you hear that? CALBO CALBO MAOMETTO MEHMET Alla rocca andrem, se il vuoi. Let us go to the citadel, if you wish, Te’l chieggo. I am asking you. Parlerem con quegli eroi, and speak to the heroes there; ma direm, che presso a morte but let us say that, close to death, ERISSO ERISSO noi serbiam pur l’alma forte. we must still preserve a stout heart. Cittadino son io, I am a citizen, La risposta, intendi, è questa, This, take note, is our reply: sol cittadino in questo istante. only a citizen at this moment. se or ti piace, il rogo appresta if you now wish, prepare the stake Abbracciando Calbo. He embraces Calbo. ed appaga il tuo furor. and appease your fury. Ahi, Calbo! Ah, Calbo, Mi ricorda il suo dir l’amata figlia. his words remind me of my dear daughter. Costanza, o cor. Be steadfast, my heart.

24 ERISSO ERISSO MAOMETTO MEHMET Dolce figlia, ove t’aggiri? Sweet daughter, where are you? Tu m’insulti, indegno, e l’osi? You insult me, wretch? You dare? Ah, chi sa se ancor respiri, Ah, who knows if you are still alive se abbracciarti io posso ancor! and if I may embrace you again! CALBO CALBO E lo stesso in ogni core The counsel of honour MAOMETTO MEHMET il consiglio dell’onore: is the same in every heart: Sconsigliato, a che non taci? Rash man, why do you not keep silent? e tal sempre il mio sarà. and that will always be mine. Frena, o stolto, i detti audaci, Restrain your audacious words, fool. Con chi parli non rammenti, Do you not remember to whom you are speaking ERISSO, ERISSO, e il mio sdegno non paventi? and not fear my wrath? No lo stesso in ogni core The counsel of honour Tu rispondi, Erisso, e trema; You reply, Erisso, and tremble; il consiglio dell’onore: is not the same in every heart: questa fu la volta estrema this is the last time e tal sempre il mio sarà. and that will always be mine. che parlommi al cor pietà. that mercy speaks to my heart. MAOMETTO MEHMET ERISSO ERISSO De’ supplizi al fiero aspetto At the dread sight of torture Già tacendo a te risposi I have already replied to you forse un tanto ardir cadrà. perhaps such hardihood will weaken. co’ suoi detti generosi. and your generous words by my silence. MAOMETTO MEHMET MAOMETTO MEHMET 24 Guardie, olà, costor si traggano Ho there, guards. Take these men away Io mi sento dal dispetto I feel my heart within my breast a supplizio infame, atroce. . to vile and hideous torture. lacerato il cor nel petto. torn by frustration. Obbedite. Obey me. De’ supplizi al fiero aspetto At the dread sight of torture forse un tanto ardir cadrà. perhaps such hardihood will weaken. Le guardie circondano Erisso e Calbo e li trassinano. Anna si The guards surround Erisso and Calbo and lead them away. precipita dal tempio, su’ passi loro. Le altre donne la sieguono. Anna rushes towards them from the church, followed by the ERISSO, CALBO ERISSO, CALBO other women. E lo stesso in ogni core The counsel of honour il consiglio dell’onore: is the same in every heart: ANNA ANNA e non v’ha che un sol linguaggio the strong and the wise Ah, no! Ah, no! per il forte e per il saggio speak but with one tongue, e tal sempre il mio sarà. and that will always be mine. MAOMETTO MEHMET Ah, qual voce! Ah, that voice! MAOMETTO ad Erisso MEHMET to Erisso Decidesti? Have you decided? ANNA ANNA Padre mio! Father! ERISSO ERISSO Io già risposi. I already answered. ERISSO ERISSO Figlia! My daughter!

25 MAOMETTO MEHMET d’un tenero affetto the former force Che veggio! What do I see? l’antica possanza. of a tender affection. Qual magico incanto What a magic spell is cast ANNA accorrendo verso Maometto ANNA rushing towards Mehmet quel ciglio, quel pianto, by those eyes, those tears, Al tuo piede… oh ciel, vaneggio? At your feet… heavens, am I dreaming? quel muto dolor! that mute sorrow!

MAOMETTO MEHMET CALBO CALBO Anna! Anna! Il padre fra l’ira The father wavers ondeggia e l’affanno; between anger and anguish; ANNA ANNA la figlia delira the daughter raves Il volto! Oh rossor! That face! Oh, the shame! pel barbaro inganno. at the cruel deception. Oh cielo, te imploro, O heaven, I implore, ERISSO ERISSO tu porgi ristoro bring relief Che colpo è questo? What blow is this? a tanto dolor. to such sorrow.

Tutti rimangono attoni, e muti nell’atteggiamento della All remain astonished and dumb, in attitudes of surprise, SELIMO SELIM sorpresa, della vergogna o del dolore. shame or grief. Quel ciglio, quel pianto Those eyes, those tears sul vincitor! upon the conqueror! ANNA ANNA 25 Ritrovo l’amante I find my lover again I MUSULMANI MUSLIMS nel crudo nemico. as a cruel enemy. Il duce all’aspetto At the sight Qual barbaro istante! How bitter a moment! d’inerme beltà of defenceless beauty Che penso? Che dico? What can I think? What can I say? risente nel petto our leader again feels within his breast Oh morte, te imploro O death, I beg la spenta pietà! a pity that was dead! rimedio, ristoro for cure, for relief Qual magico incanto What a magic spell those eyes, a tanto dolor. from such sorrow. quel ciglio, quel pianto those tears, have cast ha sul vincitor! upon the conqueror! ERISSO ERISSO Amante la figlia My daughter the lover LE DONNE WOMEN del crudo tiranno! of the cruel tyrant! Il padre fra l’ira The father wavers Deh! Chi mi consiglia? Ah, who will advise me? ondeggia e l’affanno; between anger and anguish; Qual barbaro affanno! What fearful torment! la figlia delira the daughter raves Oh morte, te imploro O death, I beg pel barbaro inganno. at the cruel deception. rimedio, ristoro for cure, for relief Deh cielo, te imploro: O heaven, I implore you: a tanto dolor. from such sorrow. tu porgi ristoro you bring relief a tanto dolor, tu sol. to such sorrow, you alone. MAOMETTO MEHMET Risento nel petto Seeing that divine face all’alma sembianza I feel again

26 ANNA a Maometto ANNA to Mehmet CALBO CALBO 26 Rendimi il padre, o barbaro. Give me back my father, barbarian; Ti consola: Be comforted: Il mio… fratel, deh rendimi… ah, give me back… my brother… misera ella è, non rea. she is wretched, not wicked. cavando fuori il pugnale drawing her dagger O ch’io saprò trafiggermi or I will plunge CALBO, ANNA CALBO, ANNA con questo ferro il cor. this dagger into my heart. Chi preveder potea Who could foresee inganno sì crudel? such a cruel deception? CALBO CALBO Fratel mi chiama? Oh tenera! She calls me brother? How tender-hearted! MAOMETTO ad Anna MEHMET to Anna Oh dolce amica! Oh sweet girl! Fra l’armi in campo io torno, I am returning to camp, my dear, cara, ma al mio ritorno with my men, but on my return, ANNA a Maometto ANNA to Mehmet altera e lieta omai, if you are still true to me, E tacito ancor tu resti? And you still remain silent? al fianco mio starai, you shall live by my side, se ancor mi sei fedel. proud and happy henceforth. Fa cenno di uccidersi. She makes as if to kill herself. ERISSO ERISSO MAOMETTO MEHMET Ah, perchè fra le spade nemiche Ah, why in despair did I not elect Arrestati, arrestati! Stop, stop! non mi trassi a perir disperato, to perish upon enemy swords, Dilegua il tuo timor. Calm your fear. trionfando del barbaro fato, triumphing over malign fate, Scioglie egli stesso le catene d’Erisso e di Calbo. He releases Erisso and Calbo from their fetters. involandomi a tanta viltà? avoiding such baseness? Padre e fratel ti rendo. I give you back your father and brother. Comprendi a sì bel dono Understand from so great a favour MAOMETTO MEHMET che un barbaro non sono, that I am no barbarian, Agitata, confusa, tremante Agitated, confused, trembling, ma fido amante ognor. but still your faithful lover. non risponde: mirarlo non osa. she does not reply: she dares not look at him. Fra l’amante ed il padre dubbiosa Between her lover and her father she stands ERISSO ERISSO fra l’inferno ed il cielo si sta. uncertainly between hell and heaven. Quei ceppi a me rendete, Give me back those fetters; la morte io solo attendo. I ask only for death. ANNA, CALBO, ERISSO, SELIMO, MAOMETTO ANNA, CALBO, ERISSO, SELIM, MEHMET Pietosi mi togliete My chains mercifully Agitata, confusa, tremante Agitated, confused, trembling, a tanto mio rossor. wipe out my great shame. per sì atroce, sì barbaro avvento. through so terrible, so cruel a chance. Dal rimorso/sospetto, dal duol, dal tormento I already feel my heart torn ANNA ANNA lacerato mi sento già il cor. by remorse/suspicion, grief and anguish. Padre… Father… I MUSULMANI MUSLIMS ERISSO ERISSO Agitata, confusa, tremante Agitated, confused, trembling, Da me t’invola. Get away from me. non risponde: mirarlo non osa. she does not reply: she dares not look at him. Fra l’amante ed il padre dubbiosa Between her lover and her father she stands, ANNA ANNA all’evento improvviso si sta. uncertain at the unforeseen situation. M’ascolta. Hear me.

27 ANNA ANNA Quando poi fia bianco il crine When our hair turns white Ah! perché fra le spade nemiche Ah why did I not rush in my despair cangeremo, cangiando aspetto: we shall change, as we change appearance: a perir disperata non corsi! to perish by the enemy’s sword! posto il cielo ha quel confine heaven has set this limit Or da quanti tormenti e rimorsi Now my soul will be racked fra il diletto – e la virtù. to pleasure – and to virtue. lacerata quest’alma sarà. with torment and remorse. Recitativo dopo il Coro Recitative after the Chorus CALBO CALBO Ah, perchè fra le spade nemiche Ah, why in despair did I not elect ANNA sorgendo sdegnata ANNA rising indignantly non mi trassi a perir disperato, to perish upon enemy swords, 28 Tacete. Ahimè! Be silent. Alas! trionfando del barbaro fato, triumphing over malign fate, Quai detti iniqui ascolto! What wicked words I hear! involandomi a tanta viltà? avoiding such baseness? Aggirandosi sbigottita. She wanders dejectedly about. Anna infelice ! Ahi dove, Unhappy Anna! Ah, where LE DONNE, I MUSULMANI WOMEN, MUSLIMS ove gli empi m’han tratta? where have the infidels taken me? Agitata, confusa, tremante Agitated, confused, trembling, Involarmi a forza io vuo’ I will flee at once non risponde, mirarlo non osa. she does not reply; she dares not look at him. da questo infamo albergo. from this vile abode. Fra l’amante ed il padre dubbiosa Between her lover and her father she stands Libero il varco, olà… See, the way lies open… fra l’inferno ed il cielo si sta. uncertainly between hell and heaven. MAOMETTO entrando MEHMET entering Act Two Act Two T’arresta, e ascolta. Stop, and listen. Scena: Anna è seduta su di un divano, nel massimo dolore. Scene: the magnificent tent of Mehmet. Anna is seated on a Ad un cenno di Maometto si ritirano tutte le donzelle. At a sign from him, all the girls withdraw. Una schiera di donzelle musulmane la cirdondano, alcune divan, overwhelmed with grief. A group of Muslim girls Donna, fra l’armi il mio parlar fia breve. Lady, in battle let my words be brief. offrendole ricchi doni di ogni sorta, alter sostengono de’ vasi surrounds her, some offering her rich gifts of every kind and Uberto amasti: ed or cangiato il vedi You loved Uberto; and now you see him profumi. others holding perfume jars. in Maometto, nel crudel nemico changed to Mehmet, the cruel enemy di Vinegia e de’ tuoi. Fiero contrasto of Venice and of your people. A sharp conflict No. 6 Coro Chorus quindi in te sorge fra discordi affetti. between opposing emotions arises within you. Nè in ciò ti biasmo, anzi laudarti io voglio. I do not blame you for this; rather would I praise you. LE CONZELLE MUSULMANE MUSLIM GIRLS Or di cangiar consiglio il tempo è giunto. Now the time has come to change your mind. 27 È follia sul fior degli anni It is folly in the flower of youth Io t’amo ancor: t’offro la destra, e il soglio. I still love you: I offer you my hand and my throne. chiuder l’alma a’ molli affetti, to close the heart to soft emotions Farti regina, e insiem felice io voglio. I wish to make you queen and to be happy together. e penar fra’ tanti affanni and suffer such anguish Germano e genitor teco felici Your brother and father too shall live d’una rigida virtù. from rigid virtue. vivran pur’essi e al fianco mio possenti. joyfully with you and powerfully at my side. Or tu del tuo, del mio destin decidi. Now you must decide on your destiny and mine; Finchè April ci ride in viso When April laughs in our face, Pensa però che sie già mia conquista, but remember that you are already my conquest, sol di amor sien caldi i petti, let hearts be warm only from love, e ch’io non trovo ancor chi a me resista. and that I do not find anyone now to resist me. chè l’amar fra gioia e riso for loving with joy and laughter è una dolce servitù. is a sweet servitude. ANNA ANNA Oggi il ritrovi alfin … quella son’io. You find one now today … it is I. Amava Uberto, un mentitor detesto. I loved Uberto; I loathe a liar. Ricuso il soglio, la tua destra aborro. I reject the throne; I shun your hand.

28 Teco felice! Io? Regina teco? Happy with you? I? Queen with you? Solo or morir mi resta… Now only death remains for me… Della patria a danno? Ad onta eterna To my country’s cost? To eternal shame La mia speranza è questa, That is my hope; del padre e mia? Ma a consacrar tal nodo for my father and myself? But what god altro spearar non v’ha. there is no other. qual Nume invocherei, se siam nemici will you invoke to consecrate such a knot anco appiè degli altari? if we are foes even at the foot of the altar? MAOMETTO MEHMET A separarci l’universo insorge… The world rises up to separate us… Quel pianto ignoro io solo But I know not if that lament se è duolo o infedeltà, is grief or infidelity. Prorompe in pianto. She bursts into tears. non so. Anna, rispondi almeno: I know not. Anna, at least reply: se Uberto avessi accanto, if you had Uberto beside you, MAOMETTO MEHMET lo stringeresti al seno? would you clasp him to your breast? E Maometto adunque dell’universo And Mehmet rises up to conquer the universe. a trionfar già sorge. ANNA ANNA Per me risponde il pianto. My tears answer for me. No. 7 Duetto Duet MAOMETTO MEHMET MAOMETTO MEHMET Basta. That is sufficient. 29 Anna, tu piangi? Il pianto Anna, are you weeping? Yet tears pur non è d’odio un segno: are not a sign of hatred ANNA ANNA non di superbo sdegno or of proud disdain, Che dissi? What are you saying? ma di pena, o d’amor. but of distress, or of love. MAOMETTO MEHMET ANNA ANNA Assai. That is enough. Sì, non t’inganni! Or tanto Yes, you are not mistaken. Tu m’ami e mia sarai. You love me and shall be mine. la pena mia s’addoppia, Now my distress is doubled, che in petto or or mi scoppia for now my heart is bursting ANNA ANNA pel fero strazio il cor. in my breast from such fierce torment. Signor, t’inganni. My lord, you are mistaken. Io gelo. I freeze. 30 Lieta innocente un giorno Once I Iived in happiness del padre accanto io vissi, and innocence with my father; MAOMETTO vuole stringerla fra le braccia MEHMET trying to take her in his arms ma poi mi venne intorno but then, perhaps, Vieni! Come! forse da cupi abissi, from the dark abysses, un lusinghiero aspetto, a new tender emotion came ANNA ANNA un più tenero affetto. in flattering guise around me. Ti scosta. Leave me. l’accolsi, incauta, al seno, Incautiously I welcomed it in my heart, ahi, contra il voler paterno. alas, against my father’s wishes. MAOMETTO MEHMET Era feral veleno, It was a deadly poison Ebben… Well then… che a me porgea l’inferno that brought hell to me.

29 ANNA ANNA Recitativo dopo il Duetto Recitative after the Duet O cielo! O heaven! Non tanta crudeltà! Not such cruelty! MAOMETTO MEHMET 31 Gli accenti estremi ascolta Hearken to the last words 32 Ma qual tumulto ascolto? Olà! But what tumult do I hear? Ho there! d’un lacerato cor: of a broken heart: Entrano alcune guardie con Selimo. Guards enter with Selim. amo, ma pria sepolta I love, but sooner would I be buried Che avvenne? What is happening? che cedere all’amor. than yield to love. Trionfan questa volta This time heaven Il fondo del padiglione si apre, e si scuopre la piazza della The back of the tent is opened and the city square is seen. It is il cielo e il genitor. and my father triumph. città, ingombri di soldati, che si aggirano in disordine con le crowded with soldiers, who are rushing about in disorder with La voce estrema è questa This is the last word spade ignude. their swords drawn. d’un lacerato cor. of a broken heart. SELIMO SELIM MAOMETTO MEHMET Signor, non liete nuove io reco. Sir, I bring unhappy news. Gli accenti estremi ascolta Hearken to the last words d’un disperato amor: of a desperate love: MAOMETTO MEHMET tu non sarai più tolta no more shall you be taken Oh rabbia… Parla: che fu? I am furious… Speak: what has happened? del mondo al vincitor; from the conqueror of the world; o pur cadrai tu, o stolta, or else you shall fall victim, SELIMO SELIM vittima al mio furor. foolish girl, to my fury. Dalla rocca respinto Acmet si vide, Acmet was driven back from the citadel, La voce estrema è questa This is the last word e in fuga vil rivolta la sua falange. and his troop turned to flight. d’un disperato amor. of a desperate love. Vieni! Come! MAOMETTO MEHMET Fermate, indegni! Stop, you vile rabble! ANNA ANNA Se desio di sangue If the thirst for blood still rages in you, Ti scolta! Leave me! anco in voi ferve, negl’inermi petti what baseness leads you ad appagarlo qual viltà vi tragge? to slake it in unarmed breasts? MAOMETTO MEHMET Dalla rocca fuggiste, e qui pugnate? You flee from the citadel and fight here? Invan resisti. Resistance is vain. E il mondo conquistar così sperate? And is this how you hope to conquer the world? Alla rocca, o codardi, ed io primiero Get back to the citadel, cowards, and I will be the first ANNA ANNA indicarne saprò l’arduo sentiero. to show you the arduous path. O cielo! O heaven! All’armi! To arms! Non tanta crudeltà! Not such cruelty! Gli accenti estremi ascolta Hearken to the last words SOLDATI fuori SOLDIERS offstage d’un lacerato cor: of a broken heart: All’armi! To arms! amo, ma pria sepolta I love, but sooner would I be buried che cedere all’amor. than yield to love. Un battere di tamburi chiama i soldati, i quali si schierano Drums are heard summoning the soldiers, who hastily group in fretta. themselves. Un lontano crescent tumulto. A distant, growing tumult is heard.

30 MAOMETTO MEHMET Dunque il piè volgiamo al campo Then let us turn our steps E tu donna, fa cor. Finchè m’avanza And you, lady, take heart. So long della gloria su’ sentieri on the paths to the field of glory. di possederti ancor l’alta speranza, as there still remains to me the high hope Delle nostre spade il lampo The flash of our swords il padre tuo sicuro of possessing you, I swear that your father la vittoria desterà. will awaken victory. ognor vivrà, lo giuro. shall continue to live in safety. 34 Dell’ontà Fearlessly l’impronta and boldly ANNA ANNA fugace I will wipe out Tu parti, ahi lassa, intanto. E mal represso Meanwhile, alas, you are leaving, and the fury nel Veneto sangue the momentary ancor mi sembra il soldatesco sdegno. of your soldiers still seems to me uncontrolled. impavido, audace, stamp of shame Lasciami almen di sicurtade un segno. At least leave me a token of security. appien laverò! in Venetian blood! O esangue Or I will MAOMETTO MEHMET sul brando, bravely fall, L’imperial suggello, ecco, t’affido. Here, I entrust you with the imperial seal. sfidando exhausted, Arbitra or tu del genitor sarai Now you shall be arbiter for your father la morte, on my sword, e del fratel pur anco; ed obbedienti and for your brother too; and you will find da forte defying guerrieri e duci ad ogni cenno avrai. warriors and captains obedient to your order. cadrò. death. D’amor l’ultima prova, You see, Anna, I am giving you Anna, il vedi, io ti porgo. the ultimate proof of my love. Incomincia il suono delle musiche military l’esercito The sound of military bands begins, and the army moves off. Trema però se al rieder mio non cangi But tremble if at my return you do not s’incamina. il disperato tuo consiglio, trema… change your hopeless counsel, tremble… Non io più allor, ma parlerebbe il brando. I will say no more then, but my sword will speak. I SOLDATI MUSULMANI MUSLIM SOLDIERS Dell’araba tromba Already the blare Entrano nel padiglione i duci musulmani. The Muslim captains enter the tent. già intorno rimbomba of the Arab trumpet lo squillo foriero resounds all about, I DUCI MUSULMANI MUSLIM CAPTAINS di stragi e d’orror. foretelling carnage and horror. 33 Ah che più tardi ancor? Why are you still waiting? Frementi, impazienti, The troops, trembling MAOMETTO al guerriero che tiene lo stendardo MEHMET to the warrior holding the standard le schiere or solo attendono with impatience now await L’invitto vessillo Warrior, hand me the il cenno tuo, Signor. only your signal, my lord. mi porgi, guerrier. unconquered flag. stringendo lo stendardo e mostrandolo a’ soldati grasping the flag and displaying it to his soldiers No. 8 Aria Maometto Mehmet’s Aria Slanciarmi I will be the first fra l’armi of the army MAOMETTO MEHMET io primo saprò. to rush forward. All’invito generoso At this gallant request riconosco i miei guerrieri I declare to my warriors L’esercito prosiegue a sfilare. The army continues to march past. che si sdegnan del riposo, that they should disdain rest, e lo chiamano vilta. and call it baseness.

31 I SOLDATI MUSULMANI MUSLIMS SOLDIERS ERISSO ERISSO Dell’araba tromba, ecc. Already the blare, etc. si volge, e vede la tomba della sua consorte turning and seeing the tomb of his wife Ahimè! Qual tomba io veggo! Alas! What tomb do I see! ANNA ANNA Della mia sposa il cenere siasconde In that, Calbo, are hidden the ashes Qual voce celeste What heavenly voice in quella, o Calbo. Ahi, duol! of my wife. Oh grief! al cor mi ragiona? speaks to my heart? S’inginocchia innanzi la tomba. He kneels before the tomb. Qual foco m’investe, What fire fills me e a compier mi sprona and spurs me on to fulfil Tenera sposa! Beloved wife! bell’opra d’onor? that great task of honour? In ciel riposi or tu. Così seguito You now repose in heaven. If only I too pur io t’avessi! D’una iniqua figlia had followed you! I would not now Parte sollecitamente. She hurries away. or non vedrei gli scelerati ardori. see the shameful love of a wicked daughter.

Scena: amplo sotteraneo del tempio, tutto sparso di sepolcri, Scene: the spacious vaults of the church, with tombs all CALBO CALBO fra quali quello della moglie di Erisso. Erisso e Calbo sugli around, including that of Erisso’s wife. Erisso and Calbo are Lasso! Che dici? E di qual colpa è rea Alas, what are you saying? And of what offence ultimi gradini della scala: s’inoltrano lentamente. on the last steps of the staircase and come forward slowly. la misera tua figlia? Is your unhappy daughter guilty? She thought Uberto amar credea; nè fu mai colpa it was Uberto she loved; it was never l’esser credulo troppo. a crime to be too credulous.

Scena prima dell’Aria Calbo Scene before Calbo’s Aria ERISSO ERISSO Ed or non siede And is she now not seated ERISSO ERISSO di Maometto al fianco? at Mehmet’s side? 35 Sieguimi, o Calbo. Fra’ muti sepolcri Follow me, Calbo, For a while, at least, de’ barbari al furor per poco almeno we can evade the barbarians’ fury CALBO CALBO involarci potrem. among the silent tombs. Tratta a forza vi fu. La vidi io stesso She was forced to do so. I myself saw her Non ch’io paventi Not that I fear divincolarsi da’ feroci sgherri at least three times struggling to free herself quella morte, ch’io sfido. that death which I defy, but so long per ben tre fiate; e vinta alfin, le palme from fierce ruffians, and overcome at last, Ma finchè speme di vendetta avanza as hope of revenge remains, it is permitted ergere al cielo quasi fuor di senno. raising her hands to heaven as if out of her mind; amar lice la vita; ed io la serbo, to love life; and I still retain E mille volte profferia tuo nome; a thousand times she uttered your name, la serbo ancor, questa speranza estrema. that last hope. I constantly turn e pur da lunge ripeteami… addio! and even from afar repeated to me, farewell! Gli avidi sguardi a quella rocca io sempre my eager gaze on that citadel volgo e sospiro. Oh se potessi in quella and sigh. Oh, could I but fly there ERISSO ERISSO volar sull’ali de’ pietosi venti, on the wings of the merciful winds, Vedesti? Udisti? Ma chi sa se poi You saw her? You heard her? But who knows e rivestir l’usbergo, e a questa mano, take up my shield again, and return to my hand non cangiò di consiglio if she did not then change her mind render quel brando, che le tolse il fato! Tu taci? that sword which fate snatched from me! You are silent? all’aspetto d’un trono e del periglio? at the sight of the throne and of her peril?

CALBO CALBO Rimane in sommo abbattimento assiso sulla tomba della He remains, deeply dejected, seated on the tomb of his wife. Io taccio, e fremo. I am silent, and I tremble. sposa sua.

32 No. 9 Aria Calbo Calbo’s Aria ERISSO ERISSO Tu sei? Sogno o son desto? Is it you? Am I awake or dreaming? CALBO CALBO 36 Non temer: d’un basso affetto Do not fear: that heart was never ANNA ANNA non fu mai quel cor capace, capable of a base emotion, Mi discacci! E perchè? You reject me! But why? nè saprebbe la tua pace nor could it ever buy its peace mai comprar con la viltà. with a dishonourable act. ERISSO ERISSO Del periglio al fero aspetto At the fierce sight of danger Pria che risponda, dimmi, Before replying, tell me, ella intrepida già parmi she already seemed to seize boldly torni mia figlia o mia nemica? is it my daughter who returns, or my enemy? impugnar lo scudo e l’armi the shield and the arms d’una bella fedeltà. of noble faithfulness. ANNA ANNA E d’un trono alla speranza And at the prospect of a throne Questa impavida fronte a te lo dica. Let this fearless face tell you. dir, con placida sembianza: to say, with an appearance of calm, basso affetto nel mio petto ‘A base affection will never ERISSO ERISSO nido aver mai non potrà. find a home in my heart’. Di quella tomba appiè dunque lo giura. Then swear it at the foot of this tomb.

Recitativo dopo l’Aria Calbo Recitative after Calbo’s Aria ANNA prostrandosi alla tomba ANNA kneeling before the tomb Anna discende precipitosamente nel sotterraneo. Anna hurriedly descends into the vault. Madre, dal ciel in questo cor tu leggi. Mother, from heaven look into my heart.

ANNA ANNA ERISSO corre ad abbracciar la figlia ERISSO running to embrace his daughter 37 Padre… Father… Crederti io voglio. I want to believe you.

ERISSO ERISSO ANNA ANNA Qual voce! That voice! E il ver tu credi, o padre, You will believe it, father, e a darne prova alta solenne io vengo. and I come to give solemn proof of it. CALBO CALBO Dà l’anello al padre. She gives him Mehmet’s seal. Chi vegg’io? Whom do I see? Questo mirate imperial suggello Look, take this imperial seal che or mi porse Maometto, tenete. which Mehmet gave me. ANNA correndo al padre ANNA running to her father Al fuggir vostro non fia There will be no one M’abbraccia. Embrace me. chi opporsi ardisca. who would dare prevent your flight. La patria io servo con salvar due prodi; I serve my country by saving two valiant men; ERISSO ERISSO se me salvar procuro, io la tradisco if I manage to save myself, I betray it. Scostati! Get away from me! Morir m’è forza. I must die, and I will, a Calbo to Calbo ANNA ANNA ed io morrò, ma tua. but I will die yours. Ahimè! Alas! CALBO CALBO Che parli? What are you saying?

33 ANNA ANNA ERISSO ERISSO Odimi, o padre! Hear me, father! Io tremo. I tremble. A lui consorte or dianzi Not long ago you destined me as wife to him me destinavi e, lassa! and, alas, for the first time CALBO CALBO la prima volta il voler tuo m’increbbe. I disagreed with your wish. Io gelo. I freeze. Or chieggo, e prego, e imploro Now I ask, I plead, I implore you che il tuo desio pria di partir tu compia. to fulfil that wish before leaving. Al nuovo invite di Anna, Calbo ed Erisso ascendono la scala. At a renewed sign from Anna, Calbo and Erisso ascend the Ara non v’ha, nè sacerdote in questo There is neither altar nor priest staircase. muto albergo di morte; in this silent abode of death; ma sacro è un genitor d’innanzi al cielo. but a parent is sacred in the sight of heaven. ERISSO ERISSO Ara pe’ figli è la materna tomba A mother’s tomb is an altar for her children, Ah figlia! Ah, my daughter! e i decreti d’un padre Iddio conferma. and God confirms a father’s decree. Vieni, non più dimore. Come, no more delay: I wish CALBO CALBO Degna almen di te morir vogl’io. at least to die worthy of you. Oh sposa! Oh my dear wife!

Lo spinge dolcemente verso la tomba. She pushes Erisso gently towards the tomb. ANNA, CALBO, ERISSO ANNA, CALBO, ERISSO A rivederci… in cielo. Till we meet again… in heaven. ERISSO ERISSO Parlar non posso, che m’affoga il pianto. I cannot speak. Tears choke me. Calbo ed Erisso partono. Calbo and Erisso depart.

ANNA ANNA No. 11 Scena e Coro – Preghiera Scene and Chorus – Prayer Calbo, ti stringi al genitor d’accanto. Calbo, draw close to my father. ANNA va a sedere sulla tomba materna ANNA sitting on her mother’s tomb Erisso stringe insieme le destre di Anna e di Calbo, poi le Erisso, bathed in tears, clasps the hands of Anna and Calbo 39 Alfin compiuta è la metà dell’opra. At last one half of the task is accomplished: accosta al suo cuo, appoggiandosi sulla tomba, ed ergendo together, then presses them to his heart, leaning against the L’altra a compir mi resta. the other remains to be done. gli sguardi al cielo. tomb and raising his eyes to heaven. Un sacrificio è questa, This is a sacrifice, and the victim e la vittima io son. L’ultimo sfogo is myself. Now take your last relief No. 10 Terzettino Little Trio t’abbi or nel pianto, o debole natura. in tears, o feeble nature. Ora verrà, che fia viltade il pianto. Henceforth tears will be cowardly. CALBO, ANNA, ERISSO CALBO, ANNA, ERISSO Or da me lungi ogni terreno affetto. Now far from me is all earthly emotion. 38 In questi estremi istanti In these last moments, O morte, il giunger tuo tranquilla aspetto. O death, I calmly await your coming. è tanto acerbo e nuovo the anguish and grief I feel l’affanno, il duol ch’io provo, is so bitter and new LE DONNE di fuori WOMEN offstage ch’esprimerlo non so. that I cannot express it. 40 Nume, cui’l sole è trono, O God whose throne is the sun, Nume, cui brando è il tuono, God, whose sword is the thunder, ANNA facendo cenno che partano, al padre ed allo sposo ANNA motioning for them to leave a noi rivolgi il ciglio turn your face again to us Coraggio! Courage! nell’ultimo periglio. in our extreme peril.

34 ANNA ANNA No. 12 Finale secondo Second Finale Pregan nel tempio le mie dolci amiche. My dear friends are praying in the church. LE DONNE WOMEN LE DONNE WOMEN 42 Sventurata! Fuggir sol ti resta Unhappy girl, only flight from the fury Il fulmine, deh! accendi; Oh, let your lightning strike, il furor di vicina tempesta. of the approaching storm is left to you. i figli tuoi difendi, defend your children, Già sul punto di vincer la giostra Mehmet, already on the point of winning e un soffio struggitor and let a consuming blast sulla rocca Maometto si slancia. the struggle on the citadel, was rushing forward disperda il vincitor. scatter the conqueror. Ecco Erisso improvviso si mostra; when suddenly Erisso showed himself ecco splende di Calbo la lancia. and Calbo’s lance shone. ANNA ANNA Odi un grido di gioia fra; vinti; A cry of joy went up from the defeated; 41 Taccion le preci omai. Chi sa che avvenne? Now the prayers have ceased. Who knows cadon mille de’ barbari estinti, a thousand of the barbarians fell dead, Chi sa se vinse il genitor? Che parlo, what is happening, and if my father has won? e al fuggir del superbo signor and as the arrogant lord fled, stolta! Chi sa s’ei prima in salvo What am I saying, foolish girl? Who knows tutto è strage, sconfitta ed orror. all was carnage, rout and horror. col mio sposo non giunse? if first he reached safety with my husband? Sventurata! Fuggir sol ti resta Unhappy girl, only flight from the fury Ahi penosa incertezza, i miei tormenti Ah, painful uncertainty, you alone were lacking il furor di vicina tempesta. of the approaching storm is left to you. tu sol mancavi a render più possenti! to make my torments heavier! Ognun, chiede, fremendo, tua morte. Everyone, fuming, is calling for your death. A supplizio crudel ti destina, Cruel torture is decreed for you, LE DONNE dal tempio WOMEN from the church chè per te sol cangiata è la sorte, for by you alone fate was changed, Anna, ove sei? Anna, where are you? per te avvenne cotanta rovina. by you was such ruin brought about. Or deh! Cedi al pietoso consiglio: Oh yield now to our pitying advice: ANNA ANNA Deh! Ci segui, t’invola al periglio. follow us, fly from peril. Quai grida? What are those cries? In noi fida; la nostra pietà Trust in us; our compassion coronata dal cielo sarà. will be crowned by heaven. LE DONNE WOMEN Anna, rispondi! Anna, reply! ANNA ANNA 43 Vinti i Veneti han dunque? Then the Venetians have won? ANNA ANNA Trionfa il genitor? Lo sposo? Oh gioia! My father has triumphed? My husband? Oh joy! Chieggon di me! Che fia? They are asking for me! What is it? E ch’io fugga chiedete? And you ask me to flee, Io che la prima gloria I who have the chief glory ALCUNE DONNE appariscono sull’alto della scala SOME WOMEN appearing at the top of the staircase ho di tanta vittoria? of such a victory? Flee? Dove t’ascondi? Where are you hiding? Fuggir? Ma dove? E per salvar me sola But where? And in saving me alone espor voi tutte all’ultimo periglio? expose you all to extreme danger? Tutte le donne discendono nell sotteraneo. The women descend the staircase. A’ codardi serbate un tal consiglio. Give such counsel to cowards. 44 Quella morte che s’avanza That death which approaches io sospiro e non pavento, I long for and do not fear, che l’uscire di speranza for the loss of hope è il più barbaro tormento is the cruellest torment, e dell’unica mia speme and of my one hope

35 non mi resta che il rossor, nothing remains but shame, I MUSULMANI che discendono nel sotterraneo MUSLIMS descending into the vault onde in queste angosce estreme so that in this final anguish Ecco la perfida! Here is the traitress! la mia vita è nel dolor. my life is one of sorrow. Su via, trascinasi Come on! Drag her fra mille strazi through endless tortures Il dover compiuto omai Now I have done my duty a spirar l’anima. till she gives up the ghost. ho di figlia e cittadina. as a daughter and as a citizen. la mia fronte, o ciel, piegai I bowed my head, o heaven, Si slanciano furibondi colle spade ignude per trucidarla. They rush forward with their swords drawn to kill her. alla voce tua divina; to your divine voice; ma l’iniquo e dolce affetto but the guilty sweet emotion ANNA ANNA non è spento nel mio cor. in my heart is not dead. Ferite! Strike, then! Nella morte il fine aspetto In death I await the end degli affanni e dell’amor. of my woes and my love. LE DONNE WOMEN Ahimè! Alas! LE DONNE WOMEN Sarai dunque, ahimè, reciso, Will you then, alas, be cut down, I Musulmani si arrestano quasi sbigottiti dal di lei contegno. The Muslims come to a halt, dismayed. vago fior di gioventù? fair flower of youth, Vago fior che il Paradiso fair flower that paradise I MUSULMANI MUSLIMS adornù di sue virtù. adorned with its virtues? Qual forza incognita What unknown force ci arresta il piè? halts our feet? I MUSULMANI di fuori MUSLIMS offstage Eppur quest’empia And yet this miscreant Invan la perfida, In vain does the traitress diva non è. is no goddess. invano ascondesi. hide herself, all in vain. Sia pur nell’Erebo, Our rage will follow her ANNA ANNA la nostra rabbia, even into hell. 45 Si, ferite: il chieggo, il merto. Yes, strike: I ask it, I deserve it. il suo supplizio She cannot escape Quelle spade in me volgete, Turn those swords on me, schivar non può. her torture. che di gloria il più bel serto for kind heaven is already preparing già m’appresta amico il ciel. for me the finest garland of glory. LE DONNE WOMEN Quai strida orribili! What hideous cries! LE DONNE WOMEN Le ascolti, o misera? Do you hear them, wretched girl? A quei detti sì pietosi At such pitiful words as those, Già qui s’appressano The enraged barbarians chi frenar potrebbe il pianto? who could restrain their tears? furenti i barbari. are already approaching. Fia d’Italia eterno il vanto May she be the eternal glory per si bella fedeltà. of Italy for such noble fidelity. ANNA ANNA Ed io non pavida And I will face them I MUSULMANI MUSLIMS gli affronterò. unafraid. A quei detti generosi At such gallant words lo stupor c’ingombra il petto. amazement fills our breasts. Su quei labbri, in quell’aspetto, On those lips, in that demeanour, qual dolcezza e maestà! what sweetness and dignity!

36 ANNA ANNA MAOMETTO MEHMET 46 Madre, a te che sull’Empiro Mother, to you who sit Calbo dicesti! Calbo, you said! siedi in placida quiete, in tranquillity in highest heaven, Consorte! e non german! Your husband, and not your brother! sacro è l’ultimo sospiro is consecrated the last sigh di quest’anima fedel. of this faithful soul. ANNA ANNA Sul cenere materno io porsi a lui la mano: On my mother’s ashes I gave him my hand Scena: Maometto, seguito da Selimo ed altri suoi capitani, Scene: Mehmet, followed by Selim and other soldiers, rushes il cenere materno coglie mio sangue ancor. let my mother’s ashes now receive my blood. giunge precipitoso nel sotterraneo, e resta immobile per into the vault. He advances and stands motionless for a alcun poco, tenendo gli occhi fissi su di Anna. Ella non moment, keeping his eyes fixed on Anna. She does not dare to Si ferisce. She stabs herself. ardisce guardiarlo. look at him. MAOMETTO, LE DONNE, I MUSULMANI MEHMET, WOMEN, MUSLIMS MAOMETTO MEHMET T’arresta! T’arresta! Stop! How dreadful a moment! 47 Già tra le tombe! oh perfida, Already among the tombs? Oh, false woman, Oh istante orribile! O day of grief! vana è la tua speranza, your hopes are vain, Oh giorno di dolor! She is already dying. di vita assai t’avvanza you still have enough life left to suffer Già muore, oh Dio, la misera! O heaven, unhappy girl! all’ infamia e al dolor. infamy and sorrow. Oh giorno di dolor! O day of grief!

ANNA ANNA Anna cade morta appiè del sepolcro. Anna falls dead on her mother’s tomb. Da prevenirti, o barbaro To forestall you, barbarian, mi resta un ferro ancor. a dagger still is left me.

MAOMETTO MEHMET Ciò ch’io ti porsi, or rendimi. Now return to me what I gave you.

ANNA ANNA Non te’l rendea fra l’armi Did not my husband and my father lo sposo e il genitor? return it to you in the battle?

MAOMETTO MEHMET Che! Lo sposo? Ad insultarmi! What! Your husband? You insult me! Lo sposo tuo? Your husband? Dì, chi è questi? Say who he is.

ANNA ANNA Calbo. Calbo.

37 Ladies of the Chorus of Garsington Opera

38 Siân Davies Richard Dowling Siân Davies made her professional debut with Chicago Opera Theatre singing Elcia in Richard Dowling studies at the Royal Academy of Music, where he is supported by Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto and in 2013 reprised the role with New York City Opera. Her the Kohn Foundation and the Ian Fleming Award through the Musicians’ Benevolent European opera debut was in 2013 as Anna in Maometto secondo with Garsington Opera. Fund. In 2012, his first season with Garsington Opera, he sang in the chorus for She studied Music in Voice at Indiana University, where she sang the Countess in Don Giovanni and La Périchole. In Royal Academy opera scenes he has sung Pelléas Le nozze di Figaro, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Madame Pompous in Edwin in Pelléas et Mélisande, Durante in Leoncavallo’s La bohème, Bill in Flight and Ferrando Penhorwood’s Too Many Sopranos; and has been a member of a number of young artists’ in Così fan tutte. At the Academy he won the Flora Nielson Prize for song and was programmes including at Santa Fe Opera and Central City Opera. On the concert stage runner-up in the Schumann Lieder Competition. He is an experienced oratorio she has sung in Handel’s Israel in Egypt (Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee); Mozart’s artist and has sung the Evangelist in the St John Passion, Finzi’s Dies Natalis and Requiem (Rome Festival Orchestra); Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mozart’s Mass in C, Bach’s Janáček’s Otčenáš. Magnificat and Vivaldi’s Gloria. In 2014 she makes her debut with the Metropolitan Opera, New York, as Clotilde in Norma and her Japanese debut as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro with Seiji Ozawa and his Ongaku-Juku music academy.

Caitlin Hulcup Christopher Diffey Born in Australia, Caitlin studied as a violinist at the Banff Center for the Arts in Christopher Diffey trained at the Royal Academy of Music. Awards include the English Canada and played viola in the West Australian Symphony Orchestra while training Touring Opera Young Artist bursary. Operatic engagements have included Triplet One as a singer. Opera engagements have included the title role Ariodante (Theater an der Clemency and Mercury in Orpheus in the Underworld (Scottish Opera); Cavaradossi in Tosca Wien, Barbican, Teatro Real Madrid, Bayerische Staatsoper, Halle Handel Festival); (Opera Novella); Don José in Carmen (Garden Opera); Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Zerlina Don Giovanni and Dorabella Così fan tutte (Scottish Opera); Meg Page Falstaff Serail (Ilford Opera); Fenton in Falstaff (Longborough Festival); Barney in Circus Tricks (Théätre des Champs-Elysées); Diana La Calisto (La Monnaie); Arbaces Artaxerxes and Talus in Icarus (Tête à Tête world premieres); Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville (Royal Opera House); Rosina Il barbiere di Siviglia and Dorabella (Vienna State (Opera Brava, Garden Opera); Alfredo in La traviata (Garden Opera, Opera UK); Paris Opera); title role in Vivaldi’s Griselda (Sydney); Donna Elvira Don Giovanni in Troy Boy (Merry Opera Company); Ramiro in Cinderella and Rodolfo in La bohème (Valencia); title role Carmen (St Petersburg); Octavian Der Rosenkavalier (Bolshoi (OperaUpClose); the Second Priest in The Magic Flute (Opera Holland Park) and the title role in Dardanus Theatre Moscow, Florence) and Donna Elvira (Florence). (Royal Academy Opera). Concert performances include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Manchester Camerata and Leeds Philharmonic) and Missa brevis in A (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment).

39 Darren Jeffery David Parry Darren Jeffery studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, was a member of the David Parry began his career at Glyndebourne, going on to become Music Director Royal Opera Vilar Young Artists Programme and was a finalist in the 2008 Seattle of Opera 80 and Almeida Opera. Currently he is Artistic Associate of the Norfolk International Wagner Competition. Operatic engagements include Sciarrone in Tosca, and Norwich Festival. He has conducted more than 30 world premieres, among Masetto in Don Giovanni, Monterone in Rigoletto, Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte, Bottom in them Jonathan Dove’s Flight for Glyndebourne and The Adventures of Pinocchio for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Royal Opera); Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro (Montpellier); Opera North. His extensive discography boasts several award-winning recordings, Donner in The Rhinegold, Hobson in Peter Grimes (English National Opera); Theseus in including a Gramophone Award for his recording with Opera Rara of Ermione in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Truffaldino in Ariadne auf Naxos, Hauptmann in Gurlitt’s 2011. His operatic repertoire is wide and catholic. At English National Opera he Wozzeck (Teatro Real Madrid); Masetto (Rome, Amsterdam); Trulove in The Rake’s Progress created with Anthony Minghella the production of Madam Butterfly, which won an (Lyon, Brussels, Madrid, ROH); Capulet in Roméo et Juliette (ROH, Salzburg Festival); Olivier Award in 2005. Other operas include Ernani, La vestale, The Barber of Seville, Kothner in Die Meistersinger (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Golova in Mayskaya Noch’ Don Giovanni, The Mikado (ENO); Nabucco, L’elisir d’amore, Idomeneo, The Thieving Magpie (Opera North); Così fan (Garsington Opera); Bottom and Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Opera North); Lieutenant Ratcliffe in tutte (Glyndebourne); La gazza ladra, Il barbiere di Siviglia, L’equivoco stravagante, Le Comte Ory, Don Pasquale, La donna Billy Budd (Glyndebourne). On the concert platform he has sung with the Hallé and Mark Elder; London Symphony del lago, La Cenerentola, Armida, Il turco in Italia (Garsington Opera); La Bohème (Royal Albert Hall). International Orchestra and Colin Davis and Daniel Harding; Colorado Symphony Orchestra / Douglas Boyd. highlights include The Rake’s Progress, Jenůfa and the Spanish premiere of Peter Grimes (Madrid); Lucia di Lammermoor (Tel Aviv and Murcia); Tosca (Hong Kong Festival); Kát’a Kabanová and Fidelio (New Zealand Festival); Maria Stuarda (Basel and Stockholm); Carmen (Jerez); La Fille du régiment, La traviata, Giulio Cesare (Oviedo); Carmen, Les Contes Paul Nilon d’Hoffmann (San Sebastian); Don Giovanni (Hanover); Der fliegende Holländer (Portland Opera); Nixon in China Paul Nilon is a lyric tenor with a repertory ranging from Rossini to Britten. He (Athens); Don Giovanni, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Le Comte Ory, The Adventures of Pinocchio (Stuttgart). has worked for most of the major British opera companies and internationally with companies including the Bayerische Staatsoper, Netherlands Opera, San Francisco Opera and Dallas Opera. His roles include Septimus in Theodora, Tamino in Susanna Stranders Die Zauberflöte, Lurcanio in Ariodante, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Tom Rakewell in Susanna is Head of Music Staff for Garsington Opera, where, in 2013, she conducted the The Rake’s Progress, Prologue and Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw, Pylade in community opera, Road Rage. After graduating from Exeter University with first-class Iphigénie en Tauride, Grimoaldo in Rodelinda, Alfredo in La traviata, Mischa in honours in music, she studied at the Guildhall School and the University of Cincinnati, Julietta and in the title roles of Idomeneo, Orfeo, Ulisse, Werther and Zemlinsky’s winning many accompanist prizes. She was répétiteur for Cincinnati Opera, San Francisco Der Zwerg. Recent operatic engagements include Idomeneo (ENO) and for the Opera’s Merola Programme, a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio and on the Buxton Festival in a version by Richard Strauss; Chartkov in Weinberg’s The Portrait, Gregor in The Makropulos Case, Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House. She has since worked regularly for Tito La clemenza di Tito (Opera North) and the world premiere of Life is a Dream by Jonathan Dove (Birmingham the ROH and many other international opera houses and symphony orchestras. Susanna Opera Company). Garsington Opera roles include Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Dario in L’incoronazione di Dario has accompanied eminent singers and instrumentalists in recital performances and has and Sultan Mahmud in La verità in cimento, both by Vivaldi. broadcast live for the BBC on both television and radio. Currently a vocal coach at many leading conservatoires, she is also official pianist for the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition and is Music Director for the Opera Scenes at the Oxenfoord International Summer School.

40 Garsington Opera Orchestra

First violin Robert Salter (leader), Simon Lewis, Nicoline Kraamwinkel, Leo Payne, Malu Lin Swayne, Jake Rea, Tim Birchall, Chris Bevan Second violin Clare Hoffman, Karen James, Malcolm Allison, Amanda Woods, Rosemary Henbest, Christopher Windass Viola Dorothea Vogel, Clive Howard, Chian Lim, Catherine Bradshaw Cello Jane Fenton, Philippa Schofield, Penny Bradshaw, Ben Davies Bass Chris West, David Johnson Flute Julian Sperry, Katey Thomas Oboe Alun Darbyshire, Clare Hoskins Clarinet Peter Sparks, Sarah Thurlow Bassoon Philip Gibbon, Damian Brasington Horn Caroline O’Connell, Alexia Camish, Mark Wood, Christine Norsworthy Trumpet Tim Hawes, Simon Gabriel Trombone Sue Addison, Jeremy Gough, Ian Fasham Cimbasso Martin Knowles Timpani Matthew Rich Percussion Cameron Sinclair, Austin Beattie

Orchestra manager Richard Nelson

Garsington Opera Chorus

Helen Bruce, Jessica Costelloe, Grace Durham, Jennifer France, Helen Anne Gregory, Anna Harvey, Rhiannon Llewellyn, Hazel McBain, Alice Rose Privett, Anna Sideris, Joanna Songi, Lucinda Stuart-Grant Daniel Borowski, Jan Capinski, Christopher Diffey, Richard Dowling, Alexander Duliba, Alessandro Fisher, Tristan Hambleton, Oliver Johnston, Nicholas Mogg, Matthew Thomas Morgan, Henry Neill, Alistair Ollerenshaw, Dominic Sedgwick, Martins Smaukstelis, Elgan Llyr Thomas, Bo Wang

Opposite: the Orchestra of Garsington Opera

41 Garsington Opera

Maometto secondo Director Edward Dick Assistant Director Tess Gibbs Designer Robert Innes Hopkins Lighting Designer Rick Fisher Garsington Opera gives performances of great artistic quality in a setting of extraordinary natural beauty. Movement Jane Gibson Performances take place in the spectacular Opera Pavilion, which sits within the rolling landscape of the Chiltern Hills, less than an hour from London. Garsington Opera was founded in 1989 by the late Leonard Ingrams and his Repetiteur Nicholas Bosworth wife Rosalind at Garsington Manor, near Oxford. Following Leonard’s untimely death, Garsington Opera moved Language Coach Isabella Ratcliffe to the Wormsley Estate, home of the Getty family, in 2011. This production was sponsored by Ruffer LLP and supported by The festival presents a programme of three operas each year during June and July, often including a Mozart The Constellation of Garsington and opera, and also champions lesser-known works which have included a number of notable British premieres – Gary Morris and Robert Venables QC as trustees of the Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation Haydn’s Orlando Paladino, Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade, and Rossini’s Armida, L’equivoco stravagante and Maometto secondo. Productions have also been taken to a number of European festivals and the company’s 2007 production of Artistic Director Douglas Boyd Richard Strauss’s Die Ägyptische Helena was presented at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Executive Director Nicola Creed Garsington Opera is committed to promoting excellence and engaging the very best performers from around Director of Opera Planning Susan Hamilton the world, as well as showcasing talent from within the UK who are just beginning to make their names on the Artistic Consultant Sarah Playfair worldwide opera stage. Singers are given the opportunity to work with directors and conductors of distinction. Press and Publicity Clare Adams The Garsington Opera Orchestra provides the artistic core of the festival’s performances, many of the musicians having played with the company for over 20 years. Their contribution and the enthusiasm and vibrancy of the Performed by arrangement with Faber Music Ltd, London Garsington Opera Chorus, most of whom are just out of music conservatoires, are integral to the Garsington Opera experience. Garsington Opera continues to introduce a new generation to opera through education and Recording Producer Michael Haas outreach and exploring digital innovations that will enable the Festival’s productions to be experienced by a new Recording Engineers Jonathan Stokes, Neil Hutchinson & Christopher Roberts (Classic Sound Ltd) and wider audience. Booklet Editor Henrietta Bredin Production Photographs Mike Hoban

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