GIOACHINO ROSSINI Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra

ORC 22

in association with

Box cover and front cover pack : Elizabeth I by an unknown artist of the English School, 1590s, oil on panel. Purchased by the Peter Moores Foundation for display at Compton Verney, Warwickshire. © CVHT Booklet cover : The signature of Elizabeth I CD faces : Elizabeth I Opposite and inside cover pack : Gioachino Rossini (Opera Rara archive)

–1– GIOACHINO ROSSINI ELISABETTA REGINA D’INGHILTERRA Dramma per musica in two acts Libretto by Giovanni Schmidt

Elisabetta, Queen of England ...... Jennifer Larmore Leicester, general of the armies ...... Bruce Ford Matilde, his secret wife , daughter of Mary Stuart ...... Majella Cullagh Enrico, the brother of Matilde , son of Mary Stuart ...... Manuela Custer Norfolk, grandee of the realm ...... Antonino Siragusa Guglielmo, captain of the royal guards ...... Colin Lee

Geoffrey Mitchell Choir Knights, ladies, Scottish noblemen, hostages of Elisabetta, officers of Leicester’s forces, pages, royal guards, soldiers

London Philharmonic Orchestra leader, Marcia Crayford

Giuliano Carella, conductor

–2– Jennifer Larmore Producer and Artistic Director: Patric Schmid

Managing Director: Stephen Revell

Assistant conductor and producer: Stuart Stratford Répétiteur: Nicholas Bosworth Italian coach: Maria Cleva Music librarian: Jacqui Compton Assistant to the Artistic Director: Marco Impallomeni

Article and libretto: Jeremy Commons

Recording Engineer: Chris Braclik Assistant Sound Engineers: Chris Bowman and Edward Braclik

Editing: Patric Schmid and Chris Braclik

Recorded at St Clement’s Church, London March 2002

A new edition of Rossini’s opera was made specifically for this recording by Ian Schofield. Opera Rara would like to thank the Rossini Foundation and its president Maestro Bruno Cagli for permission to work from a facsimile of the autograph manuscript.

–4– CONTENTS

Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra by Jeremy Commons...... Page 11

Performance History...... Page 46

The Story...... Page 51

Résumé de l’intrigue...... Page 55

Die Handlung...... Page 59

La Vicenda...... Page 64

Libretto...... Page 69

–5– CD1 47’48

Dur Page [1] Sinfonia 7’04 69 ACT I _ Part One Introduzione _ Norfolk [2] Coro _ ‘Più lieta, più bella’ 2’30 69 [3] Cavatina _ ‘Oh voci funeste’ 4’08 69

[4] Recitative _ Guglielmo, Norfolk ‘Nel giubilo comun’ 2’03 71

Coro e Cavatina _ Elisabetta [5] Coro _ ‘Esulta, Elisa, omai’ 1’32 73 [6] Aria _ ‘Quant’è grato’ 4’05 73 [7] Cabaletta _ ‘Questo cor ben lo comprende’ 3’25 75

[8] Recitative _ Elisabetta, Guglielmo ‘Grandi del regno’ 1’19 75 [9] Coro _ ‘Vieni, o prode’ 2’40 76 [10] Recitative _ Elisabetta, Leicester, Matilde, Norfolk ‘Alta Regina’ 3’08 78

Duetto _ Leicester, Matilde [11] ‘Incauta! che festi!’ 2’30 82 [12] ‘Che palpito io sento!’ 2’20 82

[13] Recitative _ Leicester, Matilde, Enrico ‘Sconsigliata!’ 3’24 83

–6– Dur Page Aria _ Matilde [14] Aria _ ‘Sento un’interna voce’ 3’32 88 [15] Cabaletta _ ‘Ah! se tolto un sol momento’ 3’55 90

CD 2 35’32

ACT I _ Part Two [1] Recitative _ Enrico, Leicester, Norfolk, Elisabetta ‘Infelice! Pur troppo’ 5’06 90

Scena e Duetto _ Elisabetta, Norfolk [2] Scena _ ‘Colmo di duol’ 2’18 96 [3] Duetto _ ‘Perché mai, destin crudele’ 3’01 98 [4] Largo _ ‘Misera! a quale stato’ 3’56 99 [5] Allegro _ ‘Quell’alma perfida’ 2’10 100

[6] Recitative _ Guglielmo, Elisabetta ‘Che fia? Smarrita in volto’ 1’25 100

Finale Primo Elisabetta, Matilde, Enrico, Leicester, Guglielmo, Coro [7] Scena _ ‘Che penso, desolata regina’ 4’00 103 [8] Allegro _ ‘Se mi serbasti il soglio’ 4’59 106 [9] Adagio _ ‘Qual colpo inaspettato’ 3’52 109 [10] Stretta _ ‘Duce, in tal guisa’ 4’37 109

–7– CD 3 71’26

Dur Page ACT II [1] Introduzione e recitativo _ Guglielmo, Norfolk ‘Perché tremi?’ 2’30 114

Scena e Duetto _ Elisabetta, Matilde [2] Scena _ ‘Dov’è Matilde?’ 4’18 118 [3] Duetto _ ‘Pensa che sol per poco’ 3’14 121 [4] Andante _ ‘Non bastan quelle lagrime’ 3’30 123

Terzetto _ Elisabetta, Matilde, Leicester [5] Terzetto _ ‘Misero me!’ 1’24 125 [6] Largo _ ‘L’avverso mio destino’ 3’10 126 [7] Stretta _ ‘Ah! fra poco, in faccia a morte’ 2’17 127

[8] Recitative _ Elisabetta, Guglielmo ‘Pago sarai, cor mio?’ 1’53 128 [9] Coro _ ‘Qui soffermiamo il piè’ 4’17 131

Scena ed Aria _ Norfolk, Coro [10] Scena _ ‘Che intesi… oh annunzio!’ 5’02 132 [11] Aria _ ‘Deh! troncate i ceppi suoi’ 5’06 135 [12] Cabaletta _ ‘Non ha core chi non sente’ 2’54 135

Scena ed Aria _ Leicester [13] Scena – ‘Della cieca fortuna’ 4’18 137 [14] Aria _ ‘Sposa amata… respira’ 3’33 138

–8– Dur Page [15] Stretta _ ‘Saziati, o sorte ingrata’ 2’37 139 [16] Recitative _ Norfolk, Leicester ‘E l’adorata sposa’ 2’41 139

Duetto _ Leicester, Norfolk [17] Duetto _ ‘Deh! scusa i trasporti’ 4’25 143

[18] Recitative _ Elisabetta, Matilde, Enrico, Norfolk, Leicester Guglielmo ‘Tu, Regina!…. Deh! come…’ 4’20 147

Finale Ultimo _ Elisabetta, Matilde, Enrico, Leicester, Norfolk, Guglielmo, Coro [19] Scena _ ‘Fellon, la pena avrai’ 3’01 154 [20] Aria _ ‘Bell’ alme generose’ 3’44 155 [21] Scena _ ‘Leicester! Leicester!’ 1’18 156 [22] Stretta _ ‘Fuggi amor da questo seno’ 1’40 157

–9– ISABELLA COLBRAN In Naples Rossini wrote nine extraordinary roles to display the vocal accomplishments of this remarkable Spanish soprano. The first of these was the title role in Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra . ELISABETTA REGINA D’INGHILTERRA

THE SOURCE of the plot of Rossini’s Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra has always been something of a mystery, and attempts on the part of writers to gloss their way over the matter have only resulted in confusion and at least one widely held misconception. This misconception, as far as one can tell, originated with Stendhal, Rossini’s biographer. Stendhal was well aware that the opera was produced some five years before the publication of Sir Walter Scott’s Kenilworth , but his statement of the matter was so fudged and misleading _ so wilfully anachronistic, in fact _ that there is a persistent myth in the world of music, right to this day, that Kenilworth was the source of the opera:

Walter Scott’s novel Kenilworth was not published until 1820 1; nevertheless, its existence makes it superfluous for me to give a full analysis of the plot of Rossini’s opera, although in fact Elisabetta was produced five years earlier. [...] The libretto is a translation from a French melodrama, perpetrated by a Tuscan-born gentleman by the name of Smith, whose home was in Naples. 2 ______1 in fact 1821

2 From Stendhal’s Vie de Rossini as translated by Richard N. Coe (London, John Calder, 1956), pp. 152-3. This misconception that the source of the plot is to be found in Kenilworth is repeated by, for example, no lesser an authority than Herbert Weinstock in his Rossini: A Biography (London, OUP, 1968), pp. 50, 495.

–11– Let us attempt to set matters straight. Giovanni Schmidt, the librettist of Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra , may have been Tuscan, but he pursued his career as a librettist in Naples where he was, together with Andrea Leone Tottola, one of the two principal poets employed at this time by the Royal Theatres. A prolific writer, his libretti were also, with the passing of the years, to include Rossini’s Armida (1817) and Adelaide di Borgogna (1817), Mercadante’s L’apoteosi d’Ercole (1819) and Anacreonte in Samo (1820), Pacini’s Amazilia (1825) and Donizetti’s Elvida (1826).

And the source of Elisabetta ? This is a question he answers, even if not as explicitly as we could wish, in a note he prefixed to the printed libretto:

The unpublished subject of this drama, written in prose by the lawyer Signor Carlo Federici and drawn from an English romance, appeared last year at the Teatro del Fondo. The fortunate success it obtained has resulted in my having to turn it, at the request of the Management of the Royal Theatres, into a libretto for music. I was without the original manuscript (the property of the company of actors, who left Naples several months ago) and thus the possibility of following its action in precise detail. But having heard it performed on several occasions, I have followed its events as closely as my memory allowed, reducing five very long acts in prose to two very brief acts in verse. In consequence I make no claim to authorship, apart from the [bare] words and some slight changes, to which the laws of our present-day musical theatre compelled me.

–12– MANUEL GARCIA For Rossini, the Spanish tenor created Leicester and then the following year he sang the first Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia . At first sight this account seems clear enough, and upon consultation of library catalogues we will find that Carlo Federici did indeed write a play by the name of Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra . But when we have the text actually before our eyes, our mystification is even greater than before, for it has nothing to do with Rossini’s opera, and nothing to do with England’s Virgin Queen. It presents a totally fictitious plot in which an unidentifiable English queen, Elisabetta (conceivably Elizabeth of York?), the wife of an unidentifiable king Enrico (Henry VII?), is condemned to death for infidelity, but manages to prove her innocence and recover her husband’s love. The essential information which Giovanni Schmidt should have given us _ but failed to provide _ is that we should not be misled by titles, for the true source is another play by Carlo Federici, Il paggio di Leicester 3.

And the English romance whence Federici drew his inspiration 4? This _ and again he would have saved us a great deal of trouble had he said so _ was The Recess , or A Tale of Other Times (1785), an enormous three-volume historical romance written by a school mistress from Bath, Sophia Lee. Since this will ______3 For further detailed information on the knotty problems of the evolution of the opera’s plot, we refer to two Italian investigations: Marco Spada, “ Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra ” di Gioachino Rossini , a thesis presented to the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in 1983-84; and Bruno Cagli, Rossini a Napoli , Naples University, Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, 1986-87.

4 Either directly or indirectly _ it is quite possible that there was a further intermediate source in the form of a French melodrama.

–14– be of particular interest to English readers, let us start here. It was not, let us insist from the start, simply ‘a historical romance’: it also qualifies as a novel of sensibility and as a Gothic novel. A seminal work, The Recess helped create a new genre: it is still remembered, if not widely read, as one of the first important historical novels in English.

It is based upon a totally supposititious premise: that Mary Queen of Scots, at a time when she erroneously believed Bothwell dead, and when she was already in England as the prisoner of Queen Elizabeth, entered into a secret marriage with the Duke of Norfolk, and bore him twin daughters, Matilda and Ellinor (the latter replaced in the opera by a son, Enrico). Concealed from their birth in an underground ‘recess’, constructed beneath the ruins of an abbey, Matilda and Ellinor are not informed of their parentage until they reach years of youthful maturity.

The two sisters meet by accident the Earl of Leicester, and the novel follows the fortunes first of Matilda, who becomes Leicester’s wife, and then of Ellinor, who falls in love with the Earl of Essex. We travel from England to France, on to Jamaica and back to England. The episodes that are relevant to the opera occupy only a relatively small portion of the first volume. But whatever else may be said of the story _ and it has invited some trenchant and ungenerous comment over the years _ Sophia Lee at least had the courage to eschew a happy ending. Leicester is (quite unhistorically) treacherously murdered, while Essex (as in real life) goes to the block. Matilda is subjected to many trials, the greatest of which is the poisoning of her only daughter, and eventually dies; while Ellinor, following Essex’s execution, goes insane. –15– GIOVANNI BASADONNA This tenor from Naples studied singing with Andrea Nozzari, Rossini’s first Leicester. Basadonna then sang the part of Leicester himself at the Teatro San Carlo in 1831 and 1833. Carlo Federici, faced with the task of reducing this sprawling canvas to proportions suitable for the stage, retained only one or two central and essential premises: the supposition that Mary Queen of Scots was the mother, not only of James I but also of two other children, concealed from the world from the time of their birth; and that, as the eventual secret wife of Leicester, Matilda excited first the suspicion, and then the jealousy and wrath of Queen Elizabeth. Indeed the incisive and dramatic depiction of Elizabeth as a tyrannically imperious monarch, oscillating between her possessive love for Leicester and her more responsible concern for her country, is the strongest and most memorable feature of the story in all its versions. The description that Sophia Lee has Matilda give of the Queen, recalling the first occasion on which she saw her at Kenilworth Castle, deserves quotation, for it could well be taken as a blueprint by any prima donna who aspires to interpret the title- role in Rossini’s opera:

Concealed from the public gaze, I had now an opportunity of examining Elizabeth. She was talking to Leicester, who waited behind her chair. Though the features of Elizabeth retained nothing of her mother’s sweetness, they were regular; her eyes were remarkably small, but so clear and quick they seemed to comprehend every thing with a single glance; the defect in her shape taking off all real Majesty, she supplied that deficiency by an extreme haughtiness; a severe, satirical smile marked her countenance, and an absurd gaiety her dress. I could not but suppose foreigners would imagine that [the] Queen owed much of her reputation to her counsellors, who could disgrace her

–17– venerable years by [encouraging her to appear with] a bare neck, and a false head of hair made in the most youthful fashion. 5

The character in the opera who is furthest, and most confusingly, removed from his counterpart in the novel _ and his historical counterpart before that _ is Norfolk (or ‘Norfolc’, as Schmidt and Rossini call him). The historical Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk (1536 –1572), was a Catholic, and was therefore favourably inclined towards the imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots. He carried his hopes and intentions to the point of wishing to marry her, but, unwisely entering into communication with Philip II of Spain regarding the proposed Spanish invasion of England, he was, when this correspondence and his treachery were revealed, arrested and beheaded. ______5 Sophia Lee, The Recess, or A Tale of Other Times (1783-5), I, 200. The description which Sophia Lee gives of Leicester is also noteworthy:

He appeared something past the bloom of life, but his beauty was rather fixed than faded; of a noble height and perfect symmetry, he would have had an air too majestic, but that the sweetness of his eyes and voice tempered the dignity of his mien. His complexion was of a clear polished brown; his eyes large, dark and brilliant; his hair gracefully marked the turn of all his features, and his dress was of a dove-coloured velvet, mingled with white sattin [sic] and silver; a crimson sash inwoven with gold, hung from his shoulder with a picture; and the order of the garter, as well as a foreign one, with which he was invested, shewed his rank as distinguished as his person.

There is, unfortunately, no direct or concise description of Matilda, since she is the narrator of the novel. We continually see the action through her eyes, rather than look directly at her.

–18– LAURE CINTI -D AMEREAU One of Rossini’s favourite singers, this French soprano sang Matilde in Paris in 1822. In Sophia Lee’s novel Norfolk scarcely appears, for his execution has taken place more than fourteen years before the action begins. He is, however, presented in a retrospective account narrated by one of the other characters. There, he is presented as a genuine friend of Leicester, and his portrait is drawn with total and unqualified sympathy. After his death, we are told:

Never was nobleman more lamented: he had endeared himself to the body of the people by his courage, generosity, and affability; and to his equals, by an unconsciousness of superiority, which prevented envy, and an uniformity of conduct, which gained admiration.

Nothing of the surprising fiction that Norfolk was the husband of Mary Queen of Scots and the father of two of her children survives by the time we reach the operatic version of Schmidt and Rossini. Here Matilda and Enrico are, indeed, Mary’s children, but we are never told who their father was. Certainly they no longer have any relationship to Norfolk, who, after he has passed through the imaginative _ or perhaps unimaginative _ crucible of Carlo Federici’s reconstruction, is a totally different person from the character who bore his name in Sophia Lee’s novel.

This new Norfolk, as he now appears in Schmidt and Rossini, is a high- ranking nobleman at Elizabeth’s court who aspires to the crown. Ostensibly he is the friend of Leicester, but really he is a hypocrite who resents Leicester’s presence as an obstacle to his own advancement. Reduced in this way from a

–20– sympathetic and semi-historical character to a sufficiently conventional operatic villain, he is now an Iago-like deceiver: a man who feigns friendship while really being consumed by malevolent jealousy and ambition.

Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra _ the new operatic version of the story _ is a romantic, historical costume melodrama. And its greatest merit lies in the fact that it is simple and concise, easily comprehensible in its two-act action, and yet rich in dramatic possibilities. Four sharply drawn and clearly distinguished characters are locked in antagonistic confrontation: an imperious queen; her guilt-ridden lover who has secretly married elsewhere; his wife, who through no fault of her own happens to be the daughter of the queen’s most dreaded political enemy; and an ambitious courtier who is only too eager to dislodge and destroy his more favoured rival. Loyalties and betrayals; conflicts of self- interest and honour; all the pith and marrow of romantic melodrama is concentrated in this single fleet-footed drama.

The subject was also most carefully chosen _ certainly by the impresario Domenico Barbaja, very possibly in collaboration with his mistress, the prima donna Isabella Colbran, rather than by Rossini himself _ because, showing the eventual clemency of a monarch, it was precisely the right subject for this particular moment of Neapolitan history. For at the time when Rossini would have received his contract to compose an opera for Naples, the ruler of the kingdom was Gioacchino (Joachim) Murat; when, on the other hand, the time came to perform it, Murat had been thrust from the throne and soon afterwards shot, and the ruler was the restored Bourbon King Ferdinand I.

–21– Both Barbaja and Isabella Colbran had begun their engagements in Naples under the Napoleonic regime: both were now under the necessity of winning the favour of the restored monarch, and this was the first major spectacle to be mounted since his return. The choice of Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra may thus be seen as a symbolic gesture: as a plea that the King might be willing to close the chapter of the past, and to grant them his protection as they served him in the future.

Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra was also the first opera that Rossini composed for Naples. It ushered in a brilliant period of eight years during which he was to compose nine operas for the Royal Theatres: Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra (1815), Otello (1816), Armida (1817), Mosè in Egitto (1818), Ricciardo e Zoraide (1818), Ermione (1819), La donna del lago (1819), Maometto II (1820) and Zelmira (1822). But all this lay still in the future. At the time he received his commission to compose Elisabetta he was, undeniably, a name to contend with in the north of Italy. Barbaja is known to have tried to engage him earlier, following the brilliant success of La pietra del paragone at La Scala in Milan in 1812. In 1813 he had eclipsed even this success by producing, in Venice in the course of the year, both Tancredi and L’Italiana in Algeri . Yet, it must be added, he was still unknown in Naples. He came from the Papal States, in effect a different country, and he was a product, not of the Neapolitan school which had dominated Italian music during the 18th century, but of the school of Padre Mattei in Bologna. Surprisingly, none of his operas had yet been heard south of Rome. He was faced, therefore, with the challenge of winning over a new public which, if not exactly xenophobic,

–22– ADELAIDE COMELLI -R UBINI The wife of the great tenor Rubini, this soprano sang both Matilde and Elisabetta, from 1819 to 1825. was certainly conservative, proud of its own traditions, and suspicious of enfants terribles who arrived with reputations made elsewhere.

This challenge was probably even greater than is generally recognised. According to traditional accounts, Rossini’s acceptance in Naples was facilitated by Barbaja’s appointing him musical director of the Royal Theatres with an obligation to compose two new operas a year. But no such contract _ no contract, for that matter, for Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra in any shape or form _ has ever come to light. As Bruno Cagli has pointed out 6, it is highly unlikely that a young composer, no matter how successful he may have been in the north, would have been offered such a contract in Naples. Almost certainly he would have been expected to prove himself first. And almost certainly he would have been offered a contract covering a first, single opera alone.

In this light, it is now generally accepted, we should read an announcement of the forthcoming theatrical season that appeared in the Giornale delle Due Sicilie on 25 September 1815. For there is an element of condescension, perhaps even of deliberate affront, in the way ‘a certain Signor Rossini’ is mentioned. He is clearly regarded as comparatively small fry and as an outsider amid so many proven and better-known names:

______6 Bruno Cagli, ‘Al gran sole di Rossini’, in Il Teatro di San Carlo 1737-1987 , II (L’opera, il ballo , a cura di Bruno Cagli e Agostino Ziino), 133-169.

–24– In this moment all is movement in our theatrical world; from everywhere there are arriving composers, singers, dancers, artists of every kind. Within the last few days there have reached us Signor [Salvatore] Viganò, the famed composer of ballets; Signora [Antonia] Pallerini and Signor Le Gros the leading dancers; [the choreographer] Signor [Luigi Antonio] Duport and his young wife, both so applauded upon our stages; Signor Rubini, the tenor destined to sing at the Teatro de’ Fiorentini; and lastly a certain Signor Rossini, a composer who they say has come to present an Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra at our Teatro S. Carlo itself, which still resounds with the melodious accents of the Medea and the Cora of the renowned Signor Mayer [sic]. In the midst of this general movement, the young son of our illustrious composer Signor Tritta makes us hope for a truly Italian music at the Real Teatro del Fondo; Maestro Prota another in the Teatro de’ Fiorentini; and Signor Viganò a new and magnificent ballet entitled Clotilde at the Teatro S. Carlo. These arrangements make us anticipate a most generous recompense for the inactivity in which for some time our stages seem to have languished _ our stages where vocal music was born, grew and attained the greatest manifestation of its glory.

The cast that Rossini found awaiting him could not have been more glittering. It was headed by the Spanish prima donna Isabella Colbran (Elisabetta), at this time the mistress of Barbaja and eventually _ in 1822 _ to become the wife of Rossini. The two tenors were the highly gifted and fiery

–25– JOSÉPHINE FODOR-MAINVILLE This French soprano sang the role of Elisabetta from 1818 to 1825 in London, Vienna and Naples. Spaniard, Manuel Garcia (Norfolk), and the equally talented Andrea Nozzari (Leicester). Even the second soprano, Girolama Dardanelli (Matilde), was a formidably accomplished singer and a name to contend with 7.

And ‘contend with’, given the troubles that Rossini encountered with his cast, is a phrase that does not seem inaptly chosen. It was intended that the opera should receive its first performance on 4 October, the name-day of the heir to the throne, Ferdinand’s son Francesco, and therefore a gala occasion. Yet it appeared anything but certain that the production could be ready in time. In the first place there was a regrettable clash of personalities and interests between Barbaja and Garcia. On the grounds that his contract denied him the right to exercise his talents outside the Royal Theatres, Barbaja refused to allow Garcia, who seems to have been a truculent and somewhat difficult character at the best of times, the privilege of holding a private reading of one ______7 When in 1816 she assumed the role of Elisabetta herself in a production at the Teatro Carolino in Palermo, the Gran Foglio di Sicilia reported (11 September 1816):

This young artist, besides an extraordinary voice which does not, perhaps, admit rivals, besides gorgheggi which show agility, clarity and unparalleled taste which leave bystanders aghast and inebriated with pleasure, has displayed surprising tragic and heroic talents, totally unexpected in an artist who, nearly always accustomed to performing in opera buffa, has necessarily had to habituate herself to a style of acting in no way in keeping with that of tragedy. It is something truly extraordinary to see her lose her naturally sweet expression, and to substitute one that is commanding and majestic. Sarcasm, anger, irony are perfectly expressed by her; her gait is noble.

–27– of his own works, the opera Zemira e Azore , in his lodgings. Garcia retaliated by addressing a supplication to the King seeking redress against Barbaja’s abuse of power. He refused to attend rehearsals, especially since he was about to sing in another opera (Domenico Tritto’s La parola di onore , premiered at the Teatro del Fondo on 27 September), with the result that on two occasions, 15 and 26 September, rehearsals of Elisabetta had to be cancelled. On 17 September Girolama Dardanelli also declined to rehearse, giving as her reason the fact that she was already singing elsewhere that evening. In response to all these difficulties, Barbaja on 20 September had recourse to the Superintendent of Spectacles and Theatres, complaining about both Garcia and Dardanelli, but ‘in particular of the absolute inobedience of the Tenor Garcia , constantly dominated by his whim’. The upshot was that Garcia was summoned to the Prefecture of Police and soundly reprimanded. Only as the result of such extreme measures were matters finally brought under control.

At this point, four days before the scheduled first performance, Garcia, even if he had attended some rehearsals, had almost certainly not so much as opened his mouth. Indeed the Countess Merlin, reporting in her Memoirs of Madame Malibran (London, 1844) an account of the opera which she had received verbally from Isabella Colbran, wrote:

After a dozen preparatory rehearsals, during which [Garcia] had merely looked [the music] over, the day of the final rehearsal arrived. Garcia attended, but, alas! not one note, not one word of his part, had he learned. Mademoiselle Colbran was in despair... ‘Don’t alarm yourself... think of nobody but me; give me out the words distinctly, –28– and as to the music, that’s my affair’... In short, he went through the whole opera with unbounded applause, but without giving one note of the composer’s music . The fact was, during the rehearsals he had attentively studied the harmonies of the accompaniments. Having made himself thoroughly acquainted with them, he was enabled to substitute for the part which the composer had assigned to him, one of his own adaptation, improvising, as he proceeded, in the most extraordinary manner possible. Madame Rossini always mentioned this as the most astonishing example of musical talent and facility that ever came under her notice.

Exaggerated and embroidered though this account doubtless is, it nevertheless vividly illustrates Garcia’s prowess as a singer, and eloquently hints at the anxieties that must have racked Barbaja and Rossini during the final stages of preparation.

The premiere duly took place, as planned, on 4 October, but once again we are faced with an extraordinary situation. The Giornale delle Due Sicilie , the official Neapolitan newspaper of the day, published a review which made no mention of the music whatsoever. Tradition has always maintained that the opera scored a sensational success, but the official journal of the kingdom _ the very journal which one would have expected to extol it most warmly _ totally ignored it. For confirmation that it did indeed meet with eager and universal applause, we must go to the Sicilian Gazzetta di Messina , which printed a report it had received from Naples to the effect that:

–29– FRANCESCO PEDRAZZI In 1834 this tenor sang the role of Leicester at the Teatro San Carlo. In the same season he created the title role in Donizetti’s Buondelmonte . Signor Rossini exceeded the good idea that was entertained of his talents, because he pleased [even] after Medea and Cora : notwithstanding the great and deserved reputation of Mayr and the malevolent prophecies of the journalist of Naples [i.e. of the Giornale delle Due Sicilie ], his music gave us extreme pleasure and the public called for him and covered him with applause. Only a great actress and singer of the merit of Signora Colbran could have succeeded in shining in such a short time in a part so difficult and arduous, having had to go on stage in a very few days.

And there, until only a few months ago, our primary documentary evidence of the success of Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra came to an abrupt end. Early this year, however, the auction house of Sotheby’s offered for sale a highly important and completely unpublished series of about 250 autograph letters which Rossini (and in some instances his by-then-wife Isabella Colbran) wrote to his parents Anna and Giuseppe Rossini. They are letters that span almost his entire operatic career. And they preserve for us the composer’s own comments on the success of this opera, for in one letter (no. 55 of the collection) he says:

At last my Elisabetta has been staged, and it was received with fanaticism... a revolution of applause and at the end a call upon the stage where I must have remained for 8 minutes receiving the evvivas... while in the next (no. 56, dated 14 October 1815) he elaborates (with a nicely ironic inversion of the truth at the end): –31– FURORE OH! what music, oh! what music, Naples is saying. It is impossible that I should explain to you the enthusiasm that my music is producing here... Know, though, that I have always [i.e. at every performance] been called on to the stage to receive the oranges thrown in my face.

The applause that engulfed Rossini was almost certainly owing to his ability to work with singers so that he came to appreciate both the strengths and the weaknesses of their techniques, and as a result to cast and shape his music in ways that showed their strongest features to the greatest advantage. While a major question-mark must hang over his working relations with Manuel Garcia, Isabella Colbran and Andrea Nozzari he would seem to have established links that were to last long and fruitfully. For both remained essential pillars of Barbaja’s company throughout Rossini’s Neapolitan years, and both participated in the premieres of all nine of the operas he wrote for the Royal Theatres.

Isabella Colbran, in particular, is deserving of even further comment, since, already the reigning diva on the stages of Naples, her triumph in this opera brought the entire city to her feet. Contemporary descriptions suggest that her voice was that of a contralto, but with a phenomenal upper extension that gave her a range of nearly three octaves. She excelled in passages of agility and in the execution of fioriture. And though soon to be plagued by problems of intonation, she was at this point still very much at the height of her powers.

–32– Visually, too, she was a remarkable and charismatic performer, prompting Stendhal to write that:

... never before or since did she possess greater beauty than at that time. It was a beauty in the most queenly tradition: noble features, which, on the stage, radiated majesty; an eye like that of a Circassian maiden, darting fire; and to crown it all, a true and deep instinct for tragedy... The moment she stepped on to the boards, her brow encircled with a royal diadem, she inspired involuntary respect, even among those who, a minute or two earlier, had been chatting intimately with her in the foyer of the theatre.

Rossini also found himself working in Naples with one of the finest theatre orchestras in Italy. Directed by its first violinist, the exacting Giuseppe Festa, it numbered about 80 players, and was renowned for the discipline and the meticulous precision of its playing. The prominence given to wind instruments in Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra _ and the difficulty of some of the solo passages written for them _ is ample testimony of Rossini’s recognising and taking advantage of the opportunities offered him.

This opera remains, therefore, of lasting and undeniable importance. It ushered in eight of the most glorious years both in Rossini’s own life and in the history of opera in 19th century Naples. It may not contain the high-spots that distinguish some of its successors _ the Willow Song in Otello , or the prayer ‘Dal tuo stellato soglio’ in Mosè in Egitto , for example _ but it paved

–33– the way for those greater achievements and set the musical patterns that were to be developed in the years that followed.

Composing for singers of the calibre of Isabella Colbran, Manuel Garcia, Andrea Nozzari and Girolama Dardanelli _ confronting the Neapolitan public for the first time _ and treating a drama that was built around one of the most majestic and imperious monarchs the world has ever known _ it is hardly surprising that Rossini opted in this score for majesty rather than intimacy, for brilliance rather than tenderness or pathos. Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra is essentially a brilliant opera, depending on the dazzling vocalism of superbly talented virtuoso singers. This emphasis on display is particularly apparent in the music allotted to Elisabetta, and nowhere more so than in the slow central section, ‘Bell’alme generose’, of her aria finale, where an initially simple andante melody becomes increasingly embellished as it goes on. As Stendhal reported,

... The enthusiasm of the audience knew no bounds. Fully fifteen performances had to be witnessed before we were finally restored to a state of sanity, and able to submit our delight in this superb passage to the tempering judgment of rational criticism.

Having said this, however, it must also be admitted that Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra contains some perplexing features. It is generally acknowledged that it gets better as it goes on. While Act I is never less than engaging and attractive, Act II is musically more concentrated, more dramatic and vital.

–34– This is partly a consequence of growing dramatic tension: an exposition is never as gripping as the conflicts it leads to. But we may also note the surprising absence of an aria di sortita for Leicester, even though he is a commander returning victorious from his campaigns, and even though there is a chorus, ‘Vieni, o prode’, which would seem specifically designed to usher one in.

There is, too, we believe, a further reason for the qualified judgment which has frequently been meted out to Act I: Rossini’s habit of self-borrowing, and the extreme lengths to which he took it. Unless we are prepared in advance, how surprised we are to find, when the orchestra strikes up, that we are listening to the overture which we know better as that to Il barbiere di Siviglia . Fractionally revised, and with orchestration slightly reinforced, it is in all essentials exactly the same. Similarly it comes as a shock to find that Elisabetta sings the cabaletta of her aria di sortita , ‘Questo cor ben lo comprende’, to the same music to which Rosina sings her mischievous ‘Io sono docile’. How, we wonder, could Rossini have been so cavalier as to use the same music one moment in an opera seria , and the next in an opera buffa ? With both these items, indeed, the ‘case for the prosecution’ is even worse than we have suggested, since they were used thrice : first in Aureliano in Palmira , then in Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra , and only thirdly where we feel they really belong, in Il barbiere . While a close examination of the cabalettas of Elisabetta and Rosina may suggest that there was only a very slender demarcation line separating opera seria from opera buffa in Rossini’s day, and that it needed only a change of nuance, decoration, tempo, or singer’s tone to adapt the same

–35– music to a new context and opposed genre, the problem nevertheless remains a very real one. And for this reason we would contend that, were we not so accustomed to hearing these items in another, very different context, we would probably find them considerably more effective and acceptable here, in Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra .

The items we have mentioned are not, in fact, the only self-borrowings in this opera. The Allegro section of the Act I finale, ‘Quegl’indegni sien serbati’, which employs music from the last section of the overture, derives from Aureliano in Palmira , while the very beautiful prelude to Leicester’s dungeon scene in Act II is borrowed from Ciro in Babilonia .

The recycling of two of the passages we have mentioned into yet a third work, Il barbiere di Siviglia , becomes even more disconcerting when we realise that Elisabetta was separated from Il barbiere by only four months. Elisabetta was written late in 1815, while Il barbiere was premiered in February 1816. If we look at the work of other composers of the period, we will find that the normal practice, when any opera failed, was to use it as a mine from which to extract material until any particular item, melody or musical idea became definitively placed in a work which did score a valid success. Once so ‘enshrined’, it remained ‘sacrosanct’ and unsuitable for further use. Here, however, Rossini flouts this more usual practice. Elisabetta scored such a resounding success that we may think he should have realised that it would retain its place in the Neapolitan repertoire and soon be seen, as indeed it was, on many other stages further afield. Yet within four months of the premiere

–36– he proceeded to rob it of two of its prominent numbers and use them in a totally opposed context: in a comic opera.

It is also disconcerting to find that Elisabetta has, over the years, become the subject of at least two erroneous or ill-focused critical commonplaces. How often have we read that in this opera Rossini evidenced his concern with innovation and progress by abandoning recitativo secco and writing for the first time recitativo strumentato ? It is true enough that for the first time he here scores all the recitatives which we might have expected to be cast as recitativo secco for a quartet of strings. But does this amount to personal ‘innovation’ for which he may claim the credit? Such an assertion ignores the fact that the French-influenced court of Murat had, by introducing French models, established a taste for orchestrally accompanied recitative. Mayr, for example, arriving in Naples in 1813 with a completed score of Medea in Corinto , had been instructed to recast the recitatives ‘in the French manner, which all of us have taken as our model’. And Mayr, we may add, carried out these instructions more efficiently and a great deal more thoroughly than Rossini did in Elisabetta . In Medea we feel that the composer is really thinking in orchestral terms as he writes his recitatives, whereas Rossini, even though he writes for strings, so often gives them bare chords that we realise that he is still thinking in terms of recitativo secco . Elsewhere, of course _ before important items and in heightened moments _ he writes true accompanied recitative. But the fact remains that we are never, in all the course of the opera, in a moment’s doubt as to whether he is thinking in terms of recitativo secco or recitativo strumentato . His instrumentation may have changed in this opera,

–37– but his concepts have not. Emphatically he was not in this particular matter the innovative theorist that some have wished to suggest: he was, rather, a composer who adapted his practice to the mode of whatever city he happened to find himself in. And, by way of footnote, it should come as no surprise to find that in some of his later scores _ Bianca e Falliero , for example _ he reverts to recitativo secco . Again he was complying with the practice of a particular city, for Bianca e Falliero was composed for La Scala in Milan, where recitativo secco was still regularly employed in serious operas until the end of the 1820s.

Before we leave this question of the recitatives, and the manner in which they are written, we may note in passing that the first truly accompanied recitative in the opera comes before the Act I Elisabetta-Norfolk duet, ‘Perché mai, destin crudele’, and, significantly, lifts the whole opera at that point to a new level of drama and dramatic expression. Nor does the ensuing three-part duet for a moment allow the tension to diminish. Rather it continues to build in excitement _ and in the brilliance of its bravura writing _ right through to the end.

This duet serves, moreover, to usher in the First Finale, an extended finale which has always met with unanimous and eager praise. It begins with an accompanied recitative as an offended and seething Elisabetta laments her discovery that Leicester loves another _ a recitative which is introduced and punctuated by one of the most graceful and memorable melodies in the score. Stendhal wrote of Isabella Colbran’s acting at this point:

–38– ... Signorina Colbran was magnificent; she allowed herself no gestures; she simply paced up and down, unable to control herself, to force herself into stillness while she awaited the setting of the stage and the arrival of her false lover; her eyes alone betrayed that her mind was burning with the single word which inexorably would send her lover to his death. 8

With the entry of Leicester, Matilde and Enrico, Elisabetta proceeds to play with her faithless lover as a cat plays with a mouse, launching the fully- composed section of the finale with a superb passage of autocratic, florid declamation, ‘Se mi serbasti il soglio’, and entangling Leicester in an offer of marriage and advancement to the throne which she knows very well he cannot accept. His embarrassment and bewilderment are expressed in a mainly homophonic concertato-quartet, ‘Qual colpo inaspettato’, pregnant with apprehension and anxiety on the part of Leicester, Matilde and Enrico. It is a quartet which is also interesting since it begins and ends with ritornelli for four horns _ the only place in the opera where a quartet of horns is used. The ______8 Some pages later Stendhal writes in similar vein:

Signorina Colbran, as Elizabeth, used no gestures, did nothing melodramatic, never descended to what are vulgarly called tragedy-queen poses . The immensity of her royal authority, the vastness of events which a single word from her lips could call into being, all this lived in the Spanish beauty of her eyes, which at times could be so terrible. Her glance was that of a queen whose fury is restrained only by a last rag of pride; her whole presence was that of a woman who still has beauty, and who for years has grown accustomed to beholding her first hint of a whim followed by the swiftest obedience.

–39– crisis point, when Elisabetta pounces upon Matilde and thrusts her, terrified, before an abashed Leicester, is managed with exemplary efficiency in the following tempo di mezzo , and precipitates a thrilling stretta, ‘Quegl’indegni sien serbati’, based, at least in part, upon the crescendo passage from the end of the overture. If Act I began rather unremarkably, therefore, the dramatic temperature gauge has risen steeply and set the audience’s pulses racing by the end.

But let us return to the mistaken critical commonplaces that have bedevilled assessments of this opera. How often, to take a further example, have we read that this was one of the scores in which Rossini wrote out all the vocal decorations, forestalling any wish that the singers may have had to decorate the music for themselves? In the words of Herbert Weinstock, this opera ‘marked his first effort to force virtuoso singers to perform the notes that he composed for them _ the vocal ornaments were autographed as integral parts of the score.’ 9 This again, we believe, is an exaggeration and a distortion of the truth. Rossini _ and his contemporary, Pacini _ demanded more bravura floridity from their singers than any other Italian composers of the 19th century: their music simply bristles with demands for spectacular agility. But the old story that Rossini failed to recognise his own music when he heard Velluti sing Aureliano in Palmira and thereafter determined to discipline his singers by writing in all his own decorations, must, we believe, be taken with a grain of salt. He never, we believe, wished to force his singers ______9 Herbert Weinstock, Rossini: A Biography (London, OUP, 1968), p.50.

–40– to sing his notes and only his notes. He wrote to the topmost of their abilities, but still expected them to add their own decorations, particularly in cadenzas and in the second verses or repeats of cabalettas.

Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra is also fascinating for the diversity of critical opinion that certain of its items have evoked. Some sections _ Matilde’s suavely beautiful aria, ‘Sento un’interna voce’, for example _ or the already- mentioned finale to Act I _ or Elisabetta’s extraordinarily spectacular and florid aria finale _ have met with universal praise. On the other hand, it is by no means uncommon to find one writer praising items which another dismisses with unenthusiastic qualification. When Stendhal wrote of the consecutive arias for Norfolk and Leicester in Act II, ‘Deh! troncate i ceppi suoi’ and ‘Sposa amata’, he conceded that ‘both are reasonably well written’, but went on to say that, ‘considered purely as pieces of composition, both arias had a faint flavour of the commonplace, and seemed to fall rather below the high standard of the rest of the opera.’ Present-day listeners, we predict, will find themselves in fierce disagreement, for both arias are particularly fine. Norfolk’s can scarcely be separated from the scene which introduces it, beginning with the chorus of citizens and soldiers, ‘Qui soffermiamo il piè’, one of those broad elegiac choruses which were later so much to influence Donizetti. It then continues with an accompanied recitative introduced by a noteworthy orchestral passage in which an insistent violin figure is pitted against more sustained phrases for cello. The whole scene is remarkable for the fully integrated and realised dramatic part played by the chorus, as Norfolk progressively works them up from initial despondency to a determination to

–41– liberate their imprisoned hero, overcoming as he does so their initial hushed and horrified reaction to his suggestion that they use force against the authority of the throne. As for Leicester’s aria _ omitted from some early vocal scores _ it is certainly the most expressive and deeply felt music in the whole score. In the words of Andrew Porter, writing in The Financial Times on 20 May 1964, ‘Best of all is the scene for the imprisoned Leicester, as he half- voices his dreams in broken phrases through a web of cor anglais and flute obbligatos.’ Porter’s reference is simply to the aria itself, remarkable for its unusual employment of two cors anglais and two piccolos, but the recitative that precedes it, introduced and then punctuated by the orchestral prelude borrowed from Ciro in Babilonia , is also highly expressive and suitably doom- laden. The aria is also interesting in that it begins with an extremely simple and affecting orchestral melody in 6/8, played in thirds by woodwind _ a good illustration of how extreme simplicity can have maximum effect _ which is highly appropriate to Leicester’s feelings as, sunk in slumber, he thinks longingly of his cherished wife. Since he is sleeping, and therefore incapable of being fully articulate, it is also appropriate that Rossini does not allow him to sing the melody himself. It represents what is passing in his mind, while he can only ‘half voice’ intermittent phrases until, reawakening, he realises that he has been dreaming and launches into far more bitter railings against fate. That such an aria should have been dismissed as falling ‘rather below the high standard of the rest of the opera’ is eloquent testimony that too many of Rossini’s early listeners appreciated the bravura execution of the performers but remained deaf to many of the intrinsic ideas and expressive qualities that inform the music itself.

–42– One further unexpected feature of Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra , which at first seems a flaw but which may have been consciously and deliberately planned on Rossini’s part, is the inclusion of two two-part duets, each lacking the central slow section which most of us will feel generally enshrines the major musical riches of any item composed in Italy at this time. One of them, Leicester and Matilde’s ‘Incauta! che festi!’, occurs fairly early in Act I; the other, Leicester and Norfolk’s ‘Deh! scusa i trasporti’, comes towards the end of Act II. Both have met with critical praise, the first especially, Stendhal describing it, with its opening in minor key particularly in mind, as ‘not only magnificent, but extremely original... It may justly be claimed that this first duet... determined not only the success of this particular opera, but also the wider triumph of its composer.’

Can Rossini’s decision to include two such duets without central section be explained? The present writer owes to Opera Rara’s artistic director Patric Schmid the intriguing suggestion that, seeking to give the whole opera variety of form and interest, Rossini constructed it like some kind of musical palindrome. Act I begins with items that are fairly simple and predictable in their structure, such as the opening choruses and Elisabetta’s aria di sortita , but as the act proceeds the forms become more complex (the duet for Leicester and Matilde may be in two parts, but that for Elisabetta and Norfolk is in three), the process culminating in all the architectural complexity of the First Finale. When we reach Act II, we find the process reversed. It begins with a duet which turns into a trio _ and contains two slow movements, one in the duet, the other in the trio _ but moves to simpler forms such as the two-part

–43– duet for Leicester and Norfolk already mentioned, and ends with an aria finale for Elisabetta (to balance her aria di sortita in Act I). Another way of putting this is that there are times, in the middle of the opera, when Rossini wishes to expand and elaborate the action; times, at the beginning and end, when he wishes to hasten it forward. His instinct to round off the action concisely and forcefully is further illustrated by his giving Elisabetta a single- verse cabaletta at the end of her aria finale _ a cabaletta a full half of which, moreover, is climactic coda.

But calculated simplicity _ or complexity _ of form ought never, in this opera, to suggest simplicity of texture. Rossini manifestly set out to take Naples by storm. Taking advantage of the fact that his performers were virtuosi , he aimed everywhere at a brilliance as breathtaking as it was unprecedented. And he succeeded not merely in arousing public approbation: he went further, much further, and left his audiences spellbound, agog, and searching for superlatives.

© Jeremy Commons _ 2002

–44– ELISABETTA REGINA D’INGHILTERRA PERFORMANCE HISTORY

Each chronology of an opera presents special problems. In the case of Rossini’s Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra , the main problem was that the work was written for two sopranos and two tenors. As a result, it is often difficult to ascertain which role was sung by which singer, especially since some artists are known to have sung both, while others are merely reported to have done so. Thus, it can sometimes be difficult to determine which artist sang which role. When this is the case, it will be indicated by explanatory footnotes. Another problem is the large number of performances of Elisabetta that are known to have taken place, but without any indication of cast.

In order to keep this list within workable limits, it is arranged by interpreters of Elisabetta, and limited to singers with an international reputation. © Tom Kaufman

Date City Theatre Matilde Leicester Norfolk Isabella Colbran as Elisabetta 4.10.1815 Naples San Carlo Dardanelli Nozzari Garcia 19.5.1815 Naples Fondo 30.9.1816 Naples Fondo 25.2.1818 Naples San Carlo Dardanelli Nozzari David 9.5.1819 Naples San Carlo Dardanelli Nozzari David 20.4.1820 Naples San Carlo Dardanelli Nozzari Rubini 30.5.1822 Vienna Kärntnerthor Nozzari David Girolama Dardanelli as Elisabetta 4.9.1816 Palermo Carolino Calderara Sirletti Botticelli

–45– Date City Theatre Matilde Leicester Norfolk Rosa Morandi as Elisabetta 26?.2.1817 Cremona Concordia Mariani Gentili Franchini Josephine Fodor-Mainville as Elisabetta 30.4.1818 London Her Majesty’s Crivelli Garcia 24.5.1823 Vienna Kärntnerthor Comelli-Rubini Donzelli David 27.2.1824 Naples San Carlo Comelli-Rubini Nozzari David 8.12.1824 Vienna Kärntnerthor Comelli-Rubini? Donzelli David 17.5.1825 Naples San Carlo Ungher David Ciccimarra Adelaida Dalmani-Naldi as Elisabetta 11.12.1820 Lisbon São Carlos Zappucci Mari Martinelli 8.4.1822 Madrid Principe Lledo Mari Adelaide Comelli-Rubini as Elisabetta March 1819 Venice San Samuele 1 17.6.1821 Naples San Carlo Dardanelli Nozzari Rubini 14.4.1822 Naples San Carlo Dardanelli Donzelli Rubini June 1825 Milan Re Dardanelli? Rubini 21.7.1825 Venice La Fenice 2 Dardanelli? Rubini Emilia Bonini as Elisabetta 26.12.1820 Parma Ducale Vecchi Mariani Passanti Lent 1822 Florence Pergola Montenaggi Piermarini Bertazzi ______1 The chronology of Comelli-Rubini lists her as singing Matilde. But this is probably an error. If it is correct, the Elisabetta is unknown. 2 The case for this performance is not given in any of the books on the Teatro La Fenice. However, Comelli-Rubini, Dardanelli and Rubini were all present, having proceeded from a spring season at the Teatro Re in Milan, and it seems reasonable to assume that they sang their usual roles.

–46– Date City Theatre Matilde Leicester Norfolk Giuditta Pasta as Elisabetta 10.9.1822 Paris Italien Cinti Bordogni Garcia Adelaide Tosi as Elisabetta ??.??.1825 Naples San Carlo Ungher Donzelli Ciccimarra 13.10.1827 Naples San Carlo Ungher David 3 Winter 20.4.1829 Naples San Carlo Eden Winter David 17.10.1831 Madrid de la Cruz Campos Trezzini 24.4.1832 London King’s Puzzi Winter Curioni 22.6.1833 Ancona Muse Curioni Henriette Méric-Lalande as Elisabetta 3.10.1825 Bologna Comunale Ferrani-Alba Cecconi Reina 31.8.1826 Naples San Carlo Ungher Rubini Winter 26.12.1827 Milan La Scala Ungher David Ravaglia 9.1.1832 Madrid de la Cruz Campos Trezzini Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis as Elisabetta 5.6.1831 Naples San Carlo Sedlacek Basadonna Bonfigli 7.6.1833 Naples San Carlo Toldi Basadonna Reina 4.10.1834 Naples San Carlo Merolla Pedrazzi Winter Desiderata Derancourt as Elisabetta 18.9.1838 Florence Pergola Cavedoni Patti Morini Maria Vitale as Elisabetta 16.8.1953 Milan Auditorium Pagliughi Campora Pirino RAI Alexandra Browning as Elisabetta 27.2.1968 London Camden Major Arthur Kerman Town Hall ______3 The chronology of the Teatro San Carlo lists David as Leicester and Winter as Norfolk. If that is correct, they reversed their usual roles.

–47– Date City Theatre Matilde Leicester Norfolk Leyla Gencer as Elisabetta 9.12.1971 Palermo Massimo Guglielmi Grilli Bottazzo 4.9.1972 Edinburgh King’s Guglielmi Grilli Bottazzo/ Fisichella Montserrat Caballé as Elisabetta 11.7.1975 Arles Antique Masterson Winbergh Benelli Lella Cuberli as Elisabetta 7.11.1985 Turin Regio Dessi/Longhi Savastano/ Blake Barbacini Anna Caterina Antonacci as Elisabetta 11.12.1991 Naples San Carlo Jo Merritt Blake/ Vargas Jennifer Larmore as Elisabetta 24.3.2002 London Banqueting Cullagh Ford Siragusa House

–48– DESIDERATA DERANCOURT This soprano sang the role of Elisabetta at the Teatro della Pergola, Florence, in 1838. THE STORY

ACT I

SCENE ONE At the court of Elizabeth I of England, all gather to celebrate the return of Leicester, the Queen’s favourite, who has been victorious in a campaign against the Scots. Only Norfolk, ostensibly Leicester’s friend, stands apart, keeping his own counsel, jealous of the honours he sees heaped upon the man he in fact sees as his enemy and his rival. Leicester brings with him a number of young Scottish noblemen whom he has taken as hostages, but even he is taken aback when he perceives in their midst, disguised in male attire, Matilde, the wife he has secretly married in Scotland, accompanied by her brother Enrico. As soon as he has an opportunity of speaking to them alone, he upbraids Matilde for her temerity in venturing into the English court, for she and Enrico are the long-concealed children of Mary Queen of Scots, and stand in peril of their lives should Elizabeth learn their identity.

SCENE TWO Leicester unwisely confides in Norfolk, the man he believes his friend, revealing the secret of Matilde’s birth, and relating how he came to marry her. A two-faced Norfolk promptly betrays the confidence placed in him, and informs the Queen both of Leicester’s marriage and of the identity of his wife.

–50– An irate but controlled Elizabeth summons Leicester and the Scottish hostages to her presence. Deviously she begins by offering Leicester her hand in marriage, together with the crown and sceptre of England. Only when he prevaricates, and is understandably covered with confusion, does she erupt in fury, confronting him with Matilde and Enrico. Summoning her guards, she has Leicester led away to prison in one direction, Matilde and Enrico in another.

ACT II

SCENE ONE Norfolk, in a state of nervous apprehension, now sees his path open to securing the throne for himself, but to his dismay he finds himself denied audience with Elizabeth and ordered into exile. Elizabeth, summoning Matilde to her presence, proposes that, if she wishes to save the lives of Leicester and Enrico, she should give up all her rights to Leicester’s heart. By tearful degrees Matilde submits, and signs a document of renunciation; but Leicester, who enters in time to witness and comprehend the situation, refuses to accept his wife’s sacrifice and destroys the document. A thwarted and angry Elizabeth reconsigns both to their cells.

SCENE TWO The citizens of London voice their sympathy for Leicester, and Norfolk, intent upon revenge, stirs them up, ostensibly in Leicester’s defence, but really in rebellion against the Queen.

–51– SCENE THREE Norfolk visits Leicester in prison. Denying that it was he who betrayed his friend’s marriage to the Queen, he offers to set him at liberty, reunite him with Matilde, and place him at the head of the people. Leicester recoils from this last proposal, realising that it is tantamount to treason. Before Norfolk can tempt him further, the Queen enters through a secret door. Norfolk has barely time to conceal himself in the shadows, from there to overhear Elizabeth offer his rival the means of escape. Leicester refuses, pleading for generosity towards Matilde and Enrico, but declaring that, if he were to flee, the world would believe him guilty: a rebel to the crown. In the course of their conversation Elizabeth reveals that it was Norfolk who betrayed him, and Leicester in turn tells of Norfolk’s offer to place him at the head of the people. Norfolk, realising that he is discredited for ever, draws his sword and throws himself upon Elizabeth, but Matilde and Enrico, whose prison has been opened and who have been standing in the background, overpower him, so saving the Queen’s life. Elizabeth has Norfolk imprisoned, and in gratitude forgives Matilde and Enrico and reunites Matilde with Leicester. As the citizens of London burst in, Leicester demands that they kneel in submission to their Queen, and she in turn declares that henceforth she will banish love from her thoughts and dedicate herself to the welfare of her kingdom.

© Jeremy Commons _ 2002

–52– MARCO BORDOGNI This French tenor sang Leicester in the first performance of Rossini’s opera given in Paris in 1822. RÉSUMÉ DE L’INTRIGUE

ACTE I SCENE 1 La cour of Elizabeth Ier d’Angleterre, où l’on s’apprête à fêter le retour de Leicester, le favori de la reine, dont la campagne contre les Écossais a été victorieuse. Seul, à l’écart, Norfolk, rumine sa jalousie envers celui dont il prétend être l’ami: il envie les honneurs dont on couvre Leicester qu’il considère en fait comme un ennemi, un rival. Leicester est accompagné de jeunes nobles écossais qu’il a pris en otage. Parmi eux, à sa grande surprise, il reconnaît sous un déguisement d’homme Matilde, la jeune femme qu’il a épousé en secret en Écosse et son frère Enrico. Dès qu’il peut leur parler seul à seul, Leicester reproche à Matilde d’avoir eu la témérité de s’aventurer ainsi à la cour d’Angleterre. Matilde et Enrico sont, en effet, la progéniture de Mary, reine d’Écosse, et leur vie serait en danger si Elizabeth découvrait leur existence gardée jusque là secrète.

SCENE 2 Leicester commet l’imprudence de se confier à Norfolk, son soi-disant ami, et de lui révéler le secret de la naissance de Matilde et les circonstances dans lesquelles il l’a épousée. N’hésitant pas à trahir la confiance de Leicester, l’hypocrite Norfolk informe tout de suite la reine du mariage de Leicester et de l’identité de son épouse. Maîtrisant sa fureur, Elizabeth somme Leicester et ses otages écossais de comparaître devant elle. Elle offre d’abord, par pure perfidie, sa main en

–54– mariage à Leicester, ainsi que la couronne et le sceptre d’Angleterre. Puis, devant les faux-fuyants et la confusion compréhensible de celui-ci, elle donne libre cours à sa rage, et le confronte à Matilde et Enrico. Ensuite elle appelle ses gardes et leur ordonne d’emprisonner Leicester d’un côté, et Matilde et d’Enrico de l’autre.

ACTE II. SCENE 1 Norfolk, nerveux et appréhensif, croit avoir maintenant le champ libre pour accéder au trône, mais, à son grand désarroi, Elizabeth refuse de le recevoir et le condamne à l’exil. Elizabeth fait comparaître Matilde devant elle, et lui offre d’épargner la vie de Leicester et d’Enrico, à condition qu’elle renonce à l’amour de Leicester. Matilde, en larmes, finit par accepter et signe un document de renonciation. Leicester qui, arrivé sur ces entrefaites, assiste à la scène et comprend la situation, refuse le sacrifice de Matilde et détruit le document. Furieuse de voir son plan échouer, Elizabeth les renvoie chacun dans leur cellule.

SCENE 2 Le peuple de Londres manifeste son soutien à Leicester, et Norfolk, bien décidé à se venger, attise la colère de la foule pour soi-disant défendre Leicester, mais en fait pour renverser la reine.

–55– SCENE 3 Norfolk rend visite à Leicester en prison. Il nie avoir trahi la confiance de son ami et lui offre de le libérer, de lui permettre de retrouver Matilde, et de le placer à la tête du peuple. Mais cette dernière proposition fait reculer Leicester, qui y voit un crime de lèse-majesté. Avant même que Norfolk n’ait le temps de poursuivre, la reine entre par une porte dérobée. Norfolk a tout juste le temps de se retirer dans l’ombre, d’où il entend la reine offrir à son rival le moyen de fuir. Leicester refuse, en la suppliant de faire preuve de générosité envers Matilde et Enrico, mais en lui expliquant que sa fuite serait interprétée comme la preuve de sa culpabilité et de sa rebellion contre la couronne. Au cours de leur conversation, Elizabeth lui révèle que c’est Norfolk qui l’a trahi, et Leicester apprend à Elizabeth que Norfolk lui a offert de prendre la tête du peuple. Norfolk, se voyant discrédité à jamais, dégaine son épée et se précipite sur Elizabeth, mais Matilde et Enrico, qu’on a libérés de leur cellule et qui s’étaient tenus dans l’ombre jusque le maîtrisent, sauvant ainsi la vie de la reine. Elizabeth fait emprisonner Norfolk et, en signe de gratitude, pardonne Enrico et Matilde et réunit Matilde et Leicester. Les habitants de Londres ayant envahi la scène, Leicester demande à tous de s’agenouiller devant la reine en signe de soumission. La reine, à son tour, déclare qu’elle renonce à l’amour et que désormais qu’elle se consacrera entièrement aux affaires du royaume et au bonheur de son peuple.

© Jeremy Commons _ 2002/translation by Mireille Ribière

–56– CAROLINE UNGHER In the seasons from 1825 to 1827 at the Teatro San Carlo and La Scala she sang Matilde. This highly versatile singer began her career in Germany as a contralto. She later extended her range, creating important soprano roles for Donizetti and Pacini. DIE HANDLUNG

1. AKT 1. SZENE Der Hofstaat Elizabeths I., Königin von England, hat sich zur Feier der Rückkehr Leicesters versammelt; der Günstling der Königin hat sich in einer Schlacht siegreich gegen die Schotten behauptet. Nur Norfolk, angeblich Leicesters Freund, mischt sich nicht unter die Gäste; er ist neidisch, dass der Mann, den er in Wahrheit als Feind und Rivalen betrachtet, mit Ehrungen überhäuft wird. In Leicesters Begleitung findet sich eine Reihe junger schottischer Adeliger, die er als Geiseln genommen hat. Mit Erschrecken stellt er fest, dass seine Gemahlin Matilde, die er in Schottland heimlich zur Frau genommen hat, in Männertracht verkleidet zu dieser Schar gehört, ebenso wie ihr Bruder Enrico. Bei der ersten Gelegenheit, allein mit den beiden zu reden, tadelt er Matilde wegen ihrer Tollkühnheit, sich öffentlich am englischen Hof zu zeigen; schließlich sind sie und Enrico die Kinder Maria Stuarts, der Königin von Schottland. Sollte Elizabeth ihre wahre Identität erfahren, hätten sie ihr Leben verwirkt.

2. SZENE Unklugerweise weiht Leicester Norfolk, den er für seinen Freund hält, in das Geheimnis von Matildes Herkunft ein und erzählt ihm von seiner Hochzeit. Prompt hintergeht Norfolk das in ihn gesetzte Vertrauen und berichtet der Königin nicht nur, dass Leicester geheiratet hat, sondern klärt sie auch über die Identität seiner Gemahlin auf. –58– Eine wutentbrannte, aber selbstbeherrscht Elizabeth ruft Leicester und die schottischen Geiseln zu sich. Zuerst bietet sie ihm hinterhältig ihre Hand an und stellt ihm die Krone und das Zepter Englands in Aussicht, doch als er Ausflüchte macht und in Verwirrung gerät, lässt sie ihrem Zorn freien Lauf und konfrontiert ihn mit Matilde und Enrico. Dann ruft sie ihre Wachposten, die Leicester ins Gefängnis abführen, während Matilde und Enrico in ein anderes gebracht werden.

2. AKT 1. SZENE Norfolk ist zwar angespannt, sieht aber nun den Weg zum Thron frei. Zu seiner Bestürzung muss er allerdings feststellen, dass Elizabeth ihm keine Audienz gewährt, sondern ihn in die Verbannung schickt. Dann lässt die Königin Matilde zu sich kommen und unterbreitet ihr ein Angebot: Wenn sie auf Leicester verzichtet, würde sie sein und Enricos Leben schonen. Weinend gibt Matilde dem Ansinnen langsam nach und unterschreibt ein Dokument, mit dem sie diesen Verzicht besiegelt. Doch Leicester, der rechtzeitig auftritt, um das Gespräch zu verfolgen, durchschaut Elizabeths Plan. Er weigert sich, das Opfer seiner Frau anzunehmen, und vernichtet das Dokument. Zornig, dass ihre Rechnung nicht aufgegangen ist, lässt die Königin beide in ihre Zellen zurückführen.

–59– 2. SZENE Die Bürger Londons bringen ihr Mitgefühl mit Leicester zum Ausdruck. Norfolk, der auf Rache sinnt, stachelt sie noch weiter auf _ vorgeblich zur Verteidigung Leicesters, doch in Wirklichkeit will er sie zu einem Aufstand gegen die Königin aufwiegeln.

3. SZENE Norfolk sucht Leicester im Gefängnis auf. Er leugnet, dass er der Königin die Verehelichung seines Freundes verraten habe, und macht Leicester den Vorschlag, er könne ihn befreien, wieder mit Matilde vereinen und an die Spitze des Volkes stellen. Dieses letzte Angebot lehnt Leicester entsetzt ab _ das wäre Hochverrat. Bevor Norfolk ihm noch weiter zureden kann, tritt durch eine Geheimtür die Königin ein. Gerade noch rechtzeitig gelingt es Norfolk, sich im Schatten zu verbergen, und wird Zeuge, wie Elizabeth seinem Rivalen die Möglichkeit zu entkommen anbietet. Doch Leicester weigert sich, fleht um Gnade für Matilde und Enrico und erklärt, wenn er die Flucht ergreife, wäre er in den Augen der Welt ein Rebell gegen die Krone. Im Verlauf des Gesprächs enthüllt Elizabeth, dass Norfolk ihn verraten habe, woraufhin Leicester ihr von Norfolks Vorschlag berichtet, ihn an die Spitze des Volkes zu stellen. Als Norfolk erkennt, dass er nun jede Gnade verwirkt hat, zieht er das Schwert und stürzt sich auf Elizabeth, doch Matilde und Enrico, deren Zellen geöffnet wurden und die alles mitverfolgt haben, überwältigen ihn und retten damit der Königin das Leben.

–60– Elizabeth lässt Norfolk ins Gefängnis werfen, vergibt Matilde und Enrico aus Dankbarkeit und vereint Leicester mit Matilde. Als die Bürger Londons hereinstürmen, fordert Leicester sie auf, demütig vor der Königin zu knien. Elizabeth ihrerseits erklärt, sie werde von nun an jeden Gedanken an Liebe aus ihrem Herzen verbannen und sich ausschließlich dem Wohl ihres Königreichs widmen.

© Jeremy Commons _ 2002/translation by Ursula Wulfekamp

–61– DOMENICO DONZELLI The tenor from Bergamo was a favourite singer of Rossini’s. He sang Leicester in Naples and Vienna from 1822 to 1825. LA VICENDA

ATTO I. SCENA PRIMA La corte di Elisabetta I d’Inghilterra è riunita per festeggiare il ritorno del favorito della regina, Leicester, vittorioso dopo una campagna contro gli Scozzesi. Solo Norfolk, apparentemente amico di Leicester, si tiene in disparte senza parlare, geloso degli onori elargiti a un uomo che in realtà considera nemico e rivale. Leicester è accompagnato da alcuni giovani nobili scozzesi presi in ostaggio, ma rimane totalmente interdetto quando scorge tra loro la donna da lui sposata in segreto in Scozia, Matilde, in abbigliamento maschile, e suo fratello Enrico. Non appena ha una possibilità di parlare da solo con loro, rimprovera a Matilde la sua temerarietà nel presentarsi alla corte inglese. Matilde ed Enrico celano da tempo un segreto: sono figli di Maria Stuarda, regina di Scozia. La loro vita sarebbe in pericolo se Elisabetta dovesse scoprire la loro identità.

SCENA SECONDA Leicester si confida sventatamente con Norfolk, che considera amico; gli rivela il segreto della nascita di Matilde e gli narra le vicende che hanno condotto alle loro nozze. L’ipocrita Norfolk tradisce subito la confidenza dell’amico e informa la regina del matrimonio di Leicester e dell’identità di sua moglie.

–63– Elisabetta va su tutte le furie, ma si controlla e convoca alla propria presenza Leicester e gli ostaggi scozzesi. Esordisce in maniera indiretta, offrendo a Leicester la propria mano, insieme con la corona e lo scettro d’Inghilterra. Solo quando l’uomo tergiversa, preso da comprensibile confusione, sfoga liberamente la propria ira e lo affronta con Matilde ed Enrico. Chiama le guardie e ordina di condurre tutti in prigione, Leicester da una parte, Matilde ed Enrico da un’altra.

ATTO II. SCENA PRIMA In preda a nervosa agitazione, Norfolk adesso pensa di avere finalmente aperta la via al trono, ma con sgomento vede che Elisabetta rifiuta un’udienza con lui e lo condanna all’esilio. Elisabetta fa chiamare alla propria presenza Matilde e le dice che, se desidera salvare la vita di Leicester e di Enrico, deve rinunciare a ogni diritto all’amore di Leicester. Con crescente tristezza, Matilde accetta e firma un documento di rinuncia; ma Leicester, che entra in tempo per essere testimone della situazione, rifiuta di accettare il sacrificio della moglie e distrugge il documento. Frustrata e in preda all’ira, Elisabetta li rimanda entrambi in cella.

SCENA SECONDA I cittadini di Londra esprimono solidarietà nei confronti di Leicester e Norfolk, deciso a vendicarsi, li aizza, apparentemente in difesa di Leicester, ma in realtà per fomentare una rivolta contro la regina.

–64– SCENA TERZA Norfolk fa visita a Leicester in prigione. Nega di essere stato lui a rivelare il matrimonio dell’amico alla regina e si dice disposto a liberarlo, riunirlo con Matilde e fare di lui il condottiero del popolo. Leicester è disgustato da quest’ultima proposta, che equivale a un tradimento. Prima che Norfolk possa rinnovare le sue lusinghe, da una porta segreta entra la regina. Norfolk ha appena il tempo di nascondersi per sentire che Elisabetta offre al suo rivale una possibilità di fuga. Leicester rifiuta, la supplica di essere generosa con Matilde ed Enrico e dichiara che, se dovesse fuggire, il mondo lo crederebbe colpevole: un ribelle nei confronti della corona. Nel corso della conversazione Elisabetta gli rivela che è stato Norfolk a tradirlo e Leicester a sua volta descrive la proposta di metterlo a capo di una rivolta popolare. Rendendosi conto di essere screditato per sempre, Norfolk sguaina la spada e si avventa contro Elisabetta, ma viene sopraffatto da Matilde ed Enrico, usciti precedentemente dalla cella e testimoni non visti della scena. Elisabetta fa imprigionare Norfolk; in segno di gratitudine concede il perdono a Matilde ed Enrico e riunisce Matilde con Leicester. Irrompono i cittadini di Londra; Leicester ordina loro di inginocchiarsi davanti alla loro regina, la quale a sua volta dichiara che d’ora in poi bandirà l’amore dai propri pensieri per dedicarsi interamente al bene del suo regno.

© Jeremy Commons _ 2002/translation by Emanuela Guastella

–65– Maestro Giuliano Carella with the soloists, the Geoffrey Mitchell Choir and the London Philharmonic Orchestra after the concert performance of Rossini’s Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra given on 24 March 2002 for the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II ISABELLA COLBRAN ELISABETTA REGINA D’INGHILTERRA Dramma per musica in two acts Libretto by Giovanni Schmidt First performance: 4 October 1815 Teatro S. Carlo, Naples

CHARACTERS

Elisabetta, Queen of England ...... Isabella Colbran Leicester, general of the armies ...... Andrea Nozzari Matilde, his secret wife , daughter of Mary Stuart ...... Girolama Dardanelli Enrico, the brother of Matilde , son of Mary Stuart ...... Maria Manzi Norfolc [sic] 1, grandee of the realm ...... Manuel Garcia Guglielmo, captain of the royal guards ...... Gaetano Chizzola

Knights, ladies, Scottish noblemen, hostages of Elisabetta, officers of Leicester’s forces, pages, royal guards, soldiers, populace.

The action is set in London.

______1 Although the original libretto retains this spelling throughout, we have preferred, from this point on, to use the more customary ‘Norfolk’.

–68– CD 1 47’48

ACT ONE

[1] Sinfonia A hall in the royal palace, with throne.

SCENE I

Norfolk, Guglielmo and knights, awaiting the arrival of the Queen. Guards.

[2] CHORUS Più lieta, più bella The dawn broke Apparve l’aurora; More jocund and fair; Malefica stella And swept the malign star Dal cielo sgombrò. From the sky. Del raggio di pace The sun gilds itself Il sole s’indora; With the ray of peace; Di Marte la face And the torch of Mars Estinta restò. Has been quenched. [3] NORFOLK (Oh voci funeste, (Oh hateful voices, Che abborre quest’alma! Abhorrent to my soul! La rabbia m’investe: I am filled with hatred: Più calma non ho.) No longer have I any peace of mind.) (There is a sound of military instruments in the distance, approaching little by little, announcing the entry into the city of the victorious forces commanded by Leicester.)

–69– Antonino Siragusa CHORUS Udite... s’avanza Listen... the victorious L’invitto campione, Champion approaches, De’ cori speranza, The hope of every heart, Delizia d’Albione, England’s delight, D’Elisa sostegno, Elisa’s mainstay, Del regno splendor. The shining jewel of the kingdom. NORFOLK (Che smania! che affanno! (What frenzy! what torture! Destino tiranno! Tyrannical destiny! Avvampo di sdegno, I am ablaze with anger, M’uccide il dolor.) Chagrin is killing me.) [4] GUGLIELMO drawing Norfolk to one side Nel giubilo comun, signor, tu solo My Lord, you alone take no part in the general joy Parte non prendi in sì felice giorno? That reigns on such a happy day? Perché? Rimira intorno: Why not? Look about you: do you not see Vedi qual gioia a ognun siede sul ciglio. The joy expressed on the faces of one and all? NORFOLK (Importuno!) Guglielmo, (Inopportunate fellow!) Guglielmo, S’io godo al comun bene, God knows, and you know, if I rejoice Lo sa il ciel, tu lo sai, che appien conosci At the common good, for you are fully aware Il sensibil mio cor. Of the finer feelings of my heart.

–71– GUGLIELMO (Così potessi (Would I might Ignorar qual tu sei!) Be unaware of your true nature!) NORFOLK Ma in veder che a’ trofei But it grieves me to realise Dell’anglico valore That I have had no part in winning Parte io non ho, mi reca affanno al core. The trophies brought home by English valour. Nelle anime ben nate In high-born souls Di generosa invidia A feeling of generous envy Nasce talor l’affetto. Oh! qual contento Is sometimes born. Oh! what happiness Per Norfolk or saria It would now have been for Norfolk Se di Leicester al temuto brando Had this sword of mine been the companion Questo brando si fosse accompagnato! Of Leicester’s fearful blade! Ma privo di tal ben mi volle il fato. But Fate wished to deprive me of such a boon. (Dissimular conviene.) (I must needs play the hypocrite.) GUGLIELMO Osserva; a noi sen viene Look; the Queen is approaching, cheerful Ilare la Regina. A lei ti mostra Of mien. Before her, pretend to be joyful Lieto, se il puoi. Vinci te stesso, e spera. If you can. Master yourself, and hope. Forse un dì della gloria Perhaps one day, with the path to glory

–72– Aperto a te il sentier, potrai del regno... Open to you, perhaps the path to the throne... NORFOLK Non più, Guglielmo. No more, Guglielmo. GUGLIELMO (Io ti conosco, indegno!) (I read you clearly, unworthy man!)

SCENE II

Elisabetta enters, followed by ladies, knights, pages and guards. All those already present bow.

[5] CHORUS Esulta, Elisa, omai Rejoice now, Elisa, In giorno sì beato. Upon such a blessed day. Cangiò sembianza il fato: The face of Destiny has changed: Tutto cangiò per te. All has changed for the better for you. L’invitto eroe vedrai You will see the unconquered hero Deporti i lauri al piè. Laying his laurels at your feet. [6] ELISABETTA Quant’è grato all’alma mia How welcome to my spirits Il comun dolce contento! Is this sweet happiness shared by all! Giunse alfine il bel momento The moment has come at last which invites Che c’invita a respirar. Us all to breathe freely once more.

–73– Jennifer Larmore CHORUS Dopo tante rie vicende, After so many dire developments, Real donna, a pace in seno Royal Lady, you are able to breathe Tu ritorni a respirar. Once more in the midst of peace. [7] ELISABETTA Questo cor ben lo comprende, This heart of mine, that beats with joy, Palpitante dal diletto. Is fully aware of its good fortune. (Rivedrò quel caro oggetto (I shall see once more that dear man Che d’amor mi fa brillar.) Who makes me light up with love.) CHORUS Possa ognor, felice appieno, May England, filled with happiness, Teco l’Anglia giubilar. Rejoice with you forever more. [8] ELISABETTA Grandi del regno, è questo Noblemen of the realm, this is Il più bel giorno di mia vita. Alfine The happiest day of my life. At last Coronò la vittoria agli Angli il crine. Victory has crowned the brow of the English. Del forte duce, a cui The name of the valiant general, to whom Deve la patria ogni suo ben, risuona Our country owes all its successes, is Ovunque il nome, e tanta fama ei gode, Everywhere to be heard, and he enjoys such fame Che al suo merto è minor qualsiasi lode. That praise of any kind falls short of his merit. Pur da noi non si lasci Nevertheless, let us not omit

–75– D’onorar la presenza To honour the presence of such Di sì nobil campion. Qui lo scortate. A noble hero. Let him be escorted hither.

GUGLIELMO Ei s’affretta al tuo piè. He is hastening to your feet. ELISABETTA (Qual gioia!) Andate. (What joy!). Go. (The noblemen fall back towards the doorway to greet the victorious Leicester. Norfolk with difficulty brings himself to follow them. Elisabetta, assisted by Guglielmo, mounts the throne.)

SCENE III

All those already present, and Leicester, who enters accompanied by his senior officers and followed by a number of Scottish nobles, among whom are Matilde, disguised in male attire, and Enrico.

[9] CHORUS Vieni, o prode, e qui tergi i sudori; Come, valiant hero, here cease your exertions; Con gli olivi di pace, gli allori, Come and let us crown your honoured brow Vieni il crine onorato a fregiar. With laurels and the olives of peace. Tutto cede al tuo braccio possente; Everything gives way before your mighty arm; Per te riede ogni volto ridente; Through your doing every face smiles once more;

–76– Bruce Ford Per te cessa ogni lungo penar. Thanks to you every protracted suffering is at an end. [10] LEICESTER Alta Regina, invan Mighty Queen, in vain the proud Scot Lo Scoto altero al nostro ardir si oppose. Opposed our valour. Col nome tuo sul labbro The English fought with your name Gli Angli pugnaro, e, al rimbombar Upon their lips, and, in the din of dell’armi, battle, Dal vincitor l’udia The enemy warrior, as he perished, Il nemico guerrier mentre peria. Heard it repeated by his conqueror. Di rea discordia omai spenta è la face. The torch of discord is now quenched. Al tuo poter soggiace Those who put to scorn your power now lie Chi sprezzarlo tentò. D’uopo non hai Prostrate before it. No longer have you need Più del nostro valore; onde al tuo piede Of our valour; so here at your feet Del comando delle armi, Is the symbol of the command of your armies Che degnasti affidarmi, eccoti il segno. That you deigned to entrust to me. (He lays down upon the steps before the throne the baton, the symbol of his command.)

Esulti Elisa, e seco esulti il regno. May you rejoice, Elisa, and may England rejoice with you. ELISABETTA Giovane eroe, quanto per me facesti, Young hero, what you have done for me,

–78– Quanto a pro della patria usò finora And what the loyalty of your stout heart has Del tuo gran cor la fede, Accomplished on behalf of your country, D’ogni dono è maggior, d’ogni mercede. Exceeds all possible gift, exceeds all reward. Obliarlo non so. T’appressa. Intanto I shall not forget it. Approach. Abbiti questo pegno In the interim receive this token Della grata alma mia. Of my soul’s gratitude. (Leicester kneels before her. Detaching the emblem of a knightly order from her breast, Elisabetta decorates him with it.)

LEICESTER Oh generosa! My magnanimous Queen! NORFOLK (Oh rabbia!) (O, how I rage!) MATILDE (Oh gelosia!) (O, the pangs of jealousy!) (At a sign from Leicester the Scottish hostages advance and kneel before the Queen, presenting her with precious gifts that they carry upon chargers covered with white cloths. )

LEICESTER Questi, sovrana eccelsa, Behold, my excellent Queen, prostrate Germi di chiara stirpe illustri ostaggi, Before your throne these illustrious hostages, Proni al tuo soglio vedi. Offspring one and all of noble families.

–79– Que’ preziosi arredi These precious heirlooms Che oggi t’invia la sottomessa Scozia... That today submissive Scotland sends you... (His words fail him as, among the hostages, he recognises his wife and brother-in-law.)

(Oh ciel!... che mai vegg’io!... (O Heavens!... what ever is this I see!... Stelle!... Matilde!... Enrico!... E’ un sogno Ye stars!... Matilde!... Enrico!... Am I il mio?) dreaming?) ELISABETTA to the hostages Sorgete. Entro la reggia Rise. Within the palace Avrete asilo. All’onorevol grado You will find asylum. I appoint you De’ paggi miei v’eleggo. To honourable rank as my pages. (She descends from the throne.)

Londra festeggi in così lieto giorno Upon such a joyful day let London Delle nostre armi il fortunato evento; Celebrate the fortunate outcome of our arms; Sia partecipe ognun del mio contento. Let everyone share my happiness. (As she withdraws, Elisabetta looks favourably upon Leicester and gives him her hand to kiss. Norfolk trembles with suppressed anger, and so does Matilde. Enrico, who is aware of his sister’s feelings, signals to her to be cautious. All retire except for Leicester, who goes as far as the doorway and there detains Matilde, who is the last in the line of the Scots.)

–80– Bruce Ford and Majella Cullagh SCENE IV

Leicester, Matilde.

[11] LEICESTER Incauta! che festi! Rash girl! What have you done? Seguirmi perché? Why have you followed me? Gli effetti son questi Are these the signs D’amore e di fé? Of love and trust?

MATILDE La fede, l’amore Trust and love Guidaro il mio piè; Guided my steps; Di sposa al timore The fears of a wife Ritegno non v’è. Know no restraint. LEICESTER Ma in tanto periglio... But to venture into such danger... MATILDE Non basta consiglio. Good counsel is not enough. LEICESTER Ah! trema per te. Ah! tremble for your safety. MATILDE Sol tremo per te. I tremble only for you. [12] TOGETHER Che palpito io sento! What quakings of heart I feel! Che crudo tormento! What cruel torture! Perplesso/Perplessa, me stesso/stessa In my perplexity, I no longer Non trovo più in me. Recognise myself.

–82– [13] LEICESTER Sconsigliata! e non sai che del tuo sangue Ill-advised Matilde! Do you not realise La nemica maggior qui si ritrova? That the greatest enemy your family has is to be found here? Chi mai ti trasse a questo Whoever persuaded you Passo orribile, funesto? To this horrible and fatal step? MATILDE Ah! sposo... appena Ah! husband... scarcely Fosti da me diviso, Had you left me, Fama suonò che amore, But rumour had it that Elisabetta E l’amor più tenace, Elisabetta Entertained the most possessive passion Per Leicester nutria. Qual fosse, oh Dio! For Leicester. O God! Whoever could find Allor l’affanno mio Words to express what was then Chi spiegar mai potrebbe?... Ah! vieni, My distress?... Ah! come, Enrico. Enrico.

SCENE V

Matilde, Leicester and Enrico.

LEICESTER Tu, mio congiunto e amico, You, my brother-in-law and friend, Di cotanta imprudenza How ever were you able to make yourself Potesti mai complice farti? Her partner in such imprudence?

–83– ENRICO Ah! taci. Ah! be silent. Ella tel dica; usai Let her tell you: I tried every way, Ogni opra, ogni consiglio Put forward every argument to dissuade her, Per distorla, ma invan. Vedendo troppo But in vain. Seeing with what determination Ostinato quel cor, volli seguirla, She had set her stubborn heart upon this course, Sperando in queste mura, I wished to follow her, hoping that within Colla presenza mia, farla sicura. These walls, through my presence, I could ensure her safety. LEICESTER Vana speranza! E non pensaste, incauti, Vain wish! And did you not stop to think, you heedless pair, Che di Maria Stuarda That as the offspring of Mary Queen of Scots Qui proscritta è la prole? You here have a price upon your heads? Ch’Elisabetta vuole That Elisabetta wishes your line destroyed Del vostro sangue il germe appien Down to the utmost offshoot? distrutto? MATILDE “Mancai, nol niego. Eppur di qualche scusa “I was wrong, I do not deny it. Yet my heart is not unworthy “Non è indegno il mio cor. Gelosa smania, “Of some excuse. Pangs of jealousy,

–84– “Timido amore di moglie, “And the timid love of a wife “Sotto mentite spoglie “Induced me to pursue you “M’indussero a seguirti... Ma, perdona, “In this disguise... But, forgive me, “Che mai deggio pensar... “Whatever am I to think... LEICESTER “Taci; comprendo “Enough; I understand what you would “Quanto vuoi dirmi, ed a ragion m’offendo. “Say to me, but I have reason to be offended. “Svelò la fama il ver; chiaro dimostra “Report spoke the truth; my Queen clearly “Qualche affetto per me la mia Regina; “Shows some affection for me; “Ma Leicester son io. Fedele al trono, “But I am Leicester. Loyal to the throne, “Non men fedel io sono “I am not less loyal “Al nodo marital che a te m’avvince. “To the marriage vow that binds me to you. “Va’; di te, del german, di me, se vuoi “Go; have some thought for yourself, for your “Pensier ti prenda... E che! tu piangi?” “Brother, for me if you will... What’s this? You weep?” MATILDE Oh Dio! O God! ENRICO Fa’ cor, diletta suora; Take heart, my dear sister; I still hope L’avvenir men funesto io spero ancora. The future may be less black for us.

–85– LEICESTER Separarci convien. Destar sospetto We must separate. Speaking here at length Il favellar qui a lungo or potria. Could excite suspicion. Seguila, Enrico; ad ambo Follow her, Enrico; to both of you La prudenza or sia guida, Let prudence now be a guide, E poi di nostra sorte il ciel decida. And then let Heaven decide our fate. (Vadasi in traccia di Norfolk, del caro, (Let me go in search of Norfolk, of the dear Verace amico in cui pongo ogni speme; True friend in whom I place all my hope; Ei sol può invigorir un cor che geme.) He alone can put fresh courage in my groaning heart.) (He leaves.)

SCENE VI

Enrico and Matilde.

ENRICO Andiam. Vuole il destino, Let us go. Destiny wishes that I should stay Che teco io resti al fianco di colei, With you in the vicinity of that woman Che degli affanni nostri Who is the initial cause E’ primiera cagion. Of all our woes.

–86– Majella Cullagh MATILDE Questo, o germano, That, brother, E’ il dolor che m’uccide. Is the grief that is killing me. ENRICO D’uopo abbiam di coraggio. We have need of courage. Forse di speme un raggio il ciel pietoso It may be that merciful Heaven will perhaps Fia che vibri per noi. Send us a ray of hope. MATILDE Sperar non oso. I do not dare to hope it. “Fatal presentimento “A fatal presentiment has taken “Nell’anima mi sta. Crudele, immenso “Possession of my soul. A great, cruel “D’amor geloso foco e rio timore “Fire of jealous love and a cowardly fear “A vicenda fan guerra in questo core.” “Take turns in making war upon my heart.” [14] Sento un’interna voce, I hear a voice within me Che in lagrimevol suono That with plaintive accent Dice che nata sono Tells me I was born A piangere, a penar. To weep, to suffer. “L’ire di sorte atroce “[On my own] I could support with equanimity “Sopporterei costante; “The onslaught of a fiercely alien destiny; “Ma suora e sposa amante, “But the sister in me and the loving wife

–88– Manuela Custer “Tuttor degg’io tremar.” “Must ever be fearful.” [15] Ah! se tolto un sol momento Ah! but lift this great horror Tanto orror da me sarà, From me for a single moment, Palpitar di bel contento And this heart of mine will be able Questo core allor potrà. To beat with sweet content. (She leaves.)

CD2 35’27

SCENE VII

Enrico.

[1] ENRICO Infelice! pur troppo Unhappy Matilde! Unfortunately Ha ragion di temer. Funesto nodo She has good reason to fear. It was an Fu quel che strinse, e più funesto il rende Ill-omened marriage she contracted, and L’amor d’Elisabetta, Elisabetta’s love for Leicester renders it even more ominous. E l’imprudente passo As for the imprudent step Che la germana ed io That my sister and I took Commesso abbiam qui raggiungendo In coming to join Leicester here... il duce... Ah! pur troppo atra stella a noi riluce. Alas! it is a threatening star that shines upon us. (He leaves.)

–90– SCENE VIII

The royal apartments.

Norfolk and Leicester.

NORFOLK (Che intesi!) In queste stanze, inosservato, (What have I heard!) In these rooms, unobserved, Puoi, dolce amico, favellar. (Qual gioia!) You may speak freely, my friend. (What joy!) Prosiegui. Go on. LEICESTER Un dì, dopo ostinata pugna, One day, after stubborn fighting, Terribile uragan sorge improvviso. A terrible storm unexpectedly arose. Da’ miei prodi diviso, Separated from my brave followers, In umile capanna I was forced to take shelter M’è d’uopo ricovrar; quivi m’accoglie In a humble cottage; there an old shepherd Vecchio pastor; Matilde, Received me; Matilde, Che sua figlia credei, Whom I took for his daughter, appeared S’offerse agli occhi miei; vederla, amarla Before me; to see her, then to love her E’ l’opra d’un istante. Al nuovo giorno Was the work of a moment. Next morning In campo io fo ritorno. I returned to the camp. Tutto in breve a me cede; All shortly capitulated before me;

–91– Ma, oh Dio! del vincitore But _ O ye Gods! _ the heart of the victor In dolce schiavitù rimane il core. Remained enchained in the sweetest slavery. NORFOLK E come di Matilde But how did you come to make yourself Sposo ti festi? Matilde’s husband? LEICESTER Grato all’amistade In gratitude for the friendship Di quel pastor, m’offersi Of the shepherd, I offered myself to be Contro all’ostil furor d’essergli schermo. His shield against the fury of the enemy. Sento che illustre Scoto Then, when I heard that a noble Scot lay In lui si nascondeva; allor gli chiedo Concealed beneath his shepherd’s disguise, La figlia in moglie; il vedo I asked for his daughter in marriage. I saw Al mio discorso impallidir; comprendo Him grow pale at my words; I realised that he Che grave arcano ei cela; prego, insisto; Was concealing a heavy secret; I prayed, I insisted; Di Matilde e d’Enrico allor mi svela Then he revealed the royal origin of Matilde L’origine real... Puoi figurarti And Enrico to me... You may imagine Qual fu la mia sorpresa. All’amor mio, My surprise. To my love _

–92– Tanto tenace amor quanto funesto, A love as tenacious as it was ill-omened _ Pietà s’aggiunse... Io già ti dissi il resto There was added pity... I have already told you the rest. NORFOLK A grave rischio, amico, You exposed your life and your glory I giorni tuoi, la gloria tua ponesti; To grave risk, my friend; Ma fu colpa d’amore, But it was the fault of love, E amor fa la tua scusa. (Esulta o core.) And love excuses you. (Exult, my heart.) LEICESTER Se l’amico il più caro If my dearest friend Compatisce il mio fallo, Commiserates my fault, Non son tanto infelice, e sperar posso I am not so unhappy, and I can hope Consiglio, aita. For advice and help. NORFOLK E l’uno e l’altra io voglio One and the other I wish to set Porre in opra per te. Della Regina In motion for you. But we have need of La vigil mente a far che sia delusa Great art if we are to deceive Però molt’arte è d’uopo. The vigilant mind of the Queen. Alla sposa, al german t’affretta intanto; Meantime hasten to your wife and brother; Cauti li rendi. Alquanto Put them on their guard. Give me Dammi loco a pensar. A little time to think.

LEICESTER Sant’amistade, Holy friendship!

–93– Tra gli affanni ch’io provo, In the midst of the tortures I suffer, Almen qualche conforto in te ritrovo. At least I find some comfort in you. (He leaves.)

SCENE IX

Norfolk.

NORFOLK Stolto! t’inganni. Ah! meglio Fool! how you deceive yourself! Saria stato per te chieder aita Ah! better for you had you asked help Al mar fremente, alle voraci belve, Of the raging sea, of voracious wild beasts, Alle furie d’averno, Of the furies of Avernus, Che non ad un nemico Than of an enemy such as I Qual ti fui, qual ti son... Have been to you, and still am... (He sees Elisabetta approaching.)

M’offre vendetta Revenge offers me the chance La total tua ruina. Of accomplishing your total ruin.

–94– Antonino Siragusa with Giuliano Carella SCENE X

Elisabetta and Norfolk.

[2] NORFOLK Colmo di duol, Regina, It fills me with grief, my Queen, D’un così lieto dì son io costretto But I am obliged to cast a shadow La gioia a funestarti. Over your joy on this happy day. ELISABETTA Come! How come? NORFOLK Oh Dio! O God! Favellar mai poss’io... No: forza tanta Shall I ever be able to speak... No: I do not have In me non è. The courage to do so. ELISABETTA Spiegati. Explain yourself. NORFOLK Orrendo arcano, It is a terrible secret, Misera! udrai... Deh! lascia... Wretched Queen, that you will hear... Ah! Si, lasciami tacer. Let me, yes, let me remain silent... ELISABETTA Parla: l’impongo. Speak: I command it. NORFOLK T’ubbidirò. Leicester... I shall obey you. Leicester... ELISABETTA Che! Leicester... What! Leicester...

–96– NORFOLK Avvinto in nodo conjugal... Embroiled in a marital knot... ELISABETTA Che parli! What do you say! NORFOLK Il ver. The truth. ELISABETTA Possibil mai!... Is it conceivable!... Ah! t’ingannasti. Ah! you must be deceived. NORFOLK Ah no, non m’ingannai. Ah no, I am not mistaken. Di un degli ostaggi sotto finte spoglie His wife conceals herself in disguised La sua sposa si asconde; Attire as one of the hostages; L’accompagna il germano... Ambo son figli.. Her brother keeps her company... Both are the children... ELISABETTA Prosiegui... Oimè! Go on... Alas! NORFOLK Mi manca al dir la voce. My voice fails me... will not let me say it. ELISABETTA Figli di chi? Whose children? NORFOLK Ti nuoce My speaking Il mio parlar. Can only cause you pain. ELISABETTA Tutto saper io voglio. I wish to know everything.

–97– NORFOLK Figli a colei, che sì t’offese il soglio. The children of that woman who so abused your throne. (Elisabetta, at these last words, collapses upon a chair, and remains motionless, as if no longer in control of her mind or actions. Norfolk, playing the hypocrite, approaches her.)

[3] NORFOLK Perché mai, destin crudele, Why ever, cruel destiny, Costringesti il labbro mio!... Did you compel me to speak!... Ma fedele a te son io But I am faithful to you, Mentre accuso un traditor. Even as I accuse a traitor. ELISABETTA Con qual fulmine improvviso With what an unexpected thunderbolt Mi percosse irato il cielo! Enraged Heaven has struck me! Qual s’addensa orrendo velo, What an awful veil thickens about me, Che mi colma di terror! And fills me with terror! NORFOLK Deh! rammenta... Ah! remember...

ELISABETTA Taci... oh Dio! Be silent... O God! NORFOLK Pensa al regno... Think of your kingdom... ELISABETTA Oh Dio! mi lascia. O God! leave me.

–98– NORFOLK Sventurata! Unfortunate Queen! ELISABETTA Fiera ambascia! Cruel anguish! NORFOLK Per te geme questo cor. My heart groans in sympathy for you. ELISABETTA Lacerar mi sento il cor. I feel my heart torn in two. NORFOLK Rammenta... Remember... ELISABETTA Taci! Silence! NORFOLK Il regno... pensa... Think... your kingdom... ELISABETTA Taci! Silence! [4] (Misera! a quale stato (Woe is me! to what a state Mi riserbò la sorte! Has fate reduced me! Stato peggior di morte: A state worse than death: Più fiero non si dà.) There is no state more dire than this.) NORFOLK (Reggimi: in tale stato (O destiny, support me in this crisis! Deh! non tradirmi, o sorte! Ah! do not desert me! Vada il rivale a morte: Let my rival go to his death: E pago il mio cor sarà.) And my heart will be satisfied.)

–99– NORFOLK Regina, omai decidi! My Queen, now pronounce your decision! ELISABETTA Sì, perirà l’indegno! Yes, the unworthy wretch shall die! NORFOLK (Sorte, a’ miei voti arridi.) (Destiny, you smile in response to my prayers.) ELISABETTA Sgombri da me pietà. Let me know no pity. [5] TOGETHER Quell’alma perfida Let not that perfidious soul Non vada altera; Walk high in his pride; Del fallo orribile He will suffer the penalty La pena avrà. For his horrible crime. Fra cento spasimi Let the wicked wretch perish L’iniquo pera, Amid a hundred convulsions, A eterno esempio And be remembered forever D’infedeltà. As a precedent of infidelity. (They leave in opposite directions.)

SCENE XI

Guglielmo.

[6] GUGLIELMO Che fia? Smarrita in volto What may this be? I encountered the Queen

–100– Colin Lee La Regina incontrai... Ma non è quegli Looking disconcerted... But is not that Il superbo Norfolk? Veloce il passo Proud Norfolk? He takes his leave Ei di qua move... Forse Most hurriedly... Perhaps he brought Qualche affanno crudel recò costui Some cause for cruel suffering to the heart D’Elisabetta al cor. Chi sa per prova Of Elisabetta. Who knows for sure Quanta doppiezza cova How much duplicity the perfidious man has Il perfido nel seno... Ma, dolente, Smouldering in his heart... But the Queen, La Regina ritorna a questa volta... Woeful of expression, returns this way... Oh ciel! che mai sarà? Heavens! what can be the matter?

SCENE XII

Elisabetta and Guglielmo.

ELISABETTA Guglielmo, ascolta. Guglielmo, listen. Pronte ad ogni mio cenno, sull’ingresso Let the royal guards be posted outside the door, Sien le reali guardie. “Va’...” Ma pria Prompt to my every command. “Go...” Qui Leicester invia... Trattienti... (Oh But first send Leicester here... Wait... affanno! (Oh torture!

–102– Dove io mi sia non so.) Di Scozia i paggi I no longer know where I am.) Assemble Tutti raduna in questo loco. All the Scottish pages here. GUGLIELMO Il cenno I go Vado a compir. To carry out your orders. (He leaves.)

SCENE XIII

Elisabetta, seated.

[7] ELISABETTA Che penso, What think you, Desolata Regina?... A che mai serve Unhappy Queen?... Whatever avails it to have Aver doma la Scozia e saldo il trono, Scotland subdued and the throne secure Se un’infelice io sono? If I am to be unhappy? Sconoscente! ei pur vide Ungrateful villain! He was well aware L’amor d’Elisabetta, Of the love of Elisabetta, E in laccio coniugal stringer pur volle Yet he wished to contract a matrimonial bond Della maggior nemica sua la figlia!... With the daughter of my greatest enemy!... Oh delitto!... ma tremi Horrendous crime!... but let the guilty L’iniqua coppia. Son Regina e amante: Couple tremble. I am both Queen and lover:

–103– Jennifer Larmore Doppia vendetta... Ecco l’indegno... Oh A double vengeance, then... Here comes istante! the wretch! O moment of crisis!

SCENE XIV

Leicester enters from one side; Matilde and Enrico with the young Scottish hostages from the other. Elisabetta enters.

Leicester, who had been coming forward eagerly, stops dead at the sight of his wife. Matilde and Enrico do the same when they see Leicester. Elisabetta recognises Matilde _ as her rival _ and Enrico from their sudden hesitancy and confusion.

LEICESTER (Matilde!) (Matilde!) MATILDE (Oh cielo!) (O Heavens!) ENRICO (Oh incontro!) (What an encounter!) ELISABETTA (E’ dessa... Oh rabbia!) (’Tis she... O fury!) T’avanza, o duce... A che t’arresti? Io voglio Come forward, my general... Why do you hang back? I should like Men sommesso vederti. To see you less subservient. You are aware Ti è noto che il primo That you are the first of my faithful nobles, De’ miei fidi tu sei, che tal ti estimo. And that I esteem you as such.

–105– LEICESTER Regina... (che dirò?) Regina... (oh Dio!) Majesty... (what shall I say?) Majesty... (O God!) L’umil tuo servo... a tanta Your humble servant... so much Magnanima bontà... (Mi perdo...) Magnanimous bounty... (I am lost...) MATILDE betraying her own agitation (Oh pena!) (What torture!) ENRICO in Matilde’s ear Germana, ah! ti raffrena. Sister, ah! control yourself. ELISABETTA after having closely observed, one after the other, Leicester, Matilde and Enrico Non prosegui? Will you not continue? Eh! lascia omai quell’importun ritegno... Eh! Put aside this untimely restraint... (Geme, trema l’indegno. (The wretch groans and trembles. Oh piacer di vendetta!...) Ma coraggio Oh the joy of revenge!...) But now Or ti darà la stessa tua Regina. Your Queen herself will give you courage. Vieni, giovane eroe. Come, my young hero. MATILDE (Ah!) (Ah!) ELISABETTA Hearing Matilde’s sigh, even though it was suppressed, she turns to look at her; then to Leicester: T’avvicina. Approach. [8] Se mi serbasti il soglio If you preserved my throne Al campo dell’onor, Upon the field of honour,

–106– Darti mercede io voglio I wish to give you a reward Degna del tuo valor. Worthy of your courage. (At a sign from Elisabetta a guard steps forward; the Queen confers with him in secret. ) LEICESTER Donna reale, deh! frena Royal Lady, ah! you bestow on me Sì generosi accenti... Too many generous words... MATILDE, LEICESTER & ENRICO (Oh Dio! resisto appena (O God! I can scarcely withstand A’ palpiti frequenti The continual pounding Del mio dubbioso cor.) Of my quaking heart.) ELISABETTA (Benché fra’ suoi tormenti, (But in his torments Avrà vendetta amor/il cor.) Love/My heart will wreak its revenge.) (The guard returns, carrying a charger covered with a cloth. )

LEICESTER “(Di qual mercé favella “(I don’t yet understand “Io non comprendo ancor.)” What reward she is talking about.)” MATILDE, LEICESTER & ENRICO (La mia perversa stella (My adverse star becomes Sempre divien peggior.) Ever more malign.) (Elisabetta, who has been furtively observing the movements of Leicester, Matilde and Enrico, and following the looks of intelligence that they have been exchanging, rages in secret. Then, rising and forcing herself to maintain her self-control, she says: )

–107– Majella Cullagh and Manuela Custer ELISABETTA Eccoti, eroe magnanimo, Here, my large-hearted hero, D’un grato core il pegno: Is the pledge of a grateful heart: Te riconosca il regno Let the realm acknowledge you Per mio consorte e Re. As my consort and my King. (She removes the cloth from the charger, revealing the crown and sceptre. At this sight Leicester, Matilde and Enrico remain confused and taken aback. Elisabetta relishes their confusion. )

[9] MATILDE, LEICESTER & ENRICO (Qual colpo inaspettato (What an unexpected blow A noi serbava il fato... Fate held in store for me... Il gelo della morte All the icy grasp of death Tutto s’aduna in me.) Is concentrated upon me.) ELISABETTA (Al colpo inaspettato (At the unexpected blow Che lor serbava il fato, That Fate held in store for them, Il gelo della morte The icy anticipation of death Impallidir li fe’.) Has made them grow pale.) ELISABETTA [10] after a short pause Duce, in tal guisa accogli General, is this the way you accept D’una Regina il dono? The gift of a Queen? LEICESTER trembling (Oh ciel!) Deh!... scusa... al trono (Heavens!) Ah!... forgive me... A humble

–109– Vassallo umil non osa... Vassal dares not raise his eyes to the throne... ELISABETTA (Empio!) (Scoundrel!) LEICESTER more resolutely “Sì generosa “I do not deserve “Non merito mercé.” “Such a generous reward.” ENRICO softly to Matilde Ti frena. Restrain yourself. MATILDE Che affanno! What torture! ELISABETTA (Anima rea!) (Guilty creature!) ENRICO softly to Matilde “Resisti.” “Resist your impulses.” MATILDE “(Fier momento!)” “(Moment of crisis!)” ELISABETTA, MATILDE, LEICESTER & ENRICO (Spiegare il duol ch’io sento (It is impossible to explain Possibile non è.) The grief that I feel.) (After a momentary silent pause, during which the agitation of Leicester, Matilde and Enrico manifestly increases, Elisabetta, no longer able to contain herself, bursts forth as follows:)

–110– ELISABETTA Ah! che più tollerar non poss’io Ah! but I can stomach no longer Un vassallo fellon, menzognero. A vassal who is criminal and perjured. Or la benda dileguisi al vero: Let the blindfold be torn off to reveal the truth: Ecco l’empia che infido ti fà. This is the wicked woman responsible for your infidelity. (As she says these last words, she runs to Matilde, seizes her by the arm, and drags her centre-stage.)

LEICESTER (Che mai vedo!) (Whatever’s this I see!) MATILDE (Deliro!) (I must be out of my mind!) ENRICO (Son desto?) (Am I awake or dreaming?) MATILDE, LEICESTER & ENRICO (Disvelato è l’arcano funesto...) (The fatal secret’s out...) Ah! Regina, perdono, pietà. Ah! Majesty, forgive us, have mercy. (They fall on their knees at the feet of Elisabetta.) ELISABETTA Guardie, olà! Guards, ho there!

–111– SCENE XV

Guglielmo, guards, knights and ladies, in addition to those already on stage.

ELISABETTA Quegl’indegni Let these unworthy wretches Sien serbati al mio giusto furore. Be held over to suffer my just fury. (Sol di rabbia si pasce il mio core: (Anger is the only nourishment for my heart: Sol vendetta conforto gli dà.) Vengeance alone can give it comfort.) GUGLIELMO & CHORUS Come!... il duce! l’eroe vincitore!... What!... the general! the conquering hero!... Oh stupor!... Giusto ciel! che mai sarà? I’m thunderstruck!... Good God! whatever will happen next? MATILDE, LEICESTER & ENRICO Scherno siam d’un perverso destino... We are derided by a perverse destiny... Ah! Regina, perdono, pietà. Ah! Majesty, forgive us, have mercy. ELISABETTA Traditori! “fremete a’ miei sdegni.” Traitors! “tremble before my indignation.” Sien disvelti l’un l’altro dal seno. Let them be torn from each other’s embrace. MATILDE Sposo! Husband! LEICESTER Sposa! Wife!

–112– GUGLIELMO & CHORUS Sposi! Married! ENRICO embracing Matilde Germana... Sister... (Matilde, Leicester and Enrico are forcibly separated.)

MATILDE, LEICESTER & ENRICO Disvelato è l’arcano funesto... The fatal secret’s out... Scherno siam d’un perverso destino... We are the butt of a perverse destiny... Ah! Regina, perdono, pietà. Ah! Majesty, forgive us, have mercy. ELISABETTA (Sol si pasce il mio cor di veleno: (Poison is the only nourishment for my heart: Sol vendetta conforto gli dà.) Vengeance alone can give it comfort.) CHORUS Fatal giorno! impensata ruina! Fatal day! Unimagined ruin! Surse il sole sereno, ridente, The sun rose smiling serene, Or declina turbato, languente, Now it sinks, clouded and faint, E di lutto coprendo si va. Veiling itself in mourning. (The guards forcibly drag Leicester away in one direction, Matilde and Enrico in the other. The entire assembly retires in confusion.)

–113– CD3 71’16

ACT TWO

SCENE I

The royal apartments

Norfolk.

[1] NORFOLK Perché tremi, o mio cor! Forse presago O, my heart, why do you tremble? Do you Sei di qualche sventura, o di rimorsi Perhaps anticipate some misfortune, or could Saresti mai capace? It ever be that you are capable of remorse? A te finor la pace Hitherto envy has stolen your peace Invidia tolse; or che soccombe a un tratto Of mind; now, when the idol of Thames L’idolo del Tamigi; Has suddenly been demolished _ Or che di corte puoi Now when you can concentrate your hopes Ambire a’ primi onori, ed or che aperto Upon the highest honours of the court _ Ti è l’adito a quel soglio, Now when the path to the throne, that one day

–114– Antonino Siragusa and Colin Lee Che forse un dì calcar potresti, e in cui Perhaps you will tread, lies open before you _ a path which Da ben lunga stagion nutri speranza, Full many a moon you have nourished hopes of following _ Mancherai di coraggio e di costanza? Will you be found wanting in courage and steadfast determination?

SCENE II

Guglielmo and Norfolk.

GUGLIELMO La Regina, signor, la tua richiesta The Queen, my lord, refuses to grant Ricusa d’appagar. Your request. NORFOLK Come!... What!... GUGLIELMO Agitata Agitated Da molti pensieri, By many concerns, Sdegna ascoltarti. She scorns to hear you. NORFOLK Sdegna! Scorns?! GUGLIELMO Troppo Norfolk intesi, I have listened too much to Norfolk, Disse. Da ciò compresi She said. I understood from that Che grati a lei non sono i detti tuoi. That your words are not pleasing to her.

–116– NORFOLK (Oimè!) (Alas!) GUGLIELMO Dunque tu puoi For the present, therefore, Lungi da queste soglie You may direct your steps Volger per ora il piè. Far from these halls. NORFOLK Ma tal divieto... But such a banishment... GUGLIELMO Udisti il suo voler. You have heard her wishes. NORFOLK Ma il mio consiglio But my advice in the grievous Nello stato affannoso in cui si trova... Situation in which we find ourselves... GUGLIELMO Il consiglio talor nuoce, non giova. Advice sometimes does more harm than good. (He leaves.)

SCENE III

Norfolk.

NORFOLK Temerario! _ Si vada. Il tempo e l’arte Bold fellow! _ Well, let me go. Time and art Compir potran l’impresa, May yet bring my plans to fruition, and

–117– E sulle altrui ruine Allow me, mounting upon the ruins of others, Farmi afferrar della fortuna il crine. To seize fortune by the forelock. (He leaves.)

SCENE IV

Elisabetta and Guglielmo.

[2] ELISABETTA Dov’è Matilde? Where is Matilde? GUGLIELMO pointing towards one of the doorways Attende She awaits Colà i cenni tuoi. Your orders there. ELISABETTA A me si guidi, e poi Bring her to me, and then Venga Leicester. Let Leicester be summoned. GUGLIELMO Di pietà potresti?... Can it be you are inclining towards mercy?... Ah! sì, pietade è in te... Ah! yes, it is in your nature to be merciful... ELISABETTA Vanne: intendesti? Go: you have understood me? (Guglielmo goes out to fetch Matilde.)

–118– Majella Cullagh, Giuliano Carella with Patric Schmid and Nicholas Bosworth (répétiteur) SCENE V

Elisabetta, and Matilde under guard.

At a sign from Elisabetta, the guards retire.

ELISABETTA T’inoltra. In me tu vedi Come forward. In me, my lady, Il tuo giudice, o donna. Behold your judge. MATILDE Ho un cor bastante I have sufficient heart Per ascoltare, intrepida, il mio fato. To hear my fate without flinching. ELISABETTA Vuole ragion di stato, Reasons of state demand Che tu, nemica mia, che il tuo germano, That you, who are my enemy, and your brother, Che un vassallo sleale As disloyal vassals Sovra palco ferale Should pay the penalty D’un’ odiosa trama For a hateful plot La pena abbiate. Ma pietà favella Upon the fatal scaffold. But compassion D’Elisabetta in sen. Scrivi. Rinunzia Speaks in the breast of Elisabetta. Write. Ad ogni dritto tuo Renounce all your rights Di Leicester sul cor. Così da morte Over the heart of Leicester. In this way

–120– Majella Cullagh and Jennifer Larmore Vi potreste sottrar... You could escape death... (Matilde shakes with suppressed emotion.) Cedi alla sorte. Submit to fate. MATILDE Ah! più d’ogni supplizio Ah! this compassion E’ questa pietade. Is worse than any torture. ELISABETTA Non cimentar la tolleranza mia. Do not test my patience. Siedi, scrivi, rinunzia. Sit, write, pen your renunciation. MATILDE Invan... In vain... ELISABETTA Custodi... Guards... MATILDE Ah! senti... Ah! hear me... ELISABETTA Scrivi. Write. MATILDE Sfoga Vent Sol contro me tutti gli sdegni tuoi; Upon me alone all your anger; Ma il consorte, il germano... But my husband, my brother... ELISABETTA Scriver non vuoi? Do you not wish to write? [3] Pensa che sol per poco Reflect that I delay my anger Sospendo l’ira mia; For a short time only: Quanto più tardi fia, The longer I rein it in, Più fiera scoppierà. The fiercer it will break forth.

–121– MATILDE Salva il german, lo sposo, Spare my brother, my husband, S’è ver che giusta sei; If it is true that you are just; Poi tronca i giorni miei, Then cut short my days _ Tel chiedo per pietà. This I ask of your compassion. ELISABETTA Resisti ancor? Do you still resist? MATILDE Oh Dio! O God! Ti mova il pianto mio... Let my tears move you...

[4] ELISABETTA Non bastan quelle lagrime Those tears are not enough A impietosirmi il cor. To soften my heart to pity. MATILDE Vorrei stemprarti in lagrime, O my devastated heart, Mio desolato cor. I should like to drown you in tears. (Elisabetta imperiously gestures to Matilde to sit at the table and write. Matilde, trembling, approaches the table, sits, thinks for a moment and then rises as if to retire. Elisabetta is about to call the guards, but Matilde gestures as if to restrain her, and sits down with the intention of writing. At this moment Leicester, unseen by the two women, appears in the doorway.)

–123– Bruce Ford, Jennifer Larmore and Majella Cullagh SCENE VI

Leicester and guards; Elisabetta and Matilde.

(The guards retire to a distance.)

[5] LEICESTER (Misero me!... La sposa Woe is me!... My wife Dolente ed affannosa!... In tears and pain!... Oimè... Che mai sarà quel foglio?... Alas!... Whatever is that paper?... S’accresce il mio penar.) My suffering increases.) ELISABETTA (“Tra varii opposti affetti (“My soul is torn between Quest’alma si divide.”) Various conflicting emotions.”) MATILDE (Qual è il dolor che uccide, (If I can withstand this grief, S’io reggo al mio dolor?) What then is the grief that kills?) ELISABETTA to Leicester, now that she has become aware of his presence Debitor le sei di vita; You owe your life to her; Leggi, o duce, e poi l’imita. Read, General, and then sign, too. Dell’error, del tradimento I wish to see tokens of repentance in you Pentimento io voglio in te. For your error, for your betrayal. LEICESTER O Ciel! “Che lessi mai!” O Heavens! “What have I read!”

–125– [6] ALL THREE TOGETHER (L’avverso mio destino (I did not believe my destiny Sì fiero non credei. Could be so fiercely contrary. Quanto crudel tu sei! O love, how cruel you are! Quanto mi costi amor!) How much you cost me!) LEICESTER to Matilde Sconsigliata, che facesti! Rash girl, what have you done! to Elisabetta Ah! comprendo: in lei sapesti Ah! I understand: in her you were determined Violentar l’amor, la fé. To outrage love and faith. Ma t’inganni... But you were mistaken... MATILDE Odi... Listen... LEICESTER No! No! ELISABETTA Rifletti... Think well... LEICESTER No! No! A tal prezzo non vogl’io I have no wish to preserve my life Conservare il viver mio; At such a price. ELISABETTA “Empio!” Trema... “Villain!” Tremble... MATILDE Costanza! Let me be true! “E’ perduta ogni speranza!...” “Every hope is at an end!...”

–126– LEICESTER Serbo un cor che vil non è. I still have a heart that is not that of a coward. [7] ELISABETTA Ah! fra poco, in faccia a morte Ah! soon, when faced with death, Cesserà cotanto orgoglio, That excessive pride will cease; Ed allor quell’alma forte And then that strong spirit Fia costretta a vacillar. Will be forced to waver. LEICESTER Quell’ardir che in faccia a morte This strong spirit, Ti difese e vita e soglio, Unaccustomed to waver, Serberà quest’alma forte, Will retain that courage, which, in the face Non avvezza a vacillar. Of death, defended both your life and throne. MATILDE Ah! s’affretti pur la morte, Ah! let death indeed hasten, Affrontarla deggio e voglio; I must _ I wish _ to confront it; Non sarà quest’alma forte This strong spirit will no longer Più ridotta a vacillar. Be reduced to wavering. (Leicester and Matilde depart under guard.)

–127– SCENE VII

Elisabetta.

[8] ELISABETTA Pago sarai, cor mio? brami vendetta? Will you be satisfied, my heart? Do you wish revenge? Vendetta in breve avrai; Revenge ’ere long you will have; Ma forse men dolente allor sarai? But will you perhaps be less rueful then? Ah! Leicester, amarti Elisabetta, Ah! Leicester, did you never feel any urge Quell’altera Regina To love Elisabetta, that haughty Queen, Sprezzatrice finor di regie destre, Hitherto the despiser of royal offers of marriage? Giammai dovea? Rossore Though tardily, I feel ashamed Ma tardo, io provo d’un malnato amore. Of an ill-conceived passion.

SCENE VIII

Guglielmo and Elisabetta.

GUGLIELMO Chiede Norfolk a te l’accesso. Norfolk asks to be admitted to your presence.

–128– ELISABETTA Oh indegno!... O the unworthy wretch!... Va’: digli che al suo labbro Go: tell him that I owe my woes to the words Debbo gli affanni miei; digli che in premio He spoke; tell him that as a reward Di sua finta amistade For his false friendship towards a man Verso d’un’infelice, ancorché infido, Who, even though faithless, is unhappy, Disgombri al nuovo sol da questo lido. He is to be clear of these shores by sunrise tomorrow. (She leaves.)

SCENE IX

Guglielmo.

GUGLIELMO Oh giusto cielo! alfine Ah! Heaven is just! At last Il ver non trova inciampo The truth encounters no obstacle Onde giungere al trono; è alfin palese In reaching the throne; finally Quel doppio cor, d’iniquità ricetto... That double heart, that sink of iniquity, is unmasked... Il regio cenno ad eseguir m’affretto. I hasten to execute the royal command... (He leaves.)

–129– Giuliano Carella SCENE X

An atrium or vestibule leading to the dungeons of the prison.

Chorus of citizens and soldiers.

[9] CHORUS Qui soffermiamo il piè... Here let us stay our steps... Il tetro asil quest’è This is the gloomy retreat where Dove un barbaro fato _ condannò A barbarous fate has condemned the man Chi la patria salvò _ da fiera sorte. Who saved our homeland from a terrible fate. SOLDIERS Miseri noi! chi sa Unhappy that we are! Who knows whether our Se involarsi potrà Beloved general will be able to disentangle Il nostro duce amato _ a tant’orror? Himself from such a dreadful situation? Forse colpa d’amor _ lo spinge a morte. Perhaps it is a misdemeanour in love that thrusts him towards death. ALL Qui soffermiamo il piè... Here let us stay our steps... Il tetro asil quest’è This is the gloomy retreat where Dove un barbaro fato _ condannò A barbarous fate has condemned the man

–131– Chi la patria salvò _ da fiera sorte. Who saved our homeland from a terrible fate. (All approach the entrance to the dungeons.)

SCENE XI

Norfolk, and all those already present.

[10] NORFOLK (Che intesi!... Oh annunzio!... Questa (What have I heard?.. What a proclamation!... E’ la mercé ch’io merto?... Anche fra i lacci Is this the thanks I deserve?... Even in Mi nuocerà costui!... Norfolk, che pensi? Fetters the fellow harms me!... Norfolk, what are your thoughts? L’ingiusto esilio sopportar potrai? Will you be able to endure unjust exile? Come a tanto rossor resisterai?) How will you bear such shame?) SOLDIERS Oh nostro duce amato! Oh our beloved general! NORFOLK (Duce!... Ah! comprendo appien...) (General!... Ah! I understand full well...) CITIZENS Barbaro fato! Barbarous fate! NORFOLK (Qui si compiange il mio nemico... Tutto (Here they are commiserating my enemy... Congiura a’ danni miei... All conspires to my detriment... Che risolvo?... Oh vendetta! What shall I do?... O Revenge! conceal

–132– Col manto di pietà ti copri. All’arte.) Yourself beneath a mantle of pity. Let me dissemble.) Amici, io vengo a parte My friends, I come to share D’un così giusto affanno. Your most warranted grief. E sarà vero che il prode And is it true that the brave Salvator della patria Saviour of our homeland must perish Perir debba così? Lo soffrirem? In this way? Will we suffer it? CHORUS Non mai. No, never. NORFOLK Ebben, m’udite. Assai Well then, listen to me. Norfolk can help Può giovarvi Norfolk. Già cade il sole; You greatly. Already the sun is setting; Al prigionier men vo. Se non poss’io I am going to see the prisoner. If I am not Sottrarlo a’ ceppi suoi fra brev’istanti, Able to release him from his chains within Del carcere l’accesso A few seconds, you, my friends, must cut off Vi schiuderete, amici, All access to the prison Colla forza e il valor. By force and valour. CHORUS Signor, che dici! My Lord, what are you saying! Mancar di fede al trono Such boldness would constitute Saria cotanto ardir. A betrayal of loyalty to the throne. NORFOLK Ah! troppo ignora Ah! Elisabetta is all

–133– Antonino Siragusa Del duce sventurato Too ignorant of the feelings of her Elisabetta il cor; lo crede reo Unfortunate general; she believes him guilty Di lesa maestà, mentre quel core Of treason, while his heart Colpevole non è: lo scusa amore. Is not guilty: love excuses him. [11] Deh! troncate i ceppi suoi; Ah! strike off his chains; Deh! serbate a Elisa, al regno, Ah! preserve for Elisa, for the realm, Il più grande fra gli eroi, The greatest of heroes, Il più degno di pietà. The most deserving of pity. CHORUS Or ci guida. Ogni alma fida Now show us the way. Every faithful soul Pronta aita a lui darà. Will be prompt to bring him aid. NORFOLK All’amor che in voi si annida May merciful Heaven smile favourably Fausto arrida il ciel clemente. Upon the love that you harbour within you. [12] Non ha core chi non sente The man who does not feel the power La possanza d’amistà. Of friendship has no heart. CHORUS Or ci guida. Ogni alma fida Now show us the way. Every faithful soul Pronta aita a lui darà. Will be prompt to bring him aid.

–135– Bruce Ford NORFOLK (Vendicar saprò l’offesa; (I shall revenge my wrongs; Di furor quest’alma accesa My soul, ignited with fury, Quell’ingrata punirà.) Will punish that thankless woman.) CHORUS Non ha core chi non sente The man who does not feel the power La possanza d’amistà. Of friendship has no heart. Or ci guida. Ogni alma fida Now show us the way. Every faithful soul Pronta aita a lui darà. Will be prompt to bring him aid. (The citizens and soldiers depart in the wake of Norfolk.)

SCENE XII

The interior of a large, vaulted prison, partly illuminated by a large lamp. On the left there is a staircase leading up to a closed door. At the back there is another small door, bricked up; in the course of the action the bricks will be dismantled and the door opened. There is also a common entrance way on one side.

Leicester.

[13] LEICESTER Della cieca fortuna un tristo esempio, Unhappy that I am! I find in myself Lasso! in me trovo. In questo giorno il sole, A sad example of the blindness of fortune. Testimonio di gloria, Today the sun, in witness of my glory, Sorgeva a rischiarar la mia vittoria. Rose to light up my triumph.

–137– Tramonta appena il sole, e in lutto But scarcely has it set, than all for me Per me si cangia il tutto. Has changed to mourning. (He sits.)

Ma d’uopo han di conforto, But my weary limbs, after such a long vigil, Dopo lungo vegliar, le stanche membre, Have need of rest, E, mio malgrado, al sonno And, despite myself, I feel that my eyes Sento che gli occhi miei regger non ponno. Are incapable of resisting sleep. (He falls asleep, but continues talking in his sleep.) [14] Sposa amata... respira... Beloved wife... breathe once more... Cessan gli affanni nostri... è il ciel Our torments are over... Heaven is placato... placated... Tergi quel pianto... Dry your tears... “Idolo del mio cor... penammo assai...” “My heart’s treasure... we have suffered enough...” Matilde... ascolta... non fuggir... Matilde... listen... do not flee... (He wakes and starts up.)

T’arresta.. Stop... Oimè!... dove son io?... Larva fu questa. Alas!... where am I?... It was a dream. Fallace fu il contento, My happiness was a figment of imagination, Certa è la mia sciagura; My misfortune is reality; Immerso, oh Dio! mi sento O God! I feel my heart sunk once more

–138– Nel primo affanno il cor. In its previous torment. [15] Saziati, o sorte ingrata: Wreak your fill, thankless fate: Apriti o terra, e invola Open, earth, and steal Quest’alma desolata This stricken soul A tanto suo dolor. From the enormity of its grief. [16] E l’adorata sposa, And my adored wife, E l’innocente Enrico And innocent Enrico... Perir dovranno!... Oh Dio! They must perish!... O God! Per sopportar sì fiera One would need a heart of stone Immagine d’orrore, To be able to contemplate a picture Converrà di macigno avere il core. Of such unutterable horror.

SCENE XIII

Norfolk and two soldiers with pickaxes, and Leicester.

NORFOLK Amico... My friend... LEICESTER Ciel!... ti scosta. Heavens!... stand back. NORFOLK Così m’accogli! Is this how you receive me! LEICESTER Pria Before Di venire al mio sen, dimmi, non debbo You come to my arms, tell me, do I not owe

–139– Antonino Siragusa and Bruce Ford Il presente mio stato My present predicament Al tradimento tuo? To your betrayal? NORFOLK Che parli! Ingrato! What are you saying! Ungrateful man! Mi conosci sì poco? Eccoti il ferro: Do you know me so little? Here’s my sword: Vibralo in me, se vuoi; ma l’onor mio Bury it in my chest, if you wish; but do not Così non oltraggiar. Outrage my honour in that fashion. LEICESTER Ma Elisabetta... But Elisabetta... NORFOLK Scoperse il ver, né so dir come. A lei ... Discovered the truth, I don’t know how. Diressi i prieghi miei. To her I directed my prayers. Che non feci e non dissi onde quel core What did I not do and say to soften Impietosir per te? Vana speranza! That heart for you? Vain hope! She believes Tuo complice mi crede, e la tiranna Me your accomplice, and the tyrant A vergognoso esilio or mi condanna. Now condemns me to ignominious exile. LEICESTER Che sento!... (E sarà ver!) Tu solo a parte What do I hear!... (Can it be true!) Fosti del mio segreto... You alone were privy to my secret... NORFOLK Illustre nodo Could an illustrious marriage

–141– Potea restarsi ognor celato? Ah! troppo, Remain forever concealed? Ah! as a result of Per giovanil talento, ti rendesti Your youthful pleasures, you rendered yourself Imprudente in amor... Ma si tralasci Too imprudent in love... But let us have done L’inutil favellar. Voglio salvarti, With useless discussion. I want to save you, Felice io voglio farti, I want to make you happy, E ad ogni costo. And at any cost. LEICESTER E come? But how? NORFOLK Odi... ma pria mira colà. Matilde Listen... but first look there. That E il suo german divide Blocked-up passage way divides Matilde Da te quel chiuso varco. And her brother from you. LEICESTER Oh ciel! O heavens! NORFOLK to the two soldiers, who set about tearing down the wall that seals the small door at the back Quanto vi dissi, Do Si eseguisca. As I instructed you. to Leicester Fra poco Very soon Stringerli al sen potrai. You will be able to embrace them.

–142– LEICESTER Oh generoso! oh degno... O my generous, worthy friend... NORFOLK Del tradimento mio sia questo un segno. Let this exemplify the way I betray you. [17] LEICESTER Deh! scusa i trasporti Ah! forgive the wild words D’un misero, oppresso; Of an oppressed and miserable man; Errai, lo confesso: I was in the wrong, I confess it: Pentito son già. Already I regret what I said. NORFOLK (Costui di vendetta (May he open the way Mi schiuda la via; For me to secure my vengeance; Poi vittima sia: Then let him be my victim: Estinto cadrà.) He will go to his death.) LEICESTER Non parli? You do not speak? NORFOLK L’offesa I am willing to overlook A te condonai. Your offence. Quest’anima è accesa My mind is afire Di pura amistà. With pure friendship.

Ritorna al mio seno, Return to my embrace, Confortati appieno; Be fully comforted; Felice ti renda Let my loyalty La mia fedeltà. Make you happy.

–143– LEICESTER Ritorna al mio seno, Return to my embrace, Confortami appieno; Give me all your comfort; Felice mi renda Your loyalty La tua fedeltà. May make me happy. NORFOLK Unita alle schiere, United with the soldiery, La plebe dolente, The grieving people Attorno fremente Are up in arms, Scorrendo sen va. Seething round the prison.

LEICESTER Che narri!... E pretende? What do you tell me!... And to what end? NORFOLK Troncar tue ritorte. They aim to strike off your fetters. Suo duce ti attende... They look to you as their general... LEICESTER Che ascolto! What do I hear! NORFOLK La sorte Your destiny Per te cangierà. Is about to change. LEICESTER Non sia! Va’... This may not be! Go... NORFOLK Ma senti... But hear me... LEICESTER Ribelle del soglio! A rebel against the throne!

–144– NORFOLK Soccorso a momenti... Imminent reinforcements... LEICESTER Nol curo, nol voglio: I care nothing, have no wish for such plans: Orrore me fa! They fill me with horror!

Il fato crudele Fate in her cruelty Può farmi infelice; May render me unhappy; Ma sempre fedele But I shall never Quest’alma sarà. Be disloyal. NORFOLK Al fato crudele To the cruelty of fate Soccombi, infelice, You will fall victim, unhappy man, Se troppo fedele If you place loyalty Quell’alma sarà. Above all else.

–145– Jennifer Larmore SCENE XIV

Elisabetta, Matilde, Enrico, Norfolk and Leicester.

The two soldiers, having dismantled the wall, open the door at the back, then go out in the same direction from which they came. Just as Norfolk is about to bring fresh arguments to bear on Leicester, a creaking of hinges is heard from the other door _ at the top of the stairs _ and Elisabetta descends. No longer in regal attire, she is dressed in light clothing, and is preceded by a guard carrying a torch. Norfolk, seized with fear at the sight of the Queen, is about to depart, but, changing his mind, conceals himself behind a pillar close to the door that has just been unbricked, and where in this same moment Matilde and Enrico appear on the threshold. The darkness at the back of the stage prevents them from being noticed either by Norfolk or by the others. Leicester, amazed to see the Queen, stands confused while she descends. The guard, having put down the torch, retires in obedience to a sign from Elisabetta.

[18] LEICESTER kneeling Tu, Regina!... Deh! come... You, Majesty!... Ah! how... ELISABETTA Taci. Silence. NORFOLK (Io tremo... (I tremble... Che mai sarà?) Whatever is going to happen?) MATILDE in an undertone to Enrico Cielo! ella stessa! Heavens! The Queen herself!

–147– ENRICO in similar tones to Matilde Il piede Venture Non inoltrar. No further. MATILDE still in an undertone, as she sees Norfolk Costui perchè celato? Norfolk _ why is he hiding? ENRICO Udiam; t’accheta omai. Let us listen. Be quiet now. ELISABETTA by now at the foot of the stairs Misero, ascolta. Wretched man, hear me. Ecco l’ultima volta This is the last time that it is granted Che ti è dato il vedermi. _ A’ danni tuoi To you to see me. _ The laws have spoken Favellaron le leggi, e i Grandi a morte Against you, and the Lords have already Ti condannaron già. La tua Regina Condemned you to death. As your Queen, Approva la sentenza: I approve the sentence: Elisabetta far non lo potria. But as Elisabetta I could do no such thing. indicating the stairs Per quella ignota via By means of that secret passage way Ella t’offre uno scampo; va’, t’affretta; Elisabetta offers you a means of escape; go make haste; La Regina or non v’è; ma Elisabetta. The Queen is not here now: this is Elisabetta.

–148– Bruce Ford LEICESTER Oh eccelsa donna!... Amore Oh exceptional woman! Love made me Mi fece reo, ma non ribelle al trono. Guilty, but not a rebel to the throne. S’io m’involassi alla mia pena, il mondo If I were to escape my punishment, the world Tale mi crederia. Lascia ch’io pera. Would believe me just that. Let me die. Mostrati generosa Show yourself generous A Enrico, alla mia sposa; Towards Enrico, towards my wife; Li salva; altro non bramo. Save them; I wish no more. ELISABETTA Un impossibil chiedi. You ask an impossibility. L’empio Norfolk che ti accusò... The evil Norfolk who accused you... LEICESTER Che dici! What do you say! Norfolk! Norfolk! NORFOLK (Oh ciel!) (Heavens!) ELISABETTA Matilde e il suo germano, In the presence of the Lords, Al cospetto de’ Grandi, He named Matilde and her brother Nomò complici tuoi contro lo stato. As your accomplices against the state. LEICESTER Norfolk! Norfolk! ELISABETTA Scellerato Only tardily did I come to know him

–150– Tardi il conobbi; ognun tacea. Punirlo As a scoundrel; nobody spoke against him. Volli di sua finta amistade, e ognun I wished to punish him for his feigned friendship, and then all Di qual tempra è quel cor mi fe’ palese. Revealed to me the temper of his heart. NORFOLK (Oimè!) (Alas!) LEICESTER Chi mai tanta perfidia intese! Who ever heard of such perfidy! Ah! Regina, al riparo. Il traditore Ah! my Queen, take precautions. The traitor Qui poc’anzi sen venne; a me fingea Was here just now; he made pretence Fida amistà; volea Of being my faithful friend; he wished Farmi capo alla plebe. Ah! pensa... To set me at the head of the populace. Just think... ELISABETTA Oh Dio! O God! NORFOLK (Ah! perduto son io.) (Ah! I am lost.) LEICESTER Deh! corri. Ah! hasten. MATILDE to Enrico, indicating Norfolk Mira... Look...

–151– ENRICO seeing Norfolk lay his hand on the hilt of his sword Ei stringe il brando. He is drawing his sword. ELISABETTA after a moment’s thought L’empio, Yes, I shall Sì, preverrò. Forestall the wicked man. (She is about to ascend the stairs.)

NORFOLK throwing himself upon Elisabetta with his sword Ma pria la morte avrai. But you will meet your death first. ELISABETTA Cielo!... Heavens!... MATILDE & ENRICO Fermati!... Stop!... NORFOLK Oimè!... Alas!... LEICESTER Mostro! che fai! Monster! what are you doing! (Enrico and Matilde disarm Norfolk, Enrico turning the point of the sword against his chest and seizing his right arm, while Matilde secures his left arm. Leicester stands in front of Elisabetta to protect her.)

–152– Giuliano Carella ELISABETTA Olà, Guglielmo!... Ho! there, Guglielmo!... LEICESTER Guardie!... Guards!... SCENE XV

Guglielmo and guards, carrying torches, appear from the top of the stairs.

GUGLIELMO Mia sovrana... My Sovereign Lady... MATILDE & ENRICO Vivi, o Regina. Live, Your Majesty. LEICESTER Vivi, e vivi al regno. Live _ live for your kingdom. NORFOLK Oh destin! O destiny! MATILDE & ENRICO Traditor! Traitor! LEICESTER Barbaro! Uncouth man! ELISABETTA Indegno! Unworthy wretch! [19] Fellon, la pena avrai Felon, you will meet with the punishment Dovuta a tanto eccesso. That such excess deserves. Dove s’intese mai Where was a more wicked heart

–154– Più scellerato cor! Ever to be heard of! Si aggravi di ritorte: Let him be bound securely: Vada l’iniquo a morte; Hale the iniquitous fellow to his death; Terribil fia lo scempio Terrible be the execution D’un empio traditor. Of an evil traitor. NORFOLK Saziati, iniqua sorte, Glut yourself, my evil destiny, Appaga il tuo furor. Vent your fury upon me. (Norfolk is led away by the guards to the back of the prison.)

MATILDE & ENRICO to Elisabetta Deh! calmati. Ah! calm yourself. LEICESTER & GUGLIELMO to Elisabetta Respira. Breathe freely once more. MATILDE, LEICESTER, ENRICO & GUGLIELMO E il ciel pietoso ammira And wonder at merciful Heaven, De’ regi difensor. The defender of kings. [20] ELISABETTA Bell’alme generose Fair generous souls, A questo sen venite. Come to my embrace. Vivete, omai gioite, Live _ now it is time to rejoice _ Siate felici ognor. May you be happy forever. (After embracing Matilde and Enrico, she approaches Leicester.)

–155– MATILDE, LEICESTER, ENRICO & GUGLIELMO Oh grande! Great Sovereign! (Leicester, Matilde and Enrico kneel before her.)

ELISABETTA Sorgete. Rise. CHORUS [21] from off-stage Leicester!... Leicester!... Leicester!... Leicester!... ELISABETTA, MATILDE, LEICESTER, ENRICO & GUGLIELMO Quai grida! What shouts are these? CHORUS from off-stage Vederlo vogliamo: We want to see him: Morire al suo piè. To die at his feet. (The doors of the prison are thrown open.)

SCENE THE LAST

The chorus of soldiers and citizens bursts in to join those already on stage.

LEICESTER & GUGLIELMO Audaci! rispetto. Bold fellows! show respect. Frenate... Hold back... ELISABETTA to the guards who are trying to control the crowd

–156– Fermate... Stop... Sì tenero affetto Such loving affection Punibil non è. Is not to be punished. CHORUS kneeling before her La Regina!... Your Majesty!... Perdono imploriamo, pietà... We beseech your pardon, your mercy... ELISABETTA Ecco il duce: il rendo a voi, Here is your general: I restore him to you, Rendo al trono il difensor; I give back to the throne its defender. “Ma domando al vostro core “But I demand the first allegiance “La primiera fedeltà.” “Of your hearts [to me as Queen].” CHORUS Viva Elisa! l’eroina, Long live Elisa! our heroic Queen, Lo splendor di nostra età. The splendour of our age. [22] ELISABETTA (Fuggi amor da questo seno, (Be banished, Love, from my breast, Non turbar più il viver mio. Disturb my life no more. Altri affetti non vogl’io I have no other ambitions Che la gloria e la pietà.) Than glory, and the love of my people.) MATILDE, LEICESTER, ENRICO & GUGLIELMO “A’ tuoi voti, alta Regina, “May Heaven, mighty Queen, “Fausto il cielo ognor sarà.” “Ever smile favourably upon your wishes.”

–157– ALL Viva Elisa! l’eroina, Long live Elisa! our heroic Queen, Lo splendor di nostra età. The splendour of our age.

THE END

–158– Peter Moores, CBE