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.