Elisa e Claudio
Encyclopedia
Elisa e Claudio, ossia L'amore protetto dall'amicizia (Elisa and Claudio, or Love Protected by Friendship) is a two-act melodramma
semiseria
by the 19th Century Italian composer
Saverio Mercadante
from a libretto
by Luigi Romanelli based on the play, Rosella by Filipo Casari. It received its premiere performance at La Scala
in Milan
on 30 October 1821.
Mercadante began to compose operas in 1819, and Elisa was his seventh. It "establish[ed for him] a European reputation with the Rossinian opera buffa "
in London
in April 1823, followed a month later at the then-named Théâtre royal Italien in Paris on 22 November. The US premiere occurred on 18 October 1832 in New York City
.
Elisa is the only Mercadante comic opera to have been presented in recent years. In fact, very few revivals of any of the composer's operas have taken place in the 20th century, but those of Elisa e Claudio include a 1971 presentation at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples
and 1973 performances at the occasional "Festival Mercadantiano" in the composer's home town, Altamura
in Southern Italy, in which Salvatore Fisichella
sang the role of Claudio. The Wexford Festival in Ireland
has been instrumental in featuring Mercadante's work, and Elisa was given in October 1988.
The Marquis Tricotazio and his daughter Silvia have arrived to visit the Count a day earlier than expected. The Marquis is looking forward to Silvia's marriage with the Count's son Claudio, but Silvia is in love with Celso, a former fellow-student of Claudio who has joined the Marquis's retinue. The Count suspects that Claudio wishes to marry someone else, and has confined him to his room for a year, but Claudio, to the Count's surprise, agrees to the marriage. This is a ruse which allows him to move more freely and, in particular, to visit Elisa, whom he has secretly married. However, the Count's servant, Luca, has discovered the existence of Elisa and the two children that she has borne to Claudio.
Scene 2: Carlotta's cottage
Elisa and the children are staying with her friend Carlotta. She is longing to be reunited with Claudio. Carlotta arrives, indignant that Claudio is apparently to marry Silvia. Claudio appears and is reproached by the women, but he convinces them that his consent to the marriage is a pretence. After he has left, Luca and a gang of ruffians arrive and carry off the children, to the great distress of Elisa and Carlotta.
Scene 3: The gallery in the Count's villa
Silvia and Celso plan to elope, but suddenly Claudio and Carlotta arrive with the news that the children have been kidnapped. The Marquis appears, but gets angry when no-one tells him what is going on. The arrival of Luca and the servants does not improve his temper.
Scene 4: The Count's garden
The bewildered Marquis is taking the air when he is confronted by a furious Elisa, who accuses him of ordering the kidnapping. He has no idea who she is or what she is talking about, and, assuming her to be mad, rushes off, pursued by Elisa. Carlotta arrives, distressed because she has been unable to find Elisa, but the servants cannot help.
Scene 5: Inside the villa
Luca and the Count are discussing what to do with the children when the Marquis, still pursued by Elisa, arrives. Silvia, Claudio, Carlotta and Celso now appear, and when the Count orders the servants to throw Elisa out, she realises that he, and not the Marquis, is her enemy. The others plead with the Count, but he is adamant.
Luca refuses to tell the servants exactly what is going on and sends them away. The Count reveals that he plans to offer Elisa a dowry if she finds someone to marry. The Marquis tries to persuade the Count to abandon the marriage of Silvia and Claudio, but the Count will not listen. Celso tells Silvia and Carlotta that he has acquired a key to a secret door through which Elisa and Claudio can escape. He has also had an idea about how to find where the children are being kept. Carlotta reflects that love has its sorrows as well as its enchantments.
Scene 2: Inside the villa
The Count tries to persuade Elisa to accept the dowry and the husband that he has selected for her. She rejects both. Celso, who had put his own name forward to the Count, offers Luca a share of the dowry if he will reveal the children's whereabouts. Luca has no hesitation in accepting.
Scene 3: Night-time in the garden
Elsa, Claudio and Carlotta have escaped through the secret door. They encounter the Marquis and then the Count, who has Luca's armed ruffians with him. The Count and Claudio shout at each other until he gives the order for Elisa to be taken away and locked up. After a scene of general confusion, Claudio meets Celso, who has freed the two children, and they hymn the power of friendship.
Scene 4: A room in the villa
Elisa is visited in her prison by Claudio and the children, and is overjoyed at their reunion. Celso, Carlotta and the Marquis join the rejoicing. The Count, still furious, is not impressed by Elisa's pleading with him, nor with the Marquis's support for her. The Marquis is disconcerted to find that Silvia is in love with Celso, a servant, but recovers and agrees to their union. Elisa offers to renounce her claim to Claudio if the Count will forgive his son, and finally the Count gives way and accepts their marriage, to general rejoicing.
Source: Recordings of Elisa e Claudio on operadis-opera-discography.org.uk
Melodramma
Melodramma is an Italian term for opera, used in a much narrower sense by English writers to discuss developments in the early 19th century Italian libretto...
semiseria
Opera semiseria
Opera semiseria is an Italian genre of opera, popular in the early and middle 19th century.Related to the opera buffa, opera semiseria contains elements of comedy but also of pathos, sometimes with a pastoral setting. It can usually be distinguished from tragic operas or melodramas by the presence...
by the 19th Century Italian composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
Saverio Mercadante
Saverio Mercadante
Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. While Mercadante may not have retained the international celebrity of Gaetano Donizetti or Gioachino Rossini beyond his own lifetime, he composed as impressive a number of works as either; and his development of...
from a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Luigi Romanelli based on the play, Rosella by Filipo Casari. It received its premiere performance at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
on 30 October 1821.
Mercadante began to compose operas in 1819, and Elisa was his seventh. It "establish[ed for him] a European reputation with the Rossinian opera buffa "
Performance history
Initially successful, the opera was given at His Majesty's TheatreHer Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in April 1823, followed a month later at the then-named Théâtre royal Italien in Paris on 22 November. The US premiere occurred on 18 October 1832 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Elisa is the only Mercadante comic opera to have been presented in recent years. In fact, very few revivals of any of the composer's operas have taken place in the 20th century, but those of Elisa e Claudio include a 1971 presentation at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
and 1973 performances at the occasional "Festival Mercadantiano" in the composer's home town, Altamura
Altamura
Altamura is a town and comune of Apulia, southern Italy. It is located on the Murge plateau in the province of Bari, 45 km South-West of Bari, close to the border with Basilicata. As of 2011 its population was of 69,728.-Overview:...
in Southern Italy, in which Salvatore Fisichella
Salvatore Fisichella
Salvatore Fisichella is an Italian operatic tenor, particularly known for his roles in bel canto operas, especially those of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini...
sang the role of Claudio. The Wexford Festival in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
has been instrumental in featuring Mercadante's work, and Elisa was given in October 1988.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast (Conductor: Alessandro Rolla) |
|---|---|---|
| Elisa | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... |
Teresa Belloc-Giorgi |
| Claudio, son of Conte Arnoldo | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Domenico Donzelli Domenico Donzelli Domenico Donzelli was an Italian tenor with a robust voice who enjoyed an important career in Paris, London and his native country during the 1808-1841 period.-Biography:... |
| Carlotta, Elisa's friend | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Margherita Schira |
| Il Conte Arnoldo | bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C... |
Luigi Lablache Luigi Lablache Luigi Lablache was an Italian opera singer of French and Irish heritage. He was most noted for his comic performances, possessing a powerful and agile bass voice, a wide range, and adroit acting skills: Leporello in Don Giovanni was one of his signature roles.-Biography:Luigi Lablache was born in... |
| Il Marchese Tricotazio | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Nicola De Grecis |
| Silvia, his daughter | mezzo-soprano | Carolina Sivelli |
| Celso, his servant, an old friend of Claudio | tenor | Pietro Gentili |
| Luca, Conte Arnoldo's chief servant | tenor | Carlo Salvatore Poggiali |
| the two children of Elisa and Claudio | silent | |
| Servants, Ruffians, Garden-girls | ||
Act 1
Scene 1: Inside Count Arnoldo's villaThe Marquis Tricotazio and his daughter Silvia have arrived to visit the Count a day earlier than expected. The Marquis is looking forward to Silvia's marriage with the Count's son Claudio, but Silvia is in love with Celso, a former fellow-student of Claudio who has joined the Marquis's retinue. The Count suspects that Claudio wishes to marry someone else, and has confined him to his room for a year, but Claudio, to the Count's surprise, agrees to the marriage. This is a ruse which allows him to move more freely and, in particular, to visit Elisa, whom he has secretly married. However, the Count's servant, Luca, has discovered the existence of Elisa and the two children that she has borne to Claudio.
Scene 2: Carlotta's cottage
Elisa and the children are staying with her friend Carlotta. She is longing to be reunited with Claudio. Carlotta arrives, indignant that Claudio is apparently to marry Silvia. Claudio appears and is reproached by the women, but he convinces them that his consent to the marriage is a pretence. After he has left, Luca and a gang of ruffians arrive and carry off the children, to the great distress of Elisa and Carlotta.
Scene 3: The gallery in the Count's villa
Silvia and Celso plan to elope, but suddenly Claudio and Carlotta arrive with the news that the children have been kidnapped. The Marquis appears, but gets angry when no-one tells him what is going on. The arrival of Luca and the servants does not improve his temper.
Scene 4: The Count's garden
The bewildered Marquis is taking the air when he is confronted by a furious Elisa, who accuses him of ordering the kidnapping. He has no idea who she is or what she is talking about, and, assuming her to be mad, rushes off, pursued by Elisa. Carlotta arrives, distressed because she has been unable to find Elisa, but the servants cannot help.
Scene 5: Inside the villa
Luca and the Count are discussing what to do with the children when the Marquis, still pursued by Elisa, arrives. Silvia, Claudio, Carlotta and Celso now appear, and when the Count orders the servants to throw Elisa out, she realises that he, and not the Marquis, is her enemy. The others plead with the Count, but he is adamant.
Act 2
Scene 1: The Count's gardenLuca refuses to tell the servants exactly what is going on and sends them away. The Count reveals that he plans to offer Elisa a dowry if she finds someone to marry. The Marquis tries to persuade the Count to abandon the marriage of Silvia and Claudio, but the Count will not listen. Celso tells Silvia and Carlotta that he has acquired a key to a secret door through which Elisa and Claudio can escape. He has also had an idea about how to find where the children are being kept. Carlotta reflects that love has its sorrows as well as its enchantments.
Scene 2: Inside the villa
The Count tries to persuade Elisa to accept the dowry and the husband that he has selected for her. She rejects both. Celso, who had put his own name forward to the Count, offers Luca a share of the dowry if he will reveal the children's whereabouts. Luca has no hesitation in accepting.
Scene 3: Night-time in the garden
Elsa, Claudio and Carlotta have escaped through the secret door. They encounter the Marquis and then the Count, who has Luca's armed ruffians with him. The Count and Claudio shout at each other until he gives the order for Elisa to be taken away and locked up. After a scene of general confusion, Claudio meets Celso, who has freed the two children, and they hymn the power of friendship.
Scene 4: A room in the villa
Elisa is visited in her prison by Claudio and the children, and is overjoyed at their reunion. Celso, Carlotta and the Marquis join the rejoicing. The Count, still furious, is not impressed by Elisa's pleading with him, nor with the Marquis's support for her. The Marquis is disconcerted to find that Silvia is in love with Celso, a servant, but recovers and agrees to their union. Elisa offers to renounce her claim to Claudio if the Count will forgive his son, and finally the Count gives way and accepts their marriage, to general rejoicing.
Recordings
| Year | Cast (Elisa, Claudio, Carlotta, Il Conte Arnoldo) |
Conductor, Opera House and Orchestra |
Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | Virginia Zeani Virginia Zeani Virginia Zeani is a Romanian soprano, particularly associated with the Italian repertory, especially the role of in "La traviata".-Early life:Zeani was born Virginia Zehan, in Solovăstru, Romania... , Agostino Lazzari, Giovanna Fioroni, Ugo Trama |
Ugo Rápalo Teatro San Carlo, Naples Orchestra and Chorus (Recording of a performance at Naples, 31 January) |
Audio CD: Melodram Cat: CDM 27099 |
| 1988 | Lena Nordin, János Bándi, Alice Baker, Plamen Hidjov |
Marco Guidarini, Orchestra of Radiotelefis Eireann and Wexford Festival Opera Chorus (Recorded at performances at the Wexford Festival, October) |
Audio CD: Premiere Opera (Italy) Cat: unnumbered |
Source: Recordings of Elisa e Claudio on operadis-opera-discography.org.uk