Mala Pasqua!
Encyclopedia
Mala Pasqua! is an opera in three acts composed by Stanislao Gastaldon
to a libretto
by Giovanni Domenico Bartocci-Fontana. The libretto is based on Giovanni Verga
's play, Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry) which Verga had adapted from his short story of the same name. Mala Pasqua! premiered on April 9, 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, six weeks before Pietro Mascagni
's opera Cavalleria rusticana
which was also based on Verga's play. Bartocci-Fontana's libretto adds some elements that were not in Verga's original and expands on others. The name of the Santuzza character was also changed to Carmela, but the basic plot and setting remain the same. Its title refers to the curse which Carmela places on Turiddu, the lover who had spurned her: "Mala Pasqua a te!" ("May you have an evil Easter!"). Following its Rome premiere Mala Pasqua! had a few more performances in Perugia
and Lisbon
, but it was completely eclipsed by the phenomenal success of Mascagni's opera. After the 1891 Lisbon run it was not heard again until 2010 when it was given a semi-staged performance in Agrigento
, Sicily.
's "Cavalleria rusticana" ("Rustic Chivalry") was originally published in Vita dei campi (Life in the Fields), his 1880 collection of short stories depicting Sicilian peasant life. The story itself is less than 2000 words long and is told almost entirely through the dialogue of its characters: Lola, Turiddu (Lola's lover), Alfio (Lola's husband), Santa (Turiddu's spurned lover), and Nunzia (Turiddu's mother). At the urging of the actress Eleonora Duse
, Verga adapted the story for the theatre, doubling its length and elaborating on the plot. Santa became Santuzza and a much more central character than she had been in the short story. Four new characters were also added: Brasi, Camilla, Filomena, and Pipuzza, villagers who comment on the actions of the protagonists. Cavalleria rusticana, a play in one act and nine scenes, premiered with Duse as Santuzza on January 14, 1884 at the Teatro Carignano in Turin
and became Verga's most successful stage work. Duse toured it in Italy and abroad and it was the basis for several films and at least three operas, the first of which was Mala Pasqua!
The enormous success of Stanislao Gastaldon
's 1881 salon
song, "Musica proibita", and his subsequent compositions in that genre had made him famous throughout Italy. In 1887 at the age of 26, he turned his attention to composing his first opera, Fatma, an opera-ballet in four acts. However, he set the project aside in 1888 when the music publisher Sonzogno announced a competition for one-act operas, open to all young Italian composers who had not yet had an opera performed on stage. The three winners (selected by a jury of prominent critics and composers) would be staged in Rome at Sonzogno's expense. Gastaldon decided to enter with an opera based on Cavalleria rusticana. His librettist, Giovanni Domenico Bartocci-Fontana, a lawyer by training and a poet by inclination, wrote to Verga asking permission to adapt the play. Verga wrote back to him on June 3, 1888 to say that he was happy to give his permission but added that the subject as it was treated in the play did not seem suitable for an opera libretto. Unbeknownst to Verga, another young composer, Pietro Mascagni
, entered the same contest at virtually the last minute with his opera Cavalleria rusticana
, also based on the story. Gastaldon withdrew his work early in the competition when he received an offer from Sonzogno's rival, Ricordi
, to publish it and arrange for its premiere at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. He expanded his original one-act version to two acts, and then three. Bartocci-Fontana's libretto added some elements that were not in Verga's original and expanded on others as well as changing the name of the Santuzza character to Carmela. However the basic plot and setting remained the same. It was given the title Mala Pasqua! from the curse which Santuzza placed on Turiddu in the original play: "Mala Pasqua a te!" ("May you have an evil Easter!"). The prominent Romanian soprano Elena Teodorini, who had already sung in the premieres of several new operas in Italy, read the score and agreed to sing the key role of Carmela
) and several prominent politicians including Paolo Boselli
, Federico Seismit-Doda
, and Luigi Miceli
. Although the critics were dismissive of the work, they did note that it found favour with the opening night audience with loud cheers and requests for Gastaldon to come before the curtain for an ovation even before the performance was finished. The Catholic journal, La Civiltà Cattolica
, did not review the performance but recorded its outrage at the opera's depiction of a religious procession with a priest carrying the Eucharist
during a tale of "sordid affairs and adultery" and called it a "sacrilege and vile insult". According to the journal, the devout Catholics walked out at this point, leaving an audience that consisted largely of "freemasons, riflemen, and an assortment of vulgar people."
In the meantime, Mascagni's opera Cavalleria rusticana
won the Sonzogno competition. It premiered six weeks after Mala Pasqua! at the same theatre. Mascagni's work was a phenomenal success and completely eclipsed Gastaldon's. (By the time of Mascagni's death in 1945, his opera had been performed more than 14,000 times in Italy alone.) There were a few further performances of Mala Pasqua! at the Teatro Morlacchi in Perugia
in September 1890 and at the Teatro São Carlos
in Lisbon in February 1891, with Teodorini as Carmela on both occasions. After that it sank into oblivion, so much so that some late 20th century reference books claimed that the score was lost. In fact, it was published by Ricordi in 1890 and is held in several libraries in the United States and Europe. On June 22, 2010, Mala Pasqua! received its first performance in 120 years at the Regional Archeology Museum in Agrigento
. It was performed in a semi-staged concert format to piano accompaniment as part of a one-day conference entitled "Mala Pasqua! La Cavalleria dimenticata" ("Mala Pasqua! The forgotten Cavalleria"). The production was organized by the Teatro Pirandello in Agrigento and directed by Paolo Panizza. Elena Candia and Piero Lupino Mercuri sang the roles of Carmela and Turiddu with Claudio Onofrio Gallina at the piano and Loredana Russo conducting the Stesicoro Choir.
village on Easter Sunday
Turiddu and Lola are lovers. Turiddu's former lover, Carmela, confronts him on Easter morning outside the village church, curses him in a jealous rage, and then tells Lola's husband Alfio about the affair. To preserve his honour, Alfio challenges Turiddu to a knife fight and stabs him to death.
Stanislao Gastaldon
Martino Stanislao Luigi Gastaldon was an Italian composer, primarily of salon songs for solo voice and piano. However, he also composed instrumental music, two choral works, and four operas. Today, he is remembered almost exclusively for his 1881 song "Musica proibita" , still one of the most...
to 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 Giovanni Domenico Bartocci-Fontana. The libretto is based on Giovanni Verga
Giovanni Verga
Giovanni Carmelo Verga was an Italian realist writer, best known for his depictions of life in Sicily, and especially for the short story "Cavalleria Rusticana" and the novel I Malavoglia .-Life and career:The first son of Giovanni Battista Catalano Verga and Caterina Di Mauro,...
's play, Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry) which Verga had adapted from his short story of the same name. Mala Pasqua! premiered on April 9, 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, six weeks before Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
's opera Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
which was also based on Verga's play. Bartocci-Fontana's libretto adds some elements that were not in Verga's original and expands on others. The name of the Santuzza character was also changed to Carmela, but the basic plot and setting remain the same. Its title refers to the curse which Carmela places on Turiddu, the lover who had spurned her: "Mala Pasqua a te!" ("May you have an evil Easter!"). Following its Rome premiere Mala Pasqua! had a few more performances in Perugia
Perugia
Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....
and Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, but it was completely eclipsed by the phenomenal success of Mascagni's opera. After the 1891 Lisbon run it was not heard again until 2010 when it was given a semi-staged performance in Agrigento
Agrigento
Agrigento , is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy, and capital of the province of Agrigento. It is renowned as the site of the ancient Greek city of Akragas , one of the leading cities of Magna Graecia during the golden...
, Sicily.
Background
Giovanni VergaGiovanni Verga
Giovanni Carmelo Verga was an Italian realist writer, best known for his depictions of life in Sicily, and especially for the short story "Cavalleria Rusticana" and the novel I Malavoglia .-Life and career:The first son of Giovanni Battista Catalano Verga and Caterina Di Mauro,...
's "Cavalleria rusticana" ("Rustic Chivalry") was originally published in Vita dei campi (Life in the Fields), his 1880 collection of short stories depicting Sicilian peasant life. The story itself is less than 2000 words long and is told almost entirely through the dialogue of its characters: Lola, Turiddu (Lola's lover), Alfio (Lola's husband), Santa (Turiddu's spurned lover), and Nunzia (Turiddu's mother). At the urging of the actress Eleonora Duse
Eleonora Duse
-Life and career:Duse was born in Vigevano, Lombardy, and began acting as a child. Both her father and her grandfather were actors, and she joined the troupe at age four. Due to poverty, she initially worked continually, traveling from city to city with whichever troupe her family was currently...
, Verga adapted the story for the theatre, doubling its length and elaborating on the plot. Santa became Santuzza and a much more central character than she had been in the short story. Four new characters were also added: Brasi, Camilla, Filomena, and Pipuzza, villagers who comment on the actions of the protagonists. Cavalleria rusticana, a play in one act and nine scenes, premiered with Duse as Santuzza on January 14, 1884 at the Teatro Carignano in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
and became Verga's most successful stage work. Duse toured it in Italy and abroad and it was the basis for several films and at least three operas, the first of which was Mala Pasqua!
The enormous success of Stanislao Gastaldon
Stanislao Gastaldon
Martino Stanislao Luigi Gastaldon was an Italian composer, primarily of salon songs for solo voice and piano. However, he also composed instrumental music, two choral works, and four operas. Today, he is remembered almost exclusively for his 1881 song "Musica proibita" , still one of the most...
's 1881 salon
Salon music
Salon music was a popular music genre in Europe during the 19th century. It was usually written for solo piano in the romantic style, and often performed by the composer at events known as "Salons". Salon compositions are usually fairly short and often focus on virtuoso pianistic display or...
song, "Musica proibita", and his subsequent compositions in that genre had made him famous throughout Italy. In 1887 at the age of 26, he turned his attention to composing his first opera, Fatma, an opera-ballet in four acts. However, he set the project aside in 1888 when the music publisher Sonzogno announced a competition for one-act operas, open to all young Italian composers who had not yet had an opera performed on stage. The three winners (selected by a jury of prominent critics and composers) would be staged in Rome at Sonzogno's expense. Gastaldon decided to enter with an opera based on Cavalleria rusticana. His librettist, Giovanni Domenico Bartocci-Fontana, a lawyer by training and a poet by inclination, wrote to Verga asking permission to adapt the play. Verga wrote back to him on June 3, 1888 to say that he was happy to give his permission but added that the subject as it was treated in the play did not seem suitable for an opera libretto. Unbeknownst to Verga, another young composer, Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
, entered the same contest at virtually the last minute with his opera Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
, also based on the story. Gastaldon withdrew his work early in the competition when he received an offer from Sonzogno's rival, Ricordi
Casa Ricordi
Casa Ricordi is a classical music publishing company founded in 1808 as G. Ricordi & Co. by violinist Giovanni Ricordi in Milan, Italy...
, to publish it and arrange for its premiere at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. He expanded his original one-act version to two acts, and then three. Bartocci-Fontana's libretto added some elements that were not in Verga's original and expanded on others as well as changing the name of the Santuzza character to Carmela. However the basic plot and setting remained the same. It was given the title Mala Pasqua! from the curse which Santuzza placed on Turiddu in the original play: "Mala Pasqua a te!" ("May you have an evil Easter!"). The prominent Romanian soprano Elena Teodorini, who had already sung in the premieres of several new operas in Italy, read the score and agreed to sing the key role of Carmela
Performance history
Mala Pasqua! premiered on April 9, 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome with Elena Teodorini and Giuseppe Russitano as Carmela and Turiddu. The opera ran for a total of four performances. Proceeds of the first three were to go to the patronesses' committee of the Tiro a Segno Nazionale (Italy's national association for target shooting) who also financed the production. Amongst the audience at the premiere were the Princess Odescalchi, Lina Crispi (wife of the Prime Minister Francesco CrispiFrancesco Crispi
Francesco Crispi was a 19th-century Italian politician of Arbëreshë ancestry. He was instrumental in the unification of Italy and was its 17th and 20th Prime Minister from 1887 until 1891 and again from 1893 until 1896.-Sicily:Crispi’s paternal family came originally from the small agricultural...
) and several prominent politicians including Paolo Boselli
Paolo Boselli
Paolo Boselli was an Italian politician who served as the 34th Prime Minister of Italy during World War I.Boselli was born in Savona, Liguria....
, Federico Seismit-Doda
Federico Seismit-Doda
Federico Seismit-Doda, born in Ragusa , in the Kingdom of Dalmatia , 1825 and died in Rome 1893. He was an Italian politician. He graduated from the University of Padua and collaborated at Caffè Pedrocchi; in 1849 fought with the volunteers in Veneto and in 1849 participated in the defence of Roman...
, and Luigi Miceli
Luigi Miceli
Luigi Miceli was born in Longobardi Italy on June 7, 1824 – he died in Rome, on December 30, 1906. He was an Italian patriot, politician and a military figure, a capitan in the conflicts of the Risorgimento and a leading military figure to the Italian Liberation and Unification in...
. Although the critics were dismissive of the work, they did note that it found favour with the opening night audience with loud cheers and requests for Gastaldon to come before the curtain for an ovation even before the performance was finished. The Catholic journal, La Civiltà Cattolica
La Civiltà Cattolica
La Civiltà Cattolica is a Rome based Italian biweekly magazine printed by the Jesuits. The bimonthly journal was founded in 1850 with papal funding by order of the Pope and readers have recognised it as representing contemporary Vatican opinion. It has been praised and highly regarded by readers...
, did not review the performance but recorded its outrage at the opera's depiction of a religious procession with a priest carrying the Eucharist
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
during a tale of "sordid affairs and adultery" and called it a "sacrilege and vile insult". According to the journal, the devout Catholics walked out at this point, leaving an audience that consisted largely of "freemasons, riflemen, and an assortment of vulgar people."
In the meantime, Mascagni's opera Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
won the Sonzogno competition. It premiered six weeks after Mala Pasqua! at the same theatre. Mascagni's work was a phenomenal success and completely eclipsed Gastaldon's. (By the time of Mascagni's death in 1945, his opera had been performed more than 14,000 times in Italy alone.) There were a few further performances of Mala Pasqua! at the Teatro Morlacchi in Perugia
Perugia
Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....
in September 1890 and at the Teatro São Carlos
Teatro Nacional de São Carlos
The Teatro Nacional de São Carlos is an opera house in Lisbon, Portugal. It was opened on July 30, 1793 by Queen Maria I as a replacement for the Tejo Opera House, which was destroyed in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake...
in Lisbon in February 1891, with Teodorini as Carmela on both occasions. After that it sank into oblivion, so much so that some late 20th century reference books claimed that the score was lost. In fact, it was published by Ricordi in 1890 and is held in several libraries in the United States and Europe. On June 22, 2010, Mala Pasqua! received its first performance in 120 years at the Regional Archeology Museum in Agrigento
Agrigento
Agrigento , is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy, and capital of the province of Agrigento. It is renowned as the site of the ancient Greek city of Akragas , one of the leading cities of Magna Graecia during the golden...
. It was performed in a semi-staged concert format to piano accompaniment as part of a one-day conference entitled "Mala Pasqua! La Cavalleria dimenticata" ("Mala Pasqua! The forgotten Cavalleria"). The production was organized by the Teatro Pirandello in Agrigento and directed by Paolo Panizza. Elena Candia and Piero Lupino Mercuri sang the roles of Carmela and Turiddu with Claudio Onofrio Gallina at the piano and Loredana Russo conducting the Stesicoro Choir.
Roles
| Role | Voice type Voice type A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types... |
Premiere cast, April 9, 1890 (Conductor Conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble... : Vincenzo Lombardi) |
|---|---|---|
| Carmela | 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... |
Elena Teodorini |
| Lola | 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... |
Flora Mariani |
| Turiddu | 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... |
Giuseppe Russitano |
| Alfio, Lola's husband | 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... |
Aristide Franceschetti |
| Nunzia, Turiddu's mother | soprano | |
| Brasi, a stableman | ||
| Camilla, Brasi's wife |
Synopsis
Setting: A 19th century SicilianSicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
village on Easter Sunday
Turiddu and Lola are lovers. Turiddu's former lover, Carmela, confronts him on Easter morning outside the village church, curses him in a jealous rage, and then tells Lola's husband Alfio about the affair. To preserve his honour, Alfio challenges Turiddu to a knife fight and stabs him to death.
Sources
- Casaglia, Gherardo (2005). "Gastaldon". Almanacco Amadeus. Accessed 16 May 2011.
- D'Amico, Silvio (1975). "Teodorini, Elena". Enciclopedia dello spettacolo, Volume 9, p. 825. Unedi-Unione
- Destranges, Etienne (January 23, 1892). "A propos de la Chavalerie rustique". Ouest-Artiste, pp. 56
- Di Bartolo, Natalia (June 23, 2010). "Agrigento: Rivive in prima mondiale l'Opera Mala Pasqua di Gastaldon". Teatro.org. Accessed 16 May 2011.
- Fleres, Ugo (April 19, 1890). "Mala Pasqua". Lettere e Arti, Anno II, Numero 14, pp. 218-219
- Frajese, Vittorio (1977). Dal Costanzi all'Opera: Cronologia completa degli spettacoli, 1880-1960, Vol IV. Edizioni Capitolium
- Hiller, Jonathan (2009). "Verismo Through the Genres, or 'Cavallerie rusticane'—The Delicate Question of Innovation in the Operatic Adaptations of Giovanni Verga's Story and Drama by Pietro Mascagni (1890) and Domenico Monleone (1907)". Carte Italiane, 2(5). Accessed 16 May 2011.
- La Civiltà CattolicaLa Civiltà CattolicaLa Civiltà Cattolica is a Rome based Italian biweekly magazine printed by the Jesuits. The bimonthly journal was founded in 1850 with papal funding by order of the Pope and readers have recognised it as representing contemporary Vatican opinion. It has been praised and highly regarded by readers...
(1890). "Cronaca contemporanea: Cose romane, 1-16 Aprile 1890". - Le Ménestrel (April 20, 1890). "Nouvelles Diverses: Étranger". Heugel, pp. 125-127
- Lorgio, Michele (June 23, 2010). "Mala Pasqua—la Cavalleria dimenticata al Museo Archeologico di Agrigento". Sicilia 24 ore. Accessed 16 May 2011.
- Raya, Gino (1990) Vita di Giovanni Verga. Herder, 1990
- Rose, Scott (August 2009). "Getting It Off Her Chest". Opera NewsOpera NewsOpera News is an American classical music magazine. It has been published since 1936 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a non-profit organization located at Lincoln Center which was founded to support the Metropolitan Opera of New York City...
, Vol. 74, No. 2 - Salvagno, Aldo (2009). "Questioni di Cavalleria" in La Fenice prima dell'Opera, 7. Fondazione Teatro La Fenice di Venezia. Accessed 16 May 2011.
- Scaccetti, Maria Paola (2002). "'La Musica Proibita' di Stanislao Gastaldon" in La romanza italiana da salotto, Francesco Sanvitale (ed.). EDT srl. ISBN 8870636151
- Schweisheimer, W. (April 1946). "Pietro Mascagni—A Tragic Figure?", The Etude (reprinted on Mascagni.org)
External links
- Photographs of the 2010 revival of Mala Pasqua! in Agrigento
- Full text of Giovanni Verga's 1880 short story "Cavalleria rusticana"
- Full text of "Cavalleria rusticana" translated into English in Under the Shadow of Etna: Sicilian Stories from the Italian of Giovanni Verga (1896)
- Full text of Giovanni Verga's 1884 play Cavalleria rusticana