Maria de Rudenz is a dramma tragico, or tragic opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

, in three parts by Gaetano Donizetti

Gaetano Donizetti

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...

. The Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 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...

 was written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on "a piece of Gothic horror", La nonne sanglante by Anicet-Bourgeois, Cuvelier and Maillan, and The monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis. It premiered at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 on 30 January 1838.

Performance history

While the initial performances were not very successful (Donizetti regarded them as "a fiasco",the opera was withdrawn after two performances. It was given 14 performances in Rome in 1841 but, again, it was received with little enthusiasm. Finally, an "excellent production and superior singing this time won vigorous approval" in a production in Rome in 1841, and this was followed by one in Naples in 1848.

Today, the opera is very rarely staged. It did not receive productions in the UK until the Opera Rara

Opera Rara

Opera Rara is a British record label, founded in the early 1970s by Americans Patric Schmid and Don White to promote concerts of rare and/or forgotten operas by Giacomo Meyerbeer and Donizetti and such other "bel canto" composers as Giovanni Pacini, Saverio Mercadante, and Federico Ricci.The...

 concert staging in London 27 October 1974 and the first staged presentations in the 20th century took place at La Fenice beginning on 21 December 1980 with Katia Ricciarelli

Katia Ricciarelli

-Biography:Born at Rovigo, Veneto, to a very poor family, she struggled during her younger years when she studied music.She studied at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice, won several vocal competitions in 1968, and made her professional debut as Mimì in La bohème in Mantua in 1969,...

 in the title role. Both have been recorded.

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, 30 January 1838 (Conductor: — )
Maria de Rudenz	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...	Carolina Ungher Caroline Unger Caroline Unger was an Austro-Hungarian contralto.Born in Vienna, she studied in Italy; among her teachers were Aloysia Weber Lange and Domenico Ronconi. Her stage debut, in her native city, came in 1821, when she performed in Mozart's Così fan tutte, a performance for which Franz Schubert had...
Matilde di Wolf, her cousin	soprano	Isabella Casali
Corrado Waldorf	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...	Giorgio Ronconi Giorgio Ronconi Giorgio Ronconi was an Italian operatic baritone celebrated for his brilliant acting and compelling stage presence. In 1842, he created the title-role in Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco at La Scala, Milan.-Career:...
Enrico, his brother	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...	Napoleone Moriani
Rambaldo, old relative of the Rudenz house	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...	Domenico Raffaeli
The Chancellor of Rudenz	tenor	Alessandro Giacchini
Knights, squires, and vassals of the Rudenz house

Synopsis

Place: Switzerland

Time: 1400

Maria de Rudenz falls in love with Corrado against her father's wish and flees with him to Venice. Being there, Corrado suspects that Maria is unfaithful to him, abandons her, returns to the Rudnez Castle area and falls in love with Maria's cousin Mathilde.

Maria manages to return to her ancestors Castle, discovers that her lover is not only going to marry her cousin, but that in fact he is not who he is but the son of a murderer. She is ready to keep this secret safe and sound with her if only Corrado returned back to her but he refuses and in a rage injures her with his sword so that everyone thinks that she is dead.

On Mathilde and Corrado's wedding day Maria appears again, discovers his secret to everybody, murders Mathilde and commits a suicide.

Recordings

• 1974: Conductor Alun Francis, Orchestra - Philomusica of London and the Opera Rara Chorus

Maria de Rudenz - Ludmilla (Milla) Andrew; Matilde di Wolf - Merril Jenkins; Corrado Waldorf - Christian Du Plessis; Enrico - Richard Greager; Rambaldo - Malcolm King; Il Cancelliere - Riccardo Calleo.

Audio CD: Memories, Cat: HR 4588-4589
(Recording of a concert performance in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 27 October)

• 1981: Conductor Eliahu Inbal, Orchestra and Chorus: Teatro La Fenice di Venezia

Maria de Rudenz - Katia Ricciarelli; Matilde di Wolf - Silvia Baleani; Corrado Waldorf - Leo Nucci
Enrico - Alberto Cupido; Rambaldo - Giorgio Surjan; Il Cancelliere - Silvio Eupani.

Audio CD: Fonit Cetra «Italia» Cat: CDC 91; Mondo Musica Cat: MFOH 10708; Living Stage Cat: LS 35140 (Recorded at the La Fenice, Venice, January)

• 1997 — Maria de Rudenz — Nelly Miricioiu
  Nelly Miricioiu
  Nelly Miricioiu is a British operatic soprano of Romanian birth, one of the most versatile artists of recent years, singing a large repertoire ranging from bel canto to verismo with equal success.-Biography:...
  
  , Robert McFarland, Bruce Ford, Matthew Hargreaves, Regina Nathan — Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, Philharmonia Orchestra, David Parry
  David Parry (conductor)
  David Parry is an English conductor who is particularly known for his work within the field of opera. Described as "a man of the theatre with whom directors love to work; he is good with singers; he knows the British opera world like the back of his hand...
  
  .

Audio CD: Opera Rara Cat: ORC16