''Gabriella di Vergy'' is an opera seria in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti written in 1826 and revised in 1838, from a

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

Andrea Leone Tottola Andrea Leone Tottola (died 15 September 1831) was a prolific Italian librettist, best known for his work with Gaetano Donizetti and Gioachino Rossini. It is not known when or where he was born. He became the official poet to the royal theatres ...

, which was based on the tragedy ''Gabrielle de Vergy'' (1777) by Dormont De Belloy. Prior to that, the play was itself inspired by two French medieval legends, '' Le châtelain de Coucy et la dame de Fayel'' and ''Le Roman de la chastelaine de Vergy''. The story had already been the subject of an opera by

Michele Carafa Michele Enrico Francesco Vincenzo Aloisio Paolo Carafa di Colobrano (17 November 1787 – 26 July 1872) was an Italian opera composer. He was born in Naples and studied in Paris with Luigi Cherubini. He was Professor of counterpoint at the Par ...

(1816) and had previously been used by

Johann Simon Mayr Johann(es) Simon Mayr (also spelled Majer, Mayer, Maier), also known in Italian as Giovanni Simone Mayr or Simone Mayr (14 June 1763 – 2 December 1845), was a German composer. His music reflects the transition from the Classical to the ...

(''Raul di Créqui'',

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, 1809),

Francesco Morlacchi Francesco Giuseppe Baldassare Morlacchi (14 June 1784 – 28 October 1841) was an Italian composer of more than twenty operas. During the many years he spent as the royal Royal Kapellmeister in Dresden, he was instrumental in popularizing the Ita ...

(''Raoul de Créqui'',

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

, 1811), and

Carlo Coccia Carlo Coccia (14 April 1782 – 13 April 1873) was an Italian opera composer. He was known for the genre of opera semiseria. Life and career Coccia was born in Naples, and studied in his native city with Pietro Casella, Fedele Fenaroli, a ...

(''Fayel'',

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, 1817). It was also subsequently used as ''Gabriella di Vergy'' by Saverio Mercadante in 1828. "In its original form the opera was never performed",Ashbrook and Hibberd 2001, p. 227 but parts of the original version were re-used by Donizetti in his other operas '' Otto mesi in due ore'' (Naples, 1827), ''

L’esule di Roma ''L'esule di Roma, ossia Il proscritto'' (''The Exile from Rome, or the Proscribed Man'') is a ''melodramma eroico'', or heroic opera, in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Domenico Gilardoni wrote the Italian libretto after Luigi Marchionni's ''Il ...

'' (Naples 1828), ''

Il paria (''The Outcast'') is an opera in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti from a libretto by Domenico Gilardoni, based on ''Le Paria'' by Casimir Delavigne and Michele Carafa's ''Il paria'' with a libretto by Gaetano Rossi. Completed in the winter of 1 ...

'' (Naples 1829) and ''

Anna Bolena ''Anna Bolena'' is a tragic opera (''tragedia lirica'') in two acts composed by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after Ippolito Pindemonte's ''Enrico VIII ossia Anna Bolena'' and Alessandro Pepoli's ''Anna Bolena'', bo ...

''. For the revised version, Donizetti revisited ''Gabriella di Vergy'' and incorporated into the opera parts of ''

Ugo, conte di Parigi ''Ugo, conte di Parigi'' (''Hugo, Count of Paris'') is a ''tragedia lirica'', or tragic opera, in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after Hippolyte-Louis-Florent Bis's ''Blanche d'Aquitaine''. It premiered ...

'' (Milan 1832), ''

Rosmonda d'Inghilterra ''Rosmonda d'Inghilterra'' (''Rosamund of England'') is a ''melodramma'' or opera in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Felice Romani originally for Coccia's ''Rosmunda'' (1829). It is based on the legend of R ...

'' (Florence 1834) and ''

Maria de Rudenz ''Maria de Rudenz'' is a ''dramma tragico'', or tragic opera, in three parts by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on "a piece of Gothic horror",Osborne 1994, pp. 262-263 ''La nonne sanglante'' by ...

'' (Venice 1838).

Performance history

After Donizetti's death, his ''Gabriella di Vergy'' finally received its first performance on 29 November 1869 at the

Teatro San Carlo The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is an opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and adjacent ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

with the title of ''Gabriella''. However, the score was a ''rifacimento'' (re-doing), compiled by

Giuseppe Puzone Giuseppe Puzone (12 February 1820 – 17 October 1914) was an Italian opera composer and conductor active in Naples, the city of his birth. He was for many years the principal conductor of the Teatro San Carlo where his opera ''Elfrida di Salerno ...

(who had been Donizetti's student) and Paolo Serrao. They combined elements from both the 1826 and 1838 versions as well as music from some of Donizetti's cantatas and his lesser-known operas.Ashbrook (1982) pp. 39–40; 540 The 1838 version of the opera was rediscovered in 1978 by Don White and Patric Schmid of

Opera Rara Opera Rara is a London-based opera company and recording label which specialises in recording and performing forgotten operatic repertoire from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1970 by bel canto enthusiasts Patric Schmid and Don Whi ...

. Subsequently, it was given its first performance in the UK on 9 September 1978 in Belfast and recorded. The first fully-staged UK performance was given by the Dorset Opera Festival on 31 August 1985.

Roles

Synopsis

:Place:

Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...

:Time:

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

Gabriella has married Fayel under pressure from her father and the reported death of Raoul, the man she really loves on his return from the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

. She discovers too late that she had been deceived and that Raoul is alive. Raoul returns and accuses her of perfidy. Meanwhile, he is under pressure from the Emperor to marry Fayel's sister, Almeide. The story has a tragic and macabre end. Raoul is killed by Fayel in a duel. Fayel cuts out his heart and brings it to Gabriella in an urn. She goes mad and dies of a broken heart. Her final words to Fayel, and the final words of the opera are her wish for the foaming blood in the urn to rise up and cover Fayel's face and for Raoul's ghost to rise from its tomb to embed in Fayel's heart the knife he had used to cut out Raoul's.

Recordings

References

Notes Sources *Allitt, John Stewart (1991), ''Donizetti: in the light of Romanticism and the teaching of Johann Simon Mayr'', Shaftesbury: Element Books, Ltd (UK); Rockport, MA: Element, Inc.(USA) *Ashbrook, William (1982), ''Donizetti and His Operas'', Cambridge University Press. *Ashbrook, William (1998), "Donizetti, Gaetano" in

Stanley Sadie Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was publ ...

(Ed.), ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volu ...

'', Vol. One. London: Macmillan Publishers, Inc. * Ashbrook, William and Sarah Hibberd (2001), in Holden, Amanda (Ed.), ''The New Penguin Opera Guide'', New York: Penguin Putnam. . pp. 224 – 247. *Loewenberg, Alfred (1970). ''Annals of Opera, 1597-1940'', 2nd edition. Rowman and Littlefield * Osborne, Charles, (1994), ''The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini'', Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. *Portinari, Folco (1981), ''Pari siamo! Io la lingua, egli ha il pugnale: storia del melodramma ottocentesco attraverso i suoi libretti''. EDT srl, pp. 93–94. (In Italian) *

Sadie, Stanley Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was publ ...

, (Ed.); John Tyrell (Exec. Ed.) (2004), ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

''. 2nd edition. London: Macmillan. (hardcover). (eBook). * Weinstock, Herbert (1963), ''Donizetti and the World of Opera in Italy, Paris, and Vienna in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century'', New York: Pantheon Books.

External links

Donizetti Society (London) website

(Italian) {{Authority control Operas by Gaetano Donizetti Italian-language operas Opera seria Operas 1826 operas Opera world premieres at the Teatro San Carlo Operas set in France Operas based on plays Libretti by Andrea Leone Tottola