''Risurrezione'' (''Resurrection''), is an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

or ''dramma'' in four acts by

Franco Alfano Franco Alfano (8 March 1875 – 27 October 1954) was an Italian composer and pianist, best known today for his opera ''Risurrezione'' (1904) and for having completed Puccini's opera ''Turandot'' in 1926. He had considerable success with several o ...

. The

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 ...

was written by Camillo Antona Traversi and Cesare Hanau (only Hanau signed it), based on the 1899 novel ''

Resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, which ...

'' (russian: Воскресение, link=no) by

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

.Orselli 2021, p. 12. The first performance was given on 30 November 1904 in the , Turin, Italy.

Performance history

''Risurrezione'' was Alfano's most successful work. For performances at

La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

Milan in March 1906, Alfano made cuts to the score.Orselli 2021, p. 12. It was translated into French by

Paul Ferrier Paul Ferrier (29 March 1843 - September 1920) was a French dramatist, who also provided libretti for several composers, especially Varney and Serpette. Ferrier was born in Montpellier. He had already produced several comedies when in 1873 he ...

and performed in Brussels, beginning on 18 April 1906.Loewenberg 1978, column 1260. It was translated into German by A. Brüggeman and performed at the Königliche Oper in Berlin, beginning on 5 October 1909. For the Berlin production, Alfano made further revisions to the score. In Italian, it was performed in Modena (18 February 1911),

Novara Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It is ...

(18 February 1911, altered version), Madrid (21 December 1911, altered version), Santiago, Chile (summer 1928), and at the Teatro Regio in Turin (6 January 1936). It was also given in French in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

(8 March 1925), Chicago (31 December 1925), and in Paris at the

Salle Favart The Salle Favart, officially the Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique, is a Paris opera house and theatre, the current home of the Opéra-Comique. It was built from 1893 to 1898 in a neo-Baroque style to the designs of the French architect Louis Bernie ...

by the

Opéra-Comique The Opéra-Comique is a Paris opera company which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with – and for a time took the name of – its chief rival, the Comédie-Italienne ...

(16 May 1927 and 10 April 1934), in a production by

Albert Carré Albert Carré (born Strasbourg 22 June 1852, died Paris 12 December 1938) was a French theatre director, opera director, actor and librettist. He was the nephew of librettist Michel Carré (1821–1872) and cousin of cinema director Michel Carré ( ...

.Wild & Charlton 2005, p. 386. The Opéra-Comique revivals starred

Mary Garden A Mary garden is a small sacred garden enclosing a statue or shrine of the Virgin Mary, who is known to many Christians as the Blessed Virgin, Our Lady, or the Mother of God. In the New Testament, Mary is the mother of Jesus of Nazareth. Mary ...

as Catarina and

René Maison René Maison (24 November 1895 – 11 July 1962) was a prominent Belgian operatic tenor, particularly associated with heroic roles of the French, Italian and German repertories. Career Born in Frameries, Belgium, he studied in Brussels and Paris ...

as Prince Dimitri. Retitled ''Katjuscha'', it was again translated into German by E. Orthmann and H. Hartleb and performed at the Volks-Oper in Berlin on 4 October 1938. The Opéra-Comique revived Ferrier's translation again on 15 May 1954, in a new production by Jean Doat with scenery and costumes by André Bakst. The American soprano

Patricia Neway Patricia Neway (September 30, 1919 – January 24, 2012) was an American operatic soprano and musical theatre actress who had an active international career during the mid-1940s through the 1970s. One of the few performers of her day to enjoy equal ...

sang Caterina with an otherwise all French cast. By the end of 1954, the opera had been performed more than 1,000 times around the world. The opera was performed at

Fulham Town Hall Fulham Town Hall is a municipal building on Fulham Road, Fulham, London. It is a Grade II* listed building. History The building was commissioned by the Parish of St John to replace an existing vestry hall in Walham Green. The site chosen had p ...

, London, on 30 November 1967. It was successfully revived at the

Wexford Festival Opera Wexford Festival Opera () is an opera festival that takes place in the town of Wexford in south-eastern Ireland during the months of October and November. The festival began in 1951 under Tom Walsh and a group of opera lovers who quickly gener ...

, beginning on 2 November 2018. The Wexford production was performed at the Florence May Festival in January 2020, and an

HD video High-definition video (HD video) is video of higher resolution and quality than standard-definition. While there is no standardized meaning for ''high-definition'', generally any video image with considerably more than 480 vertical scan lines (No ...

was released in 2021.Ashman 2021; Brown 2021.

Roles

Synopsis

:Place: Russia and

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

:Time: The end of 19th century

Act 1

Prince Dimitri arrives to say goodbye to his aunt, Sophia Ivanovna, before leaving for the war. His old playmate Katiusha, a young peasant girl, is now Sophia Ivanovna's companion. Dimitri is overjoyed to meet her again and that night becomes her lover. The next day he leaves for the war.

Act 2

The station of a small town. Katiusha, now pregnant, has been driven out of the house. She anxiously waits for Prince Dimitri who is due to pass through the station. But when she sees him arrive in the company of a prostitute, her courage fails her and she remains hidden until she goes away, pierced to her soul.

Act 3

Prison in Saint Petersburg. Katiusha, broken by Dimitri's neglect of her and the death of her child, ends up in a place of debauchery. She is involved in a crime and, although innocent, is condemned for murder during a difficult trial, and is to be deported to Siberia. Before she leaves, Dimitri, now overcome with remorse, comes to see her in jail and offers to marry her. But she is in such a state of abject despair that she refuses all consolation.

Act 4

On the road to Siberia. Katiusha has become herself again, the good sweet girl of former times. Prince Dimitri arrives. Simonson, a political prisoner, reveals he loves Katiusha, wants to marry her, and asks for the prince's consent. Dimitri says she is free to do what she wants. Dimitri shows Katiusha a letter, revealing she has been pardoned; he tells her Simonson loves her and wants to marry her, so she must choose between them. She says she will marry Simonson, because she loves him. Although she still loves Dimitri with all her soul, she tells him to leave. She has found new purpose in life helping other prisoners.

Noted arias

*Si, la ravviso la mia cara stanza (Yes, I see my dear room...) – Arioso of Dimitri (Act 1) *Qualcun giù in giardino?... È Katiusha!.. (Someone is in the garden?... It's Katyusha!...) – Duetto of Katerina and Dimitri (Act 1) *Dio pietoso, fa ch'il venga alfin (Merciful Lord, make him come at last) – Aria of Katerina (Act 2) *Piangi, si, piangi (Cry, yes, cry) – Arioso of Dimitri (Act 3) *Quando la vidi, una voce mi disse (When I saw her, a voice said to me) – Aria of Simonson (Act 4) *Ed ora, va... parti!... Son felice!!! (And now, go... leave!... I'm happy!) – Finale duetto of Katerina and Dimitri (Act 4)

Orchestration

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

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piccolo The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...

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oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. A ...

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English horn The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn in North America, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto ...

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clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

s (1

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

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bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...

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contrabassoon The contrabassoon, also known as the double bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon, sounding an octave lower. Its technique is similar to its smaller cousin, with a few notable differences. Differences from the bassoon The reed is consi ...

horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

s / 3

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

s / 3

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

s / 1

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

(

cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...

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triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...

bass drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter much greater than the drum's depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. Th ...

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tubular bells Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillon, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within a ...

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in the ...

celesta The celesta or celeste , also called a bell-piano, is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. It looks similar to an upright piano (four- or five-octave), albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet, or a large wooden music box ( ...

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harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

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piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

Violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

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viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

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cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

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double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

Recordings

* 1954 ( monaural audio): Carla Gavazzi as Katinska, Nicola Filacuridi as Prince Dimitri; conducted by Oliviero De Fabritiis. * 1973 (monaural audio):

Magda Olivero Magda Olivero (née Maria Maddalena Olivero) (25 March 1910 – 8 September 2014), was an Italian operatic soprano. Her career started in 1932 when she was 22, and spanned five decades, establishing her "as an important link between the era of th ...

as Katiusha Mikailovna, Giuseppe Gismondo as Prince Dimitri, Antonio Boyer as Simonson, Anna Di Stasio as Matrena Pavlovna, Nucci Condo as Anna, Vera Magrini as La Korableva, Patrizia Pace as Fedia, Marco Stafoni as Head Warden; Turin RAI Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Elio Boncompagni; audio recording of a radio broadcast of 22 October 1971. Also includes a 1985 audio recording of the final scene of ''

Turandot ''Turandot'' (; see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, posthumously completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. ''Turandot'' best-known aria is "Nessun dorma", whi ...

'' with Linda Kelm as Turandot and Jon Frederic West as Calaf, conducted by

Christopher Keene Christopher Keene (December 21, 1946 – October 8, 1995) was an American conductor. Early life and education Keene was born in 1946 in Berkeley, California, the son of Yvonne (née Cyr) and Jim Keene. His mother was of Acadian, German, and Sco ...

.Oliver 1993. * 2020 (

): Anne Sophie Duprels as Katerina Mihaylovna (Katyusha), Matthew Vickers as Prince Dimitri Ivanovitch Nehlyudov, Leon Kim as Simonson, Francesca Di Sauro as Sofia Ivanovna, Romina Tomasoni as Matryova Pavlovna/Anna, Nadia Pirazzini as Maidservant, Ana Victória Pitts as Vera/Korablyova, Barbara Marcacci as Fenyichka; Orchestra and Chorus of the Florence May Festival, conducted by

Francesco Lanzillotta Francesco Lanzillotta (born 1977) is an Italian conductor and composer. As a conductor, he is focused on Italian opera, including contemporary works. He has conducted internationally, such as Verdi's ''La traviata'' in Varna, Bulgaria, ''Nabucco' ...

; stage director: Rosetta Cucchi; video director: Davide Mancini; recorded live on 17 and 21 January, 2020, Dynamic.

References

Sources

* Ashman, Mike (2021)
Review of Alfano ''Risurrezione''
''Gramophone'', May 2021, p. 74. * Brown, William R. (2021)

''

Opera News ''Opera 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 engender the appreciation of opera and also support ...

'', vol. 86, no. 2 (August 2021). * Kellow, Brian (2018)
"In Review: ''Margherita'', ''Risurrezione'', ''Medea'', Wexford Festival Opera"
''

'', vol. 82, no. 8 (February 2018). * Loewenberg, Alfred (1978). ''Annals of Opera 1597–1940'' (third edition, revised). Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Littlefield. . * Maehder, Jürgen (1992)
"''Risurrezione''"
vol. 3, , in ''

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 ...

'', four volumes, edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan. . * Oliver, Michael (1993)
"Alfano ''Risurrezione''"
''

Gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

'', October 1993, p. 110. * Orselli, Cesare (2021). "''Risurrezione'' by Franco Alfano", (English translation by Daniela Pilarz), in the booklet accompanying the Dynamic video recording. Blu-ray: . DVD: . * Waterhouse, John C. G. (2001). "Franco Alfano", pp. 11–12, in ''The New Penguin Opera Guide'', edited by

Amanda Holden Amanda Louise Holden (born 16 February 1971) is an English actress, media personality, and singer. Since 2007, she has been a judge on the television talent show competition ''Britain's Got Talent'' on ITV. She also co-hosts the ''Heart Brea ...

. London: Penguin Books. . * Wolff, Stéphane (1953). ''Un demi-siècle d'Opéra-Comique (1900-1950).'' Paris: André Bonne.

External links

*
Libretto of ''Risurrezione''
on operalibretto.com {{authority control Operas by Franco Alfano Italian-language operas Verismo operas Operas 1904 operas Operas based on novels Operas set in Russia Operas based on works by Leo Tolstoy

Performance history

Roles

Synopsis

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Noted arias

Orchestration

Recordings

See also

References

Sources

External links