Lodoletta is a dramma lirico or lyric opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni. The libretto is by Giovacchino Forzano, and is based on the novel Two Little Wooden Shoes by Ouida (pseudonym of Marie Louise de la Ramée).
Lodoletta is a dramma lirico or lyric opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni. The libretto is by Giovacchino Forzano, and is based on the novel Two Little Wooden Shoes by Ouida (pseudonym of Marie Louise de la Ramée).
An auction of her property, including musical rights for Two Little Wooden Shoes, was held to satisfy local creditors when Ouida died in Italy in 1908. Giacomo Puccini attempted to buy them but was outbid by a local tradesman. The winner subsequently resold them to a music publisher, which provided them to Mascagni for development into the opera. [1]
It was first performed at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 30 April 1917 with Rosina Storchio in the title role. The American premiere was on 12 January 1918 at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, with Geraldine Farrar as Lodoletta and Enrico Caruso as Flammen.
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 30 April 1917 [2] [3] Conductor: Pietro Mascagni |
|---|---|---|
| Lodoletta | soprano | Rosina Storchio |
| La pazza | contralto | Cleofe Braghini |
| Maud | soprano | Luigia Pieroni |
| La vanard | soprano | Ida De Filippis |
| Flammen | tenor | Giuseppe Campioni |
| Giannotto | baritone | Enrico Molinari |
| Franz | baritone | Leone Paci |
| Antonio | bass | Augusto Dadò |
| A voice/a postman | tenor | Ettore Bonzi |
The opera is set in 1853 in Holland and Paris.
Lodoletta, a Dutch orphan, and Flammen, an artist, are lovers, but she leaves him when he suggests they should live together. After he moves to Paris, she has a change of heart and follows him, finally arriving at his house on New Year's Eve, sick and in rags. Seeing a glittering party underway inside, she realizes that they inhabit different worlds and collapses in the snow. Delirious, she imagines he is kissing her and, in the final aria, "Flammen perdonami", begs his forgiveness as she dies of exhaustion. [1]
Maria Louise Ramé, going by the name Marie Louise de la Ramée and known by the pseudonym Ouida, was an English novelist. Ouida wrote more than 40 novels, as well as short stories, children's books and essays. Moderately successful, she lived a life of luxury, entertaining many of the literary figures of the day.
Mefistofele is an opera in a prologue and five acts, later reduced to four acts and an epilogue, the only completed opera with music by the Italian composer-librettist Arrigo Boito. The opera was given its premiere on 5 March 1868 at La Scala, Milan, under the baton of the composer, despite his lack of experience and skill as a conductor.
Il tabarro is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on Didier Gold's play La houppelande. It is the first of the trio of operas known as Il trittico. The first performance was given on December 14, 1918, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
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Isabeau is a leggenda drammatica or opera in three parts by Pietro Mascagni, 1911, from an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. Mascagni conducted its first performance on 2 June 1911 at the Teatro Coliseo, Buenos Aires.
Silvano is a dramma marinaresco or opera in two acts by Pietro Mascagni from a libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, based on a novel by Alphonse Karr. It received its first performance on 25 March 1895 at La Scala, Milan. Although rarely performed today, the music is of some technical accomplishment, and when revived, Silvano has been favourably received. The barcarolle from Silvano features prominently in a montage during the Martin Scorsese film Raging Bull.
Nerone (Nero) is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni from a libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, based on the 1872 play Nerone by Pietro Cossa. Most of Mascagni's music was drawn from a failed project Vistilia – the music made to 'fit' a wholly unconnected libretto.
Daphnis et Chloé is a one-act opérette by Jacques Offenbach. The libretto was by Clairville and Jules Cordier, based on the story of Daphnis and Chloe. The origin is the novel by Longus adapted as a play at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in 1849.
Amica is an opera in two acts by Pietro Mascagni, originally composed to a libretto by Paul Bérel. The only opera by Mascagni with a French libretto, it was an immediate success with both the audience and the critics on its opening night at the Théâtre du Casino in Monte-Carlo on 16 March 1905. Mascagni himself conducted the performance. The opera had its Italian premiere on 13 May 1905 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome.
Le calife de Bagdad is an opéra comique in one act by the French composer François-Adrien Boieldieu with a libretto by Claude Godard d'Aucourt de Saint-Just. Dedicated to the landscape painter Bidauld it was first performed at the Opéra-Comique, Paris, on 16 September 1800 and soon became highly popular throughout Europe.
Olimpie is an opera in three acts by Gaspare Spontini. The French libretto, by Armand-Michel Dieulafoy and Charles Brifaut, is based on the play of the same name by Voltaire (1761). Olimpie was first performed on 22 December 1819 by the Paris Opéra at the Salle Montansier. When sung in Italian or German, it is usually given the title Olimpia.
Zanetto is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci. It received its first performance on 2 March 1896 at the Liceo Musicale Rossini in Pesaro. Only 40 minutes long and with cast of two singers, Zanetto was originally described by its composer as a scena lirica rather than an opera. It is set in the countryside near Florence during the Renaissance and tells the story of an encounter between a beautiful courtesan, Silvia, and a young wandering minstrel, Zanetto. The libretto was adapted from an Italian translation by Emilio Praga of François Coppée's play Le passant in which the young Sarah Bernhardt had won fame in the en travesti role of Zanetto.
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Flammen (Flames) is an opera in two acts and ten scenes composed by Erwin Schulhoff, his only opera. The original libretto in Czech was written by Karel Josef Beneš. The opera had its world premiere at the old National Theatre in Brno on 27 January 1932 in Czech under the title Plameny. It was not heard again until the mid-1990s, when it was performed in its German translation by Max Brod as Flammen. Its story is a surrealist retelling of the Don Juan legend with elements from the legend of the Wandering Jew, and heavily influenced by Freudian psychology. Unlike the title character in Mozart's Don Giovanni based on the same legend, Don Juan is not punished by being dragged down to Hell, but instead is condemned to live forever.
Sì is an operetta in three acts composed by Pietro Mascagni to a libretto by Carlo Lombardo with verses by Arturo Franci. The libretto is based on Lombardo's operetta La duchessa del Bal Tabarin and Felix Dörmann's libretto for Majestät Mimi set by Bruno Granichstaedten in 1911. Mascagni's only venture into operetta, it premiered on 13 December 1919 at the Teatro Quirino in Rome. The operetta takes its name from its central character, Sì, an actress at the Folies Bergère, so called because she could never say no.
Les cadeaux de Noël is an opera in one act composed by Xavier Leroux to a French-language libretto by Émile Fabre. Described as a conte héroïque, it was premiered by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Favart Theatre in Paris on Christmas Day 1915. Its story of four children, whose parents had been killed by German soldiers but who nevertheless found hope in a seemingly bleak Christmas, had a particular resonance with French audiences in the midst of World War I. The opera was a great success in Paris, and subsequently performed in Italy, Monte Carlo and Latin America.
Maria Carbone was an Italian operatic soprano. She created the lead female roles in two of Gian Francesco Malipiero's operas: the title role in Ecuba and Cleopatra in Antonio e Cleopatra.
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