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L'Orfeide
L'Orfeide is an opera composed by Gian Francesco Malipiero who also wrote the Italian libretto, partly based on the myth of Orpheus and incorporating texts by Italian Renaissance poets. The work consists of three parts – La morte delle maschere (The death of the masks), Sette canzoni (Seven songs), and Orfeo, ovvero L'ottava canzone (Orpheus, or The eighth song). It received its first complete performance on 5 November 1925 at the Stadttheater in Düsseldorf.
Although it is often referred to as a trilogy (or an operatic triptych), Malipiero himself described the work as one opera in three parts, with parts I and II also able to be performed independently. L'Orfeide was composed between 1918 and 1922. The first part to be composed, and what would eventually become Part II of the complete work, was Sette Canzoni, composed by Malipiero between 1918 and 1919. However, according to Waterhouse (1999), Malpiero's correspondence indicates that he had originally conceived Sette Canzoni as a stand-alone work, rather than as the central panel of a triptych. Sette Canzoni premiered at the Palais Garnier in Paris on 10 July 1920 in French translation by Henry Prunières as Sept chansons, conducted by Gabriel Grovlez. The strangeness of its music and dramatic structure and its deliberate break with the verismo style popular at the time caused an uproar at the premiere which nearly drowned out the performance.
In 1919, Malipiero started composing Orfeo, ovvero L'ottava canzone, which was to become Part III, and finished it shortly before the premiere of Sette canzoni. Part I, La morte delle maschere was the last to be composed and was completed in 1922. The world premiere of L'Orfeide in its entirety took place on 5 November 1925 at the Stadttheater in Düsseldorf. The performance, conducted by Erik Orthmann, used a German translation of Malipiero's libretto by Erik Orthmann and Willi Aron. Later complete performances of the work included its Italian premiere at La Fenice in Venice (1936) and the Teatro della Pergola in Florence (1966).
Performances of the complete trilogy are rare. However, there have been a considerable number of performances of Part II, Sette canzoni, considered one of Malipiero's masterpieces. It premiered in the United States in 1925 in a concert performance organized by the League of Composers at the Forty-Eighth Street Theatre in New York City. In Italy it was first performed in Turin in 1926 (in a double bill with Ravel's L'heure espagnole); in Rome in 1929 (in a double bill with Puccini's Gianni Schicchi); and in Florence in 1948 (in a triple bill with Donizetti's Il campanello and a ballet based on Cocteau's Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel). It received its British staged premiere at the King's Theatre in Edinburgh in 1969 (in a double bill with Dallapiccola's Il prigioniero) for the 23rd Edinburgh Festival. An unusual version of the work performed entirely by marionettes with recorded voices was premiered by the Gran Teatrino "La Fede delle Femmine" at La Fenice as part of the 1993 Venice Biennale.
Roles
Apart from the impresario and Orfeo, the roles are those of the standard commedia dell'arte characters, all of whom traditionally performed in masks. The Italian word "maschera" (mask) is also used to denote a commedia dell'arte player.
Synopsis
An impresario presents a performance of his commedia dell'arte troupe. The performance is interrupted when a man dressed in red, wearing a frightening mask and brandishing a whip, bursts in and scatters the players. The impresario flees as the masked stranger locks all seven players in a large cupboard. To the sounds of protest emanating from the cupboard, the masked man declares the death of the masks and their irrelevance to real life. He removes his own mask and costume and reveals himself to be Orpheus, exchanging the whip for his traditional lyre. Orpheus then introduces seven new characters who will be better representatives of the human condition (and who will become the main characters of Part II, Sette canzoni). They file silently onto and off the stage as the commedia dell'arte players protest from the cupboard that they will starve to death. Arlecchino manages to escape from the cupboard exclaiming, "It will never be true that Arlecchino will die of hunger" ("Non sarà mai vero che Arlecchino muoia di fame"). The curtain falls as Arlecchino scampers off-stage.
L'Orfeide
L'Orfeide is an opera composed by Gian Francesco Malipiero who also wrote the Italian libretto, partly based on the myth of Orpheus and incorporating texts by Italian Renaissance poets. The work consists of three parts – La morte delle maschere (The death of the masks), Sette canzoni (Seven songs), and Orfeo, ovvero L'ottava canzone (Orpheus, or The eighth song). It received its first complete performance on 5 November 1925 at the Stadttheater in Düsseldorf.
Although it is often referred to as a trilogy (or an operatic triptych), Malipiero himself described the work as one opera in three parts, with parts I and II also able to be performed independently. L'Orfeide was composed between 1918 and 1922. The first part to be composed, and what would eventually become Part II of the complete work, was Sette Canzoni, composed by Malipiero between 1918 and 1919. However, according to Waterhouse (1999), Malpiero's correspondence indicates that he had originally conceived Sette Canzoni as a stand-alone work, rather than as the central panel of a triptych. Sette Canzoni premiered at the Palais Garnier in Paris on 10 July 1920 in French translation by Henry Prunières as Sept chansons, conducted by Gabriel Grovlez. The strangeness of its music and dramatic structure and its deliberate break with the verismo style popular at the time caused an uproar at the premiere which nearly drowned out the performance.
In 1919, Malipiero started composing Orfeo, ovvero L'ottava canzone, which was to become Part III, and finished it shortly before the premiere of Sette canzoni. Part I, La morte delle maschere was the last to be composed and was completed in 1922. The world premiere of L'Orfeide in its entirety took place on 5 November 1925 at the Stadttheater in Düsseldorf. The performance, conducted by Erik Orthmann, used a German translation of Malipiero's libretto by Erik Orthmann and Willi Aron. Later complete performances of the work included its Italian premiere at La Fenice in Venice (1936) and the Teatro della Pergola in Florence (1966).
Performances of the complete trilogy are rare. However, there have been a considerable number of performances of Part II, Sette canzoni, considered one of Malipiero's masterpieces. It premiered in the United States in 1925 in a concert performance organized by the League of Composers at the Forty-Eighth Street Theatre in New York City. In Italy it was first performed in Turin in 1926 (in a double bill with Ravel's L'heure espagnole); in Rome in 1929 (in a double bill with Puccini's Gianni Schicchi); and in Florence in 1948 (in a triple bill with Donizetti's Il campanello and a ballet based on Cocteau's Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel). It received its British staged premiere at the King's Theatre in Edinburgh in 1969 (in a double bill with Dallapiccola's Il prigioniero) for the 23rd Edinburgh Festival. An unusual version of the work performed entirely by marionettes with recorded voices was premiered by the Gran Teatrino "La Fede delle Femmine" at La Fenice as part of the 1993 Venice Biennale.
Roles
Apart from the impresario and Orfeo, the roles are those of the standard commedia dell'arte characters, all of whom traditionally performed in masks. The Italian word "maschera" (mask) is also used to denote a commedia dell'arte player.
Synopsis
An impresario presents a performance of his commedia dell'arte troupe. The performance is interrupted when a man dressed in red, wearing a frightening mask and brandishing a whip, bursts in and scatters the players. The impresario flees as the masked stranger locks all seven players in a large cupboard. To the sounds of protest emanating from the cupboard, the masked man declares the death of the masks and their irrelevance to real life. He removes his own mask and costume and reveals himself to be Orpheus, exchanging the whip for his traditional lyre. Orpheus then introduces seven new characters who will be better representatives of the human condition (and who will become the main characters of Part II, Sette canzoni). They file silently onto and off the stage as the commedia dell'arte players protest from the cupboard that they will starve to death. Arlecchino manages to escape from the cupboard exclaiming, "It will never be true that Arlecchino will die of hunger" ("Non sarà mai vero che Arlecchino muoia di fame"). The curtain falls as Arlecchino scampers off-stage.