FORM: Opera in two acts; in Italian
COMPOSER: Vincenzo Bellini (1801–35)
LIBRETTO: Felice Romani; after Scribe and Aumer’s ballet-pantomime
FIRST PERFORMANCE: Milan, 6 March 1831
Principal Characters
Amina, an orphan
Teresa, her foster-mother
Lisa, an innkeeper
Alessio, a villager
Elvino, a wealthy landowner
Count Rodolfo, the local lord
Synopsis of the Plot
Setting: A Swiss village; early 19th century
ACT I The villagers have gathered together to celebrate the forthcoming betrothal of Amina and Elvino. The only one not joining in is Lisa, who loves Elvino herself, and is not mollified by the unwelcome attentions of Alessio. The marriage contract is signed; Elvino pledges Amina everything he owns and gives her a ring and a bunch of wild flowers. In return, Amina promises him her love. At that moment a handsome stranger in a soldier’s uniform arrives on the scene, apparently on his way to the castle. No one recognises Count Rodolfo, who is persuaded by Lisa to stay the night at the inn. As dusk approaches, Teresa warns the villagers to go home, for fear of the white phantom that haunts the area. At the inn Lisa is flirting with Rodolfo in his room; she tells him that his identity has been discovered and the villagers will soon come to offer him their respects. They are interrupted by a noise and Lisa quickly leaves. Amina, sleepwalking, enters the room and Rodolfo realises she must be the ‘phantom’. Unwilling to cause her embarrassment, Rodolfo leaves her alone (he exits through the window), just before the villagers crowd in to discover the sleeping Amina in Rodolfo’s room. Lisa has thoughtfully brought Elvino and Teresa along to witness her rival’s disgrace and the girl is roundly condemned by all before the wedding is cancelled.
ACT II The villagers are on their way to the castle to ask for Rodolfo’s help in restoring Amina’s reputation. Elvino and Amina come face to face, but he cannot believe she is innocent and furiously wrenches his ring from her finger. Back in the village square Elvino is preparing to marry Lisa when Rodolfo arrives to try and convince him of Amina’s innocence. At that moment Amina herself appears, sleepwalking on the roof before crossing a dangerous bridge, and carrying the flowers, now withered, that Elvino had given her. She speaks of her sadness at her lost love. Elvino, finally convinced, kneels before her and begs her forgiveness; Amina wakes and they are joyfully reconciled.
Music and Background
La Sonnambula is generally considered Bellini’s first true masterpiece, and a fine example of the vocal style known as bel canto: a term which literally means ‘beautiful song’ but implies far more, including an extreme refinement of tone and technique, and an ability to deal with decorative embellishment. For a bel canto composer, Bellini’s embellishments are actually rather restrained – he preferred to write in long, elegant phrases – and La Sonnambula is remarkable above all for the lyricism of the music provided for the original incumbent of the title role, Giuditta Pasta, one of the supreme singers of her age and a continuing champion of Bellini’s work.
Highlights
Amina’s opening cavatina ‘Come per me sereno’ has beguiling charm; her sleepwalking ‘Ah! non credea mirarti’ in the closing scene is a touching example of Bellini’s extended melody; and her final ‘Ah! non giunge’ is a brilliant showpiece arguably unsurpassed in all bel canto writing.
Did You Know?
Recommended Recording
Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, National Philharmonic Orchestra/Richard Bonynge. Decca 417 424-2.The second of Sutherland’s two recordings, made in 1980 when her voice was still fresh but more expressive than before. Pavarotti is a hard-to-beat partner.
(1885–1935)
Wozzeck (1922)
Lulu (1935)
Born in Vienna, Alban Berg was a pupil of Schoenberg who began writing in the opulent post-Mahlerian manner of European composers early in this century and then adopted his teacher’s controversial method of making music out of ‘tone rows’: a technique using sequences of all twelve notes of the chromatic scale in a way that allows no one note greater prominence than any of the others and denies the possibility of a key-centre to anchor the music ‘in C’, ‘in F sharp’, or whatever. Berg was never as strict an exponent of this ‘serial’ method as his teacher, or as his fellow-pupil Anton Webern, which makes him the most accessible of the so-called Second Viennese School of composers. Wozzeck and Lulu have accordingly acquired the status of modern classics, although they were banned in Berg’s own time (the Nazi Third Reich) as degenerate. Berg’s other work includes a Violin Concerto written in memory of Alma Mahler’s daughter, and the Lyric Suite which contains in cryptic number-code a secret love message to his mistress.
FORM: Opera in three acts; in German
COMPOSER: Alban Berg (1885–1935)
LIBRETTO: Alban Berg; from two plays by Frank Wedekind
FIRST PERFORMANCE: (Complete) Paris, 24 February 1979
Principal Characters
Lulu
Dr Schön, a newspaper editor