Speranza
"IL RE ALFREDO" is an opera by Dvorak.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
RE ALFREDO
baritono
Alvina, Alfredo's fiancee - soprano
Principe Harald -
tenor
Principe Gothron - bass
Servant Sieward - bass
Dorset, Alfred's
friend - tenor
Rovena, Alvina's friend
When Dvorak was writing his first opera, he had already
been a violist with the Provisional Theatre Orchestra for eight years.
Performing various operas from past and present on an almost daily basis had a
major impact on his career as a composer.
Moreover, during the course of the
1860s, the repertoire also began to feature important works from the Czech
environment, in particular, Bedrich Smetana’s "The Brandenburgers in Bohemia", "The
Bartered Bride" and "Dalibor".
Dvorak by that time already had a series of works
from different genres to his name: symphonies, string quartets and songs, among
others.
Dvorak’s resolve to now master the operatic form was, however,
conditional upon finding a suitable libretto, which was not easy by any means.
Czech librettos were few and far between and their standard was dubious to say
the least.
As Bedrich Smetana complained in an article:
“There is a greater
shortage of good librettos than good composers”.
In addition, as a composer,
Dvorak was still completely unknown, and he didn’t have the funds to purchase a
new libretto.
He thus decided to use a libretto almost 60 years
previously, entitled "IL RE ALFREDO", whose author was the Neo-Romantic German
poet K. Korner (1791-1813).
The libretto, which is set somewhere in
England in the year 878, during the war between the English and the Danes, had
already been set to music in the past by Johann Philip Schmidt, Josef Joachim
Raff and Friedrich von Flotow, and apparently Ludwig van Beethoven had also
expressed an interest in the material even prior to this.
The same story was
also set to music by Gaetano Donizetti, however, his Alfredo il Grande is
written to a different text.
This is the only time that Dvorak wrote music to a
German libretto and, if he initially thought of staging his work at the Czech
Provisional Theatre, he may have assumed that the libretto would be translated
into Czech.
This practice wasn’t at all unusual at that time, as in the case of
operas by Skroup or Skuhersky.
Even the libretto for Smetana’s Libuse was
originally written in German.
In the
libretto, the story was originally arranged into seven tableaux, but Dvorak
separated the first of these and combined others to create three acts.
The
musical setting was greatly influenced by Dvorak’s special – and, at that time,
still considerably uncritical – interest in Wagner’s music.
The score for "IL RE ALFREDO"
bears a series of traits typical of the Bayreuth Master:
copious use of
leitmotifs
a compact orchestral setting, and
“endless”, richly modulating
melodies.
When the opera was first staged many years later, the critics even
noted that “the score of Alfred is more Wagnerian than Wagner.
Dvorak’s
submission to his great example is here almost unqualified in its sincerity.
The work may be seen as formally fragmented and indistinctive in terms of
expression, yet it is nevertheless a promising demonstration of the composer’s
sense of the impact of choral scenes and the full orchestral sound.
We will note
an interesting compositional detail in the leitmotif characterising King Alfred,
which is almost identical to the melody of the Degeyter Internationale.
However,
neither of the composers could have “copied” this tune.
Degeyter only wrote his
Internationale eighteen years later and Dvorak’s opera was never performed
during his lifetime.
While we do not know precisely when work began on "IL RE ALFREDO", the
dates added to various parts of the score indicate that the composition took
Dvorak at least five months.
"IL RE ALFREDO" was completed – according to the
composer’s own notes written at the end of the score – on 28 September 1870.
It
took him almost another month to write the overture, which was finished on 19
October.
The composer regarded
this work as a beginner’s attempt and he concealed the fact that he had written
this score right up until his death.
Even his closest friends were unaware of
its existence.
Yet the memoirs of Czech pianist and teacher Josef Jiranek tell
us that Dvorak was, in fact, open about the score and even passed it on for
appraisal to the greatest Czech authority on music at the time, Bedrich Smetana.
Jiranek was Smetana’s pupil and he even lived with Smetana’s family for a time,
thus one might assume that this source is credible.
Jiranek’s memoirs
unfortunately do not tell us how Smetana responded:
“I have no idea what
Smetana’s conclusion was, nor do I know where the opera disappeared to (it did
not remain in Smetana’s possession).
It is not inconceivable that Dvorak burned
it.”
Jiranek’s last note may have some relevance, however, since a number of
Dvorak’s early works met the same fate.
The composer was highly self-critical
and would destroy material he deemed unworthy.
But this was not the case with
the score of "IL RE ALFREDO", ossia "ALFREDO, re d'Inghilterra".
As far as we are aware, Dvorak never sought to have the
work performed later on, nor does the opera appear on any of his lists of his
own works.
The overture is an exception, however, given that Dvorak planned to
perform the piece in Prague in 1881 at a concert organised by the Association of
Czech Journalists.
In the end, the overture was replaced by something else
(whether at Dvorak’s request or for some other reason remains a mystery).
The
composer didn’t abandon his first opera altogether, however.
When he was writing
the love scene featuring Vanda and Slavoj in the opera Vanda in 1875, he used
the music (merely transposed into a different key) from Alvina’s and Harald’s
duet in Act One of Alfred.
Although the overture was
performed – under the title “Tragic Overture” – for the first time within a year
of the composer’s death, at a Czech Philharmonic concert on 4 January 1905,
listeners weren’t able to hear further extracts from the work until 6 February
1938 during a German broadcast at Prague Radio.
It was only in December of that
year that the opera was staged in its entirety for the first time.
The first –
and, to date, the only – staging of Alfred took place in Olomouc in what was
then known as the Czech Theatre.
The opera was presented in a Czech translation
by Anna Richterova, who also sang the role of Alvina.
The production was
conducted by Adolf Heller.
The premiere naturally attracted a lot of attention,
a number of musicians travelled to Olomouc, along with the composer’s daughter
Magda and son Antonin.
The next (and evidently also the latest) time audiences
were given the chance to hear at least a cross-section of the opera occurred on
the 120th anniversary of Dvorak’s birth, 8 September 1961, when excerpts from
the work were broadcast by Plzen Radio, performed by the Plzen Radio Orchestra
conducted by Josef Blacky, featuring soloists from the Plzen Opera.
Czech Radio is planning the score’s digitisation and also the first ever
recording of the opera.
Even though this
early Dvorak opera will never become part of the repertoire and, where the
composer’s operatic oeuvre is concerned, it will always be regarded as more of a
rarity, it is worthy of closer examination at the very least since it gives us a
greater understanding of the continuity of Dvorak’s compositional development
and the ideas upon which he built his compositional style during the late 1860s
and early 1870s.
Certain methods the composer used in this early work then
thread their way through his subsequent operas, right up to his final opera, "RINALDO ED
ARMIDA"
The story is set in England in the year
878
In ACT ONE, the Danish army, led by PRINCIPE AROLDO (tenore) and Prince Gothron,
have set up camp after a victorious battle against the English and they are now
preparing to celebrate. Gothron is the only one not sharing in the festivities:
the night before, the English King Alfred appeared to him in a dream wearing a
crown of victory. In the meantime, Harald arrives with his retinue and a group
of British captives, among them Alfred’s betrothed Alvina, whom Harald
immediately begins to court. He tries in vain to gain her favour, and his
threats also fall on deaf ears. Alvina rejects him, preferring to be imprisoned
instead.
In ACT TWO, King Alfred discovers from his servant that his army has
been overcome and that Alvina is now a prisoner in the hands of the enemy.
Alfred decides to get inside the Danish camp disguised as a harp player. On his
way into the encampment he finds himself at the castle tower where Alvina is
imprisoned, and he hears her song coming from a window. Alfred promises the girl
that he will come to rescue her very soon. Suddenly he is surprised by Gothron’s
men who drag the alleged harper into the camp. Meanwhile, Alvina has managed to
escape from prison and arrives at the Danish camp just when Alfred discloses his
true identity. The company is taken by surprise and the couple take this
opportunity to flee the Danish camp, while Gothron shivers with terror as he
remembers his dream.
In ACT THREE, Alvina comes upon a group of British
soldiers and tells them that the king is alive and already on his way to meet
his company. After urging them to go after their sovereign, she is surprised by
Harald and taken captive once again. In the prison where the British captives
are held, he makes amorous advances towards Alvina once again, but she refuses
him, as before. At that moment, however, Alfred’s victorious army comes charging
into the camp; Harald takes his own life, and Alfred and Alvina delight in their
happy reunion. The people cheer for their beloved ruler and rejoice in their
freedom.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
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