Gioachino Rossini
(1792-1868)
L'equivoco stravagante
It is not certain when the
Rossini family settled definitively in Bologna. Already in the spring of 1805,
in any case, we find the thirteen-year-old Gioachino registered for the courses
in cello, piano and counterpoint at the newly established Liceo Filarmonico; in
the autumn came his stage début as a singer, a treble, in an opera by Paër; the
following year he has the title of Philharmonic Academician and is starting
busy activity as a harpsichordist in various institutions in the city. In 1810
came his unexpected début in Venice as a composer of opera, the one-act farsa
La
cambiale di matrimonio (‘The Bill of Marriage’), the success of
which opened the final doors for him in Bologna; he was entrusted with the
following season at the Teatro del Corso, where he would perform two operas by
others and a third new work of his own composition. On 26th October
1811 L'equivoco
stravagante was born, the first of the seven great opere buffe
that were to ornament his twenty-year operatic career.
Notwithstanding the
favourable reception of the work by the public, the opera was the victim of a
series of problems with the censors: the librettist Gaetano Gasbarri had
overdone the use of suggestive situations and many double entendres were too
obvious; the diligent state official had then imposed not a few cuts and
modifications, yet without taking account of certain allusions that might be
passed over in reading but became clear in Rossini's setting, which underlined rather
than concealed them. It so turned out
that after three performances the opera was banned, and there are no certain
records of later performances throughout the nineteenth century (the opera
staged in Trieste in 1825 under the same title was in fact a patchwork of music
by Rossini on another subject), so much so that Rossini himself went on to
plunder the score extensively, distributing various ideas and even whole pieces
in later operas, from La pietra di paragone (‘The Touchstone’)
to Tancredi,
from La
scala di seta (The Silken Ladder) to Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra
(Elisabeth, Queen of England).
The libretto, indeed, was
not simply rubbish and had been written more than a century earlier. It is a
licentious work, to be sure, but linguistically refined, written by a well-read
author, skilled in those plays on words that are its distinctive feature and
that make the text much more modern than the date of its original registration
would suggest. It is a continuing parody of Metastasio, with the ironic
quotation of complete lines; Dal dono imparo il donator qual sia (From
the gift the donor learns in a measure), in the recitative after Ernestina and
Buralicchio's duet, comes directly from the great librettist's Didone;
and Rossini underlines it, as he would, with the particular figuration of the basso
continuo throughout the opera; here he satirises his nouveaux
riches who, having passed on from the hoe to philosophy, have turned
themselves into masters of a learned vocabulary that is ill understood, with
consequent verbal exaggerations: 'enti' (beings) or 'mortali' (mortals) rather
than simply 'persone', the Arcadian 'pupille tenere' (tender eyes) that becomes
'pupille
elastiche' (flexible eyes), and so on, and they reduce rules of
etiquette to their own image and likeness with amusing results (to compliment a
person the form of salutation becomes the excessive 'The meadow has not such turnips, / the
garden has not such pumpkins / as great as my compliments / with which I
complimentarily compliment you').
Linguistic subtleties are
used to obtain a broadly comic effect, therefore, not least in the denunciation
of a social problem very prevalent at the time, yet transformed by the comic
element around which the whole action centres, the strange misunderstanding of
the title: the arrival of the troops of Napoleon in Italy (and this was still
during the period of total occupation) among many innovations had imposed a ban
on the castration of boys, a practice carried on for more than a century in the
pursuit of a career in opera. Fallen into disgrace as artists, by this time
held in derision by public opinion, for such young and no longer young men,
who, notwithstanding the mutilation, had not succeeded in finding employment in
the field of music, it remained only to lurk on the margins of society, wearing
women's clothes. So the leading characters in our opera pretend, in jest, but
the apparent joke must refer to a number of actual people. If it is considered
that the comic turn of events persuades the female heroine, believed to be a
eunuch (or 'musician', as was the euphemistic description of the time), to
dress in her turn in men's clothes, the clear result is to drive to an extreme
the sexual ambiguity of the text.
The music of Rossini, then
barely nineteen, is already fully mature, particularly in ensembles, so that it
is in no way inferior to analogous parts of subsequent masterpieces: the
capacity to drive the action forward in music, without the music slowing it
down, or the action and the necessarily intelligible words affecting adversely
the flow of the music, is already the distinctive mark of writing as complex as
that of the Quartet
(No.6, CD 1 [12]), the Quintet (No.15, CD 2 [8]) and the two act Finales
(No.10, CD 1 [20] & [21], and No.19, CD 2 [15]), and greater than might be
found in the comic scores of contemporary composers. There is even a certain rhythmic and melodic mechanical skill
that will make the fortune of memorable operatic passages to follow already
perceptible in ensemble passages such as 'Mi brilla l'anima - Per il contento' in
the first Finale.
The whole opera centred on
the figure of Marietta Marcolini, revealed as a mainstay of the first part of
Rossini's career, playing leading rôles in La pietra del paragone, Ciro in
Babilonia, L'italiana in Algeri, and Sigismondo,
later replaced, in art and perhaps in his heart, by the still more pervasive
presence of Isabella Colbran, the composer's future wife. The more typical opera buffa
rôles of the period revolve around the contralto prima donna, the young tenor
who aspires to the girl's hand, contrasted with the different plans of two buffo
basses (here the father and the future husband). The happy ending is naturally
assured.
Marco Beghelli
The Present Edition
Notwithstanding the fact
that the opera was virtually still-born, a series of contemporary manuscript
scores can be found today in the music libraries of Europe and America, while
the autograph draft of Rossini seems to be lost. The surviving sources provide
two versions that are substantially different enough: one, more complete, with
the verses and whole sections that the censors wanted either to cut out or to
modify, probably represents the original version; the other, characterized by
new verses and typical cuts in the interest of brevity but also with
instrumental passages simplified with respect to the other version, reflects,
very probably, the version actually staged in Bologna in the only three
performances in 1811.
On the occasion of the
revival of the opera at the Rossini in Wildblad Festival in July 2000, the new
edition prepared for the Deutsche Rossini Gesellschaft, which follows an
earlier attempt at reconstruction of the score in 1965, vitiated by clumsy
revisions unacceptable today, is therefore put forward as a reconstruction of
the version directly staged by Rossini, with the last minute cuts and
changes. >One exception is the
reinstatement of a short section in the first act Finale (the 'foot scene'),
evidently cut by Rossini not for artistic reasons but by the censorship for
obvious reasons of good taste; to omit here the pure comedy of such a passage
would have seemed a disservice to Rossini, who willingly accepted it and set it
to music.
Marco Beghelli - Stefano
Piana
Synopsis
CD 1
The action passes in a place
and at a time unspecified, outside and inside the house of Gamberotto, a
peasant who has made money, and of his daughter Ernestina, who, in accordance
with the new family situation, passes the time putting herself in the position
of the more noble literary characters, whose language and attitudes she
foolishly imitates. She does not yet
know that she is loved by Ermanno, a penniless young man who spends his time
lingering around her house, hoping to meet her, with the help of Frontino and
Rosalia, the crafty servants of Gamberotto (No.1 Introduction to Act I) [2].The agreement between the three is
interrupted by a noisy group of peasants, followed by the master of the house,
in one of his usual exhibitions of arrogance. Frontino takes the opportunity of
introducing Ermanno as Ernestina's new tutor: Gamberotto welcomes him willingly
[3], not only for his knowledge but also for his fine appearance which will not
fail to please his daughter.
The first step has therefore
been taken to bring about the meeting of the two young people; now Buralicchio,
Ernestina's intended husband, as rich as he is conceited, must be removed from
the scene. Presenting himself as an
irresistible Don Juan (No.2
Cavatina)
[4], all too confident [5], he meets his future father-in-law [6], vying with
him in ceremonial and affectation [7].
Meanwhile Ernestina, bored
in the house library, admits to her literary friends that she has an
incomprehensible desire within herself (No.4 Cavatina) [8]: perhaps it is
due to the lack of love [9]; and they busy themselves searching her books for
the most suitable solution for her hypochondria (No.5 Chorus) [10]. The unexpected entrance of
Ermanno and Buralicchio [11], introduced at the same time by Gamberotto (No.6 Quartet) [12] immediately raises
the spirits of the girl, who feels herself attracted by both: she will keep her
body for her betrothed, her spirit for her tutor. But Ermanno does not know how
to restrain himself from profiting from his unhoped for proximity and ardently
kisses the girl's hand [13], enraging her betrothed, who is with difficulty
held at bay by Gamberotto (No.7 Aria)
[14].
The action comes to a brief
pause for the conversation in which the two servants comment on the real
possibility of Ermanno's success [15] and on the impertinent nature of love (No.8 Aria) [16]. [17] Finally
the young man manages to find himself alone together with the girl (No.9 Duet)
[18], who, still immersed in her literary fantasies, has some little difficulty
in understanding his real feelings and remains deeply disturbed by them.
Gamberotto takes the
situation in hand again, rebuking Buralicchio for his unjustified jealousy and
Ernestina for the little attention she has paid her betrothed [19]: the
official courtship starts, therefore, in his presence, beginning with the
punishment of the foot, then proceeding further up (No.10 Finale I) [20]. Cut to the quick, Ermanno
tries to block these events by staging suicide, to which Ernestina reacts with
the greatest apprehension; the consequent anger of Gamberotto and Buralicchio,
who chase the tutor from the house, persuades them all, with such a
disturbance, to seek the intervention of the forces of law and order [21].
CD 2
When the curtain rises
again, Frontino discusses what has happened with the country people of the
district (No.11
Introduction to Act II) [1], and reveals to Rosalia that he is ready
to put into action a new plan: a strange mistake to help Ermanno (No.12 Aria) [2]. Through a
feigned letter that he cunningly allows to fall into the hands of Buralicchio,
the wily servant makes him believe that Ernestina is actually Ernesto, the son
that Gamberotto had had castrated in adolescence so that he might have a
profitable career as a singer and that now, enriched by other means, he keeps hidden
in woman's clothing to avoid military service [3]. Dismayed, Buralicchio meets
face to face with Ernestina, now finally disposed to accept the engagement, and
remains horrified by the masculine traits that he now seems to see in the girl
(No.13
Duet) [4]. Determined to take revenge for the insult, he goes to the
army commandant to denounce the presumed deserter [5].
Meanwhile Ermanno complains
to Gamberotto about the rudeness with which he was chased out of the house, but
is reassured that once the marriage has been concluded he will be able to
return peacefully to his position as tutor. Alone, Ermanno can only give vent
to all his despair (No.14 Scene and
Aria) [6]. Seeing him going, Ernestina orders Rosalia to bring him
back to her presence: the conversation that starts in funereal tones becomes
ever more delicate and intimate, soon interrupted by Gamberotto and
Buralicchio, the former outraged at the insults to his daughter, the other now
disposed to drop out of the running, in the expectation of imminent revenge
(No.15 Quintet)
[8]. The army soldiers in fact arrive without delay and arrest Ernestina
without offering any explanation. They go, and Frontino laments with Rosalia
that the scheme he has organized has ended by further harming Ermanno and Ernestina
[9], while Gamberotto abuses Buralicchio for the indifference with which he has
received the outrage against his future wife (No.16 Aria) [10].
Ernestina is in prison,
saddened by the absence of her books and by her continued ignorance of the reason
for her arrest [11]. She is joined by
Ermanno, with a soldier's uniform under his arm, to help the girl escape in
disguise (No.17 Cavatina)
[12]. A little later we find her finally free, hidden amid a squad of soldiers,
whom, with her renewed exuberance, she does not fail to exhort to feats of
glory (No.18 Scene and
Rondo) [13].
The epilogue is set in in
Gamberotto's house (No.19 Second
Finale), where Frontino reproaches Buralicchio as an informer and
advises him to make his escape as quickly as he can, to avoid the anger of
Gamberotto, who is looking for him [14]. Ernestina returns, together with her
rescuer, promptly mocked by Buralicchio for his ignorance of the facts. The
threatening entrance of the master of the house, supported by peasants armed with
sticks, persuades the accused to reveal everything: far from being guilty he
himself is the true victim and would certainly have been taken in by this
castrated son business, if Frontino had not warned him in time [15]. There is
mingled hilarity and consternation; Frontino defends himself, explaining that
he had acted with the best intentions and Ermanno too finally openly declares
to Gamberotto his love for Ernestina. Their enterprise is forgiven, Buralicchio resigns himself to the search
for another wife and all ends in happiness and contentment.
Marco Beghelli
(English version by Keith
Anderson)
