TUESDAY September 13, 7:30 p.m. (finishing at approx. 10.30 p.m.)
LA FAVORITE
An opera in four acts
by Gaetano Donizetti (1797 – 1848)
Libretto by Alphonse Royer (1803 – 1875) and Gustave Vaez (1812 – 1862)
based on the play Le comte de Comminges by Baculard d'Arnaud
First performed in Paris in 1840
Cast
Production
A 2014 production from the Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse
Directed by Vincent Boussard
Stage design by Vincent Lemaire
Costume design by Christian Lacroix
Lighting design by Guido Levi
Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse
Choeur du Capitole de Toulouse
(chorus master Alphonse Caiani)
conducted by Antonello Allemandi
Synopsis
Telling of a love triangle involving the King of Castile, Alphonse XI, his mistress ('the favourite') Léonor, and her lover, Fernand, the story unfolds against the 14th century background of the Moorish invasions and power struggles between church and state.
ACT 1
Scene 1
In the Monastery of St James, monks are making their way to worship. Superior Balthazar, father of the Queen of Castile, enters with Fernand. Fernand confesses that he has fallen in love with a beautiful, but as yet unknown, lady. His faith in God remains, but he wishes to leave the monastery in search of her. Balthazar angrily sends Fernand out of the monastery, warning him of the dangers of the outside world. He predicts that Fernand will one day return to the cloisters, a disappointed if wiser man.
Scene 2
Fernand has found his lady, Léonor, declared his love and received it in return, but he is still unaware of her real identity. She has arranged to meet him on the island of Leon, to which he is brought blindfolded by boat. He is met by Inès, her companion, who impresses upon him the need for secrecy. Léonor enters. She tells him that they can never marry and that they must not meet again, but nevertheless hands him a document to help him in his future. Shortly afterwards the arrival of the King is announced and Léonor leaves. Fernand is left to speculate about her elevated social position. Reading the document she has left him, he finds a commission in the army — an opportunity for advancement.
Alfonse has defeated the Moors and taken Alcazar. In conversation with the courtier Don Gaspar, the King expresses his pleasure at Fernand's bravery. Alone, the King expresses his love for Léonor and his desire to divorce the Queen and marry her. He realizes that this will provoke the opposition of his powerful father-in-law Balthazar who is ultimately backed by the Pope. Léonor enters and expresses her anguish at remaining his mistress rather than his Queen. The King suspects that he is losing her affection. Don Gaspar enters with news that a letter has been discovered revealing that Léonor has a lover. She makes no denial, but at that moment Balthazar enters intent on forcing the King to abandon his plans for the royal divorce.
ACT 3Alfonse is to honour Fernand for his role in the war. He asks Fernand what reward he would like and Fernand asks to marry the woman who has inspired him in his bravery. Alfonse asks who she is and Fernand points to Léonor. The King is astonished to learn that Fernand is his successful rival. In an abrupt change of mind, he orders Fernand and Léonor to marry within one hour. Léonor is left with mixed feelings of apprehension and delight. She decides that Fernand must be informed about her past and sends Inès to him. However, unknown to Léonor, Inès is arrested before she can see him. Fernand only learns the truth after the wedding ceremony. Considering himself dishonoured by the King he breaks his sword, leaves Léonor and entrusts himself to Balthazar.
ACT 4Balthazar's daughter, the Queen, has died of jealousy and grief, and her body has been sent to him at the Monastery of St James. Prayers are being said for her repose. Fernand is preparing to enter his new religious life. Léonor enters in a state of exhaustion and faints before the cross. At first Fernand rejects her, but eventually moved by her love and sincerity, he is willing to give himself to her again, but it is too late, Léonor collapses once more and dies in his arms.
NEXT MONTH: Tuesday October 11, 7.30 pm
Dialogues of the Carmelites
Poulenc's second opera, premiered at La Scala in 1957, tells the story of the Martyrs of Compiègne, Carmelite nuns who, in 1794, during the closing days of the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, were guillotined in Paris for refusing to renounce their vocation. Our intensely moving production comes from Le Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, in a 2013 co-production with Théâtre Royale de la Monnaie in Brussels.
To view two previews of this production
click
here and
here
Kate Aldrich as Léonor de Guzman
before Giovanni Furlanetto as Balthazar
A simply gorgeous production
For sheer overwhelming swooning romanticism, La Favorite is hard to beat. Performed here in its original French version - it's more often played in the Italian translation when it's played at all - it's given a simply gorgeous production here under the direction of Vincent Boussard that matches the warmth and the sweeping beauty of Donizetti's score and arrangements.
- Keris Nine, OperaJournal, March 2015
Popular in Paris
The premiere at the Paris Opéra on 2 December 1840 was a popular triumph. The work’s gestation, however, was something of a mad scramble. Recent studies of the autograph score have revealed quite what a frantic process it was. Given the circumstances, it is doubly remarkable that Act IV could have turned out so successfully: Toscanini is among those to have counted it as one of Donizetti’s finest achievements.
Some picture of the popularity to which Donizetti had attained in Paris at this time — or at least of that popularity as viewed by a great composer much less often performed — can be derived from an anecdote that Berlioz included in an article for the Journal des débats. A ship’s captain who visits Paris periodically is represented as saying that each time he leaves the city, Donizetti’s La Favorite is being announced, whereas each time that he returns, Lucie de Lammermoor is being promised. Another sailing man replies: “No, that’s an exaggeration. ... When I leave for India, it’s true that I also see La Favorite announced, but when I return, they don’t always present Lucie; they often are giving La Favorite again.”
By 1841, La Favorite had become so popular in France that Schlesinger paid a young German musician named Richard Wagner an advance of five hundred francs against a total promised fee of eleven hundred to make no less than six different transcriptions from its score. What the nearly starving Wagner had to do to La Favorite in this attempt to fend off complete indigence was to arrange it for voice and piano; for piano solo; for piano four hands; for flute quartet; for two violins; and — incredibly — for cornet.
A glorious hybrid
Donizetti reconciles two national styles: although La Favorite embraces the grandeur and spectacle of what was required for the Paris Opéra, there is no sense of the melody-rich score ever renouncing the tenets of bel canto. The result is a glorious hybrid that, although inevitably betraying some signs of its rushed and complex gestation, is one of the composer’s most beguiling scores: grandly lyrical and, ultimately, supremely moving.
It is perhaps the work’s intimacy, however, that is best emphasized in Vincent Boussard’s striking production , whose economical sets, with several enigmatic and thought-provoking visual leitmotifs, help to focus attention on the characters at the opera’s heart — the three corners of its love triangle, held in position by those political and historical forces that were characteristic of grand opera. The production hints at other modern parallels, with the repeated image of Fernand’s suitcase suggesting some sort of refugee status. The additional fact that either Fernand or Alphonse is left cut off from the action by a drop curtain at the end of each scene powerfully suggests their different levels of solitude and ostracism. Further details hint at violence in the relationship between Léonor and Alphonse, bringing greater realism to their interaction. Christian Lacroix’s costumes, meanwhile, help create a sense of universality, mixing archaic ruffs with modern looking leather coats for the men, and simple frocks for the women.
Importantly, though, the cast includes three international principals up to the remarkable demands of their roles: the Chinese tenor Yijie Shi brings a limpid, easy tone to Femand; the French baritone Ludovic Tézier offers suitably rich-toned authority as Alphonse; the American mezzo Kate Aldrich plumbs the emotional depths of Léonor’s music, helping to demonstrate why the Donizetti scholar William Ashbrook described ‘0 mon Fernand’ as "one of the greatest monologues of French opera". The Toulouse production also marks an important further stage in the twofold re-establishment of La Favorite within Donizetti’s oeuvre: first, as arguably his finest achievement in French opera; second, as one of his finest achievements tout court.
- Hugo Shirley, in the DVD notes