Il furioso all'isola di San Domingo (The Madman on the Island of San Domingo) is a "romantic melodramma"Ashbrook 1998, New Grove, p. 316: In the Grove article, Ashbrook makes a specific point of declaring that the opera is not semiseria because Cardenio is not a figure of fun but one of pathos due to his delusions. He also notes that the term "Romantic melodramma" is the description found in the original score. in twoAshbrook 1998, p. 316: Ashbrook notes 2 acts, Osborne says 3, but the Rizzi recording uses 2 acts acts by the composer Gaetano Donizetti. Jacopo Ferretti, who since 1821 had written five libretti for Donizetti and two for Rossini (including La Cenerentola), had proposed the unusual subjectBattaglia, p. 11 and he was contracted to write the Italian libretto based on a five-act play of the same title by an unknown author in 1820, which "had been given in the same theatre [...] and which Donizetti had immediately loved". However, as has been noted by Charles Osborne, the "ultimate derivation of both play and libretto is an episode in part 1 of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes's published in 1605" which is the story of Cardenio and Lucinda.
The opera was premiered at the Teatro Valle in Rome on 2 January 1833 and was very successful throughout Europe—being staged in over 100 locations—but it disappeared after 1889, not to be seen again until 1958.
Composition history
After completing L'elisir d'amore for Milan and being present for its first performance on 12 May 1832 where it was immediately successful, Donizetti and his wife, Virginia, left for Rome. Within a few weeks of his arrival, he had signed a contract to write Parisina for Florence and, for Rome, Il furioso with the librettist to be Ferretti. As Battaglia notes, for the composer: It was the protagonist's drama that actually intrigued him: a man at last, after so many sorrowful female images on the brink of madness as innocent victims of the prejudices and cruelty of people. Now [it was] a man".Battaglia, p. 12 Then the couple moved on to a busy schedule in Naples, which included the preparation for what became Sancia di Castiglia for a November premiere.
The first installment of Il furiosos libretto arrived in August and the process of composition and modification began.Ashbrook 1982, pp. 73 – 76 With performances of Sancia over, the composer left for Rome with Furiosos first act and part of the second act completed. Much of the "discussion" between Donizetti and Ferretti had taken place by means of letters during the previous months (an unusual procedure for this composer, since he usually worked with the librettist present).Ashbrook 1982, Note #69, p. 623. Donizetti's typical method of working is seen in an example when he and Cammarano were working on Roberto Devereaux in 1837. The librettist sent a note saying that when they meet "we'll read it together: four eyes are better than two." Significantly, as Ashbrook points out, the composer "coins a maxim for Ferretti's benefit: "The good consists of making things small and beautiful, and not in singing a lot and being boring".
In the composition of this opera, one thing stands out: the power of the baritone, the 23-year-old Giorgio Ronconi for whom the two men were writing the role of Cardenio. Furioso is the first opera in which Donizetti has a baritone as the hero.
Performance history19th CenturyIl furioso was subsequently presented at La Scala (October 1833 onward for 36 performances), the Teatro Regio di Parma and in Venice at the San Benedetto (both in 1834), the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (1835), the Teatro della Canobbiana (1835), the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (1835), and the Teatro di San Carlo (1836) for a total of 70 presentations in other opera houses in Italy alone,Battaglia, pp. 12—13 as well as in at least 25 other European cities from Barcelona (May 1834) to Brussels (March 1844),Weinstock 1963, pp. 333—337: Weinstock reveals the complete history of the opera and critical reactions to it. including London on 17 December 1836.Ashbrook and Hibberd 2001, p. 234
However, as Martin Deasy points out, it was the 1834 performances in Naples which drew the most attention, noting that when presented in that city on 11 May, the opera: burst upon Naples like a supernova, opening in three theatres on the same night...These simultaneous local premieres—a phenomenon unprecedented in Italy—caught the collective imagination, triggering an urban craze that swept the city for more than a fortnight [two weeks]: for few heady spring weeks, it seemed that all Naples could talk about was Il furioso.Deasy 2008, p. 3 He goes on to discuss the fact that frustration had built up during the immediate three-week period due to the closure of all the theatres in Naples for religious observances, including the Teatro San Carlo which was being renovated. Therefore, performances were given at the Teatro del Fondo, the Teatro Nuovo, and the Teatro Fenice. Donizetti rated the successes at the three houses: "at the Fondo—so-so; at the Nuovo, a great success; at the Fenice, just about nothing".Donizetti to Ferretti, 20 May 1834, in Black 1982, pp. 29—30 With its evident popularity, the opera continued to be given into the 1840s.
Later in the century, it was given in Paris on 2 February 1862 at the Théâtre-Italien, Details on librettodopera.it Retrieved 5 April 2013 where Ronconi triumphed,Battaglia, p. 13 in Piacenza in the autumn of 1876, but after an 1889 revival in Trieste, it disappeared until 1958.20th Century and beyondPerformances of the opera, which were all recorded, were given in Siena (September 1958), as part of the Spoleto Festival in Italy in July 1967, and in Savona in 1987. On 4 June 1978 it was given its US premiere by the American Spoleto Festival in South Carolina, followed by the first New York staging at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on 22 February 1979. In the fall of 1978, an Eastman Opera Theater production at the Eastman School of Music was directed by Richard Pearlman, supported by the Eastman Philharmonia under the direction of conductor David Effron (performances on 29 and 30 November and 1 and 2 December, 1978).
However, scholar William Ashbrook notes that much damage had been done to the score by the time it reached the United States: he complains of reduced orchestration, the score badly cut and re-arranged, and the buffo elements pulled out of proportion to disrupt "one of the most original aspects of Il Furioso – the way in which the comedy relates to and reinforces the serious plot."Ashbrook 1982, p. 77
Other performances took place in 1979: one in Washington, DC and the other in London in a concert performance presented by Pro Opera and the Donizetti Society on 25 November. Details on librettodopera.it Retrieved 5 April 2013 Another took place in Philadelphia in 1982.
A review of a presentation in November 1987 at the Teatro Gabriello Chiabrera in Savona in Italy appeared in the Donizetti Society's Newsletter: This hearing at Savona confirmed the belief that it is certainly the most integrated of his semiseria scores, where patter, instead of intruding, actually points-up the tragic dilemma of the crazy outcast who has taken to the jungle...[Donizetti's strengths include] a sequence of beguiling tunes, his delectable orchestration, sometimes echoing the voices, sometimes underpinning them, sometimes mocking them; his ability to paint a stage picture with two bars of music, supplying a deft touch to fleeting emotions while never losing sight (or sound) of the story itself, in this opera.Alexander Weatherson, "Il furioso all'isola di San Domingo (Donizetti)", Newsletter #44, Donizetti Society (London), December 1987
In September 2006, it was given at the Musiktheater im Revier, Gelsenkirchen, Germany.Cast, production photographs, and extract from a review by Alan Jackson on donizettisociety.com The Bergamo Opera Festival in Donizetti's home town presented the opera in October 2013. "Donizetti's Il furioso all’isola di San Domingo, Report on the production, plus photographs on donizettisociety.com
Roles
RoleVoice typePremiere Cast,2 January 1833(Conductor: – )Fernando, Cardenio's brothertenorLorenzo SalviEleonora, Cardenio's estranged wifesopranoElisa OrlandiCardeniobaritoneGiorgio RonconiBartolomeo MergolesbassFilippo ValentiniMarcella, Bartolomeo's daughtersopranoMarianna FranceschiniKaidamà, Bartolomeo's servantbassFerdinando Lauretti
Synopsis Time: 16th Century Place: An island in the West IndiesOsborne, C. 1994, p. 216
Act 1 On the seashore of the island
Carrying a basket, Marcella emerges from her hut and observes the raging sea, expresses concern about "the raving one", and prepares to leave her basket of food under a bush for him: (Freme il mar lontan lontano / "The sea is agitated / I hear the thunder..."). Bartolomeo, her father, follows her. He roughly questions her motive and, while she offers the explanation that it is to observe the weather, he knows that she really has come to look for the "furious one". He discovers food hidden in the basket and, understanding that this is designed for the "madman", Cardenio, Bartolomeo describes the bizarre behavior of this man and despairs of the attraction which women seem to have in helping insane people: (So per chi. Sempre pietose / Fur la femmine con matti / "I know to whom. Women have always been pitiful to the insanes.") Marcella pleads with her father for help in order to protect him from himself.
Kaidamà, Bartolomeo's island native servant, joins the assembled islanders having been terrorized by Cardenio's madness, and he describes his experience of running away after being repeatedly hit. He continues to fear for his life, expressing his fear in an extensive aria that unless the people kill the madman, he will kill Kaidamà: (Aria: Scelsi la via brevissima / "I chose the shortest way / towards the farm"). However, Bartolomeo orders Kaidamà to go back to the farm, brandishing his whip as a threat.
Appearing to set off as instructed, Kaidamà hides in one of the huts as Cardenio is heard offstage. He enters and expresses his sadness when describing a woman who clearly was his love: (Aria: Raggio d'amor parea / Nel anno primo april degli anni / "Like a gleam of love she was / In the prime of her life / But she was as beautiful as she was evil / Mistress of deceit / She had roses on her face / And thorns hidden in her heart"). This sadness causes the onlookers some anguish, especially when they see Cardenio looking at the possibility of jumping from the clifftop and into the sea, but spotting Marcella, Cardenio moves away and into the rocks. The assembled company laments, Bartolomeo instructs his daughter to leave the basket of food, and then moves towards the rocks to find the madman.
As the storm grows in intensity, Marcella and Kaidamà leave the hut. They see a ship perilously making its way through the raging seas, and the assembled group watches as the ship breaks apart and sinks. Eleonora is thrown on the shore and Marcella and the farmers carry her to a rock. Terrified at the sight of Kaidamà, she recoils in horror: "Oh! extreme torment! I am still alive!": (Aria: Ah! lasciatemi, tiranni! / "Ah! leave me, cruel ones! / I feel too many sorrows altogether! / I want to die. / Pity is cruel / To a mournful heart"). As Marcella, Kaidamà, and the farmers interject words of comfort, Eleonora confesses that she deceived her husband, but that she still loves him—"I'm burning with a tardy love"—and that she is tormented by her guilt: "I deserve the cruelty of heavens" she exclaims. Marcella offers her a change of clothes, but when Bartolomeo returns, having failed to find Cardenio, he demands the identity of the woman.