Un
avvertimento ai gelosi
Manuel
García’s Un avvertimento ai gelosi (“A
Warning to Those Who are Jealous”),
composed in 1831, is one of five “salon operas” completed
during the final years of his life, created for the vocal,
musical and dramatic education of his students. The opera is
based on the 1804 libretto by Giuseppe
Maria Foppa (1760-1845), which was first set to music by
Stefano
Pavesi (1779-1850). Only two additional settings of
Foppa’s libretto have yet been documented: the 1831 salon
opera by Manuel García and another version produced in the
same year by the Irish composer and baritone, Michael Balfe
(1808-1870). Foppa excelled in the one-act farsa genre
that originated in Venice in the 1790s and remained popular
through the early nineteenth century. The libretto title page
designates Un avvertimento ai gelosi as a “farsa
giocosa.” García labeled his setting an “opera per soscieta” [sic]
(“society opera”), indicating that it was meant to be
performed in an intimate social setting. With the objective of
composing a work for his students, García took advantage of
the opportunities for ensemble singing that Foppa’s libretto
provided: a duet (male-female), a trio (three males), and
a quartet (one female, three males), along with an extended Finale,
in which the opera’s six characters sing successively and in
various combinations before the closing tutti chorus.
To these, García added another duet (male-female) with a
preceding recitative, apparently written to his own text. The
ensembles are vocally challenging, skillfully constructed by
García to develop coordinated virtuosity while enhancing the
dramatic scenario. The opera also contains arias that are
designed for improvised ornamentation, an artistic skill
García deemed absolutely essential and therefore expected of
his students. Following
his retirement from an illustrious performing career, García
enjoyed creative collaborations with his students and took
special pride in their performances. While it is unknown
whether Un avvertimento ai gelosi was actually
performed during García’s lifetime, the opera’s
sentimental humor has an enduring appeal that, together with
charming arias, virtuosic fireworks, and brilliant
ensembles, retains the potential to delight today’s singers
and audiences.
Synopsis
Un
avvertimento ai gelosi is
a
typical farsa giocosa, with a comic plot that
features a jealous husband and his innocent, but flirtatious,
wife. Berto, the highly jealous husband, unjustly suspects his pretty wife,
Sandrina, of infidelity.
He complains about the inconstancy of women in a cavatina introduzione
(“È una cosa da scioccone”) that opens the opera. The couple’s
marital tension is conveyed in their subsequent recitative and
duet (“Son quà, dì sù, che vuoi …”), although genuine
affection for each other is also apparent. When their new
feudal lord, the Count Ripaverde, arrives to look over his
estate, he is immediately attracted to Sandrina, as is the
Count's secretary, Don Fabio, a pompous dandy. In order to
punish Berto for his jealousy, Sandrina takes advantage of the
situation by flirting insincerely with the Count, who
confesses his feelings for her in an aria (“Nel vagheggiar quel
viso”) before leaving
the scene. Alone with Sandrina, Fabio begins to woo her
himself. In a duet (“Io ti vidi t’ammirai”),
her rejection of his pretentious gesture only inflames his
passion. When the Count instructs Fabio to follow Sandrina to
her house, he happily obeys. There he encounters Berto and a
simple—but wise—gardener named Menico. While trying to
mitigate fuming rivalry, Menico joins Berto as he threatens
Fabio in an amusing trio (“Ehi di casa …”). Returning to the scene, the Count
notices that Sandrina seems unhappy and tries to discover what
is bothering her, displaying a comforting attitude in his
attempt to win her over. In the midst of the Count's
sympathetic advances, Berto further complicates things by
bursting forth and declaring that Sandrina is his sister.
Sandrina is outraged, but the Count is delighted and proceeds
to pursue her with increased ardor, in the presence of her
perplexed “brother”. Berto clumsily reverses his false
declaration, causing the Count to believe that he must be
Sandrina’s lover. Still furious, Sandrina continues to refer
to Berto as her "brother" while the Count vows to make her his
bride, Berto fumes, and Fabio remains on the periphery, with
his eye still on Sandrina. In a heated quartet (“Sappi che vivo amante”), the Count, Sandrina, Berto, and
Fabio exclaim their emotions, building to a dramatic climax at
the midway point of the farsa.
Sandrina leaves with the Count and Fabio, while Berto storms
off in the opposite direction. Just at this moment, the
Count’s long-forgotten fiancée, Ernesta, arrives and
encounters Menico, explaining that she is looking for the
Count. She sings an aria (“Chi serba nel petto”), avowing her devotion in spite of
the Count’s inconstancy. Menico fully understands the
situation: he knows that Sandrina is truly faithful to Berto
and that she is only pretending to be interested in the Count
in order to punish her unjustly suspicious husband. Menico
relates Ernesta’s plight to Sandrina and the two (Menico and
Sandrina) conspire to rectify the situation. In an aria sung
with the Count (“Quando imbrune or or la notte”), Sandrina agrees that she will
marry him that evening – after dark. Menico,
who as the gardener has access to the Count’s villa, hides
Berto in a closet in the room where the marriage will take
place. The resigned Fabio enters the room and composes a poem
for the wedding couple, but when he exits, leaving the poem on
the desk, Berto rushes out of the closet and seizes the paper.
When Fabio returns to find his poem missing, he proclaims that
its beauty must have caused the god Apollo to descend and
claim it for himself. The Count appears, reprimanding Fabio
for his crazed assertions, and chases him out of the room.
Sandrina arrives as promised, but she requests that all the
lights be extinguished before commencing the wedding ceremony,
during which the Count swears that he will be a faithful
spouse to the one who gives her hand to him. As it turns out,
that hand happens to belong to Ernesta, whom Sandrina cleverly positions
adjacent to the Count in the dark. Believing that
Sandrina has just married the Count, Berto leaps out of the
closet with knife in hand, terrifying Fabio and the servants,
who enter the room with lanterns. Amidst general confusion, a
sextet (“Che vuol dir? che cosa è questa!”) ensues, in which Sandrina, Berto,
Fabio, Menico, Ernesta and the Count try to grasp what has
happened. The Count is taken aback but soon embraces Ernesta;
Berto, contrite, begs Sandrina for forgiveness; and all join
in a chorus (“Che diletto mi sento
nel petto!”), praising
the triumph of love, joy and peace.
Notes and
synopsis taken from:
Manuel
García: Un avvertimento
ai gelosi, ed. Teresa Radomski
Recent
Researches in the Music of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth
Centuries, 65
A-R
Editions, Inc., Middleton Wisconsin
© 2015 by A-R Editions, Inc.
The complete score, including notes
on performance, translation and critical notes is available
for purchase at the A-R Editions website. Click to order:
Uploaded
May 7, 2015
Teresa Radomski
