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Template:Donizetti operasLe duc d'Albe or Il duca d'Alba (The Duke of Alba) is an opera in three acts originally composed by Gaetano Donizetti in 1839 to a French language libretto by Eugène Scribe and Charles Duveyrier. The score, left unfinished by Donizetti, was completed by his former pupil Matteo Salvi and the opera received its first performance at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on 22 March 1882, more than 40 years after Donizetti's death.

Composition history

The opera had been originally commissioned for the Paris Opéra in 1839, and Donizetti worked on it throughout most of that year. However, he abandoned the project with only the first two acts completed, plus notes for the melodies and bass lines for Acts 3 and 4. The opera remained unfinished at the time of his death in 1848. In 1855, Scribe and Duveyrier's libretto was transferred to Verdi's opera Les vêpres siciliennes, with the setting changed from the Spanish occupation of Flanders in 1573 to the French occupation of Sicily in 1282.

In 1881 Matteo Salvi, a former pupil of Donizetti's, completed the opera from Donizetti's notes with the help of Amilcare Ponchielli, Antonio Bazzini and Cesare Domeniceti. Angelo Zanardini translated Scribe's libretto from the original French into Italian, and the names of the two lovers, 'Henri' and 'Hélène', which by that time had been used in Les vêpres siciliennes were changed to 'Marcello' and 'Amelia'. When Donizetti abandoned the opera, he re-cycled the famous tenor aria, 'Ange si pur' (or 'Spirto gentil' in the Italian version) for his 1840 opera La favorite. For the premiere, Salvi composed a replacement aria, 'Angelo casto e bel'. He also added recitatives and combined Acts III and IV into a single final act.

The opera received its first performance in 1882 as Il duca d'Alba (the title used in all its subsequent performances) with Leone Giraldoni in the title role, Abigaille Bruschi Chiatti as Amelia di Egmont, and Julián Gayarre as Marcello.

Performance history

The opera has only been rarely performed since 1882. However, there was a major revival at the 1959 Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, when the conductor Thomas Schippers, reworked the score, removing most of Salvi's additions and reconstructing the final acts himself from Donizetti's notes. Schippers also returned 'Spirto Gentil' to its original place in the opera. The Spoleto production was directed by Luchino Visconti who used restored sets from the 1882 premiere. Schippers presented the United States premiere of the work later that year under the umbrella of the American Opera Society at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia on October 15, 1959. The Schippers version with the Visconti production was revived at the 1992 Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina.

Roles

Synopsis

Place: Brussels and Antwerp

Time: 1573

Act 1

The Duke of Alba has been sent to Flanders to suppress the rebellion against Spanish rule. Shortly before the action begins, Amelia's father Egmont, a Flemish hero, had been executed by the Duke and she is now determined to assassinate him. The Duke discovers that his long-lost son Marcello, Amelia's lover, is now the leader of the rebellion. The Duke arrests him when he refuses to join the Spanish army.

Act 2

When Marcello is freed from prison, he appeals to the Duke to spare his co-conspirators and Amelia, all of whom have been arrested in Daniele Bauer's tavern. The Duke reveals to Marcello that he is his father. In exchange for his friends' freedom, Marcello kneels before the Duke and acknowledges him as his father.

Act 3

Marcello confesses to Amelia that he is the Duke's son. She asks him to kill the Duke as proof of his love for her. Torn between his father and the woman he loves, Marcello hestitates. Later at the port of Antwerp, Amelia, disguised as a man, takes matters into her own hands and attempts to stab the Duke to death. Marcello throws himself on the Duke to shield him and is unwittingly killed by Amelia.

Recordings

Notes

1. Rothstein, E., 1992
2. Rockwell, J., 1982
3. Buldrini, Y., 2005
4. Time Magazine, June 22, 1959
5. Premiere cast from Casaglia
6. Source of recording on operadis-opera-discography.org.uk

References

• Buldrini, Y., 2005, Dossier: Il Duca d'Alba, Forum Opéra, (accessed 25 April 2007)
• Casaglia, Gherardo, "22 Marzo 1882", Almanacco Amadeus, 2005. Accessed 11 December 2009 (in Italian).
• Rockwell, J., 'Eve Queler leads Alba', The New York Times, October 31, 1982
• Rosenthal, H. and Warrack, J., The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 2nd Edition, 1979, Oxford University Press. p. 144
• Rothstein, E., 'A Donizetti Work Is Resurrected, Sets and All', The New York Times, May 30, 1992
• Time Magazine, 'Donizetti Revived', June 22, 1959
• Weatherson, A., Programme Notes: Il Duca d'Alba, Festival de Radio France, Montpellier, 2007. (accessed 24 April 2007)

• Operas by Gaetano Donizetti
• Libretti by Eugène Scribe
• French-language operas
• Unfinished operas
• Operas