The three-act opera by Gaetano Donizetti of a real person, Lucrezia Borgia, is an interesting opera to digest. The story, aside from including some historically named characters, has no relation with any historical events. In a sense, Lucrezia Borgia, the person, became a vehicle for an operatic drama about infidelity, loyalty and subterfuge.
It is a shame that the plot of the opera has no relation to reality. Borgia's story is so rife with delectable events that can easily be transformed into opera. Instead, the opera's story is one of a mother who loves her son, Gennaro, who doesn't realize she is his mother. Lucrezia's husband, the Duke Alfonse d'Este, believes she is cheating behind his back with Gennaro (when in fact, she is trying to keep him alive). The lack of knowledge of the relationships among the male portion of the party causes all the tension in the story-line. From a modern perspective, the whole tragedy could have been easily averted if all Lucrezia had to do was admit to all that Gennaro was her son. Bam, Alfonse would understand why Lucrezia has been lurking around this guy. Bam, Gennaro would not be put off by being seen with Lucrezia. Gennaro, a loyal Venetian Guard, belongs to the party that considers the Borgia name as evil.
The Borgias, during the time of the Renaissance, was a powerful family dynasty. The father, Rodrigo, became the Pope Alexander VI. Lucrezia was involved in several marriages of convenience, to solidify connections with important men seated in powerful political positions. And, she and her family were not averse to using whatever means to move ahead, including murdering the husband when his value waned.
As I said already, her historical escapades would have made for several operas. Instead, Donizetti chose to fictionalize a story. The origin of the story was by Victor Hugo, so I shouldn't criticize Donizetti or his librettist, Romani, too much. Hugo's fictionalized story of Lucrezia was the basis for the opera.
Now, as to the opera, let me first say my only introduction to Donizetti's very large body of operatic works (over 70 operas) is Lucia di Lammermoor. I enjoyed Lucia, a take-off of the Romeo and Juliet story, but my immature ears back then (about 25 years ago) didn't know better.
This opera, Lucrezia Borgia, had *ahem* interesting (as in curious, as in WTF?) choices of musical passages and instrumentation. True, Donizetti composed during the transitional period between the stand-and-sing concept of an opera that evolved from Monteverdi through Handel to Mozart and other contemporaries of Donizetti, versus the more mature operatic works of Wagner and Puccini. Donizetti was setting new trails by employing a more visual stimulus with action. (How it was performed back in his days, well, I couldn't begin to guess.) There were sword fights and poisonings and multiple dead bodies, that much is known. (His Lucia di Lammermoor is famous since its debut for the gory final scene when Lucia essentially commits seppuko while wearing a white wedding-night robe. It's always done to be as graphic as possible.)
Musically, Donizetti still followed a template from the previous generation. And that template does not work for this opera with a heavy and serious storyline. I mean, how can one be singing about a very tragic event that just occurred using a light, major-key lilting song with refrains and trills? The refrains really got to me. Here is a situation: Lucrezia is saddened by Gennaro's refusal to take the antidote, and dies. Rather than just sing her pieties, she sings the aria and adds the refrain (as required), all to a waltz beat with the brass taking up the oomp-pah-pah tempo. All that mishmash detracted from the story. Here I am, sitting down and listening to the brass coming on. I wonder, why is the brass playing here? Shouldn't there be violins straining away melancholically, considering that it's a very moving, tragic, minor-key moment?
There were several episodes in the opera where the music just didn't jibe with the storyline. I imagine that Donizetti experimented with some new ideas, but was unwilling to relinquish old methods. His music is just at the cusp of turning from the staid classicism of Mozart to the lusher romantic era. He can't be condemned for the musical style as that's the era he lived in.
It is a shame that the plot of the opera has no relation to reality. Borgia's story is so rife with delectable events that can easily be transformed into opera. Instead, the opera's story is one of a mother who loves her son, Gennaro, who doesn't realize she is his mother. Lucrezia's husband, the Duke Alfonse d'Este, believes she is cheating behind his back with Gennaro (when in fact, she is trying to keep him alive). The lack of knowledge of the relationships among the male portion of the party causes all the tension in the story-line. From a modern perspective, the whole tragedy could have been easily averted if all Lucrezia had to do was admit to all that Gennaro was her son. Bam, Alfonse would understand why Lucrezia has been lurking around this guy. Bam, Gennaro would not be put off by being seen with Lucrezia. Gennaro, a loyal Venetian Guard, belongs to the party that considers the Borgia name as evil.
The Borgias, during the time of the Renaissance, was a powerful family dynasty. The father, Rodrigo, became the Pope Alexander VI. Lucrezia was involved in several marriages of convenience, to solidify connections with important men seated in powerful political positions. And, she and her family were not averse to using whatever means to move ahead, including murdering the husband when his value waned.
As I said already, her historical escapades would have made for several operas. Instead, Donizetti chose to fictionalize a story. The origin of the story was by Victor Hugo, so I shouldn't criticize Donizetti or his librettist, Romani, too much. Hugo's fictionalized story of Lucrezia was the basis for the opera.
Now, as to the opera, let me first say my only introduction to Donizetti's very large body of operatic works (over 70 operas) is Lucia di Lammermoor. I enjoyed Lucia, a take-off of the Romeo and Juliet story, but my immature ears back then (about 25 years ago) didn't know better.
This opera, Lucrezia Borgia, had *ahem* interesting (as in curious, as in WTF?) choices of musical passages and instrumentation. True, Donizetti composed during the transitional period between the stand-and-sing concept of an opera that evolved from Monteverdi through Handel to Mozart and other contemporaries of Donizetti, versus the more mature operatic works of Wagner and Puccini. Donizetti was setting new trails by employing a more visual stimulus with action. (How it was performed back in his days, well, I couldn't begin to guess.) There were sword fights and poisonings and multiple dead bodies, that much is known. (His Lucia di Lammermoor is famous since its debut for the gory final scene when Lucia essentially commits seppuko while wearing a white wedding-night robe. It's always done to be as graphic as possible.)
Musically, Donizetti still followed a template from the previous generation. And that template does not work for this opera with a heavy and serious storyline. I mean, how can one be singing about a very tragic event that just occurred using a light, major-key lilting song with refrains and trills? The refrains really got to me. Here is a situation: Lucrezia is saddened by Gennaro's refusal to take the antidote, and dies. Rather than just sing her pieties, she sings the aria and adds the refrain (as required), all to a waltz beat with the brass taking up the oomp-pah-pah tempo. All that mishmash detracted from the story. Here I am, sitting down and listening to the brass coming on. I wonder, why is the brass playing here? Shouldn't there be violins straining away melancholically, considering that it's a very moving, tragic, minor-key moment?
There were several episodes in the opera where the music just didn't jibe with the storyline. I imagine that Donizetti experimented with some new ideas, but was unwilling to relinquish old methods. His music is just at the cusp of turning from the staid classicism of Mozart to the lusher romantic era. He can't be condemned for the musical style as that's the era he lived in.