ELISABETTA, REGINA D'INGHILTERRA

Giacchino Rossini (1792 - 1868)                                       
Opera in two acts in Italian
Libretto: Lorenzo de Ponte
Premièr at National Theatre, Prague – 29 October 1787
09† December 1971 (7 Performances)                                 
Teatro Massimo, Palermo

FIRST PERFORMANCE IN XX. CENTURY 
OPENING PERFORMANCE OF TEATRO MASSIMO DI PALERMO 

Conductor: Gianandrea Gavazzeni
Chorus master: Mario Tagini
Stage director: Mauro Bolognini
Scene and costumes: Gaetano Pompa

Direttore musicale del palcoscenico / Stage Musical Director: Corrado Martinez
Primo maestro sostituto / First Substitute Teacher: Alberto Pedrazzoli 
Maestri collaboratori / Collaborating Directors: Donitilde Di Carlo, Ignazio Garsia, Giuseppe Grassodonia, Franco Rossitto
Choreogrfie / Choregraphy: Ugo Dell'Ara
Maestro rammentatore / Prompter: Adriano Corsi
Direttore dell’allestimento scenico / Director of Stage Design: Antoni Carollo

Elizabeth I Queen of England LEYLA GENCER soprano
The Earl of Leicester Commander of the army UMBERTO GRILLI tenor
Matilda his secret wife MARGHERITA GUGLIELMI soprano
The Duke of Norfolk PIETRO BOTTAZZO/SALVATORE FISICHELLA * tenor
Enrico (Henry) Matilda’s brother GIOVANNI VIGHI mezzo-soprano
Guglielmo (Fitzwilliam) Captain of the Royal Guard GIAN PAOLO CORRADI tenor
 
Place: London
Time: Late Sixteenth Century

† Recording date

(*) Note: In the seventh performance the role of Norfolk was sung by the tenor Salvatore Fisichella.
(*) Nota: Nella settima recita la parte di Norfolk e stata sostenuta del tenore Salvatore Fisichella.

Photos © AGENZIA FOTOGRAFICA ALLOTTA, Palermo 

Photos © FOTO LILLO, Palermo















 
ARCHIVIO GAETANO POMPA
Settembre 26, 1971 by Archivio Gaetano Pompa in Evento

Gaetano Pompa, Leyla Gencer, Mauro Bolognini


ELISABETTA REGINA D’INGHILTERRA di Gioachino Rossini
 
Rappresentazioni:
 
Palermo, Teatro Massimo – 9 dicembre 1971.
Interpreti: Leyla Gencer, Umberto Grilli, Margherita Guglielmi, Giovanna Vighi, Pietro Bottazzo, Gian Paolo Corradi.
Scene e costumi: Gaetano Pompa.
Direttore: Gianandrea Gavazzeni.
 
Tournée complessi artistici del Teatro Massimo di Palermo : 4- 7- 9 settembre 1972 al Festival Internazionale di Edimburgo.
Interpreti principali : Leyla Gencer, Umberto Grilli,Margherita Guglielmi, Pietro Bottazzo, Gian Paolo Corradi.
Scene e costumi : Gaetano Pompa
Direttore : Gianandrea Gavazzeni


Da “Il giorno” del 26 novembre 1970

“La rappresentazione di “Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra” può essere una grossa sorpresa, una sorpresa per tutti coloro che non l’hanno mai ascoltata e nello stesso tempo motivo di rimorso per noi che non l’abbiamo fatta. Da parte mia ne sono entusiasta. Ritengo che l’opera avrà una certa ripercussione se non altro per la musica”. Così si è espresso il maestro Nino Sanzogno sul “dramma in musica” di Rossini che dovrebbe dirigere (scioperi delle masse permettendo) domani sera in occasione dell’apertura della stagione lirica 1970-71 del Teatro Massimo di Palermo. E’ la prima volta in questo secolo che l’opera viene rappresentata in Italia. Rossini la scrisse nel 1815 per il San Carlo di Napoli. In occasione della prima, anzi, la parte della protagonista fu interpretata da Isabella Colbran, il celebre soprano del tempo che doveva poi diventare la sposa del maestro.[…] Il musicologo Rognoni, in un suo libro dedicato a Rossini, sostiene che l’opera “costituisce un radicale rinnovamento del linguaggio drammatico musicale: essa preannuncia i tempi nuovi, incontro ai quali Rossini procede, suo malgrado, bruciando in continua reazione con se stesso e col futuro una esperienza che avrebbe nutrito un intero secolo”.
Che il lavoro costituisca un momento di estremo interesse nella valutazione completa di Rossini come musica lo conferma tra l’altro una curiosità riferita dallo stesso Sonzogno. La sinfonia dell’”Elisabetta” infatti è la stessa che Rossini usò molti anni dopo per “Il barbiere di Siviglia”. Regista dell’opera è Mauro Bologni


Da “Il Giorno” del 09 dicembre 1970 (di Lorenzo Arruga)
 
Sono passati ormai quindici giorni da quando mi trovai all’improvviso al buio tra le solenni sale e i misteriosi corridoi del Teatro Massimo di Palermo. Ero là per assistere alla prima ripresa nel nostro secolo dell’”Elisabetta” di Rossini, ed ebbi a primo colpo l’impressione d’aver sbagliato opera. Ero infatti sempre in Rossini, ma in piena “scena delle tenebre”, come s’incontra nel “Mosè”. Poi, mi spiegarono che non era stato il Patriarca davanti al Faraone, ma un neo-profeta del sindacalismo di fronte al Barone, cioè al sovrintendente De Simone; e che l’intervento non era del cielo, ma delle masse: insomma, neo-umanesimo. Si trattava difatti d’uno sciopero rigorosamente rispettoso degli orari. Ad ogni modo son quindici giorni: l’opera non s’è ancora data, la stagione non s’è ancora aperta, e, se ho capito bene, ogni sera là scende puntuale il buio: sul teatro e sulle speranze di chi aspetta questo benedetto Rossini.
Così, stasera non sentiremo per radio la “ripresa”; ed è un peccato, perché questo esperimento coraggioso di riportarla sulle scene era stato premiato da uno dei più riusciti spettacoli che si fossero allestiti in Italia in questi anni. Era venuta fuori in modo splendido la bellezza, oltre che l’importanza, dell’opera: a dispetto di Rossini che diceva d’avere “sacrificato il successo” e degli studiosi perplessi da tanta abilità intesa come sfoggio di virtuosismo vocale, s’era sentita, appena messa in palcoscenico, tutta la nobiltà, la forza musicale delle architetture, la chiarezza delle linee, la fresca felicità delle innumerevoli idee musicali.
Per me, assistendo ad una prova, l’emozione era stata assai viva. L’allestimento era di rara suggestione: le scene, di Gaetano Pompa, fra nostalgie d’un Quattrocento alla Paolo Uccello e ripensamenti della lezione di un Savinio, creavano l’ambiente più adatto per la regia di Mauro Bolognini, impostata su rapporti di masse, di luci e ombre, di pochi gesti pregnanti, e chiaramente scandita sul ritmo musicale. La compagnia di canto, seguiva con perfetta coesione la limpidissima lettura impressa da Nino Sanzogno, immedesimato nell’orchestra dal suono trasparente e nella vicenda dominata con vigile equilibrio: la scattante sicurezza di Silvia Geszty, la signorilità e la bellezza timbrica di Bottazzo, la pienezza vocale di Grilli avevano fatto corona attorno a Leyla Gencer, a cui non so se il gusto di rifare la parte impervia della favolosa Colbran o la tessitura congeniale con le agilità incessanti negli acuti ha fatto trovare, accanto alle note qualità di creatrice di personaggi regali, una smagliante forma di voce.
Bene, il “giallo” continua. Quale sarà la sorte di Elisabetta? La ricerca dei colpevoli, però non mi interessa molto; tanto più che i rapporti fra la direzione e le masse, falsati dalla dissennata regolamentazione dei teatri italiani, sono complessi e valutabili con molta difficoltà a caldo: se ne potrà riparlare. Per ora ciò che preme è fare appello che Elisabetta non venga soppressa: lasciatele soltanto la possibilità di farsi intendere, adesso o nei prossimi mesi, e tutti capiranno perché.
 
Estratto da “Corriere della sera” di venerdì 10 dicembre 1971 (di Franco Abbiati)

All’esecuzione serena, limpida di fuori per la bellezza dei suoni e dove occorreva innervata oppure screziata dentro le pieghe orchestrali dei giochi aperti o ambigui della tavolozza come la sensibilità del Gavazzeni l’ha sentita hanno corrisposto nei quadri canori le prestazioni dell’eroica Leyla Gencer, prodigatasi fino ai limiti del possibile nella selva delle immense difficoltà tecniche, e un po’ delle espressive da lei superate con l’uso quasi infallibile dei morbidi flautati. D’efficace incisività la voce di Margherita Guglielmi qual Matilde e d’ammirevole lucentezza i mezzi dei due pronti, scattanti e a loro volta agilissimi tenori Umberto Grilli come Leicester e Pietro Bottazzo come Norfolk. Apprezzabile Giovanna Vighi nei panni virili di Enrico, ottimo Gian Paolo Corradi quale Guglielmo, capitano delle guardie. Impeccabili i pochi interventi del coro diretto da Mario Tagini.
 Regia di Mauro Bolognini, molto bene ordinata e sorvegliata entro le scene e con costumi d’una Inghilterra elisabettiana concepita con vivace gusto illustrativo da Gaetano Pompa, del quale gli stimoli fantastici e un po’ surrealisti, ripetuti anche su un delizioso siparietto di proscenio, hanno ricordato specie nel primo atto, le rossiniane panoramiche del compianto Savinio. Successo caldissimo.

OPERA MAGAZINE                                          
1970 October

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1971 January

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1971 April

IL DRAMMA                                            
1971.10.01                                                                                            

L'UNITA                                          
1971.10.10

IL PICCOLO                                    
1971.12.04

CORRIERE DELLA SERA                                           
1971.12.07

UNKNOWN NEWSPAPER 
1971.12.09
PALERMO INTERVIEW
 
We are in the dressing room of Leyla Gencer, the celebrated soprano who has brought to life tonight, after more than a century, the forgotten Rossinian character, Queen Elizabeth of England. Rossini wrote Elizabeth to suit the exceptional gifts of the beautiful Isabella Colbran, who was later to become his wife. The writer, Stendhal, said of her interpretation: 'Everything was reflected in her Spanish eyes, so beautiful, yet at certain moments so fierce." After 137 years, we are again in the presence of another dark Mediterranean beauty, born on the shores of the Bosporus, the Turkish soprano, Leyla Gencer, interpreter of the role of Elizabeth. We might say that Rossini wrote it also for you, Madame. Musically and visually, the character suits you well that of Elizabeth.
Certainly. Elizabeth demands unusual vocal efforts. Yes, and I am very happy to perform it for the first time after a century of absolute silence.
Rossini made an innovation in this work by making a point of not leaving anything up to the singers—but by writing all of the ornaments and coloratura, especially for your role.
Yes, very difficult.
Then you are one of the great merits of this revival of the Rossini masterpiece, because it is not easy to find a singer who rejects the usual standard roles, a successful artist who will commit herself to such difficult parts.
Truly, since the beginning of my career, I have always preferred to sing these rather rare and difficult operas, and because my curiosity drives me to discover new and difficult works—perhaps because of their difficulty! The difficulty attracts me. Of course, I am also very happy to have performed besides the Elizabeth of Rossini, other English queens of Donizetti, for instance Maria Stuarda, Donizetti's Queen Elizabeth of England, Anna Bolena again by Donizetti, and above all I am satisfied and happy to have contributed a little to the diffusion of these works in the international operatic world. And they have almost become standard repertory works. It is almost a duty for me to discover and sing and launch these rare operas that are very difficult to sing because they really require tremendous vocal work, much greater than the operas that are done regularly.
Let us hope that this Elisabetta will be launched internationally, since we know that it will go to the Festival at...
Edinburgh.
Yes, Edinburgh, is it true?
We hope, certainly—this is our wish.
Then, apart from the similarity of the temperaments of the two artists already mentioned at the beginning—that of the artist of yesterday, Colbran, and that of today, Gencer, this is a work which is congenial visually because it is about a regal character, and you listed a while ago many queens, many princesses.
Yes, I have many queens in my repertory.
And even another Queen Elizabeth, it seems to me. Is it so, another Queen Elizabeth?
Yes, of Donizetti, Roberto Devereux, yes, it's called Roberto Devereux because there already existed this Elizabeth of England, already set to music by Rossini.
And where do you reside usually?
In Milan.
In Milan! Artistically, do you feel a little Italian?
Completely Italian, because I have made my entire career in Italy. I made my debut in Italy in 1954.
I recall that last year there was a group of young people who came here specially to hear you.
They will return.
Indeed, they will return.
They are already here. e
A group that has made itself known among the general public.
A group that follows me almost everywhere.
Indeed.
To Spain, America, and soon even to Edinburgh.
I thought these youths were all from Genoa.
They are not only from Genoa, but from all over Italy—from Florence, from Milano, from Genoa, from Naples.
And they are all here tonight to applaud in the theatre.
Yes, they are all here.
Thank you, Madame.
Thank you. 

CORRIERE DELLA SERA                                           
1971.12.10

CORRIERE DELLA SERA
1971.12.10
FRANCO ABBIATI

Regista dell’opera è Mauro Bolognini.


All’esecuzione serena, limpida di fuori per la bellezza dei suoni e dove occorreva innervata oppure screziata dentro le pieghe orchestrali dei giochi aperti o ambigui della tavolozza come la sensibilità del Gavazzeni l’ha sentita hanno corrisposto nei quadri canori le prestazioni dell’eroica Leyla Gencer, prodigatasi fino ai limiti del possibile nella selva delle immense difficoltà tecniche, e un po’ delle espressive da lei superate con l’uso quasi infallibile dei morbidi flautati. D’efficace incisività la voce di Margherita Guglielmi qual Matilde e d’ammirevole lucentezza i mezzi dei due pronti, scattanti e a loro volta agilissimi tenori Umberto Grilli come Leicester e Pietro Bottazzo come Norfolk. Apprezzabile Giovanna Vighi nei panni virili di Enrico, ottimo Gian Paolo Corradi quale Guglielmo, capitano delle guardie. Impeccabili i pochi interventi del coro diretto da Mario Tagini.
Regia di Mauro Bolognini, molto bene ordinata e sorvegliata entro le scene e con costumi d’una Inghilterra elisabettiana concepita con vivace gusto illustrativo da Gaetano Pompa, del quale gli stimoli fantastici e un po’ surrealisti, ripetuti anche su un delizioso siparietto di proscenio, hanno ricordato specie nel primo atto, le rossiniane panoramiche del compianto Savinio. Successo caldissimo. 


LA STAMPA                                         
1971.12.11
MASSIMO MILA

The success of this kind of operas depend on the quality of the production. Since the Massimo Theater of Palermo had the chance to host Leyla Gencer who’s now at the peak of her vocal performance, everything was done perfectly. This artist naturally possesses the “Diva” qualities. She recreated not only the English Queen through a glorious and cruel portrait, but she also pointed Isabella Colbran and recreated both of them by each other’s reflection. 

LE COMBAT                                       
1971.12.19
ERIC DECHAMPS

Palermo recreated a Rossini Opera

Last week The Palermo Massimo Theater opened its season in their traditional way with an opera that had a very big impact on Italy: “Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra” the first opera that Rossini wrote for the famous Isabella Colbran in 1815 when he became the intendant of San Carlo Opera of Naples.  
The production realized by Palermo Theater has quite interesting points. First of all, this unfairly forgotten opera of Rossini’s mature period was brought into daylight.  On the other hand, it was proven that even today there are artists that can sing this opera in a genuine way. We couldn’t have even thought or imagined such thing twenty-five years ago. 
The Turkish Soprano Leyla Gencer who played the role of Elizabeth, truly became the Queen Elizabeth by overcoming all the devilish difficulties of the role. She has a rare “coloratura” precision. It’s sad that this artist who’s very famous in Italy (The only soprano who interpreted Norma at La Scala Theater after Callas) hasn’t recorded any albums whilst having such powerful vocal and dramatic qualities. And considering the fact that she has 70 different roles in her repertoire, it becomes even more distressing…The embellishments in the high notes have a unique and striking quality. Her pianissimos mesmerise the audience.  Her agilities and the softness of the voice are breathtaking. With her performance of the aria in the last act, she realizes one of the most important moments of the opera history. Her stage presence gains an endless power and she perfectly revives the virgin queen.  

LE MONDE                                          
1971.12.23
ERIC DECHAMPS

A few days after his article was published in Le Combat, Eric Dechamps wrote another article for Le Monde where he stated similar comments and gave the title of “Is the Massimo Theater of Palermo a rival to La Scala Milano?”. And at the end of the article he advised the opera enthusiasts to go visit Sicily to witness “The Miracle of Palermo”. 

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1972 January 02 - 08

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1972 April

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1972.04.23

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1972 September

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1972.09.24

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1972.11.26

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1976

BELCANTO OPERAS BY CHARLES OSBORNE
1994


Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra (Elizabeth, Queen of England)
dramma in two acts

Principal characters:

Elisabetta, Queen of England (soprano)

Leicester, Commander of the Army (tenor)
Matilde, Leicester's wife (soprano)
Enrico, Matilde's brother (mezzo-soprano)
Norfolk, a Lord of the Realm (tenor)
Guglielmo, Captain of the Guards (tenor)

LIBRETTO by Giovanni Federico Schmidt

TIME: The late-sixteenth century PLACE: London
FIRST PERFORMED at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, 4 October 1815, with Isabella Colbran (Elisabetta); Girolama Dardanelli (Matilde); Maria Manzi (Enrico); Andrea Nozzari (Leicester); Manuel Garcia (Norfolk); Gaetano Chizzola (Guglielmo)
 

At the age of twenty-three Rossini was an extremely successful young composer who was perhaps beginning to mark time. Sigis-mondo had certainly not been considered by anyone to be an advance on his earlier operas. He was now, however, about to embark upon a highly fertile creative period, not in Venice, the scene of his previous triumphs, but in the south, in the city of Naples. Summoned there in the spring of 1815 by the colourful and influential impresario, Domenico Barbaja, he signed a contract under the terms of which he became musical director of two of Barbaja's theatres in Naples, the San Carlo and the Fondo, and agreed to compose two operas each year for Naples. He would be allowed, occasionally, to compose operas for other cities. In fact, during the first two years of his association with Naples, Rossini composed five operas for other cities, four of them for Rome. Naples, however, was to be his base for the next eight years, during which period he composed some of his greatest opere serie, moving away from the farces and comic operas of his youth.
After his initial meeting with Barbaja in the spring, Rossini returned to Bologna where he began work on his first opera for Naples, Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra. He was back in Naples in September to complete the opera after making the acquaintance of the singers engaged by Barbaja, among them the famous Spanish dramatic soprano Isabella Colbran, who was reputed to be Barbaja's mistress. It was for Colbran that Rossini composed the opera's title-role of Elizabeth 1, Queen of England.
In 1815, only months after the battle of Waterloo, subjects drawn from English history were popular. The libretto of this pseudo- historical drama by Giovanni Federico Schmidt, a forty-year-old Tuscan who had already written a number of libretti for Neapolitan theatres, was based on a play by Carlo Federici which had been staged in Naples the previous year at the Teatro del Fondo. Federici's play was in turn derived from The Recess, or A Tale of Other Times by an English eighteenth-century novelist, Sophia Lee.
Queen Elizabeth learns from the Duke of Norfolk that Leicester, whom she loves, is secretly married to Matilde (not to Amy Robsart, as in real life). Elizabeth has Leicester imprisoned; but, when Norfolk's intrigues against her are revealed, she pardons Leicester. (Schmidt's libretto is said by some commentators, among them Herbert Weinstock in his biography of Rossini, to be based on Sir Walter Scott's Kenilworth, to whose plot it does indeed bear some similarity. But Scott's novel was not published until six years after the première of Rossini's opera.)
At its première on 4 October 1815, Elisabetta was received with immense enthusiasm. It was staged in other Italian towns and abroad, though not always with the success which had attended its Naples première. It was, for instance, a failure in Vienna in 1818. Its first London production was at the King's Theatre on 30 April 1818, but it seems never to have been staged in the United States. After March 1841, when Elisabetta was performed in Würzburg, its next appearance on the stage was at the Camden Festival in London in 1968, although Italian Radio had broadcast it in 1953 as a special coronation tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, with Lina Pagliughi as Elisabetta. Since then, the opera has been revived in Palermo in 1971 with Leyla Gencer superb as Elisabetta, at Aix-en-Provence in 1975 with Montserrat Caballé, in Turin in 1985 with Lella Cuberli, and in Naples in 1991 with Anna Caterina Antonacci.
With its orchestration strengthened to suit the immense size of the Teatro San Carlo, the overture Rossini had composed for Aureliano in Palmira in Milan two years previously was pressed into service again. The following year it was to be used once again for Il Barbiere di Siviglia, in which guise it remains a popular favourite today. That Rossini was perfectly happy to use the same overture for a drama as for a comedy may perhaps be thought cynical of him. He certainly was not someone to let a good piece of music go to waste, but he did not force unsuitable music upon dramatic situations. Music, after all, is remarkably ambiguous in its conveying of emotion. It can distinguish languid from martial, of course, but often has more difficulty with anger and merriment. A change of text can turn a vocal expression of fury into one of joy.
Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra is unusual in that it contains no roles for the lower male voices: all three male roles are written for tenors, the Naples company being at the time well supplied with splendid tenors. Nor does the opera contain any unaccompanied recitative. Rossini's highly dramatic and expressive recitative is at all times accompanied by the orchestra, with the result that Elisabetta appears more cohesive than his earlier opere serie.
Rossini's score is full of tuneful and dramatic music. Elisabetta's attractive opening cavatina ("Quant'è grato all' alma mia") is followed by a cabaletta ("Questo cor ben lo comprende') which, with a little alteration, was to turn up again the following year as the concluding section ("Io sono docile') of Rosina's aria, 'Una voce poco fa', in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. (Part of it had already been heard, the previous year, in Arsace's rondo, 'Più non vedrà quel perfido', in Aureliano in Palmira.) Some of the choruses, especially in Act I, are exhilarating, and the duet, 'Incauta, che festi!', for Leicester and Matilde engagingly combines a forceful dramatic attack with a springing lightness which anticipates Verdi. Matilde's aria, 'Sento un'interna voce', begins in a lyrical mood of almost Bellini-like languor. Its cabaletta, however, is irrepressibly Rossinian.
The eloquence of the accompanied recitative for Elisabetta and Norfolk, and the energy and dramatic force of their duet, 'Perchè mai, destin crudele', anticipate early Verdi, while the Act I finale, with its superb quartet, 'Se mi serbasti il soglio', and its florid, wide- ranging vocal line for Elisabetta, designed to show off Isabella Colbran's coloratura technique, is not only one of Rossini's most tautly constructed ensembles but also one of his most intensely dramatic. For its conclusion it borrows the overture's exciting crescendo. The highlights of Act II include an affecting duet, 'Pensa che sol per poco', for the Queen and Matilde, in whose andante section ('Non bastan quelle lagrime') more than one writer on Rossini has heard the germination of Bellini's 'Mira, o Norma', and an equally fine trio ('L'avverso mio destino') which follows with the appearance of Leicester. An effective chorus, 'Qui soffermiamo il piè", in which soldiers and citizens join to mourn Leicester's fate, is followed by Norfolk's comparatively dull recitative and aria ('Deh! Troncate i ceppe suoi"), and by the more interesting dungeon scene, its orchestral prelude borrowed from Ciro in Babilonia. In this scene, Leicester's recitative and aria ('Sposa amata") are original and arresting, dramatic plausibility taking precedence over the formal requirements of the aria, in which flute and cor anglais play a prominent part. The duet ('Deh! scusa i trasporti') for the two tenors, Norfolk and Leicester, is lively, and the Act II finale with Elisabetta's beautiful aria ('Bell'alme generose') and highly decorated cabaletta ("Fuggi amor da questo seno') brings the opera to an exciting conclusion.
Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, the first of Rossini's operas to dispense entirely with that unaccompanied recitative which tended to reduce dramatic tension, was also the first in which he wrote out in full all the embellishments he expected from his singers, although he had been moving towards this for some time. A key work in its composer's development, Elisabetta introduced a heightened dramatic vigour while retaining the mellifluous tunefulness of his earlier operas.

COMPLETE RECORDING                        

1971.01.09

Recording Excerpt [1971.01.09] 
Se mi serbasti il soglio Act I   
Fellon la pena avrai Act II                                                                                     
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