Il segreto per esser felice

LUCREZIA BORGIA
Opera in un prologuo e 2 atti
Composer: Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848)
Libretto: Felice Romani
Based on Victor Hugo’s play ‘Lucrèce Borgia’ (1833)
First performance: La Scala, Milan, 26 December 1833

SETTING: Venice and Ferrara, early 16th century

PLOT: The opera presents Lucrezia Borgia (1480–1519), the cold-blooded incestuous poisoner of legend, as an unfortunate mother. Years before the action of the story, she gave birth to a son, the young soldier Gennaro. In the Prologue (set in Venice), she watches over him as he sleeps and wakes him with a kiss. Although he does not know who she is, he opens his heart to her – and is appalled when his friends reveal that she is the infamous Borgia. The rest of the opera takes place in Ferrara. Gennaro strikes the first letter from the inscription outside the ducal palace; it now reads ‘Orgia’. Lucrezia’s husband Don Alfonso thinks that Gennaro is a rival, and tries to poison him; Lucrezia saves his life with an antidote. Lucrezia invites the noblemen who insulted her in Venice to a party; the wine they drink is poisoned. However, Gennaro is one of the guests, and dies, poisoned, in his mother’s arms.

The opera was coldly received when it was first performed and regarded as second-rate Donizetti. In France, Victor Hugo retracted his literary rights; the opera was performed instead as ‘Nizza de Grenade’ or ‘La Rinegata’. From 1965, when Montserrat Caballé performed the role at her American debut in New York, it became one of Donizetti’s most popular operas. The opera is moves swiftly to its dramatic end.

No. 8 – Pezzo concertato: ‘Viva il Madera! – Il segreto per esser felici’
Ballata (Brindisi): ‘Il segreto’

At a party given in the Negroni Palace, Maffio Orsini sings a brindisi which bids them live only for the moment. Outside mournful chanting is heard, and the partygoers find the doors locked…

Maffio Orsini, nobile romano / Roman nobleman (contralto en travesti): Shirley Verrett
Jeppo Liverotto, giovine signore / young nobleman (tenor): Franco Ricciardi
Don Apostolo Gazella, signore napoletano / Napolitan nobleman (bass): Franco Romano
Ascanio Petrucci, nobile senese / Sienese nobleman (bass): Ferruccio Mazzoli
Oloferno Vitellozzo, altro nobile / another nobleman (tenor): Fernando Iacopucci
Gubetta, spagnulo, confidente di Lucrezia / Spaniard, Lucrezia’s henchman (bass): Vito Maria Brunetti

Conductor: Jonel Perlea
RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra and Chorus
1966