100 Great Operas and Their Stories: Act-By-Act Synopses (25 page)

With all the others gone Alfred returns for his rendezvous. He is just a bit tipsy, but highly melodious. They are interrupted by Frank, the new governor of the prison, who has become impatient for his new prisoner and so is calling for him personally. Frank is a gay fellow. In fact, he, too, is planning to attend that party. But for appearance’s sake Rosalinda fobs Alfred off on him as her husband, and so it is Alfred who must go to jail. The tenor’s only recompense is a warm farewell kiss—but what can he do? And so the act ends with another gay trio.

ACT II

Act II takes us to that party we heard so much about during Act I. It is given by a gay, dissolute, and extremely wealthy young Russian named Prince Orlofsky. The part is written for a mezzo-soprano but is sometimes sung by a tenor. (Incidentally, this character, it is speculated, was based on either one of two young Russian roués who operated in Napoleon Ill’s Paris—either Prince Paul Demidov or Prince Narashkine.) The party is a very gay one, indeed. Dr. Falke has arranged a good deal of it, and he introduces the maid Adele as an actress and Eisenstein as the Marquis Renard. Presently the Prince sings his famous number,
Chacun à son goût
—that is, everyone must have a good time according to his own taste. The gaudily refurbished Adele and Eisenstein run into each other, but the maid laughs off her master’s recognition with a highly fetching song. She says her speech and costume show her to be anything
but
a maid. Frank, the prison governor, is also introduced as a nobleman (the Chevalier Chagrin), and finally Rosalinda herself comes on, wearing a mask and disguised as a Hungarian countess. She offers convincing proof of her nationality by singing an extremely Hungarian czardas.

She is there, of course, by arrangement with Falke, and she proceeds to flirt so successfully with her own husband that she manages to take his watch from him as a souvenir. In the general merriment that follows, everyone becomes great friends—especially Eisenstein and Frank, who (though they don’t know it) will soon meet at the prison in their real-life roles. Eisenstein leads the whole crowd in a song praising the champagne that flows so freely. (At this point a ballet is frequently introduced.) The Prince then demands that everyone dance, and to the tune of the familiar waltz the party goes on till six in the morning. It is only then that Eisenstein and Frank—prisoner and jailer—remember they have business to attend to. With great merriment the party breaks up.

ACT III

The final act takes place in the front office of the jail, but it is a very cheerful type of jail, as the brisk little orchestral prelude suggests. Temporarily it is presided over by Frank’s assistant, Frosch, the jailer. Apparently he has been drinking slivovitz all night, and he is in high and frothy spirits as he jabbers about it. Off-stage, from Cell No. 12, comes the tenor voice of Alfred, who has been, perforce, spending the night there under the name of Eisenstein. Pretty soon the governor of the prison comes in, still in evening clothes, still a bit high. Frosch reports that the prisoner in No. 12 has called for a lawyer, and so Dr. Blind has been sent for. But the first visitors to show up are Adele and her sister Ida, both fresh from the party. Adele admits she is only a chambermaid, but in a fine and witty aria she shows off her talents as an actress—ingenue,
grande dame
, leading lady, anything. Next, enter Eisenstein, who is delighted to learn that his new friend the Chevalier Chagrin is only the new prison governor. However, he can
not
believe that Eisenstein is already in jail!

But when both Dr. Blind and Rosalinda have arrived, things become really complicated. Eisenstein manages to disguise himself in the lawyer’s professional garb and proceeds to examine both Rosalinda and Alfred. He gets the story of their rendezvous out of them, doffs his disguise, and accuses them in great anger. Rosalinda, however, has his watch to prove that extracurricular flirting is really a pastime shared by both. Furthermore, it is explained to Eisenstein that this flirtation was only a part of the great hoax engineered by Falke in revenge for the practical joke of the Bat. At the end everyone from the party arrives, including Prince Orlofsky.
Chacun à son goût
, he cries once more—and he agrees to take Adele under his wing to see that she becomes a real actress.

How should such an operetta end? Why, with a joyful chorus, of course—in praise of champagne. And so it does.

THE FLYING DUTCHMAN

(Der Fliegende Holländer)

Opera in three acts by Richard Wagner with libretto
in German by the composer, based on an
old legend as set forth in Heinrich Heine’s
Memoirs of Herr von Schnabelewopski

Time: 18th century

Place: a Norwegian fishing village

First performance at Dresden, January 2, 1843

    There were many variants of the legend of the Flying Dutchman before Wagner crystallized it in his opera. Sir Walter Scott, in his role of antiquarian researcher, claimed that it was based on fact: a murder was committed aboard a vessel with a cargo of gold; the plague broke out; and all ports were closed to the ship. From this—and from the sailors’ superstition that the ship is still sighted at times near the Cape of Good Hope, always bringing bad luck with it—there naturally developed further embellishments: that the captain must perpetually play at dice against the devil with the captain’s soul as the stakes; that once in seven years the captain may land and remain ashore so long as he can find a woman who will be faithful to him; and a number of others. Captain Marryat made a once-popular novel of it,
The Phantom Ship
, and
Heine retold the tale in his
Memoirs of Herr von Schnabelewopski
, characteristically putting a two-edged satirical point to it: men—don’t put your trust in women; women—don’t marry a rolling stone.

Wagner, equally characteristically, found more cosmic matter in the tale. He equated the Flying Dutchman with both Odysseus and the Wandering Jew; he equated the devil with flood and storm; and he equated (most characteristically of all) the release of finding a faithful woman with the release of death. Fortified with Wagner’s musical genius, his version has eclipsed all others.

The determination to use the theme for an opera came to him, apparently, during a particularly stormy sea voyage between East Prussia and England. What was normally a week-long trip took over three weeks, and the sailors superstitiously thought that the presence of Wagner and his wife was responsible for the bad weather. At one point they put in for safety at the Norwegian fishing village of Sandwike. This became the scene of the opera, and the sailors’ call in the opera is supposed to have been suggested to him there, with its echoing from cliff to cliff by the fjord.

Some weeks later in Paris, desperate for money, he sold a scenario for the work to the director of the Paris Opera. They would never put on the music of an unknown German composer, explained
Monsieur le directeur
, so there was no use in composing it. So Wagner accepted five hundred francs for the scenario and went home to compose the opera anyway. The Frenchman turned over the story to the composer-conductor Pierre Dietsch, whose
Le vaisseau-fantôme
beat Wagner’s opera to production by three months. It was a failure. But so was the first Paris production of
Tannhäuser
, when Dietsch conducted for Wagner nineteen years later. Wagner’s
Dutchman
was not very successful either when it opened at Dresden. After four performances it was shelved, in that city, for twenty years. Today, however, it is standard fare all over Germany and many other places as well.

ACT I

The first act opens with a chorus of Norwegian sailors who have been driven into the harbor of a fjord by a terrible storm. Their captain, Daland, explains this in a monologue and concludes by telling the steersman to keep watch while the rest of the crew gets a well-earned rest. The youthful steersman tries to keep himself awake by singing a sailor’s love song, but sleep soon overtakes him, and a strange ship anchors alongside the Norwegian. A stern gentleman, dressed in black, appears on land from this ship. This is the Dutchman, and he sings at some length about his fate. Every seven years he is allowed to land in search of a woman who will be faithful to him unto death. Only such a woman can release him from his curse. Failing to find her, he must spend the rest of eternity on his ship, shunned by everyone, even pirates. When Daland meets this noble-looking stranger, he asks who he is, and learns that the Dutchman is seeking a safe place for himself, and is willing to offer a good share of his treasure for it. The Dutchman also asks whether Daland has a daughter, and when the answer is yes, he forthwith proposes to marry her, offering Daland untold wealth in exchange. He shows Daland a chest full of riches, and the greedy Norwegian accepts at once. He invites the Dutchman to follow him to his home, which is not far distant, and the act ends as the sailors sing again, preparing to take their ship into their own harbor.

ACT II

The second act opens with the familiar
Spinning Chorus
, which is sung by a group of Norwegian girls including Senta and her nurse, Mary, as they sit spinning, and expecting the return of their fathers, brothers, and sweethearts on Daland’s ship. The act takes place in Daland’s home, and the scene is dominated by a large portrait of the Flying Dutchman, who, up to this point, is only a legend. But the legend has completely captured the imagination of Senta, Daland’s daughter, and after the
Spinning Chorus
she sings a ballad that
relates the Dutchman’s story. She vows that she herself shall be the woman faithful unto death.

A young hunter, Eric, now arrives with the news that Daland’s ship is in the harbor. Everyone goes out to greet it, excepting Eric, who detains Senta a while. He is in love with her and expects to marry her, but he is deeply disturbed over her queer fascination for the legend of the Flying Dutchman. Desperately he tries to persuade her to come to her senses and promise to marry him, but she gives only vague, equivocal answers. Their conversation is ended by the arrival of the father, who brings along the Dutchman himself. He looks so much like the picture that there can be no doubt who he is. And when the father tells of his plans to marry Senta to his guest, she agrees at once, as in a trance.

There is then a long, strange love duet between the two who have just met, and the act ends as Daland gives them his blessing.

ACT III

The last act takes us again to the fjord. Both ships—the Dutchman’s and the Norwegian’s—are in the harbor, and the Norwegian sailors and their girls are trying to get the crew of the mysterious Dutch ship to join them in some fun. For a long time their jolly invitations go unheeded, but then the crew of the Dutch ship answers—briefly, mysteriously, derisively. The Norwegians are mystified, sing their chorus once more, and then depart.

Once more Eric pleads with Senta to give up her infatuation with the Flying Dutchman and to return to her old love. The Dutchman, overhearing this very eloquent love-making, decides that Senta, like all other women, is unfaithful to him. Despite her pleas, he orders his men to get ready to sail once more, and he boards the ship. In desperation Senta climbs high up on a hill. “I shall be faithful unto death,” she cries, and she flings herself into the fjord. The Dutchman’s ship sinks, and the horrified Norwegians on land see Senta and the Dutchman united at last—under the waters. He has found his typically Wagnerian redemption.

LA FORZA DEL DESTINO

(The Force of Destiny)

Opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi with libretto
in Italian by Francesco Piave, based on a play by Angel Pérez de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas

Time: 18th century

Places: Spain and Italy

First performance at St. Petersburg, November 10, 1862

    Verdi’s
La forza del destino
, or
The Force of Destiny
, shows us the composer in his fine maturity, that is, at a time when he had already composed the great successes
Rigoletto, Il trovatore
, and
La traviata
. He was a famous man, a senator in his native Italy, and known throughout Europe.
La forza
was, in fact, composed for Russia, and it had its world premiere in 1862 at St. Petersburg. It was based on a drama by a romantic Spanish nobleman, the Duke of Rivas, and from its very beginning one senses the romantic and dramatic quality of that play.