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Il diluvio universale
Donizetti
ORC 31
in association with
Box cover: The Eve of the Deluge (1865) by William Bell Scott,
© Tate, London 2005
Booklet cover: Luigi Lablache, Donizetti’s first Noè
CD faces: Luigi Lablache
Opposite: Gaetano Donizetti
–1–
Gaetano Donizetti
IL DILUVIO UNIVERSALE
Azione tragico-sacra in three acts
Libretto by Domenico Gilardoni
Noè.......................................................................................................Mirco Palazzi
Jafet.......................................................................................................Simon Bailey
Sem.........................................................................................................Mark Wilde
Cam...................................................................................................Dean Robinson
Tesbite, Jafet’s wife....................................................................................Irina Lungu
Asfene, Sem’s wife............................................................................Ivana Dimitrijevic
Abra, Cam’s wife.........................................................................Anne Marie Gibbons
Cadmo, Chief of the Satraps of Sennáár, husband of Sela.................................Colin Lee
Sela....................................................................................................Majella Cullagh
Ada, Sela’s confidante...........................................................................Manuela Custer
Artoo, Chief of the Brahmins of Atlantide................................................Roland Wood
Geoffrey Mitchell Choir
Chorus of Satraps of Sennáár; their wives; Priests of Europa;
African Copts; Brahmins of Atlantide; followers of Cadmo;
Citizens of Sennáár
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Pieter Schoeman, leader
Giuliano Carella, conductor
–2–
Producer and Artistic Director: Patric Schmid
Managing Director: Stephen Revell
Assistant Producer: Jacqui Compton
Assistant Conductor: Robin Newton
Répétiteur: Stuart Wild
Italian coach: Maria Cleva
Assistant to the Artistic Director: Nigel Lax
Article, synopsis and libretto translation: Jeremy Commons
Recording Engineer: Chris Braclik
Assistant Engineers: Chris Bowman and Tom Bennellick
Editing: Jacqui Compton and Chris Braclik
Recorded at: Conway Hall (South Place Ethical Society), London
October/November 2005
This recording is dedicated to the memory of
Patric Schmid
12.04.44 – 06.11.05
–3–
CONTENTS
Il diluvio universale by Jeremy Commons...........................................Page 10
The Story...........................................................................................Page 45
Résumé de l’intrigue..........................................................................Page 48
Die Handlung...................................................................................Page 51
La Trama...........................................................................................Page 56
Libretto.............................................................................................Page 63
–4–
Patric Schmid, Producer
CD 1
Dur
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
ACT I
Sinfonia
7’48
Introduzione e Preghiera– Noè, Tesbite, Asfene,
Abra, Sem, Jafet, Cam, Coro
‘Oh Dio di pietà’
5’40
Scena e Cavatina – Jafet, Tesbite, Noè, Sela, Coro
‘Di Cadmo la consorte’ – Jafet
3’06
‘Mentre il core abbandaonava’ – Sela
4’08
‘Perchè nell’alma’ – Sela
3’08
Scene e Cavatina – Noè Sela, Tesbite, Asfene,
Abra, Sem, Jafet, Cam, Coro
‘Corriam l’arca a incenerir!’
2’00
‘In quell’arca rispettate’
0’49
‘Si. Quell’arca nell’ira de’ venti’
3’10
Dopo l’Introduzione – Artoo, Sela, Noè, Ada,
Cadmo, Coro
‘Di Cadmo il cenno ognun’
2’41
‘Qui vederlo poss’io!...’
1’59
‘Sela!... Ah tu non la vedesti’
1’29
‘(Oh gioia!) Un tanto eccesso’
0’48
‘Ada, e non altri qui ritrovo?’
2’27
Duetto – Ada, Cadmo
‘Ah perfida! a me spergiura...’
4’26
‘Con mio dolor rammento’
3’12
–6–
71’21
Page
63
63
65
67
69
70
72
74
74
77
78
80
80
82
85
Dur
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
[22]
Finale Atto Primo – Sela, Ada, Cadmo,
Noè, Jafet
‘Franco inoltrate il pie’
‘Taccion finanche l’aure!...’
‘Quel che del ciel su i cardini’
‘Padre... Ah sappi... Li vidi in aguato...’
‘Cadmo!... O cielo!...’
‘Signor, dell’empio i figli’
‘Ah! ti calma!
4’16
3’10
6’50
1’09
3’55
2’44
2’26
CD 2
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
Page
88
89
92
97
99
101
105
57’21
ACT II
Recitativo ed Aria – Ada
‘Non mi tradir, speranza!’
‘Ah non tacermi in core’
‘Sarà lieve il mio tormento’
Dopo l’Aria Ada – Cadmo, Ada
‘Ada, t’arresta’
Duetto – Cadmo, Sela
‘Non profferir parola’
‘Ebben se chiudo’
‘E tanta crudeltade’
–7–
2’31
2’28
3’46
109
109
110
2’53
110
4’03
3’13
4’44
112
114
117
Dur
Preghiera – Sela, Tesbite, Asfene, Abra, Sem,
Cadmo, Jafet, Cam, Noè, Artoo, Coro
[8] ‘Gli empi ’l circondano’
[9] ‘Ah!... Padre?..’
Aria, Finale Atto Secondo – Noè, Sela, Tesbite,
Asfene, Abra, Sem, Jafet, Cam, Artoo, Coro
[10] ‘Dio tremendo, onnipossente’
[11] ‘Ah! L’abisso freme, e tuona!...’
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
ACT III
Coro e Ballabile
‘Stirpe angelica, ti bea’
Recitativo ed Aria / Finale Atto Terzo –
Sela, Ada, Cadmo, Artoo, Coro
‘Sì. Popoli, gioite’
‘Senza colpa mi scacciasti’
‘Non dar fede a quegli accenti’
‘Perchè ignoto brivido’
‘Man... ca... il... respir...!!!’
4’20
5’45
119
119
3’37
5’58
127
127
3’24
131
1’07
3’44
0’57
2’43
2’08
131
133
135
136
137
The orchestral and vocal material for this recording
was made for Opera Rara
by Christopher Moss
–8–
Page
Inlaid wood depiction of Noah’s Ark by Lorenzo Lotto. From the
S. Maria Maggiore, Bergamo. Reproduced by kind permission of the
Congregazione della Misericordia Maggiore di Bergamo.
IL DILUVIO UNIVERSALE
And the LORD said, I will destroy man
whom I have created from the face of the earth;
both man, and beast, and the creeping thing,
and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that
I have made them.
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the
LORD.
– Genesis: 6: 7-8.
IN 1805, when Gaetano Donizetti was a boy growing up in Bergamo, an
event occurred that was to shape his entire future. Giovanni Simone Mayr,
the Bavarian composer who had become maestro di cappella of the great
Romanesque basilica of S. Maria Maggiore, launched a scheme which he
called ‘Lezioni caritatevoli di musica’ or ‘Charitable music lessons’. Designed
to provide a thorough musical training for young boys, the sons of indigent
families, it was intended as a way of ensuring a supply of choirboys for
S. Maria Maggiore. Andrea Donizetti, the janitor of the town’s pawn shop,
presented two of his sons as possible candidates: Giuseppe, who at age 17 was
rejected because he was already too old (but who pursued a musical career to
become bandmaster to the Sultan of Turkey), and nine-year-old Gaetano.
Gaetano was accepted, and in course of time became Mayr’s most
accomplished and famous pupil.
–10–
The reason we begin this article in this way, by referring back to the very
beginnings of Donizetti’s career, is that there is, at the entrance to the choir
in S. Maria Maggiore, a railing with a series of four biblical scenes entirely
executed in inlaid woods. And one of them, the work of Lorenzo Lotto, is a
most dramatic depiction of the Flood. Although it is generally kept covered,
young Gaetano would have seen it on many occasions. It would thus have
been an image impressed upon his imagination during the most
impressionable years of his life. So when he came to compose his only ‘azione
tragico-sacra’, Il diluvio universale, for the Lenten season in Naples in 1830,
it is not difficult to imagine that his boyhood memories of the scene would
have been constantly and vividly before his mind’s eye.
Significantly it was Donizetti, rather than his librettist Domenico
Gilardoni, who chose the subject of this opera, who did all the preliminary
reading, and who sketched out the action of the work. As he wrote to his
father on 10 January 1830:
Tell [Mayr] that if he has not found anything on the Flood, I have
discovered enough, and that this time I wish to present myself as the
inventor of both the action and the music.
–11–
I have read the writings of Sassy and Calmet1, The Loves of the
Angels of Lord Bayron [sic]2, the tragedy The Flood by Father
Ringhieri, and, if I could find it, I would also read the poem on the
same subject by Bernardino Baldi.
From these authors, and by stealing and cobbling together from a
number of tragedies, I have produced a plan which does not displease
my poet… I have [already] composed the first act. It will be in three,
because in Lent there is no ballet.
The result is a work which, more opera than oratorio, tells the biblical story
of Noah, and ends spectacularly as the world is submerged and only the Ark
is left riding out the waves. But its content does not stop there: it is given
further human and dramatic interest since it also presents the story – and the
tragedy – of Sela, the favourite wife of Cadmo, satrap of the Babylonian city
of Senáár. Sela is a follower of Noah and a believer in his God, but finds
herself torn between her faith and her love for her husband. Cadmo, already
Noah’s principal persecutor, has his mind poisoned against Sela as well – by
Ada, another of his wives or concubines, who pretends to be Sela’s friend
___________________________________
1
Luigi Isacco Sacy and Agostino Calmet, two learned religious writers of the late 17th and early
18th centuries.
2
Donizetti was by no means an exact scholar. The work by Byron to which he meant to refer,
was Heaven and Earth. The Loves of the Angels is a poem by Thomas Moore. It is clear that he
was also familiar with Byron’s Cain, since he derives the names Sela and Ada (Zillah and Adah)
from there.
–12–
while really doing everything she can to undermine and supersede her. The
opera deals, therefore, not only with a celebrated and awesome biblical story,
but with a web of powerful human passions as well.
From two further letters written by Donizetti, one addressed to his father
and the other to Mayr, both written a month later on 13 February, we know
that rehearsals began that same day. To his father he reported:
Today I began the rehearsals of the oratorio the Flood, and I put my
trust in God that it may go well; at the worst I shall have to read in
the papers of another fiasco. Here as elsewhere the weather is awful,
but one scarcely feels the cold, it’s more a question of damp… They
tell me that from the moment I began writing the Flood I drew down
upon Naples a veritable scourge. But enough: I am well protected, I
have my overcoat, wool, woollen socks and a change of underwear, so
let it turn as cold as it likes.
And to Mayr:
I have begun the rehearsals of the Flood; all are content, all in good
humour… A good omen.
He had no reason to complain of his cast. In the role of Noè (Noah) he had
the greatest bass of the age, Luigi Lablache, already a legend in his own day.
Lablache had already created five Donizetti operas, all of them in Naples –
–13–
LUIGI LABLACHE
Creator of the
role of Noè.
Teatro San Carlo,
Naples
6 March 1830
Elvida (1826), L’esule di Roma (1828), Il paria (1829), Il giovedì grasso (1829)
and I pazzi per progetto (1830) – and following Il diluvio universale he was to
take part in one further Neapolitan premiere: Sancia di Castiglia (1832). But
his greatest collaborations with Donizetti still lay well in the future and were
to take place outside Italy, in Paris: Marino Faliero (1835) and Don Pasquale
(1843). A man of enormous stature, Lablache had all the physical and vocal
authority appropriate to the part he was to play: he was the ideal choice of
singer to interpret Noè.
Sela, the leading lady, was to be Luigia Boccabadati, a soprano who had
made her name in opera buffa but who was by now equally at home in opera
seria. For Donizetti she had already sung the name-part in the revised version
of Zoraida di Granata in Rome in 1824, and in Naples had created roles in
Il castello di Kenilworth (1829) and I pazzi per progetto (1830). Her éclat had
in fact divided Naples into two camps: those who favoured her and those
who preferred the more established Adelaide Tosi. Only eight months earlier,
when they had appeared together in the premiere of Il castello di Kenilworth,
their rivalry had proved good for the reputations of both, as well as for the
success of the opera. It should be added, however, that one of the criticisms
of the latest works that were appearing on the Italian stages was that
composers appeared to be abandoning elaborately constructed ensembles and
finales, and depending instead upon their ability to win the favour of the
public with catchy and popular cabalettas. And it would seem significant that
Boccabadati, whom I have elsewhere described as ‘a spry little woman with a
great sense of humour’, was described in one of the reviews of this opera
–15–
(Il Censore Universale dei Teatri, Milan, 17 March 1830) as ‘the true singer of
the cabaletta’. Fétis quotes a most interesting assessment by a minor French
composer, Despréaux, who heard her in Naples at exactly this time:
Boccabadati causes a furore. She is a dry, dark little woman who,
without being old, is no longer in her spring. She executes difficulties
well, but she lacks elegance and grace, and does not charm. Her voice,
which is extended in range, is a little shrill at the top, but for the rest
is very true.
Coming from a schooling in opera buffa, one can imagine that an ‘azione
tragico-sacra’ on a subject as serious and as grandiose as the Flood must have
presented her with something of a challenge – must have demanded a major
step forward in her own development – and it is noteworthy that the music
Donizetti wrote for her, with the one exception of the cabaletta of her
opening cavatina, is markedly less florid than that composed for her in
Il castello di Kenilworth or in the later operas she was to create for him:
Francesca di Foix and La romanzesca e l’uomo nero (both 1831). Here she is
everywhere being asked to summon up all her powers – possibly discover new
powers – of expression in the interests of heightened intensified drama.
Cadmo was to be sung by another experienced performer, Berardo Winter.
A regular tenor at the Teatro S. Carlo from 1826, he, like Lablache, already
had several Donizetti premieres to his credit: Alahor in Granata (Palermo,
1826), Il borgomastro di Saardam (Naples, 1827), L’esule di Roma (1828), and
–16–
Il castello di Kenilworth (1829). In all, he was to create six Donizetti operas,
for after Il diluvio universale he was also to feature in the first cast of Imelda
de’ Lambertazzi (1830). As in the case of Luigia Boccabadati there is,
however, a note of qualification to be added. When Winter first appeared at
the Teatro S. Carlo, a correspondent of the English journal The Harmonicon
described him as ‘our excellent tenor’3, and later, when he participated in the
premiere of L’esule di Roma, the Bolognese journal Teatri Arti e Letteratura
reported that ‘Signor Winter, who deserves infinite praise for his
performance of the exiled Settimio, evokes compassion with his cavatina
when he returns to Rome, and moves to tears in his duet when he meets the
woman he loves.’ By the time of Il castello di Kenilworth, however, a
noticeable change was coming over his voice. It is significant that in that
opera he sang the second tenor role – not the higher and more decorated part
of Leicester but the lower line of Warney. The music that Donizetti wrote for
him in Il diluvio universale confirms that, probably a baritonal tenor from the
start, he was losing his ability to sustain a high legato line, and was having to
depend increasingly upon robustness of tone and delivery. At least one notice
that attended the later years of his career gives a picture that is not easy to
understand, for it is a disconcerting mixture of the positive and the negative,
of the favourable and the adverse. The Milanese journal L’Eco remarked,
when reviewing his performance of an opera by Bellini in 1831:
The body of voice of the tenor Signor Winter is mediocre: the
strange and very varied modulations of Bellini embarrass him: to
___________________________________
3
In a review, published in January 1827, of the Neapolitan production of Alahor in Granata.
–17–
sustain this part is an effort for him, and yet he has good success in it:
he is boorish in declamation, yet skilled in singing: when he declaims
he bungles the verses and is ungrammatical: but drawing broad
outlines he modulates his voice marvellously, and explains the musical
idea excellently.
Compared with other tenor roles composed by Donizetti, the part of
Cadmo is forthright in its expression, while floridity and flights of sustained
lyricism are conspicuously absent.
Of the four major members of the cast, only the Ada was a lesser-known
name: the mezzo-soprano Maria Carraro. But she, too, had been on the
Neapolitan stage for several seasons, and had created the supporting roles of
the duchess Adelina in Gianni da Calais (1828) and Camilla (Madame
Piquet) in Il giovedì grasso (1829), before assuming the more prominent part
of Cristina in I pazzi per progetto (1830).
It was intended that the opera should receive its premiere on 28 February,
and this is the date that, until recent years, was given by nearly all writers.
But, as John Black pointed out in his 1982 volume Donizetti’s Operas in
Naples 1822-1848, on 23 February Domenico Barbaja, the impresario of the
Royal Theatres of Naples, wrote to the Superintendent of Theatres and
Spectacles, explaining that Lablache was ill, and that the first performance
would have to be postponed. It eventually took place on 6 March 1830, and
proved a fraught occasion.
–18–
LUIGIA
BOCCABADATI
Donizetti’s first
Sela
Conflicting accounts survive of the work’s premiere. Donizetti’s brother-inlaw, Antonio Vasselli, writing on 1 April 1830, sufficiently long after the
event for him to be able to gloss over the first-night reception and remember
the ensuing success instead, wrote to Mayr:
After a long silence it is absolutely necessary for me to tell you that
our Gaetano’s sacred opera Il Diluvio had an outcome fortunate
beyond all telling. I don’t wish to spin praises, because I would be
incapable of doing so sufficiently. Let it suffice that the bitterest of all
his enemies, the journalist [Luigi] Prividali, praises it; and for that
reason I send you that journal.
One of Donizetti’s very close friends, Teodoro Ghezzi, on the other hand,
many years later still vividly remembered what had actually occurred on the
first night. In his ‘Ricordi su Donizetti’, published in the Neapolitan
newspaper L’Omnibus in 1860, he recalled that in the stretta of the first finale
Luigia Boccabadati made her entry at least 20 bars too early, with the result
that, despite all possible efforts on the part of the first-violin-cum-musicaldirector Giuseppe Festa and of Lablache, the act ended in disarray and amid
hisses. The scene of the deluge in the last act was also a disaster: so ineptly
handled by the machinists that it, too, was hissed. Donizetti’s consternation
was extreme – so extreme that he suffered a relapse of an illness from which
he had only recently recovered. Assailed by convulsions, he had to be carried
home to bed, where he remained for eight feverish days.
–20–
At least one press report – in the Milanese L’Eco, 17 March 1830 –
suggested that the public, its patience exasperated by the seven-day delay
before the opera reached the stage, and even more immediately irritated by a
late start, three-quarters-of-an-hour after the announced hour, felt illdisposed from the start, and, finding the first act excessively long, was only
too ready to withhold its applause and hiss when the finale went so
conspicuously awry. One and all, the reviews confirm Ghezzi’s account,
though they also establish that there were also parts of the opera that made a
very favourable impression. The Giornale delle Due Sicilie, in an account
published on 13 March 1830, stated that:
There have so far been three performances given, with a large
concourse of spectators, especially at the first, great being the
curiosity aroused in the public by the subject. The music in truth
measured up to the common expectation, and the action of the
drama kept the minds sufficiently awake. The items of greatest effect
were the first aria of Sela (Signora Boccabadati), her duet with Noè
(Signor Lablache), her other duet with Cadmo (Signor Winter), the
aria in the second act of Noè, the finales of the first two acts… and
the last aria of Sela, difficult on account of the mortal convulsions
that assail her at that moment, and which is nevertheless very well
performed by the actress who sustains the part, insofar as her natural
powers [can] assist her in a theatre of such vast size… The criticism
which to us seems the most well-founded is that in some parts the
music does not have all the gravity that the subject requires… What
is certain, however, is that Noè’s recitative in the second act, when he
–21–
describes to Cadmo the power of the Creator, is a sublime piece, just
as the prayer and the vision that follow are most beautiful.
Virtually nothing more is said in this notice of Luigia Boccabadati, and her
blunder in the first finale is passed over in silence. It is clear, however, that
the critic thought her voice rather too small to be completely effective in such
a large theatre. We are told that Winter sang his part very well, but he is taken
to task for coldness of deportment and immobility of facial expression.
Maria Carraro came in for rather warmer praise, or perhaps we should say
encouragement, since we are told that ‘she is making ever more progress in
the art of singing, which she combines with another considerable merit: that
of a robust declamation’.
Not surprisingly, however, by far the greatest praise was reserved for
Lablache:
That mixture of simplicity and grandeur, which was characteristic
of the Patriarchs, is to be seen sculptured upon his brow. That gravity
of manner, that air of inspiration when he launches himself into his
tremendous [vision of ] the future, depict in marvellous degree all the
majesty of that second father of the human race. In a word, even if all
the other actors were to suffer shipwreck in this performance, Signor
Lablache would be the ark in which the score would be saved. With
good reason he shared with the composer the honour of being called
back to the stage.
–22–
An interesting though minor journal of the day, Il Caffè del Molo,
confirmed everything that the Giornale delle Due Sicilie had said, and here
and there offered even greater detail. Of Lablache it said:
In his scene in the second act he conveys all the majesty of his
character, and the inspiration of God; and we challenge the most inert
soul not to feel completely transformed after [hearing] such concepts
so well imagined and so well expressed. The valour of this inimitable
artist was continually rewarded with general acclamation and calls
upon the stage.
In this journal Luigia Boccabadati also came in for her fair share of praise,
for we are told that she ‘was applauded for her cavatina, applauded for her
duet with Winder [sic], applauded for her final aria. She had to die of grief…
Everything contributed to her earning the surprised [admiration] of the
public, and we never heard more passionate singing, never saw the art of
acting appear so natural.’ And of Signor ‘Winder’ it was reported that ‘he had
applause for his cavatina, and even greater applause for his duet with
Boccabadati; his singing is always judicious, and on this occasion was more
so than ever.’
It is interesting to note that one of the reasons for the fraught first-night
reception was the malfunctioning of the stage-machinery in the final
spectacle of the Flood. Curiously enough 12 years earlier, in 1818, the first
performance of the work which was the forerunner of Il diluvio universale,
–23–
Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto, had come equally close to disaster and had evoked
gales of merriment for not dissimilar reasons. In Mosè the final scene shows
the parting of the waters of the Red Sea, the safe passage of the Israelites, and
the destruction of the pursuing Egyptian army as the waters return. But, as
Stendhal recounted in his Vie di Rossini (1824):
The stage-technician of the San-Carlo, desperately intent upon
finding a solution to an insoluble problem, had finished up by
producing a real masterpiece of absurdity. Seen from the pit, the “sea”
rose up into the air some five or six feet above its retaining “shores”;
whereas the occupants of the boxes, who were favoured with a bird’seye view of the “raging billows”, also had a bird’s-eye view of the little
lazzaroni whose job it was to “divide the waters” at the sound of
Moses’ voice!4
Why, one is tempted to ask, did librettists risk such elaborate spectacle in
an age when technology was still so limited? To ask such a question is,
however, to overlook the fact that the Teatro S. Carlo was one of the two
leading theatres of Italy and was famed for the ability and daring of its
machinists, and also to overlook the influence exerted there at this time by
France and French opera. When part of the Napoleonic empire, Naples had
been ruled by Napoleon’s brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, and French grand
opéra had become the benchmark to which Italian librettists, composers,
___________________________________
4
Stendhal, Life of Rossini, translated by Richard N. Coe (London, John Calder, 1956), p. 312.
–24–
designers and technicians aspired. Spectacle was an essential ingredient of
such grand opera. Manfroce’s Ecuba (1812) had consequently ended with an
enactment of the destruction of Troy; Mayr’s Medea in Corinto (1813) with
a vision of Medea flying through the air in a chariot drawn by dragons. The
passing of the Napoleonic régime may have seen a political turning back of
the clock, but the new artistic tastes had come to stay. Only five years before
Il diluvio universale, Pacini’s L’ultimo giorno di Pompei (1825) had astonished
Neapolitan audiences with its final vision of an erupting Vesuvius and a
Pompei destroyed by fire and lava.
Greater accuracy of vocal execution and more efficient working of the stage
mechanism meant that subsequent performances of Il diluvio universale went
much better than the first. At the second performance Donizetti was again
called upon the stage, while Lablache’s great scene and Boccabadati’s final aria
were again greeted with eager applause. In a short Lenten season the work
received six complete performances and two incomplete ones.
We may readily imagine, however, that Donizetti was left feeling that this
was a meagre tally. When a composer has chosen the subject of an opera and
devised the action as well as writing the music, he is unlikely to be happy to
see it disappear after a single short season. His opportunity to present it once
more came three years later, when it was revived at the Teatro Carlo Felice in
Genoa on 28 January 1834. For this production he revised the score, though
the precise details of what he did still require close examination and
confirmation. He himself, in a letter addressed to Giovanni Ricordi on 6
August 1833, spoke of a ‘Duetto, cori, e balli nuovi’.
–25–
DOMENICO
COSSELLI
Noè in the revised
1834 performance,
Teatro Calo Felice,
Genoa
The new duet is identifiable as ‘Perfida! a me spergiura’, for Ada and
Cadmo in Act I, where it replaced what appears to be a solo aria for Cadmo,
but with pertichini for Ada, ‘Donna infida! E ancor respira!’.
The ‘cori, e balli nuovi’, on the other hand, remain something of a mystery.
The Coro e Ballabile in the scene of revelry for Cadmo and his court at the
beginning of the third act is, at least as it is heard on this present recording,
a borrowing from the unsuccessful opera Il paria (Naples, 1829). The words
appear in both the Naples 1830 and the Genoa 1834 libretti, which suggests
– unless Donizetti reset the same words – that it had been there from the
start. Or perhaps he introduced further ballet music to follow it. This is not
a question which we are currently able to resolve, but let us point out that
listeners will recognise at least part of the chorus from Il paria – a passage of
the orchestral introduction just preceding the entry of the voices – since it
later went into Lucrezia Borgia.
There were further changes, too. In addition to the duet with Cadmo, the
role of Ada was further enhanced by the addition of a show-piece solo aria at
the beginning of Act II, ‘Ah! non tacermi in core’. The overture was given a
new maestoso introduction – which helped make it, although still Rossinian
in pattern, one of Donizetti’s most impressive compositions of this nature –
and the finale of Act II would appear to have been shorn of a final fast
movement. Some ‘adjustment’ of the tessitura also certainly took place to
bring the part of Noè into line with the range and vocal strengths of the new
interpreter, Domenico Cosselli.
–27–
A comparison of the Naples libretto of 1830 with the Genoa libretto of
1834 offers no support, however, for another statement, long in circulation,
to the effect that several cabalettas were added to arias that originally had
none, to bring them more into line with regular Italian practice. This
statement was doubtless prompted by a remark which Donizetti made in a
letter to his father in May 1830 to the effect that he would find no cabalettas
in the score. But composers are not necessarily accurate reporters of the truth.
In all cases, the 1830 Naples libretto suggests that they were there from the
start.
In this new form Il diluvio universale again drew large and curious
audiences to the theatre, and was rewarded with a more substantial success
than in Naples. This time it achieved 13 performances. Donizetti himself
directed at least the first two or three of them, and Cosselli scored a personal
triumph as Noè. But curiously enough the first-night performance was again
jeopardised by the machinists, for on this occasion, too, the final visual
presentation of the coming of the Flood failed to function as intended. By
the second performance matters had been put to rights, and press reports tell
us that the skill of the head-machinist had succeeded in solving all
difficulties.
Successful though this second production was, surprisingly it does not
seem to have generated further productions elsewhere in Italy. The only
subsequent production which has come to our notice was a short-lived
presentation in Paris in 1837. The 19th-century stage history of Il diluvio
universale remained sadly perfunctory.
–28–
The revised Genoese version of the score was printed about the middle of
the 19th century by the Parisian publishing house of Schonenberger, and it
is in this form that the opera is recorded here. That Donizetti was pleased
with his Genoese revision we know from a letter he wrote to his friend, the
Naples-based publisher Guglielmo Cottrau, in June 1837:
I shall give you Il diluvio as it was revised […] and you will not find
it unworthy, since it pleased on the stage.
*
*
*
*
As Donizetti himself saw it, Il diluvio universale occupied an important
place in his development – and in his estimation – not simply because he had
himself played such an active part in choosing the subject and in mapping
out the action, but because he had put great effort into finding a new and
more severe style for his music: a style which should be in keeping with the
nature of the subject. He speaks of this in the letter we have already
mentioned – a letter written to his father on 4 May 1830, two months after
the first performance:
The Oratorio the first evening had many votes in favour and many
against, but it seems that subsequently the favourable party got the
upper hand, not because I was called upon the stage, but because the
opera was performed right through Lent. I would hazard saying that
I put a great deal of work into this music, and found myself well
–29–
pleased with the result. If you think to find cabalettas there, then
don’t seek to hear them; but if you want to understand how I
interpreted dividing profane music from sacred music, then endure,
listen, and hiss if you don’t like it.’
As already pointed out, what a composer says he has done does not always
tally with what he actually has done. There were cabalettas in Il diluvio
universale as originally written. It seems to the present writer, moreover, that
those writers who, influenced by the mention of ‘dividing profane music
from sacred music’, have tried to find a sharp division between the music of
Noè and his family on the one hand, and that of Cadmo, Ada and Sela on
the other, have been misled into a false simplification. While it is inevitable
that we think of Noè and his family as belonging to the world of oratorio,
while Cadmo, Ada and Sela are more the passionate creatures of opera, the
essential point that needs to be made is that, in composing his music,
Donizetti brought the same concerns and the same attention to both.
Everywhere he aims at apt and telling orchestration, at carefully calculated
harmonic progressions and modulations, at close expression of the written
word, and at effective ways of advancing the action.
While we stress that these concerns are to be found everywhere, let us also
concede that there are many passages which clearly show him deliberately
striving for a new gravity and majesty of utterance, and that these passages
belong especially to Noè. ‘Dio tremendo’, Noè’s aria-finale at the end of Act
II, stands out: it is essentially elevated and noble. It is also, we should add, a
–30–
conscious attempt to imitate and emulate Rossini. Just as Rossini in Mosè in
Egitto set Mosè for a sonorous bass, so Donizetti sets Noè. The andante
religioso first section of the aria is a demonstration that he, too, can write a
broad, sustained and generous melody in the style of Mosè’s ‘Dal tuo stellato
soglio’. And as in the Rossinian model, the harp – above all others the
instrument with biblical associations, the instrument that is appropriate to
meditation and prayer – plays a pre-eminent part in the accompaniment. It
is in no way surprising that this became the most famed and admired item in
the score.
Yet, impressive though ‘Dio tremendo’ is, it is not the prime example of
‘sacred music’ in the opera. That credit must go to the preghiera a cinque voci,
‘O Dio di pietà’, which opens the opera after the overture. Sung by Noè, his
sons and their wives (seven voices reduced in effect to five, since two of the
sons, Jafet and Cam, share a single vocal line, while two of the wives, Asfene
and Abra, also sing in unison), it is the most austere item in the score, marked
by arresting alternations of forte and piano and by frequent chromatic
progressions. It is the piece that most clearly makes us aware of the training
in sacred music that Donizetti had received in his youth when he was a
choirboy at S. Maria Maggiore studying with Mayr. Here, more than
anywhere else, we are listening to oratorio rather than to opera.
This preghiera a cinque voci is closely followed in terms of importance by
the very beautiful preghiera-sestetto, ‘Gli empii circondano’, sung, again by the
three sons of Noè and their wives, at the beginning of the second tableau of
–31–
Act II. Here the dramatic situation does not call for any particular
differentiation between the vocal lines of the participants – they are all
expressing the same sentiments – so all six sing music of similar or identical
character, giving a homophonic effect similar to that of, for example,
‘Dell’indegno il turbamento’, the slow concertato in the Act I finale of Emilia
di Liverpool. But the way in which staccato passages are alternated with legato
passages is unexpected and attractive, and, as the ending approaches, there is
a series of very beautiful modulations and harmonic progressions.
As a very simple illustration of Donizetti’s new approach – of his search for
due weight and gravity of utterance – we may also draw attention to the
manner in which every so-called ‘aria’ in the score5 introduces pertichini –
contributory phrases for other characters. In each case what begins as a solo
aria tends, therefore, to develop into an ensemble. The result gives the
impression of being a continual progression towards complexity of texture
and increasing intensity of dramatic expression.
We may also note that there are several items in the score which are not
permitted to reach a final chordal cadence and recognisable close, but which
instead move straight into whatever passage it may be that follows. ‘Dio
tremendo’ is a prime example; the chorus, ‘Su compagni, quella mole’,
towards the end of the introduzione to Act I, and ‘Quel che del ciel sui
___________________________________
5
With the exception of Ada’s ‘Non mi tradir, speranza’ at the beginning of Act II, significantly
not part of the original text but one of the additions made for Genoa in 1834.
–32–
cardini’, the duet for Sela and Noè in the finale of Act I, are others. The
cabaletta to Sela’s aria in the Act I introduzione also comes close to
qualifying. Though it reaches a full cadence, there is no provision for any
pause or moment of rest; instead the music and the action carry on forward
without interruption. Again Donizetti is thinking of how to construct his
music to maximum dramatic effect, for in each instance the effect is to drive
the action forward without any relaxation in tension and our sense of onward
movement.
If we look at the music of the ‘profane’ characters, Cadmo, Ada and
(although she fits uneasily into such a categorisation) Sela, we shall find not
dissimilar features. While this music may be more recognisably consistent
with the operatic style of the day, it, too, except in the cabaletta of Sela’s Act
I cavatina (and the aria for Ada added at the beginning of Act II in the
Genovese revision), is remarkably free from technical display for display’s
sake – from all suggestion of bravura coloratura decoration – and instead
aims, here yet again, at a close and dramatic rendering of the words.
Everywhere, we stress once more, Il diluvio universale shows a concentration
upon realising music that will enhance the drama inherent in the situation
and the word.
Sela, dramatically and musically the most interesting character in the score,
is essentially a figure of suffering, characterised by vocal lines that frequently
move chromatically, and are often shaped – or broken – by anguished
declamation. Two of her items call for particular comment. Her Act I
–33–
cavatina, ‘Mentre il core abbandonava’, is introduced by a heightened,
concentrated and most expressive melodic recitative. When we reach the aria
itself, we find that it is a very good example of a melody that is derived from
the accent and the intonation of the spoken word. It is, indeed, quite as
much declamation as it is sustained melody, and is both supported – and,
even more importantly, held together and hurried forward – by the regular
and pulsating rhythm of its ostinato accompaniment.
Her final aria at the end of Act III, ‘Senza colpa mi scacciasti’, carries these
same techniques even further, and stands out as the opera’s supreme
achievement in terms of allowing situation and word to determine both the
musical phrase and, more broadly, the overall shape and form. It is a threepart aria. It begins with an andante sostenuto first movement in which the
accents of spoken reproach are translated directly into music. We shall have
occasion to mention this introductory movement again very soon. It leads
without break into a central second movement, ‘Ah! se rea mi credi’, a
larghetto which brings Sela her most flowing and sustained lines in the opera
– long-spun lines of well-nigh Bellinian beauty as she pleads that she may die
by Cadmo’s hand, rather than be deprived of his love and cut off from
contact with her son. This is succeeded, after a tempo di mezzo or bridgepassage in which Ada and Cadmo also participate, by the third movement,
‘Perchè l’ignoto brivido’. At this point we should expect a cabaletta, but the
music Donizetti writes is totally unrecognisable as such. An andante
moderato, it is, like the first movement, pure declamation – broken, gasping
phrases as Sela anticipates all the horror she will experience if she yields to
–34–
LORENZO SALVI
He made his debut as
Cam in the first
performance at the
Teatro San Carlo,
Naples.
Cadmo’s command and curses the God of Adam. Built over a tremolo
accompaniment, it is once more held together by the rhythmic pattern of an
ostinato bass. The only place where the phrases are allowed to become more
legato and sustained is in the middle, where Sela pleads with her husband to
spare her the ordeal to which he is subjecting her. But then, at the point
where we expect her to launch into a second verse, she tries to utter the
required curse, only to collapse into convulsions and die. There is no second
verse – this final movement never reaches a conclusion – the dramatic
situation quite literally interrupts, hijacks and overturns the expected musical
form. A highly experimental coup de théâtre, it is possibly the most
unexpected and most brilliant dramatic ending to an aria finale that
Donizetti was ever to write in his entire career.
But we must not allow our reflections on the music of this opera to stop
here. If we were to limit our comments to such expressions of praise and
approval, we would risk inviting a reaction of disappointment and disillusion
in any listener coming to the opera and hearing it for the first time. For there
is no disguising that this is an uneven work, written as Donizetti was
approaching his full maturity but had not yet quite arrived there. We have
spoken, up to this point, only of the remarkable highlights. Let us give – and
then try to explain and justify – one striking example of the unevenness
which is to be found in the score and which at first hearing will take the
listener by surprise. We have spoken of the noble and majestic music given
to Noè. How disconcerting it is, therefore, to listen to his first aria, ‘In
–36–
quell’arca rispettate’, and find him singing a melody which very quickly turns
into one that is familiar to us as Marie’s ‘Chacun le sait’ in La Fille du
Régiment. A bass voice as opposed to a soprano can, admittedly, do much to
alter the character and emotion of any piece of music, but even so, this is a
melody that is far more appropriate to Marie’s mock-military merriment than
to a Noè who is rebuking the followers of Cadmo, come to destroy the Ark.
In place in a light-hearted opéra-comique, it stands very oddly in a serious
azione tragico-sacra.
Yet, having said this, let us realise that our adverse reaction is partly, and
probably primarily, influenced by our familiarity with the music in a very
different – and later – context. If we were not so familiar with its subsequent
use in La Fille du Régiment, would our reaction by quite as extreme, quite as
unfavourable? The melody, I readily admit, may still strike us as excessively
‘trumpety’, but there is a certain ironic justice even in this: Noè sings it very
much as a trumpet call to rally his family as he confronts Cadmo’s
destruction-bent followers. Moreover, Donizetti’s inventive imagination is
very much alive as he varies the tempo, delivering the melody first as we
know it and then more slowly, and continues to alternate the two speeds with
rousing effect. Finally, let us think of this item less as an ‘aria’ and more as the
final stretta – the final rounding-off movement – of a great architectural
introduzione which has lasted from curtain-up to the present moment… a
great opening tableau which, encompassing the opening preghiera, Sela’s
cavatina and this item, comprises some 20 or more minutes of imposing,
–37–
expressive dramatic music designed to give the ‘sacred drama’ a massive and
monumental opening6.
One of the most interesting of all the reviews of the opera that appeared in
Naples at the time of its premiere was the one, already mentioned, which was
published in Il Caffè del Molo. The writer of this notice showed real
perception when he observed that the Flood, in this version of the story,
seems to be precipitated, not so much by Noè’s prediction of its coming, but
rather by the enormity of Sela’s attempt to curse God: ‘Sela is horrified [by
Cadmo’s order]; she weeps, she curses, she dies of grief, and her last words
provoke the deluge of the punishing waters’. The critic also recognised the
heights of eloquence to which Gilardoni’s libretto frequently rises, and
quoted at length the words of Noè’s vision at the end of Act II. But he
reserved his most valuable observations for the music. Whereas other Italian
critics had tended to dismiss the operas Donizetti had composed hitherto as
mere imitations of Rossini, this notice is one of the first attempts to recognise
and define distinctive qualities in his music. The writer begins by voicing the
criticism to which we have already referred – that contemporary composers
were no longer appealing to the public with ensembles and finales that
depended upon varying harmonies and modulations, but were depending
more upon the ‘cajolements’ of single voices in solo arias. Donizetti, he
remarks, by contrast…
___________________________________
6
Our justification in looking at this item in this way comes from the score itself. It is true that
the item is headed ‘Scena e Cavatina (Basso)’, but at its end, the following item is headed, rather
more appropriately in our view, ‘Dopo l’Introduzione’.
–38–
… seems to wish to recall us to that severity of taste, from which
we have departed in such an undignified manner; and this aim of his
is all the more commendable, insofar as it not uncommonly works to
his [initial] detriment. He always gives a colouring, a justification, a
character to his notes: and making them depend upon the action and
the words, he finds them in his heart rather than in his head. Until,
then, the spectator knows the situation of the characters who are
presented upon the stage – until he can appreciate their attitudes and
their emotions – he can never justly evaluate [the composer’s] talents.
The proof of this may be seen [in the fact] that [Donizetti’s]
productions acquire ever greater praise each time they are repeated.
On the first night that Il diluvio appeared, although everyone was
ignorant of who was this Cadmo, who was that Sela, and in what way
they were relevant to the punishment to which God was provoked;
although the performance may have been inadequate; although the
costumes and sets may have been poor and ill-chosen; although all
expectation may have been left bitterly disappointed by the falling of
the waters – [despite all this] the maestro did not go deprived of
applause; and we from that [first] moment dared give our assurance
that the ‘beautiful’ would [eventually] assert its rights… Our
[Neapolitan] public, in the performances following upon the first,
clamorously applauding now one piece and now another, have already
crowned all the beauties of this commendable score; and we, in seeing
our prediction come true, have persuaded ourselves that it is an easy
thing to be a prophet when it is a case of foretelling what is just.
–39–
‘He always gives a colouring, a justification, a character to his notes; and
making them depend upon the action and the words, he finds them in his
heart rather than in his head.’ The supreme example of this in Il diluvio
universale is to be found in the opening section of Sela’s aria finale, ‘Senza
colpa mi scacciasti’, where the chromatic parlato melody springs unmistakably
both from the emotion of the situation and from the rhythm and articulation
– from the accent – of the words. That the creation of melodies based on the
spoken word was one of Donizetti’s conscious and constant goals we know
since 13 years later, in January 1843, in the address he delivered upon his
acceptance as a corresponding member of the French Academy, he is still
stressing it as the first and essential condition of a composer’s writing music
that conveys true and genuine emotion:
Music is nothing but declamation accentuated by musical sounds,
and for that reason every composer must divine intuitively and create
a vocal melody from the accent of the declamation of the words. If a
composer cannot do this, or does it badly, he will never write anything
but music devoid of feeling.
It was also, we may add, a technique which did not come easily to all
composers. If some critics have complained that Mercadante delivers melody
that is unfailingly generous in its contours but strangely unmemorable, this
may be the true and ultimate reason. In the music of Verdi, on the other hand,
the creation of such situation-generated and verbally-based rhythms and
melodies is equally as noteworthy as it is in that of Donizetti, and lies at the
–40–
heart of much of his best work. As a prime and crystal-clear example we would
cite the passage for Alfredo, ‘Ah sì, che feci, ne sento orrore’, in the finale to
Act III of La traviata.
But let us return to the regret voiced by the critic of Il Caffè del Molo that
many younger composers of the day had abandoned trying to write ensembles
and finales that depended upon varying harmonies and modulations.
Considered in this light, Il diluvio universale was peculiarly designed to excite
his approval. For not only does it contain the two remarkable preghiere which
we have already mentioned, but each of its first two acts ends with a
noteworthy finale (even if the finale to Act II is strictly an aria with pertichini:
Noè’s ‘Dio tremendo’). ‘Cadmo!... oh cielo! dove mi ascondo?’, the quintettoconcertato in the finale to Act I, is, we may add, yet a further item where the
vocal lines conspicuously spring from a close and faithful observance of the
rhythms, intonation and accent of the words. Indeed this concertato also
illustrates the contention of the critic of Il Caffè del Molo that Donizetti’s
music often needs to be heard several times before it can be fully appreciated.
The quintetto begins by shifting the listener’s focus of attention rapidly back
and forth between the characters as each utters short phrases of exclamation or
surprised enquiry. The effect, at first hearing, is one of ‘fragmentation’, even of
‘dislocation’. It is only when we have heard the item a second or third time that
we come to grasp and appreciate the overall pattern, and feel inclined to invert
our first reaction and speak instead of the ‘integration’ of the short phrases into
a total framework.
–41–
One or two last reflections. If we find Il diluvio universale a disconcerting
opera, it is at least partly because it does not do what we expect a Donizetti
opera to do. It is an experimental work, and does not always conform to the
patterns we are accustomed to finding in his operas. This even applies to the
subject, and to his decision to set it. For he was, indeed, a composer who by
the mid-point of his career had succeeded in discovering what he could do
best, and who remained true to that discovery with remarkable and clearsighted tenacity. Clearly, he recognised the areas where his sympathies lay, and
where his creative spark was most likely to ignite. As has often been pointed
out, he never tackled any subject drawn from classical myth. The closest he
comes to classical history is in Belisario and Fausta, which are quite as much
romantic as they are classical. And, apart from Il diluvio universale, his only
azione tragico-sacra, the only other works in which he tackled suffering and
martyrdom for the sake of religion were Il paria and Poliuto. In these respects
he provides a contrast with his teacher, Giovanni Simone Mayr, who, a
broader and more versatile figure, was equally at home in sacred and secular
music, in classical or romantic vein.
Donizetti was, instead, essentially a romantic composer, essentially the
composer of heightened, passionate and persecuted love. As he himself put it:
‘I want love, and [let it be] violent love’. And his most distinctive and most
eloquent achievements are realised when the love he is depicting allows him to
introduce a note of melancholy, a note of elegiac sadness, as in Lucia di
Lammermoor, Maria Stuarda and many another opera. Viewed in this light,
Il diluvio universale is a work which taught him much, and which was valuable
–42–
to him – and should be valuable to us – since it allowed him to develop his
expressive abilities. But it remains a work that does not ‘fit’. It is certainly an
opera of heightened emotions. Sela is certainly a heroine who suffers. But
though caught in sore perplexity, she fights actively and resolutely for her
marriage and for her right to worship as she sees fit. She is in no way a passive
figure, a resigned figure, and in consequence the characteristic Donizettian
note of gentle melancholy is lacking. Her music may be admirably expressive
and dramatic, but the elegiac note of sorrow is absent.
Despite these reflections – perhaps because of these reflections – Il diluvio
universale remains an interesting opera, if not yet a fully mature or fully
consistent one. Had Donizetti tackled it in his later years, he might very well
have turned out another sombre masterpiece comparable with Dom Sébastien
de Portugal. But, written just before he reached the mid-point of his career and
gained confidence with such works as Anna Bolena, Lucrezia Borgia, Maria
Stuarda, Lucia di Lammermoor and Roberto Devereux, it is best seen – and best
valued – as a stepping-stone, and a very revealing and rewarding one, upon a
long and endlessly intriguing road to full self-realisation.
© Jeremy Commons, 2006
–43–
Robin Newton (Assistant Conductor)
with Patric Schmid (Producer)
THE STORY
Il diluvio universale tells the biblical story of Noah (Noè in Italian). But it is
given still further human and dramatic interest, since it also presents the story
– and the tragedy – of Sela, the favourite concubine and wife of Cadmo,
satrap of the Babylonian city of Sennáár.
ACT I
SCENE 1
Sela is a believer in the God of Noè, but finds herself torn between her faith
and her love for her husband. For Cadmo is Noè’s principal persecutor, and
is enraged that one of his concubines, the only one he has raised to the
dignity of wife, should become the follower of a religion that challenges his
authority.
In great distress of mind, Sela joins Noè and his family in prayer. In their
presence she finds peace, but this brief respite is shattered by the arrival of
Cadmo’s henchmen, come with orders to destroy the newly completed Ark.
Sela’s presence and authority temporarily save the day, and she returns to the
palace to try to reason with her husband.
SCENE 2
Ada, another of Cadmo’s concubines, is overjoyed to hear of Sela’s thwarting
her husband’s orders. Consumed by jealousy, she is determined to overthrow
her rival, and now has the opportunity of reporting the incident to Cadmo
– and of colouring it to Sela’s disadvantage. Maliciously, she insinuates that
Sela is in love with Jafet, Noè’s eldest son. Cadmo’s rage reaches boiling point.
–45–
When Sela appears, he forbids her any further contact with Noè and his
family, and declares that he will wreak even greater vengeance if they are still
to be found within his territories the following morning.
Unaware of Ada’s hostility, Sela accepts her advice that she should herself
carry the news of Cadmo’s latest decree to Noè. Ada, of course, has every
intention of informing Cadmo that Sela has disobeyed his orders.
SCENE 3
Sela returns to Noè and delivers her warning. But Noè predicts the coming
of the Flood the following day, and the consequent forestalling of any further
persecution on Cadmo’s part. He offers Sela the chance of survival should she
and her infant son choose to join him and his family in the Ark, but she
cannot contemplate abandoning her husband.
At this point, Jafet warns that Cadmo’s followers are approaching, and
Cadmo himself appears, followed by Ada. The act ends in confrontation and
recrimination as Cadmo has Noè, his family and Sela taken into custody. He
declares that he will sacrifice Noè to the Sun the following morning, while
Noè, inspired by God, openly defies him.
ACT II
SCENE 1
Ada, continuing to plot her own advancement, persuades Cadmo to see Sela
once more. Cadmo expects that she will seek pardon, but instead she asks
only to see her son one last time. The request is refused: Cadmo repudiates
her, telling her that Ada will take her place. At last, Sela understands Ada’s
duplicity.
–46–
SCENE 2
Noè, alone of all his family, is so firm in his belief in God that he can find
relief in slumber. His sons and their wives, wondering at his undisturbable
equanimity, join together in prayer.
Sela, returning from her interview with Cadmo, reveals how Ada has
plotted all their deaths. Cadmo appears, declaring that Noè, his family and
Sela will all be incarcerated in the Ark and burned alive. Noè’s response is to
kneel and call upon God. Inspired, he foretells the opening of the heavens
and the coming of the Flood. He and his family are led into the Ark.
ACT III
SCENE 1
In the midst of an orgy of celebration, Cadmo announces Ada’s elevation to
take Sela’s place. But at this moment Sela herself appears. Forced to commit
herself one way or the other, she has rejected her chance of survival and
returned to her husband and son. Cadmo is prepared to receive her back, but
only upon condition that she curse the God of Adam. She tries to do so, but
the words die in her throat. Appalled at what she is saying, she chokes and
dies. Her last words are a signal for the heavens to erupt in a display of
thunder and lightning.
SCENE 2
While waters cascade from the heavens, gush from the mountains and arise
from the earth, the families of mankind are annihilated. Only the Ark rides
out the waves in safety.
–47–
RÉSUMÉ DE L’INTRIGUE
Il diluvio universale retrace l’histoire biblique de Noé (Noè en italien). Mais
pour lui donner une dimension encore plus humaine et accroître la tension
dramatique, l’opéra évoque également le destin – tragique – de Sela, favorite
et épouse de Cadmo, satrape de la cité babylonienne de Sennaar.
ACTE I
SCÈNE 1
Sela vénère le Dieu de Noè, mais se trouve déchirée entre sa foi religieuse et
l’amour qu’elle porte à son époux. Car Cadmo, plus que tout autre, persécute
Noè et enrage à l’idée que l’une de ses concubines, la seule qu’il ait élevée à
la dignité d’épouse, se soit convertie à une religion qui remet en cause son
autorité.
Désemparée, Sela rejoint Noè et sa famille pour prier. Elle trouve la paix en
leur présence, mais ce bref moment de répit est interrompu par l’arrivée des
hommes de main de Cadmo : ils ont l’ordre de détruire l’arche qui vient
d’être achevée. La présence de Sela et l’autorité dont elle jouit sauvent
momentanément la situation, et elle retourne au palais pour tenter de faire
entendre raison à son époux.
SCÈNE 2
Ada, autre concubine de Cadmo, est enchantée d’apprendre que Sela oppose
les ordres de son époux. Brûlant de jalousie et bien décidée à renverser sa
rivale, elle saisit la chance de pouvoir rapporter l’incident à Cadmo – et en
des termes défavorables à Sela. Elle insinue méchamment que Sela s’est éprise
–48–
de Jafet, le fils aîné de Noè. La rage de Cadmo est alors à son comble. Lorsque
Sela apparaît, il lui interdit de jamais revoir Noè et sa famille, et ajoute qu’il
assouvira sa terrible vengeance s’ils n’ont pas quitté ses terres avant le
lendemain matin.
Sans se douter des mauvaises intentions d’Ada, Sela accepte, sur ses conseils,
d’aller elle-même porter à Noè la nouvelle du dernier décret de Cadmo. Ada a,
bien évidemment, la ferme intention d’apprendre à Cadmo que Sela a désobéi
à ses ordres.
SCÈNE 3
Sela se rend auprès de Noè pour le prévenir. Noè prédit que le déluge est pour
le lendemain et que les menaces de persécution de Cadmo resteront, par
conséquent, sans effet. Il offre à Sela et à son jeune fils une chance de survie en
lui proposant de s’embarquer sur l’Arche avec lui et sa famille, mais elle ne
saurait envisager d’abandonner son époux.
À ce moment précis, Jafet les prévient que les hommes de Cadmo
approchent. Cadmo lui-même apparaît, suivi d’Ada. L’acte s’achève sur une
scène d’affrontement et de protestation, alors que Cadmo fait arrêter Noè, sa
famille et Sela. Il déclare que Noè sera sacrifié au Soleil le lendemain matin,
tandis que Noè, que Dieu inspire, s’oppose ouvertement à lui.
ACTE II
SCÈNE 1
Ada, qui continue à intriguer pour satisfaire ses ambitions, persuade Cadmo
de revoir Sela. Au lieu d’implorer son pardon, comme il s’y attendait, Sela ne
demande qu’à revoir une dernière fois son fils. Cadmo refuse, la répudie et
invite Ada à prendre sa place. Sela comprend enfin la fourberie d’Ada.
–49–
SCÈNE 2
Noè, seul parmi les siens à placer toute sa confiance en Dieu, trouve le repos
dans le sommeil. Ses fils et leur femme, déconcertés par tant de sérénité, prient
ensemble.
Après son entretien avec Cadmo, Sela leur révèle les intrigues d’Ada. Cadmo
vient annoncer à Noè, sa famille et Sela qu’ils seront tous enfermés à bord de
l’Arche et brûlés vivants. Pour toute réponse, Noè s’agenouille et en appelle à
Dieu, qui l’inspire. Noè prédit alors que les cataractes du ciel s’ouvriront et que
les eaux du déluge se répandront sur la terre. Noè et sa famille sont embarqués
sur l’Arche.
ACTE III
SCÈNE 1
Lors de festivités débridées, Cadmo annonce qu’Ada prendra la place de Sela.
Sela elle-même fait alors son entrée. Obligée de choisir, elle a renoncé à se
sauver pour retrouver son époux et de son fils. Cadmo est prêt à l’accueillir
auprès de lui, mais à condition qu’elle maudisse le dieu d’Adam. Lorsqu’elle
essaie de le faire, les mots s’étouffent dans sa gorge. Épouvantée par ses propres
paroles, elle suffoque et meurt. À ce signal, le ciel s’ouvre dans le tonnerre et
les éclairs.
SCÈNE 2
Tandis que les eaux tombent du ciel, jaillissent des montagnes et s’élèvent de
la terre, tous les hommes périssent. Seule, l’arche survit à la tempête.
Traduction : Mireille Ribière
–50–
DIE HANDLUNG
Il diluvio universale erzählt die biblische Geschichte Noahs (auf Italienisch
Noè), erhält aber eine weitere menschliche und dramatische Dimension
durch die tragische Gestalt der Sela, Lieblingskonkubine und Gemahlin von
Cadmo, dem Satrapen der babylonischen Stadt Sennáár.
1. AKT
1. SZENE
Sela ist eine Anhängerin von Noès Gott, fühlt sich aber hin und her gerissen
zwischen ihrem Glauben und der Liebe zu ihrem Gemahl Cadmo, der Noè
Feindschaft geschworen hat. Er ist außer sich, dass eine seiner Konkubinen
und zudem die einzige, die er in den Stand einer Gemahlin erhoben hat,
einer Religion anhängt, die seine Autorität in Frage stellt.
Bedrückt und innerlich aufgewühlt geht Sela zu Noè, um mit ihm und
seiner Familie zu beten. In deren Gegenwart findet sie Frieden, doch der wird
bald gestört durch die Ankunft von Cadmos Gefolgsleuten, die auf dessen
Befehl hin die gerade vollendete Arche vernichten wollen. Durch das
Ansehens, das Sela genießt, kann sie verhindern, dass der Auftrag ausgeführt
wird, und kehrt in den Palast zurück in der Hoffnung, ihren Gemahl zur
Vernunft bringen zu können.
2. SZENE
Ada, eine weitere Konkubine Cadmos, frohlockt, als sie erfährt, dass Sela den
Befehlen ihres Gemahls zuwiderhandelt. Zerfressen von Eifersucht trachtet
sie danach, ihre Rivalin auszustechen. So nutzt sie die Gelegenheit, Cadmo
–51–
von diesem Vorfall zu berichten und Sela in ein ungünstiges Licht zu rücken.
Gehässig deutet sie an, dass Sela in Jafet, den ältesten Sohn Noès, verliebt sei.
Cadmo ist außer sich vor Wut. Als Sela vor ihn tritt, verbietet er ihr jeden
weiteren Kontakt mit Noè und dessen Familie und verheißt ihnen grausame
Vergeltung, sollten sie sich am folgenden Morgen noch in seinem Reich
aufhalten.
Da Sela sich Adas Eifersucht nicht bewusst ist, folgt sie deren Rat, Noè
selbst Cadmos neuestes Dekret zu überbringen. Ada hingegen hinterträgt
Cadmo sofort, dass Sela sich seinem Verbot widersetzt hat.
3. SZENE
Sela trifft bei Noè ein und berichtet ihm von Cadmos Drohung. Doch Noè
prophezeit, dass am folgenden Tag die Sintflut hereinbrechen und der Satrap
folglich keinerlei Handhabe mehr gegen ihn haben werde. Dann bietet er
Sela an, sich mit ihrem kleinen Sohn zu ihm und seiner Familie auf die Arche
zu retten, doch sie bringt es nicht über sich, ihren Gemahl zu verlassen.
In diesem Augenblick tritt Jafet herein und verkündet, dass Cadmos
Anhänger im Anzug seien, und Cadmo selbst erscheint, gefolgt von Ada. Der
Akt endet mit Vorwürfen und einer Auseinandersetzung, an deren Ende
Cadmo Noè, dessen Familie und Sela in Haft nehmen lässt. Dann erklärt er,
dass er am kommenden Morgen Noè der Sonne opfern werde, während
dieser, von Gott erleuchtet, dem Herrscher unverhüllt trotzt.
–52–
2. AKT
1. SZENE
Ada, die weiter ihre Position ausbauen möchte, überredet Cadmo, Sela ein
letztes Mal zu empfangen. Er erwartet, dass sie um Vergebung flehen werde,
doch sie bittet lediglich darum, ihren Sohn noch einmal sehen zu dürfen.
Dieses Ansinnen wird ihr verwehrt, Cadmo verstößt sie und erklärt, dass Ada
nun ihre Stellung einnehmen werde. Jetzt schließlich erkennt Sela, dass Ada
ein doppeltes Spiel gespielt hat.
2. SZENE
Als einziger seiner Familie ist Noès Glaube an Gott so fest, dass er im Schlaf
Ruhe finden kann. Seine Söhne und deren Gemahlinnen staunen über seine
unerschütterliche Gelassenheit und sprechen gemeinsam ein Gebet.
Sela kehrt von ihrem Zusammentreffen mit Cadmo zurück und berichtet,
dass Ada ihrer aller Tod betreibt. Da tritt Cadmo auf und erklärt, dass er Noè,
dessen Familie sowie Sela auf der Arche gefangen setzen und bei lebendigem
Leibe verbrennen wird. Zur Antwort sinkt Noè auf die Knie und ruft Gott
an. Beseelt prophezeit er, dass die Schleusen des Himmels sich öffnen und die
Sintflut herabkommen werden. Er und seine Familie werden auf die Arche
geführt.
3. AKT
1. SZENE
Bei einer orgiastischen Feier verkündet Cadmo, dass Ada an Selas Statt in den
Rang der Gemahlin erhoben wird. In diesem Augenblick erscheint Sela auf
dem Fest; letztlich hat sie doch auf ihre Rettung verzichtet, um zu ihrem
–53–
Gemahl und ihrem Sohn zurückzukehren. Cadmo ist bereit, sie wieder
aufzunehmen, doch nur unter der Bedingung, dass sie den Gott Adams
verflucht. Als sie das tun will, ersterben ihr die Worte auf den Lippen,
entsetzt über sich selbst erstickt sie an ihrem Satz. Ihre letzten Worte sind ein
Zeichen für den Himmel, Blitze und Donnerschläge herabzuschicken.
2. SZENE
Während Wasserfluten vom Himmel stürzen, aus den Bergen quellen und
aus der Erde aufsteigen, wird die Menschheit ausgelöscht. Nur die Arche
fährt gefahrlos über die Wellen in Sicherheit.
Übersetzt von Ursula Wulfekamp
–54–
Maria Cleva (Italian coach)
LA TRAMA
Il diluvio universale si ispira all’episodio biblico di Noè, drammatizzato e reso
più umano attraverso la storia – e la tragedia – di Sela, concubina preferita e
moglie di Cadmo, satrapo della città babilonese di Sennáár.
ATTO I
SCENA 1
Sela crede nel Dio di Noè, ma è combattuta tra la fede e l’amore per il marito.
Cadmo è il principale persecutore di Noè ed è furibondo che l’unica concubina
da lui innalzata alla dignità di sposa abbia abbracciato una religione che sfida
la sua autorità.
Nella sua profonda afflizione, Sela prega con Noè e la sua famiglia. Con loro
riesce a trovare la pace, ma la breve pausa è distrutta dall’arrivo dei seguaci di
Cadmo, giunti con l’ordine di distruggere l’Arca appena costruita. La presenza
e l’autorità di Sela scongiurano temporaneamente l’esecuzione dell’ordine, e la
donna ritorna al palazzo per cercare di ragionare con il marito.
SCENA 2
Ada, un’altra concubina di Cadmo, è sopraffatta dalla gioia nel sapere che Sela
ha mandato a monte gli ordini del marito. Divorata dalla gelosia, è decisa a
rovinare la rivale, e questo episodio le offre la possibilità di riferire l’incidente
a Cadmo in modo da mettere in cattiva luce Sela. Maliziosamente, Ada insinua
che Sela è innamorata del primogenito di Noè, Jafet. L’ira di Cadmo tocca il
culmine. All’arrivo di Sela, le proibisce di avere altri contatti con Noè e la sua
–56–
famiglia, e dichiara che la sua vendetta sarà ancora più grande se il profeta non
lascerà le sue terre con la propria famiglia entro la mattina successiva.
Ignara dell’ostilità di Ada, Sela accetta il suo consiglio di informare
personalmente Noè dell’ultimo decreto di Cadmo. Naturalmente, Ada intende
comunicare a Cadmo che Sela ha disubbidito ai suoi ordini.
SCENA 3
Sela ritorna da Noè e gli comunica l’avvertimento, ma il profeta predice che il
Diluvio inizierà: le persecuzioni di Cadmo dovranno quindi cessare. Noè
propone a Sela di salvarsi con il suo bambino, seguendo lui e la sua famiglia
nell’Arca, ma la donna non ha il minimo desiderio di abbandonare il marito.
A questo punto Jafet avvista i seguaci di Cadmo; entra lo stesso Cadmo,
seguito da Ada e il primo atto si conclude tra proteste e recriminazioni. Cadmo
fa imprigionare Noè, la sua famiglia e Sela: dichiara che sacrificherà il profeta
al Sole il giorno dopo, mentre Noè, ispirato da Dio, lo sfida apertamente.
ATTO II
SCENA 1
Ada, che continua a tramare per i propri fini segreti, convince Cadmo a
rivedere ancora una volta Sela. Cadmo pensa che la donna gli chiederà
perdono, ma invece si ritrova a essere supplicato perché conceda alla moglie di
rivedere il figlio per l’ultima volta. La richiesta viene rifiutata: Cadmo ripudia
Sela e le annuncia che Ada prenderà il suo posto, svelandole finalmente la
doppiezza di Ada.
–57–
SCENA 2
Unico tra tutti i familiari, Noè ha una fede talmente salda che riesce a trovare
sollievo nel sonno. I figli e le loro mogli, meravigliandosi di questa
imperturbabile equanimità, pregano insieme.
Di ritorno dal colloquio con Cadmo, Sela rivela che è stata Ada a
complottare la morte di tutti. Entra Cadmo e dichiara che Noè, la sua famiglia
e Sela saranno incarcerati nell’Arca e arsi vivi. Per tutta risposta, Noè
s’inginocchia e invoca Dio. Ispirato, predice l’aprirsi del cieli e l’inizio del
Diluvio, mentre viene condotto nell’Arca con la sua famiglia.
ATTO III
SCENA 1
Tra un’orgia di festeggiamenti, Cadmo annuncia l’elevazione di Ada al posto
di Sela. Ma a questo punto compare la stessa Sela. Obbligata a scegliere, ha
rinunciato alla possibilità di sopravvivere per ritornare dal marito e dal figlio.
Cadmo è disposto a riprenderla, ma solo a patto che maledica il Dio di Adamo.
La donna tenta, ma le parole le muoiono in gola. Ciò che dice la inorridisce e
la soffoca; le manca il respiro e muore. Le sue ultime parole sembrano un
segnale: in cielo esplode una fantasmagoria di tuoni e lampi.
SCENA 2
Mentre l’acqua scroscia dal cielo, scorre dalle montagne e si innalza dalla terra,
l’umanità viene annientata. Solo l’Arca solca sicura le onde.
Traduzione: Emanuela Guastella
–58–
Rehearsal at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London, for the concert
performance of Il diluvio universale, given on Sunday 6 November 2005
PERFORMANCE HISTORY
This opera is a genuinte rarity, with only two productions traced in the 19th
century. It had one confirmed revival in the 20th century and the one given
by Opera Rara in the 21st century.
Tom Kaufman, 2006
Date
6 March 1830
City and Theatre Sela
Naples,
Boccabadati
San Carlo
25 January 1834 Genoa,
Edvige
Carlo Felice
18 January 1985 Genoa,
Hayashi
Politeama Margherita
6 November 2005 London,
Cullagh
Drury Lane
–60–
Ada
Carraro
Cadmo
Winter
Noe
Lablache
Michel
Bonfigli
Cosselli
Dupuy
Garaventa
Giaiotti
Custer
Lee
Palazzi
IL DILUVIO UNIVERSALE
Azione tragico-sacra in three acts
Libretto by Domenico Gilardoni
Music by Gaetano Donizetti
First performance: 6 March 1830
Teatro S. Carlo, Naples
Revised version: 28 January 1834
Teatro Carlo Felice, Genoa
CHARACTERS (with the original interpreters, Naples 1830)
Noè, father of.......................................................................................Luigi Lablache
Jafet…………………………......……..............….....…….......Gennaro Ambrosini1
Sem…………………………………….…….............…….…....Giovanni Arrigotti
Cam......................................................................................................Lorenzo Salvi
Tesbite, Jafet’s wife..............................................................................Signora Fabiani
Asfene, Sem’s wife....................................................................................Edvige Ricci
Abra, Cam’s wife....................................................................................Cecilia Grassi
Cadmo, Chief of the Satraps of Sennáár, husband of Sela....................Berardo Winter
Sela, mother of Azel......……………………………..................Luigia Boccabadati
Azael, a child…………………………………………........….............Signora N.N.
Ada, Sela’s confidante……………………………….............….......…Maria Carraro
Artoo, Chief of the Brahmins of Atlantide.......................................Gaetano Chizzola
Chorus of Satraps of Sennáár; their wives; Priests of Europa; African Copts;
Brahmins2 of Atlantide; followers of Cadmo; Citizens of Sennáár.
___________________________________
1
Listed in the libretto as Sig. Ambrosini maggiore
When we are referring to the time of Noah, it seems a wild anachronism to speak of Copts
(‘Cofti’) and Brahmins (‘Bracmani’). These are, however, the terms that Gilardoni uses.
2
–61–
Giuliano Carella (Conductor)
CD1
71’21
The version of the opera which is recorded here corresponds very closely to the 1834
Genoese revision. Since the primary purpose of this libretto is to reflect the text that
the listener will actually hear on the recording, several passages of recitative which
appeared in the Naples 1830 libretto, but not in that printed for Genoa, have been
silently suppressed. We would recommend anyone who wishes to see the original
Neapolitan text to consult Egidio Saracino ed., Tutti i libretti di Donizetti (Garzanti,
Italy, 1993). Lines of the libretto which were apparently not set by Donizetti, but
which for various reasons it seemed advisable to retain in this printed text, are
preceded by double quotation marks.
ACT ONE
[1] Sinfonia
A vast plain. In the distance, a view of the imposing city of Sennáár. Also visible is a
portion of the Ark.
SCENE I
Noè is prostrated in prayer with his sons, Jafet, Sem and Cam, and their wives, Tesbite,
Asfene and Abra. They intone the following prayer:
[2]
Oh Dio di pietà,
De l’uom che sarà!
Perdona l’error,
Che ingombra il suo cor!
Non far che sommerso
L’intero universo
O God of mercy,
What shall become of man?
Pardon the error
That dams up his heart!
Do not bring it to pass that we
Should see the entire universe
–63–
Mirco Palazzi (Noè)
Veggiamo dal mar!
Deh parli tua voce
All’empio profano,
Che stolto, e feroce,
Che ardito, ed insano,
Insulta al potere,
Che regge le sfere,
E privo di lume,
Sconosce, l’ingrato,
Cui desti col fiato
L’immago di te3,
La destra che il fe’!
Oh Dio di pietà,
De l’uom che sarà!
Pietà!
[3]
Overwhelmed by the sea!
Lo! let your voice speak
To the profane evil-doer,
Who, fierce and foolish,
Bold and senseless,
Insults the power
That controls the spheres –
The unenlightened man who,
In his ingratitude, knows you not:
You who with your breath
Created him in the image of yourself,
Created him with your own right hand!
O God of mercy,
What shall become of man?
Have mercy!
JAFET
to Noè as he sees Sela approaching
Di Cadmo la consorte,
See, the wife of Cadmo
Vedi, ver noi s’avanza.
Comes towards us.
TESBITE
Sul volto suo traspare
Her features betray a spirit
Spirto inquieto, agitato!...
That is restless and agitated!...
NOÈ
going towards Sela
Piange! Sospira! E di pallor si covre!... She weeps! Sighs! Pallor possesses her!...
___________________________________
3
Note in the original libretto: Gen. c.I. v.27. The verse in question reads: ‘So God created man
in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.’
–65–
SCENE II
Sela, who approaches in dismay and timidity, and those already on stage.
NOÈ
Sela?... You weep!...
SELA
Sela?... Tu piangi!...
Ah!
Ah!
NOÈ
Ah dimmi,
Qual ria cagione a lagrimar ti sforza?...
Non mai così smarrita
Ah, tell me,
What evil cause moves you to tears?...
Never before have you appeared so
dismayed
Venisti ad adorar l’Onnipossente!
When you have come to worship the
Almighty!
SELA
in the greatest distress
M’abborre!... Mi detesta!...
He loathes me!... detests me!... He takes
Tutto mi toglie!... Il pianto sol mi
Everything from me! All that is left me are
resta!...
my tears!..
NOÈ
Forse, Cadmo...
Cadmo, perhaps?...
SELA
Egli stesso!...
Yes, Cadmo!...
NOÈ
Nuove colpe immaginò?...
Has he been imagining new faults?...
SELA
Ah! ch’io taccia un tanto eccesso!
Ah! let me not speak of such an enormity!
Il mio cor gli perdonò.
My heart has forgiven him.
–66–
L’affidarmi le tue pene
Un sollievo a te sarà.
M’odi: e di’ che questa spene
Meco in tomba scenderà!...
NOÈ
Confiding your troubles to me
Will bring you relief.
SELA
Hear me: and tell me that my hopes
Are doomed to descend with me into the
tomb!...
[4]
Mentre il core abbandonava
While he abandoned his heart
A’ desiri più nefandi4,
To the most iniquitous desires,
E preghiera io sola alzava
And I alone raised my prayer
Al supremo autor del mondo,
To the supreme creator of the world,
Lascia gl’idoli esecrandi;
Cursing he quits his idols;
Mi sorprende furibondo...
In a paroxysm of fury he surprises me...
Il bambin ch’io stringo al petto,
He tears from me the baby I am clasping
Ei mi strappa, ed al cospetto
To my breast, and in full sight
De la turba iniqua e rea
Of the evil, wicked throng
A me dice: ‘Ov’è il tuo Dio?...
He says to me: ‘Where is your God?...
‘Io l’offendo, lo derido;
‘I insult him, I deride him;
‘A punirmi ognor lo sfido,
‘I am forever challenging him to punish me,
‘Nè ancor m’incenerisce,
‘But does he yet reduce me to ashes?
‘L’universo fa crollar?...’
‘Does he cause the universe to crumble?...’
Ahi che il core abbrividisce;
Alas, I feel my heart shudder;
Sento il sangue in me gelar!
I feel my blood turn to ice within me!
____________________________________
4
Note in the original libretto: Gen. c.VI. v.11. The verse in question reads: ‘The earth also was
corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.’
–67–
Majella Cullagh (Sela)
Empia stirpe di Caïno,
Quando cessi dal peccar!
Il flagello è ormai vicino,
Nè si cessa dal peccar!
Ma qual raggio qui divino
Splende, e il duolo fa scemar!...
[5]
Perchè nell’alma
In questo loco,
Provo una calma,
M’accende un foco,
Che il core in estasi
Sento rapir?...
Qui spiro un’aura,
Che m’innamora;
Celeste sembrami
Questa dimora;
Parmi fra gli angeli
Goder, gioir!
In fra le tenebre
Di gente infida,
Luce santissima
Ti sia di guida,
Onde fra gli angeli
NOÈ
Evil race of Cain,
When will you cease from sin?
THE OTHERS
By now the scourge is nigh,
Yet still men do not quit their sins!
SELA
But what divine light
Shines here, and assuages my grief?...
Why in this place
Do I feel a calm
In my soul?
Why am I lit up with a fire
That I feel transporting my heart
In ecstasy?...
Here I breathe an air
That fills me with love;
This dwelling-place seems to me
Heavenly by nature;
I feel I rejoice and delight
In the presence of angels!
ALL
Amid the dark shadows
Cast by faithless folk,
May a most holy light
Be your guide,
Enabling you to rise to Heaven
–69–
Al Ciel salir!
Goder, gioir!
Amid the angels!
To rejoice and delight!
(There is a sound of confused shouts.)
[6]
ARTOO & CHORUS
from off-stage
Corriam l’arca a incenerir!
Let us hasten to set fire to the Ark!
NOÈ
Quali grida! Qual tumulto!
But what shouting – what tumult – is this?
SELA
as she sees Artoo and his Satraps approaching
Son di Cadmo i rei seguaci!
These are the evil followers of Cadmo!
NOÈ
E a che mai con quelle faci?...
And whatever are they about with those
torches?...
SCENE III
Artoo at the head of the Satraps of Senáár, and those already on stage.
Su, compagni, quella mole
Non s’indugi a incenerir!
V’arrestate.
Vi frenate.
Sela!
ARTOO & CHORUS
Quick, comrades, do not let us delay
In setting fire to that
NOÈ
Stop!
SELA
Restrain yourselves!
ARTOO
Sela!
–70–
Mirco Palazzi
CHORUS
Sela!
Sela!
ALL
Con Noè!
Chi vi spinse a tanto ardire?
Il tuo sposo; il nostro re.
With Noè!
SELA
Who urged you to such bold outrage?
ARTOO & CHORUS
Your husband: our king.
Pria che spunti il nuovo Sole,
’Ere the new sun arises
Vuol che il ciel de l’oriente
He wishes that the orient skies should
Più non vegga nè la prole,
No longer behold either the offspring
Nè la stirpe di Noè!...
Or the race of Noè!...
Su compagni quella mole
Come, companions, let us not delay
Non s’indugi a incenerir!
To reduce that vast hulk to ashes.
(They prepare to set fire to the Ark)
NOÈ
No!
No!
[7]
In quell’arca rispettate
In that Ark respect
Il decreto in Ciel segnato
The decree signed in Heaven
Da quel Dio che dalla polve
By that God who created
Trasse l’uom e l’animò5!
Man from dust and gave him life!
L’uom che ingrato da quel dì
Man who, ungrateful from that day on,
Fe’ pentir chi lo creò6!...
Has caused his Creator to repent!...
___________________________________
5
Note in the original libretto: Gen. c.I. v.27. The verse has already been quoted above: see note 3.
Note in the original libretto: Gen. c.VI. v.6. The verse reads: ‘And it repented the Lord that he
had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.’
6
–72–
Anne Marie Gibbons
(Abra)
[8]
NOÈ, SELA, NOÈ’S SONS & THEIR WIVES
Sì. Quell’arca nell’ira de’ venti,
Yes. Amidst the anger of the winds,
Sovra l’onda spumante, infinita,
Upon the foaming and boundless wave,
Contra l’urto d’immensi torrenti
Confronting the buffet of immense
torrents,
Salverà de l’uom giusto la vita7,
That Ark will save the just man’s life,
Ed ogni empio fra ’l pianto
While amid tears and lamentation every
e ’l lamento
Piomberà nell’eterno tormento!
Evil-doer shall be thrust down to eternal
torment!
ARTOO & CHORUS
Si scateni la schiera de’ venti,
Yes, let every wind that blows be unleashed,
L’universo diventi un sol flutto;
Let the universe become a single surging
flood;
Si confondano insiem gli elementi,
Let the elements be confounded together,
Tutto l’orbe sia spento, e distrutto;
The whole globe be spent and destroyed;
Ma da l’uom non sarai tu creduto,
Yet you will never be believed by any man,
Il tuo Dio non sarà mai temuto!
Never will your God be feared!
Parla invano d’eterno tormento
With your words of false prophecy
Il tuo falso profetico accento!
You speak in vain of eternal torment!
[9]
Di Cadmo il cenno ognun per or
sospenda.
SELA
Desist one and all for now from Cadmo’s
orders.
_______________________________________
7
Note in the original libretto: Gen. c.VII. v.1. The verse reads: ‘And the Lord said unto Noah,
Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this
generation.’
–74–
ARTOO
E vuoi?
What would you have us do?
SELA
Riedere a lui; tentar col priego
Return to him; try with your prayers and
e ’l pianto
tears
Ch’ei rivochi ’l comando.
To have him revoke his command.
NOÈ
Il tenti invan.
You attempt it in vain.
ARTOO
to the Satraps
Partiamo. (Tal preghiera
Let us go. (Such a prayer
A lei sarà funesta!
Will prove her undoing!
Il consorte l’abborre; la detesta!)
Her husband abhors her – detests her!)
(Artoo and the Satraps depart.)
SELA
to Noè’s sons and their wives
Vi calmate.
Calm yourselves.
NOÈ
Ah che indarno ten lusinghi!
Ah! but you deceive yourself to
no purpose!
Quell’alma al par di quante
That man, like all others who
Ha vita al mondo,
Live in this world, is
Perversa sempre, e sempre mai ribelle
Ever perverse, ever rebellious
E’ alla voce d’un Dio!
To the voice of a [true] God!
SELA
L’intrepidezza tua, la tua costanza
Your bravery and your single-mindedness
–75–
Roland Wood (Artoo)
Rendon l’ardir primiero
A Sela.
E credi che l’udrà?
Fallace speme!... Donne
Nell’arca ritornate;
Restore to Sela
Her earlier courage.
NOÈ
And do you believe he will listen?
SELA
Lo spero.
I hope so.
(She departs.)
NOÈ
Vain hope!... Women,
Return to the Ark;
(The wives of Noè’s sons depart.)
Voi mi seguite, o figli,
You, my sons, follow me, that our voice
Ond’echeggi per il mondo nostra voce, May be heard throughout the world,
Nunzia di quel flagello
Heralding that scourge that comes to
Sterminator de l’uom ch’è a Dio
Exterminate the man who rebels against
rubello!
God!
(Noè leaves, accompanied by his sons.)
SCENE IV
A pleasure spot close by the dwelling of Cadmo.
[10]
Qui vederlo poss’io!... Cadmo!...
Tu ignori
Qual mi divampa in seno
Per te segreta fiamma!...
ADA
Would I might see him here!... Cadmo!...
Little do you know the secret flame
That burns in my breast for you!...
–77–
Fra le tue donne al par di Sela anch’io Amid your women I, too, like Sela, wish to
Sul tuo cor primo impero aver desio!... Hold first sway over your heart!..
Ma chi s’avanza?... Foss’ei pur!... No.
But who comes?...Could it be he?... No…
Artoo!...
Artoo!...
SCENE V
Artoo, the Satraps, and Ada.
ARTOO & CHORUS
Where is Cadmo? Tell us.
ADA
Lo ignoro – I cenni suoi?...
I do not know. His orders?...
ARTOO & CHORUS
Sospesi fur –
Were held over –
ADA
Parlate; chi voi tutti
Speak. Who forestalled all of you
In quel logo prevenne?
In that place? Who prevented each of you
Chi dal compirli il braccio a ognun
From carrying out his orders?
rattenne?
Ov’è Cadmo? Ci addita.
[11]
Sela!... Ah tu non la vedesti
Come ardita s’opponea!...
Come audace difendea
Quel profeta menzogner!
Ah! chi sa che consigliava
Quel vegliardo sciagurato!
ARTOO & CHORUS
Sela!... Ah, you did not see her...
How fiercely she opposed us!...
How boldly she defended
That false prophet!
Ah! who knows what counsel
That wretched old man gave her!
–78–
Manuela Custer
(Ada)
Qual sacrilego attentato
Suggeriva al suo pensier!
What sacrilegious initiative
He planted in her thoughts!
[12]
(Oh gioia!) Un tanto eccesso
A me la cura di narrar lasciate
All’offeso consorte!
Non visti ad esplorar colà tornate,
Onde appena vi rieda
ADA
(O joy!) Such an outrage
Leaves me the task of telling it
To her offended husband!
Return unseen to keep watch there,
And as soon as she returns, let Ada hear
of it
Ada il sappia per voi – M’udiste?
From you. You have understood me?
ARTOO & CHORUS
Udimmo.
We have understood.
(Artoo and the Satraps depart.)
Donna incauta!... M’aprì la tua rovina
Il mio trionfo, e Cadmo... Ei
s’avvicina...
ADA
Heedless woman!... Your ruin opens the
way
To my triumph, and Cadmo... He
approaches…
SCENE VI
Ada, and Cadmo.
[13]
Ada, e non altri qui ritrovo? Sela,
Che teco da’ prim’anni
CADMO
Ada, and find I no one else here?
Sela, who has always lived from her earliest
–80–
Visse mai sempre unita, oggi l’amica
Fugge pur’anco?...
Years inseparable from you... has
Your friend today abandoned you?...
ADA
Sela!
Sela!
CADMO
Veggio ben che quel nome
I see clearly that that name awakens
In tutti desta orror!... E pur mel credi, Horror in all!... And yet, believe me, in the
Nel segreto del cor talor mi parla
Secret recesses of my heart a voice
sometimes
Voce in favor di lei... Ma che?
Speaks in her favour... But what is this?
Tremante, figgi a terra lo sguardo!...
Trembling, you fix your gaze upon the
ground!
Parla; che avvenne?
Speak; what has happened?
ADA
Duolmi che ad Artoo
It grieves me that
Vietò compir tuoi cenni...
She forbad Artoo to carry out your
bidding...
CADMO
Adunque ell’era?...
Well then, she was...?
ADA
Con Noè.
With Noè!
CADMO
Sconsigliata!
Ill-advised creature!
Del mio voler in onta,
In defiance of my wishes,
Prosegue ad ascoltar menzogne, e fole! She continues to listen to lies and idle
stories!
–81–
ADA
And to love...
CADMO
Ad amar?...
To love?...
ADA
Deh fa ch’io taccia...
Ah, permit me to remain silent...
Tradir l’amica! (Amor m’assisti!)
That I should betray my friend! (Love,
come to my aid!)
CADMO
Il voglio.
I want you to speak.
A te l’impongo – Spiega?
I command you to do so – Explain yourself!
ADA
Il volgo crede...
The common people believe...
Forse s’inganna il volgo... ch’ell’adori
But perhaps they’re wrong... that she adores
Di Noè non il Dio, ma...
Not Noè’s God, but...
CADMO
Ebben, chi mai?
Well then, who?
ADA
Il primo figlio... Jafet!...
His eldest son... Jafet!...
CADMO
Che ascoltai!
What have I heard!
[14]
Ah perfida! a me spergiura...
Ah faithless woman! she plays me false...
ADA
(Oh gioja!
(Oh joy!
Invan non spero.)
I do not hope in vain.)
E ad amar...
–82–
Colin Lee (Cadmo)
... e il cor le regge in petto?
E i Numi e la natura
A calpestar sen va?
(Paghi i miei voti or sono.
Speranza di perdono
No, per lei non brillerà.)
Deh quel tuo sdegno frena...
Io lo giurai: cadrà.
Io l’amo, e la sua pena
Affanno mia sarà...
Ah sì, sarà.
Lo giurai: sì, cadrà.
(Che sprezzata l’adorai
Ricordarsi allor dovrà:
Quanto misera penai,
Tanto il cuore esulterà.)
L’odierò quant’io l’amai,
Al mio piè cader dovrà:
CADMO
... and her heart in her breast still sustains
her?
And she continues to trample underfoot
Both the Gods and nature?
ADA
(My hopes have now been realised.
No, no hope of pardon
Will shine for her.)
Ah! restrain your anger...
CADMO
I have sworn it: she shall fall.
ADA
I love her, and her punishment
Will be torment for me...
Yes, will be torment for me.
CADMO
I have sworn it: yes, she will fall.
ADA
to herself
(Then she will have to remember
That, scorned, I adored her:
To similar extent as in my misery I suffered,
So my heart will rejoice.)
CADMO
I shall hate her just as much as I loved her,
At my feet she must fall:
–84–
Nel suo scempio allor vedrai
Come il cor esulterà.
Addio.
Ma dove?
I rei cercar, svenar.
La fede, i Numi, il soglio
M’affretto a vendicar.
Deh! quel tuo sdegno frena.
Cadrà, cadrà, il voglio.
Ma frenati.
No.
Ma frenati.
M’affretto i Numi a vendicar.
[15]
Con mio dolor rammento
Come fu il cor beato,
Ma il primo amore è spento,
Tutte le furie ho a lato;
Già del furor nell’impeto
And in her destruction you will see
How my heart will exult.
CADMO
Farewell.
ADA
But where are you going?
CADMO
To seek out the guilty and kill them.
I hasten to revenge
Our faith, the Gods, the throne.
ADA
Ah! restrain your anger!
CADMO
She will fall, she will fall, I wish it.
ADA
But control yourself.
CADMO
No.
ADA
But control yourself.
CADMO
I hasten to revenge the Gods.
My grief makes me remember
How happy my heart once was,
But that first love is quenched,
All the furies are at my side;
Already in this first onset of fury
–85–
Parmi ferir quei barbari,
E il loro estremo anelito
La gioja mia sarà!
(Ah! speme di contento
Or t’apri, o cor beato.
Il lungo mio tormento
Svanì dal sen straziato;
Già del piacer nell’estasi
Lieta m’ondeggia l’anima;
O fortunati palpiti
Se mio quel cor sarà!)
La fede, i numi...
O mio contento!
Sì, i numi, il soglio,
M’affretto a vendicar.
Or paghi sono i voti.
Speranza di perdono
Per lei non brillerà.
Con mio dolor rammento
etc.
I seem to be striking down those wretches,
And it will be my joy
To witness their final breath!
ADA
(Ah! my fortunate heart,
Now you expand to hope of happiness.
My long torment has
Vanished from my anguished breast;
Already my soul floats joyfully
In an ecstasy of delight;
O fortunate anxieties
If that heart is [finally] to be mine!)
CADMO
Our faith, the Gods...
ADA
O! how happy I am!
CADMO
Yes, I hasten to revenge
The Gods, the throne.
ADA
Now all my hopes are realised.
No hope of pardon
Will shine for her.
CADMO
My grief makes me remember,
etc.
–86–
Ivana Dimitrijevic
(Asfene)
ADA
(Ah! my fortunate heart,
(Ah! speme di contento
etc.
etc.
SCENE VII
A valley as in Scene I.8
CHORUS OF SATRAPS
[16]
Franco inoltrate il pie’;
Deserto è affatto il piano.
Co’ figli suoi Noè...
... non è lontano.
Ebro di stolto ardir,
L’universal rovina
Ci seguita a predir
Più che vicina.
Sela!... L opprime il duol...
A stento qui s’appressa.
La tomba in questo suol
S’apre ella istessa!
Dispersi ci occultiam
SOME
Freely advance;
The plain is indeed deserted.
OTHERS
Noè and his sons...
... are not far off.
ALL
Drunk with foolish zeal,
He continues to predict to us
The proximity
Of universal ruin.
Sela!... Grief overwhelms her...
With difficulty she approaches.
She herself prepares her own tomb
In this spot.
Let us disperse, conceal ourselves among
___________________________________
8
The libretto itself is inconsistent. Scene I took place on ‘a vast plain’.
–88–
“Tra ’l verde, i bronchi, i massi;”
“The plants, the bushes, the rocky
outcrops;”
Muti ascoltiam, contiam
Let us listen in silence, let us count
Gli accenti, i passi.
Her words, her steps.
(They conceal themselves behind rocks and plants.)
SCENE VIII
Sela; then Noè.
[17]
Taccion finanche l’aure!...
Tutto è silenzio!... Rinvenir potessi
Noè, od alcun di sua famiglia!...
Ahi lassa!
Di me che n’avverria,
Se Cadmo in questo loco or mi
vedesse!...
Più sciôr non giova il labbro!
Il total’esterminio
Larva e fantasma che Noè si finge
Crede la stolta la perduta gente!...
Noè?...
Sela, a me riedi?...
SELA
Even the breezes fall silent!... There is
Not a sound!... Would I might encounter
Noè, or some member of his family!...
Wretched me!
What would become of me,
If Cadmo were to find me now in this
place!...
NOÈ
It is futile to speak further!
The foolish and doomed people believe
Their total annihilation a figment and
fantasy
That Noè conjures up in his imagination!...
SELA
Noè?...
NOÈ
Sela, you return to me?...
–89–
Patric Schmid (Producer), Robin Newton (Assistant Conductor),
Maria Cleva (Italian coach), Gerald Martin Moore (Vocal Consultant)
SELA
But as the bearer of evil tidings!
NOÈ
E qual? Disvela?...
What tidings? Reveal them...
SELA
Ahi Cadmo
Alas! Cadmo,
Più feroce, ed irato,
Fiercer, and more irate than ever,
Contro te, tua famiglia nuove pene
Purposes fresh penalties for you and your
Prefigge, se più resti!...
Family, should you stay longer!...
NOÈ
Stolto!
Fool!
SELA
Impose
He has ordered
Che a te più non tornassi...
That I should return to you no more...
NOÈ
E tu?...
And you?...
SELA
Ratta e furtiva il pie’ qui trassi;
In furtive haste I bent my steps hither;
Ada, l’amica, intanto
Ada, my friend, meanwhile,
A vegliarlo s’offrì.
Has offered to keep watch on him.
NOÈ
Duolmi che in grembo d’ogni colpa
I am grieved that he dies with all his sins
ei muore!
upon him!
Ultima al mondo fia la nuov’aurora!
The new dawn will be this world’s last!
SELA
Ahi che rammenti!...
Alas, what do you remind me of!...
NOÈ
E’ l’ultima
And this is the last time
Ma apportatrice di sinistro evento!
–91–
Volta che a te pur’anco Iddio favella;
E per man di Noè
T’offre modo a salvezza!...
Io pregherò che almen con mia famiglia
Dalla strage comun salvi te sola!
That God speaks to you,
And offers you the means of salvation
Through the hand of Noè!...
I shall pray that, together with my family,
He may at least save you, only you, from
the universal slaughter!
SELA
Ma tutti spenti?...
But will all die?...
NOÈ
E dubbia,
And are you still
Incerta ancor ne sei?...
Doubtful and uncertain?... Even you would
Tu pur non crederesti a’ detti miei?...
Prefer not to give credence to my words?...
[18]
Quel che del ciel su i cardini
He who holds his peaceful seat
Ha la tranquilla sede;
Above the pivotal axes of the heavens;
Che il mondo regge e tempera,
He who regulates and controls the world,
E tutto ascolta, e vede;
Who hears and sees all;
Udì; mirò l’audacia
He has listened; he has beheld the insolence
Del germe uman ribelle,
Of the rebellious human race,
E sorto irato, e torbido,
And, arising in rage, dire of purpose,
Tuonando dalle stelle,
Thundering from the stars,
Della rovente folgore
He has armed his divine hand
Armò la man superna,
With the fiery thunderbolt.
E sulla volta eterna,
And upon the everlasting vault of heaven
‘Sia polvere!...’ segnò!...9
He has writ ‘Let man be reduced to dust!’...
___________________________________
9
Note in the original libretto: Gen. c.VI. v.13. The verse reads: ‘And God said unto Noah, The
end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and,
behold, I will destroy them with the earth.’
–92–
Mirco Palazzi and Majella Cullagh
Deh fuggi dai perversi,
Ti salva, o donna, involati...
Tutti n’andran sommersi!...
Noè non t’ingannò.
Ohimè! Ohimè!
Ed io potrei mai vivere
Senza lo sposo, e il figlio;
Potrei senza vedermeli
Muovere intorno il ciglio?...
Un mare, un mar di lagrime
Io sempre verserei;
E mentre ognor co’ gemiti
Lo sposo chiamerei,
Con voce incerta e tenera...
Deh! fuggi!
…ovunque il figlio udria...
‘Dov’è la madre mia?...
Perchè m’abbandonò?...’
Così soavi affetti
Nel cor non posso estinguere!...
No; da sì cari oggetti
Dividermi non so!
Noè non t’ingannò!
Ah salvo io pur volea
Ah! fly from those who persist in error,
Save yourself, woman, flee...
All will be drowned!...
Noè has not deceived you.
SELA
Alas! Alas!
And could I ever [bear to] live
Without my husband, without my son?
Could I ever [bear to] cast my gaze around
And not see them about me?
I should forever shed
A sea – a sea of tears;
And while I should be perpetually calling
With despairing groans for my husband,
Everywhere I would hear my son...
NOÈ
Ah! flee
SELA
…crying with his wavering infant voice:
‘Where is my mother?...
Why has she abandoned me?...’
I cannot stifle such tender
Emotions in my heart!...
No; I know not how to cut myself off
From those who are most dear to me.
NOÈ
Noè has not deceived you!
Ah! I too would wish Cadmo saved,
–94–
E Cadmo, e l’orbe intero;
Ma sordo e ognor più fiero
Nel fallo imperversò!
Terribile sentenza!...
E in grembo all’innocenza
Il figlio mio...
Se il brami,
Teco salvar si può!
E come?...
Allor che il mondo
Tace in profondo sonno...
Sonno a’ mortali estremo,
Il figlio mio primiero
Ove destini ei fia
Tua guida...
Ed io dovrei?...
Al sommo Iddio t’affida.
Che mai risolverò?...
No, da sì cari oggetti
Non posso, ohimè, dividermi!
And all the world;
But deaf, and prouder than ever,
He has waxed furious in his sins!
SELA
Appalling sentence!...
And in the lap of innocence
My son...
NOÈ
If you wish it,
He may be saved with you!
SELA
But how?
NOÈ
When the world falls silent
In profound sleep...
For mortal men the last sleep of all...
My firstborn son
Will be your guide
Where you decide...
SELA
And I should have to...?
NOÈ
Entrust yourself to Almighty God.
SELA
Whatever shall I decide?...
No, alas! I cannot cut myself off
From those who are so dear to me!
–95–
Simon Bailey
(Jafet)
Così soavi affetti
Estinguerli non so.
Ah!
Ti salva dai perversi;
Noè non t’ingannò!
Tutti n’andran sommersi…
Salvati, involati, o donna:
Noè non t’ingannò!
I do not know how to extinguish
Such dear ties of affection.
NOÈ
Ah!
Save yourself from wicked men;
Noè has not deceived you!
All will be submerged...
Save yourself, lady, flee:
Noè has not deceived you!
SCENE IX
Sela, Noè, and a breathless Jafet.
[19]
JAFET
to Noè
Padre… Ah sappi… Li vidi in aguato… Father... Ah, let me tell you... I saw them
lurking…
to Sela
Del tuo sposo...
Your husband’s...
to Noè
Di Cadmo i seguaci...
Cadmo’s followers...
Sì – Gl’istessi che armati di faci
Yes – the same who, armed with torches,
L’arca santa tentaro incendiar!
Tried to burn the sacred Ark!
SELA
Che sarà!...
What may it mean?...
NOÈ
Che si tenta!
What do they intend?...
–97–
SELA
S’io fossi
Qui sorpresa!...
T’invola...
Che sarà?
Decidi.
Vuoi che il figlio ti adduca, ti guidi;
Fuor si trovi de l’empia città?
If I were
To be surprised here!...
NOÈ
to Sela
Depart stealthily...
SELA
What will become of me?
NOÈ
Make up your mind.
Do you want my son to escort and guide
you
Till you find yourself without the wicked
city?
SCENE X
Cadmo appears at the back of the stage, led on by Artoo, whom he orders to leave; then
Ada, and those already on stage.
Sì…
Tu dunque fedele l’attendi.
A te Sela fra l’ombre verrà!
SELA
after some hesitation
Yes…
NOÈ
to Jafet
Attend her faithfully, then.
Sela will join you amid the shadows!
–98–
[20]
SELA
turning with the intention of going
Cadmo!... Oh cielo!... Dove mi
Cadmo!... Heavens!... Where can I hide?...
ascondo?...
Egli stesso!... Ove celarmi?...
Cadmo himself!... Where can I conceal
myself?...
Che dirà?... Che mai rispondo?...
What will he say?... Whatever answer shall
I give?...
seeing Ada coming towards her
Ada!... Ah sol tu puoi salvarmi!...
Ada!... Ah, you alone can save me!...
Deh a me vieni... mi difendi...
Come to me... defend me...
Tu che Sela non abborri,
You who do not hold Sela in abhorrence,
Ciel pietoso – a me tu rendi
Merciful Heaven – restore my husband
Il mio sposo; – “Mi soccorri!...”
To me; – “Help me!...”
Se tu pure m’abbandoni,
If you, too, abandon me,
Da chi aita implorerò?
From whom shall I implore aid?
Digli tu che mi perdoni;
Be you the one to tell him to forgive me;
“Ch’io l’adoro, nè son rea!...”
“To tell him that I love him, that I am
guiltless!...”
Se tu pure m’abbandoni,
If you, too, abandon me,
Da chi aita implorerò?
From whom shall I implore aid?
CADMO
to Sela
Perchè fuggi?... Non rispondi?...
Why do you flee?... Do you not reply?...
Tremi, e al suolo hai fisso il ciglio?...
You tremble, and fix your gaze upon the
ground?...
–99–
to Noè
And you are silent and confused?...
Open your lips – give her your evil advice!...
Vile prophet, given over to conspiracy;
To plotting against honour and our cult!...
My anger no longer knows any restraint!...
Cadmo, you will no longer go
unrevenged!...
Questo Dio, che indarno ostenti,
This God, whom you boast about in vain,
A salvarti dal mio sdegno,
Let him descend to save you from my
wrath,
Scenda allor che fra’ tormenti
When I consign you to a thousand deaths
Mille morti a te darò!
In midst of torments!
NOÈ
to Cadmo
Troppo io dissi!... “Tu il rammenti!”
I have spoken too much... “But heed my
words!”
Tu coprir nol puoi d’obblio!...
No, you cannot banish my words from your
mind!...
Sacrosanti son gli accenti,
The words that God places upon my lips
Che al mio labbro porge Iddio!...
Are sacred!...
Vil Noè?... Noè cospira?...
Is Noè vile?... given over to conspiracy?...
Temerario!... “E il profferisci?...
Bold man!... “And dare you speak so?...
“Trema, trema, immensa è l’ira
“Tremble, the wrath of the Everlasting
“De l’Eterno!... Inorridisci!...”
“Is immense... Let it fill you with horror!...”
Questo Dio che tu cimenti,
This God whom you provoke, whom now
Ch’ora oltraggi, che calpesti,
You outrage, whom you trample underfoot,
E tu taci, ti confondi?...
Sciogli il labbro a reo consiglio!...
Vile profeta, che cospira;
Che all’onore insidia e al culto!...
Non ha freno in me più l’ira!...
Non andrai più Cadmo inulto!...
–100–
Nel furor degli elementi
Invocar allor ti udrò!
(Non temer – che teco sono,
Gli dirò che non sei rea;
L’amor suo, il suo perdono,
Per l’amica implorerò!)
“(Deh ti frena – Ah padre mio!...
“Ei svenar ti può d’un cenno...
“La tua destra salvi,” oh Dio,
Che te sempre rispettò!)
Soon I shall hear you calling upon him
Amidst the fury of the elements!
ADA
to Sela
(Do not be afraid – for I am with you,
I shall tell him you are not guilty;
I shall implore his love
And his pardon for my friend!)
JAFET
to Noè
“(Ah, restrain yourself – Father!...
“He can destroy you with a single word...”
O God, “let your right hand” save [your
servant]
Who has ever respected you!)
SCENE XII
Artoo, the Chorus of Satraps, followers of Cadmo, and all those already on stage.
[21]
Signor, dell’empio i figli
In tuo poter già cadono!
I figli miei!...
Gli avrai...
ARTOO & CHORUS
to Cadmo
My lord, the wicked wretch’s sons
Already fall into your power!
NOÈ
My sons!...
CADMO
You will have them...
–101–
Colin Lee and Mirco Palazzi
Al sen gli stringerai...
You will clasp them to your breast…
to the Satraps, indicating Noè and Jafet
Ambo si custodiscano!
Let both them and him be taken into
custody!
NOÈ
Che tenti?...
What do you intend?...
JAFET
Oh Dio!...
Oh God!...
NOÈ
I figli miei!...
My sons!...
SELA
to Cadmo
Pietà!...
Have mercy!...
CADMO
to Noè
La merti,
You deserve her,
to Sela
insiem ne andrai
you will go together –
Con lui che seppe accenderti
You and he who knew how to kindle
Il cor d’impuri affetti
Your heart with such unchaste affection
Pel figlio...
For his son...
NOÈ
Oh eccesso!...
Oh! what an outrage!...
JAFET
Oh infamia!...
Oh! what an infamous accusation!...
SELA
kneeling before Cadmo in desperation
Ah! sposo!
Ah! husband!
–103–
Ah rea non son, tel giuro...
Lo credi a queste lagrime!..
Sorgi. Da lui discostati.
Volgi quel pianto al Cielo,
Volgilo al Cielo:
Perchè gli squarci e dissipi
Di tante colpe il velo,
E noi... ma... Dio... sì... Dio
Già legge i nostri cuori!...
Difenderci saprà!
Speme sì folle e stolida
Funesta a te sarà!
(Vane son quelle lagrime;
Non otterran pietà!)
Vivere in tanta infamia,
Oh Ciel, chi mai potrà!
Ogni più vil calunnia
Il Ciel dileguerà!
Indeed I am guiltless, I swear it to you...
Believe it on the evidence of these tears!...
NOÈ
raising her
Rise. Quit his side.
Direct those tears to Heaven:
Direct them to Heaven: pray that
Heaven may tear from him and dissipate
The veil that hides so many crimes;
And we... but… God... yes… God
Reads our hearts already!...
He will know how to defend us!
CADMO
to Noè
A hope so foolish and senseless
Will be your undoing!
ADA
to Sela
(Those tears are in vain;
They will gain you no mercy!)
SELA
O Heaven, whoever could live
[Under suspicion of ] such infamy!
NOÈ & JAFET
Heaven will disperse
Even the vilest of calumnies!
–104–
Spento coi figli il perfido,
Con Sela alfin cadrà!
[22]
Ah! ti calma!
M’ascolta; ti frena...
Deh cedi; – mi credi,
Che pena maggiore
Non trovo, – non provo
Di quella ch’io sembri
Colpevole a te!
Ch’io mora!... E se un giorno
Saprai, – troverai,
Che Sela è innocente;
L’onore, – l’amore
Ridona a colei,
Che visse per te!
Nò... nò... vanne!
Empia! Empia!
“Allor che su l’etra
“Ascende, – risplende
“La face del Sole
“Sacrata, – adorata,
ARTOO & CHORUS
The perfidious fellow at last will drop dead,
Together with his sons and with Sela.
SELA
to Cadmo
Ah! calm yourself!
Hear me: restrain yourself...
Ah! submit; believe me:
I cannot imagine or experience
Any greater pain
Than that of appearing
Guilty in your eyes!
Let me die!... And if one day
You discover and find
That Sela is innocent,
Restore her honour, and give once again
Your love to her
Who lived [only] for you!
CADMO
to Sela
No… no… begone!
Evil woman! Evil woman!
to Noè
“When the fiery Sun
“Ascends the sky,
“And shines,
“Venerated and adored,
–105–
“Vedrà su gli altari
“La vittima in te!”
E il mondo che t’odia,
Festivo, – giulivo,
Già sento che grida:
L’ha vinto. – L’ha estinto!
Per sempre disparve
Il Dio di Noè!
“Più bella del Sole
“Sfavilla, – scintilla
“Di luce una fiamma!
“Divampo – al suo lampo!
“Il foco ch’io sento
“Mortale non è!”
Un Dio che ”nel petto
Discende,” m’accende!
“M’investe, mi guida!”
Non tremo; – non temo;
L’intero universo
Disfida Noè!
(Oh quali al pensiero,
Momenti, – contenti
L’amore dipinge!
Se spenti cadranno
E Sela, e Noè!)
“It will behold upon the altars
“Its victim in you!”
And the world that hates you –
Already I hear it, festive
And rejoicing, as it cries: [The Sun]
Has vanquished him – destroyed him!
The God of Noè
Has been blotted out for ever!
NOÈ
to Cadmo, as if inspired
“There is a blaze of light,
“More beautiful than the Sun,
“That radiantly sparkles!
“I am set aflame at its flash!
“And the fire that I feel
“Is of no mortal origin!”
A God who “descends
Into my breast” sets me on fire!
“I am filled with him, he directs me!”
I do not tremble – I know no fear:
Noè defies
The entire universe!
ADA
(Oh! what moments of happiness
Love paints
In my thoughts!
If Sela and Noè
Are both to fall!)
–106–
(Un Dio nel mio petto
Discende, – m’accende,
M’investe, mi guida!
L’intero universo
Difenda Noè!)
(L’audace, il ribaldo
Sia spento! – E l’evento
Al mondo appalesi,
“Che vinto; – ch’estinto,”
Per sempre disparve
Il Dio di Noè!)
JAFET
(A God descends into my breast
And sets me on fire!
He fills me, he guides me!
May the whole universe
Defend Noè!)
ARTOO & CHORUS
(Let the presumptuous old rascal
Be put to death! And let the event
Be made known to all the world:
“That, vanquished and destroyed,”
The God of Noè
Has been blotted out forever!)
Total freeze.
End of Act One.
–107–
Manuela Custer
CD2
57’21
ACT TWO
A pleasure spot, as in Act One.
SCENE I
Ada, alone.
[1]
ADA
Non mi tradir, speranza! Odo nel petto O hope, do not betray me! I hear
La tua voce soave,
Your sweet voice within my breast,
Cadmo per me palpiterà d’affetto!
[Saying that] Cadmo’s heart will beat with
affection for me!
Oh gioja estrema! Immensamente io
O pinnacle of joy! I love him beyond all
l’amo,
telling,
Ma mio, sol mio, lo bramo.
But I want him mine, mine alone.
Sela! Odiata rival! Per te le vene
Sela! Hated rival! My veins are on fire
M’ardon finchè respiri
With unquenchable desperate rage
D’inestinguibil disperato sdegno:
For as long as you live: you will die, I hope,
Morrai, lo spero, e allor su Cadmo
And then I’ll hold sway over Cadmo.
io regno.
[2]
Ah non tacermi in core,
O hope, that lights up by breast,
Speme, che il sen m’accendi;
Do not fall silent in my heart;
Vivo sperando amore:
I live in hope of love: do not fall silent,
Ah non tacermi, no: morrò!
No: I should die!
Se co’ tuoi sogni rendi
If with your dreams you grant my heart
–109–
Il cor beato appieno,
Alle delizie in seno
Reggere non saprò.
[3]
Sarà lieve il mio tormento,
Sarà dolce il palpitar
The fulfilment of its desires,
I shall not know how to support the
delights
That will come flooding in my breast.
My [past] suffering will be as nothing,
The tremblings of my heart will be
welcome
Se in eccesso di contento
If I shall see this grief transformed
Questo duol vedrò cangiar!
Into a surge of happiness!
Ah! chiedon poco i voti miei,
Ah! in my prayers I ask for little,
Non è ardito, no, il mio sospir:
My sighs are not presumptuous [in their
desires]:
Dir che m’ama udir vorrei,
I [simply] wish to hear that he loves me,
E in quell’estasi morir.
And in that ecstasy die!
Ah! non tacermi in seno, no,
Ah! hope, that lights up my breast,
Speme che il sen m’accendi:
Do not fall silent in my heart:
Ah no!
Ah no!
Sarà lieve il mio tormento,
My [past] suffering will be as nothing,
etc.
etc.
(In the very moment that she is about to depart, she is detained by Cadmo.)
SCENE II
Cadmo and Ada.
[4]
CADMO
Ada, t’arresta. La spergiura moglie,
Ada, stay. My perjured wife – no,
No, non più moglie, disperato pianto No more my wife – sheds despairing tears,
–110–
Versa, e fioca mi chiama
Calls me from afar with feeble voice,
Da lunge, e mi persegue, e forse brama, Pursues me, and perhaps wishes, foolish
Folle! ottener da chi tradì perdono:
Woman! to gain the pardon of him she
betrayed:
Essa lo spera invan: disingannato
She hopes it in vain: I am undeceived.
io sono.
ADA
(Oh gioja estrema!) Ah! l’odi almen.
(O crowning joy!) Ah! but hear her at least.
CADMO
Squarciasti
You rent asunder
L’orrendo velo che ascondea sue colpe, The horrendous veil that hid her faults,
E tu, tu sola merti,
And you, you who manifested
Tu che avesti di me tanto pensiero,
Such concern for me,
L’amor mio!
You alone deserve my love!
ADA
L’amor tuo?... Oh, non lo spero.
Your love?... Oh, I do not hope it.
Sela vive.
Sela lives.
CADMO
Morrà.
She shall die.
ADA
Ma l’odi, e poi
But you will listen to her, and then
Favella cangerai,
You will change your tune, you will
Di quel pianto al poter ceder dovrai.
Perforce yield to the power of those tears.
CADMO
Io!... sospetti invan. Fuggasi.
I?.. You suspect me unjustly. Let me flee her.
ADA
Il vedi
You will see if my prediction has been wide
–111–
Se al ver m’opposi. Quando a’ suoi
lamenti
Sfuggir tu vuoi, il suo poter paventi.
Of the mark. When you wish to fly
Her lamentations, fear her power.
CADMO
Well then, conceal yourself. Here she comes.
Ebben, t’ascondi. Ella qui viene.
Io sfido
A cangiare il mio cor. Cadmo ha giurato I defy her to alter my heart. Cadmo has
Di spezzarla, ed il mio sarà
Sworn to break with her, and my quittance
L’estremo addio.
Of her shall be my last.
M’oda, e del suo perdono
Let her but hear me, and her hopes
Svanirà la speranza.
Of pardon will vanish.
ADA
as she leaves
Il mio trionfo ogni altra gioja avanza.
My triumph exceeds all other joy.
SCENE III
Ada, Sela, and Cadmo.
ADA
bringing in Sela
“Vieni mia fida amica. A lui t’avanza.” “Come, my faithful friend. Approach him.”
(Ada leaves.)
[5]
CADMO
to Sela, interrupting her wish to speak to him
Non profferir parola,
Do not utter any word
Che il mio perdono implori!...
Designed to implore my pardon!...
Eri primiera e sola,
You were the first and only woman
–112–
Colin Lee
Che in cor destavi ardori!
Quel ch’io nutriva un giorno
Dolce, ed immenso amor,
Divenne per tua colpa
Odio, disprezzo, orror.
Non vengo al tuo cospetto
Ad implorar perdono;
Rea mi farebbe un detto,
Quanto innocente io sono!...
Quel che nomavi un giorno
Pegno d’immenso amore,
Stringere alseno io bramo
Per una volta ancor!
Quel che nomavi un giorno
Pegno di puro ardor!
Quello stringer per una volta –
Io stringere bramo ancor.
No – Di veder tuo figlio,
Invan tu speri, e prieghi!...
E questo ancor mi nieghi
Conforto al mio dolor?...
[6]
Ebben se chiudo
Per sempre il ciglio,
Who aroused passionate desires in my
heart!
But that sweet and boundless love
That once I nourished for you
Has become, through your fault,
Hatred, scorn and horror.
SELA
I do not come into your presence
To plead for pardon;
A single such word would make me guilty,
No matter how innocent I am!...
But I wish to embrace
For one last time
Him whom one day you called
The pledge of your immense love!
Him whom one day you called
The guarantee of your undying ardour!
I wish to embrace him again –
Embrace him for one last time.
CADMO
No – to see your son
You hope and sue in vain!...
SELA
And do you deny me even
This comfort to my grief?...
Very well then, if I am to close
My eyelids forever,
–114–
Majella Cullagh with
Stuart Wild (Répétiteur)
E più non veggo
L’amato figlio;
Non dirgli allora
Che di me chiede,
Tua madre iniqua
Mancò di fè!
Deh! Ah non lo dir!
Chè se di lagrime,
Dono pietoso,
Sulle mie ceneri
Non verserà;
Almen quel misero,
Mel credi, o sposo,
La mia memoria
Rispetterà!
Allor che chiudi
Per sempre il ciglio,
N’andrà, e per sempre
Lontano il figlio!...
Ah!
Il tuo sembiante
In lui scolpito,
Rammenterebbe
Chi m’ha tradito…
If I am no more to see
My beloved son,
Tell him not,
When he asks of me,
‘Your evil mother
Was faithless to her word!’
Ah! do not tell him that!
For even if he’ll not shed
The compassionate gift
Of tears
Upon my ashes,
At least the unhappy child –
Believe me, husband –
Will respect
My memory!
CADMO
When you close
Your eyelids forever,
Your son will be sent far away
And for ever!...
SELA
Ah!
CADMO
Your features,
Engraved in his memory,
Would recall to his mind
The woman who betrayed me…
–116–
Ah! no, no, no, no.
Questo pur mi nieghi?
Ma pria di perderlo,
Nell’ultim’ora,
Il tuo delitto
Saper dovrà!...
La mia memoria
Rispetterà!
Così più misero,
Più oppresso ognora,
La tua memoria
Maledirà!
[7]
E tanta crudeltade
Serbar nel cor potrai?...
Ah! tutto ancor non sai!...
Che più degg’io soffrir!
Più non mi sei consorte...
Ah!... sposo… sposo…
SELA
Ah! no, no, no, no.
Do you deny me this, too?
CADMO
But before I lose him
In the final hour of my life,
He must know
Of your crime!...
SELA
He will respect
My memory!
CADMO
Thus more miserable,
More oppressed than ever,
He will curse
Your memory!
SELA
And can you harbour
Such cruelty in your heart?...
CADMO
Ah! you do not yet know all!...
SELA
What more must I suffer!
CADMO
No longer are you my wife...
SELA
Ah!... husband… husband…
–117–
Il cor, gli affetti miei,
In premio avrà colei,
Che mi svelò...
Oh martir!...
Ada sarà...
Che intesi!...
Ada... dicesti!...
Sì.
Quella!... Ada... il tuo core!...
Che dicesti!... il tuo core!... Ada!
Ah tutti avversi a me così?...
Tradita dall’amica,
Scacciata dal consorte,
Dal figlio maledetta,
Preda d’infamia, e morte!...
Questa innocente vittima
A chi si volgerà?...
Dio! che mi leggi in core...
Dio! del mio dolor pietà!
Son vane le tue lagrime;
Non meriti pietà!
CADMO
My heart and my affections
Will [henceforth] belong, as her reward,
To the woman who revealed to me...
SELA
O martyrdom!...
CADMO
It is Ada who will be...
SELA
What have I heard!...
You said... Ada!...
CADMO
Yes.
SELA
She!... Ada... your heart!...
What have you said?... Your heart!... Ada!
Ah! are all so set against me?...
Betrayed by my friend,
Cast out by my husband,
Cursed by my son,
A prey to shame and death!...
To whom may this innocent
Victim turn?...
O God! You who readest in my heart,
God, have pity on my grief!
CADMO
Your tears are bootless;
You deserve no pity!
–118–
Sposo!
Invoca il Dio d’Adamo!
Quel Dio ti salverà!
SELA
Husband!
CADMO
Call upon the God of Adam!
That is the God who will save you!
(They leave.)
SCENE IV
A valley, as in Act One. Noè slumbers upon an outcrop of rock. His sons and their wives
are grouped around him. The followers of Cadmo keep watchful guard over them all.
[8]
Gli empi ’l circondano;
Minaccian morte,
Ma in mezzo agl’empi
Noè riposa.
In Dio, ch’è l’arbitro
Della sua sorte,
Secura l’anima
Tranquilla posa.
[9]
NOÈ’S FAMILY
His enemies surround him,
They threaten him with death;
Yet in the midst of the evil-doers
Noè finds rest.
In God, who will decide
His destiny,
His soul securely
And peacefully rests.
NOÈ
rousing himself
Ah!...
Ah!
JAFET
Padre?...
Father?...
NOÈ
Figli miei!... No, no. Non è vero!...
My sons!... No, no. It is not true!...
–119–
Irina Lungu
(Tesbite)
TESBITE
What ill-omened thought
Cast a shadow over your dreams?...
NOÈ
Nel mio breve sopor parea che dopo
In my brief slumber it seemed that after
Il flagello tremendo
The passing of this terrible scourge,
Un di voi, figli, avessi maledetto!...
It fell to my lot to curse one of you, my
sons,
E tutta la sua stirpe!...10
And all your offspring!...
SEM
Ah no. Che parli?...
Ah no. What are you talking about?...
JAFET
Non mai!...
Never shall that be!...
NOÈ
No, no. Non paventate...
No, no. Have no fears... Come,
Tutti al mio sen venite. M’abbracciate... All of you, to my arms. Embrace me...
Ma chi s’avanza?...
But who approaches?...
SEM
Sela!...
Sela!...
NOÈ
Trascinata così!... Pietoso Iddio,
Dragging her steps like that!... Merciful
Forza tu inspira a lei!
God, give her strength!
Quale funesta idea
Tuoi sonni rattristò!...
____________________________________
10
Note in the original libretto: Gen. c.IX. v.25. The verse reads: ‘And [Noah] said, Cursed be
Canaan [the son of Ham – Cam in the Italian]; a servant of servants shall he be unto his
brethren.’
–121–
SCENE V
Sela, conducted by the followers of Cadmo, and those already on stage.
SELA
to Noè, and the members of his family
Per mia cagion voi tutti. Ah no!
Because of me, all of you... Ah no!
Che dissi!
What have I said!
Ada, l’iniqua donna,
Che sedusse il consorte,
Tragge Sela, Noè, tuoi figli a morte!
Morte a Noè!... Chi l’ha segnata?...
Ada, that wicked woman
Who seduced my husband,
Drags Sela, Noè and his sons to death!
NOÈ
Death to Noè!... Who has decreed it?...
SCENE VI
Cadmo followed by the Satraps of Sennáár, by Artoo, by Priests of Europa, by African
Copts, by Brahmins of Atlantide, by the followers of Cadmo, and by the citizens of
Sennáár; and all those already on stage.
CADMO
Io stesso!...
I myself!...
Onde aprirti il sentiero, che ti adduce To open up for you the path that leads you
In grembo della tua sognata luce!
Into the midst of your dreamed-of light.
NOÈ
Insano! La vuoi tu?...
Madman! You seek my death?...
CADMO
Non io soltanto,
Not I alone,
Ma il mondo stanco ormai
But the world, that by now is tired
–122–
Mark Wilde
(Sem)
Di tollerar tue fole,
Arso te vuole in un con quella mole!
Of tolerating your idle tales,
Wishes you burned, together with that
hulk!
(He indicates the Ark.)
NOÈ
Illeso io vi sarò!...
I shall be immune from harm there!...
E quando un solo, immenso,
Even when a single, immense,
Infinito oceano
Infinite ocean
L’orbe perverso inonda;
Engulfs this perverse globe;
Quando non rimarrà che cielo ed onda! When nothing shall remain but sea and sky!
CADMO
E chi puote cangiar l’invariabile
And who can change the invariable
Ordine di natura?...
Order of nature?...
NOÈ
Chi? Chi a un sol cenno d’impero,
Who? He who with a single gesture of
command
Vide brillar la luce,
Saw the light shine forth,
Rotar le stelle, e separarsi i mari,
The stars rotate, and the seas divide,
I fiumi uscir dai fonti,
The rivers issue from their springs,
Le valli aprirsi, e sollevarsi i monti!
The valleys open, and the mountains rise!
CADMO
Popoli a voi lo rendo;
People, I deliver him over to you:
Del più brutal furor delira!...
He raves with the most brutish madness!...
NOÈ
Il vero,
O people,
Popoli a voi predico.
I predict the truth to you.
–124–
CADMO
Non più. Si compia la prescritta pena; No more. Let the prescribed sentence be
executed;
E Sela, e i figli tutti
And Sela, and all his sons, be dragged
Sian tratti all’arca, e al par di lui
To the Ark, and destroyed along with him!
distrutti!
NOÈ
to Sela, who is weeping
A che quel pianto?... Temi
Wherefore this weeping?... Do you fear
Che t’abbandoni Iddio? In lui t’affida! That God may abandon you? Entrust
yourself to him!
SELA
Per l’innocenza mia, pel figlio io
I weep on account of my innocence, and for
piango!...
my son!...
CADMO
Il ciel di Sennáár, che accoglie quanti
Let the skies of Sennáár, the city that
welcomes
Del mondo tutto i popoli appresentano, As many of the peoples of all the earth who
present themselves,
Echeggi d’un sol grido, e sia pur quello, Echo with a single shout, and let it be this:
Che l’uom vivrà mai sempre
That man shall live forever trampling
calpestando
underfoot
Ogni legge, ogni freno,
Every law and every restraint,
E spargerà d’obblio,
And shall cast into oblivion,
Col suo falso profeta, il falso Dio!...
Together with his false prophet, the false
God!...
–125–
Dean Robinson
(Cam)
[10]
NOÈ
kneeling, overcome with horror
Dio tremendo, onnipossente,
Tremendous God, Almighty God,
Del creato autor sovrano,
Sovereign author of creation,
L’opra eccelsa di tua mano
Do not destroy in this way
Non distruggere così!
The choice work your hand has created!
La idolatra, e cieca mente,
Ah! enlighten idolatry,
Deh tu illumina, perdona!...
And pardon the blind mind!...
SELA, CADMO & JAFET
Dio tremendo, onnipossente,
Tremendous God, Almighty God,
L’opra tua non distruggere così.
Do not destroy your work in this way.
NOÈ
Dio, Dio tremendo,
God, tremendous God,
L’opra tua non distruggere così.
Do not destroy your work in this way.
Ah no! Ah!...
Ah no! Lo!...
(in sudden fear, and as if inspired)
[11]
Ah! L’abisso freme, e tuona!...
Ah! The abyss shudders and thunders!...
Al flagello il varco aprì!...
At his stroke the abyss is opened!...
CADMO, ARTOO & CHORUS
(All’aspetto della tomba
(At the sight of the tomb
Non si scosse, impallidì!)
He has neither trembled nor grown pale!)
SELA & ALL THE OTHERS
(Il suo detto al cor mi piomba;
(His words penetrate down to my heart;
Ogni vena abbrividì!)
My every vein has shuddered!)
Ah... Si veste il ciel di tenebre...
NOÈ
Ah… The sky is girt with shadows...
–127–
Il Sol si oscura, e annera!...
The Sun is obscured, and turns black!...
Dove i suoi rai brillavano
Where his rays were shining,
Morte si asside, e impera!...
Death presides, and holds sway!...
Chiaman le madri i figli;
Mothers call for their sons;
E i tuoni lor rispondono!...
And peals of thunder answer them!...
Cercan le figlie i padri;
Fathers seek for their daughters;
Spenti al balen gli veggono!...
A flash shows them their corpses!...
Confondonsi gli oceani,11
The oceans are confounded together,
Muggiscon turbi, e venti;
The winds and tempests roar;
Precipitan le nuvole;
The clouds precipitate rain;
Rovesciano torrenti:
The torrents spill forth:
L’onde – non han più sponde;
Every man has perished
In essi ogni uom perì!...
In waves that no longer find shores;
Ah! tutto – disperse il flutto;
Ah! everything has been dispersed,
Sommerse, seppellì!
Submerged, engulfed by the flood!
Tutto il flutto seppellì!
The flood has engulfed everything!
SELA, NOÈ’S SONS & THEIR WIVES
(Tutto squarciò il suo guardo
(His gaze has utterly torn asunder
L’atro, lugubre velo!...
The black and dismal veil!...
Mirò quai pene il Cielo
He has seen what punishments Heaven
Prefisse all’empietà!)
Has ordained for impiety!)
CADMO, ARTOO & CHORUS
Come fulgor più vivo,
Just as a dying torch is crowned
Face che muor corona,
By an increasingly vivid light,
___________________________________
11
Note in the original libretto: Gen. c.VII. v.11. The verse reads: ‘In the six hundredth year of
Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the
fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.’
–128–
Così Noè più tuona
Or che spirar dovrà!
Dio tremendo, onnipossente,
etc.
So Noè thunders ever more loudly
Now that he must die!
NOÈ
Tremendous God, Almighty God,
etc.
THE OTHERS
Ogni vena abbbrividì!
Every vein in my body is set shuddering!
Dio tremendo, onnipossente!
Tremendous, Almighty God!
(Noè, his sons and their wives are led towards the Ark. Cadmo and Artoo, followed by
all the other people on stage, set off in the opposite direction.)
End of Act Two.
–129–
Rehearsal at Opera Rara music library
ACT THREE
The interior of a building designed for banquets and marriages.
SCENE I
The Satraps of Sennáár with their womenfolk; the Priests of Europa; the African Copts;
the Brahmins of Atlantide; Artoo, Cadmo and Ada.
[12]
Stirpe angelica, ti bea
Ne’ diletti I più vietati!...
Cadde l’empio, che volea
Serva l’alma e schiavo il cor!...
E’ la vita senza freno,
Senza leggi, l’alimento
Del sublime sentimento,
Che fa l’uom di se maggior;
E germoglia come pianta,
Che freschezza mai non perde;
Ma più bella, e sempre verde
La riveste e fronda e fior!
Stirpe angelica, ti bea
etc.
CHORUS
Angelic stock, indulge your delight
In the most forbidden joys!...
The impious man has fallen, who wished
Our souls in servitude and our hearts in
slavery!...
Life that is unchecked and
Unlicensed is the nourishment
Of that sublime feeling
That makes a man greater than himself;
And it buds like a plant
That never loses its freshness;
But ever more beautiful, and ever green,
Clothes itself anew in frond and flower!
Angelic stock, indulge your delight
etc.
[13]
CADMO
Sì. Popoli, gioite.
Yes. People, rejoice.
Il menzogner Noè fia polve in breve!... The false Noè will soon be dust!...
–131–
Ada, che il tradimento
Seppe svelar, posseggami!...
Let Ada, who was able to reveal
The betrayal, possess me!...
ADA
(Oh contento!)
(Oh how happy I am!)
ARTOO
as Cadmo is leading Ada away
T’arresta. Ah vedi… Sela
Stop. Look... Sela
A te ritorna…
Returns to you...
ALL
in surprise
Sela!...
Sela!...
ADA
in dismay
(E ancor in vita!)
(And still she lives!)
CADMO
Come salva?... A che vien?...
How come she’s saved?... What brings her
here?...
SCENE II
Sela, and those already on stage.
SELA
arriving in exhaustion, and falling into the arms of the women
Pietade!... Aita!...
Have pity!... Help me!...
CADMO
Donna spergiura, infida!...
Perjured, faithless woman!... Who freed you
Chi da lacci ti sciolse, e a me ti
From your bonds, and brings you to me?...
guida?...
–132–
[14]
SELA
recovering by degrees
Senza colpa mi scacciasti,
You hunted me, guiltless, from you,
Ed io vittima innocente,
And I, an innocent victim,
Più da te m’allontanava,
The further I found myself from you,
Più per te d’amor ardea!...
The more I burned with love for you!...
Di Noè chiamava il Dio,
I called upon the God of Noè,
Ma quel Dio non rispondea!...
But that God did not reply!...
Solo Cadmo, il figlio mio
Only Cadmo and my son
Numi apparvero al pensier!...
Appeared like deities to my thoughts!...
Ahi da tutti abbandonata,
Alas, abandoned by all,
Dell’inganno allor m’avvidi!...
I then perceived the deception!...
Disperata... Forsennata...
Desperate... Beside myself...
Non bramai che te veder!...
I wished only to see you!...
Senza colpa mi scacciasti,
You hunted me, guiltless, from you,
Ed io vittima innocente,
And I, an innocent victim,
Disperata... forsennata...
Desperate... beside myself...
Non bramai che te veder!...
I wished only to see you!...
Più da te m’allontanava,
The further I found myself from you,
Più per te d’amor ardea!...
The more I burned with love for you!...
Disperata... forsennata...
Desperate... beside myself...
Non bramai che te veder!...
I wished only to see you!...
Ah! se rea mi credi ancora,
Ah! if you still believe me guilty, and will
Nè il tuo cor mi rendi, e il figlio,
Not give me back your heart, and my son,
Per tua man deh! fa ch’io mora,
Lo, let it be that I die by your hand,
E contenta io spirerò!
And happily I shall draw my last breath!
–133–
Majella Cullagh and Manuela Custer
[15]
ADA
to Cadmo
Non dar fede a quegli accenti;
Put no trust in her words;
Che ingannarti ognor tentò!
For she has always tried to deceive you!
SELA
to Ada
Alma avvezza a’ tradimenti
You, a soul that has become inured to
betraying,
Giudicar di me non può!
You cannot pass judgement on me!
CADMO
showing Sela her young son
A te il figlio, l’amor mio
I shall restore you your son and my love
Renderò se dal tuo labbro
If from your lips
Maledir d’Adamo il Dio
Cadmo and every man present shall hear
you
Cadmo, ogni uomo ascolterà!
Curse the God of Adam!
SELA
Renderai tu?...
You will give back to me…?
CADMO
Il figlio.
Your son.
ADA
(Lo perdo!)
(I am losing him!)
CADMO
Maledici...
Pronounce the curse...
ADA
(Oh avversità!)
(All turns against me!)
SELA
Io… si.
I must curse? Yes.
–135–
overcome by trembling as she goes to pronounce her curse
[16]
(Perchè ignoto brivido
(Why does an unknown shuddering
Fiato… respir… m’invola!...
Deprive me of breath and air?...
Ahi! sul mio labbro gelido
Alas! upon my icy lip
Tronca la rea parola!...)
The evil word is cut short!...)
Chi mai? Perchè?
Who ever [oppresses me]? Why?
Un brivido
A shudder
Tronca la rea parola,
Cuts short the guilty word…
Il respiro m’invola,
Deprives me of my breath...
Mi tronca la pa…ro...la...
Cuts the word short...
Ah sposo, questo detto
Ah my husband, do not force me
Non farmi profferir!
To utter these words.
CADMO
Maledici!
Pronounce the curse!
SELA
Mi manca la parola…
I cannot utter the word...
CADMO
Maledici!
Pronounce the curse!
SELA
Fiato... respir... m’invola.
I am deprived of breath... of air.
Ah sposo, questo detto
Ah my husband, do not force me
Non farmi profferir!
To utter these words.
ALL
Venisti adunque, indegna,
Have you come here then, unworthy
woman,
A fingere, a mentir!
To pretend and lie?
–136–
SELA
Ah no...
CADMO
Ah no…
Parla...
Speak...
SELA
forcing herself to do as she is bid
Sia… maledetto… il Di…o…
Cursed… be… the God...
[17]
Man...ca... il... respir...!!!
I… can… not… breathe!!!
no longer able to see
Cadmo…
Cadmo…
seeking her son
Il figlio… Ah!
My son… Ah!
(As she utters her final words there comes a clap of thunder, followed by continual flashes
of lightning and thunderbolts, which are to be seen flashing across a hole in the ceiling.
Sela dies in the midst of her sobs.)
ALL
terrified, and confused without knowing where to turn
Spirò!...
She is dead!...
SCENE III
Chorus of Satraps, and those already on stage.
Ah! Non mai viste tenebre
Ascondon cielo e terra!
Scoppian saette e fulmini;
CHORUS
Ah! A darkness never before seen
Obscures heaven and earth from view!
Thunderbolts and flashes of lightning break
forth;
–137–
Van gli elementi in guerra;
“Salvo è il Profeta, e impavido
“Sfida procelle, e folgori!”
Quanto Noè predisse
Tutto compir si mira!...
Il vero, il vero ei disse;
Il mai creduto Dio vendetta spira!!!
The elements war with each other;
“The Prophet is safe, and fearlessly
“Defies the storms and bolts of lightning!”
Everything Noè predicted
Is seen to come to pass!...
He spoke the truth, the truth;
The God we never believed in breathes
vengeance!!!
(Sela is carried out. All flee, and disperse in the greatest confusion.)
SCENE IV
Valleys and mountains as far as the eye can see.
While the waters cascade from the heavens, they also gush forth from the mountains
and rise up from the ground, so that the families of mankind are all overwhelmed.
Only the Ark is seen riding out the waves in safety.
End of the azione tragico-sacra.
–138–
Giuliano Carella
Sir Peter Moores, CBE