Re: [mascagni-interest] Act 4 of Parisina

[Erik Bruchez]

All,

It is true that Act IV is almost entirely devoid of action. Ugo and
Parisina are enlaced and indivisible. Stella appears and tries to get
Ugo to come towards her so that she can kiss him, but Ugo barely
moves. Besides that, the scene is entirely static! Ugo asks Parisina
where he should place her (next to the execution block), but nothing
in the libretto appears to confirm that the actors indeed move.
This is what Lazaro, creator of the role of Ugo, says in his
autobiography (the translation is not mine):
  "In the first act I sang one hour and ten minutes on the
  "passagio". In the second act I sang three quarters of an hour as a
  madman in the middle of a battle. The third act, was the "love one";
  during the kissing scene; everything was expressed in seven minutes
  of music until caught by Ugo's father and beheaded. The fourth act
  was performed almost in the dark. The audience saw two figures only;
  the soprano and the tenor, embraced and on the clouds in other
  world; quiet and still for 35 minutes until the end of the act. This
  was a terrible torture for me because after been singing an opera
  that lasted four and half an hour, they composed that act which made
  me so tired that when it was over they had to hold me because my
  legs started trembling and I was ready to fall; and remember: I was
  only 25 years old!!"
  "After I sang it, only another tenor tried. He deleted the fourth
  act and the third act duet, therefore the opera died when I stopped
  singing it." (1948)
  "Mascagni did not want the opera premiered in 1913 (the number was
  "jettatura") therefore tried to continue rehearsing until 1914 to no
  avail. La Scala management put the premiere date for december 16,
  1913"
  "The other artists complained to Mascagni that the opera was a
  "throat killer". This made him nervous and bothersome and I became
  his frustration pawn"
  "I obtained my greatest career triumph with the premiere of
  Parisina."
The length of the opera reported by Lazaro seems exagerated.

Act 4 contains extremely beautiful music. The RAI version has
cuts... A complete and better conducted version is the one conducted
by Gavazzeni in 1995. The former runs just over 25 minutes, the latter
over 30 minutes. A noticeable difference between the two versions is
the last few bars. I put the two versions here for comparison:
  http://www.mascagni.org/sounds/parisinaending/01.mp3
  http://www.mascagni.org/sounds/parisinaending/02.mp3
This sounds almost like an alternate ending to me. At any rate, it is
very dramatic!
-Erik

John Mucci wrote:
> In Alan Mallach's bio of Mascagni --which I highly recommend-- he writes
> about the three acts of Parisina that were performed on the second night,
> Act 4 being excised for being too long on the first night.  Since Act 3 ends
> with Ugo and Parisina being led off by the executioner, I wondered 'what
> happens in Act 4?' And after reading what I can of the Italian libretto on
> the mascagni.org site, it seems that it is a long, extended farewell at the
> foot of the executioner's block, lasting, according to Mallach, 40 minutes.
> And if I read the stage directions aright, Parisina cradles Ugo's head on
> the block and holds it just as the executioner is going to behead him when,
> mercifully, we assume the curtain falls.
>
> Is that right? That is probably the apotheosis of D'Annunziism. I cannot
> imagine a more gruesomely intimate expression of decadence in all of opera -
> and that's a lot of good company, too.  After all, even Salome had the
> delicacy of allowing Jokanaan's head to be struck off down in the cistern.
>
>
> John Mucci
> 9 DeForest Rd
> Wilton, CT 06897
> 203-722-6751(c)
> 203-761-0083 (h)
>
> www.jmucci.com
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