Boccaccio (operetta)


Boccaccio, oder Der Prinz von Palermo is an operetta in three acts by Franz von Suppé to a German libretto by Camillo Walzel and Richard Genée, based on the play by Jean-François Bayard, Adolphe de Leuven, Léon Lévy Brunswick and Arthur de Beauplan, based in turn on The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio. Despite the opera's clear links to the Viennese opera tradition, Suppé's opera takes most of its style from Italian opera.
The opera was begun somewhere around the fall of 1878 and first published in 1879 by the August Cranz company and performed at the Carltheater, Vienna, on 1 February 1879. An English translation and adaptation was completed in 1880 by Dexter Smith and later by Oscar Weil and Gustav Hinrichs around 1883. The first contemporary edit of the work occurred in 1950 for the premiere of the work at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, with several more iterations occurring through the 20th century.
In 1940, Boccaccio was made into a film by American-born Italian film director Marcello Albani.

Performance history

Following its premiere in 1879, the opera quickly made its way around the globe.

Synopsis

In early-Renaissance Florence, the erotic novellas of the poet Boccaccio cause a stir and the locals are divided into the female fans of his scandalous tales and their jealous husbands. A plot is hatched by the husbands to chase Boccaccio from the city and have him locked up. But Boccaccio has other plans, including one to win the hand of the Duke's daughter Fiammetta, which he finally succeeds in doing after finding favour with the Duke.

Musical numbers

  • "Ich sehe einen jungen Mann dort stehn"
  • "Hab' ich nur deine Liebe"
  • Act 1 finale
  • Serenade
  • Cooper's Song
  • Waltz trio "Wie pocht mein Herz so ungestüm"
  • Lovers' sextet
  • Duet "Florenz hat schöne Frauen "
  • Act 3 finale