Poliuto
Poliuto is a three-act tragedia lirica by Gaetano Donizetti from the Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, which was based on Pierre Corneille's play Polyeucte written in 1641–42. It reflected the life of the early Christian martyr Saint Polyeuctus.
Regarded by one author as Donizetti's "most personal opera" with the music being "some of the finest Donizetti was to compose", Poliuto was written in 1838 for performances planned at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples later that year. However, close to the time for rehearsals to begin, King Ferdinand II refused to allow the martyrdom of a Christian saint to be seen on stage and forbade the production.
Angry at the decision and with a commission for the Paris Opéra due from the composer, Donizetti paid the penalty to the San Carlo for not producing an original work as a substitute, and left Naples for Paris arriving on 21 October. As his first commission for Paris, he decided to revise Poliuto and between 1839-40 a French text, with the title Les martyrs, was prepared by Eugene Scribe which conformed to the conventions of a French four-act grand opera, but which incorporated 80% of the music from Poliuto. It was presented in Paris on 10 April 1840. When eventually given in Italy, it was initially presented in a translation from the French version under the title of I martiri. It took until 30 November 1848, months after the composer's death, in order for Poliuto to finally appear for six performances at the San Carlo in its original Italian three-act version.
Composition history
As ''Poliuto''
Although Donizetti had been gradually considering further involvement with Parisian stage, after the tremendous success of his Lucia di Lammermoor at the Théâtre-Italien in December 1837, as Roger Parker and William Ashbrook note "negotiations with Charles Duponchel, the director of the Opéra, took on a positive note for the first time". In addition, while in Venice for the premiere of Maria de Rudenz the following January, he had met and had been impressed with Adolphe Nourrit, who, for more than a decade, had been the principal tenor in Paris, having sung roles written for him by the major French composers such as Meyerbeer, Auber, Halevy, as well as Rossini after he had moved to Paris. However, by the late 1830s, Nourrit’s popularity in Paris was in decline, and he was in danger of being supplanted in the public's affections by rising star Gilbert Louis Duprez.Donizetti returned to Naples, arriving by February 24, where he began planning for the production of Poliuto. However, he had also hoped for a permanent supervisory appointment at the Collegio di San Pietro a Maiella. Instead, it went to the composer, Saverio Mercadante. Therefore, on 25 May 1838, Donizetti responded to an invitation from the Paris Opéra to compose two new works, specifying that the contract would require a libretto from Scribe with specific performance dates and a rehearsal periods included. With Donizetti committed to produce his next opera for Naples, musicologist William Ashbrook notes that the composer wrote Poliuto "with more than half an eye to its potential for it being recast as a French grand opera", something he had also done when writing L'assedio di Calais two years earlier, but which failed to gain attention outside Italy.
Since Nourrit was staying in Naples at the same time, determined to "take on a technique which was so different from that which he had been taught", he was grateful to the composer for lessons in that technique. Writing to his wife, he expresses his joy "at being born to a new artistic life" in singing Italian opera under the composer's direction, and he adds that Donizetti is "pulling strings to get me engaged here"
It is known that the tenor greatly influenced the composer in his choice of subject and in the progress of the new opera, such that Donizetti tailored the title role for the tenor who had then been engaged for the autumn season in Naples. However, he is also regarded as influencing Cammarano's contribution in adapting Corneille's play from what Ashbrook describes as "a spiritual drama, with its carefully observed unities" into a Romantic melodrama. This was achieved by adding elements such as Poliuto's jealousy, which did not exist in the original and, most especially, altering the play's narrative perspective of the action into directly-shown dramatic action, especially evidenced at the end of act 2 with Poliuto's overthrow of the altar.
The composer began work by 10 May on the music for the opera, which appears to have been planned for the autumn season. However, by the middle of June, a glitch in the proceedings had appeared in the form of a letter from the Superintendent of the Royal Theatres to the San Carlo intendant, Domenico Barbaja, reminding him that submission of a libretto for proposed autumn season opera was overdue. This was duly reported to Cammarano, who responded with some objections, not the least of which was that his original brief had been totally reversed: "a small part for the tenor and then, with the engagement of Signor Nourrit, this condition was totally changed" he stated. Barbaja backed up Cammarano's objection, which also included his inability to meet with the newly appointed censor, Royer, until his appointment was confirmed. Finally, the completed libretto moved up the chain of command with Royer's support until it reached the King. The Minister for Internal Affairs, who received the king's response, on 11 August communicated to Barbaja that "His majesty deigned with his own sacred hand to declare that the histories of the Martyrs are venerated in the Church and are not presented on the stage"
The opera's last-minute cancellation by the Catholic King of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies angered the composer and, resolved to move to Paris to further his career there, he left Naples by October 1838, vowing never to have any further dealings with the San Carlo administration. But the cancellation dealt a crushing blow to Nourrit's hopes of reviving his flagging career, and even though he appeared in the opera which was substituted, Saverio Mercadante's Il giuramento, and then productions of Elena da Feltre and Norma which followed, depression overtook him. On 8 March 1839 he jumped to his death from a window of his apartment in Naples.
For his part, Cammarano re-used some of the verses he had set for Poliuto in other librettos, including Mercadante's La Vestale, some of which became quite well known. When it finally came time, ten years later, for Poliuto to be staged in Naples, he made a note in his preface to the libretto that: "out of respect for the music, and for the distinguished if unhappy friend who wrote it, I have left the poetry as it was in the original, appealing to the indulgence of the public."
Donizetti in Paris, 1838 to 1840
With the Poliuto disaster behind him, Donizetti arrived in Paris in late October 1838 and quickly met and became friendly with the composer Adolphe Adam, who was living in the same apartment building where he was staying. Donizetti offered his Poliuto to the Académie Royale de Musique and it was accepted for performances to begin in April 1840.While in Paris, a city which increasingly he came to dislike, Donizetti oversaw stagings of Roberto Devereux and L'elisir d'amore during the following December and January, and he also negotiated a longer time-frame for the delivery of the completed libretto of Les martyrs from Scribe as well as that for having the completed score of the second commission ready. This commission, which became known as Le duc d'Albe, was never completed.
During 1839, Lucia di Lammermoor, after being translated into French, became Lucie de Lammermoor, and this version was presented in August. With rehearsals for Les martyrs not planned until early 1840, the composer had time to write yet another opera, La fille du régiment, his first written directly to a French text. It received its premiere on 11 February 1840, by which time Les martyrs was in rehearsal for performances in April.
Although Donizetti was obliged to shift the placement of arias to other locations in the text, Scribe had to accept the modification of some of his text to fit the existing music but, given the overall expansion of the opera into four acts, new material needed to be created by both writer and composer, most especially for the end of act 1 and the beginning of act 2, both of which were expanded well beyond the original.
Performance history
19th centuryPrior to the original Poliuto being presented in Italy, a translation of Les martyrs appeared there as Paolina e Poliuto and then as Paolina e Severo, finally becoming I martiri. However, the "more compact, three-act Poliuto was generally preferred" and under its original title, it was given its premiere on 30 November 1848, a few months after Donizetti's death.
Prior to 1860, and performances were given in some sixteen locations throughout Italy and "fairly regularly throughout the second half of the century" In a German translation, it was given in Vienna on 6 June 1841 under Donizetti's supervision.
Later, it provided a vehicle for dramatic tenors such as Enrico Tamberlik and Francesco Tamagno and he also appeared in the second and third acts in a benefit in Rome in April 1904 conducted by Pietro Mascagni.
As Poliuto, it was not until 25 May 1859 that it was given in New York, but revived in Bergamo in April 1850 where it was produced nine times up to November 1907.
20th century and beyond
Productions of Poliuto staged from 1940 onward have included those at La Scala, Milan in 1940. It was also given at the Roman Baths of Caracalla with Giacomo Lauri-Volpi in 1948, and appeared again in Milan in December 1960. At that point in her career, Callas was at the height of her fame, albeit having been absent from La Scala for two years. However, her performances were regarded as triumphs with the public and many critics. Leyla Gencer sang the second batch of the same production with Franco Corelli.
Another Rome Opera production followed in 1989 with Nicola Martinucci and Elizabeth Connell and two productions were presented by the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo in 1993 and 2010. Other concert performances were given in the 1990s in cities such as Vienna, Montpelier, and New York. The ABAO company in Bilbao staged the work in February 2008 with Francisco Casanova and Fiorenza Cedolins in the two principal roles. It was given in Zurich in May 2012 with Massimiliano Pisapia in the title role and in Lisbon in April 2014 with tenor Sérgio Escobar, soprano Carmen Romeu and baritone Javier Franco, under the baton of Sergio Alapont.
As part of its 2015 season, the Glyndebourne Festival presented Poliuto with the support of the Peter Moores Foundation and it featured tenor Michael Fabiano in the title role with Ana Maria Martinez as Paolina and Enrique Mazzola conducting.
In 2016, the small company Amore Opera performed Poliuto several times at the Sheen Center in New York City. The company billed this as the first fully staged production given in the USA since 1859, more than one hundred and fifty years before.