100 Great Operas and Their Stories: Act-By-Act Synopses by Henry W. Simon Read Free Book Online

by the court; and finally Gérard’s recently penned denunciation of Chénier is brought against him. In vain Gérard tries to save him. He protests that his own denunciation is nothing but lies, but the court and the crowd believe he has been bribed. Chénier (unlike the others) is allowed to defend himself, and he sings a ringing aria (Sì, fui soldato) full of courage and patriotism.
    But even Gérard’s attacking the justice of this court is no help. The jury files out, and during the brief wait Chénier is heartened by the sight of Madeleine. The verdict is, of course,the one that crowd and court want to hear— Guilty , and the sentence is Death . As Madeleine despairingly cries out the name of Chénier, the poet is led off to his death cell.
    ACT IV
    The short last act takes place in the courtyard of St. Lazare Prison in Paris. Shortly before the dawn of the day he is to be executed, Chénier sits writing at a table. He is visited by his friend Roucher, and after the jailer has left, he reads Roucher what he has been writing. It is a beautiful set of verses—the farewell to life of a poet (Come un bel dì di mag gio—“Like a beautiful day in May”).
    Now Roucher must leave, and as Chénier is led back to his cell, his old friend and rival Gérard comes in leading his beloved Madeleine. Madeleine bribes the jailer to let her take the place of a condemned woman named Idia Legray so that she may be with Chénier to the end. Deeply moved, Gérard leaves to try to appeal to Robespierre, the most powerful man in France at the moment. (The opera does not tell us this, but it is a fact that, three days after the death of Chénier, Robespierre himself was executed, and then Chénier might have been saved.)
    The jailer brings back Chénier, and there follows the ecstatic, almost exultant, final love duet, as Madeleine and Chénier look forward to being united in death. At its close the guards come in; the names of Andrea Chénier and Idia Legray are called out; and, hand in hand, the lovers walk out for their appointment with the guillotine.

ARABELLA
    Opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with
libretto in German by Hugo von Hofmannsthal
COUNT WALDNER
Bass
ADELAIDE , his wife
Mezzo-soprano
their daughter
 
    ARABELLA
Soprano
    ADENKA
Soprano
MANDRYKA , a wealthy gentleman
Baritone
suitors of Arabella
 
    MATTEO , an officer
Tenor
    COUNT ELEMER
Tenor
    COUNT DOMINIK
Baritone
    COUNT LAMORAL
Bass
THE “FIAKERMILLl”
Soprano
A FORTUNETELLER
Soprano
    Time: 1860
    Place: Vienna
    First performance at Dresden, July 1, 1933
        It is often said that late Richard Strauss is not so good as early or middle Richard Strauss. For instance, Der Rosenkavalier , produced in 1911, when the composer was forty-seven, is his greatest operatic success. Arabella , produced twenty-one years later, is not nearly so popular. A comparison is inevitable, for both operas are comedies, both are laid in Vienna (though almost one hundred years apart in time), both deal with what we may call upper-middle-class love, both are famous for waltzes, and both call for a pretty soprano to dress up as a young man. Yet Rosenkavalier is popular, Arabella is not. Why? Had the old maestro lost his cunning at sixty-eight?I think not. Most people will agree, I believe, that the best of Arabella is on a par with the best of Rosenkavalier . Only there isn’t too much of “the best.” Let us admit there are large dull stretches in Arabella . But the best of it is very well worth hearing and cherishing.
    ACT I
    The story takes place in the Vienna of 1860. An impoverished ex-army officer, Count Waldner, has brought his family to a hotel suite in Vienna, hoping that by gambling or by marrying off his elder daughter advantageously he may recoup his fortune. This elder daughter is Arabella, and it takes money to keep her in clothes and to exhibit her at dances. That is why the younger daughter, Zdenka, is disguised as a boy and known