Opera Books
THE OPERA
EDITED BY
ALBERT HILLERY BERGH
VOLUME IV.
1909
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Genée.
Franz Friedrich
Richard Genée was born on February 7, 1823, at Danzig. Genée attended
the Gymnasium at Berlin and at Danzig. He first studied medicine, but
later took up music, and studied composition under Stablknecht at
Berlin. From 1848 to 1867 he filled positions as conductor at Reval,
Riga, Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, Düsseldorf, Danzig, Mayence, Schewerin,
Prague, and from 1868-78 was conductor at the Theatre An-der-Wien. He
died on June 15, 1895, at his villa near Vienna.
Genée was known as a composer of comic operas and operettas, for
some of which he himself wrote the libretti and for others collaborated
with F. Zell. He also prepared libretti for Strauss, Suppé and Millöcker.
His best-known operas are Der Geiger aus Tirol (1857), Der
Musikfeind, Die Generalprobe, Rosita, Der schwarze Prinz, Am Runenstein
(with Fr. von Flotow, 1868), Der Seekadeit (1876), Nanon,
Im Wunderlande der Pyramiden, Die letzten Mohikaner, Nisida, Rosina,
Zwillinge, Die Piratem and Die Dreizehn (1887).
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Der Seekadett.
(The Royal Middy.)
Opera in three acts by
Genée. Libretto by Zell. English adaptation by Frederich Williams and
Edward Mollenhauer.
Characters: Dom Lamberto; Dom Januario; Dom Domingos; Captain
Norberto; Francesco; Joaquino; Mungo; Rodgiguez; Diego; Sebastino;
Julio; Giovannio; Paulo; Enrico; Carlo; Jago; Marie Francesca, Queen of
Portugal; Fanchette; Antonina.
Place, Portugal. Time, 1702. First produced at Vienna in 1876.
The story of The Royal Middy is laid at a time when the Portuguese
navy was famous for maritime enterprise. The royal midshipmen were
pupils of the National Naval Academy, under the charge of a governor,
who was usually a naval hero grown gray in his country’s service. To
this responsible position the Queen has, however, promoted Dom Lamberto,
a young soldier of fortune, to whom she has been secretly married. One
of the Queen’s ladies of honor, Donna Antonina, the young and pretty
wife of Dom Domingos (the aged master of court ceremonies) is the sole
confidante of the royal pair and cognizant of their marriage.
A secret door leads from the Queen’s apartments to those of the
young Governor, and with Donna Antonina on guard the lovers have
frequent stolen interviews. While awaiting the coming of his royal
spouse for one of those appointments, Lamberto is surprised by the
appearance of Fanchette on the scene. Fanchette is a gypsy girl whom
Lamberto saved when she was a mere
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child from the brutality of a member of her tribe. After traveling all
over Spain in search of Lamberto, she at length reaches Lisbon to find
that the poor lieutenant has become the wealthy and powerful favorite of
the Queen. Her reception by Lamberto is a crushing disappointment. While
she vainly tries to revive the memories of the past in the mind of the
man who has forgotten her, she is interrupted by Dom Januario, a
Brazilian of vast wealth, resident in Lisbon, who enters the apartment.
The impulsive Brazilian falls in love with Fanchette, and plans an
elopement, in which he is encouraged and aided by Lamberto, as being a
ready means of getting rid of the gypsy girl. Donna Antonina lends her
assistance and her carriage, but the gypsy girl discovers the plot, and
cleverly manages that Donna Antonina and Dom Januario are driven away to
the trysting-place in a closed carriage on a dark night, each believing
the other to be Fanchette.
Thus Fanchette remains and again goes to the palace to surprise
Lamberto while he is awaiting the coming of the Queen, who is to sup
with him. Rendered desperate, Lamberto confesses the whole truth to
Fanchètte—tells her he is married to the Queen, and shows her that
certain ruin awaits him should she be discovered in the royal apartment.
Fanchette now is anxious to save him, but it is too late for her to
leave the palace, as the Queen’s footsteps are already heard outside the
secret door. Lamberto thrusts Fanchette into the adjoining room. Hardly
are the royal pair seated when the jealous master of ceremonies enters
the room in search of his wife. He passionately insists that the masked
Queen, surprised alone with Lamberto,
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is his wife, and demands the removal of her mask. On discovering the
lady to be his royal mistress, he insists that he saw someone else enter
the apartment, and that his wife is concealed within the inner room. The
Queen’s suspicions are aroused, and, much to Lamberto’s horror, she
orders the door of Fanchète’s hiding place to be opened. Lamberto
mentally gives himself up for lost, when, to the surprise of everybody,
a young man comes forth from the room, in the uniform of a royal middy.
He is introduced as Dom Maurito, a young nobleman sent to the Governor
to be educated for the navy. Fanchette in this way saves Lamberto, but
finds herself in a most embarrassing position, as she is obliged to fall
into the ranks of the royal midshipmen who arrive at this moment.
The second act begins with spectacular effects, among which are a
comic duel in which the royal middy (Fanchette) is engaged, and a game
of chess played by the Queen and Lamberto, in which the chessmen are
living figures. Lamberto is about to win from the Queen when Fanchette
saves it for her by the suggestion of a clever move. his royal mistress
is so delighted that she instantly promotes him to be master of the
horse, and orders him to remain at the palace. Fauchette’s prospects for
a return to her natural habiliments are now more distant than ever, and
she accepts the new honors with a profuse show of thanks, but with many
misgivings as to what will eventually become of her.
In the third act Fanchette determines to secure her recognition by
a ruse as clever as that of the first act. The Queen has taken so much
note of the new Equerry that Lamberto pretends to be furiously jealous.
The
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Queen and the middy being alone, Lamberto is announced, and the
terrified Queen conceals the middy in the adjoining room, whence she
comes forth in a few moments dressed as a woman to save the Queen from
Lamberto’s pretended jealous rage. The ruse succeeds. All are happy. The
Brazilian, the man of many diamonds, at last finds favor in Fanchette’s
sight. The Queen announces her marriage with Lamberto. Wedding bells
jingle all over the land amid general felicitation.
Opera in three acts by
Genée. Libretto by Zell.
Characters: Marquis de Marsillac; Rector, his nephew; Marquis d’Aubigne,
the King’s chamberlain; Bombardine, his henchman; Louis XIV; Mons.
l’Abbé; Nanon, the hostess of the Golden Lamb; Ninon d’Enclos, a famous
beauty; Mine. de Frontenac, Comtesse Rouliers, friends of Ninon; Gaston;
Mme. de Maintenon, the King’s mistress; nobles, ladies, country
relatives, peasants and soldiers.
Place, Paris. Time, the Seventeenth Century. First produced at
Vienna in 1877.
The first act takes place at the Golden Lamb, an inn near Paris
kept by :Nanon, whose beauty and wit have attracted the attention of the
Marquis de Marsillac, director of the Royal Theatre. Re takes his nephew,
Hector, to see this famous woman. Ninon d’Enclos, suspecting that her
lover, the Marquis, is over-attentive to Nanon, goes to inspect the
hostess of the inn. Ninon learns, however, that Nanon is about to marry
Grignan,
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a drummer, and she departs relieved. The drummer, however, is the
Marquis in disguise, who intends to carry off Nanon. He serenades her,
and, charmed with his attentions, she proposes that they be married. But
as the ceremony is about to take place the Marquis causes himself to be
arrested for duelling.
Nanon is in great distress, but she receives friendly messages and
a ring sent to her by Ninon d’Enclos, and decides to appeal to the great
lady for help for Grignan, the penalty for duelling being the death of
the offender.
In the second act the salon of Ninon is shown. A ball is in
progress. Marsillac, Hector and the Abbé, who is a lover of Ninon’s, and
the confessor of Mme. de Maintenon, and d’Aubigné, whom Ninon reproaches
for his long absence, are present. The latter sings to Ninon the same
serenade that he sang with so much effect to Nanon. Soon after Nanon
enters, seeking Ninon’s help for her drummer-lover. D’Aubigné becomes
jealous of Hector as the youth makes loves to both Nanon and Ninon.
D’Aubigné challenges him. They enter the garden to fight a duel. While
they are absent, Marsillac, having followed Grignan-D’Aubigué’s serenade
very closely, sings it to the accompaniment of the court-musicians, but
he is ridiculed. Upon D’Aubigué’s return the latter is told to explain
the mystery about the song, but he is interrupted by the entrance of the
guard who has witnessed the duel, and who arrests Hector, detected by a
wound he has received. Hector refuses to reveal the name of his opponent.
The private chapel of Mme. de Maintenon furnishes the scene for the
third act. The Abbé sings to Madame de Maintenon the ever-recurring
serenade, this time in
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the form of a hymn. Marsillac enters and asks pardon of Hector. He
receives it before learning that D’Aubigné was the challenger. D’Aubigné
then congratulates Madame de Maintenon upon being serenaded on her
birthday. Marsillac repeats the congratulations. Nanon and Ninon now
seek Madame de Maintenon, each in behalf of her lover. The King grants
Grignan’s life to Nanon, whereupon, recognizing D’Aubigué as the drummer
Grignan, she presents the royal pardon to Kinon. This touches Grignan
D’Aubigné, who offers his hand to Nanon. Madame de Maintenon, who has
become fearful of the King’s evident admiration for Nanon,. hastens to
give her consent to the marriage, and the hostess of the inn becomes the
Marchioness D,Aubigné.
Last updated April 18, 2007