Opera Books
THE OPERA
EDITED BY
ALBERT HILLERY BERGH
VOLUME IV.
1909
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Laparra.
Raoul Laparra was born
at Bordeaux, in May, 1876. His mother, who was herself an accomplished
musician, taught Laparra the rudiments of music, and at the age of
eleven the boy entered the Paris Conservatory, where he had as teachers
Descombes, Lavignac, Gedalge, Massenet and Faure. From 1900 to 1903
Laparra spent much of his time in Spain, where he received the first of
the impressions which crystallized into the successful opera La
Habanera, which won for its composer the Prix de Rome.
Laparra’s own ideas of this intensely dramatic composition are
clearly explained in a comparatively recent letter to a friend: “You ask
me if my work is a repetition of gypsy Spain and the passionate South,
after the style of Carmen. No, it is a Spain entirely different; that of
the higher plateau of Castile, a Spain a little more concentrated, of
colder temperament, floating between the brutal sallies of reality and
the envelopment of legend. My subject, which was taken neither from
history nor fiction, passes in some indetermined spot governed by the
dramatic intensity of the two Castiles—a region swept by the strong
winds of September, and consumed by the devouring sun of the Oriental
summer, which gnaws away even antiquity, little by little. Very
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few and miserable are the few villages there, usually gathered around a
church of immense dimensions. Here and there are some palaces, minus the
ancient luxury, and now mere farms. The peasants are rough in type, and
are of the color of the earth. The men speak little, and chiefly support
themselves on the miserly nutriment supplied by the earth. Sometimes
towards evening in the patios, lighted by the fire in the brazier and by
the moon, the voice of an old woman is heard telling a story of a fairy
princess, or relating the brilliant achievements of the Cid. The
children listen gravely without emotion; and so it was, like the
children, grave, and without any sign of joy, that I listened eight
years ago, and the country gave me this story. You may ask me why the
story took the form of La Habanera. I do not know. It is the
result of many days passed out of doors from dawn to twilight, and to an
ever-recurring rhythm which seems to arise from those barren spaces.”
Laparra is not a resident of Paris, is said to dislike the
provinces, and spends most of his time traveling in Spain.
Opera in three acts by
Laparra. Libretto by the composer.
Characters: Ramon, son of an old and unfortunate family; Pedro,
brother of Ramon; Pilar, betrothed of Pedro; blind man, father of the
brothers; three blind beggars; ghost of Pedro; musicians, peasants, etc.
Place, Spain. Time, last century. First produced at Paris in 1908.
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The opera of La Habanera is laid in a Spanish village. On a
fête day all the townspeople are happy except Ramon, who is in love with
Pilar, whom his brother, Pedro, is going to marry. Ramon is so
quarrelsome that the merrymakers leave him alone in the tavern where
they are drinking. A band of musicians arrive and play “La Habanera” for
the delighted populace. Pilar, who is a thoughtful girl, does not like
to see her lover’s brother so unhappy, and she enters the inn to induce
him to join the others. At her invitation he jumps from his seat,
presses her to his heart, and kisses her violently.
Ramon has just released the girl when the lover enters, but
suspecting nothing talks of the happy wedding day which is not far away.
As the music outside becomes louder, Pilar leaves the brothers. Ramon,
who is in an ugly mood, picks a quarrel with Pedro, ending by killing
him with a knife. As Pedro dies he sees clearly the cause of Ramon’s
crime, and rises upon an elbow to say that he will return in one day
less than a year.
The happiness of the people turns to grief as they find Pedro dead.
They bring in the old, blind father of the brothers, and, dipping the
murderer’s hand in the warm blood of his dead brother, the aged father
makes him take an oath to discover the one who committed the crime.
At the close of the year, lacking one day, Ramon and Pilar are to
be married. The blind father is petulant with the son because he has not
found the murderer of Pedro. As the hour of festivity approaches three
blind men ask admittance to the cottage, but Ramon, who
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fancies he recognizes in one the voice of his dead brother, will not let
them in. Pilar, however, admits them, and as they enter the ghost of the
dead brother slips in with them, unseen by all except Ramon, who cannot
take his eyes from the apparition. As the musicians play La Habanera,
Pilar insists that Ramon dance with her, and at the ghost’s menacing
Ramon is forced to tell Pilar of Pedro’s manner of death. A funeral
procession takes its way past the wedding festival, and Ramon and Pilar
go with the others to lay flowers on the grave of Pedro. Pilar falls
dead, and Ramon comes from the cemetery a raving maniac.
Last updated April 20, 2007