Le lazzarone
Le lazzarone | |
---|---|
by Paris Opéra , Paris |
Le lazzarone, ou Le bien vient en dormant (The Lad from Naples, or Good comes from Sleeping) is an
At the instruction of Léon Pillet, the director of the Opéra, the opera was written as a vehicle for his mistress Rosine Stoltz (who had recently borne him a child). After some severe critical reactions, the opera was not successful and has not been revived.
Performance history
The inappropriate casting of a far-from-splendid 31-year-old portraying a Neapolitan teenager was not appreciated by the Parisian critics. A review in the
The opera also marked the Paris debut of Lola Montez as an 'Andalusian dancer'. This however proved a disaster; Montez, losing a shoe during one routine, flung it into the boxes. Théophile Gautier wrote 'Mlle. Montez [...] has small feet and shapely legs. Her use of these is quite another matter'.[3]
Roles
Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 29 March 1844[4] |
---|---|---|
Mirobolante, a poetical improviser | baritone | Paul Barroilhet |
Josué Corvo, a rich Neapolitan | bass | Nicolas Levasseur |
Beppo | soprano | Rosine Stoltz |
Baptista, a flower-seller | soprano | Julie Dorus-Gras |
Chorus: Pilgrims, people of Naples, musicians. |
Synopsis
- Place: Naples
- Time:
The lazy Beppo is enamoured of the flower seller Baptista. Mirobolante and Corvo, discovering Baptista's birth certificate, find that she is unaware that she is an heiress to a fortune. They woo her assiduously; Beppo, feeling he has no chance against such wealthy suitors, goes to sleep. Baptista however wakes him and says she much prefers him to the other two. Mirobolante and Corvo try to prevent their marriage by asserting that Baptista is a minor; her birth certificate however shows that she is 21 that very day.[5]
References
Notes
Sources
- Libretto at Gallicawebsite
- Jordan, Ruth (1994). Fromental Halévy, London: Kahn and Averill. ISBN 9781871082517
- ISBN 9780571152780