Angelo (opera)

Angelo (Анджело in Cyrillic; Andželo in transliteration) is an opera in four acts by César Cui, composed during 1871-1875, with a libretto by Viktor Burenin based on Victor Hugo's prose play, Angelo, Tyrant of Padua. This same play formed the basis of Saverio Mercadante's Il giuramento of 1837, Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda, which premiered in the same year as Cui's opera (1876), and Alfred Bruneau's Angelo, tyran de Padoue of 1928.

Angelo was premiered on 1 February 1876 in Saint Petersburg at the Mariinsky Theatre. The conductor was Eduard Nápravník. Apparently it did not survive that particular season, and was removed from the repertory.

A new production of Angelo was staged twenty-five years after the original premiere in 1901 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, with Feodor Chaliapin in the role of Galeofa. The Mariinsky staged Angelo again in 1910.

Setting: Padua, 1549.

In Tisbe's illuminated garden, masked guests entertain themselves. After they disperse, Rodolfo and the conspirators in the grotto complain about Angelo. The guests come back. Galeofa knows who Rodolfo is, and will help him to meet Catarina, his paramour, that night.

Tisbe enters. She is in love with Rodolfo, and would kill any rival for his love. In an aside, he admits to loving only Catarina, and leaves. Galeofa reappears, and gives Tisbe a bottle of poison and a bottle of sleeping potion. He tells her that Rodolfo will be meeting another woman that night.

Angelo arrives to the greeting sounds of a barcarolle. In order to assuage his jealousy of her attentions to Galeofa, she tells him of the time when her mother was rescued years ago from hanging when Tisbe was a child. The daughter of a Venetian nobleman had pleaded to spare Tisbe's mother, and in gratitude the latter gave the girl her crucifix. Tisbe has been searching for that person ever since.

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