conductor Maurizio Benini

production

Sandro Sequi

set designer Ming Cho Lee

costume designer Peter J. Hall

lighting designer

Gil Wechsler

revival stage director

Sarah Ina Meyers

VINCENZO BELLINIi puritani

general manager

Peter Gelb

music director emeritus James Levine

principal conductor

Fabio Luisi

Opera in three acts

Libretto by Carlo Pepoli

Tuesday, February 28, 2017 7:30–11:05 pm

Last time this season

The production of I Puritani was

made possible by a generous gift from

Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Crawford

The revival of this production is made possible

by a gift from Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni

The 63rd Metropolitan Opera performance of

Tuesday, February 28, 2017, 7:30–11:05PM

VINCENZO BELLINI’S

i puritani

in order of vocal appearance

conductor

Maurizio Benini

sir bruno robertson Eduardo Valdes

riccardo (sir richard forth) Alexey Markov

elvir a Diana Damrau

giorgio (sir george walton) Luca Pisaroni

arturo (lord arthur talbot) Javier Camarena

gualtiero (lord walton) David Crawford

enrichet ta (queen henriet ta) MaryAnn McCormick

2016–17 season

* Graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program

Yamaha is the Official Piano of the Metropolitan Opera.

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Met TitlesTo activate, press the red button to the right of the screen in front of your seat and follow the instructions provided. To turn off the display, press the red button once again. If you have questions, please ask an usher at intermission.

Chorus Master Donald PalumboMusical Preparation Donna Racik, Dan Saunders,

Joel Revzen, and Vlad Iftinca*Assistant Stage Director Jonathon LoyStage Band Conductor Gregory BuchalterPrompter Donna RacikMet Titles Sonya HaddadItalian Coach Hemdi KfirScenery, properties, and electrical props constructed

and painted in Metropolitan Opera ShopsCostumes executed by Metropolitan Opera

Costume DepartmentMillinery by Gary BrouwerWigs and Makeup executed by Metropolitan Opera

Wig and Makeup Department

This performance is made possible in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Before the performance begins, please switch off cell phones and other electronic devices.

This production uses lightning effects.

Diana Damrau as Elvira and Javier Camarena as Arturo in Bellini’s I Puritani

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PHOTO: MARTY SOHL / METROPOLITAN OPERA

� e Metropolitan Opera is pleased to salute

Bloomberg Philanthropies in recognition of its

generous support during the 2016–17 season.

Javier Camarena as Arturo and Diana Damrau as Elvira in Bellini’s I Puritani2016–17 season

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Synopsis

Act IEngland, circa 1650. Plymouth, a Puritan stronghold, is threatened by siege from the Royalist troops. Elvira, daughter of Gualtiero, the fortress’s commander, has been promised in marriage to Riccardo, but she loves another man—Arturo, a Stuart partisan. Elvira’s father will not force her to marry against her will, and Riccardo’s friend Sir Bruno urges Riccardo to devote his life to leading the parliamentary forces.

Elvira tells her uncle, Giorgio, that she would rather die than marry Riccardo. Giorgio assures her that he has persuaded her father to let her marry Arturo, who is on his way to the castle.

People gather for the wedding celebration and Arturo greets his bride. He learns that King Charles’s widow, Queen Enrichetta, is a prisoner in the castle and soon to be taken to trial in London. Alone with the queen, Arturo offers to save her even if it means his death. Elvira returns with the bridal veil and playfully places it over Enrichetta’s head. When he is alone again with the queen, Arturo explains that the veil will provide the perfect disguise for her escape. As they are about to leave, Riccardo stops them, determined to kill his rival. Enrichetta reveals her identity. At this, Riccardo lets the two get away, knowing it will ruin Arturo. In front of the wedding crowd, Riccardo tells of Arturo’s escape with Enrichetta. Elvira, believing herself betrayed, is overcome by madness.

Intermission (aT APPROXIMATELY 8:50 PM)

Act IIThe people are distressed about Elvira’s mental breakdown. Riccardo announces that Arturo has been condemned to death by Parliament.

Elvira, in her madness, relives her happy past. She sees Arturo everywhere and dreams of her wedding. After she has left, Giorgio tries to convince Riccardo to save Arturo. At first indignant, Riccardo is finally moved to help Elvira, and the two men unite in patriotism: if Arturo returns as a friend, he shall live—if as an armed enemy, he shall die.

Intermission (aT APPROXIMATELY 10:05 PM)

Act IIIArturo’s love for Elvira has brought him back to Plymouth, but he is torn between his affection and his loyalty to the Stuarts. When Elvira appears, he assures her that she is his only love. Just as soldiers are about to arrest Arturo, a diplomat arrives with news of the Royalists’ final defeat and a general amnesty for all offenders. The shock of this restores Elvira’s senses, and all are united in peace as Elvira and Arturo embrace their new happiness.

40

Vincenzo Bellini

I Puritani

In Focus

Premiere: Théâtre Italien, Paris, 1835The gorgeous and vocally challenging I Puritani was the final work from Vincenzo Bellini, the great Sicilian exponent of the bel canto style of opera. Its depiction of madness—both in individuals and in communities—is extraordinary: the opera suggests that the veneer of sanity can slip away at any moment, that madness can plunge a person into a destructive abyss. I Puritani was written specifically for the talents of four of the best singers of its day, and the opera’s success depends almost entirely on the vocal abilities (and artistic sensibilities) of the performers. From time to time great artists rediscover the dramatic and musical power of Bellini’s music: Maria Callas, for example, was catapulted to international stardom by a series of performances in I Puritani in 1949 at Venice’s La Fenice, days after singing Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Die Walküre.

The CreatorsVincenzo Bellini (1801–1835) was a Sicilian composer who possessed an extraordinary gift for melody and a thorough understanding of the human voice. His premature death—just as he was achieving international success and expanding in new musical directions—is one of the most unfortunate in the history of music. The librettist, Count Carlo Pepoli (1796–1881), was an Italian political exile living among the seething expatriate circles of Paris. Perhaps not the most inspired poet, he nevertheless understood the standard stage techniques of his era and how to make them pay off for audiences. The libretto was based on a French play, Têtes Rondes et Cavaliers, which had its own rather arcane source, a novel by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), Old Mortality.

The SettingThe opera is set in the English Civil War of Puritans (“Roundheads”) versus Royalists (“Cavaliers”). Many English critics have been amused at Bellini’s rollicking depiction of the austere Roundheads, but of course the opera was never intended as a history lesson. Its background of civil strife, however, was a universal idea and very familiar to Italians in Bellini’s time. The bel canto composers explored with powerful results the relationship of civil war and individual madness: Donizetti’s Lucia  di  Lammermoor  works with a similar, if slightly less explicit, format.

41

The MusicToo often, bel canto (literally, “beautiful singing”) is explained as a succession of vocal gymnastics. On the contrary, operas written in this style center on long lyric lines of melody, such as in the tenor’s Act I solo, which develops into the celebrated quartet “A te, o cara.” The soprano’s ravishing Act II aria, “Qui la voce,” works the same way and depends entirely on the singer’s ability to spin forth an elegant vocal line. The occasional outbursts of vocal prowess (such as the soprano’s subsequent “Vien, diletto” and the Act III duet and ensemble with high notes galore) have an enormous impact if the less showy aspects of the score have also been given careful attention. And no one can deny Bellini’s unique mastery of melody, as in the rousing martial duet “Suoni la tromba” in Act II and the bass’s gorgeous showpiece in Act II, “Cinta di fiori.”

Met HistoryI  Puritani  had a single performance in the inaugural 1883–84 season as a vehicle for the star soprano Marcella Sembrich. It wasn’t revived until 1918, when it showcased the talents of Maria Barrientos. After seven performances, I Puritani disappeared again until the current production by Sandro Sequi was unveiled in 1976, featuring a remarkable cast led by Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Sherrill Milnes, and James Morris, with Richard Bonynge conducting. Ten years later Sutherland celebrated her 25th anniversary with the company in performances as Elvira. Subsequent revivals have starred Edita Gruberova and Chris Merritt (1991); Ruth Ann Swenson, Stuart Neill, and Thomas Hampson (1997); Anna Netrebko opposite tenors Gregory Kunde and Eric Cutler (2006); and Olga Peretyatko, Lawrence Brownlee, and Mariusz Kwiecien (2014).

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42

Program Note

In late summer 1833, Vincenzo Bellini traveled to the French capital in hope of securing a commission from the Paris Opera. Parisians welcomed Bellini and invited him to the most sought-after parties and salons, especially those

hosted by the vivacious Princess Belgiojoso, an Italian expatriate who had aided revolutionaries in war-torn Milan and fled to Paris to avoid capture. It was in her home that Bellini met such illustrious figures as Luigi Cherubini, Victor Hugo, Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, and George Sand.

In the end, Bellini did not receive a commission from the Paris Opera, but he was still optimistic and wrote to his uncle, Vincenzo Ferlito:

I am now in Paris. … The director of the Opera asked me to write an opera for him, and I said I would willingly do so … but we could come to no agreement. The impresario of the Théâtre Italien made offers to me, which it suited me to accept because: the payment was better … than I have had in Italy, the company was magnificent, and, lastly, so that I could stay on in Paris at others’ expense.

The contract with the Théâtre Italien was to produce several of his own operas, including Il  pirata  and I  Capuleti  e  I  Montecchi. But producing was not the same as composing, and Bellini languished in a creative vacuum that worried his closest friends, especially his dear confidante from student days at the Naples Conservatory, Francesco Florimo. Florimo accused Bellini of being overly complacent, content to bask in the Parisians’ attention. He was not wrong; Bellini freely admitted to enjoying himself: “If you reflect for a moment that a young man in my position in … Paris for the first time, cannot help amusing himself immensely. … You can’t imagine the opportunities for diversion to be met with in these places, things it is impossible to give up …” Fortunately, the composer was soon jolted out of his reverie when the Théâtre Italien finally offered him a contract for a new opera. The librettist would be Carlo Pepoli, an Italian politician, journalist, and poet, whom he had met through Princess Belgiojoso.

Together, composer and poet settled on a play by Jacque-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, Têtes Rondes et Cavaliers (Roundheads and Cavaliers). The new opera would be called I Puritani, and the story would take place during the time of Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658), the English parliamentarian, military leader, and Puritan convert, who sent Charles I to the scaffold at Whitehall during the English Civil War. In I Puritani, however, Cromwell is merely a point of reference, and politics a vessel for the dramatic conflict: Elvira, a Puritan, loves Arturo, a Royalist, who loves her in return; they are to be married. Riccardo, a Puritan, also loves Elvira.

An important subplot concerns Enrichetta, widow of Charles I, whom Arturo disguises in Elvira’s wedding veil in order to help her escape punishment. Elvira, left at the altar, goes mad, but comes to her senses as Arturo returns and Riccardo steps aside.

43

The plot was thin, but Bellini saw in it opportunities to focus on the sensibilities and voices of his characters. On April 11, 1834, he wrote to his close friend, Filippo Santocanale, describing his attraction to the story: “A profound interest, events that arrest the soul and invite it to sigh for the suffering innocents, with no evil character who causes those misfortunes; destiny is the one creator, and therefore the emotions are all the stronger because there is no human agent to turn to in order to make the misfortunates cease. … I have great hopes that, first, it will inspire me and, second, that it will make a profound impression when united with my melancholic muse.”

Bellini had at his disposal four of the most brilliant singers of the 1830s: soprano Giulia Grisi; tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini; baritone Antonio Tamburini; and bass Luigi Lablache. Grisi had achieved fame by singing Adalgisa in Norma and also revealed her extraordinary range and vocal agility in the title role of Rossini’s Semiramide. As a great actress, she was well equipped to express the mood swings of the vulnerable Elvira. Rubini was known for his high register, which Bellini exploited in the nearly impossible and notorious high F that Arturo sings in the Act III finale of I Puritani. The dashingly handsome Tamburini also had an exceptional two-octave range, and Lablache, the most famous and cosmopolitan of the “Puritani Quartet,” had a career that spanned the repertoire from Rossini to Cimarosa, Donizetti to Mercadante and Meyerbeer. Bellini took every opportunity to show off his all-star cast.

The sonority of I Puritani is lyrical, but offset, as Bellini himself described it, by “militaristic robustness and something of a Puritan severity.” The militaristic sound is generated by brass, percussion, an active chorus, and simple and robust rhythms. The lyrical, more typically associated with Bellini, unfolds in long-breathed melodies, extremes of range, and fioritura (rich vocal ornamentation). Most effective is Bellini’s manipulation of musical space and vocal effects, good examples of which include Elvira’s many offstage vocal entrances, and the remarkable “Suoni la tromba,” a hymn to liberty sung by Giorgio and Riccardo at the end of Act II. Bellini spells out the military-lyrical dichotomy in the opera’s first measures with a series of loud tutti chords, marked sforzando, that dissolves into a beautiful and melancholy horn quartet, which returns periodically throughout this remarkably consistent and thematically integrated score.

The dramatic and vocal core of the opera is Elvira, whose bouts of madness evoke Shakespeare’s Ophelia, who lost her mind and “chanted snatches of old tunes” before her watery death. Bellini recaptures that connection between music and madness in a series of scenes: Elvira enters in Act II singing “Qui la voce sua soave mi chiamava . . . e poi spare” (“Here his sweet voice called me … and then vanished”), while in Act III, she recovers at the sound of Arturo’s voice, only to retreat once again into darkness when she hears the “baleful sound” of distant drums. The declaration of Arturo’s death sentence, however, shocks Elvira to her senses: “Qual mai funerea voce funesta, mi scuote e desta

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MA SSENET

WERTHERFEB 16, 20, 23, 27 MAR 4 mat, 9

Tenor sensation Vittorio Grigolo is Werther, the young poet who seeks the unattainable love of the beautiful Charlotte, sung by mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard. Edward Gardner conducts.

Tickets from $25

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PHOTO: MARTY SOHL / MET OPERA

45

dal mio martir!” (“A mournful, funereal voice rouses me and wakes me from my sufferings!”).

I  Puritani  premiered on January 24, 1835, and was an immediate success. Bellini was ecstatic and wrote a long letter to Florimo the very next day: “I cannot find words to describe to you the state of my heart. … The French had all gone mad; there were such noise and such shouts that they themselves were astonished at being so carried away.” Bellini gushed in particular about his vocal quartet, “Lablache sang like a god, Grisi like a little angel, Rubini and Tamburini the same.” But his happiness would not be long-lived. By September 2, 1835, he was suffering from severe dysentery, and he died three weeks later. He was 33 years old, and I Puritani was his final opera.

Bellini’s immediate posthumous reception included diverse views expressed by two Germans: poet Heinrich Heine and composer Richard Wagner. Heine, who had met Bellini at one of the Parisian salons, found him to be theatrical and, consequently, shallow. In 1837, he committed those views to posterity in one of the few extant descriptions of the composer:

He was a tall, slender figure that moved in a graceful, I might say coquettish, way; always finically dressed; face regular, long, rosy; hair light blond, almost golden, lightly curled; forehead noble, chin round … a milky face sometimes curdled in a sweet-sour look of sadness … but one without depth; it glimmered without poetry in his eyes, it quivered without passion about his lips. The young maestro seemed to wish to make this shallow, languid sadness visible in his whole appearance. His hair was dressed in such a romantically wistful fashion; his clothes fitted his frail body so languorously, and he carried his little Malacca cane in such an idyllic manner that he always reminded me of the young shepherds in our pastoral plays mining about with beribboned crooks in pastel jackets and breeches. And his gait was so maidenly, so elegiac, so ethereal. The creature altogether looked like a sigh in dancing pumps.

Ironically, Wagner, who broadly regarded Italian music as degenerate, made an exception for Bellini, whom he praised as a master of melody. In 1837, the same year in which Heine wrote disparagingly about the composer’s physical persona, Wagner extolled Bellini’s artistry:

All the phases of passion … rendered in so peculiarly clear a light by [Bellini’s] art of

song, are made to rest upon a majestic soil and ground, above which they do not

vaguely flutter about but resolve themselves into a grand and manifest picture.

—Helen M. Greenwald

Helen M. Greenwald is chair of the department of music history at New England Conservatory and editor of the Oxford Handbook of Opera.

MA SSENET

WERTHERFEB 16, 20, 23, 27 MAR 4 mat, 9

Tenor sensation Vittorio Grigolo is Werther, the young poet who seeks the unattainable love of the beautiful Charlotte, sung by mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard. Edward Gardner conducts.

Tickets from $25

metopera.org

PHOTO: MARTY SOHL / MET OPERA

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Program Note CONTINUED

GOUNOD

ROMÉO ET JULIETTE

MAR 3, 8, 11eve, 15, 18mat

Pretty Yende and Stephen Costello star as opera’s classic lovers in Bartlett Sher’s “brilliant and inspired new production“ (

). Emmanuel Villaume conducts Gounod’s sumptuous score.

Tickets from $27

metopera.org

PHOTO: BRESCIA-AMISANO / LA SCALA

47

The Cast

this season Il Barbiere di Siviglia and I Puritani at the Met, I Capuleti e  i Montecchi  in Zurich, Anna Bolena in Seville, La Traviata at Covent Garden, and Lucia di Lammermoor in Toulouse.met appearances Don Pasquale, Roberto Devereux, Lucia di Lammermoor, Maria Stuarda, Le  Comte  Ory, La  Cenerentola, Norma, L’Elisir  d’Amore (debut, 1998), Rigoletto, La Traviata, Luisa Miller, Don Pasquale, and Faust.career highlights He made his conducting debut in Bologna with Rossini’s Il  Signor Bruschino, and his debut at La Scala in 1992 with La Donna del Lago (where he has since led Don Carlo, Pagliacci, Don Pasquale, Rigoletto, and La Sonnambula). He has also conducted La Scala di Seta, L’Occasione  Fa  il  Ladro, and Le  Siège  de  Corinthe at Pesaro’s Rossini Opera Festival; Il  Turco  in  Italia at the Bavarian State Opera; Lucia  di  Lammermoor at the Paris Opera; Rossini’s Zelmira at the Edinburgh Festival; Don Carlo in Barcelona; Maria Stuarda in Barcelona; Norma in Seville; Il Trovatore  in Amsterdam; and Rigoletto, Faust, Nabucco, La Traviata, La Bohème, Attila, and Luisa Miller at Covent Garden.

Maurizio Beniniconductor (faenza, italy)

this season Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, Elvira in I Puritani, and the 50th Anniversary Gala at the Met; the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro at La Scala and the Bavarian State Opera; the Four Heroines of Les  Contes  d’Hoffmann  at LA Opera; and the title role of Lucia  di Lammermoor at the Munich Opera Festival. met appearances Leïla in Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Amina in La Sonnambula, Gilda in Rigoletto, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Adèle in Le Comte Ory, Marie in La Fille du Régiment, Pamina and the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos (debut, 2005), Aithra in Die Ägyptische Helena, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore, Violetta in La Traviata, the title role of Manon, and Lucia.career highlights Recent performances include Manon at the Vienna State Opera; Elvira in Madrid; Violetta at La Scala, the Paris Opera, Covent Garden, and the Orange Festival; Lucia at Covent Garden, La Scala, Bavarian State Opera, Berlin, Teatro Regio Torino, and in Paris and Essen; and Leïla and the title role of Iain Bell’s A Harlot’s Progress at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien.

Diana Damrausoprano (günzburg, germany)

GOUNOD

ROMÉO ET JULIETTE

MAR 3, 8, 11eve, 15, 18mat

Pretty Yende and Stephen Costello star as opera’s classic lovers in Bartlett Sher’s “brilliant and inspired new production“ (

). Emmanuel Villaume conducts Gounod’s sumptuous score.

Tickets from $27

metopera.org

PHOTO: BRESCIA-AMISANO / LA SCALA

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49

The Cast CONTINUED

this season Riccardo in I Puritani at the Met and in Budapest, the title role of Macbeth in Zurich, and Silvio in Pagliacci, Robert in Iolanta, the title role of Eugene Onegin, Count di Luna in Il Trovatore, Count Anckarström in Un Ballo in Maschera, Grigory Gryaznoy in The Tsar’s Bride, Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades, and Iago in Otello at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre.met productions Robert, Count Anckarström, Germont in La Traviata, Valentin in Faust, Count di Luna, Shchelkalov in Boris Godunov, Tomsky in The Queen of Spades, Prince Andrei in War and Peace (debut, 2007), and Marcello in La Bohème.career highlights He has recently sung Valentin at the Salzburg Festival, Tomsky in Amsterdam, and Escamillo in Carmen, Prince Andrei, Don Carlo in La Forza del Destino, Germont, Rodrigo in Don Carlo, and Scarpia in Tosca at the Mariinsky Theatre. He has also sung Count di Luna at the Bavarian State Opera, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor and Count Anckarström in Zurich, and the title role of Eugene Onegin in Zürich, Lyon, and Monte Carlo.

Alexey Markovbaritone (viborg, russia)

this season Count Almaviva in Il  Barbiere  di  Siviglia, Arturo in I  Puritani, and the 50th Anniversary Gala at the Met; Count Almaviva at Covent Garden; Arturo in Zurich, the Duke in Rigoletto in Barcelona; Tonio in La Fille du Regiment in Barcelona and Las Palmas; and Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola at the Bavarian State Opera. met appearances Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Elvino in La Sonnambula, Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola, and Count Almaviva (debut, 2011).career highlights Recent performances include Count Almaviva at the Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, San Francisco Opera; Fenton in Falstaff and Count Liebenskof in Il Viaggio a Reims in Zurich; Arturo in I Puritani  in Madrid; Don Ramiro at the Salzburg Festival; Roberto in Maria Stuarda in Barcelona; Lindoro in L’Italiana in Algeri at the Paris Opera, Vienna State Opera, and in Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Dresden; and Uberto in La Donna del Lago, Elvino, and Ramiro at the Paris Opera. He joined the ensemble of the Zurich Opera in 2007, and his roles there have included Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Belfiore in La Finta Giardiniera, Nadir in Les Pêcheurs de Perles, the title role of Le Comte Ory, and Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, among others.

Javier Camarenatenor (veracruz, mexico)

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50

The Cast CONTINUED

this season Giorgio in I Puritani at the Met, Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Staatsoper Berlin and for his debut at La Scala, Méphistophélès in Faust with Houston Grand Opera, and Rodolfo in La Sonnambula and Méphistophélès at the Vienna State Opera. met appearances Count Almaviva in Le  Nozze  di  Figaro, Leporello, Caliban in The Enchanted Island, Alidoro in La Cenerentola, Publio in La Clemenza di Tito (debut, 2005), and the title role of Le Nozze di Figaro.career highlights Recent performances include Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Salzburg Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Vienna State Opera, and the title role of Rossini’s Maometto II with the Canadian Opera Company. He has also sung the title role of Le Nozze di Figaro at Covent Garden, the Bavarian State Opera, the Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, and San Francisco Opera; Count Almaviva at the Paris Opera and San Francisco Opera; Leporello in Baden-Baden; Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at the Glyndebourne Festival; Papageno in Die Zauberflöte at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées; and Henry VIII in Anna Bolena at the Vienna State Opera.

Luca Pisaronibass-baritone (ciudad bolívar, venezuela)