I due Foscari

I due Foscari is an opera in three acts, on a booklet of Francesco Maria Piave put in music by the Italian type-setter Giuseppe Verdi.

Genesis

In the search of a booklet adapted for the Fenice of Venice, Verdi is interested in the drama of Byron " The two Foscari " during the summer 1843. Allured by the Venetian aspects of the drama (carnival, the Council of the Ten), he entrusts to Francesco Maria Piave the responsibility to prepare the booklet of it.

The project is however not accepted by the Fenice, because of its reference to many still alive Venetian families; Made green does not give up and proposes I due Foscari to the Teatro Argentina of Rome.

Like use, Verdi collaborates actively in the drafting of the booklet, suggesting in Piave various modifications while he works with the orchestration of his opera.

The repetitions started after August 15th, 1844, under the joint direction of Made green and Piave.

Waited on October 22nd 1844, work is finally created on November 3rd in Teatro Argentina with Achille de Bassini, Giacomo Roppa, Mariana Barbieri-Nini and Mirri in the main roles. It accepted a mitigated reception although Verdi was the subject of impressive ovations: according to Emanuele Muzio, type-setter and friend of Made green, the problem came from the very high price of the places as owing to the fact that the singers were not with the height of their roles.

Work was however played closed counters during all the season 1844 - 1845 and was worth in Verdi the honor to see a medal struck with its effigy.

Work

Summary

Act I : The Conseil of the Ten meets in order to judge Jacopo Foscari, the son of the doge, shown murder and of treason. This one, brought in front of its judges, protests against the hatred of which it is the object, mainly on behalf of the senator Loredano, in spite of a verdict of leniency.

With the Foscari palate, Lucrézia (wife of Jacopo) requests the sky in favor of her husband but is let carry by the rage when she learns that the Council of the Ten has just condemned Jacopo to the perpetual exile.

With the palate of the Doges, the doge Francesco Foscari meditates on his authority and his impotence to protect his son; when Lucrézia between begging it to cancel the sentence which strikes their son and husband, it answers that the laws of Venice prohibit to him but that it will try to plead his cause in front of the Sénat.

Act II : Locked up in a dungeon of the prison of State, Jacopo is attacked visions of spectra; Lucrézia then the doge enter to comfort it but Jacopo Loredano appears to bring it in front of its judges, so that he sees himself meaning the sentence of exile.

In front of the Council of the Ten, the doge asks his son to subject himself to the judgment; the entry of Lucrézia and its children does not manage to make bend the Council which, carried out by Loredano, orders that Francesco is immediately off-set towards the Crête.

Act III : On Piazzetta of Venice, crowd is delighted by a regatta which must take place soon. Accompanied by Barbarigo, Loredano enters and orders that the race starts; the arrival of the galère of State disperses crowd however. Jacopo goes down and enters from there to the Palate of the Doges to bid its farewell with his wife, under the triumph of Loredano.

In its private apartments, Francesco Foscari receives the visit of Barbarigo which announces to him that a dying old man confessed to be the only author of the murder charged to Francesco; Lucrézia occurs then, announcing that Francesco has just died on the ship which transported it in Peak.

The members of the Senate and the Council of the Ten enter then, asking the doge to abdicate his crown, because of its age and its recent mourning. Foscari ends up yielding and strips its ducal ornaments; at the time when it will leave the palate in company of Lucrézia, it intends the gun Saint-Marc to thunder to announce the election of its successor, Pasquale Malipiero; he dies then immediately while Loredano registered in his book of account " I am paid ".

Dramatis personae

Francesco Foscari, baritone
Jacopo Foscari, tenor
Lucrézia Foscari Contarini, soprano
Jacopo Loredano, low
Barbarigo, tenor
Pisana, mezzo-soprano

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