Hector Berlioz - BENVENUTO CELLINI - Act I Finale (Gedda, Bastin, Eda-Pierre, Berbié, Massard)
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- BENVENUTO CELLINI
Opéra en 3 actes & 5 tableaux
Composer : Hector Berlioz
Libretto : Léon Wailly & Auguste Barbier
First performance : Théâtre de l’Opéra (Salle Le Peletier), 10 September 1838.
PLOT : Rome, 1552, during Carnival. The Pope has commissioned Cellini to make the statue of Perseus. Cellini is in love with Teresa, daughter of Balducci, the Pope’s treasurer, who wants her to marry Fieramosca, the Pope’s sculptor. Cellini and Teresa plan to elope, but Fieramosca and his friend Pompeo learn of the planned elopement, and decide to abduct her. Cellini murders Pompeo in the ensuing struggle. The next day, the Pope tells Cellini that if he can cast the statue of Perseus that evening, he will pardon him; otherwise, he will hang. Cellini melts down his artworks to get enough metal to make the statue. The Pope pardons Cellini, who marries Teresa.
Berlioz’s first opera was a flop; it closed after 7 performances. The opera is a masterwork: imaginatively scored, exuberant, and bursting with vitality. Berlioz described it as “a variety of ideas, an energy and exuberance and a brilliance of colour such as I may perhaps never find again, and which deserved a better fate." The opera is loosely based on the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, the Florentine goldsmith and sculptor (1500-71). In Berlioz’s work, Cellini is that Romantic archetype: the artist as hero, who flouts traditions and is thwarted by the conservative, but triumphs in the end. (See Meyerbeer’s “Vasco da Gama”, Wagner’s “Meistersinger”.)
No. 8 - Final: Le Carnaval
In the Piazza Colonna, Balducci is incensed by a pantomime mocking him as King Midas. Two pairs of monks enter - Cellini and Ascanio, and Fieramosca and Pompeo. The four friars have a swordfight, and Cellini kills Pompeo. Cellini is arrested for murder. The Castel Sant’Angelo cannon fires three times, signalling the end of Carnival. At once the lights in the piazza are extinguished. Cellini escapes in the darkness; Fieramosca is arrested in his place; and Teresa goes off with Ascanio.
Benvenuto Cellini: Nicolai Gedda
Giacomo Balducci: Jules Bastin
Fieramosca: Robert Massard
Pompeo: Raimund Herincx
Teresa: Christiane Eda-Pierre
Ascanio: Jane Berbié
Colombine: Janine Reiss
Chorus of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden
Conductor: Sir Colin Davis
BBC Symphony Orchestra
London, 1973
Arguably one of the best scenes ever composed of the whole opera history...
execelent choice for this recording of berlioz serge aulagner
+Serge Aulagner Thanks! Why Cellini isn't mainstream repertoire, I don't know!
+Meyerbeer Smith unfortunaly the only piece we still play once a while is the roman carnival orchestral version of benvenuto cellini quel domage! anyway thanks for your love of berlioz genieserge aulagner
+ Meyerbeer Smith Because it is incredibly difficult to perform. The music is so brilliant, so complex, it presents major technical difficulties even for modern orchestras. Then, there is the role of Benvenuto, which is a nightmare to cast, as the tenor must posess quasi-superhuman qualities. And finally, some scenes, like this finale, are quite challenging to stage.
La palme du beau chant : tout Berlioz- in a nutshell
This scene is likely inspired from the finale of act 3 of Le Huguenots. A pandemonium of choruses.
The concept of a big ending for Acts wasn't new- Meyerbeer would have been drawing on his predecessors, Spontini and Rossini, amongst others. Berlioz was a big fan of Spontini. However, there is little doubt that Berlioz had heard Les Huguenots when he came to compose his score, in the same year as the Meyerbeer's premiere. There's no real similarity in the musical styles, though. Except for the trumpet fanfares there's not much similarity - and trumpet is a pretty obvious choice for fanfare. Furthermore, much of the second half of Berlioz' "Carnival" scene is directly drawn from his Mass of 1825 (in particular, the Resurrexit).