First performance 5 March 1838 Librettist Eugène Scribe | Composer Fromental Halévy Language French | |
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Similar L'éclair, Valentine d'Aubigny, Le shérif, La magicienne, Les Mousquetaires de la reine | ||
Guido et Ginevra, ou La Peste de Florence (French: Guido and Ginevra, or the Plague at Florence) is a grand opera in five acts by Fromental Halévy to a libretto by Eugène Scribe. It was premiered on 5 March 1838 by the Paris Opera at the Salle Le Peletier.
Contents
Performance history
Guido et Ginevra was only a moderate success for Halévy, not nearly as applauded as his previous grand opera La Juive (1835) or as La reine de Chypre which followed it (1841). However, after its premiere it was soon played in all the major European centres. When the opera was revived in Paris in 1840 it was cut to four acts. It was translated into Italian and performed in three acts by the Théâtre-Italien at the Salle Ventadour beginning on 17 February 1870. It was performed in German in Mannheim beginning on 3 April 1879, and Hamburg, on 20 March 1882. No recent productions are known.
The opera contains touches of the composer's innovative orchestration, with a melophone in Act II, and with Ginevra's tomb scene set to dark woodwind and brass instruments using diminished harmonies.
Synopsis
Scribe drew the elements of his plot from the history of Florence by Louis-Charles Delécluze
Act 1
The Medici court
Ginevra is to be married to the Duke of Ferrara.
Act 2
During the ceremony, a poisoned veil she has been given causes her to faint away in a deathlike trance; the sculptor Guido mourns her. It is assumed that she has the plague.
Act 3
The Medici vault
Buried in the Medici vault she awakes.
Act 4
Guido offers her shelter.
Act 5
The village of Camaldoli
Ginevra is reunited with her father, who agrees to her marriage with Guido. A procession of thanksgiving ends the opera.