Isabeau

  • King Raimondo ( bass)
  • Isabeau, his daughter, the princess (soprano )
  • Cornelius, the minister of the King ( baritone)
  • Folco, a falconer (Tenor)
  • Ermyntrude (soprano )
  • Ermyngarde (soprano )
  • Giglietta (soprano )
  • Il cavalier Faidit (baritone )
  • L' araldo maggiore (baritone )

Isabeau is the name of an opera by Pietro Mascagni from the year 1911. Libretto of " leggenda drammatica " comes in three acts by Luigi Illica. The premiere took place in 1911 at the Buenos Aires and was conducted by Mascagni himself. The inspiration was the story of Lady Godiva.

Action

King Raimondo wants his daughter, the chaste Princess Isabeau marry. To this end, he organized a " Tournament of Love", in which the participating knight should win her love - not through the art of arms, but through "Words of advertising and looks of longing ." However, Isabeau rejects all the knights and is observed here by Folco. He's come to town to see her, because he has dreamed of Isabeau.

The king punish his disobedient daughter, you must clock at twelve noon ride naked through the town, completely exposed to the sun and the insult. The population is applied against the king because of this humiliation of his daughter and refuses out of respect, watch the princess there. People are demanding from the king a decree to condemn everyone and to take the eyesight who dares to look at the princess in this degrading ride.

In ignorance of this decree Folco sees the princess accidentally and is arrested. As Isabeau visited him in prison, she falls in love with him and asks her father for mercy. Cornelius, the minister of the king, but incites the population until it joins together in a pack and the falconer kills in an act of vigilantism. In the end, Isabeau takes over the body of the dying Folco even their lives.

Reception

After the premiere in 1911, the opera was initially very popular and inspired a whole series of great operas by legends with a large orchestra, best known Turandot ( 1926). From Mascagni's opera Cavalleria Rusticana has now only a permanent place in the repertoire. Also Isabeau is very rarely played, most recently in 2011 at the Staatstheater Braunschweig.

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