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- [00:20]
Pat Wright
Welcome to another edition of Opera for Everyone. I am your host, Pat Wright, and I am once again joined by the marvelous Kathleen Vanderwil. Welcome, Kathleen.
- [00:32]
Kathleen Vanderwil
So happy to be here for another opera.
- [00:35]
Pat Wright
It's not just another opera, it's another opera on the Romeo and Juliet story.
- [00:42]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes, this is our second in a perhaps never ending series.
- [00:49]
Pat Wright
If we could get our hands on the operas that have been created on this topic, we could have a year of nothing but Romeo and Juliet. But a lot of those are lost to the mists of time or simply not produced. And certainly we wouldn't have CDs available. But we do have one available for this opera, Julietta e Romeo by Nicola Vacci.
- [01:13]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes, this one is almost lost to the mists of time, maybe, but not lost so much that we couldn't talk about it.
- [01:21]
Pat Wright
Yes, this one is not easy to find either. There are not tremendous numbers of recordings. We were fortunate enough to find a 2018 recording that was done in Italy. We'll give you the credits at the beginning of the second half as usual, but very grateful that this is a round to be enjoyed. This is not Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
- [01:46]
Kathleen Vanderwil
No, indeed. This predates Shakespeare's version and is based on the same source material that he, we believe, used to shape his arguably much more famous play.
- [01:58]
Pat Wright
What can you tell us about the source material?
- [02:00]
Kathleen Vanderwil
So the source material is first a poem and then a novella, which we believe he probably took it more from the novella. It's called a Historia novalamente ritro Vata di due Giovanni Amanti, or Newly Found Story of Two Noble Lovers by Luigi da Porto, who was born in 1485 and died in 1529. So we are about a generation before Shakespeare's time and he was an Italian writer and wrote this novella potentially based on his own tragic love story.
- [02:39]
Pat Wright
Yeah. And it gets a little murky with these sources. I dug and dug and dug and Deporta's novella was based on an earlier tale from the beginning of the 15th century from this fellow who wrote a collection of 50 short stories. And the 33rd of that was called Mariota y Ganozza and that becomes Romeo and Juliet. It's. You get a sense that if you were able, you would find things even deeper and deeper in the story. It's definitely a fully medieval story.
- [03:12]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah. And I think a lot of that is down to the fact that it is a archetypal story as well. It is two lovers separated by family strife or the ide of love being able to conquer or not conquer in this Instance, personal vendettas between families. I think that it really traces back to a lot of different potential stories because of that. It's something that was maybe an oft told tale with different names inserted.
- [03:43]
Pat Wright
Yeah. And reworkings of this story. Shakespeare did a pretty dramatic reworking with the fundamentals of this story. But one of the interpreters that was about the same time period as Deporte that you mentioned initially, Bandello wrote a set of stories that Shakespeare I pretty sure had access to because one of them appears to be the inspiration for Much Ado About Nothing. One for Twelfth Night, one for Cymbeline, Romeo and Juliet, definitely.
- [04:16]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah. In our quest to understand where Shakespeare got all of these things from and how he was able to be so knowledgeable about all these older tales, it's interesting to try and trace the provenance of these characters. And it's been, as you said, this has been retold many times. An interesting one that we talked about previously is the story of Pyramus and Thisbe in A Midsummer Night's Dream. That's another instance of. That's very clearly a Romeo and Juliet tale. Two lovers, their families are feuding, they meet in secret, they die. So Shakespeare reused this tale multiple times in his own work as well.
- [05:01]
Pat Wright
Well, the archetypal nature that you referred to, that's why I hear you mention Romeo and Juliet with so many different stories, because little bits of it insert itself or resonate at any rate. Well, this libretto for the opera that we're going to be discussing today, Giulietta y Romeo, was written by Felice Romani, whose name might be familiar to those of you who look at a lot of opera librettos. He was very prolific, wrote nearly 100 librettos. Many of the librettos were set by multiple different composers, with some reworking or perhaps some not. And that was not uncommon in the early 19th century and earlier as well. But that's when Romani is working. A good libretto was just a real find, a treasure for a composer. And that is what Romani produced. He was the official librettist for Teatro della Scala in Milan for quite a long time. And this libretto gets reworked a little bit, not a tremendous amount, a little bit. For probably the next Romeo and Juliet. We are going to discuss the Capulets and the Montagues by Bellini. But that's for another opera for everyone. Today we're going to talk about Vicay, whose opera premiered in Milan, not at La Scala, but in Milan in 1825. And Romani mined the source material. There was an earlier from very end of the 18th century. There was an earlier Italian opera based on these same stories. So I think he was informed about that because the librettos tended to exist and be findable by the people who were looking for them, Much more so even than the scores for different operas. And that's why the same libretto could be set by multiple composers. That's what Mozart did, after all, when he was traveling around in his younger years, was trying to gather librettos that he might be able to turn into beautiful operas. It's fascinating. It's very different from the way we think of it occurring today in terms of the creation of the art.
- [07:12]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah. And I know we'll probably talk about this even more when we get to our next opera, but there's even an instance of this opera, an act from this opera, being inserted into the Capulets and the Montagues by Bellini. There's this idea of almost interchangeability between operas that seems to have not raised too many eyebrows at the time, but today would be unthinkable, I would imagine.
- [07:40]
Pat Wright
Yeah. A lot of power was wielded by the singers, and the singers could make a lot of demands, particularly if they liked the style of ending of one opera and they felt they could insert it there. There are more egregious examples of inserting things from other shows because the singers wanted it. At least in the case of Romeo and Juliet, it's the same story.
- [08:05]
Kathleen Vanderwil
A case for strong copyright protections, perhaps.
- [08:08]
Pat Wright
Yeah. No, it's a different world. Well, let's talk about how this begins. How does this opera open?
- [08:17]
Kathleen Vanderwil
So I think it's worth talking about setting the stage, as it were, for how different this opera is. And that starts with our characters from what you may be familiar with in the Romeo and Juliet story. So we still have Juliet, and we still have Romeo, and we still have the Capulets and the Montagues. Although the leader of the Capulets, his name is Coppelio, So I suppose he's Capellio Capulet.
- [08:42]
Pat Wright
He is still Juliet's father.
- [08:44]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. And Juliet's mother is also a character in this. She has a larger role, I would say, than she does in some other productions, including Shakespeare. Her name is Adella. And then we have Romeo is the only Montague that we encounter, and he is the head of the Montague family in this. This story. Rather than being the son who's dreamy and wandering around, he's really the guy.
- [09:11]
Pat Wright
Yeah. And, you know, he might even simply be the head of the Montague army. It's interesting. I don't know if his last name is Montague or not, but he's definitely the head of the army. He is their leader militarily. Quite a strong man, as opposed to being a flighty boy.
- [09:29]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Well, we will see as we go along. But Romeo is really the only Montague that we are familiar with, I will say. Yeah, there is no Mercutio cousin type of character in this. And then we have Teobaldo, who is the Paris figure. He is a nobleman that Coppelio wants to marry to Juliet and wants to have take over for the Capulet family. He's sort of created his successor and as a strong alliance against the Montagues. And then finally we have Lorenzo, who is a doctor and plays both sides a little bit, seems to be a member of the Capulet court, but then also knows Romeo and is friendly with him and acts as the sort of Friar Lawrence figure. So that's to set our scene. In our opening scene, Coppelio's supporters have been urgently summoned to his castello and are about to meet about something.
- [10:27]
Pat Wright
Yes, they're kind of getting psyched up, I would say. Let's hear the chorus in this very opening number.
- [11:36]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Ra.
- [12:23]
Pat Wright
Those were the men of the Capulets getting ready for an argument with their rivals. Can you tell us a little bit about who these groups are, besides being Capulets and Montagues?
- [12:37]
Kathleen Vanderwil
So one of the things that's interesting about the source material and about this opera is there's actually more of a reason behind the Montague Capulet feud. Shakespeare is very intentional about framing it as just two rival families, almost in a sort of Mafia family versus Mafia family. Or the way that it's framed in west side Story as sort of two rival street gangs. That is much more similar to the way Shakespeare talks about it.
- [13:07]
Pat Wright
Yeah.
- [13:08]
Kathleen Vanderwil
But in reality, the source material in this opera both frame it as part of a larger conflict and in fact, a literal war. And they mention here something called the Guelphs, which comes up actually quite frequently throughout the opera's text. There were two rival factions, the Gelfs and the Ghibellines.
- [13:26]
Pat Wright
These were actual groups because they were allied with different power structures. The greatest power structures known to people at the in Italy at this time.
- [13:36]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. And those power structures are supporting the Pope or the Holy Roman Emperor. And I will not go any further than that.
- [13:44]
Pat Wright
I'll jump in because I do love this stuff. It's fascinating because the Pope is this great leader of all the Catholics, and we only. In Christian world, we only have the Catholics at this stage. In Europe anyway. And he was supposed to be in charge of his folks, the abbots and the bishops and the high ranking ecclesiastical positions. But the Holy Roman Emperor, who was consolidating power over time, felt, no, no, no, I need to be the one who. They're working in my lands. And oftentimes it was the high ranking ecclesiastical officials who were the literate ones and they had important positions in the government. So of course, the Holy Roman Emperor thought, hey, I need to be able to appoint these people. So it was, historically speaking, it did matter. And it gives a real different, to my mind anyway, it gives a different angle to this. Whereas you say that the clans are the rival factions in the Shakespeare in the west side storytelling here, but it's a much bigger conflict when you talk about these factions that are supporting either the Pope or the Holy Roman Emperor. Even when the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor solve, or come to agreement anyway on the investiture controversy with this concordato of worms, it still is the dominating like it lingers beyond the principles being at war with each other in 12th and 13th century Italy. This is a real animating forces for conflicts among the different groups. But we have a really good personal conflict and story that comes out of this bigger conflict.
- [15:25]
Kathleen Vanderwil
So we know that looking at the records too, that the Montagues and Capulets were historically families on either side of this dispute too. There is actual historical precedent for that name and those clans for being a part of it. So there's a lot of historical weight when Luigi Deporto sits down to write his novella. And he has a lot of other things on his mind, which we'll get to a little bit later, but he would have been most likely deeply aware of this historical conflict. So Capulet has called his bannermen or his leaders of his faction together, and he wants to talk about what the next step is. And he wants to tell them that there has been a turn for the worse against them, which is that one of their potential allies, someone named Ezzelino, has instead taken the Montague side and has sent a powerful army to support the Montague army. And so this has placed the Capulet army at a very distinct disadvantage. And so it's a small detail that's quite buried, I would say, in the text, but is actually the inciting incident for the whole play. And it's that there has been a turn in the political affairs. And so the personal must go along with it, must respond to that. And Coppelio's response is that he needs to consolidate his power and get more army support. And so he wants to bring Teobaldo into the fold more explicitly by marrying him to his daughter, Juliet.
- [17:12]
Pat Wright
What better way to bring the leader of your army into the fold than to have her marry the daughter of the man in charge? And Teo Baldo is thrilled.
- [17:23]
Kathleen Vanderwil
He is. He has wanted to marry Juliet. He is very excited by this prospect. So it seems like everything is going to go along smoothly. I will note here there's a different way in which love and marriage are spoken about in this opera. There's two different ways. One is this very medieval. I marry my daughter to my ally, political alliance. It's spoken of as completely normal. That would happen. But there are several instances where Capelio says things like, if you tell me who you're in love with, daughter, as long as he's not our enemy, I'll marry you to him instead. Or Teobaldo says, I don't want to marry her if she doesn't love me. There's several instances where love is spoken of in a very Victorian, romantic way, which is the actual timing for this opera is production. But then the original text is really pushing this medieval political alliance. Love is not important, etc.
- [18:18]
Pat Wright
Right. Right up front here in this first comment where this political alliance is announced. One of the very first things Teobaldo says, of course I'm happy, I'm thrilled to marry her, but I don't want her to be mine by force.
- [18:32]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Exactly.
- [18:33]
Pat Wright
In the father's. Oh, don't worry about that. It's good. It's not by force. She'll be fine. She'll be fine.
- [18:37]
Kathleen Vanderwil
But that's so modern, which is so interesting, that right there, that's Victoria's about to take the thr. And romance and love is everywhere. That is a very 19th century perspective.
- [18:48]
Pat Wright
Right. But there's a bit of that comes out here because Lorenzo is going to jump in pretty quickly, who is a respected man of the court in the Capulet court with Capelio. And he says, I think it's going to be a problem for your daughter. He knows the truth. Lorenzo knows the truth. He's the doctor. And by the way, Juliet's declining for mysterious reasons. And we know it's because she's in love and it's not working out. But he says right up front, you will see her dead if you continue along this line. That to me, strikes like a thunderbolt. Right in the beginning of the show, the characters are introduced and Lorenzo's threatening that Juliet will die with a forced Marriage.
- [19:35]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah. And Lorenzo says that not only will she die, but it's justified repulsion that she is sick. And in it is justified that she is sick at the idea of an arranged marriage, which once again is just very asynchronous with the 16th century, but.
- [19:53]
Pat Wright
It fits in with what the audience wants to hear, or expects to hear in 1825.
- [20:00]
Kathleen Vanderwil
And there is one further barrier to the idea that Romeo and Juliet should be together, an important one. Before the events of the play, Romeo has killed Capelio's son in a fight. This is reflected obviously in the Tybalt Romeo situation mid play in Romeo and Juliet. But in this version, that has all happened before the events, as has the meeting of Romeo and Juliet and the falling in love and all of that, we are coming in very much in medias res, where Juliet is taken to her sickbed and Romeo is amassing an army to try and win her.
- [20:37]
Pat Wright
Yeah, it's a real different take to have these things already established, that Romeo and Juliet are already in love in secret. Lorenzo already knows all about it and in fact, the mother knows all about it. And they are secretly trying to be supportive of Juliet, but they can't be out in the open because, of course, Coppelio would not tolerate it.
- [21:00]
Kathleen Vanderwil
And the end of this scene, what we'll listen to this part in just a moment, is really Coppelio trying to understand what are his options. He is very stuck on the idea of marrying Teobaldo to Juliet. But Coppelio has another option that's being presented to him. The Montagues are coming with a peace treaty.
- [21:21]
Pat Wright
Yes, they're sending an ambassador with a peace treaty, so we'll see. But from what we've heard so far by the Capulets in general and by Coppelio, they don't seem to be very excited about concluding a piece. They're angry and they want to elevate Teobaldo to this leadership position in the army and hopefully, therefore gain advantage. Let's listen to a little bit of this scene where Teobaldo is introduced as the leader of the army. And we're going to get the chorus jumping in and even saying, as long as a drop of blood is left to us, as long as we can wield a sword, in good times and in bad, we shall remain united and in harmony. And see, perhaps the Capulets are all worked up here in Nicola Baccay's Giulietta e Romeo, an Opera from 1825. And they're worked up because they are expecting to see an ambassador who might be proposing some sort of a peace agreement, but it feels very unlikely to them. After all, as Capulet just said, or as Capelio just said, Romeo killed his son. An unforgivable act. And how can we trust these people anyway? But interesting Lorenzo, a member of the Capulet clan, who is the Doctor and who seems to know an awful lot, says, just listen to the man, just listen. It might be something useful. We might be able to end these years of war and strife. But Coppelio's not buying it.
- [25:36]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes, he endorses war. They all endorse war. They in fact say no matter what offers that the Ambassador makes, they're determined to reject them.
- [25:45]
Pat Wright
Yeah, and here's where Coppelio drops his little nugget for our benefit. About the leader of the Montague army, Romeo, he says, oh, nobody even knows what Romeo looks like. He left us as a boy, so apparently he lived there at some point in his childhood and he's roamed throughout Italy. And I've even heard tell that he's shown up here in Verona unrecognized, because nobody knows what this guy looks like. This guy Romeo. So that's an interesting point. They don't know what Romeo looks like. Well, just about that time, the ambassador from the Montagues shows up.
- [26:27]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes, and we know that it is Romeo. Mostly because Lorenzo says, senate aside, whom do I see? Romeo.
- [26:34]
Pat Wright
Yes, well, we got a clue in the audience.
- [26:37]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Exactly right, because the audience hasn't met him yet either. We know that Romeo is playing the role of the Ambassador because he is unknown to them, and Romeo, he is willing to offer them, honestly, a pretty good deal. He offers that all of this can go away. My. My army that's right outside your gates. This long standing enmity, if only you will allow, my lord Romeo to marry your daughter Juliet.
- [27:10]
Pat Wright
Also a classic political strategy, that you seal a peace treaty by having the two highest ranking individuals who are marriageable to marry. And that's what Romeo as ambassador is proposing. And he's negotiating from a point of strength. After all, they've had all of these successes and their army as not very far away.
- [27:34]
Kathleen Vanderwil
And Coppelio says that they've signed peace treaties before and it's been broken before. So he has perhaps good reason not to trust this offer, even though he doesn't know that it's coming from Romeo. But Coppelio says that the real barrier to taking him up on this offer is the death of Capelio's son. He says there is a barrier of blood that stands between us which can never be removed. Romeo's answer to that is, yes, my lord, Romeo killed your son, but it was a fair fight and he is sorry for it and didn't want it to happen that way. But you can't hold that against him because it was a fair fight between the two.
- [28:19]
Pat Wright
Yeah. And he shows genuine sadness at the death of this child of Coppelio.
- [28:26]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah. He even offers himself as a second son to Coppelio. He says in my Lord, you shall find another son.
- [28:34]
Pat Wright
Right. Marrying your daughter. Right.
- [28:36]
Kathleen Vanderwil
But Coppelio has. I think he believes himself to have gone too far down the path with Teobaldo to change course now.
- [28:45]
Pat Wright
Right. Because that just makes Teobaldo angry. He's already found another son. It's me. I'm the guy right here. Standing here. And this all makes Lorenzo very nervous. He's like, oh, no, Romeo's going to reveal who he is as this goes on. It's really. It's a very interesting bit of drama here.
- [29:04]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah. And he has every right to call it. He calls it reckless. And I think it's. Truly, it is, because it's this odd situation where you have these people negotiating war, but their real motivations are personal and not at all related to the political circumstances. They are a personal vendetta on the one side for Coppelio and a romantic relationship on the other side. So for Romeo, he is not speaking in the best diplomatic interest of his people. He is speaking for his own heart here.
- [29:37]
Pat Wright
Well, which also may align with the best diplomatic interests of his people.
- [29:42]
Kathleen Vanderwil
But that's not his concern.
- [29:44]
Pat Wright
That might not be for him.
- [29:45]
Kathleen Vanderwil
It might coincidentally align if what he's saying is true. They seem to have the forces to win a fight against Coppelio. So he's really choosing to not fully vanquish his enemy in order to have the woman that he wants. Perhaps.
- [30:02]
Pat Wright
Yes. Though if they could conclude peace, it would end the seemingly never ending enmity between the two groups. But that's not to be. So it's. It doesn't matter. And as Ambassador, Coppelio is shooing him off. Well, you've tried. Thank you, young man. You may leave. And Romeo says, if you want war, you're going to get war. But war is deadly. It's atrocious, it's awful. So much suffering doesn't need to be.
- [30:30]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah. And Coppelio knows that. He knows that more intimately than any of the other characters. He's lost his child to war. So for him to choose war again is sort of the fatal flaw of his Character.
- [30:42]
Pat Wright
That's right. Well, Romeo and Lorenzo have a moment to speak quietly to each other. They are each known to each other, they are friends and supporters. Lorenzo not really betraying his people, but hoping for peace and hoping for the best for Juliet as well. And Romeo doesn't really want to talk about the politics anymore. He just wants to know about Juliet and if he can see her.
- [31:07]
Kathleen Vanderwil
And Lorenzo makes it clear that she is. He calls her deeply unhappy. And we know obviously there's more to it than that. She's in fact quite sick, that this enmity has made her physically ill. But Romeo knows that if they can only be together again, that's all that he truly cares for.
- [31:27]
Pat Wright
Right. And here we have a moment to see someone else who loves Juliet very much. Her mother. And her mother is in anguish over the fact that her daughter seems to be declining before her very eyes and is hoping there's some way out of these troubles.
- [31:46]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah, this is a very once again, Victorian concept. Not just Victorian, but was very popular in Victorian times, the idea that, especially for a woman, that mental and emotional pain could cause physical illness. You could in fact die of a broken heart, quite literally. And you see that reflected here, that she is suffering physically because of her emotional distress. And yes, Adela is a very sympathetic figure in this telling. She's very much not a sympathetic figure, I would say, in the Shakespeare.
- [32:20]
Pat Wright
Yeah, she's a mother who loves her daughter and is looking after her, but also her daughter has taken her into her confidence. Again, this happens all before the play begins. Lorenzo and Adela both know about Romeo and Juliet's love for him. But let's hear a little bit of this mother who is glad that her daughter is finally sleeping, because that's the only piece she is having right now. And she is supported by the chorus of the household as she is singing about her daughter.
- [33:58]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Ra.
- [34:49]
Pat Wright
That was Juliet's mother in Nicolas Vacci's telling of the Romeo and Juliet story in an early 19th century opera. And once Juliet's mother and the chorus have had their say of their concern for Juliet, we're going to find ourselves with Lorenzo and Juliet. Lorenzo is preparing Juliet for a large surprise.
- [35:13]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes, he knows that she's so weak that he has to prepare her so that he doesn't, I don't know, cause more harm by just springing it on her. And she herself says she's getting weaker and weaker, she's wasting away and that her soul is fading away. She specifically says that. And he even says, I have to prepare her soul. There's this idea that once again, what's happening to her emotions is happening to her body as well. And Lorenzo does break the news to her that Romeo is in Verona and that he's in fact right here, right now.
- [35:48]
Pat Wright
Yeah. But he does it slowly enough that she is able to withstand the shock.
- [35:54]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes.
- [35:55]
Pat Wright
She's over the moon.
- [35:57]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. Of course. This is the one thing she wants. So they are reunited and get to have this love scene. The first time we get to see them together.
- [36:06]
Pat Wright
Yes. The beginning of this reunion has her just achingly happy to see him. You get that aching happiness being expressed in this beautiful soprano singing. And Romeo, by the way, we haven't mentioned this yet. We should. Romeo is a trouser role. So Romeo is sung by a mezzo soprano here, so that when you hear what sound like two women's voices, the lower one is Romeo and Juliet is the soprano. But Romeo will come in and he will share her joy.
- [36:41]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. But there is an undercurrent throughout, even the joy of impending tragedy. And he says in the beginning of their reunion, we'll never be apart again. They're not going to take you from me. And that is the trigger for her to start thinking again about being apart from him. So they really only have this very small moment at the beginning where they are truly have this unadulterated happiness. And then the second the real world comes in just a little bit, it makes it so difficult for them to enjoy this. And they start to discuss, what are we going to do? And he talks about the plan and her father's plan for her to get married to somebody else. And although Romeo is saying love will rescue us, Juliet is not so sanguine.
- [37:34]
Pat Wright
K SA.
- [39:20]
Kathleen Vanderwil
J.
- [39:56]
Pat Wright
Romeo has said to Juliet, can we still believe that fortune has a happy future for us? Can we believe it? There's a shift that happens here with the two of them singing together in their reunion. And they realize if fate is cruel and divides us, we have one hope, she says, one unfailing hope, and that is to die together. And it's fascinating with this duet with these two voices, the soprano and the mezzo soprano, Juliet and Romeo, they take a lot of solace in this concept that they are forever bound together one way or another.
- [40:43]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. And that is a sentiment that connects our 16th century timing and our 19th century timing. The idea that death is so omnipresent that the only true guarantee that you might be with the person you love is in death, that's not a very modern concept to us. I would say with far lower death rates. But in both those centuries that fate was a real possibility. So I think that really connects the ideology of both times.
- [43:16]
Pat Wright
J by Nicola Vacay is what we've been listening to. And our two lovers were united just then. But of course, this happy reunion, or bittersweet reunion, we might say this reunion does not last with the two of them alone. Romeo is told by Lorenzo he must hide. He must hide because Juliet's father is on the way.
- [44:23]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. So he leaves and we are left with Juliet and her father and Lorenzo to discuss further this impending marriage contract.
- [44:34]
Pat Wright
With Teobaldo, soon to be son in law. At least that's what Coppelio hopes. Yes, and Coppelio is very clear about Juliet's resistance to this plan. In fact, he says, Juliet, there is some mysterious reason why you're resisting marrying this fabulous man, Teobaldo. Could it be. Could it be that you're in love with someone else? Well, never mind. As you said earlier, Kathleen, he's very 19th century about this. Or hopefully 19th century about this. Yeah, it's fine, I'll relent. You don't have to marry Teobaldo. I mean, as long as it's not a Montague or one of their ilk, as long as it's not somebody from the other side. I won't even force you to marry Teobaldo. Even though I think it's the best marriage for you.
- [45:23]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah. Which makes no sense, honestly, because the politics of it require that he needs her to marry Teobaldo. Yes, but he says it, it's quite high minded of him to throw his entire political strategy out the window for the love of his daughter. If indeed he's being straightforward with her.
- [45:43]
Pat Wright
I'm not sure he's being straightforward with her. I think he's trying to uncover the fact that she is in a relationship or her heart is in a relationship that he cannot approve under any circumstance.
- [45:56]
Kathleen Vanderwil
True. Although he definitely doesn't give her any room to admit that it's a Montague. If she were in love with somebody who's just Joe the plumber, maybe he would accept that. So he says.
- [46:23]
Pat Wright
Saunders.
- [49:00]
Kathleen Vanderwil
He says very specifically that there is. There's a widespread rumor too that she's in love with Amanius. And not only is this something that he suspects, this is something people are talking about her, her reputation perhaps is suffering or will suffer if this is true. And she, she basically admits it. She doesn't say he is a Montague. In fact, she says, I must say it, I'm in love. A wicked Destiny has driven me to be in love, and I'm not gonna say who. And then Coppelia says, then it's a Montague. And she says, no. And then he's. It's Romeo. And she's just. Don't ask me.
- [49:37]
Pat Wright
Yeah.
- [49:37]
Kathleen Vanderwil
So, like, he knows Exactly.
- [49:39]
Pat Wright
Exactly. Buried in my heart. But she's. She's not really strong enough to. To keep up any kind of facade with her father. She just is crumbling.
- [49:49]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah. She's a very different character in this version than I would say in Shakespeare's version. I think you can really see when you compare the two, how much spine Shakespeare gave her. She is the strongest character, the strongest will, for sure. The strongest character in a physical sense, too. In Romeo and Juliet, she's the one that chooses, at the very end, a much more difficult physical death. She stabs herself. She's willing to have that pain, whereas Romeo ends up taking a painless route. But in this version, she's basically. She's just this object in a way that the men of the play fight over and try to claim, and doesn't really have a lot of agency of her own until the very, very, very end. And even then. And we'll talk about this in a bit, It's. There's a very different way in which she ends than we are perhaps used to.
- [50:46]
Pat Wright
Yes. And she. She's having this argument with her father here in this scene, and he does say, which I think is similar to what is in the Shakespeare version, that you either marry this man that I want you to marry, or you will die by my hand. Her father threatens to kill her if she does not obey his will.
- [51:04]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah. And there's an idea that this is, in this time period would have been very legal. A daughter was the father's property and could kill her legally if refused to do what he said. That is. That's history. And we see this pop up also in A Midsummer Night's Dream, where Hermia is threatened with death by her father as well, if she doesn't marry the man that he has chosen.
- [51:27]
Pat Wright
I mean, what leverage does a father have? That's what he uses. Well, Teobaldo, that would be brute force. Yeah. Teobaldo, the man in question here shows up and similar to his attitude before, he wants to marry Juliet, but he doesn't want her to feel forced. He wants her to be a willing bride.
- [51:51]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. Good luck with that. Teo. Aldo. I don't think there's ever even a moment where she considers relenting. She's very faithful as a character. She's written to be 100% faithful. And that is perhaps in contrast to who Luigi dedicated this to, who we should perhaps talk about in a minute.
- [52:14]
Pat Wright
Okay, we'll get back to that. But right now let's listen a little bit to this interchange between Teobaldo and Juliet. Teobaldo, by the way, is a baritone. Juliet, we know, is a soprano. And we'll have a little bit of Coppelio coming in. Capelio, her father, a tenor, so you'll be able to identify the voices. And it's this fascinating, beautiful piece written all together where she is saying things like, ever since childhood, I have not experienced happiness. Nature didn't give me that kind of soul. I'm tormented by grief. And Thea Baldo is just trying to charm her, seeing how beautiful she looks even through her pallor. She is the most gorgeous woman he's ever seen. And. And Capelio is a little bit trying to play this peacemaker or trying to keep Tebaldo interested in her for his political reasons to say, remember, she's not quite herself. Her brother was recently murdered. She's still mourning for him. And it's this gorgeous trio of voices exchanging all these different thoughts and ideas, but honestly, not really listening to each other.
- [53:31]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Sa la baby sh Ra.
- [58:33]
Pat Wright
You're listening to Opera for Everyone, a radio show and podcast that makes operations opera understandable, accessible and enjoyable for everyone. I'm your host today, Pat Wright, joined by special guest co host Kathleen Vandewell.
- [58:47]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Opera for Everyone airs Sundays from 9 to 11am Mountain Time on 89.1 Khol in Jackson, Wyoming. KHOL is Wyoming's only community radio station.
- [58:59]
Pat Wright
If you like what you hear, please subscribe to the Opera for Everyone podcast where you can find scores of past episodes.
- [59:07]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Stay with us. The second half of today's show is coming right up.
- [59:29]
Pat Wright
Welcome back to Opera for Everyone. I'm your host, Pat Wright, and I am here once again with wonderful Kathleen Vandewille. And before we do anything else, a shout out for constructive criticism. Kathleen's blog about culture old and new.
- [59:47]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah, I write reviews, essays, etc. On anything that I'm interested in, anything that sounds interesting to me or maybe to the people who read. So check it out. It is a substack blog, so you can just find it by searching for constructive criticism.
- [60:04]
Pat Wright
Yeah, I will confess that when I'm not doing opera research or watching operas or reading opera librettos, it's a great source to find something that will appeal to you because you've done a lot of the a lot of the sussing out of what are the strengths and weaknesses or red flags for people who might find certain elements of stories to have red flags.
- [60:24]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah, I try to at least. Yeah. With a, with an eye towards what my audience might be able to like or not like. But it's mostly just a place for me to put all my thoughts.
- [60:35]
Pat Wright
Yes. And a varied bunch of thoughts they are. And lots of different kinds of books and movies and TV shows and all kinds of things that creatives are coming up with. Well, speaking of creative people, let us take a moment before we get back to our story to thank the people involved with creating this lovely CD that we've been listening to. This is a 2018 recording of Giulietta e Romeo by Niccolo Vacci and it was recorded with the orchestra Accademia Teatra alla Scala with the conductor Sesto Quattrini. And it has the Chorus del Teatro Municipale di Piancenza with chorus master Corrado Casati.
- [61:17]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Pelio is sung by Leonardo Cortellazzi. Giulietta is Leonor Bonilla. Romeo is Raffaella Lupinacci. Adela is Paoletta Marocu. Teobaldo is Vasa Steikik. And Lorenzo is sung by Christian Sen.
- [61:39]
Pat Wright
Thank you one and all for creating this lovely CD and making this Vicki opera available to us. I mean, Vicki wrote quite a number of operas. Can we. Let's just talk about Vicay for a moment here. Our composer, he wrote a lot of operas, but this is really the only one that's been performed in modern times, the only one that we know much about at all. But Vicki Nicola Vicay is actually quite famous if you're training to be an opera singer.
- [62:11]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Oh really?
- [62:12]
Pat Wright
Oh really. In fact, if you Google or go on YouTube and put in his name V A C C A I, you might pull up an aria or two from this particular opera. Some of them are done as recital pieces by performers. But what you will get for the most part are endless elements of his singing instruction. In 1832 he wrote. Well, he wrote several books on the teaching of singing. But his I'm not even going to try the Italian practical voice method that he wrote. It taught singers the Italian legato style, a style that's very useful for bel canto singing, which all of this is, which early 19th century Italian opera tended to focus on are people like Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini. The bel canto style and his method of teaching, his book and examples that he uses in teaching this is still a gold standard for training for singers. It was fascinating to me. In fact, in 1990, there was a newly produced and edited edition of his book. In 2020, the Teatra Nuovo of New York released a work called bel canto in 30 minutes, which was a recording that had 22 different opera singers recording these different examples of singing as training for singers. So it's fascinating. We don't really think of his name up top with a lot of the other opera composers that we talk about, but he's incredibly important for the singers that we enjoy.
- [63:52]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Oh, that is incredible. Especially because so much of his opera work is basically lost to us. What a treasure to still have that.
- [64:01]
Pat Wright
Yeah, I mean, the Vicay Method people might even be training in singing and not focus on him as a composer. But we've come at it from a different angle here. So shout out to Nicola Vicay and thank you for your endurance efforts to. To bring us beautiful music. Well, Kathleen, you know what time it is?
- [64:20]
Kathleen Vanderwil
I believe that it is opera helmet quiz time.
- [64:23]
Pat Wright
Yes. And if I'm the first one to ask, I'm going to ask you to summarize for us.
- [64:28]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Happy to summarize. In this opera, which is based on the original source material that Shakespeare based Romeo and Juliet on, rather than based on Shakespeare's play directly, we have two rival clans. We have the Capulets and the Montagues, and all of our action and all of our characters, for the most part, are Capulets. We are in the Capulet court. So we have Capelio Capulet, who is the father and the head of the clan, and his daughter Juliet and his wife as well. And he wants his daughter to marry another nobleman, Teobaldo. Juliet is unhappy with this arrangement. She has been wasting away, pining away. And her mother and her doctor Lorenzo know that it is because she is in love with someone else. And she is in fact in love with Romeo, who is the leader of the Montague family and her father's sworn rival. He, before the events of the opera, he killed in a duel, in a fight, Juliet's brother. And for that, the blood feud is sealed forever. And Coppelio will not even consider a peace treaty, even though it is offered to him. Between the two families, Coppelio tries to force his daughter to marry Teobaldo. Teobaldo, this other nobleman, does not want to marry her by force, is hoping he can convince her to love him. But what they do not know, or perhaps they suspect, is that it is far too late. She is completely given her heart to Romeo and Lorenzo is helping her and scheming to try and reconnect the two lovers, Romeo and Juliet. But they both have great misgivings that anything good can come out of this sad love story. So where we left our lovers, Romeo has gone back into hiding after seeing Juliet again and professing his love, but also, as I said, his misgivings about their future.
- [66:33]
Pat Wright
Yeah.
- [66:34]
Kathleen Vanderwil
And Juliet's father has once again reiterated that she must marry Teobaldo or he will kill her.
- [66:42]
Pat Wright
Yeah. In fact, what happens right after the bit that we heard at the end of part one is he point blank tells his daughter, go prepare yourself for marriage and return looking happy. That'll work.
- [66:57]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Good luck with that. Yeah.
- [67:01]
Pat Wright
And he just keeps insisting that she obey him. He needs obedience from his daughter. As you say, she's not really a person in this conception, but I think it's more to flush out her true feelings about who the person she's in love with. Even though he had said, if you really love someone, as long as he's not a Montague, you can marry him, I don't think he meant that for a second. She is a pawn in his political desires, and it's important to him that she play along with his hatred and continuing this fight and will not succumb to any offers of peace by the Montagues. And it's heartbreaking in a way. It reminds me of the. Of the scene in the Shakespeare where Romeo's trying to convince them, no, I have reason to love you. I have reason to love you. Because he knows he's married Juliet already. And here we have him saying, please, let's just have peace, so. So there can be tranquility in the back of his mind, so I can go ahead and marry Juliet as well. But that's not to be.
- [68:08]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. And the wedding feast is already in preparation, so events are moving quite quickly. And our two lovers will have to figure out what they're going to do quite fast if they're going to stop these events in motion.
- [68:22]
Pat Wright
We have the mother saying she's really afraid of how her husband is acting. He's so hostile. This can only lead to bad outcome for her daughter Juliet, who she's so sympathetic to. But before we know it, the hall is filled with the people of the Capulet side, and they are there to celebrate the marriage of Capulet's daughter. And it's quite a scene of contrast that we have the chorus singing about a propitious marriage, a brief delight to compensate for our many woes. But we're going to more or less hear them in the Background. And pretty soon, in the foreground, we're going to have Lorenzo and Romeo strategizing. When we see Lorenzo and Romeo in the foreground, Lorenzo once again clues us in to what's going on with Romeo. Because Romeo has adopted another disguise. He's no longer disguised as the ambassador of his clan. He's dressed up like the Capulets would dress.
- [70:20]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. And I would imagine that this is left to the director to make this work, because it doesn't seem like it would work.
- [70:28]
Pat Wright
Right.
- [70:29]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Like, they've seen Romeo's face as the ambassador. They know he's not a guelf. So for him to then show up at their party dressed as a Guelph, you'd think that would raise red flags.
- [70:39]
Pat Wright
He's just hoping to blend into the crowd, I think.
- [70:42]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes, but it's risky, and I think that's what Lorenzo was saying. And I think that. I mean, Lorenzo's correct here. He is taking a huge risk. And I want to reiterate that it seems once again that the thing that is driving Romeo's choices is much more his love for this one woman than his. Perhaps what's politically advantageous. They seem to overlap, which is great. But he is the leader of this army and family, and he is willing to risk his life by stealing into the enemy castle just so that he can disrupt this wedding and then back up that disruption with a military force. But it is clear that that is where his mind is focused. And he puts himself at great physical peril to do this.
- [71:32]
Pat Wright
Definitely, though, he does let us know. We don't see them, but he lets us know by telling Lorenzo. I'm not the only one who's dressed like a Guelph. All of my comrades, my entire army, is infiltrating these wedding celebrations so that when the moment is right, they can strike. It is top in his mind. He needs to prevent this wedding from occurring. She cannot become another man's wife. But wrapped up into that is his duty as the leader of the army of the Montagues. That he's going to have all of his men surprise the guests, surprise all of the armed men of the Capulets, and defeat them that way. So maybe that's why they're doing so well militarily. Because he is a crafty one, that Romeo.
- [72:21]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes, I guess a thousand strange men dressed up as your neighbors doesn't raise any red flags either.
- [72:29]
Pat Wright
No, it's all going splendidly.
- [72:30]
Kathleen Vanderwil
It's all fine. Yes. He's a military genius, I guess, because he it is successful too in the sense that he is able to disrupt the wedding by this method, despite the fact that Lorenzo is saying, please change your plans. This is never going to work. And he also says, Lorenzo lets him know, I don't need you to do all of this. You're being. You're being extra. You're doing too much. He says, all I need is me and Juliet. We can end this together.
- [73:01]
Pat Wright
Yeah, yeah.
- [73:02]
Kathleen Vanderwil
But Romeo says, no, no, I don't trust that I have to use my force because otherwise I can't trust this. That you're right. Because literally, the wedding rite is beginning. He can hear the wedding song.
- [73:14]
Pat Wright
Oh, yeah. And it's off stage, but we hear it. And the chorus is sounding. Again, it's this contrast. This chorus is sounding celebratory. And Romeo is lamenting to Lorenzo, God of love, protect her. Make her keep her promise to me. And Lorenzo says, she's gonna do her best. She's gonna resist. Trust me. And then suddenly, we hear trumpets, and we realize that all of his men have unmasked themselves, or they've showed themselves to be foes, in any rate. And we know that the battle has begun.
- [73:51]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. And here is when I want to talk about Luigi de Porto and his experience with unfaithful women.
- [74:00]
Pat Wright
Remind us who Luigi Deporto is.
- [74:02]
Kathleen Vanderwil
So Deporto wrote the novella that this is based on and that Shakespeare, we believe, was aware of and took a lot of his story for Romeo and Juliet from. But we also know that Deporto was almost certainly aware of the even older source material we mentioned earlier. Mariato e Granozza, by a poet, an Italian poet from the 15th century named Masucio Celernitano. So, as we said, the story goes far back. But there is also this idea, because we know some of Deporta's own biography, that he took a lot of inspiration from his own life here. And specifically, this line really calls that to mind for me. Romeo says, make Juliet keep her promises. He says, God of love, make her keep her promises. And Lorenzo's trying to say, of course she's going to keep her promises. She's going to resist. You have to trust us. Trust me. But there's a clear sense here that he doesn't trust Juliet. And it's not enough to believe that Lorenzo and Juliet could resist and that she would risk death and not marry this man. Romeo feels the need to back that up with force, literal force. He would rather have a war than trust that she will not marry this man. And de Porto's story, I Think really is possibly where that comes from. And Deporto was in love with cousin. Her name is Lucina. They met at a ball, a party, as we know, that's a big feature of the Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. And possibly how our characters here met. He fell in love with her instantly. She was the most beautiful woman in the room. He dedicates this novella to her. But they were not quite rival families, but their families had some beef between them, so she was not able to marry him, even though he says that she returned his love. And instead of waiting for them to work this out, she ends up marrying another man. And so he writes this after that has happened and dedicates this to her. A little bit pointed. And was this idea that he just had this broken heart and never really tried in the faithfulness of women again. And so you see that I think in both the portrayal of Juliet as this almost completely passive character, but a faithful character. She's faithful to the end, but also in Romeo's feeling that maybe he can't trust a woman to be faithful.
- [76:42]
Pat Wright
Well, she's got a lot of pressure on her in this particular moment. But Romeo's men make sure the wedding is cut short.
- [76:51]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Right. Why rely on the faithfulness of your beloved if you can draw a sword and make sure it's so?
- [76:56]
Pat Wright
Summon an army. Yeah, it's exactly what he does. Because Romeo's out there talking with Lorenzo when the attack begins.
- [77:03]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah.
- [77:04]
Pat Wright
And Romeo is thrilled when he realizes that they timed it just right. And while there's a battle going on and she's there, he shouts, she is safe. Oh, joy. In other words, she hasn't taken the wedding vows.
- [77:20]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Exactly.
- [77:21]
Pat Wright
Oh, tremble Teobaldo, he says. I rush to vengeance. Romeo is pumped up, his men are fighting. He has shouted that Teobaldo will be vanquished. In fact, he says Teobaldo's blood will extinguish the loathed marriage torches. So he's quite happy to have this fight if it means the marriage does not take place.
- [79:04]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. But is he really thinking about what the effect of this might have on his beloved Juliet? I would say perhaps no, because the next scene that we have here is Juliet's reaction to all of this. And she is horrified that the people that she knows and loves her relatives blood is being spilled on her behalf by Romeo.
- [79:32]
Pat Wright
This is an exquisite aria. We'll play a little bit of it in just a moment. But Juliet is really. She knows that Romeo has orchestrated the interruption of this marriage ceremony. And it's tearing her apart, that people she loves are going to die because of her love for Romeo, her love for someone from the other camp. It's a beautiful aria. Taje Iragor. The uproar subsides.
- [80:44]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Ra Jesus.
- [81:44]
Pat Wright
Juliet is suffering here in Vaccle's opera Julieta e Romeo. And she's not just worried about her relatives. It occurs to her also Romeo is in the middle of this battle and her beloved could also be lying somewhere dying. This girl is suffering, I mean, as weak as she was already. More grief upon. More grief for Juliet.
- [82:12]
Kathleen Vanderwil
When we last saw our lovers, we had Juliet just absolutely broken over the fact that she is the reason that all of her relatives are suffering and perhaps dying at this wedding feast. And. And Romeo finds Juliet and he is exultant, as you said. He's so happy that his plan is working. And this is the first time we see them on different pages. I would say they are no longer quite as aligned. Juliet is still grieving, she is horrified and she is still. She foresees tragedy and death and doom for them. And in fact she blames him. She says, you would doom yourself and me by doing this. And she actually tells him to leave her, to go away. And he is the opposite. He's so happy, he says, I'm going to save you and I'm going to make you happy, if you follow me. So they are honestly completely opposed and they're singing here in this beautiful duet. It begins as a duet and then we add other characters, voices. The duet that is quite story wise. Discordant. Yeah. Although beautiful, not discordant in the music.
- [83:27]
Pat Wright
Yes.
- [83:28]
Kathleen Vanderwil
But then this continues. Juliet is pushing him away. She says people are coming and she doesn't want those people once again to suffer. And he says the opposite. He says, I'll open a path by cutting them down with my sword. And he drags her away. And there's this scene of almost just of violence between the two of them here where before it was Teobaldo that was going to be taking her by force, but instead the libretto is telling us it's really Romeo who is now dragging her away through force.
- [84:00]
Pat Wright
Yeah. It is interesting that he seems to be on his own. Yes, he's the leader of the army and he wants his side to win, but he is really focused on, this is the woman I love. I am going to have her. She loves me, I know that. But Juliet looks at a slightly bigger picture here. Her brother has died in earlier combat and now this whole chaos of battle has come to her home, has come to A party that her father is throwing and she's not okay with that. It's interesting. He's, let's let us fly, let us get out of here. And she's, no, I'm not. No, no. And add to all of this, Teobaldo and Capelio are bent on vengeance. They want to win. Their anger has gotten even greater. And meanwhile, the two people sympathetic to Juliet, her mother and Lorenzo, are just filled with horror and foreboding.
- [84:57]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes.
- [84:58]
Pat Wright
And what beautiful music it makes.
- [85:02]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. And as you said, Coppelio, Teobaldo, Lorenzo and then Adelia as well, they all come upon the two lovers. And Coppelio is. Is calling for the soldiers, and Teobaldo too, calling for the soldiers, saying, come, this is the guy you've been looking for. And Juliet is trying to stop them. And there's this heartbreaking line which we're about to listen to, where Juliet and Romeo are both saying, I hope that I am the only target of their fury, that perhaps I can protect my love from my family or my enemies furies. But it is mostly through Romeo's actions has gone far beyond just them. So we have all of these voices that are singing on top of each other and absolutely everybody is out for blood at this point, perhaps with the exception of Juliet, who's just. Just really upset, poor girl. And Adelia and Lorenzo see what an effect this has on Juliet. And they are also grieving for this chaotic world that has taken center stage. And it finally coalesces into Romeo and Teobaldo against each other. So Teobaldo wants to fight Romeo. And once they realize that this person in disguise is not the ambassador and he's not a Guelph, he is Romeo. The only thing that can happen, I think, is a duel between the two men. So Teobaldo and Romeo are going to go off somewhere and they're going to fight each other, and that is going to be how this is resolved in the middle of this larger war, of course. And so the act ends with Lorenzo, Adelia and Juliet pleading with them and pleading with the gods and trying to stop this, but also just understanding that they can't. And then the men, Coppelio, Teobaldo and Romeo are singing for this yearning for death, for violence. So it ends with, honestly, these sort of masculine and feminine opposing forces. Obviously Lorenzo is male, but. But I think very much is on the side of the women and the peace have this sort of peace versus war, feminine versus masculine. And that ends the first act.
- [89:21]
Pat Wright
Big finish to Act 1.
- [89:37]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Sa Sa Ra.
- [91:19]
Pat Wright
Act 2. Of Giulietta and Romeo. This is only a two act opera. Never fear, we will get through it all on this show. Act two is going to begin with the chorus reminding us that there is a violent duel going on between Romeo and Tebaldo. And in pretty short order we learn that Tebaldo was wounded and he has been killed by Romeo.
- [91:45]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Poor Teobaldo. All he did was, I don't know, love Juliet. I guess he was decent. I feel bad for him and. Which is similar to how Paris is portrayed in Romeo and Juliet. In Shakespeare's version, he's kind of just a little bit of a hapless nobleman who got mixed up with the wrong feuding crowd.
- [92:05]
Pat Wright
Yeah. It was not going to work out well for him and we knew it.
- [92:09]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. But of course, that further cements Romeo's. There's no going back. He's not only killed the brother, but he's also killed the successor. Yes, the sort of adopted son in a way. So history has repeated itself. Coppelio has lost another son figure and it's all downhill from here.
- [92:27]
Pat Wright
Well, not only has he lost another son figure, he rejects Juliet. He blames her for all of this. And he says, I have no more children.
- [92:39]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes, yes.
- [92:40]
Pat Wright
And he says this in front of the wife who is. I mean, her attitude is, my son was killed. This man who might have been my son in law was killed. And now you're going to get rid of my only remaining child, Juliet. No, I cannot tolerate this. It's killing the mother to see the way the father is responding to all of this. She just wants to clasp Juliet closer.
- [93:06]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. Coppelio has rejected his daughter, which has caused so much pain to the remaining members of his court and his family. Lorenzo, the doctor who has been our go between this entire time, goes to Juliet to see how she's doing and to tell her, I think, hey, this is how things stand with your father.
- [93:27]
Pat Wright
Yeah, not good. And Juliet is not doing well. She asks Lorenzo what he can give her that will cause death. She wants to die. That's it. That's the only solution she sees.
- [93:39]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah. And I think that here we see once again a really stark difference between Shakespeare's interpretation of Juliet's character and this, where we have a very similar scene. We have these parallel scenes where in the Shakespearean version she doesn't ask for poison to kill herself, she asks for something that will make her seem dead so she can trick everybody. So she's scheming, she's got agencies, she's got trying to find a way out of this in Shakespeare's version. But in this version, she understands that the only way out of this is death. Like actual death is the only way out of this once again. And Lorenzo is the one that is talking her out of this and giving her another option. And he says, as we are familiar with the Shakespeare, he has this potion that will make her seem like she is dead. She'll be in a deep sleep and then we placed in the family's tomb. And then she'll wake up afterwards and she will be safe and Romeo will be there and they can run away together. So Lorenzo has come up with this plan, whereas in the Shakespearean version, it's much more driven by Juliet.
- [94:48]
Pat Wright
Yeah, he just says, all you have to do is be brave, Juliet. You just have to be brave. Not easy for her. But she gets there.
- [94:57]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah. And she trusts Lorenzo. She asks him, she catechizes him. She asks him who will tell Romeo the death. The news of my death is false. He says, I'll do it. She says, oh, the gate will be locked. Who's gonna open it? She says, I'll do it. Who's gonna help us run away? I'll help. So she trusts the entire plan lays with him. The success of it is with him. But she trusts him and she says, okay, I trust you. I'll be brave. I'll do it. But she has this foreboding in her heart. She believes that this cannot possibly truly set them free. And. And it is Lorenzo throughout, and especially in this moment, who's trying to find a way beyond just that one solution, which is death. Sa Ra.
- [98:03]
Pat Wright
Ra.
- [98:29]
Kathleen Vanderwil
This is Giulietta e Romeo by Vacay. And we have just left Juliet and her confidante Lorenzo, coming up with a plan to spirit her away and make her appear as if she's dead so she can meet her lover in the family tomb and run away.
- [98:48]
Pat Wright
What could go wrong?
- [98:49]
Kathleen Vanderwil
What could possibly go wrong? Yeah, exactly. Well, Lorenzo is thinking it too, because our next scene, he has this aria where he appeals to heaven to favor their plan and lays out what he's going to do to make sure that it can come about. But he is both telling us what he's going to do. He's going to send a servant to go to Romeo and let him know what the plan is. But also, this is a prayer. It's an appeal to heaven to make this come off, because they are really along a knife's edge here.
- [99:21]
Pat Wright
Yeah. And getting that message to Romeo is essential. And no spoilers in opera. It doesn't happen. But meanwhile, we get to see a little bit of interaction between Juliet's parents, her mother and father.
- [99:38]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes, her mother is, as I said earlier, much more sympathetic in this telling. And she is just heartbroken by her husband's continued enmity and how far he's gonna take this. She says, you're cruel. You've taken my child away from me. She's the only child that I have left. And Coppelio's argument for why he's right is he says, look at her now. She's not even crying over Teobaldo's death. She is crying over Romeo and her separation from him. You can see that's what she was always. That's the only thing she cared about, truly. And they argue back and forth here about a very important point at the time, which is, is, is she still pure, too? There's this idea that if she has been in love with Romeo this whole time, is she even still a virgin? Or has she given herself to Romeo.
- [100:34]
Pat Wright
And her mother comes to her defense? Her love was pure, was pure and honest. She swears it. In other words, I've asked her directly, and I do love this scene because we see Adelia stand up to her husband and say, listen, your anger is not helping anyone. This is not good. You're tearing apart our very own family, never mind the rest of it, which is bad, too.
- [101:00]
Kathleen Vanderwil
And it's really. This accusation comes right before we hear these offstage voices crying for Juliet. So it's really the accusation of her purity being disturbed. And in the Shakespeare, this is really important because in the Shakespeare, there's an actual marriage that takes place between Romeo and Juliet in order to make their love continue to be holy and not out of wedlock. In this, we obviously don't have that, although we have some sort of symbolic, perhaps marriage scenes between them. But for her to have remained a virgin and not to have given herself to Romeo is a key point here. And when she's accused by Coppelio of this, that is when we hear these voices crying out that something has happened to Juliet and Adelia has to rush off and see what has happened.
- [101:51]
Pat Wright
Yeah. And the chorus lets us know. Juliet, she is no more.
- [101:56]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. And so Adelia and Coppelia are seized with horror, especially Coppelio. This is the only thing, perhaps that could have broken this sort of haze of rage in him is her death. And we get this chorus of women singing about Juliet and calling her a victim of Capelio, which is so interesting. All of the surrounding people are on Juliet's side, at least the women saying, too late. Do you regret your rigor? And then asking for heaven to soothe the mother's grief. And then Coppelio admits it. He says, I'm a perverted father. I killed my own daughter. My house is ruined.
- [102:37]
Pat Wright
The world is barren for me. He acknowledges that he caused all of this sorrow, all of this horror.
- [102:46]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. And it is remarkable that he finally breaks free of this solid belief that he is in the right here.
- [102:55]
Pat Wright
Yeah. And he's in charge.
- [102:56]
Kathleen Vanderwil
And he sees himself as. He calls himself a tyrant. He sees himself as having been a tyrant. And he says honestly, very Greek. And its way of talking about the tyrant and the next generation. The idea that he knows he's lost not because of an army defeating another army, but that his enemy still has a child, a son. And I have nothing. I have no one. I have no next generation.
- [103:22]
Pat Wright
That's right.
- [103:22]
Kathleen Vanderwil
And he finally comes to a place where he could perhaps let go of this rivalry. So Lorenzo comes in and says, this rivalry has cost you enough. And Coppelio is calling for a retreat. And we see him holding the body of his daughter, cold and lifeless.
- [103:39]
Pat Wright
Yeah. It is just heartbreaking. And he goes even further than what you said already. He calls himself personified, abomination of nature. And at this point, the chorus says, okay, we need to have you calm down. Don't make her mother's grief any greater. In other words, don't let her mother also lose a husband with your tremendous grief. And he says, okay, you go comfort her, mother. And we hear from him this deep regret, this sadness and this recognition of what he's done and what has happened. Know Christian.
- [105:37]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Sa.
- [106:03]
Pat Wright
Saint Ra.
- [106:54]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Here.
- [107:20]
Pat Wright
Yama. We are in a very sad place here. In this story of Julieta e Romeo, Julieta's father realizes that he has killed her. Well, of course, she's not dead yet. She is simulating death, courtesy of Dr. Lorenzo, her kinsman. Everyone is grieving for her. Her mother's grief is unimaginable because she kept trying to broker peace. But we are going to have to make our way to this tomb.
- [108:31]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. They bring her body to the tomb. Her kinsmen are gathered around it. But Romeo gets there alone, and he sees that this is happening, that there's mourners and that she is in the tomb. And if we'll remember, there was meant to be a message to him that said, here's what's going on. But it's very clear that has not reached him.
- [108:56]
Pat Wright
Yeah. Lorenzo's plan was not foolproof. It did not get to Romeo.
- [109:01]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah. So he's heard of her death, he's come to see it, and he goes to the grave and he abandons himself to his grief and flings himself onto her body.
- [109:12]
Pat Wright
It's fascinating because he finds her so beautiful, he can't quite get over it. He says, she looks like she's asleep.
- [109:20]
Kathleen Vanderwil
And this is directly Shakespeare. I just want to really quickly note that she is smiling. It looks as if she's sleeping. I mean, that is exactly what Shakespeare takes and puts in this scene.
- [109:30]
Pat Wright
Right? And that is exactly what is in this libretto by Felice Romani. And this next piece that we're going to play for you, an excerpt is just grief, hopeful grief aria by Romeo where he says, ah, if you're sleeping, wake up. Rise, my beloved. Let us flee together. So it's fascinating because we as the audience know what's going on with her. He's been told she's dead, she's in a tomb, she must be dead. But he's willing her to live, and it's not gonna turn out well for him. But this particular aria that Romeo sings is probably the most that is pulled out of the opera and simply done on its own. It's a wonderful mezzo soprano piece. This is again a trouser roll for Romeo. It is sung by a mezzo soprano, a woman. But this beautiful song of love, hope and despair all at the same time.
- [110:54]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Sa, sa.
- [112:37]
Pat Wright
You might be Romeo, looking at Juliet's lifeless body, seemingly lifeless body, is hoping that she's not dead. But he says, ah, she's dead. What can I do? Well, he's come prepared.
- [113:17]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes. He has a vial of poison. And when he does not see her wake up, he drinks the poison and falls over her body. And she sighs. Right then.
- [113:30]
Pat Wright
Yes, of course.
- [113:31]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Who has sighed? She says, oh, it's you, Romeo.
- [113:34]
Pat Wright
Oh, timing, timing.
- [113:36]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Of course, this is. Yeah, this is exactly the ending that we are used to with some very small modifications, which we'll talk about in a second. But they have this sort of last moment together, last quite protracted moment because it's opera and everybody dies for quite a while. He's taken the poison. She is alive. And they have this last set of moments together where they are trying to find an answer, but they know they can't. She says, what have you done? He says, I wanted to die to be with you. And she says, let me meet it with you. She asks. At this point, she does say, give me your sword. But he refuses. And then she says, give me the poison. He Says, I've drunk it all. And she says, I can't return to life. Right as you're about to die. I can't have that. So as he dies, she faints, falls to the ground. And that is the scene that her family comes upon.
- [114:28]
Pat Wright
Yes. Everyone comes in. Lorenzo confirms for us, the audience, that his letter never reached Romeo. And he takes the blame all upon himself for causing this grief, even though he was trying to help, but it didn't end up helping. And Juliet is happy for him to take the blame. She's furious that Lorenzo has let this all go wrong.
- [114:51]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah, she trusted him. The whole thing depended on him. And he was the weak link, unfortunately.
- [114:58]
Pat Wright
Yes. And Juliet says, wait, his spirit is calling to me. I must join him. And she sings a grief aria, essentially. Take me with you. Let me be with you in death. The final scene of this entire opera is the big finish, where Juliet bemoans the fact that even a sword is denied to her.
- [116:44]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes, she asks other people to give her a sword. We know Romeo would not give it to her. And so then she asks her father, she says, will you give me a sword or will you kill me? Will you run me through? And he's, of course, horrified by that. And so she sort of wills herself to die. She flings herself over his body. She's apoplectic with grief and has to die of her own broken heart because no one in her life will let her have the agency. The men refuse it to the very end. Give her the agency of an honorable death.
- [117:20]
Pat Wright
Right. And Lorenzo, the doctor, observes for us all that she's barely breathing before she finally expires over Romeo's corpse. And the last words in the opera belong to Coppelia, where he shouts for his daughter, already having recognized his own guilt in the matter. Now, I did see a production where she manages to find a sword and stab herself in the stomach. More like the familiar Shakespeare ending to us. But the libretto tells us she's died of grief. Poor Juliet never has a happy ending, does it?
- [117:59]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Never. At least not in any of the versions that we're talking about.
- [118:03]
Pat Wright
I think not so far. We've got a couple more to go.
- [118:06]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yeah, we'll keep trying.
- [118:09]
Pat Wright
Well, Kathleen, I thank you most profoundly for joining me for another discussion of this amazing story of Romeo and Juliet.
- [118:18]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Yes, thank you. It is always a delight to talk opera with you and especially to talk about this story, which I do love. Sa.
- [119:16]
Pat Wright
Sa.
- [119:41]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Sa.
- [120:32]
Pat Wright
Sa. Thanks for listening to another episode of Opera for Everyone. I've been your host today, Pat Wright.
- [121:05]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Joined by Kathleen Vandewill.
- [121:07]
Pat Wright
If you've enjoyed our show and would like to hear more, please subscribe to the Opera for Everyone podcast. Opera can be challenging, but everyone loves a good story, and a story set to music is even better.
- [121:20]
Kathleen Vanderwil
Our mission is to make opera understandable, accessible and enjoyable because we believe opera is for everyone.