Martha (opera)
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Martha is an opera in four acts by Friedrich von Flotow to a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Riese, based on the ballet Lady Henriette by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges. First performance: Kärntnertortheater, Vienna, 1847.
There are several recordings of the opera, and it is occasionally performed.
Contents |
[edit] Characters
- Principal roles
- Lady Harriet Durham, maid of honor to Queen Anne ('Martha') - Soprano
- Nancy, her servant ('Julia') - Mezzo-soprano
- Plumkett, a young farmer - Bass
- Lyonel, his foster brother - Tenor
- Minor roles
- Sir Tristan Mickleford, Lady Harriet's cousin (Farmer Bob) - Bass
- Sheriff - Bass
- Other
- Three servants - Tenor and 2 Basses
- Three maids - Sopranos or Mezzo-sopranos
- Queen Anne - mute
- Courtiers, pages, ladies, hunters, farmers - Chorus
[edit] Plot
- Time: 1710.
- Place: Richmond, England.
[edit] Act I
[edit] Scene 1
Lady Harriet is bored with the life of high society, and especially bored with her suitor Sir Tristan. She and her maid disguise themselves as the country girls 'Martha' and 'Julia' and follow a group of girls to the fair. They convince Sir Tristan to come also, as Farmer Bob....
[edit] Scene 2
Traditionally, there is an auction of country girls at the fair. Farmers bid for the fairest girls. The winners take the girls back to their farms, where the girls are hired as workers for the following year. Plumkett and Lyonel have come to look for a girl. Their mother has recently died, and they need someone to help with the farm work. The sheriff oversees the auction. The brothers win 'Martha' and 'Julia', while Farmer Bob ineptly tries to win them back.
[edit] Act II
'Martha' and 'Julia' know nothing of farm work. They refuse to hang up clothes and cannot use a spinning wheel. 'Martha' rejects Lyonel's marriage proposal. After night falls, Tristan arrives to rescue the women.
[edit] Act III
A group of hunters, including Plumkett, accompany the queen. Lady Harriet misses Lyonel, but when he arrives, she ignores him. When Lyonel demands that his contract be honored, Tristan has him arrested. Lyonel tries to explain what has happened to the courtiers. He gives the ring he inherited from his father to the queen as she is leaving.
[edit] Act IV
Lady Harriet's behavior has enfuriated Lyonel, but she seeks forgiveness. The queen orders that Lyonel be installed as the Earl of Derby, his father's former title. Nancy accepts Plumkett's marriage proposal. The courtiers re-create the country fair, and when Lyonel sees his Martha again, he forgives her.
[edit] Noted arias
- "Ach so fromm" (Lyonel)
- Porterlied/Drinking Song (Plumkett)
[edit] Musical content
The overture begins with a slow A minor introduction and changes suddenly to A major with the theme from Lyonel's prayer in the third act, "Mag der Himmel Euch vergeben". It changes back to A minor again with a busy agitated theme, presumably symbolizing the activities of Lady Harriet and Nancy, that leads to the peasant girls' chorus in C major from the first act. The chorus is interrupted by the agitated A minor theme and returns this time in A major. This theme leads to the revival of the Lyonel prayer, now without any necessary change of key, and the overture ends.
With this overture Flotow has his ten minutes of genius. It stands head and shoulders over the opera itself and the rest of his production. The noble and sincere sphere of Lyonel is contrasted with the superficial world of the two pleasure-seeking heroines. There is a blend of minor and major, shadow and light, which brings back memories of the earlier romantics, Schubert and especially Weber, with the overture to Der Freischütz. The gloomy and fateful A minor introduction and Lionel's austere prayer give promise of a deeper and more severe drama, which the rest of the opera cannot quite fulfil. Of course the hero and the heroine have their disagreements, but tragedy is avoided and all ends with bliss and forgiveness.
Seen on the background of the overture the happy ending seems misplaced. In fact much of the music in Martha, especially Lyonel's rejection of the remorseful Lady Harriet in act four, belongs to a more tragic opera. It would have been more effectful if the loving couple wasn't united at the end. One could argue, that this would be a stylistic break and make all the merry scenes and light music seem awkward. Yet composers like Mozart (with Don Giovanni) and Verdi (with Un Ballo in Maschera) managed to blend merry music into a tragic context. Flotow might not be of their calibre, but one cannot help to speculate, whether he could have had a more lasting influence on operatic history, had he concentrated on the German musical drama instead of following the light-hearted French opera tradition represented by Auber.
Martha has often been accused of owing a large part of its popularity to the Irish folk tune The Last Rose Of Summer. This is an unfair accusation. The tune is only used once in its entirety in act two, when it is sung by "Martha". Reminiscences are used in act three and act four, but here it is incorporated in an original way into the score, as a "leitmotif" for Lyonel's longing, which gives it a new dimension. It doesn't appear in the overture, and it is never allowed to dominate. Lyonel's own tunes are much more memorable, and entirely invented by Flotow himself.
