Le donne vendicate

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Operas by Niccolò Piccinni
Le donne vendicate (1763) La buona figliuola (1766) L'americano (1772) Roland (1778) Atys (1780) Iphigénie en Tauride (1781) Didon (1783)
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Le donne vendicate (also titled The Revenge of the Women, Il vago disprezzato and Le fat méprisé) is a musical farce that consists of two intermezzi by composer Niccolò Piccinni with an Italian libretto by Carlo Goldoni. Goldoni's text had already been used twice previously, in operas by Gioacchino Cocchi (1751) and Giuseppe Scolari (1757). Piccinni's version was first performed at the Teatro alla Valle in Rome in 1763.^[1]

Contents 1 Historical background 2 Roles 3 Synopsis 3.1 Intermezzo I 3.2 Intermezzo II 4 Recordings 5 References

[edit] Historical background

Le donne vendicate was commissioned by Cecilia Mahony Giustiniani, Princess of Bassano, to be performed for Carnival in 1763. The publisher of the original score, Agostino Palombini, dedicated the printed libretto to her. The production was a critical success at its premiere with particular praise for the beautiful scenery painted by Sig. Giacomo Castellari, the elaborate costumes prepared by Giuseppe Griselli, the moving performances by the singers, and the beauty of the music. The opera ranks as one of the composer's more successful ventures, as witnessed by the large number of scores that survived in Austria, Germany, France, Poland, Italy and elsewhere. The exact date of the first performance is now unknown but it was sometime during Carnival in 1763. The two intermezzi tell one complete story and are meant to be performed together, in between acts of an opera seria.^[2]

[edit] Roles

Cast	Voice type	Premiere, 1763 (Conductor: - )
Count Bellezza, an eccentric Knight	tenor	Giovanni Loattini da Cesena
Lindora, a simpering girl and niece of Ferramonte	soprano (castrato)	Gaetano Farnassi da Montorio
Ferramonte, the ladies’ champion	baritone	Francesco Battisti Romano
Aurelia, novel-reading friend of Lindora’s	soprano (castrato)	Giuseppe Marrocchini d’Arpino

[edit] Synopsis

Setting: The action takes place in and around a pretty country villa near Bologna.

[edit] Intermezzo I

Lindora and Aurelia are both attracted to the handsome Count Bellezza, and are competing with each other for his affections. Lindora believes that her feminine charms will win over her ‘novelreading’ friend's concept of the cultured woman. Aurelia responds by saying the Count does not love women who are dull and ignorant. The Count, however, is only infatuated with one person, himself, and makes a point of treating both women in an equally off-handed way. He refuses their gifts of flowers (gathered by Lindora) and bays (offered by Aurelia), while opining that the female sex is ‘quite compounded of hypocrisy’.

Infuriated by the Count's insulting behavior, the two women hope to punish him for his conceit with the aid of Lindora’s uncle Ferramonte, who is secretly in love with Aurelia. Ferramonte offers to challenge the Count to a duel but his niece, who is determined to win the hand of her beloved, dissuades him to relief of Ferramonte who was only pretending to be brave.

Meanwhile, the Count has realised that his misstep has jeopardised his previous social prominence so that not only Aurelia shuns him, but so do all the other ladies of the society. In frustration he resumes his false flattery of the whole of womankind, claiming that all ladies are dear and charming and beautiful. But his next encounter with Ferramonte ends with both men challenging each other (albeit with ill-concealed reluctance), while Aurelia and Lindora demonstrate continued annoyance by going off to a ball, Lindora selecting a new sweetheart, Aurelia none other than Ferramonte, to accompany them.^[3]

[edit] Intermezzo II

Lindora and Aurelia have organized a council of women for the purpose of designing a punishment to inflict upon the Count for his insulting behavior to the entire female sex. Lindora urges moderation but Aurelia, seeing herself as a story-book heroine, insists that if Ferramonte will not fight the Count she herself will take up arms and meet out justice. Meanwhile, Ferramonte sees the duel as an opportunity to win favour with Aurelia who has been somewhat belligerent towards his advances. He therefore announces that he has already issued a challenge to Bellezza. The Count, who had been prepared to patch things up, is so deeply offended that he accepts the challenge from "the ladies champion".

The ludicrous duel blatantly reveals the lack of courage and the extreme fright that characterises the spirit of both Ferramonte and the Count. Annoyed with such silly men, Aurelia bravely snatches Ferramonte’s sword and in the name of all women confronts the Count who flees in terror. Lindora runs after him and is so consoling that the Count proposes marriage after having promised to apologize and ask forgiveness to all the ladies. Lindora accepts and the Count apologies to the ladies while informing them of their engagement. Aurelia reflects on all that has transpired and realises that Ferramonte "intends to avenge me/with the weapons of Love". She now accepts his romantic advances and declares "I’ve finished with novels, / I’ll study no more".^[4]

[edit] Recordings

Le donne vendicate with conductor Diego Fasolis and I Barocchisti. Cast includes: Vincenzo Di Donato as Count Bellezza, Giuliana Castellani as Lindora, Mauro Buda as Ferramonte, and Sylva Pozzer as Aurelia. Released on the Chandos label in 2004.^[5]

[edit] References