I quatro rusteghi

I quatro rusteghi (The Four Curmudgeons, sometimes given as School for Fathers) is a comic opera in three acts, music by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to a text by Luigi Sugana and Giuseppe Pizzolato based on Carlo Goldoni's 18th-century play I rusteghi. The opera is in Venetian dialect (hence "quatro" in place of "quattro").

Performance history

The opera was first performed at the Hoftheater in Munich on March 19, 1906. The work was first performed in the United States by the New York City Opera on October 19, 1951. Wolf-Ferrari's most successful full-length work, it is still regularly performed.

Roles

Role Voice type Premiere cast[1]
19 March 1906
(Conductor: Felix Mottl)
Lunardo bass Georg Sieglitz
Margarita mezzo-soprano Margarethe Preuse-Matzenauer
Lucietta soprano Ella Tordek
Simone bass Paul Bender
Marina soprano
Maurizio bass Josef Geis
Filiperto tenor Hans Koppe
Cancion bass Alfred Bauerberger
Felice soprano Hermine Bosetti
Riccardo tenor Raoul Walter

Synopsis

The action takes place in 18th century Venice.

Four curmudgeonly husbands vainly attempt to keep their women in order. The women decide to teach their menfolk a lesson by allowing Lunado's daughter Lucieta to see Filipeto, the son of Maurizio, before their pre-arranged marriage, even though the men have forbidden this.

References

Notes
  1. ↑ "Almannaco 19 March 1906" (in Italian). AmadeusOnline. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
Sources