Opera "The Thieving Magpie": content, video, interesting facts, history

D. Rossini opera "Forty Thief"

Few know what the opera is about. Gioacchino Rossini "Forty thief" - so rarely it is performed. However, almost everyone heard the overture. According to the legend, she appeared last, the day before the premiere - the impresario of La Scala simply locked Rossini in the room, not letting it out until he threw out the sheets with notes of the famous melody with drums through the window.

Summary of the Opera Rossini "Thieving Magpie"and many interesting facts about this work read on our page.

Summary

Country estate near Paris.

In the house of Fabrizio Vingradito and his wife Lucia, everyone is full of joyful anticipation - soon their son, Jannetto, will return from the war. The maid Ninetta is in love with Jannetto, and everyone wants them to marry, except Lucia, who blames the girl for the recent loss of the silver fork. Jannetto arrives, explains with Ninetta - the lovers are together again. Appears her father, Fernando Villabella. He also came from the war, but he is being sought for desertion. In order to live on the lam, he asks his daughter to sell a silver spoon from the family set. An elderly village headman, Gottardo, reveals his feelings for her to Ninetta, and a warrant for the arrest of a deserter is brought to him. He did not take points with him, and the order reads Ninetta, changing the description of the fugitive so that his father could escape. Released from a cage of forty steals Luchia's silver spoon from the table.

Ninette sold a spoon to a street vendor Isacco and, taking the money, was going to the forest to meet her father. Lucia, noticing the absence of his spoon, calls Gotardo to investigate. He claims that the death penalty is prescribed for theft. Ninetta drops the money, and Isacco confirms that she sold him a spoon with the initials F.V. Ninette cannot tell the truth about what happened, she is arrested and taken to prison.

Janetto visits beloved in prison. He does not doubt her innocence and pleads to be justified. After him, Gotardo appears, who promises release in exchange for her favor. Ninetta replies, that prefers die. She asks her little servant Pippo to sell her golden cross, and take the money to the forest, to her father, so Fernando will find out what happened. He comes to court to save his daughter's life, but does not have time - the sentence has already been passed, and he himself is under arrest.

Ernesto appears, co-worker Fernando, who brought him a royal pardon. Pippo shows him the way and gets a silver coin for his help, but the forty steals it and takes off to the tower. The boy rushes after her. Meanwhile, Ninetta had already ascended the scaffold. Suddenly, shouts are heard from the tower - Pippo's coin and Lucia's spoon were found in the nest of the nest. Gun salvos symbolize the happy end of the story.

A photo

Interesting Facts

• "The Thieving Magpie" refers to the genre of the opera Semisieria (half-serious opera). Its distinctive features are a plot outline similar to the comic opera, but with the presence of elements of pathos, drama. It is distinguished from pure melodrama by the presence of a character played by bass buff. The heroes of the opera Semiceria are simple people, often contemporaries of their authors, plot conflicts are quite reliable, and the central character is often the innocently suffering heroine. Her persecutors are doing lawlessness, and one of the benefactors is a person invested with higher authority. In the opera, as a rule, heroes from different social strata encounter. And, of course, the integral condition of the genre is a happy ending.
• The successful premiere of the opera brought to its creator not only satisfaction, but also tremendous fatigue. During the evening, the maestro had to constantly jump up from his seat and bow to the public, by the end of the performance the number of bows had already exceeded one hundred.
• Pesaro - hometown Rossini. The Opera House, opened by the Thieving Magpie, has been named after the composer since 1854. Since 1980, the Rossini Opera Festival has been held annually in the city, the first production of which was also the Forty Thief.

• "Forty Thief" - 21 operas by Rossini. From the previous work, "Cinderella", it is separated four months, and from the subsequent, "Armida" - three. In total, in 1817, a prolific composer produced 4 operas.
• By the 200th anniversary of the premiere in 2017, La Scala once again returned to the repertoire of the "Forty Thief". The performance was released by the opera debutant, film director and Oscar winner Gabriele Salvatores. The classical approach to staging and stage design was supplemented with acrobatic numbers (the circus gymnast played the role of the Magpie), as well as the inclusion of puppet puppets of the Carlo Kolla and Sons theater among the participants.

The best numbers from the opera "Thieving Magpie"

Overture (listen)

"Di piacer mi balza il cor" - Cavatina Ninetta (listen)

"Mi sento opprimere" - sextet from the finale of the first act

The history of the creation and productions "Magpie-thieves"

In January 1817 Rossini arrives in Milan to write a new opera for La Scala. The libretto by Giovanni Gerardi according to the play by L. Kenier and J. d'Aubigny "The Thieving Magpie, or the Maid from Palaiseau." Two years earlier, this play was held in Paris with a resounding success. Writing music took more time than planned, but for three months the composer was quite enough to create a weighty score, and all the music was original, Rossini did not use previously written melodies. The maestro had to take revenge for the failure of his last two prime ministers in La Scala, "Aurelianus in Palmyra" and "Turk in Italy". Responsibility was added by the fact that in those same years, the four main operas of Mozart were shown here with great success.

The Thieving Magpie was in many ways completely atypical for its work or for its author. Despite the scene of action in the countryside, the opera is not filled with unusual Rossini pastoral scenes, idyll, melancholy and cloying tenderness - dramatic mood prevails in it. Rossini received the best performers of the time - soprano Teresa Giorgi-Bellock (Ninetta), bass Filippo Galli (Fernando) and Antonio Ambrosi (Gotardo). The premiere took place on May 31, 1817, the public repeatedly summoned the singers and the author to bow, until the end of the season the performance was held 27 times. In the same year, the operas were heard by Florence, Verona and Venice. In 1818, for the discovery of Teatro Nuovo in Pesaro Rossini, he reworked the “thief” and conducted it himself.

The fate of the opera was difficult - long decades of oblivion were followed by brilliant revivals with the participation of legendary singers. So it was in 1883, when in London the great Adeline Patti appeared in the role of Ninetta. By the 150th anniversary of Rossini, the efforts of the director of the Pesaro Conservatory Riccardo Zandonai were performed in the composer’s hometown, a few days later in San Marino at the opening of the Teatro Titano after the restoration, and in May 1942 at the Roman Opera. Then to the "Thieving Magpie" was turned in 1965 at the festival "Florence May". In Russia, the opera was first heard in 1821.

Music "Thieving Magpies" in the cinema

The famous overture from the opera honored with its presence famous movies:

• Sherlock TV Series 2012
• "Brothers Grimm", 2005
• "Bread and Tulips", 2000
• "Immortal beloved", 1994
• "Once Upon a Time in America", 1984

Two productions of the opera remained on video. This is a performance of the 1984 Cologne Opera with I. Cotrubas (Ninetta), D. Kuebler (Janetto), B. Ellis (Fernando) and a performance shown in 2008 at the Rossini festival in Pesaro, with M. Cantarero, D. Korchak, A. Esposito.

"Thieving Magpie"marks a new stage of great creativity Rossini - the transition from comic operas to dramatic and realistic scenes, the crown of which in 12 years will be the heroic drama "William Tell".