University College Opera presents a British Premiere:
Fiesque
By Edouard Lalo
10th, 12th, 14th, 15th March 2008. 7.30pm
The Bloomsbury Theatre
Conducted by Charles Peebles
Directed by Emma Rivlin
Tickets: adults £22, concessions £15, UCL students £8
Book now:
Box Office: 020 7388 8822
www.thebloomsbury.com
The Bloomsbury Theatre
15 Gordon Street
London
WC1H 0AH
Fiesque, written by the French composer Edouard Lalo, tells a story of love, jealousy, conspiracy and murder. Set in Italy in 1547, the opera follows the struggle of Count Fiesque against his city’s oppressive rule - his victory and his ultimate downfall.
Fiesque leads a revolution against the ruling family of Genoa. But soon his ambition, love of celebrity, and his adulterous involvement with the daughter of the enemy, cause his own followers to mistrust him. They begin to plot against him.
The city’s tyrannical rulers are overthrown, but as Genoa marches in triumph, Fiesque’s life is cut violently short by those closest to him. Lalo’s score is beautiful and compelling, bringing this powerful story dramatically to life.
History of Fiesque
Born in Lille, France, in 1823 to a family of Spanish descent, Eduardo Lalo studied violin at the Paris Conservatoire and began composing in the 1840s. In 1855, he helped form the Armingaud Quartet to promote the music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Mendelssohn. In 1865 he married the contralto Julie Bernier de Maligny, who performed many of his songs.
Lalo wrote Fiesque, his first opera, for a competition sponsored by Paris's Théâtre-Lyrique in 1868. It is based on the play Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua (Fiesco: or the Genoese Conspiracy) by Friedrich von Schiller, a leading 18th-century German dramatist and poet, whose "Ode to Joy" was adopted as text for the finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
Set in Genoa, Italy, in 1547, Fiesque follows the struggle between the republican Count Fiesco and the city's ruling Doria family of doges. Matters are complicated by Fiesco's feelings for Julie Doria, a daughter of the family, which in turn arouse the jealousy of Fiesco's own wife, Léonore. Though the Dorias are ultimately overthrown, Fiesco's triumph is cut short when Verrina, a fellow republican disillusioned with Fiesco's ambition, throws him into the harbour.
To Lalo's disappointment, Fiesque was placed third in the Théâtre-Lyrique competition and never received a performance. The poor reception may have resulted from the work's emphasis on republican ideals as well as from the left-wing political leanings of its librettist, Charles Beauquier. Furthermore the Franco Prussian war broke out at this very time (1870) and would not have helped a project of this kind to find a stage. Nevertheless, Lalo continued composing for the stage. In 1881 he completed the opera Roi d'Ys, based on a Breton legend, though it too initially failed to find a venue. Yet in 1888 Lalo received a degree of vindication when Roi d'Ys was finally performed, to general acclaim, at the Opéra-Comique.
Lalo's 1st opera Fiesque finally received its world premiere in a concert performance for Radio France in the summer of last year (2006) with Roberto Alagna in the title role in a new edition by the distinguished authority on French music, Hugh Macdonald. The work recieved its stage premiere in June 2007 in Mannheim. University College Opera is proud to present the British Premiere of this wonderful piece in March 2008. It is fitting that this long established and respected company, Britain's most high profile student opera company, long recognised for its productions of unfamiliar operas should present this work. Back in 1992 it mounted a production of Lalo's other opera Roi d'Ys in his centenary year making this upcoming premiere a most appropriate project.