Marino Faliero, by Gaetano Donizetti

Opera Orchestra of New York (from Carnegie Hall, NYC)
Eve Queler, conductor
Performers listed below

There are plenty of operas based on historical events. Some would say too many! After all, composers and librettists tend to play so fast and loose with history, no matter how entertaining the "real-life" story is, that the actual events get lost along the way.

Well, this week on NPR World of Opera, we've got a drama based on a historical story that, believe it or not, barely needed any embellishment at all to be perfectly suited to the opera house.

The opera is Donizetti's Marino Faliero. It's named after a 14th-century political leader in Venice. In those days, when Venice was a republic, its leader -- called the Doge -- was an elected official. Of course, the Doge wasn't the "be all and end all" of Venetian political power. There was also the infamous "Council of Ten." (You can actually find them in some encyclopedias by looking up, "Ten, Council of ...") They were a sort of judicial, watchdog panel, set up by rich Patricians, or aristocrats, to make sure these bigwigs weren't in any danger of losing their wealth, property and power.

Sometimes, of course, that meant they kept a watchful eye on the Doge himself who, having been elected, might just get too cozy with the common folk. That's what happened to Marino Faliero, in 1355. It seems a rich guy named Steno insulted some of Venice's finest Ladies -- including, perhaps, Faliero's wife, the Dogaressa. Faliero took exception, and had Steno hauled before the Council. Insulting the Doge's wife would have been a pretty serious offense in those days -- maybe even a capital offense. But Steno apparently had friends on the council; all he got was a month in jail.

Marino Faliero was outraged at this. Having lost his case before the Council, he made the mistake of turning to the common folk, and plotting a takeover. Unfortunately, the Council got word of this. Plotting against "The Ten" was certainly a capital offense, and Faliero wound up minus his head -- as you can see in a Delacroix painting we've linked to, below.

Of course, over time, Faliero's alliance with the commoners made him an attractive figure among liberally-minded artistic types, and not just Donizetti. There's also the picture we just mentioned, and a five-act tragedy by Lord Byron. (More on that below, as well.)

In fact, Faliero's story was such an operatic "natural," that Donizetti didn't have to change much. He just confirmed that the bad-guy, Steno, actually did insult Faliero's wife, and that the insult was, indeed, a public accusation that she was fooling around on the Doge. To make things just a little more dramatic, the Dogaressa in the opera actually is fooling around, and admits it. And, to add an unusual twist, it's the cuckolded husband, Faliero, who winds up dead by the end of the opera -- beheaded by the Council -- while the unfaithful wife survives all the way to the final curtain. Generally, any female opera character even suspected of adultery is a goner.

So why haven't you heard this opera before? Well, maybe because the tenor role is fiendish, as you'll hear in our broadcast. Or maybe because the lead soprano doesn't get a real, showoff aria until the last act. In any case, after you've heard this week's performance, by Opera Orchestra of New York, we think you'll be surprised that this corker isn't produced more often.



Performers:
John Relyea (Marino Faliero); Angeles Blancas (Elena); Rockwell Blake (Fernando); Timothy Lafontaine (Steno); C. Y. Liao (Israele) David Robinson (Leoni); Valerie Bernhardt (Irene)

Links:
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