Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari was born in Venice, Italy, on January 12, 1876. Originally planning to make art his career he went to Rome, but while there became so fascinated by opera that then and there he decided to become a musician. He completed his musical training in Munich in 1895 with Josef Rheinberger. In 1899 he returned to his native city where his first major work—an oratorio, La Sulamite—was successfully performed. His first opera, Cenerentola (Cinderella) was introduced in Venice in 1900. His first comic opera (or opera buffa) came to Munich in 1903: Le Donne Curiose. He achieved world renown with still another comic opera, The Secret of Suzanne, first performed in Munich in 1909. This distinguished achievement was followed by an equally significant achievement in a serious vein, the grand opera, The Jewels of the Madonna, first heard in Berlin in 1911. One year later Wolf-Ferrari paid his first visit to the United States to attend in Chicago the American première of The Jewels of the Madonna. He wrote many operas after that, both in a comic and serious style, but his fame still rests securely on The Secret of Suzanne and The Jewels of the Madonna. From 1902 to 1912 he was director of the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice. He died in that city on January 21, 1948.
From The Jewels of the Madonna (I Gioielli della Madonna) have come several familiar orchestral episodes. This tragedy—libretto by the composer with verses by Carlo Zangarini and Enrico Golisciani—was successfully introduced in Berlin on December 23, 1911. Rafaele, leader of the Camorrists, and Gennaro, a blacksmith, are rivals for the love of Maliela. After Rafaele appears to have won Maliela’s love, Gennaro wins her away from his rival by stealing for her the jewels decorating the image of the Madonna. Maliela confesses to Rafaele and other Camorrists about this theft, then rushes off into a raging sea to meet her death. After Gennaro has returned the jewels to the Madonna, he plunges a dagger into his own breast.
Two melodious intermezzos for orchestra are often played by salon and pop orchestras. The first comes between the first and second acts and is in a languorous mood. The second, heard between the second and third acts, opens with a light subject and continues with a broadly lyrical episode. A third popular orchestral excerpt from this opera is the dramatic “Dance of the Camorristi” during a revel in the Camorristi hideout in the opening of the third act.
As an opera The Secret of Suzanne (Il Segreto di Susanna) is a trifle. The libretto by Enrico Golisciani concerns a terrible secret harbored by the heroine, Suzanne: she is addicted to smoking. Since her husband finds cigarette butts in their house he suspects her of entertaining a lover during his absence. Spying on her through the window, one day, he learns about his wife’s secret to his infinite relief, and does not hesitate to join her in a smoke. Light, breezy, infectious, and unpretentious, this little opera has been a favorite with operagoers everywhere since its world première in Munich on December 4, 1909.
The overture is as gay and as capricious as this merry tale. It begins vivaciously with the main theme in first violins and the woodwind. After this idea has been elaborated upon, a second melody is heard in the flute and clarinet accompanied by strings. The two melodies are soon merged contrapuntally, with the first theme heard in woodwinds and trumpet and the second in the strings.