Donna Diana

by Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek [1860 - 1945].
First performance: Prague; December 16th 1894.

Cast:

Kiel Opera Chorus & Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor: Ulrich Windfuhr

Act 1

After the overture we see the festival hall in the palace of Don Diego, who for his part is the sovereign count of Barcelona. While the noise of the crowd and authentic blaring fanfares are heard as if from outside, Don Cesar, the tournament victor, enters in a melancholy mood, only then to sit down like Rodin's thinker and, very much in the manner of Walther von der Vogelweide, to nestle his head in his hand- What does the triumph mean to him, what does the cheering of the crowd mean to him if he cannot finally awake to genuine life the walking marble statue that is his Donna Diana? The daughter of Don Diego has evidently resolved to emulate her ancient namesake and to remain cold even in matters of the heart.

Don Cesar's friend Perin notices his despair and immediately recognizes the true state of affairs; all that remains for him to ascertain, in the form of a grand, quasi-leitmotiv waltz scene, is the identity of Don Cesar's chosen lady. And against her, since her whole being and doing apparently belongs to philosophy, only one remedy can help. Perin instructs his sad friend, 'lf she's harsh to you, be the same to her', and since he is the fool in this story, he is of course a wise counsellor. Don Cesar sees a gleam of hope and, by hastily hurrying off, gives the starting shot for the emotional war of wits that will stamp the action. If he had only remained one more minute, Perin could have immediately given him his first free lesson because Floretta, the foster sister of the coy Donna, enters in order to ensnare her chosen fool. Instead she immediately gets a 'homeopathic laxative' and exits in a towering rage. Perin delightedly watches her go.

The people swarm together to celebrate the splendid tournament, and since we are in Barcelona, the music also very much has the sound of that city, Don Diego thanks his subjects and guests, praises the spirited warriors, ascertains that many a spear has been shattered during the joust (with the appropriate acoustic weaponry in the orchestra), and promises that his daughter will bestow the victory prize, in keeping with a long family tradition. Then, however, her aged father gets personal. Before the assembled crowd, he calls on Diana to choose a husband from among the finalists, so that Barcelona will continue to have a ruler of his blood, but the father-daughter relationship proves to be as tense as possible. For her, so Diana, love is poison, and marriage her death. Thereupon Don Diego joins in a prayer that sounds more Mahlerian than it really should sound - for historical reasons. An ensemble begins in which most of those involved agree that the Almighty should change the philosophical maiden's stubborn mind. Together with her father and the fool Perin, these are the Princes Cesar of Urgel, Louise of Bearne, and Gaston of Foix, Diana's friends Donna Laura, Donna Fenista, and Floretta, and in the end even the people. Only the title heroine prays for steadfastness and willpower - and already we have a game, as Perin explains to the gentlemen present in an aside. At the coming carnival and masked ball the three young counts are to declare open season on Diana. The retinue of the huntress involuntarily made the object of the chase soon turns out to be unreliable. Laura, Fenista, and Floretta want their 'ringleader' to remain steadfast, but what they hope to gain from this for themselves is heard in the interjections with which they embellish Don Gaston's statement. When he declares that he will not depart without a bride, the three of them find this very 'splendid', 'loving', and 'superb' indeed. Don Louis also challenges the others to light-hearted feuding without suspecting that the 'trophy' will immediately throw down the gauntlet to him. Diana observes that Don Cesar has not yet made his declaration, and she now actually receives her first refusal: 'Never will I love! And I don't want to and won't be loved at any time' is what he answers to the question amid the applause of those present, while the music is silent. Diana explodes and undertakes to punish his vain pride- Offstage the Chorus makes itself known 'Come out!' The masked ball begins. The curtain falls....

Act 2

And rises again on the same scene. The four young ladies enter. Don Cesar and Perin, hidden behind a tree, watch in a pantomime how the members of the female quartet do their conspiring. Diana reveals to her companions that she has manipulated the wheel of fortune with which dance partners are to be assigned, and, since they all are prepared for all the colour eventualities, nothing more can really go wrong in the allotment of the gentlemen. Diana of course sets one condition: Don Cesar is to be left to her. The eavesdroppers know the rules of the game, and now the allotment begins. Don Louis selects the colour green as a symbol of hope, and Donna Laura of course has the green ribbon ready. Don Gaston asks for love, the 'mistress of luck', and Donna Fenista has the corresponding colour (quite coincidentally). Perin initially pretends to be deaf, whereupon Floretta, literally howling with rage, seeks help from Donna Diana. Alt right, so the fool selects death's colour, and, surprise, surprise, Floretta presents a black ribbon. Finally, Don Cesar too has to decide, and he takes white as a symbol of freedom and serenity....

After Donna Diana too exhibits the corresponding ribbon, the couples exit. 'Now be firm, my heart!' Cesar sighs, but he sighs in vain, for during the following dialogue his adored statue temporarily makes him lose his cool: while the music increasingly shifts over into regions reminiscent of Tristan, the enamoured count falls to his knees in order to lower himself before his statue while making a glowing declaration of love. Perin gestures in vain, and so the count is caught involuntarily making a fool of himself. To sounds emanating from the ball, he pulls himself together and wants to hear from Diana whether she has really taken his emotional outburst seriously. The result is predictable: Perin withdraws contentedly; Cesar extends his arm to Diana with a gesture that William Powell could not have executed more splendidly during his best moments on the silver screen and asks her to accompany into the hall. He ends up having to go alone, however, because the unapproachable beauty has lost face and does not know what has happened to her. She would have welcomed every means of averting her imminent defeat. Perin goes up to her and offers to call a doctor for her, since she does not seem to feel well. No, so she replies, it is only her anger about Cesar's continuing resistance to her. But she wants to charm him, the marble man, with music: Perin is to call him so that he can hear her singing to the instrumental accompaniment of Fenista and Laura. After Donna Diana has exited, Perin mocks 'Miss Eve' (a marked melodic fifth element such as we could hear in the overture is now heard again); then he exits in order to fetch Diana's accompanists. While the curtain is open, the orchestra plays an interlude to a waltz from Act I. Floretta scurries in and gives a foretaste of the coming artistic attempt at ensnarement: 'Floretta's Song' is a clear declaration of love for Perin, the fool who himself is made a fool. Immediately after the three Donnas appear. Laura and Fenista have equipped themselves with guitars, and Diana, who has put on a seductive Spanish national costume, is powdered one more time, and then, while Perin and the diffident Cesar are absent, her presentation, a 'Romance' concerning the 'Moor Alcaide with the thick and grey beard' can begin, and what transpires is almost like a modern casting session. Is he looking or isn't he? Does he show excitement or even emotion? Or does the presentation just get on his nerves? Don Cesar comments on the lawn, the roses and the trees, but Diana sings in vain. When Floretta explains the song's intended addressee that the young princess has been strolling through the park, he pretends not to know anything about it. He exits with a bow followed by Perin. Donna Diana feels that she has been mocked, misunderstood, and disregarded; she flies into a rage. But Act II is over. Perin laughs.

And why shouldn't the fool have his laughs? After all, he would have chosen another career if he had let life's absurdities get to him. He who recognises his passion, who perhaps even can be Apollo and Dionysus, does not fall into traps but also will laugh at life.

Act 3

The curtain rises one more time. We see a 'Private Antechamber of the Ballroom' and Perin reasons about children who believe that they can play blind man's bluff with Amor. Again we hear the blaring of trumpets; we have repeatedly encountered such blaring in the previous action and evidently it also has something to do with the overture. In his 'Fool's Song', Perin then also reveals something of his own susceptibility: if the right girl comes along, then even the wisest fool can get snared in the net.

Two serenades follow offstage. At first Don Louis praises his Laura, with a rude interruption on the part of Diana, hunted and foaming with rage. And then one hears how Don Gaston together with the chorus courts his Fenista. Diana no longer knows where she should run and steals away. The three couples Louis-Laura, Gaston-Fenista and Perin-Floretta proceed to the last attack (in one of those wonderful moments in which Reznicek with a single move comes from Mozart to Wagner) and at the next moment involves us in an ensemble during the course of which our heroine finally surrenders. The masks are token off, one after the other, the couples embrace, and they cast roguish glances over at the only lady who still is without a permanent companion. After a short, unprecedentedly suspenseful psychogram of the orchestra, the chased Diana turns to her last weapon, namely jealousy, and for a few seconds it seems as if she has the trump in her hand. She can no longer resist her people's wishes, so she claims to Don Cesar, and has therefore decided to marry Louis, Prince of Bearne. She already takes the obligatory 'Ha!' as a sign of victory, but Perin once again sees to it that the blow hits the wrong face. Don Cesar, who won the tournament not least because of his quick reflexes, collects himself and states very happily that he now will wed Donna Laura. Meanwhile the scene admittedly assumes something of the last seconds of a comic showdown. While 'in real life' nobody would still be walking around, Diana still has energy reserves to tap; she quite literally drags herself to the oriel, where she breaks down crying - and then the torture is finally over. As in Die Fledermaus, the backstage curtain opens for the general honouring of Prince Carnival (otherwise it is Champagne I), Don Diego is happy for Don Louis, his son-in-law to be, Donna Diana no longer knows what she should do, but before she has to marry the wrong man, Don Cesar declares his love for her. The feast is over, love triumphs, so the chorus sings, and to our astonishment we realize that we have long since been able to name that tune!