LA GAZZA LADRA

The Thieving Magpie, by GIOACCHINO ANTONIO ROSSINI (1792 - 1868).
Opera in two acts, libretto by Gherardini.
Premiere La Scala Milan; 31 May 1817.

Cast

Place: A Large Village not far from Paris

Running Time: 3 hours 20 minutes

Immediately after the success of La Cenerentola in Rome in January 1817, Rossini went via Bologna to Milan, where he had a contract to write an opera for la Scala. This commission he approached with some circumspection as the Milanese audience had not, according to Stendhal, taken kindly to his earlier operas and their suspicion of the composer would have been anything but assuaged by his recent successes in Rome and Naples. Since he was already in Milan at the beginning of March, ready to start work on whatever libretto the management might provide him with, and the premiere did not take place until the end of May, it was for Rossini an unusually long period for the writing and preparation of an opera. In the event, the composer achieved one of the greatest triumphs of his career, and Stendhal describes the first night as the most successful he had ever attended. Perhaps because the score contained something for everyone - pathos, comedy, tragedy, gaiety.

Act 1.

The curtain rises on the courtyard of the house of Fabrizio, a rich merchant. A magpie is sitting by an open cage. The people of the village, among them Pippo, who works for Fabrizio, are rejoicing at the prospect of the return of Giannetto, the son of the house, who is expected back from the wars. Everything is going with a swing when suddenly Pippo's name is called. The disembodied voice turns out to be the magpie's and the bird, in answer to Lucia's question as to whom Gianetto will marry, answers pertly 'Ninetta'! Lucia clearly finds such a match unthinkable, and in fact she seems inclined to pick on Ninetta for anything, even blaming her because one the silver forks is missing. Ninetta enters and sings of her happiness at the prospect of the return off Giannetto, with whom she is secretly in love. Fabrizio, who hints that he would not oppose a match with Giannetto, and Lucia, who charges Ninetta to look after the silver canteen with special care, go off to wait for their son and the old pedlar Isaac starts to hawk his wares in a cracked voice.

At last Giannetto arrives, and it is apparent that he has eyes only for Ninetta, to whom he sings an aria full of love. In a spirited brindisi led by Pippo, all rejoice and then leave the courtyard empty.

As Ninetta says a temporary goodbye to her beloved, a man enters, whom she does not at first recognise as her father but whom she greets rapturously once he makes himself known. He has infringed military law and is in fact even now condemned to death. A long duet ensues between father and daughter but Ninetta's efforts at consolation turn to fear as she sees the mayor coming towards them.

The mayor makes his entry with a buffo aria and he soon makes it plain that Ninetta is the objective his plan is designed to achieve.

The mayor starts to pay court to her when a message is brought to him. Ninetta tells her father to make his escape but he says that he has no money and asks her to sell on his behalf a silver spoon, which is all he has left, and bring him the money to a hiding place he designates. As he is about to go, the mayor stops him and insists that Ninetta read the message aloud as he cannot make it out without his spectacles. As soon as it becomes plain to her that the letter describes her father as a deserter and asks the mayor to help bring him to justice, she changes name and description. Fernando hiding behind the doorway and joining his voice with Ninetta's in thanking heaven for its intervention, the mayor calling down a benediction on his amatory designs.

Once he thinks himself alone with Ninetta, the mayor makes a proposition to her, but she withstands him so firmly that even an old roue could be forgiven for thinking her a spitfire in ingenue's clothing. Fernando can bear the scene no longer and interrupts with a vigorous protest. The scene ends with a lively stretta, as each of the three characters realises he or she has gone a good deal further than originally intended. As the mayor retreats and Ninetta's father also makes good his escape, the magpie snatches up one of Lucia's spoons and flies off with it.

The scene changes to a room in Fabrizio's house. Isaac's voice is heard outside and Ninetta sells him the silver spoon which her father has entrusted to her. As she is about to take him the money, Giannetto appears, closely followed by his father, who makes to join the hands of the two lovers. The mayor greets the returned Giannetto, while Lucia goes to count the silver. When she reports a spoon missing, the mayor, with maximum pomposity, sits down to make a legal report. 'Who can the thief be?' he asks Giannnetto. 'Ninetta,' answers the magpie.

A sextet develops as the mayor takes down the evidence and when he asks Ninetta her father's name and gets the answer 'Fernando Villabella' he suddenly realises that the deserter in the official dispatch was her father and that she was shielding him when she read it out. Things look black when Ninetta pulls out her handkerchief and some money tumbles to the ground. Lucia asks where it comes from, and all Ninetta's protestations are insufficient to divert suspicion, even Pippo's testimony that it came from Isaac only eliciting from the old pedlar himself the information that she sold him a spoon, moreover with the initials F.V. on it - since Isaac has now sold it, it cannot be compared with those in Fabrizio's canteen. Even Giannetto now starts to believe her guilty, and, at the lowest ebb of her fortunes, unable to give her father away, Ninetta movingly leads the ensemble. The arrival of an armed escort triggers off a frenzied stretta to the finale, a typically brilliant, typically solid Rossinian edifice. Nothing will soften the mayor's wrath and apparent zeal for justice, and Ninetta is marched off as a criminal.

Act II.

Outside the prison cells of the Town Hall.

Antonio, the jailer, tries to comfort Ninetta, then brings in Giannetto, who is intent on persuading her to prove her innocence. She assures him in a beautiful duet that though her lips are now sealed, one day her innocence will be apparent to all. Giannetto leaves as the mayor approaches and that worthy suggests that if she will trust him, she may yet be saved. Unfortunately for the mayor, the judicial Tribunal arrives and his presence is necessary to greet it (the interruption is accompanied by the crescendo from the overture). Pippo is Ninetta's next visitor; she asks him to take the three crowns she got for the silver to her father's hiding place. Pippo himself is to keep her cross as a sign of the affection that was between them. To the allegro of the overture, Ninetta gives him her ring to deliver to Giannetto in memory of her. The scene changes to Fabrizio's house where Lucia is a prey to doubts about Ninetta's guilt, doubts which are resolved in favour of the accused when Fernando enters and proclaims his passionate conviction of his daughter's innocence. The great hall in the Town Hall. The Tribunal assembles and, in a scene which has been much admired, sings imposingly of its powers and the inexorable manner in which it exercises them. The judge reads out Ninetta's conviction, sentences her to death, and when not even the pleas of Giannetto and Fabrizio persuade her to bring evidence to prove her innocence, the sentence is confirmed. At this point Fernando rushes in and demands in a dramatic scene that his innocent daughter be freed. He is overpowered by the guards, but continues to hurl defiance at the Tribunal, which reiterates its decision. A solemn ensemble develops during whose course Giannetto joins Ninetta in leading a chorus of protest, but all is in vain; Fernando is taken to the cells and Ninetta towards the place of execution.

The village square. Lucia laments the tragic turn events have taken. Pippo is counting his money, and when he puts it down for a moment to talk to the mayor's servant, Giorgio, the magpie flies down and steals a coin. They pursue it out of sight.

Ninetta, surrounded by armed men, is taken towards the scaffold amidst the lamentations of the bystanders. Her last thought is of her father. Suddenly Pippo and Antonio rush in shouting to Giorgio that they have discovered the real thief: the magpie. Everything has been found in a secret hiding place and Ninetta is innocent after all. To mounting orchestral excitement, Ninetta returns thanks in a tune of delightful innocence, but admits her joy is not complete until she knows what is to happen to her father. At this very moment he appears, released from prison by order of the King himself. It remains only for Lucia to join the hands of Ninetta and Giannetto in token of recognition of the happiness so long delayed, which Rossini loses no time in expressing in music.