Parisina

1913

An opera in 3 acts by Pietro Mascagni after the libretto of Gabriele D'Annunzio.

Act 1

In the Este family's villa, on one of the islands of the Po river. Ugo d'Este, the son of Marquis Nicolo's 3rd d'Este and Stella de'Tolomei, is practising crossbow archery with other nobles. His mother, Stella appears. She has been repudiated by the Marquis in favor of Parisina Malatesta. She incites her son to vengeance, convinced that he also must abhor his father's new mistress as much as she does. He agrees and she gives him a phial of poison with instructions as to how he is to use it kill his stemother.

Parisina appears. Stella welcomes her with a barrage of insults and puts a curse on her. As the sound of a distant hunt approach, Stella and her handmaidens disappear the way they came. Parisina is still reeling as the Marquis Nicolo d'Este returns from hunting. She complains of the affront and the Marquis reassures her of his love and support.

Act 2

Parisina has gone on a pilgrimage to home of Joachim and Anne on the shores of the Adriatic where there is sanctuary with a black Virgin. She sits in her tent having her hair dressed and considering what clothes she should wear to enter the Lorette sanctuary.

Songs of praise rise from the sanctuary and from the bargees on the Adriatic. Parisina removes her most beautiful attire to offer it to the Virgin and is left wearing only a plain white silk gown and slippers of silver cloth. She prostrates herself before the Virgin.

Aldobrandino, Ugo's comrade enters out of breath to announce that Ugo, her stepson, will have soon triumphed over the slavic pirates. When Ugo appears a little later, victorious, but stained with blood from a wound on his neck, Parisina leads him to the sanctuary where they both kneel. Ugo gives his sword in thanksgiving to the Virgin. Just when Parisina is chastely embracing her stepson, Ugo's wound stains her tunic on her breast. Exalted by the battle, Ugo is inflamed with passion for Parisina. In the midst of the songs of praise heard earlier on, they kneel side by side and kiss, carried away by their feelings.

Act 3

The 'bear' room in the Belfiore palace. The chamber is sumptuous and vast and the great bed is heavily curtained. Lying on a carpet, Parisina reads the novel of Tristan and Iseult to while away her wait. Her handmaiden, La Verde drowses nearby. A lantern is set low by the book and the light is discernible under the door.

Parisina and La Verde converse and it is plain from the conversation that a passionate affaire has been in progress between Parisina and her stepson, Ugo. La Verde has been protecting Parisina and is concerned that others are talking and that soon, Nicola d'Este, Ugo's father will be told. Mad with worry, Parisina is obsessed by another figure, that of Francesca di Rimini, who was murdered by her husband when he caught her committing adultery. As the song of the nightingale is heard, the confusion between Tristan and reality comes to a head. Ugo appears and the two lovers desperately throw themselves into each other's arms. They disappear into the depths of the vast bed. Suddenly, the door opens and La Verde, Parisina's handmaiden solemnly announces the arrival of her husband, the Marquis Nicola d'Este. He appears with a dagger in his hand and with his retainers whose heads are bowed. His mood is sullen and menacing. He says that he has been hunting his pet leopard which has escaped from its cage. He senses that something is wrong and the hunt becomes a manhunt. Stabbing at random through the closed curtains of the bed, Parisina begs him to stop. Behind the curtains of the marriage bed, Nicolo finds his own ashen-faced son and his suspicions confirmed, he condemns the two lovers to be beheaded by the same axe. The curtain falls as they kneel side by side looking into each others eyes as they did when they fell in love in the sanctuary during the second Act.

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Pietro Mascagni
1863 - 1945.