So many different outsiders have controlled Sicily that if an alien power were to conquer Earth, it would likely start on that island. Among the temporary rulers of the place are the Greeks, the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Byzantines, the Muslims, the Normans, the Angevin French, the Bourbons, and now the Italians. I’ve probably left some passersby out, but what’s a conquest or two among a people who outlasted all of them?
Verdi’s next opera after the blockbusters of Rigoletto, Traviata, and Trovatore was written for Paris with a libretto by the omnipresent Eugène Scribe. Les vêpres siciliennes (I vespri siciliani in its Italian version) took the composer two years to complete because of a variety of snafus. Despite being a big hit at its premiere, it quickly dropped out and is the most infrequently performed of Verdi’s mature operas. It succeeded with a French audience despite depicting the French as bad guys and ending with their massacre.
I find it very hard to understand its relative neglect. It’s a masterpiece on a par with Verdi’s other great operas. Berlioz, music’s greatest critic wrote: “In Les vêpres the penetrating intensity of the melodic expressiveness, the sumptuous, wise variety of the instrumentation, the vastness and poetic sonority of the concerted pieces, the hot color that shines throughout … communicate to this opera an imprint of grandeur, a species of sovereign majesty more distinguishable than in this composer’s earlier products.”
Its story is built around the rebellion in 1282 on Easter. It started in Palermo and led to the death or expulsion of 13,000 French men and women. Hélène is a fervent revolutionary, as is her lover Henri. But things get complex when Henri discovers that Montfort, the leader of the French, is his father. He’s torn between passion and revolutionary zeal on the one hand and filial duty on the other. Hélène is similarly torn. She decides to break with Henri. Procida (the revolutionary leader) is furious at her lack of zeal, as is Henri for her lack of romantic commitment. Then Montfort arrives, takes the couple’s hands, joins them together, and pronounces them married as the bells begin to ring. This is the signal for the Sicilians to rush in and hurl themselves upon Montfort and the French.
Wagner’s Ring Cycle ends as it started. The ring forged from the gold stolen from the Rhine Maidens is returned to them. Brünnhilde, in a stunning solo, sums up much of what has happened in the light years of music drama that have preceded this final scene. Siegfried’s corpse is before her. He’s been stabbed in the back earlier in the opera. After she takes the ring from his lifeless finger and throws it in the Rhine, she mounts a horse and rides into the flames. Valhalla catches fire, as does the hall of the locals. All the gods die, as do most of the mortals. There are a few survivors.
The cycle is a generous smorgasbord of leitmotifs. The opera and the cycle end with the redemption-through-love motif. It’s not clear what has been redeemed by love as only a bit of property has been returned to its rightful owners, but that’s the story and Wagner’s sticking to it. Kirsten Flagstad is the soprano and Wilhelm Furtwängler is the conductor.
