#aroldo

NOTE: This is the second part of a two-part post. The first part, on Stiffelio, was posted earlier today.

Production: Rimini 2021. this production changes the setting from medieval England and Scotland to Rimini during the late 1930s and early 1940s, with Aroldo as an Italian military officer who participates in the invasion of Ethiopia and the storm in Act IV becoming the 1943 Allied bombing of Rimini that destroyed the Rimini opera house in which Aroldo premiered. aside from the rather unfortunate ensuing implication that all the characters are fascists, this update works surprisingly well (partly thanks to some minor word changes) and looks very nice (albeit pretty dark at times) onstage. the cast is very good overall; I’d love to see Antonio Coriano (Aroldo) and Lidia Fridman (Mina) in a production of Stiffelio.

Synopsis: Kent, England, and Loch Lomond in Scotland; circa 1200. the crusader Aroldo (tenor, the equivalent of Stiffelio) returns home from crusading with his new Best Friend and Hermit TM (as in “they definitely have some homoerotic vibes going on) Briano (bass, the equivalent of Jorg). unbeknownst to him, in his absence his wife Mina (soprano, the equivalent of Lina) and a family friend, Godvino (tenor, the equivalent of Raffaele) have had an affair, which Mina’s father Egberto (baritone, the equivalent of Stankar) suspects. Mina wants to confess everything to Aroldo, who begins to suspect something has happened when he discovers that Mina’s wedding ring is missing. however, Egberto emotionally blackmails Mina into remaining silent. Godvino attempts to smuggle a letter to Mina inside a book, but Briano sees him, although he thinks he’s Enrico (tenor, the equivalent to Federico). at a party celebrating Aroldo’s return, Briano tells Aroldo what he saw. when Aroldo asks about the book, Elena (mezzo, the equivalent to Dorotea) says it’s Mina’s. he asks her to open it, she refuses, he breaks the lock, Egberto grabs and destroys the letter, confusion ensues, and Egberto challenges Godvino to a duel.

Mina, distraught, goes to her mother’s tomb and prays for forgiveness, but Godvino follows her. she asks him to leave but he refuses; she begins to hallucinate her mother’s ghost. Egberto sends Mina off and challenges Godvino, who initially refuses to fight until Egberto threatens to reveal that Godvino is a bastard child. the two start to fight but Aroldo separates them. however, Egberto is so enraged that he blurts out the reason of the duel, which Mina confirms. devastated, Aroldo challenges Godvino, but when he refuses to fight, Aroldo comes close to killing him, but a hymn from inside the castle church and Briano’s admonition to forgive stop him. however, broken, he curses Mina and faints.

Egberto, believing that Godvino and Mina have run off together, contemplates killing himself, but Briano tells him that the rumors are untrue and that Godvino is about to be questioned. Egberto vows to get revenge or die. Aroldo asks Godvino what he would do if Mina were free to remarry, but the latter is unable to answer him, so Aroldo hides him in the next room to listen to his next conversation. when Mina arrives, Aroldo presents her with divorce papers. she refuses at first, but when Aroldo accuses her of being insincere in order to regain her lost honor, she indignantly signs and then asks Aroldo to judge her. she tells him that she has only ever loved him and that Godvino betrayed her. meanwhile, Egberto has killed Godvino. Briano tells Aroldo that he should go to church while Mina despairs that she will never be forgiven.

time jump an unspecified amount of time! Aroldo and Briano have moved to Scotland in hermitage. meanwhile, Egberto has been exiled for murder and Mina has gone with him. they are traveling across the lake by boat when a storm shipwrecks their boat close to the hermitage. they knock on the first door they see and surprise reunion ensues. Aroldo is furious, Egberto begs him to give them hospitality and treat Mina well because she is his daughter. Mina asks Aroldo to let her have one last word with him and tries to convince him to forgive her. Briano reminds Aroldo that he cannot condemn her because he too is a sinner and so cannot cast the first stone. eventually, Aroldo changes his mind and forgives Mina, and all are reconciled. the end!

Experience: this is only the second time I have ever watched Aroldo; the only other time I did was in February 2018, and I disliked it so much that I vowed to never watch it again. well, uh, here we are, I guess.

Thoughts: okay, this isn’t a horrible opera.

in regards to the music, a lot of it, although less than you would probably think, is recycled wholesale from Stiffelio. so there’s that. and it’s a lot of the best music with changes here and there, although overall it’s mostly the same. where bigger changes happen, like entire arias or ensembles are completely overhauled, sometimes it’s an improvement because of seven years of maturing, sometimes it’s not an improvement at all. the fourth act, which is entirely new, likewise varies greatly in quality. the first couple of choruses are pleasant and nothing more, but the “Angiol di Dio” a capella prayer is stunning, as is the immediately following storm music and the final quartet for Aroldo, Mina, Egberto, and Briano.

the fundamental problem comes with the story. yes, many of the themes and points are still the same. however, the story places those themes and the story in a context completely different from that of Stiffelio, and ultimately this is why Aroldo just doesn’t really succeed. the main moral conflict of Stiffelio—whether to divorce the wife and kill her lover in the name of honor or to forgive it all according to the principles of Christianity and of human dignity—makes absolutely no sense in an environment where killing “infidels” and invading in the name of God is celebrated and, moreover, where divorce is virtually non-existent. especially when the protagonist is a crusader (or well, a fascist colonialist soldier) as opposed to a minister. this removal, along with the many changes in the libretto, simply sucks the life out of the characters and of the broader implications and social criticisms at play. here, the ending is heartwarming, but nothing more. and this is why we can all confidently say that the censors had absolutely no clue what made for good opera. 

no PLEASE Spotify don't recommend Aroldo to me because it suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks I don't care if it has Neil Shicoff in it even though he's fantastic still please don't

“Ti porto da Aroldo”. Aroldo è una pizzeria vicino alla casa che abbiamo là, un locale molto elegante che ti riempe di accortezze e gentilezze. Ci siamo andati due settimane fa per la prima volta e me ne sono innamorata. Lui lo sa, e ha promesso che mi ci porta