La marescialla d'Ancre (review)

Alessandro Nini (1805–1880) is better remembered today for marrying a famous soprano (Marianna Barbieri-Nini, the first Lady Macbeth) than for the operas he composed. His most successful operas were the present work (Padua, 1839), Ida della Torre (Venice, 1837), and Virginia (Genoa, 1843). Among other intriguing titles in his canon is a foray into fifteenth-century Franco-English history, Margherita di York, given at La Fenice in 1841 with the celebrated baritone Giorgio Ronconi.

Unlike some of his contemporaries, Nini did not churn out operas at a furious pace; indeed, only seven of his stage works were ever produced, though he did compose six other operatic scores that were, for various reasons, never staged. Nini also differed from Donizetti, Pacini, and Mercadante in that, prior to his career in Italy as an opera composer, he received substantial musical training abroad (in St. Petersburg). Later he stepped into the shoes of Giovanni Simone Mayr as maestro di cappella of Santa Maria Maggiore and director of the music institute in Bergamo, posts he maintained until the temporary closure of the institution in 1875 compelled his retirement.

The production memorialized here took place in September 2003 at the intrepid Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi, known for its resuscitation of forgotten but important Italian operas. This revival represented the first time that this—or any Nini opera—has been heard in a century and a half. Nini's autograph score was inaccessible, so a manuscript copy held by the Biblioteca del Conservatorio Statale di Musica "G. Verdi" in Milan was used by Paola Ciarlantini and Lorenzo Fico to prepare the performing edition.

In a brief, rather condescending article in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Giovanni Carli Ballola concludes that Nini's "dramatic works, though well-written and estimable, do not stand out from those of other minor composers of the time."¹ The danger of such a cavalier dismissal of unfamiliar works (especially without a hearing) should be evident to all who purchase this recording. It came as a pleasant shock to discover just how enjoyable this opera is. Strong theatrical situations, imaginative and rich orchestration, and tunes brimming with quasi-Verdian vigor swept me away; at times I felt an inexplicable urge to jump onto a soapbox and spew Risorgimento rhetoric.

The text, by an inexperienced librettist named Giovanni Prati, is closely based on Alfred de Vigny's 1831 play La maréchale d'Ancre. The story is a mishmash of history and fabrication, combining real personages and events with fictitious ones. The world depicted in Prati's libretto is nasty, corrupt, and violent; there are no preternaturally noble heroes here—every character has an agenda and an ax to grind, and none is above deception and intrigue to achieve his or her ends.

An Italian couple—Concini and his wife Luisa Galigai (the marescialla of the title) have been installed as grand marshals of France by the queen mother and regent, Marie, who rules for her minor son, King Louis XIII. However, the couple's abuse of their power and hunger for more have garnered the hatred of certain nobles and of the French populace. A plot is hatched by their enemy, the Count de Luynes, to remove them and Marie from power and to place young Louis on the throne. Michele Borgia, who was once Luisa's lover and a hated enemy of Concini (and whom everyone believes dead), has arrived secretly with his wife, Isabella. Though Borgia sides with de Luynes politically, he still loves Luisa and is determined to save her from impending death. Meanwhile, Concini has caught glimpses of Isabella and now lusts after her. He further wants to procure from her a letter that implicates him and Luisa in regicide and that he fears could be used to bring about their downfall. While he is attempting to woo Isabella, Borgia and Luisa both surprise him in the act, and then de Luynes arrives with an angry mob to arrest the Concini couple. Isabella, jealous of her husband's love for Luisa, is at first inclined...