Un giorno di regno, ossia Il finto Stanislao (A One-Day Reign, or The Pretend Stanislaus, but often translated into English as King for a Day) is an operatic melodramma giocoso in two acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto written in 1818 by Felice Romani.

Originally written for the Bohemian composer Adalbert Gyrowetz the libretto was based on the play Le faux Stanislas written by the Frenchman Alexandre-Vincent Pineux Duval in 1808.

Performance history

Premiere and other 19th century performances

thumb|Portrait of Verdi, 1839–40 by [[Giuseppe Molteni|Molentini]]

The first performance at La Scala on 5 September 1840 was a failure, and La Scala cancelled the remaining scheduled performances. They did not revive the work until 2001. Verdi would not attempt another operatic comedy until the end of his career with Falstaff.

At the premiere Verdi was seated in the orchestra pit, and thus heard the audience reaction directly. Along with the critics, Verdi acknowledged that the failure was partly due to his own personal circumstances, since his two children and his wife Margherita Barezzi had died, in 1838, 1839, and 1840 respectively, all during the period leading up to and during its composition. A contributing factor was that the only singers La Scala's impresario had available were those assembled for an opera seria, Otto Nicolai's Il templario, and they had no experience with comedy: "The cast had been assembled chiefly for the performance of the season's most successful novelty, Il templario, Nicolai's version of Ivanhoe". In fact, in summary, Budden notes that "by the side of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore or Don Pasquale, it cuts a clumsy figure".

Other productions in Italy during Verdi's lifetime seemed to fare better; it was given in Venice in 1845 (as Il finto Stanislao, where it did well), in Rome in 1846, and Naples (also as Il finto Stanislao) in 1859.

20th century and beyond

In the U.S., the opera received its premiere on 18 June 1960 by Amato Opera, in English at New York Town Hall. In the UK, the premiere took place on 21 March 1961 in Italian by the Impressario Society at St Pancras Town Hall conducted by Hans Ucko.

It was part of the San Diego Opera's June 1981 "Verdi Festival".

With the temporary shutdown of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1999, the Royal Opera gave a concert performance at the Royal Festival Hall. Russian baritone Vladimir Chernov sang the "King" with John Del Carlo as Baron Kelbar; Susanne Mentzer sang Giuletta. This presentation was followed in 2001 with a staged production at the Buxton Festival in England.

In October 2012, the Bilbao-based ABAO society, one which plans to present all of Verdi's works, presented the opera under conductor Alberto Zedda.

Sarasota Opera presented the new critical edition of the opera in March 2013, the 29th work of the complete Verdi canon (in all its versions) to be presented by the company. Dr. Francesco Izzo, Co-Director of the American Institute for Verdi Studies and the critical edition's editor, notes that:

<blockquote>This edition corrects a number of inaccuracies and arbitrary alterations present in other scores of the opera, which has often circulated under the title Il finto Stanislao. I have done my very best to provide an edition that faithfully reflects Verdi's intentions throughout.</blockquote>

The Glimmerglass Festival presented the opera in a new English adaptation during the 2013 Festival.

Roles

{| class="wikitable"

!Role

!Voice type

!Premiere cast, 5 September 1840<br />(Conductor: Eugenio Cavallini)

|-

|Cavaliere di Belfiore, a French officer <br/>impersonating Stanislao of Poland

|baritone

|Raffaele Ferlotti

|-

|Barone di Kelbar, the usurper

|bass

|Raffaele Scalese

|-

|The Marchesa del Poggio, a young widow, <br/>the Baron's niece, in love with Belfiore

|soprano

|Antonietta Marini-Rainieri

|-

|Giulietta di Kelbar, the Baron's daughter

|mezzo-soprano

|Luigia Abbadia

|-

|Edoardo di Sanval, a young official, <br/>la Rocca's nephew

|tenor

|Lorenzo Salvi

|-

|La Rocca, Treasurer to the Estates of <br/>Brittany

|bass

|Agostino Rovere

|-

|Count Ivrea, Commandant of Brest, <br/>engaged to the Marchesa

|tenor

|Giuseppe Vaschetti

|-

|Delmonte, esquire to the false Stanislao

|tenor

|Napoleone Marconi

|-

| colspan="3"|Servants, chambermaids, vassals of the Baron

|}

Synopsis

thumb|Felice Romani, librettist of the opera

The Polish monarch, King Stanisław Leszczyński, a historical figure during the War of Succession, lost his throne after the Saxon invasion at the Battle of Poltava in 1709. He regained it in 1733, but was again deposed in 1736 and went into exile in France. The opera is set in 1733 when Stanislaw returned to Poland leaving a French officer, the Cavaliere di Belfiore, to impersonate him in France.

:Time: 1733

:Place: Baron Kelbar's castle near Brest, France

Act 1

Scene 1: A gallery in the home of Baron Kelbar

Belfiore, impersonating the Polish king Stanislaus, is a guest at the home of Baron Kelbar and he comments to himself on his change of fortune: "Compagnoni di Parigi...Verrà purtroppo il giorno" / "Comrades in Paris...Unfortunately, the day will come". With regard to the recitatives, Gossett notes that "only his youthful comic opera, Un giorno di regno (1840), uses secco recitative".

A critic at the UK premiere found a "soprano solo with female chorus of a kind that looks back to 'O beau pays de Touraine' in Les Huguenots" and "forward to Maria Boccanegra's 'Come in quest" ora bruna'"; he also sensed an "extraordinary foretaste of Falstaff in the servants' chorus which opens Act 2", and the "finale of the first act has already suggested a vein that Verdi was to exploit in Un Ballo in Maschera", while "in Act 2, Scene 2, the duet for Belfiore and the Marchesa, 'Si mostri a chi l'adora', has an orchestral introduction of an astonishingly chromatic nature".

|-

| 1951 ||Renato Capecchi,<br/>Sesto Bruscantini,<br/>Lina Pagliughi,<br/>Laura Cozzi,<br/>Juan Oncina|| Alfredo Simonetto,<br/>Orchestra Lirica e Coro della RAI Milano|| CD: Warner-Fonit<br/>Cat: 8573-82664-2

|-

| 1973 ||Ingvar Wixell,<br/>Wladimiro Ganzarolli,<br/>Fiorenza Cossotto,<br/>Jessye Norman,<br/>José Carreras|| Lamberto Gardelli,<br/>Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ambrosian Singers ||CD: Philips <br/>Cat: 422429

|-

| 2010 ||Guido Loconsolo,<br/>Andrea Porta,<br/>Anna Caterina Antonacci,<br/>Alessandra Marianelli,<br/>Ivan Magri, <br/>Paolo Bordogna || Donato Renzetti,<br/>Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Regio di Parma,<br/>(Recording of a performance on 31 January) ||DVD (Blu-ray, PAL): Unitel Classica<br/>Cat: 720304

|-

| 2013 ||Mikheil Kiria,<br/>Simone Alberti,<br/>Alice Quintavalla,<br/>Angela Nisi,<br/>Marco Frusoni|| Gabriele Bonolis,<br/>Roma Sinfonietta and Belcanto Chorus,<br/>(Recording of performances in November at the Teatro Flavio Vespasiano, Rieti) ||CD: Tactus<br/>Cat: TC812290

|-

|}

References

Notes

Cited sources

  • Budden, Julian, The Operas of Verdi, Volume 1: From Oberto to Rigoletto. London: Cassell, 1984. .
  • Gossett, Philip, Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008
  • Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane, Verdi: A Biography, London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1993

Other sources

  • Baldini, Gabriele (1970), (trans. Roger Parker, 1980), The Story of Giuseppe Verdi: Oberto to Un Ballo in Maschera. Cambridge, et al.: Cambridge University Press.
  • De Van, Gilles (trans. Gilda Roberts) (1998), Verdi's Theater: Creating Drama Through Music. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. (hardback),
  • Kimbell, David (2001), in Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001.
  • Martin, George, Verdi: His Music, Life and Times (1983), New York: Dodd, Mead and Company.
  • Osborne, Charles (1969), The Complete Opera of Verdi, New York: Da Capo Press, Inc.
  • Parker, Roger (2007), The New Grove Guide to Verdi and His Operas, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Pistone, Danièle (1995), Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera: From Rossini to Puccini, Portland, OR: Amadeus Press.
  • Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane (1993), Verdi: A Biography, London and New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Pougin, A., Vita aneddotica di Giuseppe Verdi con note ed aggiunte di Folchetto. Milan, 1881. (In Italian)
  • Toye, Francis (1931), Giuseppe Verdi: His Life and Works, New York: Knopf
  • Walker, Frank, The Man Verdi (1982), New York: Knopf, 1962, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Werfel, Franz and Stefan, Paul (1973), Verdi: The Man and His Letters, New York, Vienna House.
  • Libretto
  • Brief synopsis in English
  • Aria database