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Operas
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- "The Thieving Magpie" redirects here. For the Marillion album of the same name see The Thieving Magpie (album)
La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) is a melodramma or opera semiseria in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was by Giovanni Gherardini after La pie voleuse by JMT Badouin d'Aubigny and Louis-Charles Caigniez.
The opera is best known for its overture, which is notable for its use of snare drums.
Rossini was famous for his writing speed, and La gazza ladra was no exception. It was reported that the producer had to lock Rossini in a room the day before the first performance in order to write the overture. Rossini then threw each sheet out of the window to his copyists, who wrote out the full orchestral parts.
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Performance history
It was first performed on 31 May 1817 at La Scala, Milan. The opera was revised by Rossini for subsequent productions in Pesaro in 1818, and for the Teatro del Fondo (Naples) in 1819 and the Teatro di San Carlo (Naples) in 1820. He again worked on the music in Paris in 1866.
Riccardo Zandonai made his own version of the opera for a revival in Pesaro in 1941. Alberto Zedda edited Rossini's original work for publication by the Fondazione Rossini in 1979.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, May 31, 1817 (Conductor: Alessandro Rolla) |
|---|---|---|
| Ninetta, Fabrizio’s servant | soprano | Teresa Belloc-Giorgi |
| Fabrizio Vingradito, a rich farmer | bass | Vincenzo Botticelli |
| Lucia, his wife | mezzo-soprano | Marietta Castiglioni |
| Giannetto, his son, a soldier | tenor | Savino Monelli |
| Fernando Villabella, Ninetta’s father, a soldier | bass-baritone | Filippo Galli |
| Gottardo, village mayor | bass | Antonio Ambrosi |
| Pippo, a young peasant, employed by Fabrizio | contralto | Teresa Gallianis |
| Giorgio, servant to the mayor | bass | Paolo Rosignoli |
| Isacco, a pedlar | tenor | Francesco Biscottini |
| Antonio, the gaoler | tenor | Francesco Biscottini |
| Ernesto, a soldier, friend of Fernando | bass | Alessandro De Angeli |
Synopsis
Ninetta hopes to marry Giannetto, returning from the war. She tries to shelter her father Fernando Villabella, who has deserted from the army, and is troubled by the attentions of the mayor, Gottardo. A missing spoon and the evidence of Isacco, the pedlar, who has bought a piece of silver from Ninetta to raise money for her father, lead to her accusation and imprisonment. She is tried and found guilty, to be saved from death at the last minute by the discovery of the thief, the thieving magpie of the title.
Arias
The most famous aria in the opera is probably Ninetta's prayer "Deh, tu reggi in tal memento". The soprano cavatina "Di piacer mi balza cor" and the tenor cavatina "Vieni fra queste braccia" (interestingly the cabaletta for the duet between Arturo and Elvira from Bellini's I Puritani starts with the exact same words) are two examples of Rossini's brilliant vocal writing.
Overture in popular culture
This overture, beginning and ending in E major, though passing through G major, makes a few appearances in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, and has also provided the background score for many television and radio commercials. It also appears during the famous baby-switching scene in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America.
The score is also frequently mentioned in Haruki Murakami's 1997 novel, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
The score is used as the theme song for the Australian Special Broadcasting Service comedy series, Swift and Shift Couriers.
References
Gazza ladra, La by Richard Osborne, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ISBN 0-333-73432-7
External links
- La pie voleuse opera en trois actes, by Gioacchino Rossini, Castil-Blaze, Giovanni Gherardini (published by E.J. Coale, 1831)
- La gazza ladra by Gioacchino Rossini, Giovanni Gherardini, Aubigny, Caigniez (Louis-Charles) (published by Elliott, 1833)
- (Italian) Libretto
- (Italian) La Fenice libretto and programme (PDF)
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