Opera Plots I - MDC Faculty Home Pages

unwelcome admirer grows bolder, Gilfen returns, declaring that his conveyance has come to grief.
Trott at once hurries out to repair the damage, hoping thus to hurry the departure of his friend; and
on the husband and wife being left alone, they unfold their hearts to each other, and discover, to
their joy, that their love is still as strong as in the days of their courtship. When Trott returns,
therefore, he finds he is no longer wanted, since husband and wife are lovers still; and the curtain
falls on his somewhat disappointed departure, whilst Gilfen and Louise happily renew their joy in
each other's company.
4. THE LOWLANDS
Opera in Two Acts By Eugene D 'Albert
Libretto By Rudolph Lothar (From A. Guivera's Story)
First Produced Prague, 1903
Chief Characters Marta, Nuri, Pedro, Sebastiano, Tommasso
SEBASTIANO, a rich and unscrupulous landowner, living in a prosperous valley of the Pyrenees,
has a mistress, Marta, a beautiful young woman, whom he secured when quite a child from an old
tramping player, for whom she earned money by her charming singing and dancing at taverns.
Having practically bought the girl from the old tramp, in return for a tumble-down mill,
Sebastiano made her his mistress, employing her in his house with domestic work; and being of a
masterful and tyrannical nature, and having complete authority over all the village folk, Marta is
compelled to submit to his will in every respect, and being kept almost as a prisoner by her master
she clings to him with a certain affection, in spite of his new house with his wife; and when they
are at length left alone at night, he endeavours to win her love by describing to her his mountain
adventures, showing her a blood-stained coin earned by his bravery in slaying a wolf which had
attacked the flocks, and telling her of his loneliness and longing for a human being to love. In spite
of herself, Marta, though at first reluctant to listen to him, is gradually impressed by the simple
nobility of the husband who has been thrust upon her; and as she realises that Pedro regards her as
a pure and innocent' maiden, having no knowledge of her relations with her old master, a desire
grows quickly within her to keep him in ignorance of the true state of affairs, since love for him is
already growing up within her. Seeing a flickering light in her own chamber, therefore, and feeling
that this means the presence of Sebastiano, she is filled with alarm and shame for the enforced evil
of her former life; and she entreats her husband to permit her to remain the night in the kitchen,
since she is nervous. Pedro, seeing that she is indeed highly-strung, humours her; and when she
settles herself to rest, he flings himself on the floor and sleeps at her feet. At daybreak, Marta rises
and sets about her household duties, and during her absence the village maiden, Nuri, enters, and
rouses the former suspicions of Pedro by telling him that the villagers are pitying him; and Marta
is made unhappy by seeing him walk out of the house with Nuri, without even replying to her own
morning greetings, for, with the dawn of love in her heart, the passion of jealousy is also aroused.
So overwrought is she now that when old Tommasso presently enters, reproaching her for having
deceived the simple shepherd, she defends herself by telling him the whole pitiful story of her
early life, and of her longing for a pure home and a husband's loving care. The old villager is
touched by her passionate recital, and advises her to make a full confession to her husband; and
when Pedro presently returns, she does so, though still keeping back the name of her betrayer.
Pedro, who has been further goaded by the gibes of the villagers, is filled with despair on having