Opera Plots I - MDC Faculty Home Pages

it to the test. When he has gone, Rosalba is overcome with shame and remorse for the base deed
she has done; and she determines to write a note to her lover confessing the deception she resorted
to in his interest. Before the confession is written, however, the bell again announces that the
competition is over; and the passing gondoliers cry out the name of the winner - Firmiani.
Realising that it is now too late to carry out her good resolve, Rosalba destroys the letter she began
to write; and as Firmiani hurries in, flushed with the triumph of his success, she accepts his joyous
embrace, and resigns herself to the happiness of the moment. Firmiani now entreats his beloved
one to marry him that day; and Rosalba consents, and retires to don her bridal garments, whilst
Firmiani orders a perfect bower of exquisite exotic flowers to be brought into the room to
celebrate the occasion. Presently the musician hears the sound of a scuffle on the piazza below;
and seeing a man fighting for his life with a gang of ruffians, he seizes his sword and goes to his
assistance. He soon returns with the rescued man, who is none other than the once famous
composer, Ezio Colonna, of Rome, who is now in a state of poverty. He relates to Firmiani the
story of his fallen life, his bright prospects having been ruined by a beautiful courtesan, who, by
her fascinations, lured him into the wildest excesses, and then cast him aside for a new lover. This
courtesan is the famous singer, Rosalba; and he has come to Venice to track her down. Firmniani
at first passionately refuses to believe that his loved one has been a false woman of this
description; and whilst the two hotly argue, Rosalba herself enters clad in bridal array. The singer
receives a terrible shock on beholding her old lover, and at first refuses to recognise him; but when
Colonna reminds her of the song he wrote in her honour, and sings the opening lines of it, she is
overcome with confusion and stands convicted. Firmiani now realises how he has been tricked
into gaining the prize under false colours; and full of grief and disappointment at this rude
awakening from his rosy love-dream, he resolves to live no longer. When Colonna has gone, he
ceases to upbraid Rosalba, whom he still loves in spite of all; and he determines they shall die
together on their wedding-night. He therefore closes the windows and doors; and then, clasped in
each others arms, the unhappy lovers are gradually overcome by the poisonous exhalations given
out by the exotic blooms which crowd the room. Firmiani is the first to succumb; and the last
sound heard by the expiring Rosalba is the voice of Colonna on the piazza beneath, singing the
fatal song which has been the means of bringing woe and death upon her lover and herself.
124. LES CLOCHES DE CORNEVILLE
Opera Comique in Three Acts By Robert Jean Planquette
Libretto By Clairville and Gabet
First Produced Paris, April, 1877
Chief Characters Serpolette, Germaine, Henri (Marquis de Villeroi), Old Gaspard (The Miser),
Jean Grenicheux
THE scene is laid in the old Norman village of Corneville during the reign of Louis XV. Henri, the
young Marquis of Villerci, has just returned from exile, and goes to the fair to engage servants to
take to his château, which is reported to be haunted, strange lights and weird sounds having been
seen and heard by the villagers. At the fair he meets Serpolette, a pretty girl who has lived in the
village all her life, but of whose parentage nothing is known. Here also comes Germaine, the niece
of an old miser named Gaspard, who desires her to marry the rich sheriff. Germaine, however,
declines to do so, declaring that Jean Grenicheux, a young fisherman, has more claim upon her