Opera Plots I - MDC Faculty Home Pages

THE story is founded on an old German legend, the scene being laid in the Rhine country. Lurline,
the lovely Rhine nymph, has fallen in love with Count Rudolph, whom she has seen sailing in his
skiff above her watery domains; and she determines to win his love in return. Rudolph, unaware of
this, seeks marriage with Ghiva, daughter of a Baron, whom he believes to be wealthy, and with
whose riches he hopes to retrieve his own fallen fortunes and restore his half-ruined castle. The
Baron and his daughter, also believing in their turn that the Count is wealthy, are very anxious for
the union; but when they discover their mutual poverty, the proud and ambitious Ghiva withdraws,
and sends her suitor away with contempt. Rudolph, to restore his dejected spirits, indulges in wild
revels with some gay companions at his castle; and there he is one day visited by the mysterious
Lurline, who places a ring on his finger, and casts her lures and magic spells of love around him so
successfully that the young Count, unable to resist her marvellous beauty, falls desperately in love
with her, and follows her to the shores of the Rhine, where he is drawn towards a whirlpool, into
which he vanishes with the lovely nymph.
In Act 2 Rudolph is found in the Rhine Kings watery palace, where he is happy in the love of
Lurline, whose magic ring renders him as a being of the water-world; but happening one day to
hear the songs of some of his old companions, who are sailing above him, he longs to see them
once more, and entreats the beautiful nymph to permit him to visit the earth for a short time,
promising to return to her. Lurline agrees to part with him for three days, saying that at the end of
that time she will wait for him on a rock which rises out of the river, and is known as the "Lurleiberg";
and at her request the Rhine King also allows him to take away with him some of the. vast
treasures from his palace. Rudolph therefore returns to his castle, where the news of his
marvellous treasures quickly brings his old companions around him. Ghiva, on learning the secret
of his wealth, now seeks his love once more; and by cunningly stealing his magic ring, which she
flings into the river, she hopes to win him for herself. Rudolph, deprived of his magic ring, forgets
his beautiful fairy wife, and indulges once more in wild excesses. His companions soon became
jealous of his unbounded wealth, and lay a plot to murder him, after which they intend to plunder
the castle. Meanwhile, Lurline waits vainly for her truant lover, and is filled with woe, when one
of her attendants brings her the magic ring she gave to him, and which Ghiva had flung into the
river; but, deter-mining to win him back, she appears once more at a festival the Count is giving to
his friends on the banks of the river. She pours reproaches upon Rudolph, who, however, quickly
falls under her fascination once more, and announces his love for her. Ghiva, furious at the
prospect of losing the wealthy Count she had hoped to wed, reveals to him the evil designs of his
jealous friends; and she and her father beg him to escape with them. Rudolph, however, has
thought for no one else but the beautyful, mysterious Lurline, who now invokes the spirits of the
Rhine to aid her lover. Immediately the river rises and overflows its banks, destroying the base
conspirators; and with the subsiding waves Rudolph, once more wearing the magic ring, is borne
back with Lurline to the Rhine Kings dazzling palace, where they are reunited.
195. MARITANA
Romantic Opera in Three Acts By William Vincent Wallace
Libretto By Fitzball (Adapted from the Play "Don Caesar de Bazan")
First Produced London, November, 1845
Chief Characters Maritana, Marchioness de Montefiore, Don Caesar de Bazan, The King of Spain,