Opera Plots I - MDC Faculty Home Pages

elease of the noble prisoner; and Frederick keeps to his word and pardons Henry, whose heart is
now softened, so that he gladly renews his service to him. When the minstrel asks for guerdon, a
portion of the lady's veil the freed warrior wears fastened to his helmet the love-gage of his wife
Henry gladly gives him a piece of it, and the minstrel retires, contented. In Act 4 Henry the Lion
returns home to his castle, where he receives a glad welcome from his wife and retainers; and on
the arrival of the Emperor a short time after, he proudly presents the lovely Clementina to his royal
master, praising her as the most perfect of wives. On hearing this, however, the jealous Irmgard
thinks her moment of triumph has come, and, approaching the Emperor, she speaks slightingly of
the young wife, and declares that, during her husband's absence, she had left the Castle in
company with a knight, both of them in disguise, and that she did not return until a few days
before her husband's home-coming. Henry is furious on hearing this, being ever quick to take
offence; and, not giving his wife time to defend herself, he passionately repudiates her, and bids
her leave his Castle. Clementina goes from his presence sadly, but soon returns in her minstrel
garb, and on singing the sweet. German song which had so touched the heart of the Emperor
before, all recognise in her the stranger musician. Henry now craves her pardon for his doubt of
her, and as the husband and wife joyfully embrace, the company unite in praises of the loving and
devoted Clementina.
76. HABANERA
Tragic Opera in Two Acts By Raoul Laparra
Libretto By the Composer
First Produced Paris, February, 1908
Chief Characters Pilar, Pedro, Ramon
THIS very dramatic opera deals with the love of two brothers for the same woman, and their
consequent hatred for each other; and it is a very terrible story of murder and vengeance,
intermixed with mystic, supernatural intervention. The wild Habanera melody, filling the listener
with the forewarning of inevitable tragedy and woe, is heard at the commencement of the opera,
and it keeps recurring as the tragic situation deepens until the final disaster, when it is heard once
more as the symbol of inexorable fatality. The scene of the opera is laid in Spain, where two
brothers, Pedro and Ramon, have both conceived a violent passion for the beautiful peasant
maiden Pilar. The latter loves Pedro, and makes him happy by consenting to marry him, upon
which Ramon is filled with such passionate jealousy of his brother that, driven almost mad with
his own disappointment, he lures the fortunate lover out to a lonely place, and there murders him.
Directly the deed is done Ramon is filled with remorse for having slain the brother he once loved;
and his woe is changed to a constant, haunting fear when Pedro, with his last dying gasps,
solemnly declares that on the anniversary of this fatal act he will appear to his murderer with a
dread command. Ramon endeavours to conquer his fears by trying to win the love of Pilar,
keeping secret the fact that he is the murderer of his brother; but the maiden is so filled with
despair and grief when the dead body of her lover is brought in that she gives herself up entirely to
her sorrow, only beseeching Ramon to do all in his power to avenge his brother's death, clinging to
him as a friend, and little dreaming that he is the murderer. In Act 2, on the anniversary of his
murder, the spirit of Pedro indeed appears to his brother, in fulfilment of his terrible threat; and he
sternly commands the wretched man to atone for his evil deed by confessing it to Pilar and to the