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La finta giardiniera may be the most underappreciated of Mozart's operas. It was only his second comic opera, and the libretto itself is a curious amalgam of buffa and seria. Despite an enthusiastic reception, in its original form it disappeared from the repertoire after only three performances. Translated into German, it apparently remained popular with audiences even as it was panned by critics. Today it remains largely unknown. This is unfortunate, because in many respects this beautiful work is as significant a milestone in Mozart's musical development as Idomeneo (K. 366).
The libretto, long attributed to Raniero de Calzabigi and Marco Coltellini, is now thought to have been written by Giuseppe Petrosellini of Rome. It was first performed there as a three-act dramma giocoso, with music by Pasquale Anfossi, in December 1773. The text proved popular enough to warrant further treatment. The following summer it was handed to Mozart so he could turn it into an opera buffa for the Munich carnival season.
Mozart began work on the new opera in September. In early December, he and his father traveled to Munich, where he could write the arias to fit the individual singers' voices. The performers were not celebrities, but apparently they knew good music when they heard it. In a letter to his wife dated December 28, 1774, Leopold Mozart reported: "The first rehearsal of Wolfgang's opera took place at ten in the morning and was so well received that the first performance has been postponed until January 5th in order that the singers may learn their parts more thoroughly and thus, knowing the music perfectly, may act with greater confidence and not spoil the opera." In another letter two days later, he added: ". . . the whole orchestra and all who have heard the rehearsal say that they have never listened to a finer composition, for it is one in which all the arias are beautiful. And wherever we go, the same thing is said."
The première, postponed again, finally took place a few days later. Mozart wrote home: "Thank God! My opera was performed yesterday, the 13th, for the first time and was such a success that it is impossible for me to describe the applause to Mama. In the first place, the whole theatre was so packed that a great many people were turned away. Then after each aria there was a terrific noise, clapping of hands and cries of 'Viva Maestro.' "
Others who saw La finta giardiniera agreed, if somewhat less enthusiastically. J.F. Unger, secretary to the Saxon legation, wrote in his diary: "On Friday Their Electoral Highnesses were present at the first performance of the opera buffa: La finta giardiniera; the music was generally applauded; it is by young Mozart, who is here at the moment." In his Deutsche Chronik, the poet Christian Schubart noted: ". . . I also heard an opera buffa by that wonderful genius Mozart; it is called La finta giardiniera. Flashes of genius appear here and there; but there is not yet that still altar-fire that rises towards Heaven in clouds of incense -- a scent beloved of the gods. If Mozart is not a plant forced in the hot-house, he is bound to grow into one of the greatest musical composers who ever lived."
Despite this positive reception, Mozart knew how easily things could change. In his letter home, he wrote: "Friday my opera is being performed again and it is most essential that I should be present. Otherwise my work would be quite unrecognizable -- for very strange things happen here." Two things did happen. The second performance had to be cut because the soprano who sang Serpetta became ill (no great loss, according to Leopold, who wrote that "she was dreadful" even when healthy). Then, because the Munich Opera operated on a repertory basis, the opera was dropped altogether after the third performance.
That might have been the end of it. However, in the winter of 1779, the impresario Johann Böhm asked Mozart for permission to perform La finta giardiniera as a Singspiel. Mozart agreed and even rewrote some of the music to accommodate the translated German text. The result, titled Die verstellte Gärtnerin (The Disguised Gardener's Maid), was performed by Böhm's troupe in Salzburg, Augsburg and elsewhere in Germany. Though it was not entirely well-received by critics (in Frankfurt, the Dramaturgische Blätter called it "jejune and tedious") the Singspiel apparently was a success with the general public. At some point, possibly during this tour, Mozart's Italian setting of Act I was lost. Thus, the only complete version that existed for the 19th and most of the 20th centuries was the German translation, these days usually titled Die Gärtnerin aus Liebe (The Gardener's Maid in Love). It wasn't until a copy of the missing Act I turned up in the 1970s in Czechoslovakia that the original could be performed.
Modern-day critics have their own problems with La finta giardiniera, mostly with the book. "The libretto foisted upon Mozart was by far the poorest he had yet to grapple with," writes Charles Osborne, who calls it "a clumsily-written, confused and confusing pot-boiler." Edward Dent, who expresses little enthusiasm for any of Mozart's early operas, is more laconic. "La Finta Giardiniera is a conventional opera buffa of the stock Italian pattern," he writes, indicating that he would place it in the same category as La finta semplice (K. 51).
But Alfred Einstein comes closer to the truth: "The text belongs to a type quite different from that of La finta semplice. In the printed version of the libretto there is a strange division of the roles." The libretto separates the parts into seria (Arminda and Ramiro) and buffa (Sandrina, Belfiore, Serpetta, Don Anchise and Nardo). Furthermore, the line between these divisions is often crossed. More than once Sandrina, Belfiore and even Nardo express themselves in arias that are more serious than comic.
It is this division of roles that makes La finta giardiniera unique, something far different than conventional opera buffa. It allowed Mozart to employ every technique of Sturm und Drang, a new musical style "intended to wring from an audience violent extremes of emotional identification," according to Nicholas Till. The libretto itself, Till explains, was part of a popular genre patterned after Samuel Richardson's Pamela, published in 1740. Richardson's novel swept the continent and inspired several similar books and plays. In each, the heroine is cruelly treated, even abducted and imprisoned. But she perseveres, preserves her virtue and eventually is rewarded with marriage. In Mozart's opera, "Pamela sings."
La finta giardiniera is no potboiler. Granted, a few years later Mozart would have been tempted to tinker with the libretto (and the result would have been the better for it). But at the age of 18, he took what he was given and made the best of it. Along with his Symphony in G minor (K. 183), written the year before, La finta giardiniera marks the emergence of his mature style. According to Till, it is "the earliest opera in which Mozart speaks not only as a miraculously precocious musician, but as an individual giving voice to his own experience, and engaging with the concerns of his generation and class in a language that was unequivocably his own."
Dramatis personae:
Synopsis:
The most important event of La finta giardiniera takes place a year before the action begins on stage. Count Belfiore, in a fit of passion, stabs his lover, the Marchioness Violante Onesti. He then flees, believing he has killed her. But Violante is not dead. The wound is grievous, but it heals. Her heart, on the other hand, does not. She is still very much in love with the Count. She disguises herself as a simple gardener's girl and, accompanied by her loyal servant, sets out in search of Belfiore.
Act I
A garden with a wide staircase leading to the Mayor's mansion.
The Mayor, Cavalier Ramiro and Serpetta descend the staircase as Sandrina and Nardo work in the garden. Together they praise the lovely day. But their happiness is feigned: Sandrina is wretched because Don Anchise is in love with her; Nardo is frustrated by Serpetta, who teases him but refuses to respond to his affections; Ramiro is bitter about being tossed aside by Arminda; and, because she has set her own cap at the Mayor, Serpetta is angry at Sandrina.
The Mayor is the only happy person in the group. Today is his niece's wedding day, and her suitor is due to arrive at any moment. He also is giddy over his plan to propose to Sandrina, which he does at the first opportunity. Sandrina demurs and, when Serpetta rudely interrupts, makes her escape.
Arminda's betrothed -- none other than Count Belfiore -- arrives and is swept off his feet by her great beauty. But Arminda is quick to let him know that she is someone to be reckoned with: Woe to you if I catch you being unfaithful, she warns. I will box your ears. The Count then boasts of his deeds and ancestry to the Mayor. His family tree, he says proudly, can be traced to Scipio, Cato and Marcus Aurelius. Don Anchise responds with a mixture of awe and skepticism, as though he doesn't care what sort of buffoon this fellow is -- as long as he marries his niece.
In the garden, Arminda finds Sandrina and casually mentions that she is to marry Count Belfiore. Stunned by the news, Sandrina faints. When the Count arrives, Arminda leaves him to watch over Sandrina while she rushes off to fetch her smelling salts. He is shocked to find that this simply dressed gardener's girl is none other than Violante.
As is so appropriate for an opera buffa finale, everything gets turned on its head. Arminda returns and immediately runs into the last person she expects to encounter, her former lover Ramiro, who is approaching from the opposite direction. Sandrina awakens and finds herself looking directly into the eyes of Belfiore. What are they to do?
The Mayor enters and demands an explanation. But no one knows quite what to say. Sandrina wavers, unable to make up her mind about revealing her true identity, and nearly driving Belfiore out of his mind in the process. Arminda suspects that she's being deceived, but she isn't quite sure. The Mayor blames everything on Serpetta; Serpetta in turn blames Sandrina; and Ramiro, on the periphery, is certain only of the fact that Arminda still does not love him.
Act II
A hall in the Mayor's palace.
Ramiro discovers Arminda and insists that she hear him out. He upbraids her for her inconstancy. When she refuses to listen, he departs, but not before promising revenge upon his rival. Belfiore enters in some distress, muttering: I have no peace since I found Sandrina. Arminda, overhearing this, confronts him angrily before exiting in the grand manner of a spurned seria heroine.
Sandrina is in the worst kind of dilemma. She has finally found her true love, but she is about to lose him forever to another woman. For reasons of her own, she has refused to reveal her identity. Yet when she encounters Belfiore, the question comes gushing out: Why did you stab me and desert me? The Count, overjoyed, responds: Then you are Violante! But Sandrina quickly reassumes her disguise. No, she says, that is what the poor girl said as she died. No matter, Belfiore says, you have the face of my Violante. He begins to serenade her but, partway through, the Mayor enters. Belfiore takes the Mayor's hand, believing it belongs to Sandrina -- then retreats in embarrassment when he discovers his mistake.
Alone with Sandrina, the Mayor again attempts to woo her. But once again he is interrupted, this time by Ramiro, who arrives with the news from Milan that Count Belfiore is wanted for murder. Don Anchise immediately summons Belfiore for questioning. The Count, thoroughly baffled, implicates himself. In order to save him, Sandrina reveals herself as Violante, and the proceedings break up in some confusion. The Count approaches Sandrina, but she pushes him away. I am not your Violante, she says, I only pretended to be in order to save you.
Moments later, Serpetta arrives to tell the Mayor, Nardo and Ramiro that Sandrina has run away. In reality, Arminda and Serpetta have conspired to abduct her, and she has been carried off and abandoned in the wilderness. The Mayor immediately organizes a search party.
A deserted, mountainous spot.
Sandrina is nearly frightened out of her wits. But, in small groups, her rescuers soon begin to arrive: the Count and Nardo, Arminda, Serpetta and the Mayor. Mistaken identities multiply in the darkness: The Mayor mistakes Arminda for Serpetta, and she him for the Count; the Count believes Serpetta is Sandrina, while she believes him to be the Mayor. Nardo alone manages to find his mistress by following her voice. Ramiro, the gallant cavalier, arrives with footmen carrying torches.
All this confusion is too much for poor Belfiore and Sandrina. While the others bicker, they begin to lose their minds. I am the terrible Medusa! cries Sandrina. I am the fearless Alcides! responds the Count. Everyone looks on in astonishment as they begin to dance.
Act III
The courtyard.
The Count and Sandrina are certifiably insane, as Nardo discovers. Still believing that they are gods from classical Greece, they pursue him until he distracts them by pointing at the sky. Look at difference between the sun and the moon! he cries. Observe all the lovesick stars! They are entranced and Nardo is able to make his escape.
Events are taking their toll on the Mayor's judgment, too. Arminda begs for permission to marry the Count, and Ramiro demands that he order her to marry him. But he becomes confused and gives in to them both: Do what you want, he says, just do not trouble me any more.
A garden.
The Count and Sandrina gradually awaken after sleeping -- at a discreet distance from one another -- in the garden. Their madness has passed. Belfiore makes one final appeal, and Sandrina admits that she is, indeed Violante. However, she says, she loves him no more. Sadly, the Count agrees that they should go their separate ways.
But (this is an opera buffa, after all) their feet begin to drag, and they turn back. The mutual attraction of their love is too strong: They fall into each other's arms and then immediately run off to get married.
The Mayor and Arminda are dumbfounded when they hear the news. After they recover from their initial shock, they, along with everyone else, take it all in stride. Arminda decides to marry Ramiro, and Serpetta even decides that Nardo isn't such a bad choice, after all. Only the Mayor is left out, and he accepts his fate philosophically. Perhaps, he says, he will someday meet another gardener's girl.
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