Gabriella di Vergy is an opera seria in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti written in 1826 and revised in 1838, from a libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola, which was based on the tragedy Gabrielle de Vergy by Dormont De Belloy. Prior to that, the play was itself inspired by two French medieval legends, Le châtelain de Coucy et la dame de Fayel and Le Roman de la chastelaine de Vergy. The story had already been the subject of an opera by Michele Carafa and had previously been used by Johann Simon Mayr, Francesco Morlacchi, and Carlo Coccia. It was also subsequently used as Gabriella di Vergy by Saverio Mercadante in 1828. "In its original form the opera was never performed", but parts of the original version were re-used by Donizetti in his other operas Otto mesi in due ore, L’esule di Roma, Il paria and Anna Bolena. For the revised version, Donizetti revisitedGabriella di Vergy and incorporated into the opera parts of Ugo, conte di Parigi, Rosmonda d'Inghilterra and Maria de Rudenz.
Performance history
After Donizetti's death, his Gabriella di Vergy finally received its first performance on 29 November 1869 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples with the title of Gabriella. However, the score was a rifacimento (re-doing
Roles
Synopsis
Gabriella has married Fayel under pressure from her father and the reported death of Raoul, the man she really loves on his return from the Crusades. She discovers too late that she had been deceived and that Raoul is alive. Raoul returns and accuses her of perfidy. Meanwhile, he is under pressure from the Emperor to marry Fayel's sister, Almeide. The story has a tragic and macabre end. Raoul is killed by Fayel in a duel. Fayel cuts out his heart and brings it to Gabriella in an urn. She goes mad and dies of a broken heart. Her final words to Fayel, and the final words of the opera are her wish for the foaming blood in the urn to rise up and cover Fayel's face and for Raoul's ghost to rise from its tomb to embed in Fayel's heart the knife he had used to cut out Raoul's.
