Les martyrs (, The Martyrs) is a four-act grand opera by Gaetano Donizetti set to a French libretto by Eugène Scribe. The libretto was based on one written by Salvadore Cammarano for an original Italian version known as Poliuto, which was not performed until after the composer's death. Pierre Corneille's play Polyeucte written in 1641–42, the story of which reflected the life of the early Christian martyr Saint Polyeuctus, is the original source for both versions.Project Gutenberg e-text of Polyeucte
When Poliuto was banned by the King of Naples just before it was due to be performed in 1838,Ashbrook and Hibberd 2001, p. 224 Donizetti became angry at this decision and, with a commission from the Paris Opéra due, he paid the penalty to the San Carlo for not producing an original work as a substitute, and left Naples for Paris arriving on 21 October.
As his first of two commissions for the Opéra, he proposed to revise Poliuto and, between 1839 and 1840, a French text was prepared by the noted French librettist and dramatist, Eugène Scribe, which conformed to the conventions of French grand opera but which incorporated 80% of the music from Poliuto. Revised to suit the taste of the Paris opera-going public and with the title changed to Les martyrs, the opera was presented on 10 April 1840.
When eventually given in Italy, Les martyrs was initially presented in a translation from the French version under several titles including I martiri. It took until 30 November 1848, months after the composer's death, in order for Poliuto to finally appear at the San Carlo in its original Italian three-act version,Black 1982, p. 51 the one which is most frequently performed today.
It is regarded by one writer as Donizetti's "most personal opera" with the music being "some of the finest Donizetti was to compose".Allitt 1991, pp. 177—187
Composition history
Composed for Naples as Poliuto
Donizetti had been gradually considering further involvement with the Parisian stage after the tremendous success of his Lucia di Lammermoor at the Théâtre-Italien in December 1837. As Roger Parker and William Ashbrook note, "negotiations with Henri Duponchel, the director of the Opéra, took on a positive note for the first time"Parker and Ashbrook, p. 17 and "the road to Paris lay open for him",Ashbrook 1982, p. 137 the first Italian to obtain a commission to write a real grand opera.Girardi, p. 1
In addition, while Donizetti was in Venice for the premiere of Maria de Rudenz the following January, he had met and had been impressed with Adolphe Nourrit, who had been the principal tenor in Paris, having sung roles written for him by the major French composers such as Meyerbeer, Auber, Halévy, as well as Rossini (in William Tell) after that composer had moved to Paris in 1829.Parouty, pp. 15—17 However, by the late 1830s, Nourrit's popularity in Paris was in decline, and he was in danger of being supplanted in the public's affections by rising star Gilbert Duprez who the composer had tried to interest in a Paris production of L'assedio di Calais (The Siege of Calais) in 1836, but which failed to gain attention outside Italy.
Donizetti returned to Naples on 24 February, where he began planning for the production of Poliuto but, at the same time, he had also hoped for a permanent supervisory appointment at the Collegio di San Pietro a Maiella there. However, the post went the composer, Saverio Mercadante. Therefore, on 25 May 1838, Donizetti responded to an invitation from the Paris Opéra to compose two new works, specifying that the contract would require a libretto from Scribe with specific performance dates and a rehearsal periods included.Weinstock 1963, pp. 135—139 Now committed to produce his next opera for Naples, the composer wrote Poliuto "with more than half an eye to its potential for it being recast as a French grand opera".Ashbrook, 1982, pp. 418—419
Upon arriving in Naples, Donizetti found that Nourrit was also staying there. The tenor was determined to "take on a [singing] technique which was so different from that which he had been taught" and he was grateful to the composer for lessons in that technique. Writing to his wife, he expressed his joy "at being born to a new artistic life" in singing Italian opera under the composer's direction. He added: [Donizetti is] "pulling strings to get me engaged here".Nourrit to his wife, 10 April 1838, in Robert Potterson, "The Letters of Adolfe Nourrit on Donizetti" in Newsletter 7, April 1975, p. 5. The Donizetti Society (London)
Nourrit greatly influenced the composer in his choice of subject and in the progress of the new opera, such that Donizetti tailored the title role for the tenorAshbrook 1998, pp. 1045—1046 who had, by then, been engaged for the autumn season in Naples. Moreover, Nourrit is also regarded as important in influencing the preparation of Cammarano's libretto as he adapted Corneille's play from what William Ashbrook describes as "a spiritual drama, with its carefully observed unities" into a Romantic melodrama, achieved by adding plot features such as Poliuto's jealousy of his wife's previous relationship with the Roman pro-consul, Severus (Sévère in this opera), which did not exist in the original play. In doing so, the play's narrative perspective of the action (which was originally seen through the eyes of Pauline's confidante, Stratonice) was significantly altered by the use of directly shown dramatic action. This is especially evidenced at the end of act 2 of Poliuto (which became act 3 in Les martyrs) when Polyeucte overthrows the altar.
Work began by 10 May on the music for Poliuto, performances of which appear to have been planned for the autumn season.Black 1984, pp. 46—47 However, by the middle of June, the first of several difficulties emerged. The San Carlo intendant, Domenico Barbaja, needed the libretto to be first approved by the court censor, Royer, who gave his support. But when the completed libretto finally moved up the chain of command to the king, a response was forthcoming on 11 August to the effect that "His majesty deigned with his own sacred hand to declare that the histories of the martyrs are venerated in the Church and are not presented on the stage".King's Minister to Barbaja, 11 August 1838, in Black 1984, p. 48
The opera's last-minute cancellation angered Donizetti so much that he resolved to move to Paris to further his career there. He left Naples in October 1838, vowing never to have any further dealings with the San Carlo administration. But the cancellation dealt a crushing blow to Nourrit's hopes of reviving his flagging career, and even though he appeared in the opera which was substituted, Saverio Mercadante's Il giuramento, as well as productions of Elena da Feltre and Norma which followed, depression overtook him. On 8 March 1839 he jumped to his death from a window of his apartment in Naples.
Donizetti moves to Paris
Poliuto adapted to become Les martyrs Prior to Donizetti's letter written from Naples to the Paris Opéra on 25 May 1838, it appears that he had already been told that a libretto written by Scribe, Le Comte Julien, was on its way to him. But on 12 May he had written to the tenor Gilbert Duprez (in which he asks that it not be shown to anyone else) where he laid out some of his objections to Scribe's libretto, mentioning potential issues such as the basic storyline and his concern over the vocal capabilities of the proposed dramatic soprano Cornélie Falcon who would have been available to sing the principal soprano role.Weinstock 1963, pp. 358—359"A traitor to his country and love also as an episode do not please me".Donizetti to Duprez, 12 May 1838, in Weinstock, pp. 136—137 The following month, Donizetti wrote to Count Gaetano Melzi exclaiming that he did not want "warlike things [...] I want emotions on the stage and not battles".Donizetti to Melzi, 26 June 1838, in Weinstock 1963, p. 136
With the Poliuto disaster behind him, Donizetti arrived in Paris in late October 1838 and quickly met and became friendly with the composer Adolphe Adam, who was living in the same apartment building where he was staying.Weinstock, p. 139: In regard to the premiere of Adam's Le Brasseur de Preston, Weinstock notes Adam's admiration for Donizetti, who became his friend Donizetti offered his Poliuto to the Académie Royale de Musique and it was accepted for performances to begin in April 1840.
While in Paris, a city which increasingly he came to dislike, Donizetti oversaw stagings of Roberto Devereux and L'elisir d'amore during the following December and January, and he also negotiated a longer time-frame for the delivery of the completed libretto of Les martyrs from Scribe as well as that for having the completed score of the second commission ready. This commission, which became known as Le duc d'Albe, was never completed.Weinstock 1963, p. 142—143
During 1839, Lucia di Lammermoor, after being somewhat revised and translated into French, became Lucie de Lammermoor, and this version was presented in August. With rehearsals for Les martyrs not planned until early 1840, the composer had time to write yet another opera, La fille du régiment, his first written directly to a French text. It received its premiere on 11 February 1840, by which time Martyrs was in rehearsal for performances in April.
The adaptation In re-designing Poliuto as an expanded, four-act French grand opera set to Scribe's French text, Donizetti had to make many changes. In addition to re-writing and expanding the overture, a ballet was needed. Other changes had to accommodate the expanded roles of both the Roman Proconsul Severus (now Sévère) and that of the governor, Felice (now Félix). This latter role was changed from the original tenor to become a deep bass. An additional element was that the tenor arias needed to be rewritten in order to suit the voice of Duprez (as Polyeucte) rather than that of Nourrit, due to the former's capability for reaching high C sharp from the chest, thus far surpassing the vocally declining Nourrit.Ashbrook 1982, p. 429
Although Donizetti was obliged to shift the placement of arias to other locations within the text, Scribe had to accept the modification of some of his text to fit the existing music. But given the overall expansion of the opera into four acts, new material needed to be created by both the librettist and the composer, most especially for the end of the expanded act 1 and the beginning of new act 2.Ashbrook 1982, p. 428
But also of significance, according to British conductor Mark Elder, was: Donizetti's mastery of the preferences of his Parisian audience. The whole sound world is markedly different from the familiar Donizetti of Lucia di Lammermoor or Maria Stuarda ... Gone is the Italian emphasis on display for its own sake. In its place is a more passionate declaration coupled to a richly textured orchestra...Elder 2014, p. 5
The other principal change was in the plot itself. Although Ashbrook regards it as essentially being the same as "that of Poliuto but without the motivation of the hero's jealousy", he states that Donizetti was in favour of more closely mirroring Corneille's original play for the Paris version, rather than accepting Cammarano's initial attempts to appease the censors in Naples by playing down the religious rivalry, an attempt, which in any case, had been a failure.
Both William Ashbrook and Charles Osborne outline the following major alterations which came about in order to create Les martyrs: Overture: a new, longer one was substituted for the original.