AN OPERA IN ONE ACT

Music by Robert Rogler 
Play by Alfred, Lord Tennyson 

DRAMATIS PERSONAE 

The Count Federigo degli Alberighi - bass 
Filippo, the Count's foster-brother - tenor 
The Lady Giovanna - soprano
Elisabetta, the Count's nurse - alto 

INSTRUMENTATION 

Flute 
Guitar 
String Quartet 
(2 violins, viola, and violoncello) 

SCENE

Tennyson sets the scene as the inside of "an Italian cottage (with a) castle and mountains seen through (a) window." Aside from the window, he asks for the room to also contain a door; a table, chairs, and a stool; a "withered wreath on the wall" with a faded ribbon and a scroll of paper in it; a guitar; a fireplace with wood on the hearth (which seems entirely optional as it never figures in the play); and an icon of the Virgin Mary on the wall above the fireplace (again, optional). I would also suggest swords on the wall that Filippo can access to mime the battles that he and Count Federigo fought together. And if a real falcon is used, it may be wise to include a perch on which the bird can sit while the action is proceeding.

As Elisabetta is already on stage when the curtain opens, she needs to be wearing a necklace of blue beads and have a needle and thread and material for darning.

Backstage, the following items are required: a falcon (real or a puppet) with which Count Federigo enters; a gauntlet, if the bird is real; a diamond necklace carried in a casket by Lady Giovanna; a tablecloth; a bowl of salad; a roasted bird on a platter; a plate of prunes; a flask and four goblets; and possibly, though not absolutely necessary, are a broken silver spoon and a broken china bowl.

No indication is given as to costumes, but since the play is based on a 14th century story and there is talk of horses and trumpets in battle as well as "hacking" with swords, the costumes should be appropriate to that time. Filippo should have two fingers taped down, or perhaps wear a glove from which he can remove two fingers, as he is directed by Tennyson to show Lady Giovanna his hand that was crippled in battle.

Tennyson gives many stage and blocking directions throughout the play, some of which are important to the action while others should probably be left to the discretion of the director. Where I feel a direction is necessary, I will add it without comment. Other directions will be added with the abbreviation "Tenn:" preceeding it to indicate the direction is given by Tennyson, but that I do not consider it vital for the understanding of the opera.

CONTENTS 

1. OVERTURE AND INTRODUCTION (Elisabetta) So, My Lord 
2. ARIA (Count Federigo) Hear That, My Bird! 
3. RECITATIVE AND DUET (Count Federigo and Elisabetta) No, No Again to That! / We Cannot Flaunt It in New Feathers Now 
4. ARIA (WITH TRIO) (Filippo, Elisabetta, and Count Federigo) Ah, The Women, The Women! 
5. DUET AND ARIA (Count Federigo and Filippo) Let Be Thy Jokes and Thy Jerks, Man! / Happy Was the Prodigalon Son 
6. REPRISE AND ARIA (Elisabetta) I Knew It Would Come to This! / Why as I Live 
7. DUET AND REPRISE (Elisabetta and Lady Giovanna) Come In, Madonna / Tell Her All About It 
8. ARIA (Lady Giovanna) His Falcon 
9. TRANSITION (Count Federigo, Filippo, and Lady Giovanna) Do What I Said 
10. DUET (Count Federigo and Lady Giovanna) Lady, You Bring Your Light 
11. ARIA (Count Federigo) Alas, Ten Summers 
12. RECITATIVE AND REPRISE (Lady Giovanna and Count Federigo) How Long Since? / Had She Not Thrown Away My Chaplet 
13. DUET (Count Federigo and Filippo) My Lord, a Word with You 
14. DUET (Lady Giovanna and Count Federigo ) This Faded Ribbon 
15. ARIA (Count Federigo) Dead Mountain Flowers 
16. REPRISE (Count Federigo and Elisabetta) A Word with You, My Lord 
17. REPRISES (Count Federigo and Lady Giovanna) Dead Mountain Flowers / My Nurse Has Broken the Thread of My Dead Flowers 
18. QUARTET (Filippo, Lady Giovanna, Elisabetta, and Count Federigo) Here's a Fine Salad 
19. RECITATIVE (Lady Giovanna) The Wine Might Help 
20. FUGUE AND TRIO (Filippo, Elisabetta, Count Federigo, and Lady Giovanna) I Can Tell You / In This Same Battle 
21. TRANSITION (Lady Giovanna, Count Federigo, Filippo, and Elisabetta) I Can Eat No More 
22. DUET (Lady Giovanna and Count Federigo) I Have Anger'd Your Good Nurse 
23. DUET (Lady Giovanna and Count Federigo) No, For He Would Marry Me 
24. REPRISE (Count Federigo and Lady Giovanna) What Do You Ask of Me 
25. ARIA (Lady Giovanna) You Know Sick People  
26. TRANSITION (Lady Giovanna and Count Federigo) His Falcon 
27. DUET (Lady Giovanna and Count Federigo) O This Unhappy World 
28. TRANSITION (Count Federigo and Lady Giovanna) I Fear You Scarce Will Thank Me 
29. ARIA (WITH DUET) (Count Federigo and Lady Giovanna) The Dying of My Noble Bird

Program Notes

Alfred, Lord Tennyson was born in the country village of Somersby in Lincolnshire, England on the 6th of August 1809. He was the Reverend George Clayton Tennyson’s fourth of twelve children and the child who most “inherited his father’s propensity for morbid melancholy.” His taste for poetic composition developed very early on, and he was already writing verse in grammar school at six years of age.

Although not an exceptional student, by eighteen, he had written enough quality poems to have some of his works published. His second book of poems, Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, published three years later in 1830 while he was studying at Cambridge University, revealed a poet of great promise, though one that was still not a master of his craft. The book received some overly harsh criticism, considering it was written  by one so young, and Tennyson was upset and lashed out violently against it - a trait he was to retain his entire life.

While at Cambridge, Tennyson also developed a deep friendship with fellow student Arthur Hallam. The two became almost inseparable, and Hallam became engaged to Tennyson’s sister. Inspired by these happy events, Tennyson wrote and published another book of poems, titled simply Poems, in 1831. This remarkable book, which shows a mature flowering of poetic genius at the age of only twenty-three, is unprecedented in English literature. The over-zealousness, questionable craftsmanship, and sugariness of the earlier works were all gone, and with this book, he proved himself one of the most important new voices of the age.

Yet despite this, the book did receive a surprising amount of adverse criticism, which Tennyson, again, couldn’t stomach. Only two years later, Arthur Hallam died in Vienna of a brain aneurysm. This plunged Tennyson into a profound gloom that lasted for ten years. At the age of twenty-five, his health began to fail; his finances were in ruins (largely due to an unscrupulous speculator); and his mental health collapsed to the point where he was confined to a sanitarium. Still, some of his most enduring poems were written during this time, most for Arthur Hallam, including “Break, Break, Break”, “Ulysses”, and “In Memoriam”. In 1847, he published the epic poem The Princess, again, to an amazing amount of unjust criticism, but by now, his reputation was growing, and his finances began to become more stable.

By 1850, he finally felt secure enough to marry his fiance of ten years, Emily Sarah Sellwood. This “intelligent and noble” woman did nothing but good for Tennyson, providing him with an educated and talented partner, who bore him two children (of whom he was exceedingly fond), and generally made a cheerful home atmosphere that finally broke his depression. Suddenly, honors and fortune began to roll in to such an extent that, by the end of his life, he enjoyed more success than any English poet ever had during their lifetime. He was offered a baronetcy, appointed poet laureate (a post he held longer than anyone else), and was introduced to Queen Victoria. The poet laureateship was a tenure he took very seriously, and the poems “Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade” were the immediate results of that appointment. 

After the tremendous success of his epic poems Maud, Enoch Arden, and The Idylls of the King, which, amazingly, were still often adversely criticized, Tennyson, for unknown reasons, turned to play writing in 1875 with the publication of his play Queen Mary. Apparently, he wanted to dramatize all the important stories of English history. Critics were vicious and the public apathetic, but Tennyson pressed on with his plays for a decade, perhaps influenced by how much criticism his poems had unjustly received. After six plays, however, Tennyson returned to poetry in 1884, writing his final four volumes of poems. He died peacefully in 1892 at the age of eighty-three, and with him died the great age of English poetry. He is buried in Westminster Abbey beside his good friend Robert Browning. 

The Falcon was written and performed in 1879 and ran for sixty-seven performances at the St. James Theatre. The play is somewhat of a mystery. After three epic, historical English dramas, Tennyson wrote this half-hour, four character ditty taken from a fourteenth century Italian tale in the Decameron by Boccaccio. The simple story is of Count Federigo who is hopelessly in love with the Lady Giovanna - so much so that he impoverishes himself purchasing gifts for her in the hope of winning her affection.

The play takes place entirely in one meeting between the two when Lady Giovanna, for the first time, visits the count at the cottage in which he is living after selling his palace to obtain a necklace for her. She comes to ask him to gift her his falcon on behalf of her seriously ill son who feels the bird will restore his health. The characters and relationships are universal ones, to which we can all relate - the affectionate, yet nagging parental figure; the frivolous, but good-hearted brother contrasted with the sober, serious, and introspective brother; and the complex woman trying to maintain her appearance of aloof dignity while a torrent of complicated thoughts and emotions rages beneath. The play also deals with the timeless themes of love and loss, sacrifice and rebirth, and the value of the material versus the value of the spiritual. 

Despite this, the play was, and is, harshly criticized for various reasons, and this demonstrates well the way in which most of Tennysons’ work has been unfairly judged. Perhaps the most legitimate complaint is that this particular piece, as well as Tennyson’s other plays, lacks drama. Being a poet and a wordsmith, it’s hardly surprising that he is most concerned with dialogue and the rhythms and sounds of conversation rather than action. Other less fair criticisms of The Falcon include that its story lacks interest, that it is poorly written, the characters are unrealistic, and that it lacks a consistent tone. Most of these ideas are so ridiculous they can be simply dismissed out of hand as patently false.

There is plenty of interest and realism in the characters and the story, and nothing Tennyson ever wrote was done poorly. As for the lack of a cohesive tone, this arises largely out of the fact that Tennyson attempts to combine in this play noble, courtly love with rather unsophisticated comedy. Some critics feel the humor cheapens the love story, while others feel the love story undermines the mocking, comedic tone they feel the play should have. (The fact that the critics disagree on how the play “should be” is indicative of problems with their assessments.) In any event, this criticism probably only stems from the fact that, with the play being so short, the changes from comedy to seriousness are too abrupt for their tastes. 

But what might be found lacking in the work as a play is a true boon for the opera writer.

When the dialogue is slowed with music, the wide variety of emotions and changes from comedy to seriousness are the plays greatest assets. An opera written in which only one “consistent” feeling is expressed would be a very dull opera indeed. And since it is the emotions of the play enhanced with the music that are the true stars of the opera, these feelings should not be forced into the background by a plot overly dependent on action. Tennyson’s tantamount concern being the beauty and rhythm of its language allows  The Falcon, almost more than any other play, the writing of beautiful and rhythmic music to accompany it.

In short, The Falcon is a delightful little play, and in setting it to music, I hope I have done justice to both the words and the great poet who wrote them. – Robert Rogler