Angelo (opera)

Angelo (Анджело in Cyrillic; Andželo in transliteration) is an opera in four acts by César Cui, composed during 1871–1875, with a libretto by Viktor Burenin based on Victor Hugo's 1835 prose play, Angelo, Tyrant of Padua.

This same play formed the basis of Saverio Mercadante's Il giuramento of 1837, Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda, which premiered in the same year as Cui's opera (1876), and Alfred Bruneau's Angelo, tyran de Padoue of 1928.

A new production of Angelo was staged twenty-five years after the original premiere in 1901 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, with Feodor Chaliapin in the role of Galeofa.

In order to assuage his jealousy of her attentions to Galeofa, she tells him of the time when her mother was rescued years ago from hanging when Tisbe was a child.

The daughter of a Venetian nobleman had pleaded to spare Tisbe's mother, and in gratitude the latter gave the girl her crucifix.

Alone, Catarina then tries to cheer herself up by playing Rodolfo's sad song, and suddenly he is heard singing it from the balcony.

When Angelo returns and shows her the love letter, Tisbe knows that the handwriting is Rodolfo's, but pretends otherwise.

Angelo tells his servants to take Catarina's body away to the crypt, but, after he leaves, Tisbe bribes them to do otherwise.

Catarina awakes; Tisbe blesses them and dies as the funeral procession passes by the window to the strains of "De profundis."