Una questione d’onore (2010)
The work is structured as an eighteenth-century opera buffa, often reminiscent of the
Concerto Grosso and the
Trio Sonata. Although written in a contemporary idiom, it invokes such significant musical forms as the
Passacaglia and the Fugue. The only character on stage is a baritone/actor, who must be equally skilled at singing and acting.
The libretto is adapted from Arthur Schnitzler's,
Lieutenant Gustl.
Vienna is the setting of the story in Schnitzler's original text and he
set the action at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
In this libretto the action is moved to Venice and the clock is set
back to the middle of the eighteenth century. Moreover there could be
no more suitable location than the Most Serene Republic of Venice for a
story set in the mid-eighteenth century. This idea was borrowed from
Schnizler himself, who wrote two works on the figure of Giacomo
Casanova, a Venetian by birth. The eighteenth century of Una
questione d’onore is seen through Schnitzler's early twentieth-century
Viennese eyes, and Venice is the city as seen by Hugo von Hofmannsthal
and Thomas Mann.
SYNOPSISGirolamo
Zorzi, a young officer of the Serene Republic of Venice, is at the
theater. He’s not very interested in the performance but instead lets
his eyes rove among the ladies in the boxes and ponders what may await
him after the production. He can’t wait for the performance to finish.
Another thought crosses his mind. The following afternoon a duel awaits
him. Crowding towards the door and trying to move ahead of another man,
Girolamo pushes him. This starts an altercation with the man whom
Girolamo recognizes. He’s huge, a baker, and he threatens to
break Girolamo’s saber with his own two hands. This takes place
silently, without anyone noticing, but the young officer is petrified
and hasn’t the courage to respond. The baker leaves.
Girolamo
finally reaches the open air and begins roaming the city aimlessly. He
torments himself for not having had the courage to respond to the
affront he suffered. After an intense inner monologue he concludes that
he can avoid dishonor only by taking his gun and killing himself. At
this thought, he starts imagining the reactions of the woman he loves,
his parents, and his fellow officers.
Wandering over bridges
and canals, he finds a garden on the outskirts of the city. He sits
down on a wall, exhausted. Now, instead of suicide, his mind wanders to
other options: he could retire to a monastery or even flee to America.
That would protect his parents from a deep anguish. In the silence of
the night he falls asleep.
Girolamo awakes before dawn,
surrounded by the scents of spring. Not yet fully conscious, he thinks
of the duel awaiting him, but then remembers the night before and
wonders whether what happened exiting the theater was real or merely a
dream. The sun has risen. Girolamo starts back into the city. The sound
of an organ draws him into a church. He sees an old woman praying and
considers talking of his intention to commit suicide with a priest.
Finally however he leaves the church in silence as pangs of hunger draw
him toward his cafe. He enters the cafe for his final meal as an
officer of the Republic of Venice. Coincidentally, the innkeeper
recounts that the baker who provides baked goods to the
neighborhood---the man who had threatened Girolamo the night
before---had died of a heart attack during the night.
The news that the secret of his disgrace has been forever buried fills
Girolamo with an unrestrained joy and he begins to think anew of a
bright future.
