The Moon in opera: from Haydn to Casta diva and Rusalka
The Moon on the operatic stage: Haydn's Il mondo della luna to a libretto by Goldoni, Norma's prayer Casta diva by Bellini and Rusalka's Song to the Moon.
On the operatic stage the Moon has played many roles: an imaginary setting for comic deceptions, a deity to invoke, a confidante of impossible loves. Between the eighteenth and the early twentieth century, composers and librettists used her to create nocturnal atmospheres, but also to build entire plots. Three operas in particular show the variety of these uses: a comedy by Haydn, a tragedy by Bellini and a fairy tale by Dvořák.
Haydn and Goldoni's World on the Moon
In 1750 Carlo Goldoni wrote the libretto of a dramma giocoso entitled Il mondo della luna, set to music in Venice by Baldassare Galuppi and later by other composers. The most famous is Joseph Haydn, who set it for the Esterházy court: the opera was staged on 3 August 1777 in the theatre at Eszterháza, in Hungary, for the wedding of a son of Prince Nikolaus.
The plot is a hoax. The fake astronomer Ecclitico, with the help of a telescope and a sleeping draught, convinces the rich and gullible Buonafede that he has been carried to the Moon, where freer customs supposedly prevail. Taking advantage of the deception, the young lovers obtain consent to the marriages the old man had refused. The Moon thus becomes a satirical mirror of earthly manias and naivety.
Casta diva: Norma's prayer
Quite different in tone is Vincenzo Bellini's Norma, to a libretto by Felice Romani, first performed at La Scala in Milan on 26 December 1831, with Giuditta Pasta in the title role. The opera is set in Gaul under Roman occupation: Norma is the priestess of the druids, secretly bound to the Roman proconsul Pollione.
In the first act, during the night rite of gathering the sacred mistletoe, Norma addresses the Moon, the chaste goddess, with a prayer for peace: «Chaste goddess, who silver / these sacred ancient trees». The long melody, supported by a very simple accompaniment, is considered one of the summits of bel canto. In the silver Moon the priestess seeks the serenity her divided heart cannot find.
Rusalka and the Song to the Moon
At the beginning of the twentieth century the Moon became a confidante of love in Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka, to a libretto by Jaroslav Kvapil, performed at the National Theatre in Prague in March 1901. The heroine is a water nymph who falls in love with a human prince and longs to become mortal to be at his side, in a story recalling Andersen's Little Mermaid.
In the first act Rusalka sings to the Moon, whose light reaches every place, and asks her to tell the prince that she is waiting for him and to make him remember her love. The aria, in Czech, is today one of the best-loved pages of the soprano repertoire, and has made known far beyond the borders of Bohemia an opera rooted in Slavic fairy tales.
From Goldoni to Kvapil, the operatic Moon spans very distant registers: the pretext for a prank, the goddess of an ancient cult, the messenger of a wordless love. In each case the music exploits the same evocative power of the night star, able to suspend the time of the action and open a space of contemplation in which the voice can expand freely.