''Guido et Ginevra, ou La Peste de Florence'' (French: ''Guido and Ginevra, or the Plague at

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

'') is a

grand opera Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and Orchestra, orchestras. The original productions consisted of spectacular design and stage effects with plots normally based on o ...

in five acts by

Fromental Halévy Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy, usually known as Fromental Halévy (; 27 May 179917 March 1862), was a French composer. He is known today largely for his opera ''La Juive''. Early career Halévy was born in Paris, son of the cantor ...

to a

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

Eugène Scribe Augustin Eugène Scribe (; 24 December 179120 February 1861) was a French dramatist and librettist. He is known for writing "well-made plays" ("pièces bien faites"), a mainstay of popular theatre for over 100 years, and as the librettist of man ...

. It was premiered on 5 March 1838 by the

Paris Opera The Paris Opera ( ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be kn ...

at the

Salle Le Peletier The Salle Le Peletier or Lepeletier (sometimes referred to as the Salle de la rue Le Peletier or the Opéra Le Peletier) was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and con ...

Performance history

''Guido et Ginevra'' was only a moderate success for Halévy, not nearly as applauded as his previous grand opera ''

La Juive ''La Juive'' (, ) is a grand opera in five acts by Fromental Halévy to an original French libretto by Eugène Scribe; it was first performed at the Opéra National de Paris, Opéra de Paris, on 23 February 1835. Composition history ''La Juive'' ...

'' (1835) or as ''

La reine de Chypre ''La reine de Chypre'' (, ''The Queen of Cyprus'') is an 1841 grand opera in five acts composed by Fromental Halévy to a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges. Performance history ''La reine de Chypre'', first performed at the Salle Le ...

'' which followed it (1841). However, after its premiere it was soon played in all the major European centres. When the opera was revived in Paris in 1840 it was cut to four acts. It was translated into Italian and performed in three acts by the Théâtre-Italien at the Salle Ventadour beginning on 17 February 1870. It was performed in German in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

beginning on 3 April 1879, and

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, on 20 March 1882.Loewenberg 1978, column795. No recent productions are known. The opera contains touches of the composer's innovative

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...

, with a mélophone in Act II, and with Ginevra's tomb scene set to dark woodwind and brass instruments using

diminished seventh In classical music from Western culture, a diminished seventh () is an interval (music), interval produced by Diminution, narrowing a minor seventh by a chromatic semitone,Benward & Saker (2003). ''Music: In Theory and Practice, Vol. I'', p.54. ...

harmonies.

Roles

Synopsis

''Scribe drew the elements of his plot from the history of Florence by Louis-Charles Delécluze''

Act 1

''The Medici court'' Ginevra is to be married to the Duke of Ferrara.

Act 2

During the ceremony, a poisoned veil she has been given causes her to faint away in a deathlike trance; the sculptor Guido mourns her. It is assumed that she has the plague.

Act 3

''The Medici vault'' Buried in the Medici vault she awakes.

Act 4

Guido offers her shelter.

Act 5

''The village of

Camaldoli Camaldoli () is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Poppi, in Tuscany, Italy. It is mostly known as the ancestral seat of the Camaldolese monastic order, originated in the eponymous hermitage, which can still be visited. The name was derived from ...

'' Ginevra is reunited with her father, who agrees to her marriage with Guido. A procession of thanksgiving ends the opera.

References

Notes Sources * Chouquet, Gustave (1873). ''Histoire de la musique dramatique en France'' (in French), pp. 309–425. Paris: Didot. View at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

. * Hallman, Diana (2003). "The Grand Operas of Fromental Halévy", in '' The Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera'', ed. David Charlton. * Loewenberg, Alfred (1978). ''Annals of Opera 1597–1940'' (third edition, revised). Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Littlefield. . * Macdonald, Hugh (2001). ''Guido et Ginevra'', article in

Grove Music Online ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and t ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Guido Et Ginvera Operas Grand operas 1838 operas Operas set in Florence Operas by Fromental Halévy French-language operas Opera world premieres at the Paris Opera Libretti by Eugène Scribe