Scene from La Lupa
When I read Giovanni Verga’s four-page novella, La Lupa, I knew I had to turn it into an opera. (The photo introducing this post is of Verga.) What I didn’t realize until after I began writing the libretto and composing the music was that Puccini had already begun working on the opera with Verga. Somehow they had a disagreement over characterization and the project was scuttled. Puccini was concurrently composing La Boheme, and it has been fairly well established that some of the music for that opera had initially been written for La Lupa.
In the story, Pina (who’s referred to as La Lupa, the she-wolf) is a beautiful and sexually aggressive widow of 35, who works as a wheat harvester in the fields at the base of Sicily’s Mt. Etna. She falls in love with Nanni, a 25-year-old handsome soldier, who now also works in the fields. Pina throws herself at Nanni, but he tells her that he wants to marry Pina’s 18-year-old daughter, Mara, who works with them. Pina is devastated by this declaration but in tears decides that she will give her daughter to Nanni. Nanni tries to comfort her and Pina ends up seducing him.
In the second act, the young married couple, who now have a child and another expected, are living with Pina in her house. Pina never relinquishes her grasp on Nanni, and one day Mara catches her mother and her husband in a passionate embrace. As a result, Mara goes to the police, charging her mother with adultery. Nanni is subjected to a humiliating public penance for his sins, while Pina is forced to leave her own house and live in a hovel, far from from the young couple.
She’s like a caged animal, torn from her lover. Because she’s nable to stand the separation any longer, Pina visits Nanni in the fields and seduces him once more. Nanni, wracked with guilt, threatens to kill Pina if she ever approaches him again. Pina, who’d rather die than live without her lover, removes her mourning clothes, puts on a very provocative dress and carries a bouquet of red poppies. As she approaches Nanni, he screams in horror, “No, Pina, No!” while he raises an ax to her.
The short story gives no more information than my brief synopsis, therefore I needed to invent scenes and characters, using some of the names of my own Sicilian family members. When I was nearly finished writing, it occurred to me that the piece was relentlessly grim and that it needed one moment of comic relief or at least lightness. Thus I wrote a choral “list” number, with the female field workers on one side of the stage and the male workers on the other. With Pina and Nanni offstage, I had the women, who despised Pina because they thought she was always trying to steal their husbands and sons, enumerate or list her many faults. The men, on the other hand, list the many charms and enticements they find in Pina. Then they both get carried away, speculating how many men she’s slept with.
The libretto for this choral number is given below. To hear other scenes from the opera sung by members of the Ft. Worth Opera Company, click here.
(Sung. Men on one side, women on the other.)
CARDILLO
La Lupa.
BRUNO
La Lupa.
VINCENZO
La Lupa.
BRUNO
La bellezza
VINCENZO
La gioia.
CARDILLO
Seduttrice.
3 MEN
From those ruby red lips,
To the curve of her hips,
She inflames my desire
Till my loins are on fire.
When she flicks that black hair.
How my lust is laid bare.
Oh, what pleasure that lies
In those voluptuous thighs
GRAZIA
La Lupa.
LIA
La Lupa.
NEDDA
La Lupa.
LIA
La strega.
NEDDA
Donnaccia.
GRAZIA
Puttana.
3 WOMEN
No, she’s not even pretty.
More deserving of pity.
God, her morals are awful.
I’d say they’re unlawful.
Ever since her husband died,
She abandoned her pride.
Now she acts like a whore.
NEDDA
But it’s Mara, poor thing.
LIA
Poor thing.
3 WOMEN
Poor thing,
That I feel so sorry for.
Pina’s nothing
But a tramp and a shrew.
3 MEN
Not when seen from
Our point of view.
CARDILLO
She’s a gift from the gods.
BRUNO, VINCENZO
She’s a dream to fulfill.
NEDDA
You can say what you will
GRAZIA, LIA
That slut’s over the hill.
3 MEN
She’s an ageless surprise.
3 WOMEN
She’s the devil in disguise.
3 MEN
She’s what makes my urge rise.
3 WOMEN
Let me claw out her eyes.
How many men has she ruined?
3 MEN
How many men has she kissed?
SEXTET
How many men
Have succumbed to her when
Even the priest can’t resist.
NEDDA
There’s the young handsome virgin.
CARDILLO
And the quack called a surgeon.
GRAZIA
Or the scandalous scene
With the merchant marine.
3 WOMEN
Was that obscene?
VINCENZO
Then there’s Nico, the Greek
LIA
With the perfect physique.
GRAZIA, BRUNO
And we won’t event speak
Of that carnival freak.
CARDILLO
There’s the judge from Germania.
NEDDA
And the band from Britannia
CARDILLO
The cook from Catania
GRAZIA, LIA
Who makes fresh lasagne.
LIA
Did we count the lot?
CARDILLO
No, you still forgot
(They count on their fingers.)
The miner, the major.
VINCENZO
The mayor, I would wager.
LIA
The sailor.
BRUNO
The jailer.
VINCENZO
The old Hebrew tailor.
LIA
The baker.
BRUNO
The fakir.
GRAZIA
The frail undertaker.
SEXTET
And who knew she’d choose a
Drunk skunk from Ragusa?
(The men and women come
together as a group.)
3 WOMEN
Does she know right from wrong?
3 MEN
Does she know good from bad?
3 WOMEN
She mocks all our morals.
3 MEN
Incites nasty quarrels.
SEXTET
God knows just how far she’ll descend.
CARDILLO
In the end,
CARDILLO, VINCENZO
In the end,
CARDILLO, VINCENZO, BRUNO
In the end,
CARDILLO, VINCENZO, BRUNO
NEDDA
In the end,
CARDILLO, VINCENZO, BRUNO
NEDDA, LIA
In the end,
SEXTET
In the end,
ALL
She will drive us all mad.
