Music by: Amilcare Ponchielli (1834–1886)
Rendered into Arabic by: Samir Shikhani
An opera in four acts, adapted from a story by Victor Hugo entitled "Angelo."
First produced in Milan in 1876.
Characters:
• La Gioconda, a strolling singer • La Cieca, her blind mother • Enzo Grimaldo: a nobleman of Genoa • Barnaba, a spy of the Inquisition • Alvise Badoero, head of the Inquisition • Laura, his wife • Zuàne, owner of a gondola • Isèpo, a public letter-writer • A monk
Townspeople, sailors, monks, ladies and gentlemen, children, dancers men and women.
Time: the seventeenth century.
Place: Venice (Venezia).
Act One
The scene: a courtyard before the Doge's palace.
It is a feast day, and the people are merrymaking and reveling... Off to one side stands Barnaba, the chief spy of the Inquisition, who works in the service of the ruling Council of Ten, watching glumly without taking part in the festival. After the crowd departs to watch the boat race, Barnaba catches sight of the beautiful strolling singer La Gioconda approaching, accompanied by her blind mother La Cieca. When the singer leaves her mother's arm to look for her beloved, Enzo Grimaldo, Barnaba tries to attract her attention, but she slips away from him and takes flight.
The crowd returns bearing the winner of the boat race, and Barnaba seizes the opportunity to carry out his base designs: he persuades the loser of the race that the blind woman La Cieca is a sorceress who made him lose the race by her witchcraft, and he rouses against her the wrath of the crowd, which drags her down the steps of the church, shouting: "Kill her... burn her!" At that moment
La Gioconda returns in the company of Enzo, who tries single-handed to save La Cieca's life. And help comes to her from another quarter as well. For at that instant Alvise Badoero, head of the Council of Ten which rules Venice (Venezia), appears at the top of the stairs, and with him his beautiful wife Laura, who is a singer... and thanks to Laura's warm and sincere intervention, La Cieca's life is saved. Thereupon the blind woman gives the rosary with which she had been praying to the woman who saved her life, singing a beautiful song that begins, "Is it the voice of a woman or of an angel?"
Meanwhile Enzo and Laura recognize one another, and the meaning of her glances is disclosed in a conversation that takes place between Enzo and the villainous Barnaba. The spy Barnaba addresses Enzo by the name of the Prince of Santafior—for he knows his story from A to Z. Enzo is not the seafaring merchant from Dalmatia (as he tries to claim by his disguise), but a nobleman of Genoa, who once loved Laura but could not rival Alvise. Barnaba believed that he could win La Gioconda's affection if he could prove Enzo's betrayal of her. Accordingly he informs Enzo that he can arrange for Laura to visit his ship that very night, for he believes that, despite his attachment to La Gioconda, he still loves Laura.
No sooner has Enzo left the place than Barnaba dictates to one of the public letter-writers a letter addressed to Alvise, exposing the plans of his wife and her former lover. The people return once more to the square, singing with gaiety and delight. And La Gioconda laments her ill fortune, having discovered the plot concerning her beloved Enzo. The bells ring out, announcing the evening prayer, and La Gioconda and her mother withdraw from the stage.
Act Two
The scene: Enzo's ship
Here is Enzo's ship, anchored beside an island near Venice, on that moonlit night. The deck of the ship swarms with sailors, and a good number
of them have spread over the island itself... They are singing a merry song. The spy Barnaba arrives disguised as a fisherman and joins the sailors in their singing. After they withdraw, Enzo comes up on deck and leans upon the rail, gazing at the sea and the sky and singing the famous song "Heaven and the Sea." Before long Laura arrives in a small boat of Barnaba's, and no sooner does she meet her beloved Enzo than the two of them lay their plan of escape together. Enzo goes below to make ready