for the flight, and Laura goes ashore and kneels before a simple altar set up on the island. Then La Gioconda arrives—she had known of the plan laid for the escape. Laura, for her part, knows nothing of Enzo's attachment to La Gioconda, who is dressed in black clothes and wears a mask over her face. And as each of the two declares her passionate love for Enzo, the strolling singer tries to kill the aristocratic young woman with her dagger; whereupon the latter takes up her rosary and begins to pray. Suddenly La Gioconda recognizes the rosary—her mother La Cieca's gift to Laura. She realizes that Laura is the lady who saved her mother's life, and the fit of her jealousy subsides at once. Then she catches sight of a boat advancing toward the ship, and she knows that it carries Laura's husband. So she resolves to save her rival's life: she pushes her into a small boat and orders the oarsmen to carry her to a place of safety. When Enzo returns to the deck to meet Laura, he finds La Gioconda before him. She cries out to him: —Laura has fled... and gone back to her husband Alvise. —Not another word... I shall follow them.

Then Gioconda points to the approaching ship carrying the furious Alvise. Enzo realizes that he has fallen into the trap Barnaba set for him, and here he is, ringed about by enemies. True, his sailors are ready to fight, but the followers of Alvise and Barnaba outnumber them, and he cannot hope to win the battle. And so he prefers to burn his ship rather than surrender to the avenging husband. And as the tongues of flame leap upward, Enzo slips from the ship into the water...

Act Three

Scene One: a room in Alvise's palace.

Alvise paces the hall back and forth in visible agitation and distress, thinking of washing away the disgrace by poisoning his wife, and repeating that Laura, the night before, fled from the island where she met Enzo, but that today she must die a theatrical death, while a boisterous celebration is held in an adjoining hall.

When Laura enters, dressed in her finest to attend the celebration, her husband treats her with mocking courtesy, but soon reveals to her the fate that awaits her. He flings her violently to the floor, heedless of her entreaties, and hands her the cup of poison, forcing her to drink it before the song rising outside comes to an end.

He leaves her in the hall and goes out; then La

Gioconda enters, snatches the cup of poison from Laura, and hands her another cup, saying: "Drink this... it will save you!" At first Laura doubts her rival's intentions, but it is the only hope left to her. So she empties the cup down her throat and hurries to a chamber behind the curtain, where a coffin is supposed to be waiting for her corpse. Alvise returns, sees his wife stretched out in the bier, and announces, with every show of feeling, that she is dead. But before the scene ends, La Gioconda appears once more, declaring that she gives up her beloved to Laura in acknowledgment of the kindness Laura did her when she saved the life of her blind mother.

Scene Two: the ballroom in Alvise's palace.

The guests stream into the sumptuous ballroom, glittering with brilliant lights, and Alvise receives them with all cheerfulness and courtesy, though he knows that the adjoining room holds the corpse of his wife Laura, whom he has killed. For his guests he has prepared a ballet company to present the "Dance of the Hours"—the hours of dawn, the hours of day, the hours of evening, and the hours of night—each of these divisions of the day unfolding in the light appropriate to it.

Hardly has the applause died away after the presen-tation of this dance when Barnaba enters, dragging La Cieca, whom he found in the room where Laura lies. The blind woman says: "I meant no harm; I was only praying for my benefactress. She is dead!" The guests listen in astonishment; then the death bell tolls, echoing through the halls of the palace.

Everyone is alarmed, but Alvise tries at first to keep up the atmosphere of gaiety. At that moment Enzo enters and reveals his true identity, saying that he is the Prince of Santafior, and Alvise's enemy. He has taken this step so as to be united, in death, with his beloved Laura. And Alvise orders Barnaba, on pain of death, not to allow Enzo to escape—saying that he is in despair over the loss of Laura, but hopes to meet her in heaven.

With a theatrical gesture Alvise draws aside the curtain to display the corpse of his wife laid out upon the bed,