Loading AI tools
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Faniska is an opera eroica in three acts by Luigi Cherubini. The German libretto, by Joseph Sonnleithner, is based on the melodrama Les mines de Pologne (1803) by René-Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt.
In June 1805, Cherubini took up an invitation to travel to Vienna, where his works were highly appreciated. Here he put on a series of concerts and attended a performance of Beethoven's Fidelio. He met Haydn, a composer he particularly admired, and gave him a medal from the Conservatoire de Paris. Haydn presented Cherubini with the manuscript of his "Drumroll Symphony". Cherubini also accepted a commission to write an opera for the Viennese stage and Faniska was the result. The plot has much in common with Cherubini's earlier rescue opera Lodoïska (1791), including its Polish setting.[1]
The opera was first performed at the Theater am Kärntnertor, Vienna, on 25 February 1806. It was enthusiastically received by Beethoven and Haydn but failed to win a lasting place in the repertoire.[2]
| Role[3] | Voice type | Premiere cast, 25 February 1806[4] |
|---|---|---|
| Rasinski, mayor of Rava | tenor | |
| Faniska, his wife | soprano | Anna Milder[5] |
| Hedwig, his daughter | soprano | Thérèse Neumann |
| Zamoski, mayor of Sandomir | bass | Karl Friedrich Clemens Weinmüller |
| Oranski, captain of the Cossacks in Zamoski's service | bass | Johann Vogel |
| Moska, Zamoski's maid | soprano | |
| Rasno, her nephew | tenor | Wilhelm Ehlers |
| Manoski, a friend of Rasinski | tenor | |
| Two Cossack officials | tenor and bass | |
| Chorus: Cossacks, guards, servants, countrymen and women | ||
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
