# Beatrice Cenci (opera)

Beatrice Cenci is an opera in three acts by German composer Berthold Goldschmidt based on the Shelley play The Cenci. Composed in 1949 to an English libretto by Martin Esslin. Goldschmidt’s second opera was one of four prize-winning works in the British Arts Council’s ‘Festival of Britain’ competition in 1949, but it never received the promised performance in the 1951 Festival. Its concert premiere was in Queen Elizabeth Hall, London in 1988, and its staged premiere in Magdeburg in 1994.

## Roles

Roles, voice types, premiere cast :
| Role | Voice type |
| Francesco Cenci, the count | baritone |
| Lucrezia, his second wife | alto |
| Beatrice, his daughter from first marriage | soprano |
| Bernardo, his son from first marriage | mezzo-soprano |
| Cardinal Camillo | bass |
| Orsino, a Prelate | tenor |
| Marzio, a hired assassin | baritone |
| Olimpio, second assassin | bass |
| Judge | tenor |

## Synopsis

Time and Place: In and near Rome, 1599.
Act I
In Count Cenci's palace, his daughter Beatrice, together with her stepmother Lucrezia and brother Bernardo, dreams of life away from Cenci’s brutality. Meanwhile, Cardinal Camillo delivers a message from Pope Clement VIII to Count Cenci: the "murder" is hushed up if Cenci is prepared to yield a fief to the church. The prelate Orsino, a family friend who has been in love with Beatrice, asks to see Beatrice, who implores him to help her seek a marriage through petitioning the Pope. He pretends to agree, but secretly has plans to win her himself. Count Cenci holds a party. His guests are horrified when he tells stories about and drinks a toast to the murder of his two sons in Salamanca, apparently orchestrated by himself. Beatrice appeals to the guests to rescue her and the remaining family, but she is abandoned to face her father’s incestuous rape as a revenge.
Act II
Beatrice and Lucrezia meet with Orsino and express their anguish. Orsino proposes hiring two assassins to murder Cenci in his sleep. Before Cenci's bedtime, Lucrezia administered the sleeping draught to his wine. Then two hired assassins Marzio and Olimpio enter, strangle Cenci and throw his body from a window. Camillo and the authorities arrive immediately after the murder is committed. One assassin is caught with a letter from Orsino revealing the complicity of Beatrice and Lucrezia who, despite protestations, are arrested.
Act III
Beatrice and Lucrezia are in prison and are tried in the court set up by the Pop. Beatrice hopes for help and witness testimony from Orsino, but he has fled. Lucrezia confesses under torture, and the Judge pronounces the ladies guilty and sentences them to death, though Cardinal Camillo agrees to seek clemency from the Pope. The following morning he returns with news that the Pope is stern and their execution is imminent. At the foot of the scaffold Bernardo tells Beatrice and Lucrezia that his own plea to the Pope has also failed. The women are executed and a Requiem Mass for their souls is heard. Cardinal Camillo murmurs "They have fulfilled their fate. Guilty and yet not guilty".

## Productions

* 1988 world premiere concert performance in Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 14 April 1988.
* 1994 world stage premiere at Theater Magdeburg, Max K. Hoffmann (stage director), Mathias Husmann (conductor), 10 September 1994.
* 1994 production with Roberta Alexander at Opernfest Berlin
* 1998 first staged production of Beatrice Cenci Trinity College of Music July 9–11, 1998.

## Recordings

* sung in English - Beatrice Cenci. Roberta Alexander (soprano), Simon Estes (bass), Stefan Stoll, Della Jones (mezzo), Endrik Wottrich (tenor), Siegfried Lorenz (baritone), John David De Haan (tenor), Reinhard Beyer (bass), Ian Bostridge (tenor), conductor: Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Berlin Radio Chorus, Lothar Zagrosek 2CD Sony
* sung in German - Beatrice Cenci. Gal James, Christoph Pohl, Dshamilja Kaiser, Prague Philharmonic Choir, Wiener Symphoniker, conducted Johannes Debus. Bregenzer Festspiele, stage director Johannes Erath, July 18, 2018, DVD and Blu-Ray.