85-531: Andrea Chénier ( Italian pronunciation: [anˈdrɛːa ʃʃeˈnje] ) is a verismo opera in four acts by Umberto Giordano , set to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica , and first performed on 28 March 1896 at La Scala , Milan . The story is based loosely on the life of the French poet André Chénier (1762–1794), who was executed during the French Revolution . The character Carlo Gérard
170-400: A "pastoral" performance. A chorus of shepherds and shepherdesses sing idealised rustic music and a ballet mimics a rural love story in stately court fashion. The Countess asks Chénier to improvise a poem but he says that inspiration has abandoned him. Maddalena asks Chénier to recite a verse, but he refuses her also, saying that "Fantasy is not commanded on cue." The laughter of the girls draws
255-494: A 2007 Metropolitan Opera revival with mixed success; his voice was impressively powerful but did not fit the style, critics alleged. The Keith Warner -directed production was performed in 2011 and 2012 in Bregenz, Austria, under the name of "André Chénier", using an almost 78-foot high statue of a dying Jean-Paul Marat sinking in the water, an ode to the 1793 Jacques-Louis David painting, The Death of Marat , which depicts
340-754: A Dutch communist blamed for the Reichstag fire and executed by guillotine in January 1934. The Nazi government also guillotined Sophie Scholl , who was convicted of high treason after distributing anti-Nazi pamphlets at the University of Munich with her brother Hans , and other members of the German student resistance group, the White Rose . The guillotine was last used in West Germany in 1949 in
425-437: A beheading machine and employed Tobias Schmidt, a German engineer and harpsichord maker, to construct a prototype. Antoine Louis is also credited with the design of the prototype. France's official executioner, Charles-Henri Sanson , claimed in his memoirs that King Louis XVI, an amateur locksmith, recommended that the device employ an oblique blade rather than a crescent one, lest the blade not be able to cut through all necks;
510-476: A cutting blade of steel droppeth down, of steel sharper than any razor, and closeth up the three openings. "Even thus will I cut off their heads when they shall set them into those three openings thinking to adore the hallows that are beyond." The Halifax Gibbet in England was a wooden structure consisting of two wooden uprights, capped by a horizontal beam, of a total height of 4.5 metres (15 ft). The blade
595-621: A high level of precision and skill to carry out successfully. After its adoption, the device remained France's standard method of judicial execution until the abolition of capital punishment in 1981. The last person to be executed by a government via guillotine was Hamida Djandoubi on 10 September 1977 in France. The use of beheading machines in Europe long predates such use during the French Revolution in 1792. An early example of
680-415: A last meeting with Chénier. Maddalena bribes the jailer Schmidt to let her change places with a condemned noblewoman. Gérard leaves to make a last appeal to Robespierre. The lovers sing about their love and their deliverance from this world after death. As dawn approaches, Schmidt calls their names. They go to face the guillotine joined in love. While they leave Gérard reappears with a paper in his hand, with
765-425: A less painful alternative. While not the device's inventor, Guillotin's name ultimately became an eponym for it. Contrary to popular myth, Guillotin did not die by guillotine but rather by natural causes. French surgeon and physiologist Antoine Louis and German engineer Tobias Schmidt built a prototype for the guillotine. According to the memoir of the French executioner Charles-Henri Sanson , Louis XVI suggested
850-489: A more 'modern', straightforward mode of ripe-toned singing when delivering verismo music, and their example has influenced operatic performers down to this day (see Scott ). Guillotine A guillotine ( / ˈ ɡ ɪ l ə t iː n / GHIL -ə-teen / ˌ ɡ ɪ l ə ˈ t iː n / GHIL -ə- TEEN / ˈ ɡ i j ə t i n / GHEE -yə-teen ) is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading . The device consists of
935-530: A new method to be used on all condemned people regardless of class, consistent with the idea that the purpose of capital punishment was simply to end life rather than to inflict unnecessary pain. A committee formed under Antoine Louis , physician to the King and Secretary to the Academy of Surgery. Guillotin was also on the committee. The group was influenced by beheading devices used elsewhere in Europe, such as
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#17327767507291020-712: A pastoral comedy ( L'amico Fritz ), a symbolist work set in Japan ( Iris ), and a couple of medieval romances ( Isabeau and Parisina ). These works are far from typical verismo subject matter, yet they are written in the same general musical style as his more quintessential veristic subjects. In addition, there is disagreement among musicologists as to which operas are verismo operas, and which are not. (Non-Italian operas are generally excluded). Giordano's Andrea Chénier , Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur , Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana , Leoncavallo's Pagliacci , and Puccini's Tosca and Il tabarro are operas to which
1105-580: A play by the same author, became the source for what is usually considered to be the first verismo opera: Cavalleria rusticana by Mascagni, which premiered on 17 May 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Thus begun, the operatic genre of verismo produced a handful of notable works such as Pagliacci , which premiered at Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on 21 May 1892, and Puccini's Tosca (premiering at
1190-455: A prostitute to support them both. She laments how she brings disgrace to all that she loves and finally how Chénier was the force that gave life back to her. Gérard searches for the indictment to cancel it, but it has already gone. He pledges to save Chénier's life even at the cost of his own. A clerk presents the list of accused persons, including Chénier. A crowd of spectators enter, then the judges, presided over by Dumas, and Fouquier-Tinville,
1275-477: A sword fight. Believing he is dying, Gérard warns Chénier to flee from the wrath of the public prosecutor Fouquier-Tinville , Chénier's enemy, and asks him to protect Maddalena. The Incroyable returns with soldiers and a crowd, but Gérard tells them that his assailant is unknown to him. All blame the Girondists . The Revolutionary Tribunal The sans-culotte Mathieu calls on the people to give money for
1360-500: A tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with a pillory at the bottom of the frame, holding the position of the neck directly below the blade. The blade is then released, swiftly and forcefully decapitating the victim with a single, clean pass; the head falls into a basket or other receptacle below. The guillotine is best known for its use in France , particularly during
1445-509: A woman called "Speranza" (Hope); all leave, except the Incroyable, who returns and hides. A hooded woman enters. It is "Speranza". She uncovers herself, and Chénier recognizes her as Maddalena de Coigny. The Incroyable leaves to tell Gérard. Despite the danger, Chénier and Maddalena proclaim their love in a passionate duet. As they prepare to leave, they are discovered by Gérard. Chénier sends Maddalena away with Roucher and wounds Gérard in
1530-564: Is a spy for Robespierre , but he says that he is a mere "observer of the public spirit". Bersi asserts she has nothing to hide as "a child of the Revolution". A tumbrel passes, bearing condemned prisoners to the guillotine , mocked by the crowd. Bersi leaves. The Incroyable notes that she was with a blonde woman he is looking for; he also notes that Chénier is at a nearby table waiting nervously and that Bersi had made signs at him. Chénier's friend Roucher enters. He reminds Chénier that he
1615-514: Is only a matter of time before Maddalena will come for him. He urges Gérard to write down the charges against Chénier for his trial. Gérard hesitates but the Incroyable convinces him that a conviction by the Tribunal will only secure Maddalena's appearance. Alone, he muses that his Revolutionary ideals are being betrayed by his false charges, therefore he is still a slave: formerly of the nobles, now of his own lust. Finally desire triumphs and he signs
1700-432: Is partly based on Jean-Lambert Tallien , a leading figure in the Revolution. It remains popular with audiences, though less frequently performed than in the first half of the 20th century. One reason for its survival in the repertoire is the lyrical-dramatic music provided by Giordano for the tenor lead, which gives a talented singer opportunities to demonstrate his skills and flaunt his voice. Giuseppe Borgatti 's triumph in
1785-461: Is under suspicion for his association with disgraced General Dumoriez and urges him to flee. He offers Chénier a false passport. Chénier refuses: his destiny is love; he has been waiting for a mysterious woman who has sent him letters. Roucher sees the last letter, and dismisses it as from a prostitute and he warns Chénier that love is dangerous during the Révolution. He persuades Chénier to take
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#17327767507291870-693: Is variable, being based on text that usually does not follow a regular strophic format. The most famous composers who created works in the verismo style were Giacomo Puccini, Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano and Francesco Cilea. There were, however, many other veristi : Franco Alfano , Alfredo Catalani , Gustave Charpentier ( Louise ), Eugen d'Albert ( Tiefland ), Ignatz Waghalter ( Der Teufelsweg and Jugend ), Alberto Franchetti , Franco Leoni , Jules Massenet ( La Navarraise ), Licinio Refice , Spyridon Samaras , Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari ( I gioielli della Madonna ), and Riccardo Zandonai . There has long been some confusion over
1955-542: The French Revolution , where the revolution's supporters celebrated it as the people's avenger and the revolution's opponents vilified it as the pre-eminent symbol of the violence of the Reign of Terror . While the name "guillotine" dates from this period, similar devices had been in use elsewhere in Europe over several centuries. Use of an oblique blade and the pillory-like restraint device set this type of guillotine apart from others. Display of severed heads had long been one of
2040-578: The National Museum of Scotland . For a period of time after its invention, the guillotine was called a louisette . However, it was later named after French physician and Freemason Joseph-Ignace Guillotin , who proposed on 10 October 1789 the use of a special device to carry out executions in France in a more humane manner. A death penalty opponent, he was displeased with the breaking wheel and other common, more grisly methods of execution and sought to persuade Louis XVI of France to implement
2125-475: The Place du Carrousel . The machine was judged successful because it was considered a humane form of execution in contrast with more cruel methods used in the pre-revolutionary Ancien Régime . In France, before the invention of the guillotine, members of the nobility were beheaded with a sword or an axe, which often took two or more blows to kill the condemned. The condemned or their families would sometimes pay
2210-591: The 1532 edition of Petrarch 's De remediis utriusque fortunae , or "Remedies for Both Good and Bad Fortune" shows a device similar to the Halifax Gibbet in the background being used for an execution. Holinshed's Chronicles of 1577 included a picture of "The execution of Murcod Ballagh near Merton in Ireland in 1307" showing a similar execution machine, suggesting its early use in Ireland. The Maiden
2295-585: The Countess' attention, and Maddalena explains mockingly that the Muse of poetry is absent from the party. Chénier now becomes angry and improvises a poem about the suffering of the poor, ending with a tirade against those in power in church and state, shocking the guests. Maddalena begs forgiveness. The guests dance a gavotte , which is interrupted by a crowd of ragged people who ask for food, Gérard ushers them in announcing that "Her Greatness, Misery" has arrived to
2380-464: The Countess' daughter Maddalena escapes his hatred, since he is besotted with her. Maddalena jokes with Bersi, her mulatta servant girl. The Countess rebukes Maddalena for dallying around when she should be dressing for the ball. The guests arrive. Among them is an Abbé who has come from Paris with news about the poor decisions of King Louis XVI 's government. Also among the guests is the dashing and popular poet, Andrea Chénier. The soirée begins with
2465-541: The French Berger 1872 model, but they eventually evolved into sturdier and more effective machines. Built primarily of metal instead of wood, these new guillotines had heavier blades than their French predecessors and thus could use shorter uprights as well. Officials could also conduct multiple executions faster, thanks to a more effective blade recovery system and the eventual removal of the tilting board (bascule). Those deemed likely to struggle were backed slowly into
2550-667: The Italian Mannaia (or Mannaja, which had been used since Roman times ), the Scottish Maiden , and the Halifax Gibbet (3.5 kg). While many of these prior instruments crushed the neck or used blunt force to take off a head, a number of them also used a crescent blade to behead and a hinged two-part yoke to immobilize the victim's neck. Laquiante, an officer of the Strasbourg criminal court, designed
2635-562: The Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900). The genre peaked in the early 1900s, and lingered into the 1920s. In terms of subject matter, generally "[v]erismo operas focused not on gods, mythological figures, or kings and queens, but on the average contemporary man and woman and their problems, generally of a sexual, romantic, or violent nature." However, three of the small handful of verismo operas still performed today take historical subjects: Puccini's Tosca , Giordano's Andrea Chénier and Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur . In Opera After
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2720-562: The Tribunal: Justice has become Tyranny, and "we murder our poets." Chénier embraces Gérard, who points out Maddalena in the crowd. The Tribunal condemns Chénier to death and he is led off with the other prisoners. Saint-Lazare Prison Chénier awaits his execution with Roucher, writing verses of his faith in truth and beauty. Roucher leaves, as Mathieu sings the Marseillaise outside. Maddalena enters with Gérard for
2805-698: The Zero Hour: The Problem of Tradition and the Possibility of Renewal in Postwar West Germany, the music historian Emily Richmond Pollock writes that verismo's musical language reflects an aesthetic that emphasizes "the power of moment-by-moment emotional expressiveness that requires harmonic and formal flexibility, muscular but relatively unornamented vocal lines, and a fully developed orchestration full of high-contrast timbres." "Musically, verismo composers consciously strove for
2890-533: The army of the Revolution, but they refuse. Gérard, who has recovered, enters and renews the appeal and the people react with enthusiasm. A blind woman named Madelon comes in with her grandson, whom she gives to be a soldier of the Revolution. The crowd disperses. The Incroyable reports to Gérard that Chénier has been arrested in the Parisian suburb of Passy and interned in the Luxembourg Palace, and it
2975-472: The baritone's expressive monologue "Nemico della patria" and the final, rousing, soprano–tenor duet for the two leads as they prepare to face the guillotine ("Vicino a te"). Palace of the Countess of Coigny Servants are preparing the Palace for a ball. Carlo Gérard, the majordomo, is filled with indignation at the sight of his aged father, worn out by long years of heavy labour for their noble masters. Only
3060-466: The contemporary and realistic subject matter for which the term verismo was originally coined. At the same time, Mallach questions the value of using a term such as verismo , which is supposedly descriptive of the subject and style of works, simply to identify an entire generation's music-dramatic output. For most of the composers associated with verismo , traditionally veristic subjects accounted for only some of their operas. For instance, Mascagni wrote
3145-632: The countryside in order to intimidate the rural population; they used guillotines, which had belonged to the former French colonial power, in order to carry out death sentences on the spot. One such guillotine is still on show at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City . In the United States in 1996, Georgia State Representative Doug Teper unsuccessfully sponsored a bill to replace that state's electric chair with
3230-468: The destruction of privilege under the Ancien Régime , which used separate forms of execution for nobility and commoners. The Parisian sans-culottes , then the popular public face of lower-class patriotic radicalism, thus considered the guillotine a positive force for revolutionary progress. After the French Revolution , executions resumed in the city centre. On 4 February 1832, the guillotine
3315-477: The device from behind a curtain to prevent them from seeing it prior to the execution. A metal screen covered the blade as well in order to conceal it from the sight of the condemned. Nazi Germany used the guillotine between 1933 and 1945 to execute 16,500 prisoners, 10,000 of them in 1944 and 1945 alone. Notable political victims executed by the guillotine under the Nazi government included Marinus van der Lubbe ,
3400-659: The emotionalism of their ardent interpretations. Some prominent practitioners of verismo singing during the movement's Italian lifespan (1890 to circa 1930) include the sopranos Eugenia Burzio , Lina Bruna Rasa and Bianca Scacciati , the tenors Aureliano Pertile , Cesar Vezzani and Amadeo Bassi, and the baritones Mario Sammarco and Eugenio Giraldoni . Their method of singing can be sampled on numerous 78-rpm gramophone recordings. Great early-20th century international operatic stars Enrico Caruso , Rosa Ponselle and Titta Ruffo developed vocal techniques which harmoniously managed to combine fundamental bel canto precepts with
3485-629: The execution of Richard Schuh and was last used in East Germany in September 1967 when the murderers Paul Beirau and Günter Herzfeld were executed. The Stasi used the guillotine in East Germany between 1950 and 1966 for secret executions. A number of countries, primarily in Europe, continued to employ this method of execution into the 19th and 20th centuries, but they ceased to use it before France did in 1977. In Antwerp , Belgium,
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3570-505: The execution of the King and for Robespierre. For a time, executions by guillotine were a popular form of entertainment that attracted great crowds of spectators, with vendors selling programs listing the names of the condemned. But more than being popular entertainment alone during the Terror, the guillotine symbolized revolutionary ideals: equality in death equivalent to equality before the law; open and demonstrable revolutionary justice; and
3655-526: The executioner to ensure that the blade was sharp in order to achieve a quick and relatively painless death. Commoners were usually hanged, which could take many minutes. In the early phase of the French Revolution , prior to the guillotine's adoption, the slogan À la lanterne ( lit. ' To the lamp post! ' ) symbolized popular justice in revolutionary France. The revolutionary radicals hanged officials and aristocrats from street lanterns and also employed more gruesome methods of execution, such as
3740-445: The genre. Some authors have attempted to trace the origins of verismo opera to works that preceded Cavalleria rusticana , such as Georges Bizet 's Carmen , or Giuseppe Verdi 's La traviata . Modest Moussorgsky 's Boris Godunov should not be ignored as an antecedent of verismo , especially because of Moussorgsky's focus on peasants, alongside princes and other aristocracy and church leaders, and his deliberate relating of
3825-655: The guillotine is known as Fallbeil ("falling axe") or Köpfmaschine ("beheading machine") and was used in various German states from the 19th century onwards, becoming the preferred method of execution in Napoleonic times in many parts of the country. The guillotine, axe and the firing squad were the legal methods of execution during the era of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the Weimar Republic (1919–1933). The original German guillotines resembled
3910-417: The guillotine was invented specifically to be more humane, the issue of whether or not the condemned experiences pain has been thoroughly examined and remains a controversial topic. Certain eyewitness accounts of guillotine executions suggest anecdotally that awareness may persist momentarily after decapitation, although there is no scientific consensus on the matter. Gabriel Beaurieux, a physician who observed
3995-451: The guillotine. In recent years, a limited number of individuals have killed themselves using self-constructed guillotines. Ever since the guillotine's first use, there has been debate as to whether or not the guillotine provided as swift and painless a death as Guillotin had hoped. With previous methods of execution that were intended to be painful, few expressed concern about the level of suffering that they inflicted. However, because
4080-617: The guillotine. Most of the time, executions in Paris were carried out in the Place de la Revolution (former Place Louis XV and current Place de la Concorde ); the guillotine stood in the corner near the Hôtel Crillon where the City of Brest Statue can be found today. The machine was moved several times, to the Place de la Nation and the Place de la Bastille , but returned, particularly for
4165-413: The head of executed prisoner Henri Languille, wrote on 28 June 1905: Here, then, is what I was able to note immediately after the decapitation: the eyelids and lips of the guillotined man worked in irregularly rhythmic contractions for about five or six seconds. This phenomenon has been remarked by all those finding themselves in the same conditions as myself for observing what happens after the severing of
4250-466: The indictment in a mood of cynicism. (Gérard: "Nemico della patria?!") The Incroyable takes it to the Tribunal. Maddalena enters to plead for Chénier's life. Gérard admits that he had Chénier arrested to control Maddalena. He has been in love with her since they were children and he remembers the time when they were allowed to play together in the fields of her house, how when he was handed his first livery, he watched in secret Maddalena learning to dance at
4335-438: The integration of the opera's underlying drama with its music." These composers abandoned the "recitative and set-piece structure" of earlier Italian opera. Instead, the operas were "through-composed," with few breaks in a seamlessly integrated sung text. While verismo operas may contain arias that can be sung as stand-alone pieces, they are generally written to arise naturally from their dramatic surroundings, and their structure
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#17327767507294420-520: The last person to be beheaded was Francis Kol. Convicted of robbery and murder, he received his punishment on 8 May 1856. During the period from 19 March 1798 to 30 March 1856, there were 19 beheadings in Antwerp. In Utrecht , the Netherlands, the first person to be beheaded was Anthony van Benthem, a criminal confined in a mental institution. He killed a cellmate after being called a sodomite. He
4505-647: The leading parts of soprano, tenor and baritone respectively. Rodolfo Ferrari conducted. Other notable first performances include those in New York City at the Academy of Music on 13 November 1896; in Hamburg on 3 February 1897 under the baton of Gustav Mahler ; and in London's Camden Theatre on 16 April 1903 (sung in English). Apart from Borgatti, famous Chéniers in the period between the opera's premiere and
4590-548: The mandatory method of execution in 1866. The guillotine replaced manual beheading in 1903, and it was used only once, in the execution of murderer Alfred Ander in 1910 at Långholmen Prison , Stockholm. Ander was also the last person to be executed in Sweden before capital punishment was abolished there in 1921. In South Vietnam , after the Diệm regime enacted the 10/59 Decree in 1959, mobile special military courts were dispatched to
4675-439: The meaning of the term verismo . In addition to referring to operas written in a realistic style, verismo may also be used more broadly to refer to the entire output of the composers of the giovane scuola ("young school"), the generation of Italian composers who were active during the period that the verismo style was created. One author (Alan Mallach) has proposed the term "plebeian opera" to refer to operas that adhere to
4760-403: The most common ways European sovereigns exhibited their power to their subjects. The design of the guillotine was intended to make capital punishment more reliable and less painful in accordance with new Enlightenment ideas of human rights. Prior to use of the guillotine, France had inflicted manual beheading and a variety of methods of execution, many of which were more gruesome and required
4845-475: The murdered revolutionary slumped over in his bathtub. In addition to four arias for the principal tenor ("Un dì all'azzurro spazio"; "Io non amato ancor"; "Si, fui soldato"; "Come un bel dì di maggio"), the opera contains a well-known aria (" La mamma morta ") for the soprano heroine, which was featured in the film Philadelphia (the Maria Callas version is used on the soundtrack.) Also worth noting are
4930-404: The natural speech inflexions of the libretto to the rhythms of the sung music, different from, for example, Tchaikovsky's use of Pushkin's verse as a libretto. The verismo opera style featured music that showed signs of more declamatory singing, in contrast to the traditional tenets of elegant, 19th-century bel canto singing that had preceded the movement, which were purely based on markings in
5015-496: The neck ... I waited for several seconds. The spasmodic movements ceased. [...] It was then that I called in a strong, sharp voice: "Languille!" I saw the eyelids slowly lift up, without any spasmodic contractions – I insist advisedly on this peculiarity – but with an even movement, quite distinct and normal, such as happens in everyday life, with people awakened or torn from their thoughts. Next Languille's eyes very definitely fixed themselves on mine and
5100-404: The neck of the king, who himself died by guillotine years later, was offered up discreetly as an example. The first execution by guillotine was performed on a highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier on 25 April 1792 in front of what is now Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, the city hall of Paris. All citizens condemned to die were from then on executed there, until the scaffold was moved on 21 August to
5185-649: The original guillotines used during the Reign of Terror. The executioner had "pawned his guillotine, and got into woeful trouble for alleged trafficking in municipal property". On 6 August 1909, the guillotine was used at the junction of the Boulevard Arago and the Rue de la Santé, behind the La Santé Prison . The last public guillotining in France was of Eugen Weidmann , who was convicted of six murders. He
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#17327767507295270-437: The outbreak of World War II included Francesco Tamagno (who studied the work with Giordano), Bernardo de Muro, Giovanni Zenatello , Giovanni Martinelli , Aureliano Pertile , Francesco Merli , Beniamino Gigli , Giacomo Lauri-Volpi and Antonio Cortis . Enrico Caruso also gave a few performances as Chénier in London in 1907. All of these tenors with the exception of Borgatti have left 78-rpm recordings of one or more of
5355-426: The part's showpiece solos. Post-war, Franco Corelli , Richard Tucker and Mario Del Monaco were the most famous interpreters of the title role during the 1950s and 1960s, while Plácido Domingo became its foremost interpreter among the next generation of tenors, although Domingo's contemporary Luciano Pavarotti also sang and recorded the work. The Wagnerian tenor Ben Heppner tackled the role in New York City at
5440-460: The party. The Countess confronts Gérard who repudiates his service and throws his livery at the feet of the Countess, taking his father with him, who threw himself at the feet of the Countess. She orders them all out, and comforts herself by thoughts of her gifts to charity. The ball continues as if nothing had happened. Café Hottot in Paris, during the Reign of Terror Bersi, now a merveilleuse , chats with an incroyable . She asks him if he
5525-481: The passport. A procession of revolutionary leaders passes, including Robespierre and Gérard, who enters the café. The Incroyable reports to him about Bersi and the possible connection with the blonde, whom Gérard has been seeking, saying that she will come to the café that night. Bersi returns, and pleads with Roucher to keep Chénier there. She leaves for a dance with the Incroyable. Roucher persuades Chénier to leave, but Bersi, quickly returning, tells Chénier to wait for
5610-541: The principle is found in the Old French High History of the Holy Grail , dated to about 1210. Although the device is imaginary, its function is clear. The text says: Within these three openings are the hallows set for them. And behold what I would do to them if their three heads were therein ... She setteth her hand toward the openings and draweth forth a pin that was fastened into the wall, and
5695-413: The public prosecutor, then the prisoners. One by one, the prisoners are hastily condemned. When Chénier is tried, he denies all the charges, and proclaims his honour. Chénier's plea has moved everyone and Fouquier-Tinville is forced to take up witnesses. Gérard approaches the Tribunal and confesses to the falsity of his indictment but Fouquier-Tinville takes up the charges himself. Gérard defies and decries
5780-502: The pupils focused themselves. I was not, then, dealing with the sort of vague dull look without any expression, that can be observed any day in dying people to whom one speaks: I was dealing with undeniably living eyes which were looking at me. After several seconds, the eyelids closed again [...]. It was at that point that I called out again and, once more, without any spasm, slowly, the eyelids lifted and undeniably living eyes fixed themselves on mine with perhaps even more penetration than
5865-690: The region was at Fort-de-France in 1965. In South America, the guillotine was only used in French Guiana , where about 150 people were beheaded between 1850 and 1945: most of them were convicts exiled from France and incarcerated within the "bagne", or penal colonies. Within the Southern Hemisphere, it worked in New Caledonia (which had a bagne too until the end of the 19th century) and at least twice in Tahiti . In Germany ,
5950-570: The same name . This was in turn related to the international literary movement of naturalism as practised by Émile Zola and others. Like naturalism , the verismo literary movement sought to portray the world with greater realism . In so doing, Italian verismo authors such as Giovanni Verga wrote about subject matter, such as the lives of the poor, that had not generally been seen as a fit subject for literature. A short story by Verga called Cavalleria rusticana [ it ] ( Italian for 'Rustic Chivalry'), then developed into
6035-604: The sentence "Even Plato banned poets from his Republic", written by Robespierre to reject Gérard's plea for Chenier's life. Woodwinds Brass Percussion Strings Offstage Notes Sources Verismo In opera , verismo ( Italian for 'realism'), from vero , meaning 'true', was a post-Romantic operatic tradition associated with Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni , Ruggero Leoncavallo , Umberto Giordano , Francesco Cilea and Giacomo Puccini . Verismo as an operatic genre had its origins in an Italian literary movement of
6120-400: The term verismo is applied with little or no dispute. The term is sometimes also applied to Puccini's Madama Butterfly and La fanciulla del West . Because only four verismo works not by Puccini continue to appear regularly on stage (the aforementioned Cavalleria rusticana , Pagliacci , Andrea Chénier and Adriana Lecouvreur ), Puccini's contribution has had lasting significance to
6205-487: The time when he was in charge of opening doors, but now he is a powerful man and will have his way. Maddalena refuses: she will shout out her name in the streets and be executed as an aristocrat, but if her virtue is the price for Chénier's life, then Gérard can have her body. Gérard is about to take her but recoils when he realizes the love that she professes for Chénier. Maddalena sings how the mob murdered her mother and burned her palace, how she escaped, and how Bersi became
6290-459: The title role at the first performance immediately propelled him to the front rank of Italian opera singers. He went on to become Italy's greatest Wagnerian tenor, rather than a verismo-opera specialist. The work was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala , Milan, on 28 March 1896 with Evelina Carrera, Giuseppe Borgatti (who replaced Alfonso Garulli at the eleventh hour) and Mario Sammarco in
6375-563: The use of a straight, angled blade instead of a curved one. On 10 October 1789, physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposed to the National Assembly that capital punishment should always take the form of decapitation "by means of a simple mechanism". Sensing the growing discontent, Louis XVI banned the use of the breaking wheel . In 1791, as the French Revolution progressed, the National Assembly researched
6460-479: The wheel or burning at the stake . Having only one method of civil execution for all regardless of class was also seen as an expression of equality among citizens. The guillotine was then the only civil legal execution method in France until abolition of the death penalty in 1981, apart from certain crimes against the security of the state, or for the death sentences passed by military courts, which entailed execution by firing squad . Louis Collenot d'Angremont
6545-418: The written music of authors preceding this "era". Opera singers adapted to the demands of the "new" style. The most extreme exponents of verismo vocalism sang habitually in a vociferous fashion, were focusing on the passionate aspect of music. They would 'beef up' the timbre of their voices, use greater amounts of vocal fold mass on their top notes, and often employ a conspicuous vibrato in order to accentuate
6630-451: Was a royalist famed for having been the first guillotined for his political ideas, on 21 August 1792. During the Reign of Terror between June 1793 and July 1794 about 17,000 people were guillotined, including former King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette who were executed at the guillotine in 1793. Towards the end of the Terror in 1794, revolutionary leaders such as Georges Danton , Saint-Just and Maximilien Robespierre were sent to
6715-612: Was an axe head weighing 3.5 kg (7.7 lb), attached to the bottom of a massive wooden block that slid up and down in grooves in the uprights. This device was mounted on a large square platform 1.25 metres (4 ft) high. It is not known when the Halifax Gibbet was first used; the first recorded execution in Halifax dates from 1280, but that execution may have been by sword, axe, or gibbet. The machine remained in use until Oliver Cromwell forbade capital punishment for petty theft. A Hans Weiditz (1495–1537) woodcut illustration from
6800-499: Was beheaded on 17 June 1939 outside the prison Saint-Pierre, rue Andre Mignot 5 at Versailles , which is now the Tribunal Judiciaire de Versailles. The proceedings caused "disgusting" and "unruly" behaviour among spectators. The “hysterical behavior” by spectators was so scandalous that French president Albert Lebrun immediately banned all future public executions. Marie-Louise Giraud (17 November 1903 – 30 July 1943)
6885-524: Was constructed in 1564 for the Provost and Magistrates of Edinburgh , Scotland and was in use from April 1565 to 1710. One of those executed was James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton , in 1581, and a 1644 publication began circulating the legend that Morton himself commissioned the Maiden after he had seen the Halifax Gibbet. The Maiden was readily dismantled for storage and transport, and it is now on display in
6970-565: Was executed at Paardenveld on 27 July 1811. Back then, the Netherlands was part of the French Empire, Utrecht being in the Zuyderzée department. In Switzerland, it was used for the last time by the canton of Obwalden in the execution of murderer Hans Vollenweider in 1940. In Greece, the guillotine (along with the firing squad ) was introduced as a method of execution in 1834; it was last used in 1913. In Sweden, beheading became
7055-584: Was moved behind the Church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie , before being moved again, to the Grande Roquette prison , on 29 November 1851. In the late 1840s, the Tussaud brothers Joseph and Francis, gathering relics for Madame Tussauds wax museum, visited the aged Henry-Clément Sanson , grandson of the executioner Charles-Henri Sanson , from whom they obtained parts, the knife and lunette, of one of
7140-897: Was one of the last women to be executed in France. Giraud was convicted in Vichy France and was guillotined for having performed 27 abortions in the Cherbourg area on 30 July 1943. Her story was dramatized in the 1988 film Story of Women directed by Claude Chabrol . The guillotine remained the official method of execution in France until the death penalty was abolished in 1981. The final three guillotinings in France before its abolition were those of child-murderers Christian Ranucci (on 28 July 1976) in Marseille, Jérôme Carrein (on 23 June 1977) in Douai and torturer-murderer Hamida Djandoubi (on 10 September 1977) in Marseille. Djandoubi's death
7225-687: Was the last time that the guillotine was used for an execution by any government. In the Western Hemisphere, the guillotine saw only limited use. The only recorded guillotine execution in North America north of the Caribbean took place on the French island of St. Pierre in 1889, of Joseph Néel, with a guillotine brought in from Martinique . In the Caribbean, it was used rarely in Guadeloupe and Martinique ; its last use in
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