Un giorno di regno

STORY

Act 1
The house of Il Barone di Kelbar 

Belfiore, for complex reasons of state, is impersonating the Polish king Stanislaus in order to protect him from rivals, and, in this guise, is a guest at the home of Kelbar. Kelbar is intent on engineering the marriage of his daughter Giulietta to the financier La Rocca but she prefers La Rocca’s nephew Edoardo.

A young widow, the Marchesa del Poggio, is in love with Belfiore but has become engaged to Ivrea as Belfiore is unable to commit himself to marrying her.

Knowing that the Marchesa will soon join the house party, and concerned that she might reveal his true identity, Belfiore writes to Stanislaus to ask to be released from his commitment. Edoardo begs the ‘King’ to take him to Poland with him to help him forget his love for Giulietta. When the Marchesa arrives and is introduced to Belfiore as the King she pretends not to recognise him but is determined to test him by declaring her love for Ivrea.

Giulietta is unhappy at the prospect of marrying La Rocca. The Marchesa decides to help her and Edoardo.

Belfiore, in his role as the King, makes La Rocca an offer of promotion if he agrees to marry a rich widow instead of Giulietta. When La Rocca tells Kelbar that he no longer wishes to marry his daughter, Kelbar is outraged and threatens to fight him. The Marchesa proposes that Giulietta and Edoardo should be married at once. The ‘King’ declares that he has a solution that will satisfy everyone.

Act 2

Edoardo is still hoping that he will be able to marry Giulietta. The ‘King’ and La Rocca discover from Giulietta that the chief reason for her father’s opposition to her marriage to Edoardo is the young man’s lack of money. The ‘King’ proposes that La Rocca should resolve this issue by making over a sum of money to Edoardo. La Rocca is reluctant to do so but keen to avoid fighting Kelbar.

The Marchesa cannot understand why the ‘King’ is taking so long to admit his real identity as Belfiore. She tells him that she is definitely going to marry Ivrea. The ‘King’ forbids the marriage for ‘reasons of state’ and announces that he and Ivrea must leave immediately for Poland.

At the height of the confusion a message arrives for Belfiore. It is from King Stanislaus, announcing his safe arrival in Warsaw and releasing Belfiore from his task of impersonating him. Before dropping his disguise the ‘King’ proclaims that Edoardo and Giulietta are to be married and receives Kelbar’s consent. He then reveals his true identity and finally declares his love for the Marchesa.

INSIGHTS

Director Christopher Alden about Un giorno di regno

Verdi’s second opera, Un giorno di regno, or King for a Day, had an initial run of just one single performance at La Scala in 1840—although its fortunes picked up later, and when encountered in modern times audiences clearly enjoy it. How did the director Christopher Alden come to know it?

‘I always knew about this piece’, Christopher told me, ‘because it was a famous flop, and there are also those horrible circumstances in which it was composed – to have to write a comedy within a couple of years of the demise of your whole family. You can understand why Verdi didn’t write another comedy for more than fifty years, until Falstaff.

‘But when you actually start to get into it, you feel that even if the libretto is a little bit on the stock side, the music is really quite inspired and clever – written, of course, in the Rossini-Donizetti opera buffa style, which is a bit of a shock because Verdi later moved so far beyond that.’

Christopher went on to explain that by the time Verdi set the libretto it was indeed something of a throwback. ‘He did try to change it to some degree, and added a few numbers which could push it in a somewhat more human direction.’ There are nevertheless interesting points, he suggests, about the dramatic set-up. ‘Belfiore, the hero of the piece, is a kind of undercover resistance fighter who uses his royal disguise to subvert the plans of the power-hungry men with whom he comes into contact. In his Act One duet with Edoardo, he says, in an aside, “Even if my reign lasts only one day, it will not have been in vain if I can use it to show how ridiculous that insane old man is”, referring to Kelbar, who plots to use his daughter and niece as expendable commodities whose emotional needs will be sacrificed to help him further his megalomaniac ambition. In aiding Giulietta and the Marchesa in their fight to marry for love rather than for status, Belfiore supports these two strong-willed women in their battle to find fulfilment and agency within the patriarchal constraints in which they live.’

Alden finds the timeliness of the libretto exciting, with its subversive hero who sides with its two heroines fighting for empowerment and identity. ‘I’ve always been struck by how effectively comedy can address serious matters. My designer collaborators on this – Charlie Edwards and Sue Willmington – felt as I do that this piece has plenty to say about the morally rudderless world in which we are all living now, with its leaders’ relentless reliance on ego, power and transactional relationships and their focus on celebrity, publicity and social media as the clearest path to achieving their goals. And the plot of Un giorno di regno feels awfully similar to a fantasy which many of us certainly share, the dream of taking the place of a Trump, an Orban or a Putin for just one day, in order to change the course of history.’

George Hall