In
the third act Fedora, certain of detection, confesses to Loris her
previous machinations against him, which have resulted in the deaths of
his mother and brother, and takes poison before his eyes. Giordano
touched a far higher level in 'Siberia' (1903), a gloomy tale of
Russian crime and punishment. Stephana, a courtesan, among all her
lovers cares only for the young sergeant Vassili. Vassili, who has
learnt to love her, not knowing who she is, when he discovers the truth,
bursts in upon a fete she is giving, quarrels with a lieutenant and
kills him on the spot. He is condemned to exile in Siberia, but is
followed by Stephana, who overtakes him at the frontier, and gets leave
to share his fate. In the mines they find Globy, Stephana's original
seducer, whose infamy she exposes to the assembled convicts. In revenge
Globy betrays to the authorities a project of escape devised by Stephana
and Vassili, and the lovers are shot just as liberty appears to be
within their grasp. The music of 'Siberia' is more artistic than
anything Giordano has previously written. The situations are skilfully
handled, and the note of pity and pathos is touched with no uncertain
hand. The opera is unequal, but the scene of the halt at the frontier is
treated in masterly fashion.
Francesco Cilea won no marked success until the production of his
'Adriana Lecouvreur' in 1902. The plot is an adaptation of Scribe's
famous play, but so trenchantly abbreviated as to be almost
incomprehensible.
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