Librettist: Pedro de Lima
Libretto based on the novel Eurico, o Presbytero de Carteia by Alexandre Herculano
Lyric drama in four acts (rev. three acts)
Date: 1870
Language: Italian (translation by an anonymous author)
Large-scale
Eurico: tenor
Hermengarda: soprano
Pelágio: baritone
Abdul-Aziz: bass
Abdalah: contralto
Opas: bass
Conde Juliano: bass
Astrimiro: tenor
Velido: bass
Chorus
“The plot takes place in 7th-century Spain. Eurico, a gardingo (lower caste of Visigothic nobility) without fortune, had been prevented from marrying Hermengarda, daughter of Fávila, King of the Asturias. He then dedicated himself to ecclesiastical life, becoming a presbyter in Carteia, near Gibraltar. During the Arab invasions, the heroism of a black knight whose identity is unknown becomes renowned among the Christian faction. It is he who will save Hermengarda, who has meanwhile been captured by the Moors and is at risk of being seduced by the emir Abdul-Aziz. It is at Covadonga, where Hermengarda is, that the Arabs suffer their first defeat. The black knight reveals himself to Hermengarda, and she, in love, asks him to marry her. Reminded of his priestly condition, Eurico flees, meeting his death in a fight with the last fugitives of the Moorish army. Hermengarda goes mad.”¹
Orchestra²
The opera Eurico, by Miguel Ângelo Pereira, based on the historical novel Eurico, o Presbítero by Alexandre Herculano, premiered at the Teatro de São Carlos in February 1870 and was initially received with some hostility by the public and critics – Herculano himself, for example, wrote to a friend that: “…it does not surprise me that it fell […]. I conclude from everything that the young man may come to do something, and that the reasons for the fall were two: 1st inexperience of the theatre on the part of the composer and librettist, 2nd poor performance by the artists”.³ For his part, the young intellectual Jaime Batalha Reis wrote on the night of the premiere that the opera “did not please at all, and they were right. It was a memorable flop, with booing and laughter. Poor man, it left me speechless”.⁴
The failure profoundly marked the young composer, who would later revise the work and promote it in new performances in Porto (1874) and Rio de Janeiro (1878) – in the first of these cities, the new version of the work “achieved a most enthusiastic triumph” and in the second “relative success”.⁵ Since its premiere, Eurico was perceived as a work distinct from the Italian operatic repertoire dominant in Portugal, often associated with a more symphonic and austere conception, close to German music, although it leaned more towards French influences.⁶ Although the full score has been lost, the work remains a decisive milestone in the history of 19th-century Portuguese opera. With a libretto faithful to Herculano’s text, Eurico privileges dramatic depth, the creation of historical atmospheres and the use of recurring motifs, distancing itself from Italian formal conventions and from what had been the practice of national composers until its premiere: “the investment in the construction of ‘local colours’ (Christian or oriental environments) and in a consistent use of recurring motifs for the characterisation of the main characters is accentuated; the old Italian formal conventions are abandoned and melodic lines are stripped of ornamental artifice”.⁷
Date: 1870
Venue: Teatro de São Carlos, Lisbon
Music Direction: Guilherme Cossoul
Cast: Amália Fossa, Demerich Lablache, Giulio Ugolini, Luigi Merly, Reduzzi, Lisboa and the Orchestra of the Teatro de São Carlos⁸
