VERDI
STIFFELIO
The scene is a castle
in Germany, overlooking a river, home of Stankar, a retired but still rugged man of the army, who some time ago gave refuge to a zealous
young religious leader fleeing from
persecution, named Stiffelio. Lina, Stankar’s daughter, and Stiffelio fell in love and were
married. Shortly after-wards, Stiffelio was summoned away on affairs of the
faith -- a rather prolonged trip from
which he is now returning.
Awaiting his arrival, Jorg, a
stalwart clergyman, expresses
apprehension about this homecoming, fearful that the pleasures of married life
will dull his zeal to serve God. But
he is greeted apparently with great joy
by Lina, his wife, by Stankar, his
father in law, and by various guests of the castle, including a young man named Raffaele who
seems decidedly ill at ease. In
fact, Stiffelio himself has cause for
apprehension -- a disquieting story
just relayed to him by a boatman who late on the previous night had spotted
a couple near the castle window
over-looking the river, the lady almost certainly Lina, Stiffelio’s
wife. Their agitated manner had
already roused the boatman’s curiosity
and suspicion, when sud-denly
the young man lept out of the window,
taking a long dive into the water
below, presumably to avoid discovery.
In doing so, a wallet dropped
from his pocket -- a wallet containing papers that would surely reveal his
identity, papers that the boatman
retrieved and dutifully handed over to
Stiffelio, papers which he now holds in his hands. The entire company
gasps; the guilty couple trembles.
Stiffelio magnanimously tosses the papers into the fire unread:
So let the culprit’s name
Be ever hidden.
In the gospel God has bidden
To thy brother, charity!
Once alone with his wife, however, he is disturbed by a change in her manner. Distant, evasive, it would tend to confirm the suspicion that has already been planted. When he sees that she is no longer wearing the ring he gave her, the alarm bells are deafening:
The gift I gave with all my heart!
My life, my love, you cast away.
A vow that lasted but a day,
A promise spoken,
And then as soon forgot.
If all is over, if love’s gone
dead,
If bonds of faith are broken,
May earth beneath me open,
May fire and fury
Fall burning on my head.
Before he can probe further, he is called away to greet another group
of friends arriving to celebrate the homecoming.
Lina, alone, realizes all too clearly that she has made a
terrible mistake -- momentary madness for which there is no explanation, only anguish and remorse. She prays for guidance, and then resolves that the only way she can
live with herself is to make a full confession to her husband and plead for
forgiveness. She starts a letter, when
her father Stankar interrupts and demands that she show him the letter, which indeed confirms his own suspicions. He then
demands that she destroy it, insisting that she must deny everything and
say nothing. After wronging her husband
so shamefully, this is the least she
can do. Lina reluctantly bows to his
judgment.
STANKAR:
Undaunted, walk bravely,
And yield not to weeping.
Your guilt and repentance
Are both in safekeeping.
We’ll bury the secret
And blot out suspicion.
You owe it to your husband,
Yourself, your position.
Preserve the appearance
Of love still unaltered.
Though gravely you faltered,
You mustn’t fail again . . .
LINA:
The cost is horrendous,
To shroud and to cover,
To lie and dissemble
And smile as I suffer.
Though calm and contentment
Are ever denied me,
Hereafter I’ll silence
The tempest inside me.
I faltered, I faltered,
But cherish unaltered
A love so celestial
That burns now in vain . . .
But the lover is not so easily manipulated. Desperate to get in touch with Lina, bewildered, angered by
her refusal to see him, he too writes a
note and slips it into a book
-- the old fashioned kind, with a clasp and a lock. He has no sooner done so when another young
man, a guest at the castle, comes and borrows the book. All this is observed by Jorg, the vigilant clergyman, who infers that something untoward is going
on, but can’t quite figure out what.
While the homecoming party is in progress, convinced that Stiffelio
should be alerted, he informs him
of the tell-tale note locked inside the
volume. Stiffelio, already tortured by ever growing fear and suspicion,
magnanimous no longer, is by now avid to know the truth, however painful. He
seizes the locked volume from the young man. Despite one awful moment of hesitation --
Too far I’ve gone for turning back,
But storms of fear invade me.
A voice would yet persuade me:
Turn back, seek not to know.
he demands that Lina herself unlock the book. She refuses. In a burst of passion he tears open the lock with his hands. The letter falls to the floor. Before he can reach it, someone else steps forward, snatches it . . .
ACT TWO
The scene is a churchyard at night.
Among the blackened tombs there is one that appears more recent. It is the grave of Lina’s mother.
Lina enters, almost demented
with her burden of guilt, and prays to her mother for comfort:
On distant shores of paradise,
Wake from your blissful sleeping.
Take pity, turn and gaze on me;
Behold your daughter weeping.
But Raffaele, her persistent, still hopeful lover, has followed
her. She demands that either he leave
her forever, or she will tell her
husband everything. At this
point, Stankar, her father,
once again intervenes. He
chastises them both and challenges
Raffaele to a duel. Because of the
disparity of age, the younger man
refuses to fight, but Stankar will not be put off. He succeeds in goading him into a
fury. As swords are drawn, Stiffelio, attracted by the sound of angry voices, rushes in.
He rebukes them for fighting and tries to placate them:
Two Christians!
Drawing sword in a place that is hallowed?
Stamping foot on the graves of the sleeping?
Do you not see the cross straight ahead? . . .
Let the offense be forgotten and buried.
Be as brother to brother,
forgiving . . .
Stankar is so incensed by the irony of Stiffelio’s display of
friendship to the very man who has betrayed him that he blurts out the
truth. Stiffelio, know-ing the worst beyond possibility of
doubt, now totally in the grip of rage
and pas-sion, grabs a sword, determined
to continue the duel himself, when he hears voices from inside the church in
prayer. Jorg reminds him of his duty
as a Christian, to rise above
violence, to remember the savior who
forgave from the cross.
Paralyzed, overcome by the clash
between his passion and his faith,
Stiffelio collapses on the steps of the church.
ACT THREE
The next day, inside the
castle, Stankar learns that Raffaele
has fled, and also hears a false rumor
that his daughter Lina has run away with him.
A double loss!
Humiliated, ashamed, dishonored,
thwarted in his thirst for revenge,
the proud old soldier resolves
to take his own life, when Jorg appears
with gratifying news: Raffaele has been
overtaken and brought back to the
castle.
STANKAR:
I leap for joy, I float on air,
About to burst with rapture!
My fangs are out, my nostrils
flare
To taste the blood of capture.
I gloat in wildest ecstacy,
No longer man but demon.
So overcome, I choke with glee,
I gag and pant for breath.
Revenge alone can set me free,
Oh mighty sword of death!
Oh, vengeance! Oh, vengeance!
I live to see him die.
Stiffelio, in control of
himself once more, with forced calm
summons Raffaele to put to him a
straight-forward question: what would
he do if Lina were given back her freedom?
When Raffaele gives an evasive answer, he sends for Lina, and has
Raffaele conceal himself and listen.
He then tells Lina that he is leaving her. Their life together has been shat-tered, their ways must henceforth be divided, he is ready to give her a divorce -- an
almost unthinkable option:
On paths opposing,
By fortune guided,
We part, now strangers,
Our ways divided.
Mine firmly rooted
In pious devotion,
Prayer, meditation,
A life secluded:
This I have chosen.
You with your new love
Shall be united;
Thus damaged honor
For all is righted.
LINA:
You’re leaving!
STIFFELIO:
When on the day we married
Your pledge was spoken,
I gave mine in answer.
That bond is broken,
Melted into vapor.
Those vows ill-fated
Are dead . . . are dead and buried.
This legal paper . . .
LINA:
Divorce? Separation?
STIFFELIO:
When you have signed your name
I’m on my way.
LINA:
Relent! Oh, spare me!
Do not reject me.
Despair would kill me
If shame did not.
Rodolfo, how can I make you
hear me?
My tears must tell you;
They’re all I’ve got.
My tears must tell you
What no words can say.
STIFFELIO:
You hope with tears of penitence
To right a wrong so rotten?
Remove a stain indelible
And say that all’s forgotten?
Must I accept good-naturedly
My name reduced to dust?
Throbbing throughout eternity,
The pain of broken trust!
LINA: (with sudden decision)
I want the paper! Hand it
here!
STIFFELIO:
You’re signing?
LINA:
Yes.
STIFFELIO:
(She astounds me!)
LINA:
Tears you may take for strategy;
Henceforth, doubt not my
feelings.
We now are both at liberty;
Sundered, all ties that bind.
I can speak freely with no restraint.
STIFFELIO:
I cannot listen.
LINA:
You must!
She stops him from attempting to leave.
Now not my husband but minister;
My pastor I’m addressing,
Who attends the rapist and murderer,
Withholds from none God’s blessing.
As wife I no longer kneel to you;
Here the transgressor stands.
STIFFELIO:
You ask too much,
Too much of me.
LINA:
Rodolfo! Rodolfo!
Only charity.
Her plea for an honest confrontation is interrupted by the entrance of
Stankar, carrying a bloody sword. He has
achieved his revenge.
ACT FOUR
Inside the church, Lina and her
father, the adulteress and the
murderer, both pray for forgiveness.
LINA:
To thee I turn,
Oh God above.
Deny me not
Thy peace and love.
STANKAR:
Though I slew a man degraded,
Honor fortified my sword.
As to David when he pleaded,
Grant me pardon, peace, oh Lord.
Stiffelio arrives to give his scheduled sermon -- a man in turmoil, dis-traught, overwhelmed by the recent shocks and revelations, he
has nothing to say. Jorg urges him to
open the Bible and read . . .
STIFFELIO:
And then he turned unto the
populace
There assembled,
And saw the adulteress who knelt
before him,
And thus he spoke:
Be first to cast a stone at her.”
And the woman . . . the woman . . .
Blessed and pardoned, arose!