FULL Masque of Vengeance (Edward Lambert) London 2023 Laure Meloy, Madeline Robinson, Leila Zanette, Mae Heydorn
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Masque of Vengeance
- Composer: Lambert Edward
- Libretto: adapted from The Revenger's Tragedy by Thomas Middleton 1606 Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: The Cockpit, London, UK, The Music Troupe
- Recorded: November 2023
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Laure Meloy, Madeline Robinson, Leila Zanette, Mae Heydorn, Matt Paine, Lawrence Thackeray, William Diggle, Charles Johnston, Christopher Foster
- Conductor:
- Orchestra: Alex Norton, Adrian Salinero, PIANO
- Choreographer: Jenny Weston
- Stage Director: David Edwards
- Stage Designer: Tabitha Benton-Evans
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: The Music Troupe
- Date Published: 2024
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs, gensubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
The story portrays a criminal regime full of rivalry, lust and murder. The ruler, known as the ‘King’, has a son by a previous marriage called ‘Prince’ Lussurioso, the heir to the empire. The King also has an illegitimate son called Spurio, while the King’s wife, the ‘Duchess’, has a son from her previous marriage called Vacuo.
(Scene 1) Vindicio (played by a mezzo-soprano) is a guy who’s on the run. The King murdered his fiancée and violated her corpse. Vindicio’s mother, Gratiana, was widowed and along with his sister, Virginia, reduced to poverty. Vindicio plots revenge.
(Scene 2) Antonio is a senior courtier whose daughter has killed herself following her rape by Vacuo. At his trial, the King cynically condemns his stepson’s behaviour but defers the death sentence and sends him to prison, much to the dismay of the Duchess, whose favourite child he is, and of Antonio, who longs for justice.
(Scene 3) Vindicio spends much of the drama disguised as a madam procuress called Caria, and is sought out by the Prince to engage a local girl whom he lusts over. She turns out to be Vindicio’s sister, Virginia.
(Scene 4) Vindicio – as Caria – goes to the house of his mother and sister and, testing them, tries to persuade Virginia to yield to the Prince’s lust. Horrified at first, Gratiana soon sees this liaison as a way out of poverty. Virginia, however, will have none of it.
(Scene 5) The Duchess starts an affair with Spurio, the King’s bastard, who’s ambitious for the crown. Vindicio spies them together.
(Scene 6) Vindicio (still as Caria) reports back to the Prince who is eager to set off for Virginia’s house. Vindicio diverts his attention by mentioning the affair between the Duchess and Spurio. The Prince rushes to the Duchess’s bedroom with sword drawn but finds only the King in bed with her. He is arrested for treason and borne away to prison. Antonio is given the King’s signet ring as authority for the Prince’s execution.
(Scene 7) Vindicio again confronts Gratiana, but this time as himself. When she repents of wanting to sell her daughter, Vindicio forgives her.
(Scene 8) Antonio uses the authority granted by the King to kill Vacuo – rather than the Prince – in his prison cell, in revenge for the death of his daughter.
(Scene 9) The King has also employed Caria to procure a virgin for himself; he’s agreed to an assignation in a suitably dark cemetery. Vindicio is assisted by Virginia and Gratiana. To the death mask of his fiancée, he applies poison on its lips. Virginia wears the death mask and when the King arrives he attempts to kiss her. He tastes the poison and dies, but not before Vindicio reveals who he really is. He shows him the Duchess and Spurio who have also met nearby for a sexual encounter and then stabs the King to finish him off.
(Scene 10) Taking off his disguise, Vindicio dresses the King’s corpse in Caria’s clothes. Released from prison, the Prince arrives wanting Caria killed because of the trick she played on him. He now employs Vindicio for the job (not knowing they are one and the same) so Vindicio pretends to kill the sleeping Caria. Others arrive on the scene only to find that the corpse is not Caria’s but that of the King. Thus Caria is implicated in the King’s murder for it appears “she” must have carried out the crime and fled in the King’s clothes. The Prince is proclaimed the new king and festivities are ordered.
(Scene 11) While the Prince’s “coronation” is in progress, Virginia prepares to participate in the final act of vengeance. The company dance a masque during which the Prince’s throat is cut. Spurio proclaims himself king but the dying Prince draws a pistol and shoots him dead. Vindicio now hails Antonio as the new ruler, and boasts about killing the old King. Antonio declares, “You that would murder him would murder me!” and runs his sword through Vindicio.