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Heavenly but Humble -- The Hermit in Opera - Page 2

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Coincidentally, in Bellini's Il Pirata, it is a hermit called Goffredo who leads the prayers, in the opening scene, that save the pirate Gualtiero's vessel from shipwreck. Of course, had Goffredo's prayers not been answered, the opera's terrible events would not happen; his act of faith is necessary to trigger any pirate-related action that follows. Goffredo had in fact once been Gualtiero's tutor, in the latter's more moral pre-pirating days. Although it is because of his former connection with Gualtiero that he is now living a life of poverty and shame, Goffredo still believes in him and tries unsuccessfully to avert the disaster Gualtiero seems hellbent upon now that he is safely on land.

This leads me to other characters who have become hermits rather than quite having had a religious calling to it. A classic example is the old monk, Pimen, in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. Pimen had been a soldier who witnessed the death of the Tsarevich, a horror for which he has spent his life paying penance, and he foolishly tells the ambitious novice, Grigori, about the crime. This sets off a whole chain of events that ultimately brings about the downfall of Boris.

One of the most spectacular musical moments in Russian opera occurs near the end of Rimsky-Korsakov's Sadko. Sadko, guest of an underwater kingdom, has so delighted the Sea King with his expert playing of a "gusli," a psaltery, that the monarch in his excitement produces a storm. The swirling waters drag humans' ships sailing upon them down to the depths to their destruction. The deadly action is stopped cold by a gorgeous aria that cuts through the tumult like a ray of light: an apparition of an old warrior suddenly appears, inexplicably dressed in mufti as a humble pilgrim. He breaks the deadly musical instrument with a single blow, restores peace to the seas, and commands Sadko to return to his people on land, to play music only for other mortals incapable of such omnipotent pleasure. One would assume the hermit garb is to ensure audiences will understand that the martial ghost possesses clearly benevolent magical powers.

Some operatic characters are rather more deliberately disguised as hermits. In Verdi's Attila, this was to get the character of Pope Leo I past the censors; he was not permitted to be portrayed onstage as his own person. Thus, after Attila has had a frightening dream in which an old man evokes the word of God to prevent his taking of Rome, in the next scene it powerfully becomes a reality when the pilgrim "Leone" -- was anyone really fooled? -- leads a group of women and children to protect the city. In Rossini's Le Comte Ory, such disguise has a less noble intention -- In Act I, the lecherous Ory disguises himself as a hermit to try to gain entry to a castle where the lovely Ragonde has been left unprotected while her brother is away at the Crusades. Luckily, he is recognized and sent packing...though he returns in Act II, dressed as a nun!

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