LA FORZA DEL ALPO
An opera in four acts, conceived prior to successive evenings at the Westminster Kennel Club Show and the Metropolitan Opera.
CAST
GUGLIELMO—A dashing fox terrier (tenor)
MIMI (Ch. Anthracite Sweet-Stuff of Armonk)—A poodle (soprano)
DON CANINO (her father)—Another poodle (baritone)
BRUTTO—Companion poodle to Don Canino and suitor for the hand of Mimi (basso)
FIDOLETTA—A Lhasa Apso. Nurse to Mimi but secretly enamored of Guglielmo. A real bitch (mezzo)
SPIQUE—A comical bulldog (basso hundo)
DR. FAUSTUS—A veterinary (tenor)
CHORUS: Non-sporting, herding, and terrier contestants; judges, handlers, reporters
(There will be three walks around the block)
After the disastrous failure of his misbegotten early “Arfeo” at La Scala in the winter of 1843, few expected that Verdi would soon return to the themes of canine anticlericalism and the proliferation of Labradors (labbrazazione), but his discovery of the traditional Sicilian grooming cavatina—as recapitulated in the touching barkarole “Dov’è il mio guinzaglio?” (“I have lost my leash”) that closes Act III—appears to have sent him back to work. Verdi’s implacable opposition to the Venetian muzzling ordinance of 1850 is to be heard in the rousing “Again a full moon” chorus that resonates so insistently during Brutto’s musings before and after the cabaletta:
At the opening curtain, Guglielmo and Mimi, in adjoining benching stalls, plan their elopement, despite the opposition of Don Canino, who has arranged her forthcoming marriage to Brutto despite rumors about the larger male’s parentage. After the lovers’ tender duet “A cuccia, a cuccia, amore mio” (“Sit! Sit, my love!”), recalling their first meeting at an obedience class, they part reluctantly, with Guglielmo distressed at her anxiety over the nuptials: “Che gelida manina” (“Your icy paw”). Don Canino, enlisting the support of the perfidious Fidoletta, plots to dispatch Guglielmo into the K-9 Corps, and, joined by Brutto, the trio, in “Sotto il nostro albero” (“Under the family tree”), jovially celebrates the value of pedigree.
As the judging begins, Guglielmo, alerted to Don Canino’s plot by the faithful Spique, disguises himself as a miniature apricot poodle, but the lovers fail to detect the lurking presence of Don Canino, who has hidden himself among a large entry of Rottweilers in Ring 6. A pitched battle between hostile bands of Lakeland and Bedlington terriers requires the attention of Spique, and in his absence Fidoletta entraps the innocent Guglielmo, who discloses his identity to her. She breaks off their amusing impromptu duet “Non so chi sei” (“I don’t know who you are, but I sure like your gait”) to fetch the police, but Guglielmo makes good his escape through the loges during the taping of a Kal Kan commercial—an octet severely criticized in its day, but to which Mascagni makes dear obeisance in his later sestina “Mangia, Pucci.”
Guglielmo, not realizing in the darkness that he has found his way back to his natal kennel in Chappaqua, delivers the dirgelike “Osso Bucco” while digging in the yard, but is elated by news from Spique that he has uncovered certain documents in the back-door garbage compactor. Fidoletta, puzzled, trails the valiant pair as they hasten back to the Garden.
In our turbulent final act, the wedding of Mimi and Brutto is interrupted by the arrival of Dr. Faustus, bearing the purloined A.K.C. documents unearthed by Spique. The good vet declares that the nuptials must halt, because Brutto is in fact not only Mimi’s father but (through a separate whelping) her uncle as well. Don Canino, horrified at his own depravity, vows to enter holy orders, and, in a confession, reveals that Brutto is no purebred—“Mira l’occhio azzurro” (“Ol’ Blue Eyes”)—thanks to a Pomeranian on his dam’s side. Dr. Faustus removes Brutto to his laboratory for neutering. Guglielmo, still in disguise, unexpectedly wins a Best of Opposite Sex award in his breed as the lovers are at last united. Guglielmo serenades his Mimi with the “Sono maschio” (“I am a young intact male”) as the happy couple, renouncing show biz, envision their future as a breeding pair with a cut-rate puppy mill in the Garden State Mall. Spique, exhausted by so much unlikelihood, falls asleep on the emptied stage, where his sonorous snores (“Zzzzz”) are joined by those of the audience.
Shouts & Murmurs, February, 1994