Act III
Relayed from the Royal Opera
House, Covent Garden
LA GIOCONDA, the Italian equivalent for our Jocund,' is the name given to the heroine who is a famous ballad singer. In English the Opera is accordingly usually called The Ballad Singer. Although Ponchielli is now known almost solely by this work, he was looked up to in the latter part of last century as one of the brilliant figures in Italian music. The libretto of this Opera was prepared for him by the composer Boito. La Gioconda was produced in 1876 in Milan and was first heard here in 1883. The tale, adapted from Victor Hugo 's ' Angelo, the Tyrant of Padua,' is profoundly tragic.
The third Act takes place in the Palace of Alvise, one of the Lords of the Inquisition in Venice. He suspects his wife Laura of having been unfaithful and sings of the vengeance he proposes to take upon her. He summons her, and as she comes, the sound of singing is heard from gondolas on the Canal outside the Palace. Alvise hands Laura a flask of poison and tells her that she must drink it before the sound of singing dies away in the distance. He goes, and ' La Gioconda' comes in from behind a curtain, where she had concealed herself. She gives Laura a sleeping draught which will make her seem to be dead, and she drinks it instead of the poison. Alvise comes back to see his apparently lifeless wife stretched on the funeral bier which he had made ready for her. The scene changes to a banqueting hall in the house where ho is entertaining guests. The festivities are suddenly interrupted by the arrival of Barnaba, a spy in the service of the Inquisition. He brings with him the old blind mother of La Gioconda, and when she is asked about her presence there, she tells that she was praying for one just dead. Alvise draws back the curtain which hid the bier and points to the apparently dead Laura. Enzo, an outlawed nobleman, with whom Alvise suspects she has been unfaithful to him, rushes forward to stab the Inquisitor, and is seized by guards to be hurried off to prison.