Thomas Pasatieri - Inés de Castro

Christopher Keene, conductor
Tito Cappobianco, director
Mario Vanarelli, set and costume designer
Robert Brand, lighting designer

Synopsis

Prologue. Dom Pedro and Bishop Goncalo, in the garden, are joined by the Dona Constanza. She gently reproaches her husband for his coldness and for his frequent absences from her. In an aria she tells that although she married Pedro only because of her father's command she has come to love him deeply. The entrance of Inés, sent for by Constanza for companionship, saves Pedro the need of responding. Instantaneous love between Inés and Pedro is so strong as to be almost visible. At the departure of the two ladies, Pedro in high excitement justifies his forsaking of Constanza. and this sudden total love for Inés as something uncontrollable, predestined, almost sacred-in terms of what the Bishop himself had once taught Pedro, the love theory of Andrew the Chaplain and the troubadour poets. He ends with a cry of outrage against the royal custom of subordinating love and marriage to political expedience.

Act I. Seven years later, Constanza has died in childbirth; her funeral cortege passes in solemn procession through the Royal Plaza to the Cathedral. Inés, to the side, begs forgiveness for the love she bears Pedro-a love which for years wronged her friend Constanza. For Portugal, with her multitude of powerful enemies, mourning may be sincere but must always be brief: one strong alliance broken by the death of Constanza, Pedro must now, by the King's wish, marry another princess whose family can provide an army for Portugal's defense. Pacheco, a powerful and intriguing courtier, says that he has already found such a princess, the Infanta of Navarre. More, he has managed to impress her with Dom Pedro's attractions. Pedro quietly refuses, even after Queen Beatrix pleads that Constanza's infant son needs a mother's care. (Afonso has seen to it that Inés stood godmother to the infant and thus, by Church law, was barred from marriage to Pedro.) Pedro says that Portugal can defend herself against her many Spanish enemies with the help of her large Moorish population, particularly loyal to him. Afonso retorts that these 'loyal' Moors have incurred the strong enmity of the Papacy and the Inquisition, and hence of the other Christian states of Europe. Only Navarre can save them now. Finally, Pacheco drops the veil of a woman who has been standing in a group of courtiers: it is the Infanta of Navarre!

In the gardens at Coimbra with Pedro, Inés sings sadly of her love-a love more thoroughly blocked by Constanza dead than by the living Constanza. With the strong pressure of the King that Pedro marry Navarre's Infanta, Inés fears for her life and, even more, the lives of their two young sons-both, though born out of wedlock, older than Pedro's son by Constanza. Inés begs to be allowed to go with her sons to Galicia, where she can be protected by her brothers.

Pedro swears that he will neither love nor marry any but Inés, that his love for her will blaze till death and after: that some day Inés will be his wife and queen. They sing together of the glory and torment of love.

Celebration of a great triumph in the Playa Real. Pedro, leading a coalition of Spanish armies, had won a great victory over the Moorish forces in their last great effort to regain control of the Iberian peninsula. Soldiers, treasure, dancers, Moorish prisoners in chains, the elaborate ceremonial war chariot of the Moorish armies. As the jubilant crowd departs, the King's entourage remains clustered about his throne. King Afonso returns to his theme of the fears that beset the path of a king; only Pedro's marriage can save Portugal. The Queen and Bishop Goncalo join in this plea. The Infanta steps forward, to assert proudly that her beauty and the greatness of Navarre arc even stronger arguments than Portugal's needs. Pedro still, almost wearily, refuses to consider marriage to the Infanta, even after the Bishop reveals that the Inquisition is planning to move massively into Portugal and is only delaying temporarily at the request of the King of Navarre until he sees the outcome of his sister's suit for the hand of Pedro. In an aria, the Infanta assembles the arguments against Inés and for herself; beauty vanishes, but power remains. Without her, Portugal is doomed. Pedro looks wildly about, runs off.

Act II. One week later; Inés and Pedro in the beautiful gardens of Coimbra. In an aria Inés sees nothing but misery and increasing horror ahead for her. Pedro, by now equally hopeless, sees no help except in organizing an army of his many adherents to oppose the will of the King and Royal Council. Bishop Goncalo enters. His news-a day before the King will receive it-is that the King of Navarre is massing an army on' the borders of Portugal, delaying action only till he has word of Pedro's decision about the Infanta. In this doubled emergency Pedro suddenly finds a solution: he insists that the Bishop immediately perform a ceremony of marriage over Inés and Pedro. With great reluctance the Bishop does so.

The next morning. Inés in the garden with her two young sons. While she is acting as school-mistress for them, King Afonso enters. He is much taken with the beauty and brightness of the boys, but sends them off so that he may plead with Inés to sacrifice her love of Pedro to the general good. The Queen and the Infanta enter also to plead with Inés; the Infanta reveals that her wish to marry Dom Pedro comes as much from love of him as it does from statecraft and obedience to her brother. The three women join in a trio of love and despair. The King asks Inés to fetch the boys back, so that they may all have a few moments of simple joy while awaiting the return of Pedro. As Inés goes, the King calls to his side Coelho and Pacheco, who had entered with the Queen but had remained apart from the others. The courtiers remind Afonso of the decision of the Royal Council that Inés is to be killed if she refuses to renounce Pedro. Inés returns with her sons, proudly introduces them to the Queen and the Infanta. Afonso makes his final plea that she leave-she will always have with her these two handsome tokens of Pedro. "Tokens? These are honest sons of my husband Pedro!" The Queen and the Infants leave-there is nothing more for them to say. As the King prepares to follow them he gives a slight but clear signal to Coelho and Pacheco: the will of the Council be done. They stab Inés despite the weeping children, make the King swear not to reveal their part in this murder, and follow the King off. A moment later Pedro enters, sees the corpse of Inés-and swears to tear the land apart to avenge her death.

Act III. The episodes of this scene move rapidly over Portugal, following Pedro's search for the slayers of Inés. Pedro's tent is downstage; the varied locations-scenes of burning towns and villages-are indicated upstage.

Episode 1. A small walled town is shown with its farms. Pedro's officers are clamorous to attack and kill; Pedro holds them back-his only wish is to terrorize the people, to make them put pressure on the King.

Episode 2. The Queen and Bishop Goncalo come to plead with Pedro: he replies that the King can end the destruction by naming the killers of Inés. The Bishop is held by the King's oath, but the Queen stays behind a moment to tell Pedro that Coelho and Pacheco were the killers.

Episode 3. Tras os Montes, land of Pacheco, is burned, but Pacheco is not found.

Episode 4. The valley of Entre Minho e Douro, home of Coelho, is being burned-also in vain. The Infanta comes to tell that Coelho and Pacheco have fled to the protection of the King of Castille; she also tells Pedro how he may contrive to have them sent back to him.

Episode 5. Before the magnificent city of Oporto, undamaged. King Afonso and Queen Beatrix come from the city to Pedro's tent, at the behest of their son. They see Coelho and Pacheco dragged in to hear the sentence of a barbarous execution. Afonso in his grief falls dead.

Without a break we are in the preset final scene the Great Hall of the Royal Palace, decorated for a coronation. With great pomp the Bishop and the courtiers play their solemn parts in the coronation of Dom Pedro as King Pedro I of Portugal. King Pedro swears an oath to heal the wounds of his troubled land and to carry out all its just laws. In his mind's eye, he envisions his beloved Inés who tells him that because of his implacable hatred, she has found no rest even in death and that even his intention to glorify her by having her crowned Queen is less a fulfillment of Pedro's vow to her than, it is a gruesome extension of his thirst for vengeance. Heedless to her pleadings, Pedro tears the veil from the throne, revealing the mummified cadaver of Inés. As he removes the crown from his own head and steps forward to place it on hers, he collapses at the foot of the throne.

Inés de Castro

Premiere

Original Cast

Synopsis