I gioielli della Madonna (English: The Jewels of the Madonna) is an opera in three acts by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to an Italian libretto by Carlo Zangarini and Enrico Golisciani, based on news accounts of a real event.
It was first performed at the Kurfürstenoper, Berlin, 23 December 1911 under the title Der Schmuck der Madonna. That performance was in German, but now it is usually given in Italian. (Wolf-Ferrari stated that his operas were often first given in German simply because he had a German publisher.)
Its controversial themes include love between a brother and his adopted sister, implied criticism of the Catholic Church, and an on-stage orgy. There is an extant recording of the opera.
Read more about I Gioielli Della Madonna: Performance History, Roles
Famous quotes containing the word madonna:
“In our minds lives the madonna image—the all-embracing, all- giving tranquil mother of a Raphael painting, one child at her breast, another at her feet; a woman fulfilled, one who asks nothing more than to nurture and nourish. This creature of fantasy, this myth, is the model—the unattainable ideal against which women measure, not only their performance, but their feelings about being mothers.”
—Lillian Breslow Rubin (20th century)