About the work
Die Stumme von Portici (La muette de Portici) is a grand opera in five acts by Daniel-François-Esprit Auber to a libretto by Germain Delavigne and Eugène Scribe, first performed on 29 February 1828 at the Paris Opéra. The work is regarded as founding the genre of full-evening grand opera with chorus, dance and elaborate stage machinery.
Plot
In the Neapolitan fishing town of Portici, the people rise up in 1647 under the fisherman Masaniello against Spanish rule after his mute sister Fenella is seduced and abandoned by Alphonse, son of the Spanish viceroy. The initially successful uprising ends in bloodshed: Masaniello is killed by the incited crowd, and Fenella throws herself into the lava as Vesuvius erupts.
Cultural significance
The performance on 25 August 1830 in Brussels, at which the duet "Amour sacré de la patrie" incited the audience to rise up against Dutch rule, is regarded as the immediate trigger of the Belgian Revolution and independence. Unusually, the mute title character Fenella is portrayed entirely through dance and mime, without ever singing.