THE VERDI ALBUM MÜNCHNER RUNDFUNKORCHESTER MASSIMO ZANETTI SONYA YONCHEVA THE VERDI ALBUM SONYA YONCHEVA THE VERDI ALBUM 3 GIUSEPPE VERDI 1813–1901 IL TROVATORE / Act I, Scene 2 SIMON BOCCANEGRA / Act I, Scene 1 Libretto: Salvatore Cammarano after Antonio García Gutiérrez’s play El trovador Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave & Arrigo Boito 1 “Tacea la notte placida … Di tale amor che dirsi” (Leonora) 6:52 after Antonio García Gutiérrez’s play Simón Bocanegra 7 “Come in quest’ora bruna” (Amelia) 6:19 LUISA MILLER / Act II, Scene 1 Libretto: Salvatore Cammarano after Friedrich Schiller’s play Kabale und Liebe DON CARLO / Act IV, Scene 1 2 “Tu puniscimi, o Signore” (Luisa) 3:07 Libretto: François-Joseph Méry & Camille du Locle after Friedrich Schiller’s play Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien Act I, Scene 1 Italian translation by Achille de Lauzières & Angelo Zanardini ATTILA / 8 Libretto: Temistocle Solera & Francesco Maria Piave “Tu che le vanità … Francia, nobile suol” (Elisabetta) 10:59 after Zacharias Werner’s play Attila, König der Hunnen 3 “Liberamente or piangi … Oh! Nel fuggente nuvolo” (Odabella) 5:58 NABUCCO / Act II, Scenes 1 & 2 Libretto: Temistocle Solera after Antonio Cortesi’s ballet Nabucodonosor Act I, Scene 6 and Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornu’s play Nabuchodonosor STIFFELIO / 9 Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave after Émile Souvestre & Eugène Bourgeois’s play “Anch’io dischiuso un giorno … Salgo già del trono aurato” (Abigaille) 6:27 Le Pasteur, ou l’Évangile et le foyer 4 “Tosto ei disse! … A te ascenda, o Dio clemente” (Lina) 3:54 Published by Casa Ricordi, Milano LA FORZA DEL DESTINO / Act IV, Scene 2 Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave after Ángel de Saavedra’s play Don Álvaro o La fuerza del sino 5 “Pace! Pace, mio Dio!” (Leonora) 5:52 OTELLO / Act IV, Scene 2 SONYA YONCHEVA soprano Libretto: Arrigo Boito after William Shakespeare’s play Othello MÜNCHNER RUNDFUNKORCHESTER 6 THE VERDI ALBUM “Ave Maria, piena di grazia” (Desdemona) 5:23 MASSIMO ZANETTI conductor SONYA YONCHEVA THE VERDI ALBUM 4 I BETWEEN TRADITION AND INNOVATION One might say that Verdi’s works contributed to the success of the very par- o Dio clemente”). The grace of forgiveness eventually triumphs over the raging adigms of operatic art that he had set out to revolutionize. Born of Sonya fury of vengeance, while the religious pastor is shown in his fragility as an Yoncheva’s musical curiosity, this project combines earlier gems such as earthly man devoured by passion. Stiffelio, Luisa Miller, and Attila with eternally beloved masterpieces such as Il As in Stiffelio, personal transformation and social change are at the core trovatore or Otello, to show us a composer in perpetual quest of the innova- of Verdian drama, especially when a character seems to have reached their tion and transformation of his art. The tensions, at once creative and destruc- highest level of human worthiness. The corsair Simon Boccanegra manages to tive, between old and young generations, between traditional and modern spread a powerful message of peace as he becomes the first doge of Genoa, social mores and manners of thought, and even between different aspects of quelling the vendetta and rivalry between clans and between the cities the same character, as in Stiffelio and Otello, run through the drama and music of Genoa and Venice, and changing the logic of power from internal fights of Verdi’s operas. to political harmony. Simon introduces a political change, whose emotional The composer’s musical artistry is particularly appealing to an interpreter driving force is his lost and found daughter Amelia, even as he falls victim to as versatile and as highly sensitive as Yoncheva. As she shares in a recent inter- the primary greed for power of the plebeian Paolo. view, this rare master of musical dramaturgy “shakes” his characters, “revealing This opposition between individuals and their social prison is at the core their strong and weak sides” not only through the vicissitudes of the drama of Don Carlo, where both the heir to the Spanish crown and Elizabeth of Valois in which he casts them, but also “through the eloquence of the music that sacrifice their dream of happiness under the constraints of their political traverses them, even in the pauses, used to emphasize a particular word or realities (“Tu che le vanità”). Verdi idealizes the historical character of Don psychological state – doubt, anxiousness, ease.” The unique quality of Verdi’s Carlo, Philip II’s son, to make him an opponent of the Inquisition and a defender works resides for the interpreter in the dramatic and musical tensions, but also of the independence of the oppressed Flanders, a libertarian ideal Verdi in the often courageous provocation that animates his art. famously cherishes in Nabucco. Here we discover Verdi’s early masterpiece Provocation of the social and religious strictures of the time streams from through the aria of the ambitious and incendiary Abigaille, Nabucco’s false the pages of Stiffelio, subjected to several revisions by the censorship that daughter, whose hurt pride and thirst for power resonate even in her nostalgic thwarted Verdi’s initial dramatic intentions and forced this vertiginous tangle reminiscence of past innocence (“Anch’io dischiuso un giorno”). of religion, sex, and power worthy of Strindberg to an early and undeserved oblivion. Stiffelio is the charismatic leader of a religious sect, who has to fight his jealousy after he discovers the adultery his wife Lina has committed with a THE VERDI ALBUM man whom she doesn’t love, and of which she bitterly repents (“A te ascenda, SONYA YONCHEVA THE VERDI ALBUM 5 II MEN AND WOMEN, WOMEN AND MEN The communication between men and women is a powerful engine of Verdi’s Unlike Stiffelio, who, thanks to his strong link with his religious community, dramas, and it is often the case that the spectator is tempted to jump in the triumphs over his destructive passion, Otello succumbs to a crime of honor middle of the action and clear up once and for all the tragic misunderstandings void of sense. The vanity of honor is not only sung of by those who have lost that push the characters to commit fatal and desperate acts. For this master it, like Iago, or, in a more sardonic vein, Falstaff. The very content of this often of the theater, however, this is more than just a dramatic device. Verdi dis- arbitrary notion is questioned in the dramas of Otello and Stiffelio, and by closes the feminine and the masculine aspects of human tragedy, and looks Leonora in La forza del destino (“Pace! Pace, mio Dio!”). Here, as in Il trovatore, for the humanity in each position. Often his characters are more victims of the the characters are torn between their familial loyalties and their desire for misunderstandings generated by their own passions than of the oppressive the freedom to love. Yet, whatever their situation, we cannot judge them, as circumstances of social order and/or generational conflict. While Rodolfo reb- the great composer and dramatist allows for compassionate understanding els against his father, Count Walter, for preventing his marriage to the village of the position of each character. At the core of Verdian drama remains the girl Luisa Miller, the ingenuous Luisa falls victim to a cruel plot, forcing her to misunderstanding, the vortex of passions before which language fails in order choose between her love for her father and her loyalty to Rodolfo (“Tu punis- to give place to music. cimi, o Signore”). As Luisa sacrifices herself to save her father’s life, Rodolfo, – Petya Ivanova ravaged by jealousy, administers poison to both himself and his beloved, taking the time to hear her explanation only as she dies in his arms. To Yoncheva, “even though Luisa, similarly to Leonora in Il trovatore, is an innocent, she masters a force of heart and spirit similar to that of Desdemona. While Otello is a character who never quite feels in his right place despite his merits, and who lacks the strength to rise above his anxieties and doubts, Desde- mona is the truly strong character in the opera. She is the one who has appreci- ated Otello, who has recognized his qualities and loves him for them. She knows that she is going to die, she prepares herself and even forgives him, concealing his crime as she expires (‘Ave Maria, piena di grazia’). Desdemona is not a victim: she is a modern woman who sees her choices through to their bitter end.” THE VERDI ALBUM SONYA YONCHEVA THE VERDI ALBUM 6 I ZWISCHEN TRADITION UND INNOVATION Man könnte sagen, dass Verdis Werke zum Erfolg eben jener Paradigmen der der Sekte der Ahasverianer. Als er erfährt, dass seine Frau Lina ihn betrogen Opernkunst beitrugen, die er eigentlich hatte erneuern wollen. In diesem von hat, muss er gegen seine Eifersucht ankämpfen. Lina ihrerseits liebt den Mann Sonya Yonchevas musikalischem Forschergeist inspirierten Projekt sind Ari- nicht, mit dem sie den Ehebruch beging, und bereut ihren Fehltritt (»A te as- en aus unbekannteren Frühwerken des Meisters wie Stiffelio, Luisa Miller und cenda, o Dio clemente«). Schließlich siegt die Gnade der Vergebung über die Attila mit Auszügen aus allseits beliebten Meisterwerken wie Il trovatore und Wut der Rache; der fromme Geistliche wird als ein ganz und gar fehlbarer, Otello vereint; zusammen ergeben sie ein Porträt des Komponisten auf sei- schwacher Mann dargestellt, der von glühender Leidenschaft verzehrt wird. ner nie endenden Suche nach Erneuerung und Veränderung seiner Kunst. Die Wie in Stiffelio dreht sich in Verdis Simon Boccanegra alles um das Thema kreativen wie destruktiven Spannungen zwischen alter und neuer Generation, des persönlichen und des gesellschaftlichen Wandels.