LELELELE BUGUE BUGUEBUGUEBUGUE Salle Eugène Le Roy Réservation : Maison de la Presse Le Bugue 05 53 07 22 83 Giuseppe VERDI LUISA MILLER Luisa and Rodolfo love each other with forbidden love. Wurm, the steward of Rodolfo's father, makes Luisa sing and forces her to marry him. Rather than living in loneliness and despair, Rodolfo prepares a poisoned beverage that will reunite Luisa and him in death. It is a stellar cast that interprets this tragedy at the Met: Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva and Polish tenor Piotr Beczala will sing the roles of the two lovers Luisa and Rodolfo and will be accompanied, among others, by the immense Plácido Domingo in the role of Miller, Luisa's father. Plácido Domingo adds yet another role to his legendary Met career in this rarely performed Verdi gem, a heart-wrenching tragedy of fatherly love. Conductor Luisa Miller Bertrand Sonya Plácido De Billy Yoncheva Domingo soprano tenor Rodolfo Federica Walter Piotr Oleysa Alexander Beczala Petrova Vinogradov tenor mezzo-soprano bass DATE : Saturday 14th April 2018 Time : 6.00 pm Opera in 3 acts by Giuseppe Verdi Luisa Miller World Premiere: Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, 1849. Luisa Miller represents a transitional moment in Giuseppe Verdi’s unparalleled career. While reminiscent of the youthful vitality that had made Verdi an international sensation, the opera also looks forward to the dramaturgical discipline and sophistication of the composer’s middle period. The story centers on the bond between a father and his daughter as they stand together against a hostile world, and much of the dramatic and psychological acumen that would define the mature Verdi is already fully apparent in this earlier work. It is an opera very much like its title character—one that impresses with genuine virtues rather than superficial flashiness. Setting The opera was originally set during the first half of the 17th century in the Tyrolean Alps (now part of Austria), which reflects the Germanic source of the drama. The non-Mediterranean setting is also typical of an interest in Northern Europe that was a hallmark of the Romantics and other artists of the early 19th century. The Met’s current production updates the setting to rural England in the era of the work’s composition. Music A turning point in Verdian music At first glance, the score may appear as typical of the "galley years" by its arias to the significant melody with a concise and usual rhythm, as by the expressiveness of the sets. The characterization of the people suffers from Verdi's desire to turn Luisa into a dramatic virtuous coloratura, which did not correspond to her sensitive and fragile character, making the duchess a degraded secondary role. During the year 1848, Verdi began to search on one side for a new form and on the other for "stereotypical" dramatic conventions; Cammarano did not want to present him any more suitable text. Luisa Miller is one of the turning points of Verdi's writing. On leaving the grand epic opera that characterized the composer's early works and focusing on the personality of bourgeois characters, he prefigures the "trio of maturity": Rigoletto, La Traviata, and Le Trouvère. Opening The opening of Luisa Miller is not an opening type potpourri of air borrowed after the book or a simple opening, but it is the work around a theme, which makes it is a monothematic allegro without great rupture. One can look at this thematic work as a way to fully introduce a plot that "masters drama as a misfortune," wrote Verdi to Cammarano. He opposes in the first painting a warm pattern typical of a song melody. Also, these two motifs will be found throughout the opera at places and moments that suit them but not in the manner of leitmotif. In fact, the latter must, despite its modifications, be immediately recognized by the auditor who can report it in the sense that has been commonly attributed to him. Verdi, on the contrary, tries to establish a unity of tone or impression by rhythmic or melodic figures which are not always easily recognizable but which ensure the homogeneity of the work. The simplicity of the theme and its violence, its "driving force that shakes everything in its path", close to the opening of La Forza del Destino which is considered one of Verdi's greatest. It does not attach to a character or air coming into the room, but the climate of the drama that will be played. However, this opening was not received successfully by all critics, some said she was "nothing else than a symphonic stretta that does not deserve to be noticed" 7. While for Alain Zürcher, it is a "quick and tortured" opening32 and thus introduces the violence of the tragedy. Composer Giuseppe Verdi 1813-1901 First years He was born October 10, 1813 in La Roncole, near Parma then under French rule, then taken over by Austria in 1814 and finally Italian since 1847. Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, son of traders, was French for a few months then Austrian for 33 years, until the reconquest of Milan, the first stage of the reunification of Italy. He quickly shows musical talents that his parents, nonetheless musicians, discover very quickly. His father offers him a spruce (instrument of the family of harpsichords). The progress of this child is dazzling and, at nine, he is the organist of the village, which is worth a small remuneration. Aware that he must be given a more serious training, his father confides Verdi to Antonio Barezzi, an amateur musician director of the local philharmonic association of the nearby city of Busseto. He is going to live in hard years of study. He takes him to boarding school. At sixteen, his reputation has already crossed Busseto. Verdi starts to compose. At the age of 18, he left for Milan to continue his training. However, he must take composition lessons with Vincenzo Lavigna, the conductor of La Scala, because he is refused by the conservatory, partly because of his age too high and, secondly, because of his rudimentary piano technique. He will remember it at the end of his life by refusing that this conservatory bears his name. This one is green with rage. Career In 1836, Giuseppe Verdi returned to Busseto where he remained for three years. The vacant organist of the cathedral escapes him because of his atheism. However, he obtained a professorship at the city's music school, which allowed him to marry Margherita, Barezzi's daughter, in 1836. He composed a series of steps and openings and his opera Oberto. In 1838 he left Busseto and moved to Milan. Oberto is presented at La Scala and makes a triumph. The director of La Scala immediately commissioned other works for the young composer. At this time, Verdi also knows the misfortune because he loses successively his two young children and while he finishes A giorno di regno, Margherita dies in turn in 1840. To make matters worse, his second opera, played on September 5, 1840 is a disaster. It is removed from the poster from the beginning, mainly because of the weakness of the booklet but also music. Verdi will never be able to erase this boring failure. He will seek refuge in Busseto. However, two years later, with the confidence of Bartolomeo Merelli, the impresario of the Milan theater, Verdi writes Nabucco. Represented at La Scala in Milan on March 9, 1842, the work is extremely popular. It evokes the fate of the Jews, oppressed by Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon (listen to the Chorus of Slaves). The Milanese, then under Austrian occupation, are not long in identifying with the Hebrews. The opera is then understood as the call of a people for its independence with, as culminating point, the famous "Va, pensiero", a true hymn to freedom. Verdi's reputation wins all of Italy. The following ten years, it is attached to a series of operas (Il Lombardi, 1843, Ernani, 1844, Luisa Miller, 1849), pressed that it is by the impresarios. In 1847 he composed Macbeth, inspired by Shakespeare. He will dedicate this score to Barezzi. This opera is generally considered his first great masterpiece. Suffering from nervous tension and various ailments, Verdi is at this time very demanding and quarrels frequently with the management of La Scala. His fame has far exceeded Italy. Hateful of public life, he lives on the sidelines not far from Busseto and is nicknamed "the bear".À partir de 1849, il vit, en partie à Paris, avec Giuseppina Strepponi, une ancienne chanteuse lyrique qui exercera sur lui une bonne influence. He gives with great success the Sicilian vespers, a work which attracts him the praises of a Hector Berlioz, however, very stingy with compliments. He then composes his popular trilogy: Rigoletto (listen Like the feather in the wind and read La donna è mobile), Le Trouvère (listen to the Miserere) and La Traviata (listen to the famous brindisi and read Libiamo). Nevertheless, the connection he has with the singer will shock in his home province because of two illegitimate children. He married Giuseppina only ten years later in 1859. In 1862, he went to St. Petersburg to play La forza del Destino (The Force of Destiny). Then, until 1870, Verdi spent most of his time composing for the Paris Opera (A Masked Ball, 1859, Don Carlo, 1867). At that time two names stand out on the European scenes: Richard Wagner and Verdi. The collaboration with the musicians of the Opera (which he calls "the big shop") is sometimes difficult. Tired, he leaves by slamming the door.