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PROGRAMNOTES
Verdi,
La forza del destino
, Overture
Thanks to the involvement and influence of the great
tenor Enrico Tamberlik, Verdi was able to premiere
La forza del destino
in St. Petersburg in 1862. This
work, based on a now-forgotten Spanish drama, is
somewhat unwieldy in its dramatic shape but full of
stunning music. The magnificently stirring overture
incorporates several vital themes from the opera: the
agitated “Fate” theme; the soaring melody voiced
by the strings and sung by the desperate heroine,
Leonora, upon her arrival at the monastery where
she hopes to be sheltered from the world forever;
the quiet, sorrowful theme of the hero Don Alvaro’s
appeal to Leonora’s vengeful brother, Don Carlo;
and the joyous
allegro brillante
theme voiced by the
clarinet, later sung by Leonora upon learning that
Padre Guardiano, the monastery’s Father Superior,
will grant her refuge.
Verdi,
Un ballo in maschera,
“Alzati! Là tuo
figlio…Eri tu”,
Premiered in Rome in 1859,
Un ballo in maschera (A
Masked Ball)
is loosely based on a play by Eugène
Scribe,
Gustave III
, which chronicles the assassination
of the King of Sweden. The plot had previously
been utilized by two other opera composers, Daniel-
François Auber and Saverio Mercadante. It was
sublimely treated by Verdi, who in
Ballo
created one
of the gems of his “middle period.” The composer’s
gifts were in perfect balance, in terms of meeting
the needs of a drama and sustaining melodic and
harmonic interest throughout a three-act dramatic
structure. Every number in
Ballo
is strikingly
characterized, and a great many rank among Verdi’s
finest achievements.
One of the most popular of all Verdi baritone
arias, “Eri tu” is sung by Renato shortly after the
pivotal moment of the opera. The secretary and
good friend of King Gustavo, he has been ordered
to lead the king’s veiled inamorata back to town
after her tryst with Gustavo. The king has ordered
Renato not to ask the lady’s identity. When the two
are encountered and taunted by the king’s enemies,
the woman, in order to avoid bloodshed, lifts her veil.
Renato thus discovers that the king’s love interest is
his own wife, Amelia! Once the two have returned
to their home, he rages at her supposed betrayal and
declares that he will kill her. When she begs for one
moment to see their son, he grants her request. In his
aria, he gazes at a portrait of the king and proclaims
that he will have vengeance, while at the same time
lamenting his lost happiness.
Verdi,
Ernani
, “Che mai vegg’io!...Infelice e tuo
credevi…Infin che un brando vindice”
The young Giuseppe Verdi was already well into
his career at the time of his fifth opera,
Ernani
. The
composer based this work on a well-known play by
Victor Hugo. The opera premiered in 1844 at the
Teatro La Fenice in Venice. In contrast to the hostile
atmosphere in that theater when Verdi’s
La traviat
a
premiered there in 1853, the first performance of
Ernani
was a triumph and did much to enhance
Verdi’s growing fame.
The work’s leading lady is Elvira, who is in love
with the bandit Ernani and he with her. She is pursued,
however, by two other men – Don Carlo, King of
Spain; and Elvira’s own aged uncle, the grandee
Silva, who is planning to marry her. In his castle,
she is visited first by the disguised Don Carlo (she
recognizes him), whose advances she vehemently
rejects. He is about to abduct her when Ernani
appears via a secret door. He and Don Carlo are
quarreling violently over Elvira when Silva suddenly
appears with his retinue. Shocked at discovering his
betrothed with two unknown men, he laments in
his nobly beautiful cavatina that in his old age the
young woman he considered perfect has turned his
heart to ice. He then calls for his sword and, in the
stirring cabaletta – robust and rhythmically vigorous
in a manner highly typical of early Verdi – he vows
revenge.
Saint-Saëns,
Samson et Dalila
, Bacchanale;
“Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix”
By far the most famous opera of Camille Saint-
Saëns is
Samson et Dalila
, which premiered in 1877.
Although somewhat static (many critics consider it
as much oratorio as opera), it has several assets that
have kept it in the repertoire worldwide for more than
a century: the strength of the famous Biblical story
that serves as its dramatic source; some mesmerizing
dance music; and above all, the vividness with which
Saint-Saëns characterized the two leading roles.
The musical highlight of the opera’s final scene
is the Bacchanale, long a showpiece for orchestras
everywhere. The Israelite hero Samson has been
captured, and the Philistines are celebrating in the
temple of Dagon. A sinuous and intoxicating oboe
solo begins a dance that builds spectacularly in
intensity to a peak of wild exuberance.
Dalila, the opera’s heroine (perhaps one should
say “anti-heroine”) is a priestess of the pagan god
Dagon who invites Samson to her retreat in the valley
of Sorek. Anticipating his arrival, she is determined