Lyric Opera 2019-2020 Issue 1 Millennium Park Program

12 PROGRAM NOTES Verdi, Luisa Miller , Overture Luisa Miller (1849), the 14th of Verdi’s 26 operas, is a transitional work, pointing the way to the glories of the composer’s “middle period” while retaining the irresistible vitality of his earlier operas. In Luisa Miller he was becoming a more searching composer, entering more fully into his characters’ psychology and becoming a more vivid musical dramatist. The heart of the opera’s exciting overture is a buoyant theme that would have t comfortably into the style of Verdi’s predecessor, the bel canto master Gaetano Donizetti. Verdi, Falstaff , “È sogno o realtà?” Adapted from plays by his hero Shakespeare ( The Merry Wives of Windsor and portions of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 ), Falstaff was Giuseppe Verdi’s only successful comedy and the crowning glory of his long career. With the skill of its character delineation and its consistently astounding musical imagination, it holds an exalted place in the Verdi canon. Every character is irresistible, and Verdi handled each one with amazing liveliness and imagination. The opera seems so youthful, it’s hard to believe Verdi was nearly 80 at the time! He composed it for his own pleasure, collaborating with the brilliant librettist Arrigo Boito. Falstaff received tumultuous acclaim in its premiere at Milan’s La Scala in 1893. The opera’s central character, Sir John Falstaff, writes identical love letters to Alice Ford and Meg Page. Alice’s husband hears about the letters and is furious. Disguising himself as “Master Brook,” he visits Falstaff and is horri ed to hear that the old knight will be visiting Alice that day between two and three. While Falstaff is off changing into his best clothes, Ford sings a magni cent monologue combining intense bitterness with a consuming desire for revenge. Donizetti, La favorite , “La maîtresse du roi!… Ange si pur” Among all major opera composers, Gaetano Donizetti is the most proli c. Of his more than 60 operas, many were written during the nal years of his career. Premiered in Paris, La favorite (1840) was composed for some of the most remarkable singers of Donizetti’s day, and the drama remains a vehicle for passionate but elegant bel canto vocalism. In 14th-century Spain, Fernand, a novice in a Castilian monastery, falls in love with an unknown lady, Léonor, the favorite of King Alphonse XI. After much intrigue, the king willingly bestows titles of nobility and military honors on Fernand, and all is set for his wedding to Léonor. Their happiness is interrupted by Balthazar, the monastery’s father superior, who believes Fernand is dishonoring himself by marrying the king’s mistress. Fernand confronts Alphonse and rejects his favor. Bitterly unhappy, he returns to the monastery and, in the touching “Ange si pur,” he laments having been betrayed by Léonor. Puccini, Madama Butter y , “Un bel dì”; Humming Chorus Along with La bohème and Tosca, Madama Butter y has been most crucial in sustaining Giacomo Puccini’s worldwide popularity. Surprisingly enough, Butter y was unsuccessful at its 1904 premiere at Milan’s La Scala. It took signi cant revisions in the Brescia production three months later for audiences to recognize the work’s true greatness. It’s based on David Belasco’s play of the same name, which in turn had its source in a short story by John Luther Long. While in Nagasaki, Japan, Lt. B.F. Pinkerton of the U.S. Navy has a traditional Japanese marriage ceremony. His bride is a geisha, Cio-Cio-San (a.k.a. Madame Butter y). Pinkerton soon leaves for America, promising to return when the robins are nesting. Three years go by, with Cio-Cio-San giving birth to his child and never losing hope. Early in Act Two she sings her moving aria,“Un bel dì,” telling her maid Suzuki that Pinkerton will return “one beautiful day.” The opera’s exquisitely atmospheric “Humming Chorus” (usually sung from offstage) ends the rst half of Act Two. Mozart, Don Giovanni , “Là ci darem la mano” Premiered in Prague in 1787, Don Giovanni has been universally acclaimed as the perfect opera, with its eight characters all coming vividly to life in one unforgettable scene after another. At the center of the piece is a man whose seduction and abandonment of countless women is looked upon in today’s times as something appalling, and completely deserving the comeuppance he receives in the opera’s nale -- his descent into hell. In the opera’s rst act Giovanni meets a peasant couple, Zerlina and Masetto, who are about to be married. After managing to get Masetto out of the way, Don Giovanni proceeds to seduce the hesitant Zerlina in the most famous of all Mozart duets.