Lyric Opera 2019-2020 Issue 3 Luisa Miller

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 29 operas of Rossini, although on a grander scale. And he employed other basic components that were absolutely essential to Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and all the other Italian composers of the time: the opening choruses, the large-scale finales, and above all, the central ingredient of those operas – the solo scena . This is the audience’s most important opportunity to get to know a principal character, giving us an in-depth look into that character’s soul. That happens through the linking together of several different musical elements to form a vivid, totally memorable scene. As heard in Luisa Miller , what makes a “scena”? ▪ Opening recitative – through what is essentially sung speech, a dramatic situation is established. ▪ Cavatina – the character sings a dignified, slow, legato- oriented aria, expressing his/her emotional state at that moment. ▪ Connecting recitative – the situation develops further, usually with a new discovery for the character, leading to a change of heart or an important decision. ▪ Cabaletta – the character responds with a faster, much more driving and aggressive aria than the cavatina, with the music generally including some moments of vocal fireworks. Emotional communication in the earlier Verdi operas was direct, unfussy, and basic – painting with primary colors, so to speak. The dramatic content also related to royalty and nobility. There were several real-life personalities, from the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in Nabucco to Joan of Arc in Giovanna d’Arco , King Charles V of Spain in Ernani , and Doge Francesco Foscari of Venice in I due Foscari . But in Luisa Miller , Verdi took a different turn: referring to Luisa and her father, the critic Andrew Porter succinctly declared that the opera “reflects Verdi’s new concern with ‘ordinary’ – but interesting – people in interesting predicaments.” The great difference between where the composer began with his first operas and where he arrived in Luisa Miller can be summed up by Verdi’s contemporary, Abramo Basevi, Italy’s most distinguished musicologist of that time. He labeled pre- and post- Luisa Miller as Verdi’s “first manner” and “second manner.” Act Two: Now that Rodolfo (Michael Fabiano) has lost Luisa, he doesn’t care what fate may bring him. The first manner was dominated by “the grandiose,” whereas in the second manner, “the grandiosity decreases, even vanishes: every character stands only for himself; and because the emotions belong to individuals, they have less need of exaggeration; hence the vocal lines, however impassioned, proceed more calmly. The melodies are lighter and less broad, the rhythms more fluent and less involved.” Luisa Miller almost didn’t happen. Verdi had a longstanding contract to write a new opera for Naples’s prestigious opera house, the Teatro San Carlo. He tried to cancel the contract, but the San Carlo’s resident librettist, Salvadore Cammarano, begged Verdi to fulfill his obligation. After the composer’s initial idea for a subject was rejected by the censors, Cammarano suggested that the two of them take on a play by Friedrich von Schiller. Verdi hoped to create what he described as a “brief drama with plenty of interest, action, and above all feeling – which would all make it easier to set to music.” Extravagantly devoted to the works of Schiller, Verdi used them as his dramatic sources for three other operas – Giovanna d’Arco (1845), I masnadieri (The Bandits, 1847), and Don Carlos (1867). Luisa Miller originates with Schiller’s Kabale und Liebe (1784), a title often translated as Love and Politics but more accurately Intrigue and Love . Only the absolute essentials of the play were kept for the libretto. The 12-character cast required some major consolidating to create a three-act opera in which the typical operatic conventions of Verdi’s day could be employed. This drama unfolds through music that seems at every moment miraculously attuned to character, not always the case in Verdi’s early operas. The sweetest and most loving of heroines, Luisa moves from the dazzling staccatos and filigree of her captivating entrance aria (a reminder that Rigoletto ’s Gilda was only two years in the future) to the sweeping, despairing, grand-scale lines of her scena in Act Two. Then, in Act Three, she faces one of the toughest tests posed to any Verdi soprano: two huge duets and a trio, sung without a break. In the first duet, with Miller (baritone), she moves from misery to hope while negotiating music requiring the absolute ultimate in technical prowess. The second duet, with Rodolfo (tenor), asks her to Act Three: Rodolfo (Michael Fabiano) believes Luisa (Leah Crocetto) has betrayed him.