Luisa Miller
Luisa Miller is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play Kabale und Liebe by the German dramatist Friedrich von Schiller.
Verdi's initial idea for a new opera – for which he had a contract going back over several years – was rejected by the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. He attempted to negotiate his way out of this obligation and, when that failed, Cammarano came up with the idea of adapting the Schiller play, with which Verdi was familiar. The process was set in motion, with Verdi still living and working on initial ideas from Paris, where he had been living for almost two years before moving back to his home town of Busseto in the summer of 1849. It was from there that he wrote the music and traveled to Naples for rehearsals. The first performance was given on 8 December 1849.
This was Verdi's 15th opera, and it is regarded as the beginning of the composer's "middle period".
Composition history
In August 1848, Verdi had written to the Naples opera house cancelling his contract of three years previous, in which he had agreed to write an opera for them. However, the management held him to it by threatening his librettist for failing to provide a libretto, and Verdi relented, encouraging Cammarano to develop "a brief drama with plenty of interest, action and above all feeling – which would make it easier to set to music".In Verdi's mind, he had the perfect subject, to be based on the novel L'assedio di Firenze by Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi, which glorified the life of the 16th-century Florentine soldier Francesco Ferruccio. This new subject was also a patriotic piece: Verdi had taken to heart the admonitions of the poet Giuseppe Giusti, who had pleaded with him after Macbeth and after Milan's political turmoil of March 1848 and its aftermath to "do what you can to nourish the , to strengthen it, and direct it to its goal".
Attempting to get a new libretto underway, Verdi approached Francesco Maria Piave, found him engaged as a soldier for the new Venetian republic, and so contacted Cammarano in Naples with the idea of L'assedio. But, as it turned out, Cammarano had to tell Verdi that the Naples censors rejected the outline of a subject which had interested Verdi very much since the time he prepared his previous opera, La battaglia di Legnano. His inability to continue to develop the project came as a blow. Verdi's biographer Julian Budden notes that "next to Re Lear, this was to be the most fascinating of Verdi unrealized subjects"; another biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz adds that she regards L'assedio di Firenze as "one of Verdi's most important uncomposed works."
Cammarano advised the composer to avoid a story which had any sort of revolutionary tinge, and he came back with an idea which Verdi himself had once proposed in 1846 when he was recovering from his illness and in the company of Andrea Maffei : to adapt Schiller's Kabale und Liebe. Therefore, he sent a synopsis of Luisa Miller to Verdi on 14 May 1849.
Verdi's reply to Cammarano on 17 May outlines some of his concerns; these revolved around the shift of some elements and the addition of a duet for Walter and Wurm. As Budden notes, "the only one of these points on which Verdi got his way was the new duet", but Budden emphasizes the "spirit of give and take" which prevailed through their relationship. One example regarded the ending of act 1 where Verdi emphasized that there should no stretta, and the librettist agreed provided that "the act did not end in slow tempo but should quicken towards an animated finish.".
Cammarano moved the action from a princely court to a Tyrolean village, and shifted the characters away from the princely intrigues which preoccupied Schiller. He therefore moved the focus much more toward the "Liebe" and away from the "Kabale" aspects of the play.
With the idea of Luisa Miller agreed upon, from Paris Verdi approached the Naples management, trying to obtain a delay or, at least, to allow the new opera to be presented in his absence. When this approach was rejected, the composer made plans for both himself and his companion Giuseppina Strepponi to leave Paris; Verdi went to his native Busseto, arriving about 10 August, and took up residence in the Palazzo Orlandi which he had bought in 1845; Strepponi joined him there a month later, for what was to be a difficult period in both their lives.
It was from Busseto that Verdi then began work on the score of this opera, having received the libretto from Cammarano on 13 August. In October he left for Naples, accompanied by Antonio Barezzi, whom he continued to refer to as his "father-in-law".
Distinctive elements of the libretto
When music writer Charles Osborne describes the libretto as "inadequate as an adaptation of Schiller's excellent play Cammarano's Luisa Miller is, in its own right, a very fine libretto", he continues by comparing it with Cammarano's previous libretto for La battaglia di Legnano, which contrasts:Baldini makes a similar point when he comments in his 1970 book The Story of Giuseppe Verdi that the opera
"is in every sense a bourgeois tragedy it feeds on the extraordinary fascination we have for everyday violent crimes. Nothing so far written by Verdi comes close to the concept of realism" and he also comments on the essentially "private" nature of the opera; before Luisa, "something had always been raging, striving beyond the limits of private interests".
Performance history
19th century
The premiere, on 8 December 1849, was well received, although for Verdi, the experience of dealing with the authorities at the San Carlo Opera in Naples caused him to vow never to produce another opera there. In fact, he never did, in spite of having initially written Un ballo in maschera for that house.In Italy following the premiere, Luisa was given in Rome in 1850 and in Venice, Florence and Milan again up to 1852. The US premiere was staged by the Caroline Richings Company at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia on 27 October 1852 with Caroline Richings in the title role. This was followed on 3 June 1858 by the first UK presentation at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.
20th century and beyond
While not as popular as the most often performed of Verdi's works such as Rigoletto, La Traviata or Aida, Luisa Miller is fairly often seen on the stages of the world's opera houses.Following its initial six performances during the 1929/30 season at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the opera was not given there again until 1968 under Thomas Schippers. The Luisa was Montserrat Caballé, the Rodolfo Richard Tucker, the Miller Sherrill Milnes, the Walter Giorgio Tozzi, and the Wurm Ezio Flagello. The Met has revived the work numerous times since then.
Notable revivals include those featuring Caballé at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in January 1972 and at the Teatro alla Scala in May 1976. Katia Ricciarelli sang the title role along with Luciano Pavarotti several times in those years, particularly in San Francisco and again in Turin along with José Carreras. In 1978 the opera was presented at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, also with Ricciarelli in the title role. Luciano Pavarotti sang the role of Rodolfo in the original run; later seasons saw Ricciarelli reprising the title role with tenor José Carreras, followed by Plácido Domingo and then Carlo Bergonzi
Three opera companies, which plan to present all of Verdi's operas, have given this opera: the Sarasota Opera in 1999 as part of its "Verdi Cycle"; the Teatro Regio di Parma in October 2007 as part of their ongoing "Festival Verdi"; and the ABAO in Bilbao, Spain, in 2012 as part of its "Viva Verdi" series.
The Paris Opéra at the Bastille Opera presented the work with Ana Maria Martinez and Ramón Vargas as Luisa and Rodolfo respectively on 8 March 2008.
In April–May 2010, a new production of the Zurich Opera House included Barbara Frittoli as Luisa, Fabio Armiliato as Rodolfo and Leo Nucci as Miller. In 2012, productions were seen in three German cities including Berlin, Stuttgart, and Munich, as well as Malmo in Sweden. In 2013, the opera was presented by the Israeli Opera company in Tel Aviv, by the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Duisburg and Düsseldorf, and in Budapest. The San Francisco Opera opened their 93rd season in September 2015 by performing the opera.
Roles
Synopsis
Act 1
Scene 1: A villageOn Luisa's birthday, the villagers have gathered outside her house to serenade her. She loves Carlo, a young man she has met in the village and looks for him in the crowd. Luisa's father, Miller, is worried by this mysterious love since Carlo is a stranger. Carlo appears and the couple sing of their love. As the villagers leave to enter the nearby church, Miller is approached by a courtier, Wurm, who is in love with Luisa, wishes to marry her, and previously attained permission to marry Luisa from Miller. But Miller tells him that he had agreed to give his blessing but she had to agree to the marriage herself and Miller will never make a decision against his daughter's will. Irritated by his reply, Wurm reveals to Miller that in reality Carlo is Rodolfo, Count Walter's son. Alone, Miller expresses his anger.
Scene 2: Count Walter's castle
Wurm informs the Count of Rodolfo's love for Luisa and is ordered to summon the son. The Count expresses his frustration with his son. When Rodolfo enters, Count Walter tells him that it is intended that he marry Walter's niece Federica, the Duchess of Ostheim.
When Rodolfo is left alone with Federica, he confesses that he loves another woman, hoping that the duchess will understand. But Federica is too much in love with him to understand.
Scene 3: Miller's house
Miller tells his daughter who Rodolfo really is. Rodolfo arrives and admits his deception but swears that his love is sincere. Kneeling in front of Miller he declares that Luisa is his bride. Count Walter enters and confronts his son. Drawing his sword, Miller defends his daughter and Walter orders that both father and daughter be arrested. Rodolfo stands up against his father and threatens him: if he does not free the girl, Rodolfo will reveal how Walter became count. Frightened, Walter orders Luisa to be freed.