The performance history of "Stiffelio" as Verdi envisioned it began only in 1993. Composed with "Rigoletto, " and sharing many of its characteristics, "Stiffelio" suffered from the censors' strictures. From its premiere in 1850, its text was diluted to appease the authorities, making a mockery of the action and Verdi's carefully calibrated music. The story of Stiffelio, a protestant minister who eventually divorces his adulterous wife but forgives her from the pulpit in the final scene, shocked conservative Italian religious and political powers. The libretto was rewritten for subsequent...
The performance history of "Stiffelio" as Verdi envisioned it began only in 1993. Composed with "Rigoletto, " and sharing many of its characteristics,...
Verdi had a special fondness for "Macbeth," and the first version of his opera based on Shakespeare's play is arguably the most important work of his formative years. But dissatisfied with the work of his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, Verdi reworked the text himself and lavished the score with particular attention. The premiere in Florence in 1847 was a great success, but for the Paris premiere in 1865, Verdi made substantial changes, adding dances and an entirely new aria, duet, chorus, and death scene. Clearly, he intended that "Macbeth II" supersede the earlier version, and today the...
Verdi had a special fondness for "Macbeth," and the first version of his opera based on Shakespeare's play is arguably the most important work of his ...
"Giovanna d Arco" (Joan of Arc), Verdi s seventh opera, premiered at La Scala in 1845 to great public success despite sub-par production standards, and modern performances have swept away both audiences and critical reservations when the work is executed with faithfulness to his score. At the heart of this large-scale opera, with its prominent choruses, is the difficult and beautiful part of Joan simultaneously ethereal soprano and dynamic warrior. The libretto by Temistocle Solera, based in part on Schiller s play "Die Jungfrau von Orleans," omits Joan s trial for heresy and burning at the...
"Giovanna d Arco" (Joan of Arc), Verdi s seventh opera, premiered at La Scala in 1845 to great public success despite sub-par production standards, an...
Composed between October 1846 and the spring of 1847, "I masnadieri" features a libretto based on Schiller's play "Die Rauber" (The Robbers). The opera premiered in July 1847 at Her Majesty's Theatre, London, with Jenny Lind as the "prima donna." Verdi himself supervised the rehearsals for the premiere, and the original performing parts, which contain annotations made by the players under Verdi's direction and changes made by the composer during the rehearsals, have been preserved at the archives of the Royal Opera House. The critical edition is the first publication of "I masnadieri" in...
Composed between October 1846 and the spring of 1847, "I masnadieri" features a libretto based on Schiller's play "Die Rauber" (The Robbers). The oper...
"Alzira" is the seventh work and the sixth opera to be published in the critical edition of "The Works of Giuseppe Verdi." Composed during the middle of the very productive period of Verdi's first large-scale successes, "Alzira" premiered at Naples on August 12, 1845. Cammarano's libretto is based on a play of Voltaire, who used a real incident in sixteenth-century Peru during the Spanish conquest to shape a critique of the morality of the noble savage as against Christian values. The inherent conflicts and exotic setting appealed to Verdi's dramatic sense, and in its best moments the music...
"Alzira" is the seventh work and the sixth opera to be published in the critical edition of "The Works of Giuseppe Verdi." Composed during the middle ...
Verdi's Attila, his ninth opera, had its premiere at Venice's Teatro La Fenice in March 1846. Based on the German play Attila, King of the Huns, the libretto has its own storied history: as Verdi fell seriously ill before the work's completion, the main librettist moved permanently to Madrid, leaving the last act of Attila only a sketch. It was then that Verdi called upon Francesco Maria Piave, the librettist for two of his earlier works, who at the composer's behest scratched plans for a large choral finale and decided instead to concentrate on the dramatic roles of...
Verdi's Attila, his ninth opera, had its premiere at Venice's Teatro La Fenice in March 1846. Based on the German play Attila, King of th...
I due Foscari enjoys pride of place among Verdi's early operas for its commanding music and striking use of recurring themes to identify the principal characters. Here, the young composer can be seen experimenting with new means of musical and dramatic expression. This critical edition, based on Verdi's autograph score and autograph corrections in the first manuscript copy, offers the full score--including powerful passages later excised by Roman censors and appendices containing sketches, fragments, rejected passages, and a substitute cabaletta for Jacopo's cavatina. With an...
I due Foscari enjoys pride of place among Verdi's early operas for its commanding music and striking use of recurring themes to identify the pr...
The Works of Giuseppe Verdi is the first critical edition of the composer's oeuvre. Together with his operas, the series presents his songs, his choral music and sacred pieces, and his string quartet and other instrumental works. Based on Verdi's autograph score and an examination of important secondary sources, including contemporary manuscript copies and performing parts, this edition of Il trovatore identifies and resolves numerous ambiguities of harmony, melodic detail, text, and phrasing that have marred previous scores. Scholars and performers alike will find a wealth of...
The Works of Giuseppe Verdi is the first critical edition of the composer's oeuvre. Together with his operas, the series presents his songs, his chora...
"I complain bitterly of the editions of my last operas, made with such little care, and filled with an infinite number of errors."--Giuseppe Verdi The University of Chicago Press, in collaboration with Casa Ricordi, has undertaken to publish the first critical edition of the complete works of Giuseppe Verdi. The series, based exclusively on original sources, is the only one to present authentic versions of all of the composer's works; together with his operas, the critical edition presents his songs, his choral music and sacred pieces, and his string quartet and other instrumental...
"I complain bitterly of the editions of my last operas, made with such little care, and filled with an infinite number of errors."--Giuseppe Verdi
