The Works of Giuseppe Verdi, Series 1: Operas
1 primary work • 8 total works
Book 15
Luisa Miller, a milestone in the maturation of Verdi's style, is the fifth work to be published in The Works of Giuseppe Verdi. Following the strict requirements of the series, this edition is based on Verdi's autograph and other authentic sources, and has been reviewed by a distinguished editorial board--Philip Gossett (general editor), Julian Budden, Martin Chusid, Francesco Degrada, Ursula Gunter, Giorgio Pestelli, and Pierluigi Petrobelli. It is available as a two-volume set: a full orchestral score and a critical commentary. The newly set score is printed on acid-free paper and beautifully bound in an oversized format. The introduction to the score discusses the work's genesis, sources, and performance history as well as performance practice, instrumentation, and problems of notation. The critical commentary discusses editorial decisions and identifies the sources of alternate readings of the music and libretto.
"Giovanna d'Arco" (Joan of Arc), Verdi's seventh opera, premiered at La Scala in 1845 to great public success despite subpar 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 stake, ending instead with an offstage battle in which she is mortally wounded leading the French to victory against the English.This critical edition of "Giovanna d'Arco", the first publication in full score, is based on the composer's autograph score preserved in the archives of Verdi's publisher, Casa Ricordi. It restores the opera's original text, which had been heavily censored, and accurately reflects Verdi's colorful and elaborate musical setting.
Editor Alberto Rizzuti's introduction discusses the opera's origins, sources, and performance questions, while the critical commentary details editorial problems and solutions.
Editor Alberto Rizzuti's introduction discusses the opera's origins, sources, and performance questions, while the critical commentary details editorial problems and solutions.
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 the protagonists. In the years since Attila has become one of Verdi's most popular and oftstaged early works. The composer's inimitable vitality, soaring arcs of melody, grand choruses, and passion are here amply apparent. This critical edition, based on Verdi's autograph full score preserved at the British Library, restores the opera's original text and accurately reflects the composer's colorful and elaborate musical setting, while Helen Greenwald's masterly introduction discusses the opera's origins, sources, and performance questions, and her critical commentary details editorial problems and their solutions.
English National Opera Guides are ideal companions to the opera. They provide stimulating introductory articles together with the complete text of each opera in English and the original. "If I were not afraid of being called Utopian, I should be tempted to say that to reach perfection in a musical work a single mind should create the verses and the music" - not Wagner, but Cammarano to Verdi as he worked on the libretto of Il Trovatore. Marcello Conati of the Institute for Verdi Studies points out that, although audiences have always adored it, critics are only now coming to see that it represents a step forward, and by no means a step back, from the revolutionary drama of Rigoletto, completed a year before. Professor D.R.B. Kimbell, an expert on Verdi's music, clarifies the story and takes us through the score, while Professor Donald Shaw examines the unusual symbolism of the Spanish Romantic movement. Il Trovatore may cry out to be approached just as a theatrical experience, but these essays give brief and valuable insights into the type of drama it is, and the way it works.
I, Vol 19
Traviata, La
by Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave, Edmund Tracey, and Alexandre Dumas
Published 1 January 1981
English National Opera Guides are ideal companions to the opera. They provide stimulating introductory articles together with the complete text of each opera in English and the original. In this Guide, Julian Budden reviews the difficulties that faced the management that had commissioned La Traviata and how, in some previously unpublished letters, Verdi fought their views on casting the leading lady. Denis Arnold contributes a musical commentary. April FitzLyon discusses the social background of the "lady of the camellias" in fact, fiction and on the stage, and Nicholas John compares the libretto with the play to show how skilfully it was adapted to for the operatic stage.
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 revivals, and even some music was dropped. In 1856 the composer angrily withdrew Stiffelio from circulation, reusing parts of the score for his Aroldo. The rest was later presumed lost.
Not until 1992 was it revealed that Verdi's heirs possessed not only most of the canceled score, but also sixty pages of sketches for Stiffelio. These were used for the preliminary score of the critical edition, premiered in 1993 at New York's Metropolitan Opera. It was the first time Stiffelio was performed as Verdi wrote it. It has been enthusiastically received around the world.
With the publication of the critical edition, the first in full orchestral score, Stiffelio should take its rightful place in the Verdi canon.
Not until 1992 was it revealed that Verdi's heirs possessed not only most of the canceled score, but also sixty pages of sketches for Stiffelio. These were used for the preliminary score of the critical edition, premiered in 1993 at New York's Metropolitan Opera. It was the first time Stiffelio was performed as Verdi wrote it. It has been enthusiastically received around the world.
With the publication of the critical edition, the first in full orchestral score, Stiffelio should take its rightful place in the Verdi canon.
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 publicaiton of "I Masnadieri" in full score. Based on the composer's autograph and on important secondary sources such as the performing parts mentioned above, this edition provides scholars and performers alike with unequalled means for interpretation and study of one of Verdi's less well known works. The detailed critical commentary disusses problems and ambiguities in the sources, while a wide-ranging introduction to the score traces the opera's genesis, sources and peformance history and practices.
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 16th-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 of Alzira fully realizes his potential as a masterful composer for the theater. Because the success of the premiere was not repeated, Alzira fell out of the repertory and no orchestral score was ever published. This critical edition, based on Verdi's autograph score and important secondary sources, provides a full score of the work. It is complemented by an introduction tracing the opera's genesis, sources and performance history and practices.
Together with the detailed critical commentary, discussing problems and ambiguities in the sources, this edition provides scholars and performers alike with a means for interpretation and study of this poorly known work.
Together with the detailed critical commentary, discussing problems and ambiguities in the sources, this edition provides scholars and performers alike with a means for interpretation and study of this poorly known work.