La Battaglia di Legnano
TUTTO VERDI – this edition to mark the Verdi bicentenary sets standards by which all similar projects will be judged. It includes all twenty-six operas by the greatest Italian stage composer, together with his immortal Requiem, all of them in definitive performances. “This is how Verdi should be played” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on TUTTO VERDI
La battaglia di Legnano is the only opera by Verdi to have any direct bearing on the Risorgimento – the Italian liberation movement. Only superficially is the action concerned with the conflict betwen the Lombard League and Frederick Barbarossa, the Hohenstaufen emperor. Among the opera’s highlights are its patriotic choruses, with which Verdi stirred up opinion in favour of a united Italy.
Best of Verdi Choruses
OPERA CHORUSES
Nabucco
“Gli arredi festivi giù cadano infranti”
“Va’, pensiero, sull’ali dorate”
I lombardi alla prima crociata
“Gerusalem! Gerusalem!”
“O Signore, dal tetto natio”
Ernani
“Esultiamo! Letizia ne innondi!”
“Si ridesti il Leon di Castiglia”
I due Foscari: “Silenzio, mistero”
Attila: “Urli, rapine”
Macbeth
“Tre volte miagola la gatta in fregola”
“Patria oppressa!”
I masnadieri: “Le rube, gli stupri, gl’incendi, le morti”
La battaglia di Legnano: “Viva Italia! Sacro un patto”
Rigoletto: “Zitti, zitti, moviamo a vendetta”
Il trovatore
“Vedi! Le fosche notturne spoglie”
“Squilli, echeggi la tromba guerriera”
La traviata: “Noi siamo zingarelle … Di Madride noi siam mattadori”
La forza del destino
“La Vergine degli angeli”
“Compagni, sostiamo”
Don Carlo: “Spuntato ecco il dì d’esultanza”
Aida: “Gloria all’Egitto, ad Iside”
Otello: „Fuoco di gioia!
Falstaff: “Tutto nel mondo è burla”
La battaglia di Legnano
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Italian unity, Ruggero Cappuccio staged a new production of Verdi’s opera “La battaglia di Legnano” for the Rome Opera. Premiered in 1849, this work won Verdi a unique spot in the hearts of the Italian people, making the composer a living symbol of the struggle for liberation and unification. Leading the talented cast are Dimitra Theodossiou as Lida, Andrew Richards as the freedom fighter Arrigo, and Leonardo Lopez Linares as Rolando, Arrigo’s best friend. Boris Brott conducts with the “fire needed for this patriotic opera. [ ]” (Der neue Merker).