I vespri siciliani

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

Not until 1855 did Verdi have a chance to try his hand at the genre of French grand opera. A setting of a libretto by Eugène Scribe, Les Vêpres siciliennes proved a success in Paris despite the problematical nature of its subject matter, which deals with the Sicilian uprising against occupying French forces in Palermo in 1282. Today, the opera is usually given in the Italian version of 1861 as I Vespri siciliani.

Il Trovatore

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

Love and revenge are fatally interwoven in Il trovatore, and barely any of the characters survives the sombre action. Based on a Spanish play in the tradition of gothic horror, the work was written in 1851–52 and proved to be a triumph for Verdi. Within only a few years it had been performed in major opera houses all over the world and remains one of the most popular operas in the international repertory.

Rigoletto

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

For Verdi, Victor Hugo’s play Le roi s’amuse was “arguably the greatest drama of the present day“. But many of his contemporaries were scandalized by this tale of corpses, jesters, cripples and a king addicted to venal love. And yet this no doubt helps to explain why Rigoletto turned out to be Verdi’s second great success and laid the foundations for his emergence as Italy’s leading opera composer.

Stiffelio

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

The wife of a Protestant preacher as an adulteress – problems with the censor were inevitable from the outset with Verdi’s opera Stiffelio, which was premièred in November 1850. Even today the finale seems astonishingly bold: superficially it deals with forgiveness and reconciliation, but the orchestral writing is in such striking contrast that Verdi appears to be tolling the death knell of the protagonists’ marriage.

Luisa Miller

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 from the Teatro Regio in Parma.

“This is how Verdi should be played” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on TUTTO VERDI

Il corsaro

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

Macbeth

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

I Lombardi

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

Nabucco

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 from the Teatro Regio in Parma.

“This is how Verdi should be played” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on TUTTO VERDI

Un giorno di regno

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 from the Teatro Regio in Parma.

“This is how Verdi should be played” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on TUTTO VERDI