Ages from its premiere at La Fenice in 1851, Italian opera director Daniele Abbado brings his new vision for Verdi’s tragic opera (and Piave’s gorgeously effective libretto) Rigoletto to Venice’s historic opera house. Opening night’s cast is Eric Cutler as The Duke, Roberto Frontali as Rigoletto, and Désirée Rancatore as Gilda. Myung-Whun Chung conducts.
Tutto Verdi – The Operas Vol. 2, 1847 – 1853
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.