Opera "Louise Miller": content, video, interesting facts, history

D. Verdi opera "Louise Miller"

Thin connoisseur of human nature Giuseppe Verdi He based his 14 operas on a popular play by F. Schiller, but focused his attention not on cunning and love, but on the personal drama of the main character, Louise Miller.

Summary of the opera Verdi "Louise Miller"and many interesting facts about this work read on our page.

Summary of "Louise Miller"

Tyrol, first half of the 17th century.

"Love"

Rodolfo, who is represented in the village by Karl, comes to congratulate his beloved Louise on his birthday. He tries not to stand out from among her friends, ordinary villagers. The claimant to the girl’s hand is also Wurm, to whom she does not reciprocate. In order to gain an advantage over his rival, Wurm tells the old Miller that it’s not Karl who cares for his daughter, but the son of Count Walter.

The count also learns from Wurm about the son’s rural adventures. He wants to prevent misalliance and marry her son to Countess Ostheim. Federica herself also likes this plan - from childhood she has been in love with Rodolfo. But he friendly trusts her with his heart secret, thereby igniting the fire of jealousy. Miller tells his daughter who Rodolfo really is, and whom he will have to marry. But the young man assures Louise of his love, and they both pray to Miller to bless them for marriage. Walter, who was watching his son, is enraged, he orders to arrest the old man with his daughter. Rodolfo threatens his father that he will unveil the machinations with which he became a count.

"Deceit"

Miller is arrested. Wurm comes to the desperate Louise, offering to write a letter in which she admits that she loves him, and not Rodolfo - this could help her father. The girl agrees. The count is worried that his son knows his secret - he and Wurm committed murder in order to obtain the title. He understands that Rodolfo will not betray him only if he decides to abandon Louise. For this, Wurm shows Rodolfo her letter of recognition. The young man calls him to a duel, from which he evades. Walter, hiding behind his father's care, tells his son that he should have allowed him to marry Louise, but the young man is already poisoned by suspicion of infidelity. Then the count offers his son to marry Federica, thereby avenging the traitor.

"Poison"

Miller was released from prison, and Louise wants to write to Rodolfo that she succumbed to blackmail, but she realizes that she can put her father under attack again. They decide to leave the village. While the girl is deeply immersed in prayer, Rodolfo silently enters the room, adding poison to the glass. They both drink from it. In the face of death, Louise reveals the truth about what happened, the lovers reconcile. The Count and Wurm rush in to the Millers, before his death Rodolfo manages to plunge his sword into his enemy. Both fathers mourn the loss of children.

A photo

Interesting Facts

• In "Louise Miller" for the first time Verdi brings to the scene a female image that will more than once accompany his later work and will become one of his favorites: a lonely weak girl who becomes a victim of intrigue in the harsh male world. Such are Gilda in Rigoletto and Violetta in.Traviata"and Desdemona in"Othello".
• In this opera, Verdi writes unique duos for two low male voices. Later similar numbers will appear in "Simone Boccanegre"and"Dona carlos".

• Wurm is a prototype of Verdean infernal villains, such as Paolo Albani in Simone Boccanegra and Iago in Othello.
• "Louise Miller" - the most popular of the rarely-sounding operas by Verdi, every year in the world it is performed about 180 times.
• Interest in opera dramatically increased in the late 1960s-1970s when Montserrat Caballe, Katja Ricchiarelli, Renata Scotto shone on various world scenes in the party of Louise, and their partners in Rodolfo were Jose Carreras, Luciano Pavarotti, and Placido Domingo. Nowadays Domingo successfully plays the role of Miller.
• In the 1840s, Verdi created half of all his operas. "Louise Miller" was the 13th and the last in this musical marathon. While for artistic value, it is comparable only with the three works of that period - "Nabucco"," Ernani "and"Macbeth".
• Salvatore Cammarano - author of the libretto for 8 operas G. Donizettiincluding "Lucia di Lammermoor"and" Roberto Devereaux. "For Verdi, he also wrote" Alzira "," Battle of Legnano "and"Troubadour“, the work on which he interrupted his death in 1852. Also in his last months, Kammarano worked on the Shakespearean“ King Lear ”libretto, the idea of ​​which Verdi had been bearing all his life, but was never able to do it.

The best numbers from the opera "Louise Miller"

"Quando le sere al placido" - Rodolfo's romance (listen)

"Tu puniscimi, O Signore" - Louise's aria (listen)

"Sacra la scelta ..." - Miller's aria (listen)

The history of the creation and productions of "Louise Miller"

"Louise Miller" marked a transitional period in the works Verdi, moving away from the bravura heroic scenes, which brought him first glory, to the lyrical and psychological drama. This opera could not have been if it were not for the forced and not very pleasant circumstance - a conflict with the Neapolitan theater of San Carlo. In 1845, Verdi signed a contract with him to create an opera, but cooperation did not develop, and in August 1848 he wrote a letter to the theater demanding the cancellation of their agreements. San Carlo, on the contrary, decided to take advantage of the situation and keep the famous composer, going for it literally to blackmail. The contract was not only the author of the music, but also the librettist, Salvatore Cammarano. And if Verdi, then living in Paris, no judicial sanctions were not terrible, then the Neapolitan Cammarano was threatened with measures up to imprisonment.

Verdi, trusting the taste of the librettist (together they have already written two operas), asks him to find an interesting sensual drama that will simply be put to music. True, he already has such a plot - F. D. Gwerazzi "Siege of Florence". The maestro offers it to his permanent co-author FM. Piave, but he is busy at a military gathering, so Kammarano gets an order for the libretto. Soon, disappointing news came from Naples to Paris - local censorship categorically banned the plot to be staged. The librettist advised Verdi to avoid ambiguous revolutionary themes and recalled the work, to which the composer himself had once paid attention, to F. Schiller's drama “Insidiousness and Love”. On May 14, 1849, Cammarano sent Verdi a ready-made synopsis. Transferring the action from the ducal court to the Tyrolean village, he shifted the emphasis from deceit to love. In general, this led to a significant simplification of Schiller’s plot collisions, but the opera only benefited.

On August 13, Verdi began writing music, and on December 8, 1849, in San Carlo, presented the finished opera to the viewer. The title role was performed by Marietta Gatstsaniga, who sang and the next premiere of the maestro, "Stiffelio". Both of her works by Verdi did not like that he did not consider it necessary to hide. Rodolfo sang Settimo Malvezzi, and Miller sang the baritone Achille de Bassini. The last maestro highly appreciated. Earlier, Bassini participated in the premiere of his operas "Two Foscari", "Corsair", and much later went with the composer to St. Petersburg to go at the premiere of "The Power of Fate" in the party of Fra Melitona, written especially for him.

Louise Miller accepted the audience well, but the maestro decided never to cooperate with the San Carlo theater, and that’s what happened - for Naples, he didn’t write anything else. For the next three years, the opera was staged on the leading Italian stages in Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan. In 1852, she was heard overseas, in Philadelphia. In St. Petersburg, the Imperial Italian Opera performed "Louise Miller" in 1857, Russian singers took the stage in the performance of the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater. Kirov in 1936.

"Louise Miller" on video

Far from every country in Europe you can attend the performance of "Louise Miller" - she is a rare guest on the stage. Due to the fact that some interesting productions remained on video, the opera also sounds from home screens.

• Theater performance by Reggio di Parma, 2007, conducted by Donato Renzetti. In the main parties: Fiorenza Chedolin (Louise), Marcelo Alvarez (Rodolfo), Leo Nucci (Miller).
• Performance Metropolitan Opera, 1979, conducted by James Levine. In the main parties: Renata Scotto, Placido Domingo, Sherill Milns.
• Performance Covent Garden, 1979, conducted by Lorin Maazel. In the main parties: Katya Richcharelli, Placido Domingo, Renato Bruzon.

Opera "Louise Miller"turned out to be completely similar to her heroine, possessing inner virtues with outward modesty. It contains all the musical and dramatic elements that later became embodied in the best examples of the mature Verdi:"Rigoletto"" Troubadour ","Traviata".