Co-production between the Opéra de Paris and the Gran Teatre del Liceu, signed by Jean-Claude Auvray
“Beauty and death, two profound things, with so much shade and azure, that we consider them equally terrible and fertile sisters, with the same enigma and the same secret.”.
Victor Hugo (Sonet, 1871)
La forza del destino is an opera from Verdi's heyday. Premiered four years after Un ballo in maschera, a very special moment in his production, it coincides with the prevailing taste for a glimpse of the exoticism of other worlds.
Focusing on this fascination with Spanish culture, Verdi wrote Ernani (1844), Il trovatore (1853), Don Carlo (1867) and La forza del destino (1862). The action begins with the dream of two lovers, Don Alvaro and Leonora, preparing to elope, but the two lovers are surprised by the young woman's father. Misfortune follows them when Don Alvaro, while throwing his pistols on the ground, unintentionally fires one and kills the father: fortune is capricious and laughs at the fate of men.
Only Verdi's talent could transform a convoluted plot, filled with clichés from the Spanish Romantic school, into an opera that is a quintessential example of the 19th century Italian repertoire and a true musical miracle.
La forza is an adaptation of the play Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino, a drama in five days in prose and verse by Ángel María de Saavedra y Ramírez de Baquedano, Duke of Rivas, first performed at the Teatro del Príncipe in Madrid in 1835. Verdi and Piave were enthusiastic about the work of this curious character, a great man of Spain, the most famous playwright of his time, a painter and politician who even became president of the government for two days in 1854.
To complete the libretto, a scene adapted from the Wallensteins Lager by Friedrich Schiller, one of Giuseppe Verdi's favourite authors, was added. Verdi travelled to St. Petersburg, capital of the Russian Empire at the time, in December 1861 to attend the première of his new opera, which had to be cancelled, but finally premiered the following November at the Bolshoi Kamenny (later Mariisnky) Theatre.
It was the start of an anecdote charged with "bad luck" that has remained forever associated with this Verdian title, also known as "la Innominable", a so-called black legend because of its numerous problems both in production and staging, including real deaths on stage. A great Italian fresco full of plot twists in which the curse of the father hangs heavy and overshadows everything.
La Forza, like Rigoletto and Il Trovatore, is also a work of its time. In 1861, Verdi agreed to become a member of parliament to pursue his political ideals. However, "Il Risorgimento" was more ambitious than Verdi wanted, and the composer fell prey to a degree of scepticism. That same dark melancholy pervades the entire score, where the motif of fate recurs throughout the idea of redemption. In this co-production between the Opéra de Paris and the Gran Teatre del Liceu, directed by Jean-Claude Auvray, the opera becomes a place where dreams shatter against the wall of reality while a faint but toxic song of hope emerges.
An immense canvas for this opera with minimalist scenography, full of romantic details and a score that demands sublime performers like Maria Agresta and Saioa Hernández to find all the nuances of Leonora's emotion (from joy through to the resignation of the last broken heart). Accompanying these is a cast featuring Brian Jagde as Don Alvaro, the man she loves, and Artur Rucinski, Don Carlo, the dark instrument of her destiny. Maestro Nicola Luisotti's brilliant conducting is a lesson in Verdian style applied to scenes of grand lyricism and refinement, alternating with comic passages.
Melodramma in four acts.
Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del destino by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas; with a scene adapted from Friedrich von Schiller’s Wallensteins Lager.
- World premiere: 10/11/1862 at the Imperial Theater in Sant Petersburg.
- Barcelona premiere: 21/12/1872 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.
- Last Liceu performance: 20/10/2012.
- Total number of Liceu performances: 63.
With the support of:
Artistic profile
- Stage director
- Jean-Claude Auvray
- Revival
- Leo Castaldi
- Choreography
- Terry John Bates
- Set design
- Paolo Ferri
- Escenografia
- Alain Chambon
- Costume design
- Maria Chiara Donato
- Lighting
- Laurent Castaing
- Production
- Gran Teatre del Liceu and Opéra national de Paris
- Chrous of the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Pablo Assante, director)
- Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu
- Musical director assistant
- Luis Miguel Méndez
- Conductor
- Nicola Luisotti
Cast
Cast changes
- Mezzo-soprano Caterina Piva will sing the role of Preziosilla in 'La forza del destino,' replacing Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, who has reached an agreement with the Liceu to leave the production.
- Baritone Pietro Spagnoli plays the role of Fra Melitone in place of Gabriele Viviani, who has been advised to rest for medical reasons.