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 the exoticism of other worlds. 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. 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 his librettist 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. In 1861, Verdi himself agreed to become a member of parliament to pursue his political ideals. However, the unification of Italy was not as Verdi imagined and the composer fell prey to a degree of scepticism. That same dark melancholy pervades the entire score of La forza, where the motif of fate recurs throughout the idea of redemption. In this co-production between Opéra de Paris and Gran Teatre del Liceu, directed by Jean-Claude Auvray, the opera becomes a place where dreams confront reality while a faint but toxic song of hope emerges. The immense canvas for this opera is full of romantic details that require first-rate performers – gathered at Barcelona’s Gran Teatro del Liceu under the baton of Maestro Nicola Luisotti. Streamed by Slippedisc courtesy of OperaVision.
The Plot: two lovers, Don Alvaro and Leonora, are preparing to elope, but they 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.
Streamed on Saturday 30 November at 1900 CET / 1800 London / 1300 New York
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