"Alzira's" problems are, in fact, largely libretto problems. "Alzira" is useful as a reminder of how good this routine Verdi, coming out of his phase of apprenticeship, can be. The music is mostly routine Verdi of the 1840s, on the verge of his period of true greatness, which would begin in 1847 with "Macbeth," reach total mastery in 1851 with "Rigoletto" and continue thereafter with few letdowns until the end of his career. What it clearly lacks are the Verdi show-stoppers-arias like "La donn' e mobile," "Di Provenza il mar" or "Vissi d'arte," which are the product of inspiration working at white heat, unpredictable and impossible to summon up at will. In this performance, "Alzira" actually comes out sounding fairly good-perhaps in part because its advance notices have not led to high expectations. Casual opera-goers can live without it, but hard-core Verdi devotees will consider it a must. Nobody can say that this stepchild of the Verdi canon has not been given a fair chance. Like the other obscure Verdiana from Philips, "Alzira" is conducted by the eminent and thoroughly satisfying Lamberto Gardelli with a first-class international cast, including soprano Ileana Cotrubas, tenor Francisco Araiza, and baritone Renato Bruson. Orfeo, an intrepid recording company dedicated to documenting unknown operas, has rushed into a territory avoided even by Philips, which has recorded "Attila," "La battaglia di Legnano," "Stiffelio," "Il corsaro," "Un giorno di regno" and "I due Foscari." It does sound effective, in fact, in the first recording "Alzira" has ever had (Orfeo S 057832 H, two LPs with libretto) and the only one it is likely to enjoy in the foreseeable future.
#Verdi opera 1844 series
Toye notes for example, that one series of harmonies "looks positively frightening on paper" but "must have sounded most effective." "Alzira" was taken out of performance in the 1840s and not revived until the Rome Opera mounted a production in 1967. Surrounding it in the Verdi chronology of 1844-46 are three other works composed under severe time pressure, all of which are flawed: "I due Foscari," "Giovanna d'Arco" and "Attila." These four operas all had their premieres within a period of 18 months, which meant too much writing on deadline ("Alzira" was composed in 20 days), even for a composer as energetic and productive as Verdi.Įxcept for Verdi himself, the opera's best-known critics have based their impressions on the published vocal score-not actual performance, which is always the acid test for Verdi. "Alzira" does not have the excuses of youth and inexperience it comes after such accepted works as "Nabucco," "I Lombardi" and "Ernani." But it is from a period during which the composer suffered from overwork and ill health. The usually admiring Francis Toye may be taken as a spokesman for this chorus of naysayers: "To my mind, Alzira is undoubtedly the worst of Verdi's operas," he writes in his biography of Verdi. It is the most unequivocally harsh criticism Verdi ever uttered about his own work, and it has been echoed and elaborated by nearly every Verdi commentator since then. His judgment stood unchallenged for more than a century during which the opera was denounced but not heard. GIUSEPPE VERDI'S eighth opera, "Alzira," inspired Verdi himself to write, "That one is really ugly" ("Quella e proprio brutta"), in a letter to a friend in his later years.