He wrote 25 operas, apparently his are the most performed of the works of any composer. They're also, almost all, pretty serious, glorious music framing tragedies and historical, political dramas. (If you want to find out more about Verdi, start here at our 2018 website.)
He wrote only two comedies, one at the beginning and one at the end of his life. The first was a failure, the last a triumph. It's the first - Un Giorno di Regno, that we watch this week.
It's one of the least performed of Verdi operas. But this slight opera invites a feisty production. Directed with a good sense of the ridiculous, it's simply fun, loping through the spoof of a king's palace, with too many cooks and serving folk and a lot of food.
Un Giorno di Regno (usually translated as King for a Day). was a flop at its premiere, hissed off the stage and cancelled for its season. It was hardly performed since until it was revived for the Verdi festivals. Verdi, whose personal life was shattered at that stage, vowed never to write another opera (but fortunately nobody held him to that.).
Wikipedia has the context in his life, the story of this opera and the synopsis of this impossibly silly libretto here. The story is actually based on history - the Polish monarch King Stanislaw was ousted in the War of Succession and exiled in France, so to return to Poland he got a French officer to impersonate him in France. I didn't make this up and neither did Verdi's librettist, but it's meat for a crazy complicated plot. It's also good material for music, but musical in a way that promises Verdi while imitating Donizetti. Above all, it's fun, and fascinating to contrast with his later, heavier dramatic tragedies and historical works.
Interesting comment in this review of a later (2018) Verdi Festival performance. 'The plot is complicated as is typical of opera buffa and its initial failure was not unlikely due to the fact that the music was rather old-fashioned in style. To my ears the music sounded rather ottocento in style which was rapidly going out of fashion when it was composed. In fact Julian Budden notes that “by the side of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore or Don Pasquale it cuts a clumsy figure”.
We're watching a 2013 production from Parma, his birthplace, during the annual Verdi festival. Rather like the beautiful town, the set is all arches and ceremonial spaces, colour and staging.
We'll play the full recording, pausing for discussion. If you prefer to watch in your own time, it is available online here, with English surtitles superimposed.
Reviews of this production were mixed. They agreed it's not a masterpiece, but then masterpieces from Verdi were heavy stuff. In the words of Opera News this production had 'undeniable charms'!
And about that final comedy?
Verdi's final opera leaves a huge question - it's extraordinary there weren't more comedies in this brilliant composer's output. Falstaff has been called Verdi’s greatest work, and was a huge success from its debut. There's lots about it on our 2018 website. The Met's brilliant 1992 production screened live to us last year. As did Glydebourne's (2009) hilarious historically updated production with Christopher Purves. Listen here to the trailer to remind you!
Or catch up with Purves' latest performance in Barrie Kosky's new production, available online for free until later this month. Click here to listen (so long as your French is up to it: it's a production for Aix-en-Provence, so surtitles are in French.) Brilliant, according to Bachtrack.
Lyn, 7 Sept 2021
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