Verdi's Luisa Miller: Masterwork on the Cusp

 

William Shakespeare and Friedrich von Schiller were among Verdi’s favorite authors. The Bard of Avon inspired three of the composer’s librettos (Macbeth, Otello, Falstaff); the giant of German Classicism and Romanticism provided subjects for no less than four of his operas: Giovanna d’Arco (Die Jungfrau von Orleans), I Masnadieri (Die Räuber [The Robbers]), Don Carlos, and Luisa Miller (Kabale und Liebe [Intrigue and Love]). Only Don Carlos (known familiarly with its Italian title Don Carlo) has secured a place in the core repertoire of the world’s major lyric theatres.

Luisa Miller premiered just two years before the beloved Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, and La Traviata, vintage 1851-53. Yet with its strong narrative and rewarding roles for five soloists, the opera deserves greater popularity. Its thrilling score culminates in a final act among Verdi's greatest creations.

The Metroplitan Opera did not stage Luisa Miller until 1929; its stellar cast—Rosa Ponselle, Giovanni Lauri-Volpi, Giuseppe De Luca—was able to earn but a paltry six performances in two seasons. The opera waited until 1968 to enter the company’s repertoire with some regularity.

In Act II, in order to save her father, Luisa, a commoner, is forced to write a letter renouncing her love for Rodolfo, the son of the ruling nobleman. She prays that God not abandon her. Adriana Maliponte conveys the pathos with fervor, musical precision, and rich tone, capping the aria with a breathtaking cadenza.

Carlo Bergnzi sings the opera’s most famous aria, “Quando le sere al placido (When in the evening, beneath a starry sky),” recalling the happiness of Rodolfo's love for Luisa. The tenor’s affinity for Verdi and command of the requisite style are fully evident in this commercial recording.

 

Act III contains one of Verdi’s most touching soprano-baritone duets. Severely put upon by the local aristocracy, Luisa and Miller, her father, contemplate a life exiled from their homeland (“Andrem raminghi e poveri, ove il destin ci porta [We’ll wander, poor, wherever destiny leads us].” Here, from a recording of the complete opera, are Anna Moffo as Luisa and Cornell MacNeil as Miller, both in peak form and sensitive to the pathos of the scene.

Rodolfo, mistakenly believing that Luisa has betrayed him, poisons himself and his beloved. In this extract from a complete recording, Luciano Pavarotti and Sherrill Milnes voice the anguish of Rodolfo and Miller, Montserrat Caballé invests the dying Luisa with ethereal pianissimi. Luisa’s phrases, lofted heavenward, prefigure the demises of Verdi’s Leonoras in Il Trovatore and La Forza del destino.

 

 A number of commercial recordings and excellent live performances are available on YouTube.