This year, I am listening to the operas of Giuseppe Verdi. I’ve heard some of his operas, and have seen Macbeth and Simon Boccanegra. But I’ve been curious about his several others. So, I decided to purchase the 2013 75-CD set of Verdi’s operas (and additional music), which I’ll listen to during the upcoming year. For reference I’ll study Charles Osborne, The Complete Operas of Verdi (New York: Knopf, 1979).
I Lombardi alla prima crociata (The Lombards on the First Crusade) is Verdi's fourth opera. A four-act opera, it premiered at La Scala on February 11, 1843. This recording is conducted by James Levine with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Richard leech and Samuel Ramey perform Arvino and Pagano, while Luciano Pavarotti performes Oronte, and Patricia Racette portrays Vinclinda.
The story, which takes place in Milan, the Antioch area, and the Jerusalem area, concerns the brothers Pagano and Arvino. They had feuded over Viclinda but had apparently reconciled. Now, Viclinda is married to Arvino. But he is called upon to lead a crusade to the Holy Land, and Pagano wants to use the opportunity to win Vinclinda himself.
Osborne writes that the opera is “fairly typical early Verdi… The finest pages… have that melodic beauty and creative energy which, by the time of Il trovatore, were to become Verdian characteristics. But much of the opera merely matches the crudity of [the librettist’s] historical imagination." A few years later, Verdi revised the opera for a French audience, renaming it Jérusalem. I'll listen to that one later this summer.
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