La forza del destino
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.
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 - here gathered at the Liceu under the baton of Maestro Nicola Luisotti.
CAST
Il Marchese di Calatrava | Alejandro López |
|---|---|
Donna Leonora | Anna Pirozzi |
Don Carlo di Vargas | Artur Ruciński |
Don Alvaro | Brian Jagde |
Preziosilla | Caterina Piva |
Padre Guardiano | John Relyea |
Fra Melitone | Pietro Spagnoli |
Curra | Laura Vila |
Trabuco | Moisés Marín |
Mayor | Dimitar Darlev Plamen Papazikov |
A surgeon | Domingo Ramos Lucas Groppo |
Orchestra | Gran Teatre del Liceu Symphony Orchestra |
Chorus | Gran Teatre del Liceu Chorus |
| ... | |
Music | Giuseppe Verdi |
|---|---|
Text | Francesco Maria Piave |
Director | Jean-Claude Auvray |
Revival director | Leo Castaldi |
Conductor | Nicola Luisotti |
Choreography | Terry John Bates |
Sets | Paolo Ferri |
Scenography | Alain Chambon |
Costumes | Maria Chiara Donato |
Lights | Laurent Castaingt |
Musical director assistant | Luis Miguel Méndez |
| ... | |
VIDEO
STORY
Act I
In Spain, 18th-century. Don Alvaro, in love with Leonora di Vargas, faces opposition from her father, the Marquis of Calatrava. In Seville, the Marquis blesses his daughter, who is sad and anxious. When alone, Leonora's maid, Curra, informs her that Alvaro is waiting for her to flee together. Alvaro enters, and they declare their love, but the Marquis catches them as they are about to escape. In a confrontation, Alvaro's pistol accidentally goes off, fatally wounding the Marquis. Alvaro and Leonora flee in panic.
Act II
Leonora and Alvaro flee separately after Don Carlo di Vargas, Leonora’s brother, starts pursuing Alvaro for vengeance.
Hornachuelos, Córdoba. Don Carlo, under the alias of Pereda, joins others at an inn. Leonora, disguised as a man, also arrives, trying to avoid being recognized. Preziosilla, a gypsy, encourages the men to enlist in the army. Later, Don Carlo tells the story of his father's death and his pursuit of Alvaro. Leonora, fearing recognition, escapes.
Leonora reaches a convent and asks for refuge. Friar Melitone is skeptical of her, but Father Guardiano offers her shelter, where she vows to live as a hermit.
Act III
In Italy. Alvaro has joined the Spanish army under the name Don Federico Herreros. He rescues Don Carlo, not recognising him as Leonora’s brother. Carlo, grateful, swears friendship. After a battle, Alvaro is wounded, and Carlo, learning his true identity from a portrait of Leonora, swears vengeance. The two meet again and prepare for a duel, but they are separated. Alvaro, thinking he has mortally wounded Carlo, retreats to a monastery seeking redemption.
Act IV
At the Monastery of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles. Alvaro lives in refuge as Father Raffaele. Don Carlo arrives, seeking a duel. Provoked, Alvaro wounds Carlo fatally. Fate intervenes when Alvaro meets Leonora, praying for forgiveness. Carlo, dying, recognises her and stabs her. Leonora dies, and Father Guardiano blesses the bodies of the Vargas siblings while Alvaro is left in despair.
GALLERY
