Verdi: Luisa Miller | Maurizio Benini & Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice (full opera sung in Italian)

Many consider the opera Luisa Miller a milestone in the development of Giuseppe Verdi’s early style. Here is the recording of a live performance at Teatro La Fenice, Venice, 2006.

Luisa Miller - Darina Takova | SOPRANO
Rodolfo - Giuseppe Sabbatini | TENOR
Count Walter - Alexander Vinogradov | BASS
Miller – Damiano Salerno | BARITONE
Federica – Ursula Ferri | MEZZO-SOPRANO
Wurm - Arutjun Kotchinian | BASS
Laura – Elisabetta Martorana | MEZZO-SOPRANO
A farmer – Luca Favaron | TENOR

Orchestra of La Fenice Opera House (Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice)
Choir of La Fenice Opera House (Coro del Teatro La Fenice)
Emanuela Di Pietro | CHOIR DIRECTION
Maurizio Benini | CONDUCTOR & DIRECTOR

Alessandro Camera | SET DESIGN
Carla Ricotti | COSTUME DESIGN
Vinicio Cheli | LIGHTNING DESIGN
Arnaud Bernard | STAGE DIRECTOR
Tiziano Mancini | DIRECTOR (VIDEO)

Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901) called his three-act opera Luisa Miller a “melodramma tragico” and based it on the bourgeois tragedy Kabale und Liebe by Friedrich Schiller (1759 - 1805). The libretto was provided by Salvadore Cammarano (1801 - 1852), librettist of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. The premiere of this Verdi opera also took place there on December 8, 1849.

In accordance with the specifications made at the time by the San Carlo Opera House, all politically explosive passages of Schiller’s original had to be deleted, so Verdi’s Luisa Miller became a pure love drama. Rodolfo, Count Walter’s son, loves the bourgeois girl Luisa and the love is mutual. But Wurm, Walter’s steward, also loves the girl. He incites Count Walter to take Luisa’s father prisoner and blackmails Luisa into writing a letter with which she can supposedly save her father: She must confess to being Wurm’s mistress and to having ensnared Rodolfo only for the sake of his title and wealth. Luisa’s letter drives Rodolfo to despair. He poisons his mistress and himself, but the truth comes to light at the hour of death. Wurm the schemer must also pay for what he did with his life.

00:00 Sinfonia

Act I
Scene 1
06:41 Ti desta, Luisa, regina de' cori
10:17 Ecco mia figlia
16:10 T'amo d'amor ch'esprimere
20:06 Ferma ed ascolta
21:28 Sacra la scelta è d'un consorte

Scene 2
28:54 Che mai narrasti!
30:38 Il mio sangue, la vita darei
34:19 Padre…
39:10 Duchessa…
40:05 Dall' aule raggianti di vano splendor

Scene 3
46:35 Sciogliete i levrieri
51:12 A me soltanto e al cielo
54:31 Fra' mortali ancora oppressa

Act II
Scene 1
1:02:34 Ah! Luisa, Luisa, ove sei?
1:05:29 Il padre tuo…
1:09:14 Tu puniscimi, o Signore
1:12:19 Qui nulla s'attenta imporre al tuo core

Scene 2
1:18:18 Egli delira, sul mattin degli anni
1:21:36 L'alto retaggio non ho bramato
1:26:17 Vien la Duchessa!
1:27:06 Presentarti alla Duchessa puoi, Luisa
1:30:46 Come celar le smanie

Scene 3
1:33:32 Il foglio dunque?
1:36:28 Quando le sere al placido

Act III
1:47:40 Come in un giorno, solo
1:53:00 Pallida, mesta sei!
1:56:26 La tomba è un letto sparso di fiori
1:58:50 Di rughe il volto, mira, ho solcato
2:02:58 Andrem, raminghi e poveri
2:07:36 Ah! L'ultima preghiera
2:15:56 Piangi, piangi
2:24:00 Ah! Maledetto, il di che nacqui
2:27:17 Padre, ricevi l'estremo addio

Thumbnail: © Michele Crosera

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