A visual challenge for the modern spectator and a real holiday for Verdi's fans is the staging of the Teatro Reggio Di Parma, which after the Verdi Festival in Italy is specially adapted for the Ancient Theater by the genius director, artist and choreographer STEFANO PODA. Undoubtedly, the event of Opera Open 2017 is the work of one of the leading opera directors in the world with the team of Opera Plovdiv! His skillful handling of texture, light and shadow, symbols and formalized movement make one of Verdi's most difficult operas to perform a real aesthetic delight for the senses. Stefano Poda's "The Power of Fate" is an influential spectacle that has won the hearts of Italian critics, saying goodbye to traditionalism and outlining the future interaction between opera and audience. The conductor of the performance is maestro Dian Chobanov, Music Director of Plovdiv Opera.
Habent libelli sua fata (books have their destiny); operas also have their own destiny, especially if their title is "The Power of Destiny". In 1860, Giuseppe Verdi was at the beginning of his political career - elected to the new Italian parliament from the district of Busetto-San Donino. Of course, the Maestro's patriotism was the main reason for the sudden change in his life, as well as his sympathy for Count di Cavour, who began the revival of Italian statehood after the Austro-Hungarian so-called "yoke". Unusual activity quickly bored Verdi; The reason for refusing it was the proposal, which came through the singer Enrico Tamberlic to compose a new major opera for the Bolshoi Kamenny Theater in St. Petersburg (today's Mariinsky Theater). The composer immediately accepts the order; while discussing the opera's plot with his clients, Camilo Cavour died suddenly, and this sad fact prompted Verdi to end his political career and focus on his vocation, which is undoubtedly writing operas. The original idea was Victor Hugo's "Rui Blaz", rejected by the Russian theater management, probably because of the very ardent, and therefore embarrassing romanticism of the plot. In the end, Verdi insists on drama Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino by the Spanish writer and politician Angel de Saavedra, Count de Rivas, with the libretto made by his faithful librettist Fracesco Maria Piave. The libretto is so crowded and unbelievable that only with extrahuman, ie - fateful interventions can be explained a number of strange plot moves. Miraculous rescues, multiple pseudo-deaths, fatal geometries of fate, sudden appearances and recognitions - all the favorite of early romanticism, and the so-called "opera of salvation" props are here. Which doesn't stop Verdi in the least from creating a masterpiece that, with the power of musical ingenuity and passion, overcomes the flaws of the libretto. In fact, what seems confused and inconsistent to normal human rationality finds its justification in the theatrical logic of the excessive, the extraordinary; so what is an opera without secrets and without extremes of feelings?
The opera was staged on St. Petersburg on November 10, 1862. Although the current mood of Russian musicians does not suggest success for a purely Italian opera, commissioned by the palace - it was received with great approval. However, this success did not obscure her shortcomings, and after the unsuccessful Italian premiere in Rome, under the name "Don Alvaro", and several other productions in other countries, Verdi, convinced of the bad fate of his child, undertook a decisive revision. His collaborator in this is Antonio Gislanzoni, the future librettist of Aida. The action is dramaturgically refined and condensed by shifting, adding or shortening scenes - at the end of Act III a scene from Schiller's drama "Wallenstein's Camp" is included, a new overture is composed, which is still one of Verdi's brightest symphonic excerpts. - a real fantasy-summary of what will appear next. Taste suggests to the composer that the melodramatic jump into the abyss of Don Alvaro at the end of the opera is not a very good decision and he was spared in the new edition, which changes the whole finale in the direction of remorse and humility before the Force of Fate. Fanaticism, obsession are among the main characters in the opera - dressed in different characters. The relentless Don Carlos, who can't even die until he takes revenge, the quiet fanaticism of Padre Guardiano and the pilgrims, Leonora's feverish obsession with her guilt and her dichotomy between ecstasy and fatalism, Don Alvaro as an innocent destroyer angel ... one psychological analysis would bring to the surface more than wonderful musical discoveries, would show the great depth of Verdi's inspiration
The singers whose destiny has destined them to sing in this opera require a great deal of strength ; not only vocal, but entirely artistic, in order to withstand the challenges that really turned out to be fateful for some of the performers.
Even a cursory glance reveals the references to the plot scheme of "Don Juan" by Da Ponte / Mozart; Upon closer listening, it becomes clear that not only Gislanzoni is the connection with the impending "Aida" - chromatized language, ambiguous musical characteristics, symphonic unfolding of scenes, precisely found relationships between tragedy and burlesque, contemplation and dynamics, prayer and battle foretell the new height that Verdi achieves in his art and in whose approaches lies the "Power of Destiny".
Habent libelli sua fata (books have their destiny); operas also have their own destiny, especially if their title is "The Power of Destiny". In 1860, Giuseppe Verdi was at the beginning of his political career - elected to the new Italian parliament from the district of Busetto-San Donino. Of course, the Maestro's patriotism was the main reason for the sudden change in his life, as well as his sympathy for Count di Cavour, who began the revival of Italian statehood after the Austro-Hungarian so-called "yoke". Unusual activity quickly bored Verdi; The reason for refusing it was the proposal, which came through the singer Enrico Tamberlic to compose a new major opera for the Bolshoi Kamenny Theater in St. Petersburg (today's Mariinsky Theater). The composer immediately accepts the order; while discussing the opera's plot with his clients, Camilo Cavour died suddenly, and this sad fact prompted Verdi to end his political career and focus on his vocation, which is undoubtedly writing operas. The original idea was Victor Hugo's "Rui Blaz", rejected by the Russian theater management, probably because of the very ardent, and therefore embarrassing romanticism of the plot. In the end, Verdi insists on drama Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino by the Spanish writer and politician Angel de Saavedra, Count de Rivas, with the libretto made by his faithful librettist Fracesco Maria Piave. The libretto is so crowded and unbelievable that only with extrahuman, ie - fateful interventions can be explained a number of strange plot moves. Miraculous rescues, multiple pseudo-deaths, fatal geometries of fate, sudden appearances and recognitions - all the favorite of early romanticism, and the so-called "opera of salvation" props are here. Which doesn't stop Verdi in the least from creating a masterpiece that, with the power of musical ingenuity and passion, overcomes the flaws of the libretto. In fact, what seems confused and inconsistent to normal human rationality finds its justification in the theatrical logic of the excessive, the extraordinary; so what is an opera without secrets and without extremes of feelings?
The opera was staged on St. Petersburg on November 10, 1862. Although the current mood of Russian musicians does not suggest success for a purely Italian opera, commissioned by the palace - it was received with great approval. However, this success did not obscure her shortcomings, and after the unsuccessful Italian premiere in Rome, under the name "Don Alvaro", and several other productions in other countries, Verdi, convinced of the bad fate of his child, undertook a decisive revision. His collaborator in this is Antonio Gislanzoni, the future librettist of Aida. The action is dramaturgically refined and condensed by shifting, adding or shortening scenes - at the end of Act III a scene from Schiller's drama "Wallenstein's Camp" is included, a new overture is composed, which is still one of Verdi's brightest symphonic excerpts. - a real fantasy-summary of what will appear next. Taste suggests to the composer that the melodramatic jump into the abyss of Don Alvaro at the end of the opera is not a very good decision and he was spared in the new edition, which changes the whole finale in the direction of remorse and humility before the Force of Fate. Fanaticism, obsession are among the main characters in the opera - dressed in different characters. The relentless Don Carlos, who can't even die until he takes revenge, the quiet fanaticism of Padre Guardiano and the pilgrims, Leonora's feverish obsession with her guilt and her dichotomy between ecstasy and fatalism, Don Alvaro as an innocent destroyer angel ... one psychological analysis would bring to the surface more than wonderful musical discoveries, would show the great depth of Verdi's inspiration
The singers whose destiny has destined them to sing in this opera require a great deal of strength ; not only vocal, but entirely artistic, in order to withstand the challenges that really turned out to be fateful for some of the performers.
Even a cursory glance reveals the references to the plot scheme of "Don Juan" by Da Ponte / Mozart; Upon closer listening, it becomes clear that not only Gislanzoni is the connection with the impending "Aida" - chromatized language, ambiguous musical characteristics, symphonic unfolding of scenes, precisely found relationships between tragedy and burlesque, contemplation and dynamics, prayer and battle foretell the new height that Verdi achieves in his art and in whose approaches lies the "Power of Destiny".
author of the text: Dragomir Yosifov
