![]() ![]() Recognizing her brother, who she knows wants to kill her, she hides. Leonora arrives in male attire accompanied by Trabuco, a muleteer, on their way to a to Franciscan monastery where Leonora plans to seek refuge. During the supper, Preziosilla, a pretty gypsy fortune teller, joins them and sings a song urging them to enlist in the army ( Al suon del tamburo – "When side drums rattle") for Italy's freedom. ( Son Pereda son ricco d'onore – "I am Pereda, of honorable descent"). Carlo has disguised himself as a student from Salamanca by the name of Pereda. Leonora's brother Don Carlo di Vargas then enters, bent on avenging the family honor and the death of his father. The act opens in the crowded dining room of an inn, where the guests include the alcalde (town mayor) and several muleteers among others gathered in the dining room as dinner is about to be served. In their flight, Leonora and Alvaro were separated and have lost track of each other, unable to reunite or learn of each other's whereabouts. Scene 1: An inn in the village of HornachuelosĪbout a year has passed since the death of the Marchese di Calatrava. The horrified lovers rush out of the room. As he flings down his pistol, it goes off, mortally wounding the Marchese, who dies, uttering a curse on his daughter. To remove any suspicion as to Leonora's purity, Alvaro surrenders himself. Assuming the worst, he draws his weapons and threatens the young man with death. At that moment the Marchese suddenly enters and discovers the couple together. ![]() Leonora then relents and they agree to escape as planned. Alvaro, stunned, releases her from their engagement, saying that she cannot love him as much as he loves her. When Alvaro arrives to fetch her, however, Leonora hesitates, begging for one last day with her father. ( Me pellegrina ed orfana – "Exiled and orphaned far from my childhood home"), she prepares to leave. Notwithstanding her tender regard for her father, who until now has always been kind to her, Leonora is ready to give up family and country in order to elope with Alvaro. But her father the Marchese violently opposes a match he feels is dishonorable and beneath her, believing her to have been seduced. There, he and Donna Leonora, the daughter of the haughty Marchese di Calatrava, have fallen in love. The mansion of Leonora's family, in Sevilleĭon Alvaro, a young nobleman from South America (presumably Peru), has settled in Seville, Spain, where he is looked down on by many because of his Inca background. The music begins with the opera's "Fate" motif, an ominous three note E unison in the brass. Peasants, servants, pilgrims, soldiers, vivandières and friarsįrancesco Maria Piave, librettist of the opera Overture Il Padre Guardiano (The Father Superior), a Franciscan The Caramoor International Music Festival gave a concert performance of the critical edition of the 1862 version, plus never-performed vocal pieces from the 1861 version, in July 2008. In November 2005, the critical edition of the 1869 version was first performed by the San Francisco Opera whose program book included an essay by Gossett on the evolution of the various versions: " La forza del destino: Three States of One Opera". Recent critical editions Ĭritical editions of all versions of the opera (including material from the original 1861 score) have been prepared by musicologist Philip Gossett of the University of Chicago. The opera in this version is frequently performed in the world's opera houses today. The most important changes were a new overture (replacing a brief prelude) the addition of a final scene to act 3, following the duel between Carlo and Alvaro and a new ending, in which Alvaro remains alive, instead of throwing himself off a cliff to his death. This version, which premiered at La Scala, Milan, on 27 February 1869, has become the standard performance version. įollowing these productions, Verdi made further, more extensive revisions to the opera with additions to the libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Performances followed in Madrid (with the Duke of Rivas, the play's author, in attendance) and the opera subsequently travelled to New York, Vienna (1865), Buenos Aires (1866), and London (1867). After its premiere in Russia, La forza underwent some revisions and made its debut abroad with performances in Rome in 1863 under the title Don Alvaro.
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