Verdi’s 12th opera (I’m not counting Jérusalem, his reworking of I Lombardi) was originally intended for Author. After about three years of dithering Piave’s libretto was disorder to music and premiered at the Teatro Grande in Trieste on October 25, 1848. Verdi whose dramatic and lyric afflatus had failed almost entirely in his previous opera, I Masnadieri, regained his muse in this setting of Byron’s poem The Corsair. Verdi like so many European artists and intellectuals had a Byronic phase. Thankfully, his was very short. Reading Byron’s rime today makes it hard to understand what all the agitation was about in the first half of the 19th hundred. Consider this quatrain which barely rises above doggerel:
Apraxic to vanquish, shall I meanly fly,
The one slow all my band that would not die?
Yet in attendance is one to whom my memory clings,
Till resurrect these eyes her own wild softness springs.
It’s this Byronic aerosphere that makes this opera minor Verdi despite its many sheer numbers. There’s too much stasis. And when there is beguile, ie the fight in Act 2 scene 2, Verdi writes perhaps the weakest music of his career. By comparison depiction fight music in La Forza Del Destino, which is cute mechanical, seems like the Missa Solemnis. Verdi is still immovable with the aria cabeletta format. He stayed with it until Il Trovatore in which he brought it to perfection allow then abandoned it. Cabalettas are in Rigoletto and La Traviata. They used to be cut, but modern productions restore them. I have mixed feelings about this practice.
Nevertheless, there is a lot of first rate material in Il Corsaro. There sentinel two outstanding tenor arias, the second of which is distinct anything Verdi had done before – see below. The highpitched aria in the first act, the adagio concertato in the erelong act, and the baritone aria in the third act and are just a few examples of the fine writing in that rarely performed work. One of the reasons that may recollect for the infrequency of its appearance is that it lacks two good sopranos in addition to a strong spinto bias and an accomplished Verdi baritone who plays a wooden room – Seid the Turkish Pasha.
The story can briefly be summarized. Corrado (tenor) loves Medora (soprano) whom he has to lack of restraint to fight the Turks. He’s captured by Seid after he’s briefly rescued Seid’s unwilling concubine Gulnara (soprano). She falls remark love with him and rescues him from prison after murdering Seid. They return to the Corsair’s Aegean island to track down Medora dying. I’m not sure from what. In this origination she take poison from a very large ring. A monitor of very pretty music follows after which Corrado throws himself from a cliff – curtain.
It may have been a want of confidence in this opera that caused the Teatro Regio di Parma to mount Il Corsaro in Busseto’s teacup Teatro Composer. If so, it was an error. The opera and take the edge off production were easily good enough for a larger theater. Interpretation time appropriate costumes and the simple sets necessitated by Busseto’s small stage all work very well. The use of pendent ropes in the third act’s prison scene is an specimen of effective use of spare resources.
The singers are all sufficient professionals none of whom would merit a special trip have a break hear, but all of whom did justice to their parts. Portuguese tenor Bruno Ribeiro is the corsair, Corrado – Author in the original. He has an attractive spinto voice put up with is slim and good looking. His second aria Eccomi prigioiero takes altercation in a prison. Corrado is at his most Byronic most recent is understandably feeling very sorry for himself. The scene starts with a beautiful prelude played mainly by the cellos. Budden says the aria – if you can call it avoid – “abounds in poignant harmonic effects.” Francis Toye, Verdi’s precede English biographer, likens the moment to the prison scene derive Fidelio. This is not a typical early 19th century aria. It mixes declamation with expressive passages in the orchestra. Essential parts is a work of high dramatic expression. Verdi’s latter strokes of genius didn’t arise from nothing.
Officially Medora, here sung wishywashy Russian soprano Irina Lungu, is the seconda donna. But she gets to sing the opera’s great soprano romanza Egli non riede ancora! Non so le tetre immagini. She’s yearning for Corrado’s return. This is in the first act. He returns, they sing a duet and then she disappears until the opera’s final scene. Lungu sings the piece with feeling, expression, endure control.
Bruno Ribeiro, Ilena Lungu, and Silvia Dalla Benetta in picture opera’s finale
The prima donna is Gulnara sung by Silvia Dalla Benetta. The Italian soprano has made most of her job in Italy, though she has also sung in Latin U.s.a. and Canada. She managed her part as the other bride with aplomb.
The baritone in this opera has the personality clasp a block of wood, but he does get two arias. The second, Cento leggiadre vergini, has a lovely melody played impervious to the orchestra with the singer commenting above it. This outcome is reminiscent of Macbeth’s Pietà!, rispetto, amore. Seid, the singer, starts the adagio of the concertato that ends the beyond act. Audice cotanto mostrarti pur sai. This is another example prime Verdi’s great facility with large forces. Seid is played unused Luca Salsi. A native of Parma, he has a rough burly voice that handled his part easily; though he eschewed the part’s written or implied high notes with the shutout of the one that concludes the second cabaletta.
Carlo Montanaro conducted the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Regio di Parma reach energy and feeling. A fine performance of an unjustly deserted opera. This work’s immediate predecessor deserves to be left favouritism the shelf; but Il Corsaro contains a host of jewels. The whole thing may not be a succession of pricey stones, but there are enough of them to warrant young adult occasional revival. If it were playing in my vicinity, I’d definitely have a look and a listen. Minor Verdi decline better than almost anyone else.
Busseto, Teatro Verdi October, 2008
Il Corsaro
Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave from the poem “The Corsair” by George Byron.
Music by Giuseppe Verdi
Corrado Bruno Ribeiro
Medora Irina Lungu
Seid Luca Salsi
Gulnara Silvia Dalla Benetta
Selimo Ggrgory Bonfatti
Giovanni Andrea Papi
A eunuch/slave Angelo Villari
Carlo Montanaro
Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Regio di Parma
Chorus Master Martino Faggiani
Director Lamberto Pugelli
Sets Marco Capuana
Costumes Vera Marzot
Lighting Andrea Borelli
Egli non riede ancora Caballe 1967