La battaglia di Legnano

Verdi around 1850

Poet Giuseppe Giusti, (detail) by Ferdinando Rondoni

Librettist
Salvadore Cammarano

Verdi's 14th opera was written while he was living in Paris in 1848 (though he quickly traveled to Milan after receiving news of the March "Cinque Giornate" – the five days of street fighting which drove the Austrians out of the city) and it seems to have been composed specifically as "an opera with a purpose" (as opera historian Charles Osborne describes it). Osborne continues: "while parts of Verdi's earlier operas had frequently been taken up by the fighters of the Risorgimento [...] this time the composer had given the movement its own opera".[4]

While still writing I masnadieri and with his obligation to complete an opera for the publisher, Francesco Lucca, Verdi had been admonished by the poet Giuseppe Giusti for turning away from patriotic subjects when he composed Macbeth; the poet pleaded with him to "do what you can to nourish the [sorrow of the Italian people], to strengthen it, and direct it to its goal."[5] Verdi replied encouragingly. With his other obligations out of the way, he was hesitant in committing to anything that was not a genuinely patriotic subject, but he despaired that librettists were incapable to providing them until Salvadore Cammarano (who supplied the libretto for the 1845 Alzira) came up with the idea of adapting Joseph Méry's 1828 play La Bataille de Toulouse, a well-known and well-liked play in Italy at that time. "A story like that should stir every man with an Italian soul in his breast" was how the librettist described it.[6]

"Conceived in the springtime of Italian hopes" [7](as Budden describes the initial enthusiasm for the work), by the time Cammarano produced a final libretto it was early 1849 and it was also clear that the Austrians had not been permanently routed from Lombardy. The premiere was set for late January 1849, some last-minute adjustments were made, and Verdi traveled to Rome before the end of 1848. At this point in the rise of Italian nationalism, Rome under Pope Pius IX was in turmoil and the Pope was held prisoner (without his Swiss guards), but he managed to escape to the south, hoping to negotiate his return. Within days of Battaglia's totally sold-out premiere, Rome had become a republic, accelerated by the passions inflamed amongst its inhabitants by (amongst other things) the opera's final chorus of freedom: "Italia risorge vestita di Gloria, invitta e regina qual'era sarà" / "Italy rises again robed in glory!, Unconquered and a queen she shall be as once she was!".

19th century

Baritone Filippo Colini, the first Rolando

Initial reactions at the premiere were ecstatic by all accounts (as noted above). Charles Osborne adds to some of the details of the premiere when he describes the house as "packed to the rafters" and continues by stating that "Verdi's music roused the entire house to a frenzy of enthusiasm" with cries of "Viva Verdi!" and "Viva Italia" coming from the audience when the words of the opening chorus – Viva Italia! Sacro un patto / Tutti stringe I figli suoi / "Long live Italy!. A sacred pact binds all her sons") – were heard.[8]

But, as writer John Black notes in his study of Cammarano, "For all its appeal to the spirit of the times – or perhaps because of it, as conditions of order were re-established – it was not widely revived during the ten years that followed" the premiere[9] since, after initial performances around Italy, the opera fell foul of the Austrian censors, as much as anything caused by what musicologist Roger Parker describes as "perhaps its too intense association with a particular historical period"[3] or, as Budden puts it, [it had] "the taint of a pièce d'occasion somewhat to the composer's mortification."[10]

"Even before the premiere, Ricordi was in touch with Cammarano about an alternative version, with the action removed to the Flemish- Spanish wars, under the title, L'assedio di Arlem [with] Federico Barbarossa...to be replaced by the Duke of Alba, etc."[9] However, the librettist did not want to get involved and renounced his rights to the libretto 3 February 1849, but the opera was re-structured and revived in Milan 12 years later as L'assedio di Haarlem (based on the historic 1572 to 1575 Siege of Haarlem).

In Parma, after the Italian victories of 1859, it was re-titled La disfatta degli Austriaci (The defeat of the Austrians).[11] It was presented in Genoa, Corfu, Turin, and Piacenza between 1850 and 1859 and revived in Milan and Naples in 1861.[12]

In the 1880s it was re-styled in French as Pour la Patrie for a projected production at the Théâtre Château-d'Eau in Paris which did not happen.[13] However, as Emanuele Muzio reports by letter to Verdi, this adaptation was later successfully performed in the French provinces.[14]

20th century and beyond

In Italy, the opera was seen in 1959 in Florence and Venice to commemorate the centenary of the Second Italian War of Independence, and in Trieste in 1963 (on each occasion starring Leyla Gencer). La Scala has mounted the piece twice in the last century: once in 1916 and once in 1961. The 1961 cast was recorded and includes performances by Franco Corelli, Antonietta Stella, and Ettore Bastianini.

The Rome Opera presented Battaglia in December 1983, a performance of which was recorded.[15] In the 1990s, it was staged in Piacenza in January 1999 with Lida sung by Fiorenza Cedolins.[16] Additionally, it was presented in the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania in December 2001 under Nello Santi. A video recording was made of the production. [17]

Battaglia was not performed in the United Kingdom until 31 October 1960 when it was given its UK première by the Welsh Opera Company in London at Sadler's Wells.[18] The Royal Opera House company (during the period when the house was closed) gave a concert performance at the Royal Festival Hall in July 2000 with a cast which included Plácido Domingo (as Arrigo) and Anthony Michaels-Moore singing Rolando. Verónica Villarroel sang Lida. [19]

It was only on 28 February 1976 that this opera was given its US premiere by the Amato Opera in New York City. Two concert performances have been presented by the Opera Orchestra of New York; the first was in January 1987 with Matteo Manuguerra, Aprile Millo and Jerome Hines while the second was given on 19 November 2001.[20] The Pittsburgh Opera presented the work with June Anderson on 20 September 1985.[21]

In Rome in 2011, as part of the 150th anniversary of Italian Unification, Battaglia was presented by the Rome Opera.[22]

Companies which plan to present all of Verdi's operas include the ABAO in Bilbao which presented it in 2007, and it was given by Sarasota Opera as part of its "Verdi Cycle" in 2016. As the Verdi bicentennial year was approaching, it was staged by the Teatro Regio di Parma in October 2012 (as part of its "Festival Verdi" series) and was directed by David Alden.[23][24] The Parma production was repeated in Trieste.[25] Hamburg State Opera presented performances in October/November 2013 along with two other early Verdi operas, all directed by Alden.[26][27]

Time: 1176

Place: Milan and Como

Act 2 – "Barbarossa!"

Statue of Barbarossa

The town hall of Como

The city fathers of Como have gathered to await the arrival of Rolando and Arrigo as ambassadors of the League from Milan. Como has been forced to come to terms with the invaders, and when the two men arrive, they announce that a new army has invaded from the north, that Barbarossa is having problems in Padua, and they seek Como's help, pointing out that the city lies between Milan and the invaders. They hope that Como will intervene to help the Italian cause. Suddenly, Barbarossa himself appears, proclaiming that "I am Italy's great destiny". His troops have surrounded Como and now further threaten Milan. He demands that Arrigo and Rolando return to Milan and seek its submission.

Act 4 – "To Die For the Fatherland!"

A square in Milan

The Battle of Legnano by Massimo d'Azeglio, 1831

The assembled people sing a prayer for victory. Imelda assures Lida that Arrigo survived his leap from the tower and Lida prays for the safety of both Arrigo and her husband (Ah se di Arrigo e Rolando / "Ah! If I recommend to Thy care the lives of Arrigo and Rolando".) As the people begin a hymn of victory, city officials enter the church to confirm the defeat of Barbarossa's troops by the Lombard League, declaring that Barbarossa was wounded by Arrigo. But, in the middle of the victory celebrations, a group of Knights of Death enter bearing the mortally wounded Arrigo. Rolando receives Arrigo's assurance that Lida is innocent and that she had always acted honourably. Reconciling with Lida, he forgives Arrigo, who with his last breath, proclaims that "Italy is saved!"[29]

Overall, Julian Budden sees this opera in musical terms as "the most consistently accomplished that Verdi ha[d] yet written" and adds that several musical elements exist here "as being designed and scored with an attention to detail for which one looks in vain in Attila or I masnadieri".[30] A writer then working in England, Budden finds that the opera had "better press" in that country than in Italy and he quotes from supporting statements by Verdi biographers Toye (p. 290, 1931) and Osborne (p. 198, 1969). Roger Parker is impressed by the opera's "inner working and its sheer scale [which] far outstrip any of Verdi's previous efforts",[3] largely agreeing with Budden in this account.

Since Baldini notes that Italian critics and writers were far less enthusiastic about this opera than the English ones (and maybe because he is Italian), he notes that there are only three of the "young Verdi's best-constructed, most thoughtful pages, but these saving graces are infrequent": he then names these as the overture, the Chorus of the Knights of Death [act 3], and the whole of act 4."[31] But he does mention one other important thing which has come up in the earlier operas as well, especially I due Foscari, the difference between the "public" and the "private" aspects of the opera.[31]

Notes

Sources

• Baldini, Gabriele (1970), (trans. Roger Parker, 1980), The Story of Giuseppe Verdi: Oberto to Un Ballo in Maschera. Cambridge, et al: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-29712-5
• Black, John (1984), The Italian Romantic Libretto: A Study of Salvadore Cammarano, Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-85224-463-0 ISBN 0-85224-463-0
• Budden, Julian (1984), The Operas of Verdi, Volume 1: From Oberto to Rigoletto. London: Cassell. ISBN 0-304-31058-1.
• De Van, Gilles (trans. Gilda Roberts) (1998), Verdi’s Theater: Creating Drama Through Music. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-14369-4 (hardback), ISBN 0-226-14370-8
• Gossett, Philip (2006), Divas and Scholar: Performing Italian Opera, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-30482-5
• Kimbell, David (2001), in Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001. ISBN 0-14-029312-4
• Martin, George, Verdi: His Music, Life and Times (1983), New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. ISBN 0-396-08196-7
• Parker, Roger (2007), The New Grove Guide to Verdi and His Operas, Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-531314-7
• Pistone, Danièle (1995), Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera: From Rossini to Puccini, Portland, OR: Amadeus Press. ISBN 0-931340-82-9
• Osborne, Charles (1969), The Complete Opera of Verdi, New York: Da Capo Press, Inc. ISBN 0-306-80072-1
• Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane (1993), Verdi: A Biography, London & New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-313204-4
• Parker, Roger (1998), "La battaglia di Legnano", in Stanley Sadie, (Ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. One. London: MacMillan Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-333-73432-7 ISBN 1-56159-228-5
• Soubies, Albert and Malherbe, Charles Theordore (1893), Histoire de l'Opera Comique: La Seconde Salle Favart, Vol. 1, 1860–1887. Paris: Flammarion.
• Toye, Francis (1931), Giuseppe Verdi: His Life and Works, New York: Knopf
• Walker, Frank, The Man Verdi (1982), New York: Knopf, 1962, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-87132-0
• Warrack, John and West, Ewan, The Oxford Dictionary of Opera New York: OUP: 1992 ISBN 0-19-869164-5
• Werfel, Franz and Stefan, Paul (1973), Verdi: The Man and His Letters, New York, Vienna House. ISBN 0-8443-0088-8

• Verdi: "The story" and "History" on giuseppeverdi.it (in English)
• La battaglia di Legnano: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Greatest Verdi singers, Verdi's friends and collaborators, genealogy project on geni.com
• Aria database