Oberto (opera)

Portrait of Verdi, 1839–40 by Molentini

During his student days in Milan, Verdi began the process of making connections to the world of music in that city which were to stand him in good stead. These included an introduction by his teacher Lavigna to an amateur choral group, the Società Filarmonica, where he functioned as rehearsal director and continuo player for Haydn's The Creation in 1834, as well as conducting Rossini's La cenerentola himself the following year.[3][4] 1836 saw his involvement in an April concert celebrating Emperor Ferdinand's birthday; for this he wrote a cantata in the Emperor's honour which received some praise.

But it was after his return to his hometown of Busseto in 1835 to become director of the music school with a three-year contract that Verdi took advantage of the connection he had made to the Filarmonica's director, Pietro Massini. In a series of letters from 1835 to 1837 he informed him about the progress towards writing his first opera using a libretto supplied by Massini which had been written by Antonio Piazza, a Milanese "journalist and man of letters".[5] By then it had been given the title of Rocester and the young composer expressed hopes of a production in Parma.

However, Parma was not interested in new works and so approaches were made to Milan. Whether Rocester actually became the basis for Oberto when Verdi was able to return to Milan in February 1839 after fulfilling two and a half years of his contract in Busseto is subject to some disagreement amongst scholars. How much of Rocester remained visible in Oberto[6] is discussed by Roger Parker, who does suggest that "in this shape-shifting tendency, the opera was, of course, very much of its time."[3]

In his recollections in 1881 (quoted in Budden) following his return to Milan from Busseto in 1838, Verdi describes how he was invited to meet the La Scala impresario, Bartolomeo Merelli, who had heard a conversation about the music of the opera between soprano Giuseppina Strepponi and Giorgio Ronconi in which she praised it. Merelli then offered to put on Oberto during the 1839 season and, after its premiere, Oberto was given a respectable 13 additional performances.

Temistocle Solera, the librettist of the opera

Time: 1228

Place: Northern Italy, Bassano, at Ezzelino da Romano's castle and nearby

Before the action takes place, a battle has been fought between Oberto, Count of San Boniface, and the Salinguerra, led by Ezzelino da Romano. Oberto has lost and has retreated to Mantua. Meanwhile, his daughter Leonora has been seduced and abandoned by Riccardo, Count of Salinguerra, and Riccardo is about to marry Cuniza, Ezzelino's sister. Leonora makes her way to Bassano on Riccardo's wedding day, intent on confronting him.

Contemporary critical reactions to Verdi's first effort were mixed, as noted by scholar Francis Toye, writing in 1931, when he quoted two Milanese critics:

"The music of this opera," wrote the paper La Fama, "has much in common with the style of Bellini. There is an abundant, perhaps a too abundant wealth of melody. In some passages where the words demand energy and passion the vocal line is languid and monotonous." The paper then goes on to praise two arias and a quartet in the second act, a judgment shared by the periodical Figaro which, incidentally, advised the composer to make a further study of the classics. As a matter of fact, the quartet in question may be described as an afterthought, Merelli himself having suggested it when Verdi was making certain alterations in the opera to meet the requirements of the new cast.[15]

Julian Budden comments on the performance reviews of the time, especially one which indicates that Verdi's music was not inspired by Donizetti, Bellini, Mercadante nor Rossini, and he states "in detail it owes a little to all of them. But what finally emerges is often subtly different, with a flavour of its own. Above all, it has that ultra-Verdian quality of gathering momentum as it proceeds."[16]

Given the need at the time for composers to take into account singers' strengths and weaknesses, Verdi's writing for the four principals (rather than the more conventional three of that era) who became the cast for the premiere of Oberto well accommodated the limitations of Mary Shaw's voice and played to the strengths of Antonietta Rainieri-Marini's in the lower register. Ignazio Marini, the bass who sang the title role, was "a performer of impressive vocal and dramatic range, for whom Verdi would later write the title role of Attila, notes Parker.[3] He continues by adding that "la Marini" was undoubtedly grateful to Verdi in that it was she who quite probably helped to secure most of the revivals of the opera during the following few years where she appeared as Leonora in four of the five of them.[3]

Agreeing with Parker that the support given to "la Marini" helped with stagings of further performances from 1840 to 1843 (and, therefore, allowed the composer the opportunity to make additions and changes as these performances were played in different cities and with different singers).

For the 1840 revival after the failure of Un giorno di regno, the role of Cuniza was sung by Luigia Abbadia and it was for her that Verdi wrote an entrance aria in act 1 and a duet for Cuniza and Riccardo also in act 1, the latter described as being "full of that intensely condensed melodic expressiveness that will characterise the best of his early music. It is on quite a different level of invention from the rest of Oberto.[3]

Toye notes that, in spite of its weaknesses, the opera:

still compels attention. For instance, the energy of the finale of the first act, at times surprisingly classical in feeling, is remarkable; and the same is true to an even greater extent of the quartet in the second act, certainly the best music in the opera and a fine piece of ensemble writing in which, towards the end, the curious will find an amusing reminiscence of Schubert['s] "Marche Militaire." [17]

2012 Michael Hofstetter conductor, Theater Gießen – Germany, Oberto: Adrian Ganz, Leonora: Franceska Lombardi, Cuniza: Manuela Custer, Riccardo: Norman Reinhardt, Imelda: Naroa Intxausti, Concert Version Stadttheater Giessen, OEHMS Classics OC959 2CDs

The historical Cunizza da Romano, whose life was as at least as interesting as this fictionalised account.

Notes

Cited sources

• Budden, Julian (1984), The Operas of Verdi, Volume 1: From 'Oberto' to 'Rigoletto' . London: Cassell. ISBN 0-304-31058-1.
• Kimbell, David (2001), in Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam. ISBN 0-14-029312-4
• Parker, Roger (1997), "Discovering a New Musical Voice", booklet accompanying the Philips CD.
• Parker, Roger (1998), "Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio", in Stanley Sadie, (Ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. 3. London: Macmillan Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-333-73432-7 ISBN 1-56159-228-5
• Toye, Francis (1931), Giuseppe Verdi: His Life and Works, New York: Knopf

Other 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
• Chusid, Martin, (Ed.) (1997), Verdi’s Middle Period, 1849 to 1859, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-10658-6 ISBN 0-226-10659-4
• 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
• Martin, George, Verdi: His Music, Life and Times (1983), New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. ISBN 0-396-08196-7
• Osborne, Charles (1969), The Complete Opera of Verdi, New York: Da Capo Press, Inc. ISBN 0-306-80072-1
• 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
• Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane (1993), Verdi: A Biography, London & New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-313204-4
• Walker, Frank, The Man Verdi (1982), New York: Knopf, 1962, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-87132-0
• Werfel, Franz and Stefan, Paul (1973), Verdi: The Man and His Letters, New York, Vienna House. ISBN 0-8443-0088-8

• Libretto (in Italian) on giuseppeverdi.it
• Six arias from Oberto on aria-database.com
• TUTTO OPERA, Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio (Argument, Analysis, Discography, Vocal Score PDF, etc) on tutto-opera.com (in Spanish) Retrieved 20 December 2010
• Verdi: "The story" and "History" on giuseppeverdi.it (in English)
• International Giuseppe Verdi Foundation