SUMMARY

Bringing Giuseppe Verdi’s seldom-heard opera to life at Müpa Budapest’s concert performance will be a cast of genuinely world-class performers. We can look forward to a piece full of dramatic music, imaginative orchestration, memorable choral scenes, lyrical arias, and a story full of twists and turns built around the subject of the Crusades and incorporating into the music the eternal themes of love, hate, faith and redemption. I Lombardi [alla Prima Crociata] is Verdi’s fourth opera, and its composition and reception were largely determined by those of the three he had created previously. When the composer started working on the new opera, commissioned by Milan’s La Scala, it was his unconcealed aim to follow the recipe that had proved so successful for Nabucco. A plot with a religious theme, massive historical tableaus, exotic landscapes, patriotism and longing for a distant homeland: all these are what formed the basis of the concept, which also required elements of fraternal jealousy, murder and cruelty, coupled with love, mercy and forgiveness. I Lombardi was first presented to an audience in February 1843, with moderate success. Of the other premières, the Paris one in 1847 was of particular importance to Verdi: the composer revised the work on the French model with the title Jérusalem. That same year, I Lombardi also made it overseas, becoming Verdi’s first opera to be staged in the United States. According to surviving reviews from the time, one of the arias from the work had already become the very first by the composer to be performed in America when Rosina Pico sang Giselda’s vision from Act 4 (“Non fu sogno…”) for the audience at New York’s Apollo Theater. The libretto to I Lombardi is the work of Temistocle Solera, who borrowed the plot from the epic of the same title by the Milanese poet Tommaso Grossi. It takes place during the First Crusade (1096–1099) in Milan (Act 1), Antioch (Acts 2 and 3), and Jerusalem (Act 4). Although the opera’s plot is often fragmented and contains inconsistencies, its moving scenes and emotional drama provided valuable material and inspiration for Verdi. In many ways, I Lombardi is an opera of opposites: the extremes are shown in the plot and in the natures of the individual characters as well as in the juxtaposition or even opposing use of the various forces of the orchestra.

2023. április 28. MARTIN GRUBINGER ÉS A LUXEMBURGI

Filharmonikus Zenekar

Vezényel: Gustavo Gimeno

2023. április 29. „SELYMEIM” – ÉNEKESNŐK A NAGYVILÁGBÓL PALYA BEA ÉS MARI KALKUN

Közreműködik: Mari Kalkun – ének, kannel, lábcsengő, harmonika, zongora, Palya Bea – ének, sansula, tapan, televi, Orbán György – nagybőgő, Czirják Tamás – dob, ütőhangszerek, Szokolay Dongó Balázs – fúvós hangszerek, Lisztes Jenő – cimbalom

2023. május 8. RICCARDO CHAILLY ÉS A FILARMONICA DELLA SCALA

Közreműködik: Mao Fujita – zongora

2023. május 13. BOLDOCZKI