THE STORY BEHIND: Verdi's Overture to "La forza del destino"

On June 3, conductor Leonard Slatkin and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra will present the 2023 Annual Gala Concert with soprano Renée Fleming.

THE STORY BEHIND: Verdi's Overture to La forza del destino

Title: La forza del destino: Overture
Composer: Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Last time performed by the Rhode Island Philharmonic: Last performed September 21, 2013 with Larry Rachleff conducting. This piece is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, cimbasso, timpani, percussion, two harps and strings.

The Story: Giuseppe Verdi came to be in great demand internationally, and he was rather cosmopolitan himself. For example, when the famous tenor Enrico Tamberlik, regularly with the St. Petersburg Opera, asked Verdi to write an opera for Russia, the composer (always on the lookout to broaden his popularity) responded with a Spanish drama by the Duke of Rivas: La forza del destino. Premiered in St. Petersburg in 1862, this opera was every bit as melodramatic as any Verdi wrote. It concerns members of the Calatrava family, whom opera scholar Julian Budden declares, “swing from one vehement extreme to another without any transition of mood. They are twice as large as life and half as life-like.”
       
The rambling plot traces the working of destiny in the fate of the heroine Leonora, initially parted from her lover Don Alvaro, unwittingly the cause of her father’s death and the object of the vengeful pursuit of Leonora’s brother, Don Carlo. Alvaro and Carlo eventually have a duel, from which a chain of deaths result.
       
The vivid and exciting Overture introduces some of the most important themes and ideas from the opera. The brass and bassoons announce the fate idea, followed by themes associated with the destiny of Leonora, Alvaro’s encounter with Carlo, Leonora’s second act prayer, and a subsequent duet. This overture is ranked as one of Verdi’s best, introducing an opera where, in the words of the Earl of Harewood (an opera pundit), the “scenes of popular life were, like Verdi’s, particularly successful.”

Program Notes by Dr. Michael Fink © 2023 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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