Ghost of Sunday Classics: Everybody loves Luisa

NBC Symphony Orchestra, Arturo Toscanini, cond. RCA-BMG, broadcast performance from Studio 8-H, July 25, 1943

Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. DG, recorded 1976

RCA Italiana Orchestra, Fausto Cleva, cond. RCA-BMG, recorded June 1964

Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, Riccardo Muti, cond. Sony, recorded Sept. 5-7, 1993

by Ken

The rousing and stirring Overture to Luisa Miller is a piece I adore, and I'm surprised to see that, as far as I can tell, we've never listened to it. I thought we would at least have heard the performance from Tullio Serafin's EMI Italian Opera Overtures disc, but I see now that it's not included on that disc, which could explain it! I've had my copy off the shelf so long that I don't know where it is anyway.)

The Toscanini performance has a scorching intensity I've never heard anyone else even try to get. The Karajan performance (with, of all orchestras, the Berlin Philharmonic -- from a strange set of complete Verdi overtures and preludes I've never had much fondness for) takes the piece in a fairly different direction, and since the Schiller-based Luisa is set in the early-17th-century Tyrol (and even the southern Tirol didn't become Italian until after World War I, and itself isn't all that Italian), perhaps it's not such a demerit that the performance doesn't sound especially Italian.

The piece itself is in a very simple sonata form -- exposition, development, recapitulation, and whirlwind coda -- with the wrinkle that the secondary theme of the exposition, sounded by the solo clarinet, is simply the principal theme switched from the minor to the major -- a hallowed old trick we spotlighted in the December 2011 post "It's the old minor-to-major switcheroo -- courtesy of Mahler, Schubert, and Donizetti."

I could continue plying you with performances of the Luisa Overture, but I think I'll offer just one more: a fine all-purpose job from RCA's 1964 Luisa, the first stereo recording (my goodness, now 50 years old, but holding up very nicely), conducted by that age-old opera-house veteran Fausto Cleva. Well, okay, I threw in one more -- from a Sony Verdi overtures-and-preludes series by Riccardo Muti, to hear the concert version of La Scala's orchstra.


WE'RE ACTUALLY CONTINUING LAST WEEK'S
"GHOST" POST DEVOTED TO VERDI'S DESDEMONA

I began that post with the haunting orchestral prelude to Act IV of Verdi's Otello, asking, "How would you describe the atmosphere? Autere? Melancholy? Solitary? Foreboding?" Here it is again.

VERDI: Otello: Act IV Prelude


NBC Symphony Orchestra, Arturo Toscanini, cond. RCA-BMG, broadcast performance from Studio 8-H, Dec. 13, 1947


LUISA MILLER BEGINS . . .

. . . with a piece of Tyrolean dawn tone-painting worthy of Rossini's depiction of William Tell's Swiss valley (which we heard briefly in an October 2009 post, "So why is this fellow William Tell so angry anyways?," and at greater length, I'm pretty sure, in another post I could probably dig out if anyone cares). And it turns out to be a a noteworthy morning indeed. It's young Luisa Miller's birthday, and the village has turned out in force to celebrate.

Luisa and Desdemona are part of the company of people, I suggested last week,

who are genuinely and all but universally loved because of their basic uncompromised decency and humanity, living exemplary practitioners of the Golden Rule. Naturally they are crushed -- easy pickings in a world that talks a good game about the Golden Rule but truly doesn't believe in it.

VERDI: Luisa Miller: Act I opening

A pleasant village. On one side MILLER's humble house, on the other side a little country church; in the distance, through the trees, the towers of COUNT WALTER's castle. A bright spring day is dawning on the horizon; the villagers are gathering to celebrate LUISA's birthday.

LAURA and VILLAGERS: Awake, Luisa, queen of our hearts.
The mountains are already touched by a gleam of light.
On such a happy day, sweet friendship
brings us to you at daybreak.
This April dawn is beautiful,
but not as beautiful as your face.
This gentle breeze is pure and sweet,
but not so pure, so sweet as you.

Milkana Nokolova (ms), Laura; Vienna State Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Alberto Erede, cond. Live performance (first performance of the opera in Vienna), Jan. 23, 1974

Wendy White (ms), Laura; Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, James Levine, cond. Sony, recorded May 1991

Now Luisa's beaming heart-of-gold father proudly presents his daughter to the villagers, though he's not feeling terribly steady about what's gladdening her most at the moment, the new love of her life.

MILLER: Here is my daughter!
LUISA: Oh dear friends!
VILLAGERS: May heaven smile upon you!
LAURA: Shortly we'll go to church together to invoke it.
MILLER: Your affection presses tears
of tenderness from my eyelids.
The dawning day is sacred
to this father's heart.
[Embracing LUISA] It gave me Luisa!
LUISA [looking around anxiously]: He still hasn't come!
Away from him there's no joy for me!
MILLER: Daughter, love, barely awakened in you,
already spreads such vivid flames!
Oh, may such love not be ill-placed!
[As LUISA begins to speak]
This Carlo who has come here
in the court of the new lord,
is unknown to everyone.
I am afraid.
LUISA: Don't be afraid: a nobler spirit,
a soul warmer with virtue,
never assumed human form.
He fell in love with me; I fell in love with him.

Sherrill Milnes (b), Miller; Montserrat Caballé (s), Luisa Miller; Nancy Williams (ms), Laura; Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Thomas Schippers, cond. Live performance, Feb. 7, 1968

Luisa tries to reassure her father, an old soldier who doesn't take well to mysteriously appeared gentleman callers, about the purity of her Rodolfo's love. (We're backing up just a bit here in order to continue on).

LUISA [looking around anxiously]: He still hasn't come!
Away from him there's no joy for me!
MILLER: Daughter, love, barely awakened in you,
already spreads such vivid flames!
Oh, may such love not be ill-placed!
[As LUISA begins to speak]
This Carlo who has come here
in the court of the new lord,
is unknown to everyone.
I am afraid.
LUISA: Don't be afraid: a nobler spirit,
a soul warmer with virtue,
never assumed human form.
He fell in love with me; I fell in love with him.

I saw him, and my heart
felt its first pulse of love;
he barely saw me, and the heart
of my true love leapt up.
As they met here below,
our souls recognized each other;
God has created them in heaven
to love each other! Ah!
I saw him, and my heart etc.
VILLAGERS [presenting bouquets of flowers to LUISA]:
Luisa, accept a simple token
of our friendship.
LUISA: My soul is grateful,
o my tender companions.

Montserrat Caballé (s), Luisa Miller; Sherrill Milnes (b), Miller; Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Thomas Schippers, cond. Live performance, Feb. 7, 1968

Finally Rodolfo, disguised as this "Carlo," himself makes his appearance. As I mentioned last week, instead of Luisa having a solo cabaletta to complement her aria, a duet blossoms, further amplified by the input of the always-interested villagers.

[LUISA catches sight of a young huntsman who steps out of the crowd, also offering her flowers.]
"CARLO": My beloved!
MILLER [to himself, disturbed]: It's him.
"CARLO" [turning toward MILLER]: Good father!
LUISA [to "CARLO"]: Embrace him!
He loves you like a son.
"CARLO" [to the VILLAGERS]: Friends!
VILLAGERS: Love makes you completely happy.
LUISA and "CARLO": Completely happy!
It's true! It's true!
Near you, my heart
lives only in delight,
only in delight.
LUISA: I love you with a love
that words would try to express badly!
The chill of death cannot extinguish
such ardent love.
God has bound our hearts
with an eternal knot,
and when we are dead on earth,
we will love each other in heaven!
"CARLO": I love you with a love etc.
LUISA: We will love each other in heaven!
MILLER [to himself]: I know not what ominous voice
is speaking in my heart.
Wretched me, if she were
the victim of a seducer!
VILLAGERS: One soul, a single desire,
animates the breasts of both!
Never was seen a love
more ardent and more faithful!
MILLER [to himself]: Ah, dear God, do not will
that she succumb to such a fate.
Such cruel suffering
would open the grave for me.
[All repeat, until the church bell sounds.]

Richard Tucker (t), Rodolfo ("Carlo"); Sherrill Milnes (b), Miller; Montserrat Caballé (s), Luisa Miller; Nancy Williams (ms), Laura; Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Thomas Schippers, cond. Live performance, Feb. 7, 1968

And here it is put together, from Luisa's anxiety over Rodolfo's Carlo's delayed arrival:

LUISA [looking around anxiously]: He still hasn't come!
Away from him there's no joy for me!
MILLER: Daughter, love, barely awakened in you,
already spreads such vivid flames!
Oh, may such love not be ill-placed!
[As LUISA begins to speak]
This Carlo who has come here
in the court of the new lord,
is unknown to everyone.
I am afraid.
LUISA: Don't be afraid: a nobler spirit,
a soul warmer with virtue,
never assumed human form.
He fell in love with me; I fell in love with him.

I saw him, and my heart
felt its first pulse of love;
he barely saw me, and the heart
of my true love leapt up.
As they met here below,
our souls recognized each other;
God has created them in heaven
to love each other! Ah!
I saw him, and my heart etc.
VILLAGERS [presenting bouquets of flowers to LUISA]:
Luisa, accept a simple token
of our friendship.
LUISA: My soul is grateful,
o my tender companions.
[LUISA catches sight of a young huntsman who steps out of the crowd, also offering her flowers.]
"CARLO": My beloved!
MILLER [to himself, disturbed]: It's him.
"CARLO" [turning toward MILLER]: Good father!
LUISA [to "CARLO"]: Embrace him!
He loves you like a son.
"CARLO" [to the VILLAGERS]: Friends!
VILLAGERS: Love makes you completely happy.
LUISA and "CARLO": Completely happy!
It's true! It's true!
Near you, my heart
lives only in delight,
only in delight.
LUISA: I love you with a love
that words would try to express badly!
The chill of death cannot extinguish
such ardent love.
God has bound our hearts
with an eternal knot,
and when we are dead on earth,
we will love each other in heaven!
"CARLO": I love you with a love etc.
LUISA: We will love each other in heaven!
MILLER [to himself]: I know not what ominous voice
is speaking in my heart.
Wretched me, if she were
the victim of a seducer!
VILLAGERS: One soul, a single desire,
animates the breasts of both!
Never was seen a love
more ardent and more faithful!
MILLER [to himself]: Ah, dear God, do not will
that she succumb to such a fate.
Such cruel suffering
would open the grave for me.
[All repeat, until the church bell sounds.]

Anna Moffo (s), Luisa Miller; Cornell MacNeil (b), Miller; Carlo Bergonzi (t), Rodolfo ("Carlo"); RCA Italiana Chorus and Orchestra, Fausto Cleva, cond. RCA-BMG, recorded June 1964


END NOTE

I know I haven't inserted English texts (I hope I'll get to it eventually), and I haven't made quite the connection I meant to between Luisa and Desdemona. But I've vowed that I'm not going to miss another engagement on account of these infernal posts, and while I haven't exactly stuck to that, today I'm going to try to.

UPDATE: First, I made it to my engagement -- late, but not fatally so. Second, I've got the texts in place.

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