Verdi's 'Luisa Miller' was his second collaboration with Salvadore Cammarano, a Neapolitan librettist who was twelve years his senior and a proponent of imaginative European Romanticism.
Composition History
The opera 'Luisa Miller' is based on Schiller's five-act tragedy 'Kabale und Liebe' ('Intrigue and Love'), which tells the story of a tragic love broken by court intrigue.
Recording & Production
This recording of 'Luisa Miller' is a live performance captured at the Prinzregententheater in Munich on September 22 and 24, 2017.
Performer Biography
Ivan Repušic, the conductor, is a Croatian conductor who began his career at the Croatian National Theatre in Split and has since conducted at major opera houses like the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Hamburg State Opera.
Compositional Technique
Schiller's tragedy was reduced to three acts for the opera, titled 'Amore' (Love), 'Intrigo' (Intrigue), and 'Veleno' (Poison), reflecting a Hegelian triad that leads to catastrophe.
Historical Context
The setting of 'Luisa Miller' was changed from a small German principality to the mountains of Tyrol, a political allusion to the 1848 revolutionaries' reference to Andreas Hofer's uprising against Bavarian occupation.
Composer Biography
Giuseppe Verdi, born during the French occupation, spent his youth in the Duchy of Parma under Habsburg influence, but pursued a career as an opera composer despite opportunities in church music.
