La battaglia di Legnano (The Battle of Legnano) is an opera in four acts, with music by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian-language libretto by Salvadore Cammarano. It was based on the play La Bataille de Toulouse by Joseph Méry, later the co-librettist of Don Carlos.
Written as a commission from the Teatro Argentina in the "beleaguered republic" of Rome while the composer was still living in Paris, he traveled to Rome in late 1848 to prepare the opera for its first performance, which was given on 27 January 1849. Musicologist Roger Parker describes the première as "a clamorous success, with the entire final act encored"Parker, p. 349 and the audience wild with enthusiasm. He goes to add that act 4 was encored at every performance of the run. However, the opera failed in its 1850 production in Genoa.Stamatov, Peter, "Interpretive Activism and the Political Uses of Verdi's Operas in the 1840s" (June 2002). American Sociological Review, 67 (3): pp. 345–366.
In later years Battaglia was given under different settings and different titles until Italian unification allowed for the opera to be presented as originally written. Verdi considered revising it in the 1850s, but never did.Parker, p. 351
Composition history
Verdi's 14th opera was written while he was living in Paris in 1848 (though he quickly traveled to Milan after receiving news of the March "Cinque Giornate" – the five days of street fighting which drove the Austrians out of the city) and it seems to have been composed specifically as "an opera with a purpose" (as opera historian Charles Osborne describes it). Osborne continues: "while parts of Verdi's earlier operas had frequently been taken up by the fighters of the Risorgimento [...] this time the composer had given the movement its own opera".Osborne, p. 198
While still writing I masnadieri and with his obligation to complete an opera for the publisher, Francesco Lucca, Verdi had been admonished by the poet Giuseppe Giusti for turning away from patriotic subjects when he composed Macbeth; the poet pleaded with him to "do what you can to nourish the [sorrow of the Italian people], to strengthen it, and direct it to its goal."Giusti to Verdi, date unknown, in Osborne, p. 189 Verdi replied encouragingly. With his other obligations out of the way, he was hesitant in committing to anything that was not a genuinely patriotic subject, but he despaired that librettists were incapable to providing them until Salvadore Cammarano (who supplied the libretto for the 1845 Alzira) came up with the idea of adapting Joseph Méry's 1828 play La Bataille de Toulouse, a well-known and well-liked play in Italy at that time. "A story like that should stir every man with an Italian soul in his breast" was how the librettist described it.Cammarano to Verdi, 20 April 1848, in Budden, p. 390
"Conceived in the springtime of Italian hopes" Budden, p. 390(as Budden describes the initial enthusiasm for the work), by the time Cammarano produced a final libretto it was early 1849 and it was also clear that the Austrians had not been permanently routed from Lombardy. The premiere was set for late January 1849, some last-minute adjustments were made, and Verdi traveled to Rome before the end of 1848. At this point in the rise of Italian nationalism, Rome under Pope Pius IX was in turmoil and the Pope was held prisoner (without his Swiss guards), but he managed to escape to the south, hoping to negotiate his return. Within days of Battaglias totally sold-out premiere, Rome had become a republic, accelerated by the passions inflamed amongst its inhabitants by (amongst other things) the opera's final chorus of freedom: "Italia risorge vestita di Gloria, invitta e regina qual'era sarà" / "Italy rises again robed in glory!, Unconquered and a queen she shall be as once she was!".
Performance history19th centuryInitial reactions at the premiere were ecstatic by all accounts (as noted above). Charles Osborne adds to some of the details of the premiere when he describes the house as "packed to the rafters" and continues by stating that "Verdi's music roused the entire house to a frenzy of enthusiasm" with cries of "Viva Verdi!" and "Viva Italia" coming from the audience when the words of the opening chorus – Viva Italia! Sacro un patto / Tutti stringe I figli suoi / "Long live Italy!. A sacred pact binds all her sons") – were heard.Osborne, p. 192
But, as writer John Black notes in his study of Cammarano, "For all its appeal to the spirit of the times – or perhaps because of it, as conditions of order were re-established – it was not widely revived during the ten years that followed" the premiereBlack, p. 120 since, after initial performances around Italy, the opera fell foul of the Austrian censors, as much as anything caused by what musicologist Roger Parker describes as "perhaps its too intense association with a particular historical period" or, as Budden puts it, [it had] "the taint of a pièce d'occasion somewhat to the composer's mortification."Budden, p. 393
"Even before the premiere, Ricordi was in touch with Cammarano about an alternative version, with the action removed to the Flemish- Spanish wars, under the title, L'assedio di Arlem [with] Federico Barbarossa...to be replaced by the Duke of Alba, etc." However, the librettist did not want to get involved and renounced his rights to the libretto 3 February 1849, but the opera was re-structured and revived in Milan 12 years later as L'assedio di Haarlem (based on the historic 1572 to 1575 Siege of Haarlem).
In Parma, after the Italian victories of 1859, it was re-titled La disfatta degli Austriaci (The defeat of the Austrians).Osborne, pp. 192–193 It was presented in Genoa, Corfu, Turin, and Piacenza between 1850 and 1859 and revived in Milan and Naples in 1861. Performances listed on librettodopera.it Retrieved 17 June 2013
In the 1880s it was re-styled in French as Pour la Patrie for a projected production at the Théâtre Château-d'Eau in Paris which did not happen.Soubies and Malherbe, p. ?? However, as Emanuele Muzio reports by letter to Verdi, this adaptation was later successfully performed in the French provinces.Muzio to Verdi, 24 April 1886. Budden, p. 394, notes some of the reasons, quoted in "Composition history" above20th century and beyondIn Italy, the opera was seen in 1959 in Florence and Venice to commemorate the centenary of the Second Italian War of Independence, and in Trieste in 1963 (on each occasion starring Leyla Gencer). La Scala has mounted the piece twice in the last century: once in 1916 and once in 1961. The 1961 cast was recorded and includes performances by Franco Corelli, Antonietta Stella, and Ettore Bastianini.
The Rome Opera presented Battaglia in December 1983, a performance of which was recorded. Rome performance details on operadis, plus recording information In the 1990s, it was staged in Piacenza in January 1999 with Lida sung by Fiorenza Cedolins. Piacenza performance details on operadis, plus recording information Additionally, it was presented in the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania in December 2001 under Nello Santi. A video recording was made of the production. Catania performance details on operadis, plus recording information
Battaglia was not performed in the United Kingdom until 31 October 1960 when it was given its UK première by the Welsh Opera Company in London at Sadler's Wells.Baldini, p. 151 The Royal Opera House company (during the period when the house was closed) gave a concert performance at the Royal Festival Hall in July 2000 with a cast which included Plácido Domingo (as Arrigo) and Anthony Michaels-Moore singing Rolando. Verónica Villarroel sang Lida. London performance details on operadis, along with recording information.
It was only on 28 February 1976 that this opera was given its US premiere by the Amato Opera in New York City. Two concert performances have been presented by the Opera Orchestra of New York; the first was in January 1987 with Matteo Manuguerra, Aprile Millo and Jerome Hines while the second was given on 19 November 2001. OONY's list of past performances on their website Retrieved 7 July 2013. The Pittsburgh Opera presented the work with June Anderson on 20 September 1985.Pittsburgh performance details on operadis, along with recording information
In Rome in 2011, as part of the 150th anniversary of Italian Unification, Battaglia was presented by the Rome Opera.Review of the 2011 production in Rome on likelyimpossibilities. Retrieved 7 July 2013
Companies which plan to present all of Verdi's operas include the ABAO in Bilbao which presented it in 2007, and it was given by Sarasota Opera as part of its "Verdi Cycle" in 2016. As the Verdi bicentennial year was approaching, it was staged by the Teatro Regio di Parma in October 2012 (as part of its "Festival Verdi" series) and was directed by David Alden.Parma's Verdi Festival website Retrieved 16 November 2013Review of the Parma production, 2012 (In Italian) Alden's contribution is noted: Il regista infatti è riuscito a dare continuità in un opera dove quasi ogni numero musicale è ambientato in un luogo diverso / "In fact, the director has managed to give continuity in a work where almost every musical number is set in a different place." The Parma production was repeated in Trieste. Hamburg State Opera presented performances in October/November 2013 along with two other early Verdi operas, all directed by Alden.Alden's three Verdi productions for Hamburg on intermusica.co.uk. Retrieved 16 November 2013Shirley Apthorp, "I due Foscari, Staatsoper Hamburg – review", Financial Times (London), 30 October 2013. Apthorp notes, in regard to the staging of all three productions, that "To pull off the feat of three Verdi premieres in four weeks, David Alden and his team have opted for a single, versatile set (palace/theatre/prison/court), with the choir [chorus] in a back gallery that can be hoisted in and out".
Roles
RoleVoice typePremière Cast, 27 January 1849List of singers taken from Budden, p. 388.(Leader: Emilio Angelini,Verdi at the cembalo)Federico Barbarossa, German emperorbassPietro SottoviaFirst Consul of MilanbassAlessandro LanzoniSecond Consul of MilanbassAchille TestiMayor of ComobassFilippo GianniniRolando, Milanese leaderbaritoneFilippo ColiniLida, his wifesopranoTeresa De Giuli BorsiArrigo, Veronese WarriortenorGaetano FraschiniMarcovaldo, German prisonerbaritoneLodovico ButiaImelda, Lida's servantmezzo-sopranoVincenza MarchesiArrigo's squire tenorMariano ContiA heraldtenorGaetano FerriKnights of Death, Magistrates and leaders of Como, Milanese people and Senators, Warriors of Verona, Brescia, Novara, Piacenza and Milan, and the German Army
Synopsis Time: 1176 Place: Milan and Como
Act 1 – "He Lives!" Scene 1: Milan, not far from the city walls
Outside the city walls, people have gathered in support of the Lombard League whose troops are about to go into battle against the occupying German Emperor Federico Barbarossa. Among them is Arrigo, a young soldier whom all had thought dead, but he has now re-joined the army and he recounts how his mother had nursed his wounds (La pia materna mano / "A mother's kindly hand") after he was left for dead. Having recovered and before leaving again, he wants to see Lida, his sweetheart. Rolando, Arrigo's friend and leader of the troops from Milan, arrives and he is amazed to see Arrigo alive. Joyously, he embraces his friend (Ah m'abbraccia d'esultanza / "Ah! Come to my arms..."). The gathered troops and the consuls of Milan all swear to defend the city against tyranny.
Scene 2: Beside the ramparts of the city