Джузеппе Верди: «Ломбардтардың Бірінші Крест Жорығы» операсы

Opera by Giuseppe Verdi

I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata (The Lombards on the First Crusade) is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on an epic poem by Tommaso Grossi, which was "very much a child of its age; a grand historical novel with a patriotic slant". Its first performance was given at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 11 February 1843. Verdi dedicated the score to Maria Luigia, the Habsburg Duchess of Parma, who died a few weeks after the premiere. In 1847, the opera was significantly revised to become Verdi's first grand opera for performances in France at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opera under the title of Jérusalem.

Grossi's original epic poem had plot complications that required the librettist to make significant changes; the historical characters portrayed in the original do not appear and the story becomes that of a fictional family and its involvement in the First Crusade. Julian Budden's analysis of the opera's origins notes: "In 1843 any subject where Italians were shown united against a common enemy was dangerous, especially in Austrian Milan. Yet strangely enough it was not the police but the church that took exception to I Lombardi", since the Archbishop of Milan had heard rumours that the work contained specific elements of Catholic ritual. However, given Verdi's refusal to make any changes to the music, it is fortunate that the result of the police chief's investigations of the archbishops complaints required only very minor alterations.

While the premiere performance was a popular success, critical reactions were less enthusiastic and inevitable comparisons were made with Nabucco. However, one writer noted: "If [Nabucco] created this young man's reputation, I Lombardi served to confirm it.". Budden himself disagrees with this contemporary view, noting that "Nabucco is all of a piece, a unity, however crude; I Lombardi is an agglomeration of heterogeneous ideas, some remarkable, some unbelievably banal." but he states that it did not fare well in Venice the following year and that it received few performances outside of Italy. However, within Italy, the opera was presented in Lucca in the summer of 1843, in Florence and Lucca in the autumn, and during the 1843/44 carnival season it was given in Trieste and Turin, while performances in 1845 were presented in Bologna and later, in the 1845/46 season, in Palermo and Mantua, in Macerata in the summer of 1846 and various other cities well in to the 1850s. Even in the late 1880s, well after Jérusalem had been given, it was presented in Florence. This "was the first of Verdi's operas to be heard in the United States, at Palmo's Opera House", on 3 March 1847 in New York. In the prior year the opera's British premiere had taken place on 12 May 1846 at Her Majesty's Theatre in London, Verdi having been invited there by the theatre's impresario, Benjamin Lumley: " I will go to London to write an opera" he had written, but in the end, illness prevented him from doing so. However, with Italy approaching unification in the 1850s and in the decade following it in 1861, I Lombardis call to peoples' patriotic instincts seemed to keep it alive, albeit that, by 1865 when Arrigo Boito saw a performance, he remarked that the opera was beginning to show its age. I Lombardi was given by the Opera Orchestra of New York in a concert version under the direction of Eve Queler at Carnegie Hall, New York, on July 12, 1972. Soloists included José Carreras, Renata Scotto, and Paul Plishka. The opera was presented at the Royal Opera House in 1976 with José Carreras, Sylvia Sass and Nicola Ghiuselev as well as the same year by the Bilbao based ABAO company. The cast included Matteo Manuguerra, Cristina Deutekom, Juan Pons, as well as Carreras. Carlo Bergonzi and Paul Plishka, along with Cristina Deutekom appeared in the San Diego Opera's short lived (1979 to 1984) summer "Verdi Festival" in June 1979 and it is claimed that this was a West Coast premiere. Over the years, New York audiences have seen the opera presented first by New York City Opera in 1982. Six years later, I Lombardi was given by the Opera Orchestra of New York in a concert version with Aprile Millo in April 1986 and this was followed by the opera's Metropolitan Opera premiere on December 2, 1993, as part of its 1993/94 season, a production which starred Luciano Pavarotti, Aprile Millo (replaced in most of the other performances by Lauren Flanigan), and Samuel Ramey in some of the major roles. I Lombardi was presented at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo in late 2001 with Dimitra Theodossiou in the cast. The Teatro Regio di Parma produced it in January 2009, also as part of a complete Verdi cycle. The Parma performance is preserved on a DVD. Sarasota Opera's "Verdi Cycle" featured the opera during its 2011 season. Hamburg State Opera presented a production by David Alden as part of a mini festival of three Verdi operas in October/November 2013. The first new production of the opera to use a new critical edition created jointly by Ricordi and the University of Chicago Press was to have been a new production at the Teatro Regio di Parma as part of its 2020 Verdi Festival. However, this production was cancelled due to the COVID 19 pandemic, and as a result the critical edition instead had its premiere in a new production at the Teatro La Fenice on April 1, 2022, which marked the first time since 1844 that the opera had been staged at the house.

Rousing choruses, vocal ensembles with the varying characters differentiated through the music, and marches with the stage band are a feature of this work. The chorus "O Signore, dal tetto natio", like its counterpart the Chorus of Hebrew Slaves in Verdi's previous opera Nabucco, became extremely and deservedly popular. There is an unusually extended orchestral introduction with solo violin in three sections before the "Baptism" trio "Qual voluttà trascorrere" with the solo violin also prominent in the closing section of that trio. The character of Giselda comes across with striking individuality due to the music Verdi composed for her.