Giuseppe Verdi

Luisa Miller

Introduction at 6.20 pm

"Luisa Miller" is Giuseppe Verdi’s third setting of a play by Friedrich Schiller. “It is a great drama, full of passion and very effective in theatrical terms,” the composer wrote to the librettist Salvadore Cammarano about Kabale und Liebe. In order to conform to the expectations of the censors and audience, Verdi first had to reduce the play to a libretto suitable for opera, moving the focus from Schiller’s political tale to the family drama. In his opera, first performed in Naples in 1849, Verdi produced outstanding character studies of all his protagonists. In this work he laid the foundation for many “Verdi types” of later years, e.g. Iago, Giorgio Germont, Aida or Desdemona. Luisa Miller was first performed in Hamburg at the Hamburg State Opera in 1981 in a new production conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli and directed by Luciano Damiani, who also designed the sets and costumes at the time.

Director: Andreas Homoki
Set Designer: Paul Zoller
Costume Designer: Gideon Davey
Lighting Designer: Franck Evin

Premiere: 16.11.2014

A break of ca. 25 minutes after the first act (after about 60 minutes)

In Italian with German surtitles
Supported by the Foundation for the Support of the Hamburg State Opera