It’s yet more evidence that the course of true love never did run smoothly. Serving up a melodramatic feast in his opera La forza del destino, Giuseppe Verdi’s recipe includes all the melodramatic elements of operatic tragedy – a generous helping of unrequited love, honour, and friendship – with a twist of racial prejudice, accidental gun death, disguise and siblicide, all washed down with the force of destiny.
As we approach, in Oct., 2013, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Italian opera great, Verdi, CBC Radio 2's Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and the Metropolitan Opera have a treat for you from the archives: a 1977 recording of La forza del destino (The Force of Destiny). With James Levine conducting, it features a stellar cast that includes Leontyne Price and Placido Domingo.
Leontyne Price, born in the American deep south in 1927, rose to diva status against all odds, to become one of the first black opera singers to be a leading light at the Met. When this recording was made, she was in the sunset of her illustrious and physically exhausting career. Nevertheless her voice here is smooth as butter. Price’s voice had become something of a legend, with the New York Times chief music critic in 1961 calling her“the Stradivarius of voice.”
Whereas Price’s career was beginning its twilight, Domingo’s career was arguably at its zenith. Unlike his character Don Alvaro, a South American emigree to Seville, Domingo’s growing up had taken the reverse direction, moving from Old World to New World when his family moved from Spain to Mexico.
So here's how the story of La forza del destino unfolds.
Opening in a lavish mansion in the Spanish city of Seville, Price plays Donna Leonora, the ill-fated daughter of the Marquis of Calatrava. Leonora has fallen in love. But she is of noble birth, and daddy wants only the best for his daughter. The object of her affections, Don Alvaro (Domingo), doesn’t measure up. He’s a Peruvian with Incan blood who has arrived in Seville and discovered a culture of racial prejudice.
At an impasse with the Marquis, yet hopelessly devoted, the two lovers decide to elope. Alas, before making their getaway, daddy catches Leonora and Don Alvaro together, and fears that Alvaro has taken advantage of his daughter. He hasn’t. Alvaro surrenders to his unwilling prospective father-in-law, but in so doing, drops his pistol, which fires, mortally wounding the Marquis, who dies cursing his beloved daughter.
And that’s just the first act!
In the somewhat implausible story that follows (suspending disbelief is required in opera, after all), Leonora runs away, disguises herself as a monk, and settles into life in a cave. Alvaro, meanwhile, assumes Leonora dead, joins the army under a false identity, and of course while there, becomes best buddies with Leonora’s brother Don Carlo (Sherrill Milnes). Carlo has also assumed a false name.
Following a military battle in which Alvaro is injured and thinks he’s a goner, he entrusts his devoted friend Carlo with destroying his private letters. Or so he thinks, discovering amongst Alvaro’s belongings a picture of his sister, all bets are off, and then, just to add another twist to the circuitous story, Carlo recovers. The two duel, but are dragged apart, after which Alvaro too decides to become a friar, but is later found by the ever-vengeful brother of Leonora. The peaceful monk Alvaro is goaded into another fight, in which Carlo is mortally wounded.
Here's a complete cast list:
Leonora: Leontyne Price
Don Alvaro: Plácido Domingo
Don Carlo: Cornell MacNeil
Padre Guardiano: Martti Talvela
Preziosilla: Rosalind Elias
Fra Melitone: Renato Capecchi
Marquis de Calatrava: Malcolm Smith
Curra: Carlotta Ordassy
Mayor: Andrij Dobriansky
Trabuco: Andrea Velis
Surgeon: Robert Goodloe
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus
James Levine, conductor
Related:
Complete synopsis of La forza from the Met