NPR World of Opera
Jerusalem, by Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi wrote his opera I Lombardi in 1843, for a premiere at La Scala that same year. The opera was a hit. Audiences ate it up and came back for more.

So, four years later, when Verdi needed a new opera for performance in Paris, making a French version of I Lombardi probably seemed like a pretty good idea. It wasn't. The thing just didn't sit well with 19th-century Parisians - even though all the Italian characters had become French, and the story gets rolling in Toulouse instead of Milan. Yet, Verdi's revision may have just the right appeal to succeed with modern audiences.

I Lombardi has a rambling, implausible plot, but the story is all about a victorious battle with supposed "infidels." That plot device thrilled the opera's original, Italian audience. They saw it as a parallel to their own struggle for independence and unity. When Verdi revised it for Paris, making the Italian Crusaders French, the story lost some of its patriotic fervor. The new version, called Jerusalem, didn't do much business in either France or Italy.

Still, along with the change of nationality, Verdi did some other things in Jerusalem. He downplayed mystical intervention as a plot device. That made make the whole thing seem a little less contrived. He also made the opera bigger -- more of a dramatic spectacle. Finally, Verdi made a telling change in the opera's pivotal love story. What had been a simple, adulterous longing, became a kinky bit of incestuous lust. In short, Verdi added reality, special effects, and sex - which in this day and age may just make his "remake" more popular than the original!

Ironically, this "French" opera by Verdi comes to us from an authentic, Italian theater - the Teatro Lirico in Genoa. Hear it this week on NPR World of Opera, with host Steve Curwood.

LINKS:

Synopsis of the opera
NPR's At the Opera
More on Verdi

COMING UP NEXT WEEK: Carmen, by Georges Bizet from the Grand Theatre of Geneva