This production contains sexual references and unsettling scenes which might not be suitable for children. Alexander Joel returns to conduct, following his performances of La bohème last season. We welcome back former ENO Harewood Artist Elizabeth Llewellyn in the title role. This contemporary production is directed by Barbora Horáková, winner in the Newcomer category at the 2018 International Opera Awards. Revealing the composer’s innate gift for beautifully fashioned lyrical lines and sensitive orchestration, Luisa Miller (1849) points the way to the great flowering of Verdi’s art in the 1850s, with works such as La traviata and Rigoletto, both staged recently at ENO. When Rodolfo’s father arranges for his son to make a politically beneficial marriage, their dreams of being together begin to unravel with ultimately tragic consequences.

Luisa Miller perhaps deserves a higher priority in opera scheduling and even if this production doesn’t quite cut the muster, musically this was a high quality evening.Verdi’s Luisa Miller is a complex web of love, intrigue and oppressive familial relationships, centred on the doomed love between Luisa and Rodolfo.įrom opposing sides of the class divide Luisa and Rodolfo are united by their search for happiness. Her friend Laura should have been sung by the ENO Harewood Artist Nadine Benjamin, but she was unwell and it was delightful to hear her understudy from the chorus Claire Pendleton sing the role.Ĭongratulations too to a solid and worthwhile English translation by ENO’s Head of Music Martin Fitzpatrick.ĮNO deserves plaudits for choosing this work. His daughter Luisa sung by Elizabeth Llewellyn – good to see her back at ENO – has a wonderfully flexible soprano voice, although her focus and dominance could occasionally be more empowering. The baritone of Olafur Sigurdarson is a suitable Miller, even if the voice was occasionally somewhat worn.

Wurm was a repulsive character with a silky bass voice – as indeed he should be! – sung by the American Soloman Howard. There was no sympathy for the ringing bass of James Creswell as Count Walter who was on excellent form, as was the tenor of his son Rodolfo sung by David Junghoon Kim. There probably wasn’t a weak link in the cast. Verdi opera ' Miller' is a crossword puzzle clue that we have spotted 1 time. The orchestra and chorus were on top form all night and the musical performance had real passion and bite from the very first overture. However, musically this was such a high quality evening, led by the outstanding Alexander Joel in the pit. Did they or the child ‘alter egos’ of the principals add much to the evening’s storyline? Debatable! Certainly the production of a near naked young boy delivered in a plastic sheet to the Count was alarming and disturbing in equal measures. The clown dressed chorus are sinister, but not as bad as the handful of zombie dancers who appear as an extension of the evening’s Mr Nasty by the name of Wurm. The Set Designer Andrew Lieberman gave us white walled sets, which get smeared throughout the evening with black paint.

Based on Schiller’s play Intrigue and Love it never has had the popularity of some of Verdi’s other works and indeed its UK debut at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London was not until nearly 10 years after its premiere.ĭespite this it is a work of real quality although not always easy to produce and indeed at ENO the Director Barbara Horakova seemed to make hard work of it. It was his fifteenth opera and regarded as the beginning of his middle period. Verdi’s Luisa Miller opened in Naples at the end of 1849.

Verdi opera miller