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English subtitles included From The Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg Valery Gergiev conducts this musically exhilarating production, which boasts superlative performances by Galina Gorchakova, Gegam Grigorian, and Nikolai Putilin with the dancers and actors from the Mariinsky Theatre Watch the second part from the 11th September: Grigory Karasev - Marchese di Calatrava Galina Gorchakova - Leonora di Vargas Nikolai Putilin - Don Carlo di Vargas Gegam Grigorian - Alvaro Marianna Tarasova - Preziosilla Sergei Alexashkin - Padre Guardiano Georgy Zastavny - Fra Melitone Lia Shevtsova - Curra Yevgeny Nikitin - Alcade Nikolai Gassiev - Mastro Trabucco Yuri Laptev - Chirurgo Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra Kirov Chorus and Orchestra Valery Gergiev - conductor Elijah Moshinsky - director Giuseppe Verdi - La Forza del Destino In the original St Petersburg version of 1862 Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave 0:00 Overture 3:27 Act I: Buona notte mia figlia 7:43 Act I: Me pellegrina ed orfana 11:50 Act I: Ah! per sempre o mio bell'angiol 19:38 Act I: Vil seduttor infame figlia 26:26 Act I: E bella la guerra! 42:27 Act II: La vergine degli angeli 1:04:64 Act II: Il santo nome di Dio Signore sia benedetto. Subscribe to wocomoMUSIC: Follow us on Facebook: Verdi wrote his-epic Forza on commission from the Imperial Theatre of St Petersburg and it was premiered there in 1862. Written for a Russian audience, it ended in despair with the death of all three principal characters, rather than offering the religious consolation of the more familiar revised version. Freed from the need to satisfy a Catholic sense of forgiveness, Verdi showed that destiny catches up with the wrong-doer in the end. Elijah Moshinsky, the internationally-acclaimed director of this new Kirov production, draws a comparison between the Italian composer and his Russian contemporary Leo Tolstoy saying that “the writer’s concern to present the movement of history is prefigured in Verdi’s attempt to find scenes and melodies to express the force of destiny.” He sees the first version of Forza as a true synthesis between Italian operatic form and the Russian sense of history, and his awareness of this bond informs this powerful and dramatic production. Using reconstructions of the many magnificent painted backcloths and flats created for the 1862 premiere, and new costumes designed by Peter J. Hall which refer to Napoleon I’s empire-building campaigns of 1808-13, this is glorious grand opera at its most traditional. © Licensed by Digital Classics Distribution #wocomoROMANTIC
