Giovanna d'Arco
| Giovanna d'Arco | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Giuseppe Verdi | |
Joan at the Coronation of Charles VII
by Jean-Auguste Ingres, 1855 (The Louvre) |
|
| Librettist | |
| Language | Italian |
| Based on | Schiller's play Die Jungfrau von Orleans |
| Premiere | 15 February 1845 Teatro alla Scala, Milan |
Giovanna d'Arco (Joan of Arc) is an operatic dramma lirico with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by , who had prepared the libretti for both Nabucco and I Lombardi. It is Verdi's seventh opera.
The work partly reflects the story of Joan of Arc and appears to be loosely based on the play Die Jungfrau von Orleans by Friedrich von Schiller. After writing the music over the autumn and winter of 1844/45, Verdi's opera had its first performance at Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 15 February 1845.
Some scholars speculate on the reasons for Verdi's having chosen this subject. For example, Gabriele Baldini notes "the weighty presence of her father, first as violent enemy, later as tender comforter" (which re-introduces the father-daughter relationship first visible in Oberto) helps to explain the use of Schiller's "altered version" of history, many of the features of which bear no relationship to historical fact.
By the middle of the 19th century, the story of Joan of Arc had appeared as an opera many times, including those of Nicola Vaccai (1827) and Giovanni Pacini (1830), both of which were strongly reminiscent of Schiller. Therefore, Budden's telling comment that "invention was not Solera's strong suit" is meaningful in light of what happened next.
After hearing from Verdi's publisher, Giovanni Ricordi, that he would like an assurance that no French copyright might exist (given that he'd heard about a French play on the same subject), Solera, in his response to the publisher, denied any assertion that Schiller's play was the source, and he claimed that the work was "an entirely original Italian drama ... I have not allowed myself to be imposed upon by the authority either of Schiller or Shakespeare ...My play is original". [his emphasis]
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