He chose to remove much of the political ‘intrigue’ of the bourgeoisie tragedy, and focused on the ‘love’ aspect.Ĭammarano changed the opera’s male lead from Ferdinand to Rodolfo, distinguishing it from Ferdinand I, the King of Naples. To avoid the interests of the strict censors, Cammarano adapted the story. Recognise the librettist’s name? He also wrote the words for Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. It was librettist, Salvadore Cammarano’s idea to give operatic treatment to Schiller’s play, Intrigue and Love (Kabale und Liebe). Miller's script was adapted to please conservative censors Because of this, Luisa Miller is generally considered as the proving ground for the polished musical style he perfected four years later with one of his greatest works, La traviata. Verdi used a more refined composing style with Luisa Miller than the opera’s predecessors. Luisa Miller is the last opera Verdi composed before his famous three, and is generally considered as the first opera in his ‘middle period’. The opera helped Verdi explore a composing style he would go on to perfect with La traviata This was especially thanks to his most-famous trio of works, Rigoletto (1851) Il trovatore (1853), and La traviata (1853) That is until Giuseppe Verdi came on the scene.įrom 1845, until his death in 1901, Verdi revitalised Italian classical music. When the last of the three great composers died in 1868, thing weren’t looking good for Italian opera. In the second half, only one man dominated the scene.

In the first half of the nineteenth-century, Italian opera was spearheaded by three composers: Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti.

Verdi is the nineteenth century’s leading opera composer

Verdi opera miller