A cold welcome for Verdi?

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1862, Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La Forza del Destino (or The Force of Destiny) had its premiere at the Imperial Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia. Verdi and his wife, Giuseppina, were present for the opening night.

We’re not sure what the outdoor temperature was in St. Petersburg that November evening, but it was something that the Verdis carefully considered before agreeing to attend.

Responding to a friend’s letter describing a Russian winter, Giuseppina wrote: “If I were not afraid of committing forgery, I would alter that imposing figure of 22 below zero which will make Verdi open his eyes wide in fright … As for myself, I took refuge under the stove … In any case, I shall try and persuade him to expose his nose to the danger of freezing in Russia.”

Perhaps in artistic compensation, the story of Forza is set in sultry Spain — and after the premiere in St. Petersburg, the Verdis did indeed set off for warmer climates of Rome and Madrid, where the new opera was to have its next performances.

In the early years of the 20th century, La Forza del Destino — like most of Verdi’s works — was seldom staged, but in the 1920s it was successfully revived, and its overture has become a concert hall favorite.

Music Played in Today's Program

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901): Overture and Act II excerpt from La Forza del Destino; John Alldis Choir; London Symphony; James Levine, conductor; RCA/BMG 39502

On This Day

Births

• 1668 - French composer, organist and harpsichordist François Couperin (Le Grand), in Paris

• 1873 - French composer and conductor Henri Rabaud, in Paris

• 1928 - Italian film music composer Ennio Morricone, in Rome

Premieres

• 1726 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 98 (Was Gott tut, das ist Wohlgetan II) performed on the 21st Sunday after Trinity as part of Bach’s third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1725/27)

• 1733 - Handel: opera Semiramide in London at the King’s Theater in the Haymarket (see Julian date: Oct. 30)

• 1739 - Handel completes his Concerto Grosso No. 11 in London (see Julian date: Oct. 30)

• 1862 - Verdi: opera La Forza del Destino (The Force of Destiny) in St. Petersburg at the Grand Imperial Theater

• 1872 - Bizet: suite, L’Arlèsienne, in Paris, at a Pasdeloup concert

• 1896 - Dvorák: String Quartet No. 12, in Vienna

• 1910 - Elgar: Violin Concerto, at Queen’s Hall, London, during a concert of the Philharmonic Society of London with the composer conducting, and Fritz Kreisler the soloist

• 1932 - Bernard Wagenaar: Symphony No. 2, Arturo Toscanini conducting the New York Philharmonic

• 1957 - Copland: incidental music for The World of Nick Adams (after stories by Ernest Hemingway), for a live CBS television dramatization

• 1994 - Stephen Albert: Symphony No. 2, by the New York Philharmonic, with Hugh Wolff conducting

Others

• 1595 - Lute virtuoso and composer John Dowland pens a letter from Nuremberg to Robert Cecil (a member of Queen Elisabeth the First’s Privy Council), warning of a plot against the Protestant Queen he discovered among some expatriate English Catholics in Italy. In the long, defensively autobiographical letter, Dowland protests his own loyalty, despite admitting his previous Catholic leanings.

• 1888 - Fritz Kreisler, 13, makes his New York City debut in recital at Old Steinway Hall

• 1900 - Russian pianist Ossip Gabrilowitsch makes his Carnegie Hall debut in New York City during his first American tour. In 1909 he married contralto Clara Clemens, the daughter of the American writer Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain (see also listing for Nov. 16).

• 1909 - Gustav Mahler conducts the New York Philharmonic from the keyboard of a Steinway piano (whose action had been altered to imitate a harpsichord) in his symphonic arrangement of movements from Bach’s Orchestral Suites during the first of a series of “historical” concerts surveying music from the Baroque Age to the present day.