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Alzira

Tragedia lirica in three acts by
SALVADORE CAMMARANO

First performance:
Naples, Teatro San Carlo, 12 August 1845 

Critical Edition by
STEFANO CASTELVECCHI

With the Collaboration of
Jonathan Cheskin

The University of Chicago Press 1994
 

CHARACTERS:
ALVARO, Governor of Peru, baritone
GUSMANO, his son, also Governor, baritone
OVANDO, a Spanish duke, tenor
ZAMORO, a Peruvian tribal leader, tenor
ATALIBA, also a tribal leader, bass
ALZIRA, daughter of Ataliba, soprano
ZUMA, Alzira’s handmaid, soprano
OTUMBO, a Peruvian warrior, tenor
Male chorus of Spanish officials and soldiers, mixed chorus of Peruvians.

The setting is in Lima and other districts of Peru about the middle of the 16th century.

Instrumentation: Piccolo, 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 4 Horns, 2 Trumpets, 3 Trombones, Cimbasso, Timpani, Bass Drum, Cymbals, Triangle, Side Drum, Harp, Strings.
Offstage: Band, Bass Drum.

Composed during the middle of the very productive period of Verdi's first large-scale successes, Alzira premiered at Naples on 12 August 1845. Cammarano's libretto is based on a play of Voltaire, who used a real incident in sixteenth-century Peru during the Spanish conquest to shape a critique of the morality of the noble savage as against Christian values. The inherent conflicts and exotic setting appealed to Verdi's dramatic sense, and in its best moments the music of Alzira fully realizes his potential as a masterful composer for the theater.

Because the success of the premiere was not repeated, Alzira fell out of the repertory and no orchestral score was ever published. The critical edition, based on Verdi's autograph score and important secondary sources, provides the first reliable full score of the work. It is complemented by an introduction tracing the opera's genesis, sources and performance history and practices. Together with the detailed critical commentary, discussing problems and ambiguities in the sources, the edition provides scholars and performers alike with unequalled means for interpretation and study of this little known work.

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