(MOVE BACK TO THE MAIN PAGE - VERDI GALLERY)

• Historical persons (HP) behind the opera characters
• Performers and collaborators of the first premieres
• Performers most liked by Giuseppe Verdi and his wife Giuseppina Strepponi
• Greatest performers after Verdi's times
• Persons are sorted by roles and birth years.
• Please, add profiles only to the main page, "Verdi Gallery".
  
  
  
  

La forza del destino

• Opera in 4 acts, Italian
• Libretto Francesco Maria Piave
• Based on the play Don Álvaro o La fuerza del sino by Ángel Perez de Saavedra, duque de Rivas
• Performed also with the title: Don Alvaro
• Time: around 1750. Place: Spain and Italy.
• Premiere Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, Saint Petersburg, 10 November 1862
• Premiere of the revised, final version at Teatro alla Scala 27 February 1869
  
  
  

Set design for Act 2 Secene 2 by Carlo Ferrario for La Forza del destino ( Milan 1869)

1860s postcard showing act 4

• Characters:
  • The Marquis of Calatrava, bass
    • Antonio "Selva" Scremin
    • Pentti Arnold Hilmanpoika Tuominen
  • Leonora, his daughter, soprano
    • Caroline Barbot sang in the first premiere 10 Nov 1862
    • Thérèse Tietjens sang in the first London premiere 1867 opposite Mongini and Santley.
    • Teresa Stolz sang in the first premiere of the revised version in La Scala Milan on 27 Feb 1869
    • Albina Contarini
    • Romilda Pantaleoni
    • Elda Cavalieri
    • Emilia Corsi
    • Luisa Tetrazzini
    • Solomiya Amvrosiivna Krushelnytska
    • Elvira Barbieri
    • Eugenia Burzio
    • Valentina Bartolomasi
    • Claudia Muzio
    • Giannina Arangi-Lombardi
    • Gilda Dalla Rizza
    • Rosa Ponselle
    • Gina Cigna
    • Dusolina Giannini
    • Maria Caniglia
    • Zinka Milanov
    • Lina Bruna Rasa
    • Maria Callas
    • Renata Tebaldi
    • Leontyne Price
    • Montserrat Caballé
    • Mirella Freni
    • Ángeles Gulín
    • Júlia Várady
    • Aprile Millo
  • Don Carlo di Vargas, his son, baritone
    • Francesco Graziani sang in the first premiere 10 Nov 1862
    • Antonio Cotogni
    • Sir Charles Santley
    • Adriano Pantaleoni
    • Giuseppe Kaschmann
    • Antonio Magini Coletti
    • Mattia Battistini
    • Francesco Maria Bonini
    • Ferruccio Francesco Corradetti
    • Giuseppe De Luca
    • Titta Ruffo
    • Pasquale Amato
    • Giuseppe Danise
    • Amleto Barbieri
    • Mario Carmelo Basiola
    • Leonard Warren Warren died instantly from brain hemorrhage March 4 1960 on stage during the Metropolitan La Forza, in the end of the aria "Morir, tremenda cosa". Roald Reitan, singing the Surgeon, tried to help him.
    • Gino Bechi
    • Tito Gobbi
    • Paolo Silveri
    • Giuseppe Taddei
    • Robert Merrill
    • Ettore Bastianini
    • Rolando Panerai
    • Piero Cappuccilli
    • Usko Viitanen
    • Ingvar Wixell
    • Kari Nurmela
    • Tom Gunnar Krause
    • Renato Bruson
    • Jorma Hynninen
  • Don Alvaro, Leonora's suitor, tenor
    • Enrico Tamberlik sang in the first premiere 10 Nov 1862
    • Emilio Clodovaldo Naudin
    • Mario Tiberini sang in the premiere of the revised, and now standard, version in Milan 1869
    • Pietro Mongini
    • Antonio Aramburo
    • Italo Campanini
    • Lodovico Giraud
    • Leopoldo Signoretti
    • Augusto Renato Brogi
    • Francesco Marconi
    • Fernando De Lucia
    • Francesco Daddi
    • Gino Martinez-Patti
    • Luigi Colazza
    • Giovanni Peirani
    • Florencio Constantino
    • Enrico Caruso
    • Giovanni Zenatello
    • Alfred Piccaver
    • Giovanni Martinelli
    • Arnoldo Lindi
    • Beniamino Samuele Benedetto Gigli
    • Giacomo Lauri-Volpi
    • Richard Tucker
    • Mario Del Monaco
    • Franco Corelli
    • Giuseppe di Stefano
    • Carlo Bergonzi
    • Carlo Cossutta
    • Plácido Domingo
  • Curra, Leonora's maid, mezzo-soprano
    • Fedora Barbieri
    • Giulietta Simionato
  • Preziosilla, a young gipsy, mezzo-soprano
    • Constance Nantier-Didiée sang in the first premiere 10 Nov 1862
    • Maria Waldmann
    • Giuseppina Pasqua
    • Teresa Ferni
    • Maria Verger
    • Ebe Stignani
    • Fiorenza Cossotto
  • Mayor, bass
    • Ignazio Marini sang in the first premiere 10 Nov 1862
    • Antonio "Selva" Scremin
  • Padre Guardiano, bass
    • Gian Francesco Angelini sang in the first premiere 10 Nov 1862
    • Antonio "Selva" Scremin
    • Hans Tobias Erl
    • Boris Christoff
    • Nicolai Ghiaurov
    • Martti Talvela
    • Ruggero Raimondi
  • Fra Melitone, a Franciscan, baritone
    • Achille De Bassini sang in the first premiere 10 Nov 1862
    • Antonio "Selva" Scremin
    • Adriano Pantaleoni
    • Alessandro Polonini
    • Antonio Camillo Francesco Pini-Corsi
    • Giuseppe Taddei
    • Fernando Corena
    • Ezio Domenico Flagello
  • Un chirurgo, bass
    • Alessandro Polonini sang in the first premiere 10 Nov 1862
    • Antonio "Selva" Scremin
    • Piero Cappuccilli
• Conductors:
  • Edoardo Bauer (Baveri) conducted in the first premiere 10 Nov 1862
  • Luigi Arditi First London premiere at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1867
  • Eugenio Terziani conducted in the first premiere of the revised, and now standard, version in Milan 27 Feb 1869
  • Egisto Emilio Tango
  • Tullio Serafin
  • Fernando Previtali
  • Gianandrea Gavazzeni
  • Francesco Molinari Pradelli
  • Lamberto Gardelli
  • Riccardo Muti
  • Riccardo Chailly, OMRI
• Stage directors:
  • Giancarlo Del Monaco (New York Metropolitan, Wiener Staatsoper)
    
    
    
    

La forza del destino / revised

• Revised version, with text addition by Antonio Ghislanzoni
• Premiere Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 27 February 1869
  

La force du destin / revised

• French revised version of La forza del destino translated into French by Charles Nuitter and Camille du Locle.
• Premiere Antwerp, 14 March 1881
  
  
  
  
  

MOVE TO THE NEXT OPERA - DON CARLOS

MOVE BACK TO THE MAIN PAGE - VERDI GALLERY