Tragedy of power or force against reason

by Petar PLAMENOV

Attila, Opera by Giuseppe Verdi
Summer Festival OPERA IN THE PARK 2012
Military Academy Park

22 June (Friday), 20:00
23 June (Saturday), 20:00
24 June (Sunday), 20:00
28 June (Thursday), 20:00
30 June (Saturday), 20:00
1 July (Sunday), 20:00

Conducted by: Alessandro Sandzhordzhi
Directed by: Vera Petrova
Scenes: Boris Stoynov
Costumes: Dragan Jordanov, Pavlina Kotseva
Conductor of the choir: Violeta Dimitrova
Concertmaster: Irina Stoyanova
Assistant-directors: Vera Beleva, Rosica Kostova

CAST: Apostol Milenkov, Peter Buchkov, Svetozar Rangel, Venceslav Anastasov, Niko Isakov, Bayasgalan Dashnyam, Radostina Nikolaeva, Daniel Damyanov, Kaludi Kaludow, Kamen Chanev, Nikolai Pavlov, Plamen Papazikov, Angel Hristov, Dimitar Stanchev




Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) had a long and succesful composing career, during which his compositional style kept evolving. Among his most famous and reference  works are operas Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Don Carlos, Aida, Macbeth and Otello. Others included and often but lesser performed are Il Vespri Sicilliani, Simon Boccanegra and opera Atilla. Verdi's operas (along with Puccin's) today dominate the world's opera stages. He was a giant of the opera world and his popularity is enduring.

Attila is Verdi's ninth opera and still is perceived by critics to this day as an early, full of patriotic fervor work. But these opera is a wonderful blend of Nabucco, Il Lombardi, or near to Donizetti, and yes, even a bit of Rossini with its harp playing maidens.

Attila is the only Verdi opera with no interior scenes. Scene Two of the Prologue was particularly beautiful as wild storms gave way to sunrise, mirroring the mood of the refugees as it changes from despair to hope.

The opera opens to Attila's army celebrating victory over the city of Acquileia. Odabella leads a group of women prisoners in proclaiming their invincible spirit: they fought next to their men unlike Atilla's women. Attila is enthralled by Odabella and offers her any gift she desires. She asks for a sword and he gives her his own. Odabella declares that the sword will wreak vengeance for the death of her father and for everything else she hast lost. The Roman General Ezio arrives and offers the entire world to Attila as long as Italy remains his. Attila agrees and continues to wage his war. During a truce, Attila marries Odabella but soon finds her in the arms of the Acquileian Knight, Foresto and in the company of Ezio. Attila is killed by Odabella with his own sword.



The three act work (with a prologue) explores the confrontation of the corrupt and failing Roman Empire with the invading barbarian hordes led by the aforementioned Attila the Hun. Both sides are changed by this encounter, and a new order emerges. Although a historical epic, Attila maintains an intense dramatic and musical economy. Verdi emphasizes the individuals rather than abstract ideas, and created a memorable quartet of leads for this opera–presenting the barbarians, and especially Attila, as more honest in their intentions and straightforward in their actions than the Italians. Narratively, the work describes how Attila, after the invasion, is stopped at the gates of Rome, and ultimately is ambushed and killed by the Italian slave Odabella, who had vowed to avenge her father–murdered by the Huns–and with whom Attila falls in love on the battlefield at the beginning of the opera.

Basically Verdi weaves together several thematic strands here: a poignant love story; a historical fresco that created for audiences at the time (1846) a telling parallel between Italian history at the end of the Roman Empire and the struggle for independence by the Italians against their Austrian occupiers; a homage to the city of Venice, which commisioned the opera, and a rather ambiguous vision of paganism humbled by confrontation with the Catholic faith. Director Pierre Audi suggests that Attila is maligned with a ‘problematic dramatic structure,’ but that it is still ‘effectively powered by music of remarkable invention and energy.”



Of course, when one looks at Verdi’s career, it can be easily seen that his early opera are largely “singer’s operas,” meaning the various dramas they contain, both ppersonal and political, are communicated directly through the vocal espressivity of the singers, although this is equally demanding of the orchestra and chorus. It was felt that telling this story in a poetic, stylized way, that brought it closer to a Greek tragedy was preferable to the illustrative opulence of a historical epic spectable.

There are no "good guys" in Attila, with the possible exception of Attila himself who acts honourably despite plans for world domination. Odabella, Ezio, and Foresto are all untrustworthy conspirators and unlike the rest of Verdi's operas, there are no opportunities in for the audience to shed any tears in this work. The thrilling and sometimes sublime choruses, the back to back solos and the dramatic finale made for a highly entertaining evening.

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