VERDI : ATTILA

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Wednesday 25th of February 2015 at 8 - 10  pm
Sunday 28th of March 2010 at 4.30 - 7.10 pm

INTRODUCTION
COMPOSER
HISTORY
LEGEND
SYNOPSIS
LIBRETTO
SCORE

VERDI: Attila, an opera in three acts
Attila................................ Ferruccio Furlanetto
Uldino.............................. Nathaniel Peake
Odabella........................... Lucrecia Gercia
Ezio.................................. Quinn Kelsey
Foresto.............................. Diego Torre
Leone................................ Samuel Ramey
San Francisco Opera Chorus & Orch/Nicola Luisotti

2010
VERDI: Attila, an opera in a prologue and three acts
First Metropera production of Verdi’s early opera
Attila ............................ Ildar Abdrazakov
Odabella....................... Violeta Urmana
Ezio ............................. Carlos Alvarez
Foresto ........................ Ramón Vargas
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orch/Riccardo Muti 
Another first is the appearance of Riccardo Muti


What is the connection between Verdi's Attila and Wagner's Götterdämmerung?
For a start, Wodan and Valhalla are mentioned in the opening chorus. Furthermore, it has a warrior maiden equivalent to Brünnhilde, namely Odabella (is the -bella not 'beautiful' but related to Latin bellum 'war', as in belligerent and bellicose?). More significantly, in the Germanic legends Attila is known as Etzel (in the Nibelungenlied) and Atli (Volsung Saga); in the saga, Attila's wife is Gudrun, who is the counterpart of Wagner's Gutrune (whose husband Siegfried is murdered by Hagen); in the struggle over possession of the gold (Rheingold) Gudrun brings about the death of Gunnar (Gunther) and Hogni (Hagen); and she kills Atli (Attila) by making him drink the blood of their children, and stabbing him in their bed.

Actually, Attila had a lot of gold, paid as tribute by the Romans and also for the release of hostages. He fought at Gallipoli (like my father-in-law) and destroyed a Roman army there, in 443. He died in 453, in his marriage bed, having just wed a German girl named Ildico ('little Hilda'?); he might have had a cerebral haemorrhage, or a heart attack; it was noted that he only ate meat.

Attila camped at the swamp which is now Venice, soon to be submerged, unless they go back to living in huts on stilts as in this opera (Prolog, Scene 6). Attila is murdered by a warlike woman at the very end (and he does not make a farewell speech like the dying ruler in Masked Ball, and Siegfried in Götterdämmerung); it is curtains for Attila, immediately.

When I was young the Germans were constantly called 'Huns'; but Attila the Hun was not German (or any kind of Goth) nor Hungarian; the ethnic identity of the Huns is obscure; a few hundred years previously the Chinese were being harassed by the Hsiung-nu (Xiongnu), who may have been the Huns; Attila's name could be Turkic, and the Huns could have been a Turkic people.

I have been listening to my recording of the opera, one of Lamberto Gardelli's Verdi collection, but with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (the Beecham pill band), not the usual HUNgarian musicians, although he used them in a subsequent recording he made of Attila, with a less great tenor. Here Ruggero Raimondi is Attila, Sherrill Milnes plays Ezio (Aetius), the tenor Foresto is the great Carlo Bergonzi (he was once the greatest), and Foresto's beloved Odabella is Cristina Deutekom.

Side four has just finished, with the quickest death in opera (the quick and the dead together again): Attila dies by his own sword, but it is in the hand of the Amazon-like Dorabella (or the like) who would like to avenge her father's death.

In Wagner's Dusk of the Gods it is Wotan who has his downfall, but as Attila was treated as a god by his subjects, he would be the fallen deity here. Incidentally, Wagner (1813 - 1883) and Verdi (1813 - 1901) were born in the same year.

Well now, listening to the music (which was written when the composer was sick in bed, "in an almost dying condition", he said, with sore throats, upset stomachs, bad nerves, and on the verge of a breakdown, from which he emerged to produce his Macbeth) it is rumpty-tumpty, making my toes and my head move with the beat. It has only been revived in recent times, and there are so many recordings that Denis Forman had to include it in his Good Opera Guide; he finds it tuneful and forceful, and good entertainment, but grades it with Beta.