Alzira is an opera in a prologue and two acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvatore Cammarano, based on the 1736 play Alzire, ou les Américains by Voltaire.
The first performance was at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, on 12 August 1845. The contemporary reviews were mixed, and the first run of the opera received only four further performances.
Composition history
Following his completion of Giovanna d'Arco, Verdi began on work on Alzira, having been invited by the impresario of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Vincenzo Flauto, to write an opera for that house, the invitation having followed the earlier success of Ernani. One of the attractions of the arrangement to Verdi was to have the services of the man who was now - following Felice Romani's virtual retirement - the principal librettist in Italy. This was Salvatore Cammarano, the Naples "house poet" who had been responsible for some of Donizetti's successes, which included Lucia di Lammermoor. Using the publisher Giovanni Ricordi as "a kind of agent" Verdi's terms were laid out. These included being able to receive one-third more than his fee for I Lombardi and, more importantly, having a finished libretto from Cammarano in his possession four months before the production.
Verdi had received a synopsis of the opera from Cammarano, the subject of which was not his. But, as Budden notes, Verdi adopted a somewhat passive attitude, impressed as he was at being able to work with this librettist. In a letter of 23 February 1845, Verdi had expressed his optimism that "Voltaire's tragedy will become an excellent melodrama," with the added hope that if the librettist would "put some passion into your libretto" and that he, Verdi, would write music to match. In their early correspondence, it appears that Cammarano had already sent some sample verses because Verdi's 23 February letter also contained his enthusiasm for receiving more: "I beg you to send me promptly some more verses. It's not necessary for me to tell you to keep it short. You know the theatre better than I do." It is quite clear that Verdi's characteristic requirement for brevity appeared this early on in his career.
As far as the libretto went, it was acceptable to Verdi; he was even "highly delighted" with it. However, from Voltaire's play the "intellectual content [was] reduced to a minimum [and] religion and politics, the two raisons d'être of the drama, are scarcely mentioned; and the confrontation of different creeds, different civilizations and different worlds becomes merely another variant of the eternal triangle. In the Spring of 1845 Verdi's health forced a postponement until at least following August, although he was well enough to arrive in Naples by the end of July to oversee rehearsals. In a letter of 30 July, he expresses optimism that the opera will be well received but notes that "if it were to fail, that wouldn't upset me unduly".
Performance history
19th century
The opening performance received a complimentary note of approval in Naples' Gazzetta Musicale: "Beauties so delicately contrived that the ear can hardly take them in". However, the general reaction in Naples was not positive, even worse when Alzira was staged in Rome in November 1845 and, worse still, after the 1846 presentations at La Scala, resulting in the worst press that the composer had seen since the failure of Un giorno di regno in 1840. It was staged in Ferrara as part of the Spring 1847 carnivale season, after which it disappeared from the repertory.
20th century and beyond
Prior to 1940, the opera was not performed very often; however, there was a 1938 concert performance in Berlin with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Other recordings show that there has been a steady flow of presentations, many only in concert form, especially since 2000. Postwar stagings include those given by the Rome Opera in February 1967 (with Virginia Zeani as Alzira and Cornell MacNeil as Gusmano). According to Budden this "proved that the score is genuinely alive" and he concludes by noting that it is "not downright bad" and that "no Verdi opera is totally negligible".
It was not until January 1968 that it was first given in the US: a concert version was given in Carnegie Hall, New York on 17 January 1968 with Louis Quilico.
In February 1981, it was staged by the Teatro Regio di Parma and in July 1996, a performance was given at the Royal Opera House in London