Alzira (opera)

Alzira is an opera in a prologue and two acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play Alzire, ou les Américains by Voltaire.

The first performance was at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, on August 12, 1845. The contemporary reviews were mixed, and the first run of the opera received only 4 further performances.Schlitzer, Franco, "Verdi's Alzira at Naples" (April 1954). Music & Letters, 35 (2): pp. 125-27.

Performance history

In modern times, the opera is rarely performed. It was not until January 1968 that it was first given in the US and only in a concert version. Its UK premiere took place on 10 February 1970 at the Collegiate Theatre in London.Holden, Amanda (ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001, page 983. ISBN 0-14-029312-4 A performance was given at the Royal Opera House in London in July 1996 and it was included in 2000 in the Sarasota Opera's "Verdi Cycle" of all of the composer's operas to be performed by 2013. From January 2010, it was presented by the Theater St Gallen in Switzerland

Roles

Synopsis

Place: Peru

Time: 16th century

Prologue: The Prisoner

Peruvian Indians drag the Spanish governor, Alvaro, into the square and are about to execute him. Suddenly Zamoro, an Inca, appears and asks them to release the man; they do so.

Zamoro tells the Indians that he had been captured and tortured...
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