Giuseppe Verdi 1813-1901
Melodramma tragico in three
acts
Libreto by Salvatore Cammarano
based upon the theatre play Kabale und Liebe by Friedrich von
Schiller
Premiere: 8 December 1849
Teatro di San Carlo, Naples
Saturday, December 20, 2025 with audio description
service.
More information
Intrigue when love is not enough
Friedrich Schiller premiered his drama Kabale und Liebe
(Intrigue and Love) on 13 April 1784, a few years before
the outbreak of the French Revolution. Like so many philosophically
inspired works from the Age of Enlightenment – and this is
certainly one of them - Schiller's drama denounces the paralysing
power of the class system of the old order, which prohibited any
acceptable legal relationship between members of different social
classes. Its young main characters see their own attempt at
marriage fail in the face of their parents' firm refusal: the
nobleman is defending his long-standing social rights; while
Luisa's father does not act in line with the times to help Luisa in
her groundbreaking relationship, thus proving the outdated ideas of
the old order right. The unhappy end of these lovers greatly
interested Giuseppe Verdi at a time in his life when bourgeois
drama – life as experienced by ordinary people – was replacing
historical drama and the Risorgimento. Not all social injustices
were killed off by the revolutionary guillotine: class barriers
continued - and continue - to survive.
