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
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Luisa's father does not act in line with the times to help Luisa in her groundbreaking relationship, thus proving the outdated ideas of the old order right.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.
