Tune in on Saturday, April 4 at 1 p.m. for the Metropolitan Opera’s broadcast of a 1968 recording of Amilcare Ponchielli’s La Gioconda, in celebration of the opera’s 150th anniversary. WRTI will carry the broadcast live from the Metropolitan Opera House, as part of the Met’s Saturday matinee series.
150 years ago, on April 8, 1876, Ponchielli’s La Gioconda premiered at Teatro alla Scala in Milan to immediate acclaim, placing him among the ranks of Italian opera composers like Giuseppe Verdi. La Gioconda is classified as a Grande opera because of its sprawling four-act structure and complex plot. As it features a principal role for each of the six major voice types, as well as a full ballet dance (The Dance of the Hours), it is not frequently performed due to its sheer immensity and high production demands.
Arrigo Boito, writing under the pseudonym Tobia Gorrio, based the La Gioconda's libretto on the play Angelo, Tyrant of Padua by Victor Hugo, author of Les Misérables. The opera follows the titular Gioconda, a Venetian street singer who must yield her love for Enzo to her rival, Laura, in order to foil the villainous plots of Barnaba, a spy of the Inquisition.
Cast:
- Renata Tebaldi as La Gioconda
- Carlo Bergonzi as Enzo
- Fiorenza Cossotto as Laura
- Cornell MacNeil as Barnaba
- Mignon Dunn as La Cieca
- Bonaldo Giaotti as Alvise
Conducted by Maestro Fausto Cleva