An opera based on the play by Friedrich Schiller, Kabale und Liebe (1794), libretto by Cammarano
Première: Naples, December 8, 1849

Rescue operas customarily entail plots in which a character being held captive is rescued by another character, preferably in disguise. Beethoven’s Fidelio, whose heroine dresses up as a man to infiltrate a prison and find her husband, bears the trappings of a rescue opera. In Verdi’s Luisa Miller, the rescue occurred before a single note of the opera had even been written because the composer was forced to rescue the librettist. Verdi was a composer under contract to the city of Naples. With the composition of his La battaglia di Legnano Verdi felt that he had satisfied the terms of his contract. Naples disagreed. Unable to coerce Verdi, who was then a resident of Paris, the city put the screws to the librettist Salvadore Cammarano (1801-1852). Cammarano may be best know as Gaetano Donizetti’s librettist for Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), but even with this success his financial circumstances were invariably wretched. Naples demanded an opera for 1849 and if Cammarano failed to deliver, he would be fined. And if unable to pay the fine, he would be thrown in jail, a terrifying prospect for a man struggling to support his wife and six children. Verdi responded to Cammarano’s plea for help with some irritation: “I will write the opera for Naples next year for your sake alone; it will rob me of two hours peace every day and of my health.”
    Luisa Miller is one among several Verdi operas in which the father-daughter relationship becomes terribly important; Rigoletto, Aida, the unrealized King Lear and even La Traviata are among Verdi’s other operas with a pivotal father-daughter theme. Indeed, Luisa’s love for her father gives the villainous Wurm an opening. Unjustly imprisoned by the evil Count Walther, Luisa’s father will be released only if Luisa writes a letter renouncing her love for the Count’s son and declaring her love for Wurm. Luisa acquiesces in order to save her father. Wurm not only wants to marry Luisa, but he wants to ensure the Count’s son will obey the Count and marry a wealthy Duchess. Though her father is released, Luisa is filled with regret on account of the letter. The Count’s son, Rodolfo, having read Luisa’s letter is filled with fury and disbelief. In the hopeless situation of the final act, Rodolfo secretly adds poison to some lemonade and creates a pretext so that he and Luisa both drink. Telling Luisa that they have both taken poison, Rodolfo demands to know if the letter Luisa wrote was sincere or coerced. Luisa sings her dying explanation of how the letter was coerced and what her true feelings are for Rodolfo. Rodolfo begs forgiveness; his dying act is to run Wurm through with his sword.
    Verdi is much praised for Luisa Miller. His style is now suited to more natural characterization and is less given to grandiosity. Choral singing is better integrated into the fabric of the drama. Act III stands above the other two by its absence of stereotypical musical gesture and by its refined portrayal of characters in unhindered musical-dramatic flow. Music sung by the chorus to console Luisa occurs in the overture as well.
    The overture is considered one of Verdi’s finest. It is also one that confounds conventional expectations of how an Italian operatic overture should go. Most Italian overtures are a potpourri of light melodies, brilliantly orchestrated and designed to be little more than delightful curtain raisers. What stands out in this overture is its classical design; it could almost be the first movement of a symphony. Though the C-minor opening possesses great seriousness and intensity, the minor mode gives way to a brilliant C-major conclusion. Given that this overture has but a single principal theme, one hears this theme become white hot as the major key version replaces the minor key version. Of this overture, the renowned Verdi scholar Julian Budden writes that it combines “the spirit of Weber with the technique of Haydn.”