Verdi’s Evangelical Preacher Stiffelio, Brooding & Raging, Returns to the Met
by Bruce-Michael Gelbert
On January 11, the Metropolitan Opera revived Giuseppe Verdi’s “Stiffelio” (1850) and Plácido Domingo, protagonist of the 1993 Met premiere and 1998 revival, this time presided in the pit. For the work, Verdi set the then contemporary tale of a German protestant minister, Stiffelio (Stiffelius), also called Rodolfo Müller, whose wife, Lina, has an affair with Raffaele von Leuthold, a young nobleman, in her spouse’s absence. Lina’s father, Count Stankar, avenges the family ‘honor’ by killing Raffaele and Stiffelio, inspired by the Book of John, Chapter 8, about Jesus refusing to condemn “l’adultera” (the ‘adulteress’)-”Quegli di voi che non peccò,/la prima pietra scagli” (Whichever among you is without sin, cast the first stone)-’pardons’ Lina. Verdi predictably ran afoul of the Italian censors with this controversial subject and, dismayed by the disfiguring changes they demanded, withdrew the opera after its first productions-in Trieste, and in Napoli, the Papal States, and Bologna (as “Guglielmo Wellingrode,” about a minister of state, a version Verdi loathed), and finally in Barcelona-and extensively reworked it for an 1857 premiere in Rimini, as “Aroldo,” now with a more remote, 12th century setting and a Saxon knight, returning from the Crusades, instead of a clergyman, as central figure. The lost score of “Stiffelio” resurfaced in the 1960s and the opera has since been presented in a number of cities, including Parma, Köln, New York (in Brooklyn and Manhattan), Boston, and London, in editions reflecting increasing scholarship.
After a somewhat tentative start, during which soprano Jennifer Check, in the supporting role of Dorotea, Lina’s cousin, made one of the strongest impressions, the performance caught fire in the duet, which becomes a trio with Stankar (Polish baritone Andrzej Dobber), in which Stiffelio (José Cura), discovers that Lina (Sondra Radvanovsky), is missing her wedding ring and explodes with fury. Radvanovsky offered beautiful high, quiet singing in Lina’s first act prayer, and her ensuing confrontation with Dobber’s unforgiving Stankar boasted the requisite blood-and-thunder and sensitivity alike, in good measure. The first act’s climactic largo septet and chorus-in which recurring lines “Fatal, fatal mistero/tal libro svelerà” (This book will reveal a fatal mystery) refer to a copy of Klopstock’s poetic and religious “Messias” (Messiah), in which an intimate letter from Raffaele to Lina is hidden-and the ensemble’s stretta, both forcefully kicked off by Cura, were as grand as they should be, thanks to the aforementioned singers and Michael Fabiano (debut) as Raffaele, Phillip Ens as the older preacher, Jorg, and Diego Torre as Lina’s other cousin, Federico, guided by Domingo.
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For the work, Verdi set the then contemporary tale of a German protestant minister, Stiffelio (Stiffelius), also called Rodolfo Müller, whose wife, Lina, has […..