Director: Tiziano Mancini
Conductor: Gustav Kuhn
Stars: Francesco Facini, Thomas Gazheli, Ferdinand von Bothmer, Junko Saito.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2812846/
Verdi's 8th opera.
First performance at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, 1845.
Place: Peru
Time: 16th century
Filmed at Grand Hotel Centro Culturale, Dobbiaco
Performed here in concert only; would've been nice to get some Inca costumes onstage. The story is of Alzira, daughter of an Inca leader, desired for marriage to Gusmano, the Spanish governor of Peru, but beloved Zamoro, leader of a rebellious Peruvian tribe. Special plot twist: when Gusmano has Zamoro under arrest, Peruvians are about to attack the Spaniards, and Gusmano releases Zamoro so he can kill him in battle instead of executing him as a prisoner now.
I don't really understand why this is so denigrated as an opera. Wonder if I'll get more sophisticated about opera, and be able to say this is truly not a good opera (as Verdi himself proclaimed). To me, it's on par with some of the other earlier ones. But my rating would be only 6 because it's a concert performance, but these singers were fine, and did quite a bit to act their roles. Nice big chorus and orchestra.
There is a 1991 Teatro Regio di Parma performed version out there (UPC 8018783040504), but a bit pricey especially given its poor video/audio quality. Hopefully someone will mount and film a production soon.
The Great Course mentions this opera, but basically jumps from Ernani to Macbeth.
Per the 2012 featurette, without naming the source of world-wide most-performed rankings, this is 26th (last) among Verdi's operas, 1445th (after Aroldo, the adaptation of Stiffelio, not on the 1-26 list) among all operas. (another source-less list of the top 100; Operabase Statistics). The featurette also mentions Verdi wanted to work with the then-famous librettist Salvatore Cammarano. Note: he had severed his relations with La Scala after they performed Giovanna D'Arco out of sequence.
Unitel, cond. Kuhn; 7-
