William Berger, in his entertaining
Puccini Without Excuses
, quipped that "there seem to be more exclamation points in the libretto of
La Gioconda than in all other libretti combined." Hyperbole, but he has a point: many of the exchanges in this fraught drama appear to consist almost entirely of impassioned outbursts. (Exclamation-ridden libretto (by Arrigo Boito, no less!)
here, Wikipedia synopsis of the wild plot
here.) The friend whom I met in the Rush Tickets line is currently singing Enzo, so with his inspiration and with his help finding recordings and a full score, I've spent some time working on connecting with and appreciating this work. And as a reward, I got to hear performances with the New York Opera Forum. (There is a lot of opera lurking around this city! That may become the topic of a post at some point.) Not insignificantly, I think, the liner notes for the
remastered first full recording
lament that "it is easy, though mistaken, to regard it as a less than excellent opera." Based on my own experience, I would say that it can be easy, and may well be mistaken. But it has certainly moved me to think about what I expect of opera conventions, and what the merits of lavishing loving investigation on not-quite-masterpieces may be.
