wowhd.co.uk

Following Giuseppe Verdi's "Luisa Miller", with which Ivan Repušic made his debut as principal conductor of the Münchner Rundfunkorchester in September 2017, and "I due Foscari" in October 2018, the conductor's successful cycle of early masterpieces by the famous Italian opera composer now continues with "Attila". In the recording of the concert performance from the Prinzregententheater, outstanding performers provide authentic fluidity and vocal splendor. This highlight of Munich musical life from the end of last year is now already being released on BR-KLASSIK as a double album. Like it's predecessors "Nabucco" and "I Lombardi", Verdi's early masterpiece "Attila" is a choral opera in the best sense, and gained an enthusiastic reception from the Italian unification movement: it's themes reflected the aspirations of the Risorgimento in the restless Italy of that time. The line "Avrai tu l'universo, resti l'Italia a me" ("You may have the universe, but let Italy remain mine") was enthusiastically received right from the start, helping to pave the way for the opera on the stages of Italy and Europe. It was not only the audience at the premiere at the Teatro La Fenice in Habsburg-ruled Venice who understood the full import of those words. Hardly any other opera by Verdi was received in Italy with so much euphoria. Outside the country, of course, it failed to make a lasting impression - probably also due to the extremely difficult role of Odabella.