LA FORZA DEL DESTINO – VERDI
Presented on Apr 30, May 2, 5 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin and on May 14, 16 at the Opera House Cork as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season
Maria Angela Rosati – Leonora
Giuseppe Giacomini – Alvaro
Pedro Farres / Nikola Mitic[May 14, 16] – Carlo
Giovanni Gusmeroli – Guardiano
Alberto Carusi – Melitone
Deirdre Grier – Preziosilla
Brendan Keyes – Marquis
Napoleone Annovazzi – Conductor
Philippe Perrottet – Producer
Listen to this production here:
Recorded on 30th April 1973
THE OPERA WAS ALSO GIVEN IN CORK:
It was Verdi’s “The Force of Destiny”, however, in the ’73 spring season that really hooked Padraig O’Rourke on opera, and once again it was Giacomini who helped to make it a memorable experience. ‘He was in great voice as Alvaro and doing full justice to Verdi’s inspired score. Pedro Farres was little behind him as Don Carlo.’ But if he had experienced discomfort during the rehearsals of “Manon Lescaut”, it was a different story in the case of Verdi’s opera. ‘Looking back, it was quite funny. I remember I was sitting in the parterre with my eyes on the stage when suddenly there was a screech from Maestro Annovazzi. I wondered what had happened, but it appears he was startled by the Gaiety cat as it strode across the stage. I had heard he was supersitious but he could also be a difficult little man and I got the feeling that because one was Irish he wasn’t terribly interested in you.’
(Extracted from “Love and Music: The Glorious History of the Dublin Grand Opera Society” by Gus Smith, 1998)
Opera in Ireland 