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Theatre / Luisa Miller

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The death of Luisa from the first edition vocal score

Luisa Miller is a 3-act opera by Giuseppe Verdi, and is his 15th opera. Set to a libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, it is an adaptation of the German play Kabale und Liebe by Friedrich von Schiller.

Luisa Miller, the daughter of a retired soldier, is in love with a young man named Carlo, much to her father's displeasure. His fears are confirmed when Wurm, a courtier who is vying for Luisa's affections, reveals that Carlo is actually Rodolfo, the son of the local lord, Count Walter.

Furious that his plans to marry Luisa are thwarted, Wurm spills the news of Rodolfo and Luisa's romance to Count Walter, who is displeased to hear that his son is in love with a commoner. Walter takes Rodolfo to task and reveals that he's arranged a marriage between him and Federica, a recently-widowed duchess who has loved Rodolfo since childhood.

When Miller reveals who Carlo is to Luisa, Rodolfo shows up and swears that his love is sincere before proposing to Luisa. However, Walter shows up and has both Old Miller and Luisa arrested, only to set Luisa free when Rodolfo threatens to reveal just how Walter had become the count. Come Act 2, Old Miller has been charged, and has been sent to prison. Wurm, who has been scheming with Walter, offers Luisa to set her father free, but in return, Luisa has to write a letter admitting she never loved Rodolfo, and that she only loves Wurm, then confirm this to Duchess Federica before her father is set free. Luisa writes the letter, and Rodolfo receives it. Heartbroken, he challenges Wurm to a duel, only to be encouraged to marry Federica as revenge.

In Act 3, Old Miller has been freed from prison, but Luisa is heartbroken. She contemplates suicide, but Miller manages to stop her. However, Rodolfo arrives and pours poison into a glass before confronting Luisa with the letter. Luisa insists that the letter is authentic, and she and Rodolfo share a drink before the latter reveals that the water has been poisoned. Freed from her vow, Luisa confesses that the letter was false, and that she has only ever loved Rodolfo before she collapses and dies in her father's arm. Walter and Wurm enter right then, and Rodolfo manages to kill Wurm before succumbing to the poison himself.

Luisa Miller premiered in December of 1849 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, where it was well-received by critics and audiences. While not as popular as some of Verdi's other operas, it's still been performed regularly around the world.


Tropes pertaining to this opera:

  • Abhorrent Admirer: Wurm is this for Luisa.
  • Adaptation Name Change:
    • Ferdinand is the name of the love interest in Schiller’s play, but the opera changes his name to Rodolfo.
    • Downplayed with an adaptational title change, as Walter is a count rather than president.
  • Adaptational Job Change: In Schiller’s play, Old Miller is a town musician. In the opera, he’s a retired soldier.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy:
    • Since Luise's mother is Adapted Out, Miller's quarrels with her also get removed entirely, and he is a completely heroic character.
    • In the 2018 San Francisco staging, Wurm of all people gets a minor case of this trope. In what's probably the only time he shows any feelings for Luisa deeper than Entitled to Have You, he comforts Luisa after Rodolfo threatens to stab her, and looks genuinely horrified about what has nearly happened.
  • Adapted Out: Luise's mother and Marshal Kalb.
  • And Now You Must Marry Me: Wurm pulls this on Luisa when she’s desperate to save her father from imprisonment. It almost works, but Luisa manages to tell Rodolfo about the letter being fake before she dies.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: Wurm is a courtier, and Walter is the Count, and they both schemed to kill the previous count so that Walter could become the lord.
  • Arranged Marriage: Count Walter sets Rodolfo up with Federica, the Duchess of Ostheim.
  • Bad "Bad Acting": When she is forced to show her love for Wurm and claim she and Rodolfo hardly know each other, Luisa is anything but convincing in her act. After nearly every phrase, she has an Aside Glance to desperately lament her fate.
  • Betty and Veronica: Gentle and kind but lowborn Luisa is the Betty, while wealthy Clingy Jealous Girl Federica is the Veronica for Rodolfo.
  • Blackmail: Rodolfo threatens to reveal how his father had become the Count if he doesn’t release Luisa.
  • Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Miller is worried about Luisa’s romance with Carlo, a local young man, and his worries only increase after it’s revealed that Carlo is actually Rodolfo, the son of the local lord, as he fears that Rodolfo is only seducing his daughter for his own lust.
  • Break His Heart to Save Him: Luisa is forced to do this to Rodolfo by claiming that she'd never loved him in a letter, and that she'd only loved Wurm.
  • Break the Cutie: Poor Luisa goes through so much. First, she and her father are arrested by Count Walter, and she’s forced to write a letter declaring her love for Wurm and break Rodolfo’s heart in order to save her father. Then, to top it off, she dies after being convinced to drink poisoned water with Rodolfo.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Federica gets furious the moment she learns Rodolfo loves another.
  • Daddy's Girl: Luisa comes across as one for her father.
  • Dad the Veteran: Miller is a retired soldier, a change from him being the town musician in the original play.
  • Death by Adaptation: Rodolfo has the time to kill Wurm before his own death.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Rodolfo crosses this after he’s led to believe that Luisa loves Wurm.
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: Luisa dies in her father’s arms at the end of the opera.
  • Dirty Coward: Rodolfo challenges Wurm to a duel after receiving Luisa’s letter, but Wurm gets out of the duel by firing his pistol to summon the Count.
  • Downer Ending: Big time. Luisa and Rodolfo consume poison and die right in front of Old Miller, and the only bright side is that Rodolfo manages to kill Wurm before he dies as well.
  • Duel to the Death: Rodolfo tries to challenge Wurm to a duel, but Wurm escapes from the challenge by summoning the Count.
  • Dying Declaration of Hate: Rodolfo tells the Count “La pena tua mira” (Look on your punishment) before dying.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: Played straight with the slimy and scheming Wurm and Walter, two bass roles, and with jealous Federica, a mezzo. Among the main characters, it's averted only with Miller, a baritone.
  • Final Love Duet: "Ah piangi, il tuo dolore", sung by Luisa and Rodolfo after they drink the poison.
  • The Ingenue: Luisa is definitely this to a T, being innocent, kind, and very trusting.
  • Innocent Soprano: Luisa is a lyric soprano role, and is a sweet, dutiful daughter to her father.
  • Jealous Romantic Witness: Wurm watches Luisa, on whom he has a Villainous Crush, happily confess her love for Rodolfo and enjoy her birthday feast with him, and afterwards says how the fire of jealousy burned his soul. However, Wurm has an Entitled to Have You attitude towards Luisa and is baffled as to why her father refused to let him marry her unless she loved him back, so that scene is designed to show him as the creepy Stalker with a Crush he is rather than make him sympathetic.
  • Jerkass: First, there’s Count Walter, who killed his own cousin to become the Count, and tries to force his own son to marry his own cousin, arresting his son’s girlfriend and the girlfriend’s father when Rodolfo refuses. Then there’s Wurm, who exposes Rodolfo and Luisa’s romance to the Count out of jealousy, then tries to force Luisa to marry him by promising to free her father from prison if she writes a letter denouncing her love for Rodolfo and declaring her love for Wurm.
  • Karma Houdini: Count Walter doesn’t pay any price for his actions, though watching his son die might be a punishment enough for him.
  • Kick the Dog: Wurm forcing Luisa to write her letter to Rodolfo is definitely this.
  • Love Dodecahedron: Federica has been in love with Rodolfo since childhood, but Rodolfo is in love with Luisa, a village girl. There's also Wurm and Rodolfo competing for Luisa.
  • Not as You Know Them: The only thing Lady Milford and Federica von Ostheim have in common is that they are arranged to marry the hero and are very happy with it. Their backstories and characters don't match in the slightest.
  • Outliving One's Offspring: Both Miller and Count Walter end up outliving their respective daughter and son at the end.
  • Perfect Poison: The poison works quickly, but gives just enough time for Luisa to confess about the letter, and for Rodolfo to attack Wurm, before they both die.
  • Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: A gender-flipped variant. Federica is the Duchess of Ostheim, while Luisa is the daughter of a retired soldier.
  • Scarpia Ultimatum: Wurm essentially does this to Luisa, by promising to release her father if she declares her love for Wurm in a letter.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: Luisa and Rodolfo, and true to this trope, it ends in tragedy.
  • Tenor Boy: Rodolfo is a lyric tenor role, and a romantic young man.
  • Together in Death: Luisa and Rodolfo die together after consuming poisoned water.
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: Federica for Rodolfo. Before he reveals his love for Luise, they fondly reminisce on the time they spent together in their childhood and early youth.
  • Uptown Girl: Gender-inverted. Rodolfo, the son of Count Walter, is in love with simple village girl Luisa.
  • Villain Song: "L'alto retaggio non ho bramato" is a villains' duet between Walter and Wurm, about how they murdered Walter's cousin so that Walter could become the Count.
  • Yodel Land: The opera is set in the Tyrol, a historical region in the Alps in Northern Italy and western Austria, during the 17th century.

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