Theatre / Stiffelio

Stiffelio (premiered November 16, 1850, in Trieste, Italy) is a three-act opera with music by the one, the only Giuseppe Verdi and libretto by his frequent collaborator Francesco Maria Piave (better known for collaborating with Verdi on Rigoletto, which premiered less than four months after this opera, and La traviata, with which this opera shares some themes). The opera is based on an Italian translation/adaptation of the last three acts of Émile Souvestre and Eugène Bourgeois’ 1849 five-act realist play Le Pasteur, ou L’Évangile et le Foyer (The Pastor, or The Gospel and the Hearth).

Generally considered to be one of, if not the, most unjustly neglected of Verdi’s operas, the piece begins with the title character, a Protestant minister who has been away on a long work-related journey, happily returning home to his family, friends, and church community situated just outside of Salzburg, Austria. However, his joy at being home with the people he holds dear quickly dissipates as he begins to suspect that the people around him, in particular his wife Lina, are keeping a terrible secret from him. When he eventually discovers the secret—that Lina has committed adultery—he finds himself in a moral quandary testing the limits of his belief in unconditional forgiveness, particularly in the face of Lina’s continued love for him and her own extreme trauma and guilt. The ending just might surprise you.

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Tropes for this opera include:

• Act of True Love: Lina tells Raffaele that if he really loved her, he would return her personal effects (intercepted letters and her wedding ring) and then leave forever. Lina and Stiffelio both attempt this in Act III, Scene 1: she by declaring her willingness to die rather than leave him; he by offering her a divorce.
• Adaptation Sequence: the libretto is adapted from an Italian translation/Bowdlerised adaptation of a French play adapted from a novel written by one of the co-playwrights. Got that?
• Adaptational Location Change: the Royal Opera House's 1993 production (directed by Elijah Moshinsky) changes the setting from an isolated community outside of Salzburg, Austria, to a village in an unspecified part of the American Great Plains region, as well as moving the time forward about 15-20 years from c.1850 to after the American Civil War.
• Adapted Out: In the source play, Fritz is one of eight major speaking roles, but he has no lines in the opera and only appears onstage once (that is, unless your director gives him more stage time, as some productions do).
• A Deadly Affair: the opera as a whole is an example of this, with a successful carrying out of Type 6 (the woman’s father killing the man) and an attempted carrying out of type 3 (wronged husband attempting to kill his wife’s lover).
• Affair Letters: there are a bunch. see Destroy the Evidence on this page.
• All-Loving Hero: For the most part, Stiffelio and Lina are both examples of this.
• Asshole Victim: Raffaele.
• As the Good Book Says...: this trope happens several times over the course of the opera, which makes sense given that the title character is a Protestant minister and that the opera takes place entirely within the church’s community. Most notably, this is more or less what ultimately brings the opera to its resolution in the final scene.
• Beta Couple: some productions give the vibe of Dorotea and Federico as being this, which is weird given that a) they’re cousins and b) in the source play, Dorotea is married to someone else (her husband is in England during the action and does not appear in either the play or the opera). Most of the time, they’re portrayed as being best friends, which is better.
• Beyond Redemption: Raffaele is seen as this by most of the other characters (but Lina insists in Act II that he is not). By the time Act III, Scene 1 is over, Lina believes that she herself is this. Thankfully, she is soon proven incorrect.
• Big Damn Reunion: unusually for this trope, this happens at the beginning of the opera, when Stiffelio returns after an unspecified but presumably long period away. For the most part, everyone is happy to reunite.
• Birthday Party Goes Wrong: While the homecoming party in Act I, Scene 2 is not a birthday party, it still gets ruined for just about everyone, especially Stiffelio, for whom the party was being thrown .
• Blaming the Victim: Stankar and (temporarily) Stiffelio, against Lina.
• Book Safe: Raffaele uses a copy of Klopstock’s Der Messias to smuggle a love letter to Lina. Unfortunately for him, the plan goes awry.
• Bowdlerization: And how. After rehearsals had already begun, the censors, aka Culture Police, in an act of Executive Meddling raised objections to the work’s subject matter on the grounds of supposed blasphemy and offenses against public morality. As such, Verdi and Piave were required to make the title character not a Protestant minister and radically change the final scene, as well as various other lines throughout the libretto. Eventually, Verdi was so incensed with all the mutilations the opera went through that he withdrew the opera from public performance and radically overhauled it into a completely different work (see Lighter and Softer on this page). The original (more or less) was not performed again until 1968—and the opera was not performed anywhere with all of Verdi’s original music and Piave’s original, uncensored libretto until 1993. I’m not making this up.
• Breaking Old Trends: The vast majority of Verdi’s operas, including all of Verdi’s successful operas before this one, are tragedies. While not a comedy, this opera is a rare case of Verdi writing an opera with a more or less happy ending.
• B So D Song: hoo boy, there are a lot. Both of Lina’s arias (“A te ascenda, o Dio clemente” and “Ah, dalli scanni eterei”) and Stankar’s big aria (“Lina, pensai che un angelo”) in particular fall under this category.
• Calling the Young Man Out: Stankar believes he is doing this to Lina, but by refusing to listen when she tries to tell him what actually happened and manipulating her, he crosses the line into being an Abusive Parent.
• Christianity is Catholic: Subverted, as the opera focuses on a Protestant community which (according to the backstory) was once persecuted by the (Catholic) Austrian Empire.
• Compressed Adaptation: Partly because they only had about six months to write a completely new opera and partly because it would help increase the tension in the story, Verdi and Piave opted to completely drop the first two acts of the play from the operatic adaptation; as a result, Act I of the opera is Act III in the play, Act II in the opera is Act IV in the play, and Act III of the opera is Act V of the play.
• Creepy Cemetery: The church cemetery in Act II is portrayed as such.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Lina’s deceased mother, to whom Lina turns for comfort and help at the beginning of Act II.
• Defiled Forever: How a fair number of the characters (primarily Stankar) view Lina. And yes, there is Slut-Shaming involved.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Despite the opera taking place around the time Verdi and Piave wrote the opera, the opera is arguably an example of this due to its criticism of the social values at play, including but not limited to hypocrisy in organized religion, the social mistreatment of “fallen” women, revenge and honor, and toxic masculinity.
• Demoted to Extra: The roles of Raphael (Raffaele), Frédéric (Federico), and Dorothée (Dorotea) are all significantly reduced in terms of stage time from play to opera.
• Destroy the Evidence: This happens not one, not two, but three times in Act I alone: Stiffelio destroys the papers Raffaele dropped after escaping from Lina’s bedroom instead of revealing the identities of the people involved in the incident, Stankar destroys Lina’s confession letter, and Stankar destroys Raffaele’s smuggled letter to Lina.
• Deus Angst Machina: most of the opera falls under this trope.
• Divorce Is Temporary: The ending possibly contributes to this trope.
• Downfall by Sex: And how!
• Dramatic Thunder: While not specified anywhere in the actual opera, some productions (notably the Royal Opera House’s 1993 production) have a storm break out towards the end of Act II when everything starts falling apart. The Opéra national du Rhin's 2021 production (which, alas, is not on film) takes this a step further by having the storm pour so much rain that, in a moment ripe with symbolism, the stage is flooded by the final scene.
• Duel to the Death: Stankar and Raffaele attempt to have one of these in Act II, but Stiffelio breaks it up…and it all goes downhill from there.
• Easily Forgiven: while not as easily as the trope name implies, the ending is an example of this.
• Ethereal Choir: The Act II finale features a classic case of this.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Subverted, for the most part. Jorg, who is sung by a bass, is presented as a sympathetic mentor figure, while Raffaele, the villain, is a tenor. It is ambiguous as to whether Stankar, who is a morally gray baritone, fits this trope.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The entire opera takes place over approximately, if not less than, 24 hours.
• Faint in Shock: Stiffelio does this at the end of Act II. Given this comes in the middle of an episode of Heroic BSoD, this is understandable.
• Forgotten Anniversary: Subverted. Acts I and II take place on Stiffelio and Lina’s wedding anniversary, but for obvious reasons Lina doesn’t much feel like celebrating. Stiffelio believes she has simply forgotten and gently reminds her about it in their first duet.
• Get Out!: Lina takes an entire cabaletta (“Perder dunque voi volete”) to tell Raffaele to do this. He refuses.
• The Ghost: Walter the boatman, who witnessed the window incident involving Lina and Raffaele and told Stiffelio about it, is referred to by name but is never seen, heard, or mentioned again in the opera.
• Good Is Not Soft: Stiffelio is a textbook case of this, particularly due to his public humiliation of Stankar at the end of Act I and his (unsuccessful) attempt to kill Raffaele towards the end of Act II...but still, he’s a great person who just happens to be dealing with a lot of horrible things.
• Grand Romantic Gesture: Raffaele is a massive fan of showboating declarations of love. He does not fool anyone.
• Grave-Marking Scene: The beginning of Act II is an example of this.
• Handshake of Doom: Stiffelio attempts to reconcile Stankar and Raffaele by asking each of them to give him one of their hands so he may join them and they can shake hands in an act of reconciliation. However, Stankar is so upset at seeing Raffaele offer his hand to the very man he betrayed that he blurts out that Raffaele has betrayed Stiffelio…which causes nothing but trouble.
• Happiness Is Mandatory: Stankar to Lina in Act I.
• Heroic B So D: Stiffelio spends the second half of Act II in this state following the discovery of Lina’s affair with Raffaele. He also spends part of Act III in this state.
• He Who Must Not Be Heard: the servant Fritz, who is referred to by name and who appears onstage one (1) time, but never says anything.
• Holy Pipe Organ: both major instances of “church music” (the Act II finale and the beginning of the final scene) feature an organ.
• Honor-Related Abuse: Lina is a victim of this.
• Honor Thy Parent: Stankar is a massive proponent of this.
• Illegal Religion: It is revealed through backstory that the Protestant community at the center of the opera was once persecuted; in fact, Stiffelio and Lina first met when he took shelter from the authorities in her father’s castle. It seems, however, that by the time of the opera the sect is no longer being persecuted.
• I Never Got Any Letters: Lina asks Raffaele for her letters back in Act II; in the source play, it is established that Raphael was paying a servant to intercept all communication between Stiffelio and Lina.
• Informed Ability: In the source play, Raphael (Raffaele) is a doctor who does much of his pursuing of Lina under the guise of treating her when she falls ill. Neither of these things made it into the opera as they are primarily connected to the first two acts, which Verdi and Piave chose not to adapt.
• In Medias Res: How the opera begins.
• Internal Reveal: Stiffelio finally finds out about Lina and Raffaele’s affair in the middle of Act II, long after both most of the other characters and the audience have found this out.
• Interrupted Suicide: Stankar is about to commit suicide towards the beginning of Act III when Jorg comes in looking for Stiffelio. Jorg’s offhand mention of Raffaele still being in the castle causes Stankar to abandon his plan of killing himself and go back to his original plan of killing Raffaele.
• It's All About Me: Stankar behaves like this for much of the opera, as he is obsessed with his own honor and will do anything to protect his own reputation.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Stiffelio offering Lina a divorce has an element of this.
• Karma Houdini: Stankar. Despite what some people may think, Lina is not an example of this because a) it's made clear that she did not want or intend to betray her husband and b) she suffers plenty for it before the end of the opera.
• Killed Offscreen: Raffaele, although in some productions (such as the Met 1993 production), this is moved onstage.
• Kissing Cousins: Jorg (and briefly, because of him, Stiffelio) wrongly suspects that Federico and Lina are an example of this.
• Lighter and Softer: Verdi hoped to salvage as much of the story and music as possible by turning it into Aroldo (premiered in Rimini in 1857), an adaptation that was basically an example of this. Spoiler alert: this did not go over particularly well either, but that’s largely because setting the story in England and Scotland during the Crusades with the protagonist as a knight made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
• List Song: "Vidi dovunque gemere", in which Stiffelio lists all the horrible things he's seen people do on his travels, is an example of this.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Stankar is adamant that Stiffelio remain like this re: Lina and Raffaele’s affair. Of course, this massively backfires.
• Lost Wedding Ring: Raffaele takes Lina’s wedding ring before the opera begins; the discovery that it is missing is what causes Stiffelio to begin suspecting that his wife has had an affair. In Act II, Lina asks Raffaele to give her the ring back, but he refuses.
• Love Letter Lunacy: occurs in Act I when Raffaele’s attempt to smuggle a love letter to Lina inside a book goes awry when Federico takes the book from him and Jorg witnesses the entire thing, causing him to believe that Federico is smuggling a letter to a third party, with Raffaele as his accomplice.
• Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number: there are two of these in Act I: “Colla cenere disperso” and “Oh qual m’invade ed agita” (both septets, the former without chorus and the latter with). “Ah no! è impossibile!” in Act II is a quartet example of this.
• Maybe Ever After: The ending is arguably an example of this, as though it is never actually specified what happens to Stiffelio, Lina, and their relationship in the end, the ending does give a lot of room for hope.
• Mentor Archetype: Jorg.
• Missing Mom: Lina and Stiffelio have both lost their mothers, and both remember said deceased mothers fondly.
• Morality Ballad: Stiffelio starts one of these, except it’s more “impromptu sermon that’s sung because it’s an opera” and less “ballad”, on the theme of betrayal during the Act I party scene. However, he cuts it off when he discovers that the book he needs to wrap up his point (a copy of Klopstock’s Der Messias, which Jorg has reported is being used to smuggle illicit letters) is locked and demands a key for it.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Twice attempted on Raffaele (by Stiffelio in Act II, by Stankar in Act III), once successful (the latter).
• Musical Exposition: “Di qua varcando”, the recounting of the boatman’s view of the incident between Raffaele and Lina, is an example of this.
• Must Make Amends: This is Lina’s modus operandi for basically the entire opera.
• No Sympathy for Grudgeholders: Jorg severely reprimands Stiffelio at the end of Act II for attempting to kill Raffaele, even if Raffaele had an affair with his wife, and being unwilling to forgive Lina.
• Opening Chorus: Subverted, in a move atypical for Verdi. The chorus does not come in for the first ten minutes (roundabout) of the opera, as the piece introduces all seven sung individual characters first. Not only that, but when the chorus finally does come in, the resulting number isn’t just an Opening Chorus, but also a continuation of the earlier Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number because the soloists have their own takes on what’s happening.
• Opening Monologue: Unusually for Verdi, the opera begins with one of these, delivered by Jorg.
• Opportunistic Bastard: Both Raffaele and Stankar are arguably versions of this.
• Parental Issues: with one parent dead and the other being a self-obsessed, abusive parent, Lina absolutely qualifies.
• Parental Substitute: Jorg (in the source play, Jorg took a young, orphaned Stiffelio into his care after finding him wandering alone on a winter’s night).
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Stankar killing Raffaele.
• Preacher Man: Stiffelio and Jorg are both this.
• Present Day: The fact that this opera was written to be set more or less in Verdi’s present day was incredibly controversial at the time of the piece’s premiere.
• Protagonist Title: Yup.
• Quarreling Song: Both of the big duets in the opera (Stankar and Lina’s duet in Act I and Stiffelio and Lina’s duet in Act III) are more or less examples of this.
• Real Name as an Alias: While on the run from authorities, Stiffelio used his mother’s maiden name ‘Müller’ as a surname for an alias (Rodolfo Müller). Despite no longer needing to use the alias, several other characters still call him by his alias from time to time.
• Remarried to the Mistress: What Stiffelio suggests that Lina and Raffaele do in Act III, Scene 1.
• Revenge Ballad: “O gioia inesprimibile”.
• Revenge Is Not Justice: One of the overarching points being made in the opera; the responsibility of voicing said point by and large belongs to Jorg.
• Saintly Church: The church community in which this opera takes place is portrayed as being one of these.
• Saying Too Much: Stankar doing this is the beginning of what causes Stiffelio to learn the truth about Lina and Raffaele.
• Secondhand Storytelling: Stiffelio engages in this when recounting a story told to him by a boatman about a man who escaped a woman’s bedroom at dawn one morning by jumping out of a window into a river. In a stroke of Dramatic Irony, he is unaware that the woman was his wife Lina and that the man was his friend Raffaele.
• Selective Obliviousness: Stiffelio spends most of the first two acts in a state of denial about the possibility of Lina having an affair.
• Small Role, Big Impact: The plot would not exist without Raffaele, although he has surprisingly little stage time within the opera itself. Part of this is due to the fact that the source work is a five-act play but Verdi and Piave only chose to adapt the last three acts, during which Raphael (as he is called in the play) has much less stage time.
• Small, Secluded World: The opera takes place in an isolated, tight-knit Protestant community near a river outside of Salzburg. Emphasis on isolated and tight-knit.
• Song of Prayer: Given the setting, there are several of these, notably both of Lina’s arias (which are also both examples of the BSoD Song).
• Stalker with a Crush: Raffaele, and how.
• Staying with Friends: Despite both being of age, Federico and Dorotea are both fulfilling this trope because they’ve been staying with Lina and Stankar for an indeterminate amount of time.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Stiffelio returns home at the beginning of the opera after spending an unspecified length of time away, only to be confronted with a lot of unexpected bad news within approximately 24 hours.
• Suspiciously Specific Sermon: The church scene is a dead ringer for this trope with its retelling of the story of Jesus forgiving a woman caught in adultery.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Lina, although it is somewhat heavily implied that the affair was not fully consensual on her part.
• Sympathetic Murderer: Arguably, Stankar.
• Talking to the Dead: Lina at her mother’s grave in Act II.
• Tenor Boy: Subverted, as neither major tenor role can conventionally qualify for this: Stiffelio is a more emotionally complicated character, while Raffaele is at least a stalker and harasser and quite possibly a rapist.
• The Key Is Behind the Lock: Sort of: there is an important book locked (the one in which Raffaele has placed a letter for Lina). Stiffelio needs a key to open said book and reveal the letter. However, Lina and Raffaele are in possession of the only two keys to the book, and Lina refuses to hand hers over (and apparently no one knows Raffaele has a key to it, or at the very least, they don’t ask).
• The Outside World: Stiffelio returns to the Small, Secluded World from here at the beginning of the opera and early on (in the not-quite-aria “Vidi dovunque gemere”) lists all the horrible things about the outside world while praising the goodness of his community and the people in it (especially, in a scene dripping with Dramatic Irony, Lina and her faithfulness).
• This Is Unforgivable!: Stiffelio before (unsuccessfully) attempting to kill Raffaele in Act II after discovering the latter’s relationship with Lina, and again after Jorg asks him in the same scene to forgive Lina.
• Thought They Knew Already: In Act II, Lina asks Stiffelio to forgive her upon seeing him, Raffaele, and Stankar confronting each other in the cemetery because she believes that Stiffelio has discovered what happened between her and Raffaele. Even with Stankar's comments about betrayal immediately before, he didn't, really, but this is what ultimately makes him figure it out.
• Trespassing to Talk: Raffaele interrupts Lina while she’s praying at her mother’s grave and attempts to make a move on her. For obvious reasons, Lina does not take this particularly well.
• Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: Stiffelio is established early on as a very good and intelligent Protestant minister who wholeheartedly believes in the doctrine of unconditional forgiveness, but has difficulty practicing it when confronted with what has happened in his absence.
• Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Stankar about Lina, particularly in Act III.

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