Verdi: I lombardi alla prima crociata: Prelude to Act III, sc. iii
Edson Scheid and Will Crutchfield
I lombardi was Verdi’s fourth opera, and in it he paid a special tribute to Eugenio Cavallini (1806-1881), who had directed the orchestra for the first three. This was before the innovation of the stand-up conductor had taken hold in Italy; leadership was still divided, in the style revived by Teatro Nuovo, between a maestro al cembalo - almost always the composer in the case of new operas - and a violinist.
Title page of Cavallini’s “Study Guide” for the viola
For Cavallini Verdi wrote an essay in a very old Italian tradition: a scene prelude with a prominent instrumental solo, with bits of the prelude returning to punctuate the recitative, and a prominent role for the same instrument in the ensuing musical piece. The specimen most familiar to operagoers today is probably the harp solo-and-accompaniment in the heroine’s entrance aria in Lucia di Lammermoor, but examples of this form reach far back into the 18th century.
Original label of Coggi’s c. 1904 recording
Cavallini was also a prolific composer for violin and viola; some of his works are planned for future releases in our “Professori d’orchestra” series. Meanwhile, 44 years later the young Arturo Toscanini directed a revival of I lombardi in Casale Monferrato, and paid his own special tribute to the concertmaster Enrico Polo (1868-1953), writing ornamentation and cadenzas for him. Polo’s copy was bequeathed to the Conservatorio G. Verdi in Milan at his death. Yet another early Toscanini concertmaster, Ariodante Coggi (1875-1958), had a slightly different version of these variations and actually made a primitive recording of them around 1904, which we have used for inspiration and guidance in our own rendition of the Prelude.