Overture: The Sicilian Vespers

Verdi’s longest opera overture was written for Les vêpres siciliennes, which was first performed in Paris in 1855 but which has rarely seen there since then and is now far more often heard in an Italian translation as I vespri siciliani. Language is no problem in the overture, of course, and it is not necessary to know the details of the plot which, set in French-occupied Siciliy in the 13th century, ends with a massacre of the French by the citizens of Palermo. It is obvious from the funereal rhythms and dark colouring of the opening bars of the slow introduction to the overture that there is no prospect of a happy ending, as a mournful phrases on clarinet and bassoons (taken from a “De profundis” sung by monks in the fourth act) seems to confirm. The following shapely but still ominous melody, introduced by flute, is sung by Hélène, the heroine of the opera, on her first entry. A drum roll signals a change of tempo to Allegro agitato and a violent anticipation of the massacre in the last act. A lovely lyrical episode for cellos changes the atmosphere but, although it survives two more violent interventions, it eventually has to give way to the inevitable drive to a dramatic ending.

Gerald Larner ©2007