La forza del destino has always been a problem opera, seemingly for audiences, musicians, and, in recent times, directors and designers, ever since which Verdi penned it for St. Petersburg in 1862, making considerable revisions over the following decade.  Has anyone ever seen a truly great production of this opera?  

I first became acquainted with Forza in the Herbert Graf production which opened the Met’s 1952-1953 season, the same one in which, in 1960, Leonard Warren would die onstage.  Until it was revised by James Levine and John Dexter in 1975, the production opened with Act I followed by the overture, and then Act II, scene ii, entirely omitting the endless “tavern scene” (which made me perfectly happy, since I basically cannot abide Preziosilla and Trabucco) among other musical nips and tucks.  Eugene Berman’s scenery, which I doubt ever looked “new” to begin with, was used through 1984.

I had occasion to ask Ioan Holender at the end of his 18-year tenure as Intendant of Wiener Staatsoper what he considered his greatest failure, and without a moment’s pause he named David Pountney’s 2008 Forza, which, curiously, remained in the repertoire as of 2012, whereas Vera Nemirova’s 2009 Macbeth was considered such an abomination it was given only six times before being tossed on the trash heap and replaced on the Spielplan by the old Otto Schenk La traviata (a new production—rather a bore, I hear—opened in October).

A more fortuitous occasion for Forza at Staatsoper was a new production by Pier Luigi Pizzi in 1974 with some fresh new faces—Riccardo Muti leading Franco Bonisolli and Met favorite Gilda Cruz-Romo, all in their early 30s—and respected veterans, such as Cesare Siepi, who had by then left the Met after 22 years, and Sesto Bruscantini.  This week’s feature is the opening night.

Giuseppe Verdi: La forza del destino</strong>