Opera – Verdi’s I Lombardi

For this blog assignment I was tasked to find an opera clip from one of the works of the composers from our readings and then discuss the music and performers of said clip. Now since my knowledge of opera consists solely of our latest readings and the exclamations my mother usually made (which went along the line of “I can’t believe your father just slept through xxx again!”) I decided to go with one of the more common names from our readings, Verdi. After a bit of searching I decided on the clip from I Lombardi’s death scene.



This death scene was played by three actors who I would guess fall under the voice classifications of bass, baritone, and alto. Also it seems that while ornamentation could be found throughout certain actors refrained from using it at certain parts (such as priest before administering the medicine). On a side note I was quite surprised that the vocalists managed to overpower the orchestra on numerous occasions (which makes me curious how much dB both the orchestra and the vocalists were producing).

The music relies on heavily on chordophones with some membranophones and aerophones showing up for a few moments during the clip (most noticeably at the end). While this part was more difficult due to the power of the vocalists it seemed that the music swapped between acting as an accompaniment and sharing the main stage with the vocalists (the orchestra might do a solo during some moments and at other parts it did crescendos and decrescendos along with the vocalists). As to rhythm I was unable to set a specific beat down since it seems there were multiple movements during this clip.