Video on demand: La Gioconda

The subject of La Gioconda drew its inspiration from Angelo, tyran de Padoue, a play by Victor Hugo first performed in 1835 at the Théâtre-Français. The libretto was the work of Arrigo Boito, one of the greatest dramatists of his era who would collaborate with Verdi on Otello and Falstaff.

The first performance in Milan in 1876 was a resounding success with audiences but was the object of numerous critical reviews notably because of the implausibility of certain situations. This would spur Ponchielli to make some serious modifications until finally, in 1880, his fourth and definitive version would be performed, again at Milan’s La Scala.

It is a spectacular work with no less than six leading roles. Alternating intimate scenes and crowd scenes and including a famous ballet (the Danse des heures) which can be performed separately as a concert piece, it offers a historical reconstruction of 17th century Venice.

Ponchielli composed a grandiose romantic melodrama abounding in complex characters. It places itself somewhere between a grand opera in the French style and a Verdi drama, and offers a succession of melodies that focus attentions on the performers, of which Enzo’s love song (Cielo e mar) and Gioconda’s aria (Suicidio) are the most famous. But it also contains inventive and sophisticated orchestration, as the orchestral imagery of the lagoon at the beginning of Act II shows.