I Saw the Verdi Cycle

 

August Ventura on November 18, 2013 at 4:34 pm said:

 

I am a relative newcomer to the Verdi Cycle (compared to some of you “lifers” out there) but I am so grateful to have returned year after year, most especially to experience many of the Verdi rarities — which are so difficult to see — in excellent stagings that Verdi himself would have recognized. Thanks to the Cycle, I have seen (among the more famous titles) I Lombardi…, Giovanna d’Arco, Un Giorno di Regno, and look forward to Jérusalem, all of which brings me closer and closer to becoming a “Verdi Completist”!

 

I can vividly recall how, in Sarasota’s I Lombardi…, Abla Lynn Hamza gave such a thrilling reading of Giselda’s “Giusta causa non e’…” — an amazing “mad scene” with a remarkably timely message — that made for a truly great opera-going experience.