La Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli set to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito (as Tobia Gorrio), based on Angelo, Tyrant of Padua, a 1835 play in prose by Victor Hugo (the same source Gaetano Rossi had used for his libretto for Mercadante's Il giuramento in 1837).
First performed in 1876, La Gioconda was a major success for Ponchielli, as well as the most successful new Italian opera between Verdi's Aida (1871) and Otello (1887). It is also a famous example of the Italian genre of Grande opera, the equivalent of French Grand-Opéra.
Ponchielli revised the work three times; the fourth and final version was first performed in 1879 in Genoa before reaching Milan in 1880 where its reputation as the definitive version was established. There are several complete recordings of the opera, and it is regularly performed, especially in Italy. It is one of only a few operas that features a principal role for each of the six major voice types. The opera also includes the famous ballet Dance of the Hours, often performed separately or in parody.
Composition and performance history La Gioconda is part of the standard opera repertoire in Italy and is regularly staged at opera houses in that nation. Given the large number of personnel and elaborate sets the opera requires, the work is one of the more expensive operas to produce, and as a result, the opera is more frequently performed at opera houses with larger budgets like the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. The expense of producing the opera has made it less frequently staged outside of Italy, but it is still part of the Western canon of opera literature on the international stage.
Initial stagings and revisions in Italy
La Gioconda was commissioned in 1874 by Giulio Ricordi of the music publishing firm Casa Ricordi. Ricordi selected Arrigo Boito to write the libretto for the opera; although he used an anagram of his own name, 'Tobia Gorrio'. Boito modeled his construction after the grand opera style of French dramatist Eugène Scribe; employing a historical framework with a wide array of characters that could provide a visual spectacle on stage and opportunities for contrast. In the French grand opera tradition the work contains a central ballet and massed choral scenes.
La Gioconda was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 8 April 1876 with Italian soprano Maddalena Mariani Masi in the title role and Spanish tenor Julián Gayarre as Enzo. The work was positively received at its premiere with Milan's leading music critic, Filippo Filippi of the magazine La perseveranza, declaring that, apart from Giuseppe Verdi, only Ponchielli could produce an opera of such importance among Italy's then living composers. Ponchielli's wife, soprano Teresina Brambilla, also performed the role of La Gioconda in later performances of the opera at La Scala in 1876, and became a famous interpreter of the role.
After the premiere, Ponchielli continued to modify the work several times for succeeding productions. For the opera's first staging in Venice at the Teatro Rossini on 18 October 1876 numerous changes were made; including the addition of the 'Furlana' in Act 1; a new cabaletta (‘O grido di quest’anima’) for the duet between Enzo and Barnaba; a preghiera for Laura in Act 2; and a new aria for Alvise in Act 3 which was later discarded in subsequent stagings but whose lyrics were repurposed in part in later revisions within Iago's Credo. The opera was modified again for its first staging in Rome at the Teatro Apollo on 23 January 1877. For this production Ponchielli wrote a new finale to Act 1 which replaced a reprise of the 'Furlana', and replaced the naval battle at the end of Act 2 with a duet for Enzo and Gioconda .
The fourth and final version of the opera premiered in Genoa on 27 November 1879 without much fanfare. However, this version later achieved critical acclaim and the status as the definitive version of the opera when it was staged at La Scala in Milan the following year on 28 March 1880. For this version, Ponchielli re-composed Alvise's aria, "Si! Morir ella de'!", and replaced the original stretta in the finale of Act 3 with an orchestral peroration of the principal theme of the preceding pezzo concertato. This construction was novel at the time, and later influenced other opera composers like Ponchielli's pupil Giacomo Puccini.
International performances in Europe and South America After premiering the work in 1876, La Scala has performed La Gioconda several times in its history; most notably a revival staged by Nicola Alexandrovich Benois with a cast starring Maria Callas and Giuseppe di Stefano in the 1950s. Callas had tackled the role of La Gioconda previously; singing the role for her professional opera debut at the Arena di Verona on August 2, 1947. Benois's production remained in La Scala's repertoire through 1997; although with different performers. La Scala was also responsible for the first complete recording of the opera made in 1931 with Giannina Arangi-Lombardi in the title role. In 2022 La Scala premiered a new staging of the opera by director Davide Livermore with a cast led by sopranos Saioa Hernández and Irina Churilova who alternated in the title role.
The United Kingdom premiere of La Gioconda was given at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 31 May 1883 with American soprano Maria Durand (b. 1846) in the title role. The Spanish premiere of the opera was given in Barcelona in 1886. This was followed by performances in 1887 in Brussels, Vienna, and Warsaw.
The celebrated tenor Enrico Caruso had the first major critical success of his career in the role of Enzo when he performed the part at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo in 1897.
The Italian soprano Tina Poli Randaccio was a lauded performer in the role of La Gioconda during the first half of 20th century on the international stage. She first performed the role in Europe at the Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele in Palermo in 1907; after having already sung La Gioconda on a South American tour in 1904-1905 at the Theatro Municipal (São Paulo) and the Theatro Municipal (Rio de Janeiro). She went on to portray the role at several other theatres, including La Fenice (1908), the Teatro Real (1910), the Teatro Regio di Parma (1911), the Teatro Carlo Felice (1911), the Costanzi Theatre in Rome (1915), the Municipal Theatre of Santiago (1915), the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (1915), the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples (1915), the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan (1917), the Gran Teatro de La Habana in Cuba (1918), the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (1919), the Teatro Comunale Modena (1927), the Teatro Lirico in Milan (1929), and the Teatro Politeama Garibaldi in Palermo (1931) among others. She also performed the role of La Gioconda for radio broadcasts of the opera with orchestras in Rome and Turin in 1931.
In 1909 the opera was staged at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome with an excellent cast composed by Angelo Masini Pieralli, Giannina Russ, Luisa Garibaldi and Titta Ruffo.
In 2017 the opera was staged for the first time in the Czech Republic at the National Theatre Brno, Janáček Theatre with Csilla Boross in the title role. In 2022 Joseph Calleja portrayed Enzo and Amanda Echalaz portrayed La Gioconda at the Grange Park Opera.
Performances in the United States The opera had its American premiere at the Metropolitan Opera (the "Met") during the first season of that opera company on 20 December 1883 with Swedish soprano Christine Nilsson in the title role, Italian tenor Roberto Stagno as Enzo, French soprano Emmy Fursch-Madi as Laura, and Italian contralto Sofia Scalchi as La Cieca. The same cast was employed for further performances of the opera in Chicago and Saint Louis in 1884. The next staging of the opera in New York took place a decade later at the Grand Opera House in 1893 with American soprano Selma Kronold in the title role. The opera was staged on Broadway at the American Theatre by the Castle Square Opera Company in 1899 with Yvonne de Tréville in the title role. Soprano Lillian Nordica performed the title role with Oscar Hammerstein I's Manhattan Opera Company in 1907.
The Met mounted the opera for the second time twenty-one years after its first staging in 1904 with Nilsson reprising the title role, Enrico Caruso as Enzo, Arturo Vigna conducting, and the French baritone Eugène Dufriche serving both as the production's director and in the supporting role of the singer. This production remained in the annual repertoire of the Met through the 1914–1915 season in which Caruso was still performing the role of Enzo, but with Emmy Destinn in the title role. The Met returned to the opera a third time in 1924 with a new production using choreography by Rosina Galli, sets by the Milanese designer Antonio Rovescalli, and a staging by director Désiré Defrère. The premiere cast of this new staging included Florence Easton as Gioconda and Beniamino Gigli as Enzo. However, Rosa Ponselle later assumed the role of Gioconda later in 1924. This production remained part of the Met's regularly programmed repertoire through 1940 with a rotating cast of performers. After a five-year absence from the Met, the Defrère staging of La Gioconda was once again seen in 1945, this time with Stella Roman in the title part and Richard Tucker making his first appearance at the Met in the role of Enzo. A 1946 live performance at the Metropolitan Opera House starring Zinka Milanov as Gioconda, Risë Stevens as Laura, Tucker as Enzo, and Margaret Harshaw as La Cieca was recorded for radio broadcast and later released on disc.
The Defrère staging of the opera continued to be performed at the Met with some frequency until it was replaced with a new production in 1966 that was staged by Margarete Wallmann with sets and costumes by Beni Montresor. The Met took this production on a United States tour in 1967 with Renata Tebaldi in the title role, Franco Corelli as Enzo, Rosalind Elias as Laura, and Fausto Cleva conducting. The Wallmann and Montresor production remained in the Met's repertory for 17 years and was last presented by the company in the 1982–1983 season with Plácido Domingo as Enzo and Eva Marton in the title role. After 1983, La Gioconda has been mounted with less frequency on the Met stage with performances of the work consisting of a 1990 production with Ghena Dimitrova; a 2006 production with Violeta Urmana; and most recently a 2008 production with Deborah Voigt as the title heroines respectively. Additionally, the Opera Orchestra of New York has presented concert versions of the opera several times; including a 1986 concert starring Ghena Dimitrova as Gioconda; and a 2004 concert starring Aprile Millo in the title role and Marcello Giordani as Enzo.
Outside of New York, La Gioconda was performed for the grand opening of the Boston Opera House on November 8, 1909, with Lillian Nordica in the title role, Florencio Constantino as Enzo, and Louise Homer as La Cieca.Opera House History The San Francisco Opera (SFO) staged the work for the first time in 1947 with Stella Roman and Regina Resnik alternating in the title role. The SFO subsequently staged the opera in 1967 with Leyla Gencer as Gioconda and Grace Bumbry as Laura, and in 1979 the SFO staged the opera a third time with an all-star cast including Renata Scotto as Gioconda and Luciano Pavarotti as Enzo; a production which was filmed for national television broadcast on PBS and which aired internationally through satellite technology at a time when that was rare. Subsequently the SFO has staged La Gioconda in 1983 with Montserrat Caballé; and in 1988 with Eva Marton.