La Gioconda

Raised in poverty, street singer Gioconda has always craved security. But now she craves something more: the love of the aristocratic Enzo. Meanwhile, the scheming Barnaba has his sights set on Gioconda. When jealousy strikes, the stage is set for a dramatic confrontation – and for Gioconda, a climactic reckoning with her past. The greatest singers, from Maria Callas to Luciano Pavarotti, have historically flocked to perform Amilcare Ponchielli’s grand opera, with its lush Italianate style often described as the missing link between Verdi and Puccini, and a sweeping score that features the ’Dance of the Hours’. Oliver Mears’ new staging transports the action to modern-day Venice.

‘La Gioconda’ means ‘the happy one’ – but the name is ironic: Gioconda is far from happy, having grown up in poverty, and experiences many sorrows as the opera progresses. We never find out her name – she is only ever referred to as ’La Gioconda’. 

Based on Victor Hugo’s play, Angélo, tyran de Padoue, La Gioconda premiered in 1876 and was a huge success. The opera was commissioned by the Teatro alla Scala in 1874, and Puccini’s music publisher, Giulio Ricordi suggested Verdi’s collaborator, Arrigo Boito as librettist. Boito wrote the text under the ananym of ‘Tobia Gorrio’. His drafts for the character of Alvise included material that would later resurface in Verdi’s opera, Otello, in Iago’s aria, ‘Credo’. In other ways, the villainous Barnaba foreshadows Scarpia, the villain of Puccini’s opera, Tosca.