This is the opera of Verdi's that preceded the great operas, like Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La Traviata. It is not quite on par with them, but it displays all of Verdi's final capabilities, as the opera above all is fantastically musically sustained all the way, hardly giving any moment's breath in the continuous constantly new arias, all rhythmically consummate in the irresistible constantly varied pulse. The story is by Schiller and typical of his style in overstrung emotions and exaggerated melodrama all the way, but with great honesty and a really wicked villain who gets what he deserves in the end, fatally too late but anyway. This performance of "Luisa Miller" is probably the best one musically on screen, as it does Verdi perfect justice all the way, bringing out all the splendour of the rhythmic sustained ingeniousness. With such a gorgeous display of rhythmical innovation through a whole opera, you don't really need melodies that you immediately go humming. This is also an opera of great choruses, they introduce the drama and then constantly drop in whenever the melodrama of the soloists would need some refreshment and change, and above all the composition of this opera is impressing. There are no dead moments in the music or in the action, it constantly unfolds, to the bitter end, and although the lovers become martyrs of their own love and honesty, at least the villain gets what he deserves, and the sympathetic father is left alive to tell the tale.
