Soprano versus Bass

Scenes from Nabucco (1842), I due foscari (1844), Macbeth (1847), Luisa Miller (1849), Il trovatore (1853), La traviata (1853), Les vépres siciliennes (1855), La forza del destino (1862), Don Carlos (1867). Productions by Peter Konwitschny, Peter Mussbach, Götz Friedrich, Axel Cortl, Stefan Herheim, and Hans Neuenfels. Seven chapters: 1. Women who fight for their men; 2. Destiny rages; 3. Fathers against their sons; 4. The sopranos; 5. Killed by the bass; 6. Murder night in Palermo; 7. Grand finales. What patron attending an opera notices immediately that the music of the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlos is the same as the music of the assassin in Rigoletto? Does one realize (if one only attends one opera on one particular evening) how related and yet how extremely different the finales of Verdi's operas are? Thus 12 x Verdi in context. A special contribution to Xaver Holzmann's Imaginary Opera Guide.