Raum, Sprache und das Unaussprechliche in «Luisa Miller»

This essay examines not only the transformative process from the literary source (Kabale und Liebe) to the operatic realization (Luisa Miller), but also the compositional and dramaturgical strategies that reveal a new aesthetic perspective in Verdi's opera. ln the first part, the role and function of offstage music  is analysed with particular attention to its "spatial" implications. ln the second part, it is argued that Luisa's prayers in the most crucial moments of the opera as well as her gestural and mimetic reactions can be interpreted as a kind of inability or difficulty of verbal expression: this is a sign of the social straiification of the characters of the drama, but also reflects Luisa's attitude towards life and thus, in essence, the inevitability of the tragedy. Finally, this essay aims to demonstrate that the musical and aesthetic solutions developed by Verdi and Cammarano were used to define an intense and claustrophobic dramaturgy that explores Luisa's psychology, blurring the boundaries between onstage, visual, verbal, and musical aspects.