of the act 1 love duet, "he preferred to press swiftly ahead, sustaining a dramatic momentum which the text does not imply". However, both scholars are also in agreement that there is some interesting music, especially some of the ensembles and, in areas where the composer may have gone beyond the conventional and which are not as successful, "the conventional moments succeed far better than those that challenge accepted norms". The critic Arrivabene's general comment has been noted, but in regard to the overture, he stated that it: "preserves the two-fold character of the opera - savage and warlike on the one hand, tender and romantic on the other. Its form is completely novel and it aroused the greatest enthusiasm". In another example, Budden comments on the Nella polve genuflesso act 1 sextet and chorus, drawing the reader's attention to the fact that, after all, the libretto was written by Cammarano for a Neapolitan audience, the same one which would have experienced his famous Lucia sextet. However, as written by Verdi "the structure is altogether more varied and elaborate. The opening dialogue between Alvaro and Gusmano is remarkably original with its persistent upward motion from key to key a fifth apart." Recordings References Notes Sources Baldini, Gabriele (1970), (trans. Roger Parker, 1980), The Story of Giuseppe Verdi: Oberto to Un Ballo in Maschera. Cambridge, et al: Cambridge University Press. Black, John (1984), The Italian Romantic Libretto: A Study of Salvadore Cammarano, Edinburgh University Press. Budden, Julian (1984), The Operas of Verdi, Volume 1: From Oberto to Rigoletto. London: Cassell. . Chusid, Martin, (Ed.) (1997), Verdi's Middle Period, 1849 to 1859, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. De Van, Gilles (trans. Gilda Roberts) (1998), Verdi's Theater: Creating Drama Through Music. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press. (hardback), Gossett, Philip (2006), Divas and Scholar: Performing Italian Opera, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Kimbell, David, in Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001. Martin, George, Verdi: His Music, Life and Times (1983), New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. Osborne, Charles (1969), The Complete Opera of Verdi, New York: Da Capo Press, Inc. Parker, Roger (1998), "Alzira", in Stanley Sadie, (Ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. One. London: MacMillan Publishers, Inc. Parker, Roger (2007), The New Grove Guide to Verdi and His Operas, Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. Pistone, Danièle (1995), Nineteenth-Century