25 Jan 2009
BELLINI: Il Pirata — New York 1959
Il Pirata: Melodramma in two acts.
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ROSSINI: Guglielmo Tell — Rome 1954
Guglielmo Tell: Melodramma tragico in four acts
BOITO: Mefistofele
Mefistofele, Opera in un prologo, quattro atti e un epilogo
Music and libretto by Arrigo Boito (1842-1918), based on Faust: Eine Tragödie by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
VERDI: La Forza del Destino
La Forza del Destino, a melodramma in quattro atti
Music composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave based on the drama Don Alvaro o La fuerza del sino by Angel Perez de Saavedra
FLOTOW: Martha — Berlin 1944
Martha, an opera in four acts.
Music composed by Friedrich von Flotow. Libretto by Wilhelm Friedrich.
First performance: 25 November 1847 at Theater an der Wien, Vienna.
PERGOLESI: La serva padrona
La serva padrona, intermezzo in two parts
Music composed by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. Libretto by Gennar'antonio Frederico.
First performance: 28 August 1733, Teatro San Bartolomeo, Naples.
BEETHOVEN: Fidelio — Munich 1978
Fidelio, an opera in two acts
Maria Callas Performs Lady Macbeth
Here we offer three selections from Macbeth with Maria Callas performing the role of Lady Macbeth. These are from a live performance given on 7 December 1952 at La Scala. Victor de Sabata conducts the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Milano.
VERDI: Macbeth
VERDI: Macbeth, melodramma in quattro parti.
Music composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play by William Shakespeare.
STRAUSS: Die Fledermaus
Music composed by Johann Strauss II.
Libretto by Richard Genée based on Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy/Karl Haffner.
First performance: 5 April 1874 at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna.
NICOLAI: Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (The Merry Wives of Windsor), a comical-fantastical opera in three acts with dance.
GIORDANO: Fedora
Fedora, a melodrama in three acts.
Umberto Giordano, composer. Arturo Colautti, librettist, based on the play with the same name by Victorien Sardou
First performance: 17 November 1898 at Teatro Lirico Internazionale, Milan
PUCCINI: Tosca
Tosca, a melodrama in three acts
Giacomo Puccini, composer. Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on the play La Tosca by Victorien Sardou.
First performance: 14 January 1900 at Teatro Costanzi, Rome
Victorien Sardou — A Tale of Two Operas
Victorien Sardou (1831-1908) was a popular French dramatist during the later half of the 19th Century. He, along with Eugène Scribe, combined melodrama and realism to a produce a more serious form of drama that emphasized careful plot construction.
The twists and trysts of Tosca
A few years ago, I had the rare experience of attending a performance of Tosca in a small farm community where opera was a fairly new commodity. After the second act ended, with Scarpia's corpse lying center stage, I happened to overhear a young, wide-eyed woman say to her companion, "I knew she was upset, but I didn't think she'd KILL him!"
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Mozart and Salieri
Mozart and Salieri, an opera in one act consisting of two scenes.
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), composer. Libretto derived from Alexander Puskhin's play of the same name.
First performance: 7 December 1898 in Moscow.
MUSSORGSKY: Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov, an opera in four acts with prologue
Modest Mussorgsky, composer. Libretto by the composer, based on Alexander Pushkin's drama Boris Godunov and Nikolai Karamazin's History of the Russian Empire
First performance: 8 February 1874 at the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg
TCHAIKOVSKY: Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin, lyrical scenes in three acts and seven tableaux.
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, composer. Libretto by the composer, based on the verse novel by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin.
First performance: 29 March 1879 at the Maliy Theatre, Moscow.
The Operatic Pushkin
Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin (1799-1837) is generally considered Russia’s greatest poet. According to Andrew Kahn, his contemporaries held him “above all the master of the lyric poem, verse that is famous for its formal perfection and its reticent lyric persona, and infamous for its resistance to translation.” [Alexander Pushkin, The Queen of Spades and Other Stories, trans. Alan Myers, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997]
TCHAIKOVSKY: The Queen of Spades
The Queen of Spades (Pique Dame), an opera in three acts.
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, composer. Modest Tchaikovsky and composer, librettists.
First performance: 19 December 1890 at the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg.
PUCCINI: Manon Lescaut
Manon Lescaut, dramma lirico in quattro atti
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), composer. Luigi Illica and Domenico Oliva, librettists.
First performance: 1 February 1893 at Teatro Regio, Turin.
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Music composed by Vincenzo Bellini. Libretto by Felice Romani after Bertram, ou le Chateau de S.t Aldobrand (1821) by Charles Nodier and Isidore Justin Severin Taylor, a French adaptation of Bertram; or The Castle of St. Aldobrand (1816) by Charles Maturin.
First Performance: 27 October 1827, Teatro alla Scala, Milan.
| Principal Roles: | |
| Ernesto, Duke of Caldora | Baritone |
| Imogene, his wife | Soprano |
| Gualtiero, former Count of Montalto | Tenor |
| Itulbo, Gualtiero’s lieutenant | Tenor |
| Goffredo, a hermit, once tutor to Gualtiero | Bass |
| Adele, Imogene’s companion | Mezzo-Soprano |
Setting: Sicily, 13th Century.
Synopsis:
Act I
On a stormy sea-shore, fisherfolk watch a shipwreck. Among the survivors is Gualtiero, who is recognised and offered refuge by Goffredo. Gualtiero tells him that he drew strength from his continuing love for Imogene (“Nel furor delle tempeste”), although she is now married to Ernesto. She arrives to offer hospitality to the shipwrecked strangers, but Gualtiero does not reveal himself, and Imogene assumes from what Itulbo tells her that he is dead. She tells Adele that she dreamt that he had been killed by her husband (“Lo sognai ferito, esangue”).
At night, Itulbo warns the strangers not to reveal that they are the pirates who have been pursued by Ernesto. Meanwhile, Imogene is strangely fascinated by Goffredo’s guest, who soon reveals to her who he really is. Gualtiero learns that she had married Ernesto only because he had threatened her father’s life, and when he sees that she has borne Ernesto’s child, he starts to think of revenge (“Pietosa al padre”).
Ernesto and his men celebrate victory over the pirates (“Sì, vincemmo”), but he is annoyed that Imogene is not celebrating, too. He questions Itulbo (who pretends to be the pirates’ chief) about Gualtiero’s fate, and the act ends with all the principals expressing their conflicting emotions, though Goffredo manages to restrain Gualtiero from giving his identity away.
Act II
Adele tells Imogene that Gualtiero wishes to see her before he leaves. Ernesto accuses Imogene of being unfaithful to him, but she defends herself by saying that her continuing love for Gualtiero is based solely on her remembrance of their past encounters. Ernesto is inclined to take her word for it, but, when he is told that Gualtiero is being sheltered in his own castle, he is consumed by rage.
Despite Itulbo’s pleas, Gualtiero meets Imogene again before he leaves. Their acceptance of the situation alternates with passionate declarations of love, and Ernesto, arriving, conceals himself and overhears the end of their duet. He is discovered, and exits with Gualtiero, each determined to fight to the death.
It is Ernesto who is killed. Gualtiero, to the amazement of Ernesto’s retainers, gives himself up to justice, and, as he is taken away, he prays that Imogene may forgive him (“Tu vedrai la sventurata”). She appears in a state of anguish and sees visions of her dead husband and her son (“Col sorriso d’innocenza ... Oh sole, ti vela di tenebre oscure”). Meanwhile, the Council of Knights has condemned Gualtiero to death.
[Synopsis Source: Wikipedia]