11 Jan 2009
DONIZETTI: Lucia di Lammermoor — Roma 1957
Lucia di Lammermoor: Opera in three acts.
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NICOLAI: Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor — Berlin 1943
Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (The Merry Wives of Windsor), a comical-fantastical opera in three acts with dance.
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.
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
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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 Gaetano Donizetti. Libretto by Salvadore Cammarano after Walter Scott’s novel The Bride of Lammermoor (1819).
First Performance: 26 September 1835, Teatro di San Carlo, Naples.
| Principal Roles: | |
| Lucia | Soprano |
| Enrico Ashton, Laird of Lammermoor, Lucia’s brother | Baritone |
| Edgardo, Laird of Ravenswood | Tenor |
| Lord Arturo Bucklaw, Lucia’s bridegroom | Tenor |
| Raimondo Bidebent, a Calvinist chaplain | Bass |
| Alisa, Lucia’s companion | Mezzo-Soprano |
| Normanno, huntsman, a retainer of Enrico | Tenor |
Setting: Ravenswood Castle, Scotland, during the reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714).
Synopsis:
Act I
Scene 1. The entrance hall of Ravenswood Castle
Normanno urges the servants to scour the grounds for an intruder. Enrico is worried because his sister Lucia refuses to marry Arturo, an alliance which would save Enrico from the consequences of having been on the losing side in a recent uprising.
Raimondo reminds him that Lucia has not recovered from the grief of her mother’s death and is not yet ready for love, but Normanno claims that Lucia is in love - with a man who had saved her from a wild bull, none other than Enrico’s mortal enemy, Edgardo. Enrico’s rage is exacerbated by the failure of the retainers to capture the intruder, Edgardo.
Scene 2. The castle grounds
As Lucia and Alisa wait for Edgardo by a ruined fountain, Lucia says that she has seen the ghost of the fountain, a lady killed by her jealous lover, an earlier Ravenswood.
Edgardo announces that he is leaving at once for France on State business. Lucia refuses his request to tell Enrico of their love, rightly fearing his bitter hatred of Edgardo; and Edgardo reminds her that although he has neglected for her sake his oath to avenge his father’s death on her brother, the oath still stands. She calms him and they swear eternal fidelity and exchange rings.
Act II
Scene 1. A room in the castle
Normanno tells Enrico of the success of his scheme to intercept all letters between Lucia and Edgardo, now some months absent in France. Even though the wedding guests are already assembling, Enrico has yet to obtain Lucia’s consent to the marriage, but he has a forged letter which he hopes will convince her that Edgardo plans to marry another. When she tells him that her faith is pledged to Edgardo, he overwhelms her with the letter and reminds her that only Arturo can save him from ruin. Raimondo, who has sent letters to Edgardo on Lucia’s behalf, tells her that there has been no answer and advises her to sacrifice herself for her brother.
Scene 2. The great hall of the castle
The wedding is about to be solemnised. Enrico explains Lucia’s pallor and listlessness to Arturo as symptoms of her mourning for her mother. No sooner has Lucia signed the contract than Edgardo bursts in. He claims Lucia, but Raimondo shows him the contract. He throws the ring she has given him at her and demands his in return and leaves, cursing her faithlessness.
Act III
Scene 1. The tower of Wolf’s Crag
In a raging storm Enrico comes to Edgardo’s home to challenge him to a duel, taunting him with the reminder that Lucia now belongs to another. They agree to fight at dawn near the tombs of the Ravenswoods.
Scene 2. The great hall of Ravenswood Castle
The rejoicing of the wedding guests is interrupted by Raimondo, bearing the news that Lucia has gone mad and killed Arturo. Covered in blood, she enters, imagining that she is about to be married to Edgardo. Enrico’s reproaches turn to remorse when he realises her state. Her wandering mind becomes more disturbed as she remembers Edgardo’s anger, and she collapses.
Scene 3. By the tombs of the Ravenswoods
Waiting for dawn by the tombs of his ancestors, Edgardo thinks bitterly of Lucia’s apparent faithlessness. Tidings of her imminent death are followed by the death knell. He realises that he has misjudged her and stabs himself, hoping to join her in death.
[Synopsis Source: Opera~Opera]