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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

MOZART: Idomeneo

Idomeneo, rè di Creta. Dramma per musica in tre atti (K. 366).

Music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Libretto by Giovanni Battista Varesco after Idomenée by Antoine Danchet.

GOUNOD: Faust

Faust, Opéra en cinq actes

Music composed by Charles Gounod. Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré after Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

BERLIOZ: La damnation de Faust

La damnation de Faust, Légende dramatique en quatre parties

Music composed by Hector Berlioz. Libretto by Hector Berlioz, Almire Gandonanière and Gérard de Nerval after Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

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.

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.

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FeaturedOperas

Henri Decaisne, Maria Malibran as Desdemona in Rossini's Otello (1831) Paris, Musée Carnavalet [Source: Wikimedia Commons]
15 Nov 2009

ROSSINI: Otello — Bad Wildbad 2008

Otello, ossia Il moro di Venezia (‘Othello, or The Moor of Venice’): Dramma in three acts.

Streaming Audio

Gioachino Rossini: Otello

Otello: Michael Spyres; Elmiro: Ugo Guagliardo; Desdemona: Jessica Pratt; Rodrigo: Filippo Adami; Jago: Giorgio Trucco; Emilia: Geraldine Chauvet; Doge: Sean Spyres; Lucio: Hugo Colin; Gondoliere: Leonardo Cortellazzi. Philharmonic Choir Transsilvania Cluj. Virtuosi Brunensis. Antonino Fogliani, conductor. Live performance, Kurhaus Bad Wildbad, 19 July 2008.

Above: Maria Malibran as Desdemona in Rossini's Otello by Henri Decaisne (1831) Paris, Musée Carnavalet [Source: Wikimedia Commons]

 

Music composed by Gioachino Rossini. Libretto by Francesco Berio di Salsa after William Shakespeare’s play Othello, or The Moor of Venice.

First Performance: 4 December 1816, Teatro del Fondo, Naples.

Prinicpal Roles:
Otello, a Moor in the Serivce of Venice Tenor
Desdemona, secretly married to Otello Mezzo-Soprano
Iago, the pretended friend of Otello Tenor
Emilia, confidant of Desdemona Mezzo-Soprano
Elmiro, a Venetian patrician, the father of Desdemona and enemy of Otello Bass
Roderigo, the rejected lover of Desdemona and son of the Doge Tenor
The Doge of Venice Tenor
Lucio Tenor
A Gondolier Tenor

Setting: Venice

Synopsis: The opera deviates quite heavily from Shakespeare's original, not only in that it takes place in Venice and not on Cyprus, but also in that the whole dramatic conflict develops in a different manner. A recent Opera Rara CD of the opera even includes an alternative happy ending, a common practice with drama and opera at one time. The role of Jago is reduced to some degree and is much less diabolical as in the original or in Verdi's 1887 version. Rossini's Otello is an important milestone in the development of opera as musical drama. It provided Giuseppe Verdi with a benchmark for his own adaptations of Shakespeare.

[Synopsis source: Wikipedia]

[Click here for a more complete synopsis (Italian).]

[Click here for the complete libretto.]

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