Mottetto per San Paolino – Giacomo Puccini(1858-1924): make music part of your life series

Mottetto per San Paolino – Giacomo Puccini(1858-1924)

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Mottetto per San Paolino – Giacomo Puccini(1858-1924)

Lucca, 21 Giugno 1997 nella Chiesa Monumentale di San Giovanni

baritono : Mauro Buda

Cappella Santa Cecilia della Cattedrale di Lucca
Orchestra Lirico-Sinfonica del Teatro del Giglio

Direttore : Gianfranco Cosmi

Related articles

• Giacomo Puccini
• Life of Puccini

Alfredo Catalani “Notturno in G sharp minor” for Rowna: mke music part of your life series

Alfredo Catalani “Notturno in G sharp minor” for Rowna

Notturno in G sharp minor for piano
by Alfredo Catalani
Riccardo Caramella, piano

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alfredo Catalani (19 June 1854 – 7 August 1893) was an Italian operatic composer. He is best remembered for his operas Loreley (1890) and La Wally (1892). La Wally was composed to a libretto by Luigi Illica, and features Catalani’s most famous aria “Ebben? Ne andrò lontana.” This aria, sung by American soprano Wilhelmenia Fernandez, was at the heart of Jean-Jacques Beineix’s 1981^[1] cult^[2] movie Diva.^[3] Catalani’s other operas were less successful, partly hampered by inferior libretti.

Life and career

Catalani was born in Lucca and trained at the Conservatory of Milan under Antonio Bazzini.

Despite the growing influence of the verismo style of opera during the 1880s Catalani chose to compose in a more traditional manner. As a result his operas have largely lost their place in the modern repertoire, even compared to those of Massenet and Puccini, whose style his works most closely resemble.

The influence of Amilcare Ponchielli can also be recognized in Catalani’s work. Like Ponchielli, Catalani’s reputation now rests almost entirely on one work. However, while La Wally enjoys occasional revivals, Ponchielli’s La Gioconda has always been the more popular opera of the two (287 performances to date at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, as opposed to only four for La Wally).

In 1893, upon his premature death from tuberculosis in Milan, Catalani was interred in the Cimitero Monumentale, where Ponchielli and conductor Arturo Toscanini also lie. Toscanini was a strong advocate of Catalani’s music and named his daughter Wally in recognition of the composer’s most successful opera. Toscanini recorded the prelude to Act IV of La Wally and the “Dance of the Water Nymphs” from Loreley in Carnegie Hall in August 1952 with the NBC Symphony Orchestra for RCA Victor.

Operas

• La falce (“The Sickle”), Milan, 19 July 1875
• Elda, Turin, 31 January 1880 (radically revised as Loreley)
• Dejanice, Milan, 17 March 1883
• Edmea, Milan, 27 February 1886
• Loreley, Turin, 16 February 1890
• La Wally, Milan, 20 January 1892

Symphonic works

• Sinfonia a piena orchestra (“Symphony for Full Orchestra”), 1872
• Il Mattino, sinfonia romantica (“Morning”, Romantic symphony), 1874
• Ero e Leandro, poema sinfonico (“Hero and Leander”, Symphonic tone poem), Milan, 9 May 1885

Saint of the Day for Saturday, July 12th, 2014: St. John Gaulbert, Abbot

Saint of the Day for Saturday, July 12th, 2014

St. John Gaulbert, Abbot

Saint John Gaulbert, Abbot – Feast day is July 12th The city of Florence gave to the world Saint John Gaulbert. Although he enjoyed the benefits of an early Christian education, his youthful heart … continue reading

More Saints of the Day

St. John Gaulbert, Abbot St. Agnes De Bl. Andrew Oexner of Riun St. Ansbald Bl. David Gonson St Epiphania St. Jason St. John Jones Bl. John Naisen Bl. John Tanaka St. John the Iberian St. John Wall St. Leo of Lucca

Bl. Louis Naisen St. Marciana Bl. Matthias Araki St. Menulphus Bl. Monica Naisen St. Nabor and Felix St. Paternian St. Paulinus of Antioch Bl. Peter Araki Kobjoje St. Peter Khanh St. Veronica St. Viventiolus