Madame Butterfly waits for the ship of her beloved Pinkerton to come. In fact her death comes closer.
composed by Ciacomo Puccini performed by the Hungarian State Opera
Music
“Madame Butterfly, 1. Akt: Vogliatemi bene (Mona Lisa): Act II Part I: “Humming Chorus” (Chorus)” by Veronika Kincses, Klara Takacs, Gabriella Szamado, Peter Dvorsky, Lajos Miller, Istvan Rozsos, Peter Korcsmaros, Jozsef Gregor, Gabor Vaghelyi, C. Toth Pal, Tibor Gyapjas, Erzsebet Kovacs, Magda Pulveri, Marta Kiss (Google Play • AmazonMP3)
Theballetsuitesecond act ofMassenet‘s opera LeCidis one ofhis best knownand most respectedorchestralworks.The opera, set in Spain in thetwelfth century,is asweepingsagacenters onthe exploits ofDonRodrigue(LeCid)in the battleagainst the Moorsandfight forthe woman he loves. In the same waythatsuggestedBizetsoundsofSpainin his operaCarmen,Massenetusescolorfulorchestration anddance rhythmson striketo evokethe unique flavor ofthe region.Composerinventive useof percussion instrumentsis particularly striking, and certainlyreflects thefact thatearly in hiscareer,Massenetwas apercussionisthimself.The sevenpicturesquemovements are:Castilane, Andalouse, Aragonaise, Aubade, Catalan, MadrilèneandNavarraise.
Carmen is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on a novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, on 3 March 1875, and at first was not particularly successful. Its initial run extended to 36 performances, before the conclusion of which Bizet died suddenly, and thus knew nothing of the opera’s later celebrity.
Galli-Marié as Carmen
The opera, written in the genre of opéra comique with musical numbers separated by dialogue, tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery Gypsy, Carmen. José abandons his childhood sweetheart and deserts from his military duties, yet loses Carmen’s love to the glamorous toreador Escamillo, after which José kills her in a jealous rage. The depictions of proletarian life, immorality and lawlessness, and the tragic death of the main character on stage, broke new ground in French opera and were highly controversial. After the premiere, most reviews were critical, and the French public was generally indifferent. Carmen initially gained its reputation through a series of productions outside France, and was not revived in Paris until 1883; thereafter it rapidly acquired celebrity at home and abroad, and continues to be one of the most frequently performed operas; the “Habanera” from act 1 and the “Toreador Song” from act 2 are among the best known of all operatic arias. Later commentators have asserted that Carmen forms the bridge between the tradition of opéra comique and the realism or verismo that characterised late 19th-century Italian opera.
The music of Carmen has been widely acclaimed for its brilliance of melody, harmony, atmosphere and orchestration, and for the skill with which Bizet musically represented the emotions and suffering of his characters. After the composer’s death the score was subject to significant amendment, including the introduction of recitative in place of the original dialogue; there is no standard edition of the opera, and different views exist as to what versions best express Bizet’s intentions. The opera has been recorded many times since the first acoustical recording in 1908, and the story has been the subject of many screen and stage adaptations.
This is a thrilling excerpt from the beginning of Act II of the opera Le Roi malgré lui by Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894). The elegant, surging waltz rhythms of Chabrier’s music inspired Maurice Ravel‘s orchestral poem La valse.
Frédéric Chopin’s Variations on “Là ci darem la mano” for piano and orchestra, Op. 2, was written in 1827, when he was aged only 17. “Là ci darem la mano” is a duet sung by Don Giovanni and Zerlina, from Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. It was one of the earliest manifestations of Chopin’s incipient genius. It inspired Robert Schumann‘s famous exclamation, Hats off, gentlemen! A genius!
The work was premiered on 11 August 1829 at the Vienna Kärntnertortheater, with Chopin as the soloist. It received very positive audience and critical acclaim.
The work is in B-flat major throughout, except for the Adagio of Variation 5, which is in the minor key.
– Introduction: Largo – Poco piu mosso 0:00 – Thema: Allegretto 5:20 – Variation 1: Brillante 6:53 – Variation 2: Veloce, ma accuratamente 7:52 – Variation 3: Sempre sostenuto 8:54 – Variation 4: Con bravura 10:20 – Variation 5: Alla Polacca11:24
Rusalka (pronounced[ruˈsalka] (listen)), Op. 114, is an opera (‘lyric fairy tale’) by Antonín Dvořák. The Czechlibretto was written by the poet Jaroslav Kvapil[1] (1868–1950) based on the fairy tales of Karel Jaromír Erben and Božena Němcová. Rusalka is one of the most successful Czech operas, and represents a cornerstone of the repertoire of Czech opera houses.[1] A Rusalka is a water sprite from Slavic mythology, usually inhabiting a lake or river.Dvořák had played viola for many years in pit orchestras in Prague (Estates Theatre from 1857 until 1859 while a student, then from 1862 until 1871 at the Provisional Theatre). He thus had direct experience of a wide range of operas by Mozart, Weber, Rossini, Lortzing, Verdi, Wagner and Smetana. Rusalka was the ninth opera Dvořák composed.[2]For many years unfamiliarity with Dvořák’s operas outside Czechoslovakia helped reinforce a perception that composition of operas was a marginal activity, and that despite the beauty of its melodies and orchestral timbres Rusalka was not a central part of his output or of international lyric theatre. In recent years it has been performed more regularly by major opera companies.[2] In the five seasons from 2008 to 2013 it was performed by opera companies worldwide far more than all of Dvořák’s other operas combined.[3]The most popular excerpt from Rusalka is the “Song to the Moon” (“Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém“) from act 1 which is often performed in concert and recorded separately. It has also been arranged for violin and used on film sound tracks.
Kvapil’s libretto, based on Erben‘s and Božena Němcová‘s work, was written before he had any contact with the composer. The plot contains elements which also appear in The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen and in Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué,[1] and has been described as a “sad, modern fairy tale”, in a similar vein to his previous play, Princessa Pampeliška.[4] The libretto was completed by 1899, when Kvapil began looking for composers interested in setting his text. His composer friends were engaged with other works, but mentioned that Dvořák was looking for a project. The composer, always interested in Erben’s stories, read the libretto and composed his opera quite rapidly, with the first draft begun on 22 April 1900 and completed by the end of November.[5] Coming after his four symphonic poems inspired by the folk-ballads of Erben of 1896–97, Rusalka may be viewed as the culmination of Dvořák’s exploration of a “wide variety of drama-creating musical techniques”.[2]
Performance history
Rusalka was first performed in Prague on 31 March 1901, with Růžena Maturová as the first Rusalka. It became an enormous success in Czech lands, and soon gained success also abroad.[6]
The first performance outside Czechoslovakia took place in Ljubljana.[7] The opera was given in Vienna by a Czech company in 1910; in German translation it was given in Stuttgart in 1935. The UK stage premiere was at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in 1959; an 1983 production by English National Opera was filmed and revived several times.[5]
Caruso was an Italian operatic tenor renowned for the beauty, range, and power of his voice. A mechanical engineer who indulged his passion for singing in his spare time, Caruso had no formal musical training until his late teens. After just a few years of study, he made his professional operatic debut, touching off his meteoric rise to fame. In 1903, he made his American debut at the Metropolitan Opera, where he was a favorite until his death. What helped secure his status as an opera legend? More…Discuss
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.
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)
Originally designed as a social gathering place for men in third-century Rome, the Baths of Caracalla became the unusual setting for open-air opera in 1937. Held every summer in July and August, the Bath Operas feature grand Italian operas, as well as ballet performances produced by local and international dance companies. The events take place in the evening on one of the world’s largest stages—100 feet long and 162 feet wide. While the acoustics are far from ideal, more than 10,000 spectators generally fill the bleachers to enjoy this one-of-a-kind musical extravaganza. More…Discuss
Puccini was an Italian composer of operas and a leading exponent of the realistic, verismo style. Born into a family of musicians, he studied piano and organ in his hometown before entering the Milan Conservatory in 1880. His famous operas, which remain exceedingly popular to this day, include La Bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly. His death in 1924 is often cited as the end of grand opera. Complications from what experimental medical treatment hastened his death? More…Discuss
Gioachino Rossini – Rossini – The Italian Girl in Algiers Overture (performed by US Army Band)
Gioachino Antonio Rossini (Italian: [d??oa?ki?no an?t??njo ros?si?ni]; Giovacchino Antonio Rossini in the baptismal certificate; 29 February 1792 — 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs, and some instrumental and piano pieces. His best-known operas include the Italian comedies Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) and La Cenerentola and the French-language epics Moïse et Pharaon and Guillaume Tell. A tendency for inspired, song-like melodies is evident throughout his scores, which led to the nickname “The Italian Mozart”. Until his retirement in 1829, Rossini had been the most popular opera composer in history.
Apart from the operas, Wagner composed a small number of pieces; this stems from his reluctance to conceive music which didn’t belong to the sacredness of the drama, fundamental expression of his thought.
The “Siegfried Idyll” is a symphonic poem for chamber orchestra, composed by Richard Wagner (1813-1883) as a birthday present to his second wife, Cosima, after the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869. It was first performed on Christmas morning, 25 December 1870, by a small ensemble on the stairs of their villa at Tribschen.
Wagner’s opera “Siegfried”, which was premiered in 1876, incorporates music from the Idyll. It was once thought that the Idyll borrowed musical ideas intended for the opera, but it is now known that the opposite is the case: Wagner adapted melodic material from an unfinished chamber piece in the Idyll and later incorporated it into the love scene between Siegfried and Brunhilde in the opera.
The Tale of Tsar Saltan (Russian: Сказка о царе Салтане, Skazka o Tsare Saltane) is an operain four acts with a prologue, seven scenes, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The libretto was written by Vladimir Belsky, and is based on the poem of the same name by Aleksandr Pushkin. The opera was composed in 1899–1900 to coincide with Pushkin’s centenary, and was first performed in 1900 inMoscow, Russia.
The lengthy full title of both the opera and the poem is The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich and of the Beautiful Princess-Swan.
Note: The name “Saltan” is often erroneously rendered “Sultan”. Likewise, another mistranslation of the Russian title found in English makes this a “legend” rather than simply a “tale” or “fairytale”.
Rimsky-Korsakov believed, as did fellow composer Mily Balakirev and critic Vladimir Stasov, in developing a nationalistic style of classical music. This style employed Russian folk song and lore along with exotic harmonic, melodic and rhythmic elements in a practice known as musical orientalism, and eschewed traditional Western compositional methods. However, Rimsky-Korsakov appreciated Western musical techniques after he became a professor of musical composition, harmony and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1871. He undertook a rigorous three-year program of self-education and became a master of Western methods, incorporating them alongside the influences of Mikhail Glinka and fellow members of The Five. His techniques of composition and orchestration were further enriched by his exposure to the works of Richard Wagner.
Angela Gheorghiu – Addio del passato – La Traviata (Giuseppe Verdi) Angela Gheorghiu sings ‘Addio del passato’ from the opera ‘La Traviata’ at a concert in Brussels in 2004. Yoel Levi is the conductor.
Piave and Verdi wanted to follow Dumas in giving the opera a contemporary setting, but the authorities at La Fenice insisted that it be set in the past, “c. 1700”. It was not until the 1880s that the composer and librettist’s original wishes were carried out and “realistic” productions were staged.[3]
New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House is the leading US opera company. It opened in 1883 after having been founded by a group of millionaires who had failed to get boxes at the prestigious and exclusive Academy of Music. The “Met” soon outshined its rival and is now considered one of the world’s premier opera stages. Originally located at Broadway and 39th Street, it moved into the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 1966. Who were among the Met’s founding millionaires? More…Discuss
From Wikipedia , Les contes d’Hoffmann (in English: The Tales of Hoffmann) is an opera by Jacques Offenbach. It was first performed in Paris, at the Opéra-Comique, on February 10, 1881.
The libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E.T.A. Hoffmann. E.T.A. Hoffmann himself is a character in the opera just as he often is in his stories. The stories upon which the opera is based are Der Sandmann,Rath Krespel, and Das verlorene Spiegelbild. The opera contains a prologue, three acts and an epilogue. Offenbach did not live to see his opera performed, since he died on October 5, 1880, just over four months before its premiere. Before his death, Offenbach had completed the piano score and orchestrated the prologue and the first act. Since he did not entirely finish the writing, many different versions of this opera emerged, some bearing little resemblance to the original work. The version performed at the opera’s premiere was that by Ernest Guiraud, who completed Offenbach’s scoring and wrote the recitatives. The Barcarolle
The most famous aria from the opera is the “Barcarolle” (Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour), which is performed in Act 2. Curiously, the aria was not written by Offenbach with Les Contes d’Hoffmann in mind. He wrote it as a ghost-song in the opera Les fées du Rhin (which premiered in Vienna on February 8, 1864 as Die Rheinnixen). Offenbach died with Les contes d’Hoffmann unfinished.
Ernest Guiraud completed the scoring and wrote the recitatives for the premiere. He also incorporated this excerpt from one of Offenbach’s earlier, long-forgotten operas into the new opera.
The Barcarolle has been incorporated into many movies including Life Is Beautiful and Titanic.
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CIDSE - TOGETHER FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE (CHANGE FOR THE PLANET -CARE FOR THE PROPLE-ACCESS THIS NEW WEBSITE FROM EUZICASA)
The lengthy full title of both the opera and the poem is The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich and of the Beautiful Princess-Swan.
euzicasa 