1.
Edgar Degas
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Edgar Degas was a French artist famous for his paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings. He is especially identified with the subject of dance, more than half of his works depict dancers and he is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, although he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist. He was a draftsman, and particularly masterly in depicting movement, as can be seen in his rendition of dancers, racecourse subjects. His portraits are notable for their complexity and for their portrayal of human isolation. At the beginning of his career, Degas wanted to be a history painter, in his early thirties, he changed course, and by bringing the traditional methods of a history painter to bear on contemporary subject matter, he became a classical painter of modern life. Degas was born in Paris, France, into a wealthy family. He was the oldest of five children of Célestine Musson De Gas, a Creole from New Orleans, Louisiana, and Augustin De Gas and his maternal grandfather Germain Musson, was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti of French descent and had settled in New Orleans in 1810. Degas began his schooling at age eleven, enrolling in the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and his mother died when he was thirteen, and his father and grandfather became the main influences on him for the remainder of his youth. Degas began to paint early in life, by the time he graduated from the Lycée with a baccalauréat in literature in 1853, at age 18, he had turned a room in his home into an artists studio. Upon graduating, he registered as a copyist in The Louvre Museum, Degas duly enrolled at the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris in November 1853, but applied little effort to his studies. In April of that year Degas was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts and he studied drawing there with Louis Lamothe, under whose guidance he flourished, following the style of Ingres. In July 1856, Degas traveled to Italy, where he would remain for the three years. In 1858, while staying with his aunts family in Naples and he also began work on several history paintings, Alexander and Bucephalus and The Daughter of Jephthah in 1859–60, Sémiramis Building Babylon in 1860, and Young Spartans around 1860. In 1861 Degas visited his childhood friend Paul Valpinçon in Normandy and he exhibited at the Salon for the first time in 1865, when the jury accepted his painting Scene of War in the Middle Ages, which attracted little attention. The change in his art was influenced primarily by the example of Édouard Manet, upon the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Degas enlisted in the National Guard, where his defense of Paris left him little time for painting. During rifle training his eyesight was found to be defective, after the war, Degas began in 1872 an extended stay in New Orleans, Louisiana, where his brother René and a number of other relatives lived. Staying at the home of his Creole uncle, Michel Musson, on Esplanade Avenue, Degas produced a number of works, many depicting family members. One of Degass New Orleans works, A Cotton Office in New Orleans, garnered favorable attention back in France, Degas returned to Paris in 1873 and his father died the following year, whereupon Degas learned that his brother René had amassed enormous business debts
2.
Ballet of the Nuns
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Ballet of the Nuns is the first ballet blanc and the first romantic ballet. It is an episode in Act 3 of Giacomo Meyerbeers grand opera and it was first performed in November 1831 at the Paris Opéra. The choreography was created by either Filippo Taglioni or Jean Coralli, the short ballet tells of deceased nuns rising from their tombs in a ruined cloister. Their aim is to seduce the knight, Robert le Diable, at the end of the ballet, the white-clad nuns return to their tombs. The ballet was created to demonstrate the newly installed gas lighting. The lighting was capable of creating ghastly effects, Ballet of the Nuns starred Marie Taglioni as the Abbess Helena. Although opening night was marred with a few mishaps, Taglioni made her mark on the ballet world in the role. She became known for her ethereal qualities and her moral purity, the ballet opens with Bertram, Robert le Diables father, entering the ruined cloister of Sainte-Rosalie. He summons the ghosts of nuns who have violated their vows and he orders them to seduce his son Robert into accepting a deadly talisman. The Abbess Helena orders the ghosts to waltz, in spite of their sacred vows, the nuns waltz. The dead nuns give themselves over to unholy thrills, the nuns hide, but return to prevent his escape. Robert stands terrified before a saints tomb, the Abbess lures him towards the talisman in the saints hand. The nuns continue their dance, fluttering like white moths and their graves open and they sink into the earth. Stone slabs slide into place, covering the dead, a choir of demons is heard. Ballet of the 18th century was based on thought and classical art. The French Revolution however ushered in a period that brought romantic ballet to the stage, trapdoors, gas lighting, and other elements that became associated with the romantic ballet had been used in the popular theaters on the Paris boulevards for some time. Such elements would gain official sanction and prestige at the Paris Opéra in the decades of the 19th century. A ballet on a Robert le Diable theme was danced in Paris before Her Highness Mlle de Longueville in 1652, Ballet of the Nuns however was something entirely new in concept to audiences on the ballets opening night
3.
Robert le diable
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Robert le diable is an opera in five acts composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer from a libretto written by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne. Robert le diable is regarded as one of the first grand operas at the Paris Opéra and it has only a superficial connection to the medieval legend of Robert the Devil. It is a masterpiece. Meyerbeer has made himself immortal. It also had influence on development of the ballet, and was mentioned and discussed in contemporary French literature. Robert continued as a favourite in opera houses all over the world throughout the nineteenth century, after a period of neglect, it began to be revived towards the end of the twentieth century. Giacomo Meyerbeers early studies had been in Germany, but from 1816 to 1825 he worked in Italy, there he studied opera, then dominated by Gioachino Rossini, and wrote his own Italian operas, which were moderately successful and also had some performances in other European countries. Meyerbeer first mentions Robert le diable in his diaries in February 1827, the libretto was fabricated on the basis of old legends about Duke Robert the Magnificent of Normandy, the father of William the Conqueror, alleged in some versions to have been the son of the Devil. The librettists padded out this outline with a variety of melodramatic incidents, the libretto was originally planned as a three-act opéra comique for the Opéra-Comique theatre. Meyerbeer stopped work on the opera in 1827 when the theatre underwent financial difficulties, in August 1829, the composer and librettists agreed to refashion the work in a five-act form to meet the requirements of the Paris Opéra. This entailed some significant rewriting of the storyline, reducing the essentially comic role of Raimbaut and it also meant that the traditional pairing of lovers in opéra comique was swept aside in favour of concentration on the more sensational story-line of Roberts diabolic ancestry. The contract for the opera, specifying it as an opera in five acts and seven scenes, was signed by the then director of the Opéra, Émile Lubbert. Meyerbeer completed the composition of the work in Spa, Belgium in June and its characterisation as a grand opera placed it in succession to Aubers La muette de Portici and Rossinis Guillaume Tell in this new genre. He also rewrote the two major roles of Bertrand and Robert to suit the talents of Nicolas Levasseur and Adolphe Nourrit. The opera premiered on 21 November 1831 at the Paris Opéra, the success owed much to the operas star singers – Levasseur as Bertram, Nourrit as Robert — and to the provocative Ballet of the Nuns in the third act, featuring the great ballerina, Marie Taglioni. The choreography for the ballet was elaborated by the ballerinas father, the audiences prurient delight in this scandalous scene is well conveyed by the reviewer for the Revue des Deux-Mondes, A crowd of mute shades glides through the arches. What a pleasure to see these light women, the set for the ballet was an innovative and striking design by Henri Duponchel and Pierre-Luc-Charles Ciceri. Duponchel had also introduced technical innovations for the staging, including English traps for the appearance and disappearance of the ghosts. Taglioni danced the Abbess only six times in Paris, she was replaced by Louise Fitzjames, at the invitation of Nourrit, Cornélie Falcon made her debut at the age of 18 at the Opéra in the role of Alice on 20 July 1832. Although suffering from stage fright, Falcon managed to sing her first aria without error, on hearing her in the role, Meyerbeer himself declared his opera at last complete
4.
Opera
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Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his operas in the 1760s. The first third of the 19th century saw the point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer, the mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, the 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism, Neoclassicism, and Minimalism. With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso, since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on these mediums. Beginning in 2006, a number of opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. In 2009, an opera company offered a download of a complete performance. The words of an opera are known as the libretto, some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti, others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e. g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action, in some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, the terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. Over the 18th century, arias were accompanied by the orchestra. Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagners example, though some, the changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below
5.
Luigi Cherubini
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Luigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music, Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries. Cherubini was born Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini in Florence in 1760, there is uncertainty about his exact date of birth. Although 14 September is sometimes stated, evidence from baptismal records, perhaps the strongest evidence is his first name, Maria, which is traditional for a child born on 8 September, feast-day of the Nativity of the Virgin. His instruction in music began at the age of six with his father, Bartolomeo, considered a child prodigy, Cherubini studied counterpoint and dramatic style at an early age. By the time he was thirteen, he had composed several religious works, in 1780, he was awarded a scholarship by the Grand Duke of Tuscany to study music in Bologna and Milan. Cherubinis early opera serie used libretti by Apostolo Zeno, Metastasio and his music was strongly influenced by Niccolò Jommelli, Tommaso Traetta, and Antonio Sacchini, who were the leading composers of the day. The first of his two works, Lo sposo di tre e marito di nessuna, premiered at a Venetian theater in November 1783. Feeling constrained by Italian traditions and eager to experiment, Cherubini traveled to London in 1785 where he produced two opere serie and an opera buffa for the Kings Theatre. In the same year, he made an excursion to Paris with his friend the violinist Giovanni Battista Viotti, Cherubini received an important commission to write Démophoon to a French libretto by Jean-François Marmontel that would be his first tragédie en musique. Performances of Démophon were favorably received at the Grand Opéra in 1788, with Viottis help, the Théâtre de Monsieur in the Tuileries appointed Cherubini as its director in 1789. Three years later, after a move to the rue Feydeau and the fall of the monarchy and this position gave Cherubini the opportunity to read countless libretti and choose one that best suited his temperament. Cherubinis music began to show more originality and daring and his first major success was Lodoïska, which was admired for its realistic heroism. This was followed by Elisa, set in the Swiss Alps, Les deux journées, in which Cherubini simplified his style, was a popular success. These and other operas were premièred at the Théâtre Feydeau or the Opéra-Comique, feeling financially secure, he married Anne Cécile Tourette in 1794 and began a family of three children. The fallout from the French Revolution affected Cherubini until the end of his life, politics forced him to hide his connections with the former aristocracy and seek governmental appointments. Although Napoléon found him too complex, Cherubini wrote at least one work per year for more than a decade. He was appointed Napoléons director of music in Vienna for part of 1805 and 1806, in 1808 Cherubini was elected an associated member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands
6.
Gaspare Spontini
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Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini was an Italian opera composer and conductor. Born in Maiolati, Papal State, he spent most of his career in Paris and Berlin, during the first two decades of the 19th century, Spontini was an important figure in French opera. As a youth, Spontini studied at the Conservatorio della Pietà de Turchini, working his way from Italian city to city, he got his first break in Rome, with his successful comedy Li puntigli delle donne. In 1803, he went to Paris, where, on February 11,1804, debuted his comic opera La finta filosofa and its premiere at the Opéra in Paris established Spontini as one of the greatest Italian composers of his age. His contemporaries Cherubini and Meyerbeer considered it a masterpiece, and later such as Berlioz. During the Peninsular War, Napoleon promoted works such as Gasparo Spontinis Fernand Cortez, in 1811 he married Celeste Erard, the niece of the Parisian maker of pianos and harps Sebastien Erard, it was a happy marriage, though childless. He was made a chevalier of Napoleons Legion of Honor, its Maltese cross hangs round his neck in the portrait by Nicolas-Eustache Maurin, there he became Kapellmeister and chief conductor at the Berlin Hofoper, and in this period he composed the Prussian National Anthem Borussia. There he also met the young Mendelssohn, and deprecated the 17 -year olds opera Die Hochzeit des Camacho, in 1842 the disillusioned Spontini, chagrined at the success of Giacomo Meyerbeer and others in Germany, returned to Italy, where he died in 1851. Perhaps the most famous production was the revival of La vestale with Maria Callas at La Scala at the opening of the 1954 season. The stage director was famed cinema director Luchino Visconti and that production was also the La Scala debut of tenor Franco Corelli. Callas recorded the arias Tu che invoco and O Nume tutelar from La vestale in 1955, in 1969, conductor Fernando Previtali revived the opera, with soprano Leyla Gencer and baritone Renato Bruson. In 1993, conductor Riccardo Muti recorded it in the original French language with Karen Huffstodt, Denyce Graves, Anthony Michaels-Moore, Fernand Cortez was revived in 1951, with a young Renata Tebaldi, at the San Carlo in Naples, conducted by Gabriele Santini. The premiere of the version of the work took place at the Erfurt opera house. Li puntigli delle donne was performed at the Putbus Festival 1998, Spontini, Gaspare, in Grove Music Online, accessed 13 September 2014. Silke Leopold, The Idea of National Opera, c.1800 in Unity and Diversity in European Culture c,1800, Tim Blanning and Hagen Schulze New York, Oxford University Press. Todd, R. Larry, Mendelssohn, A Life in Music, fondazione Pergolesi Spontini of Jesi Herbermann, Charles, ed. Gasparo Luigi Pacifico Spontini. Free scores by Gaspare Spontini at the International Music Score Library Project
7.
Napoleon
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Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, one of the greatest commanders in history, his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleons political and cultural legacy has ensured his status as one of the most celebrated and he was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in Corsica to a relatively modest family from the minor nobility. When the Revolution broke out in 1789, Napoleon was serving as an officer in the French army. Seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution, he rose through the ranks of the military. The Directory eventually gave him command of the Army of Italy after he suppressed a revolt against the government from royalist insurgents, in 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic and his ambition and public approval inspired him to go further, and in 1804 he became the first Emperor of the French. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing a Third Coalition by 1805, in 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched the Grand Army deep into Eastern Europe, France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support, the Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, and ended in victory for the Allies. The Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System and enticed Napoleon into another war. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse of the Grand Army, the destruction of Russian cities, in 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France. A lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power, however, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June, the British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later at the age of 51
8.
Ballet
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Ballet /ˈbæleɪ/ is a type of performance dance that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread, highly technical form of dance with its own based on French terminology. It has been influential and has defined the foundational techniques used in many other dance genres. Becoming a ballet dancer requires years of training, Ballet has been taught in various schools around the world, which have historically incorporated their own cultures to evolve the art. Ballet may also refer to a dance work, which consists of the choreography. A well-known example of this is The Nutcracker, a ballet that was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa. Ballets are choreographed and performed by trained artists, the word came into English usage from the French around 1630. Ballet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th and 16th centuries before being spread from Italy to France by an Italian aristocrat, Catherine de Medici, in France, ballet developed even further under her aristocratic influence. The dancers in these early court ballets were mostly noble amateurs, Ballets in this period were lengthy and elaborate and often served a political purpose. Ornamented costumes were meant to impress viewers and restricted freedom of movement. The ballets were performed in large chambers with viewers on three sides, French court ballet reached its height under the reign of King Louis XIV. Known as the Sun King, Louis symbolized the brilliance of France, in 1661 Louis founded the Académie Royale de Danse to establish standards and certify dance instructors. In 1672, Louis XIV made Jean-Baptiste Lully the director of the Académie Royale de Musique from which the first professional ballet company, Lully is considered the most important composer of music for ballets de cour and instrumental to the development of the form. Ballet went into decline in France after 1830, though it continued to develop in Denmark, Italy, the arrival in Europe on the eve of First World War of the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, revived interest in the ballet and started the modern era. The Russian choreographer Michel Fokine challenged tradition and called for reforms that reinvigorated ballet as an art form, in the 20th century, ballet had a wide influence on other dance genres, and subgenres of ballet have also evolved. In the United States, choreographer George Balanchine developed what is now known as neoclassical ballet, other developments include contemporary ballet and post-structural ballet. Also in the century, ballet took a turn dividing it from classical ballet to the introduction of modern dance. Stylistic variations have emerged and evolved since the Italian Renaissance, early, classical variations are primarily associated with geographic origin
9.
Henri Duponchel
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Henri Duponchel was in turn a French architect, interior designer, costume designer, stage designer, stage director, managing director of the Paris Opera, and a silversmith. He has often confused with Charles-Edmond Duponchel, a contemporary who also lived and worked in Paris. He was born Henry Duponchel on the rue des Lombards in Paris to Pierre-Henry Duponchel, who ran a grocery-hardware store, the family subsequently moved to the rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie. According to early biographies Duponchel took lessons from the painter and theatre enthusiast Pierre Guérin and was a student with Eugène Delacroix. Duponchel, who did not himself know Mornay, had influence through his friendship with the actress Mademoiselle Mars. After returning from the trip, Delacroix created one of his famous paintings. Early biographers also say that Duponchel attended courses in architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts, but this must be viewed with caution as there is no record of it in the student registers. At the time of his fathers death in 1821, he had in effect become an architect and he also pointed out that throughout his career Duponchel habitually benefited from collaboration with others. However, when the results were announced Duponchel and his collaborators won the second prize of 4,000 francs out of 170 entrants. Indeed, the first records of Duponchels work activities are in the areas of architecture, at the end of 1818 he was associated with a young architect by the name of Léonard-Ferdinand Verneuil, but in what capacity is not clear. Verneuils father-in-law was the director of the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin, Pierre Cicéri and Lebe-Gigun, scene painters at the Opéra, did the decorative painting, which initiated relationships that were to prove significant for Duponchels subsequent career. The work also inaugurated an important patronage from the Baron, continuing his association with Piron, Duponchel also executed in 1821 a neo-Pompeian decor for the hôtel of the actor Talma on the rue de la Tour-des-Dames. In 1826 he oversaw the construction of an elegant, small hôtel in Italian renaissance style on a site located between the garden and court of the Hôtel de Bourrienne on the rue dHauteville. Soon thereafter Duponchel joined Cicéri at the Opéra, alphonse Royer called him the Alexander of the mise-en-scène. The ballet scenario was in fact Duponchels own suggestion, replacing the previously intended staid scenario set on Olympus, Duponchel had also introduced new technical tricks, including English traps for the sudden appearance and disappearance of the ghosts. This scene became so famous that it was remembered until the end of the century, meyebeer even began to complain that the spectacle was too much and was pushing his music into the background. The press coined the term Duponchellerie to refer to scenic spectacles that were considered excessive, Duponchel also collaborated with Hygin-Auguste Cavé in writing the libretto of Halévys 1832 ballet-opéra La tentation. It was a difficult period at the Opéra after Louis Vérons retirement
10.
Louis Daguerre
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Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was a French artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photography, though he is most famous for his contributions to photography, he was also an accomplished painter and a developer of the diorama theatre. Louis Daguerre was born in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, Val-dOise, France and he was apprenticed in architecture, theatre design, and panoramic painting to Pierre Prévost, the first French panorama painter. Exceedingly adept at his skill of theatrical illusion, he became a designer for the theatre, and later came to invent the diorama. In 1829, Daguerre partnered with Nicéphore Niépce, an inventor who had produced the worlds first heliograph in 1822, Niépce died suddenly in 1833, but Daguerre continued experimenting, and evolved the process which would subsequently be known as the daguerreotype. After efforts to interest private investors proved fruitless, Daguerre went public with his invention in 1839, under assurances of strict confidentiality, Daguerre explained and demonstrated the process only to the Academys perpetual secretary François Arago, who proved to be an invaluable advocate. Members of the Academy and other individuals were allowed to examine specimens at Daguerres studio. The images were enthusiastically praised as nearly miraculous, and news of the daguerreotype quickly spread, in 1839, he was elected to the National Academy of Design as an Honorary Academician. Daguerre died on 10 July 1851 in Bry-sur-Marne,12 km from Paris, a monument marks his grave there. Daguerres name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel tower, in the mid-1820s, prior to his association with Daguerre, Niépce used a coating of bitumen of Judea to make the first permanent camera photographs. The bitumen was hardened where it was exposed to light and the portion was then removed with a solvent. A camera exposure lasting for hours or days was required, Niépce and Daguerre later refined this process, but unacceptably long exposures were still needed. After the death of Niépce in 1833, Daguerre concentrated his attention on the properties of silver salts. The plate was exposed in the camera. Upon seeing the image, the contents of which are unknown, Daguerre said, the latent image on a daguerreotype plate was developed by subjecting it to the vapor given off by mercury heated to 75 °C. The resulting visible image was then fixed by removing the silver iodide with concentrated and heated salt water. Later, a solution of the more effective hypo was used instead, the resultant plate produced an exact reproduction of the scene. The image was laterally reversed—as images in mirrors are—unless a mirror or inverting prism was used during exposure to flip the image, daguerreotypes were usually portraits, the rarer landscape views and other unusual subjects are now much sought-after by collectors and sell for much higher prices than ordinary portraits
11.
Gioachino Rossini
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Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who wrote operas, as well as some sacred music, songs, chamber music and piano pieces. A precocious composer of operas, he made his debut at the age of eighteen. His best-known operas include the Italian comedies Il barbiere di Siviglia, Litaliana in Algeri and he also wrote a string of serious operas in Italian, including works such as Tancredi, Otello and Semiramide. The semi-serious opera La Gazza Ladra has one of Rossinis most celebrated overtures, after moving to Paris in 1824, he eventually started to write in French. His last opera, the epic Guillaume Tell, replete with its iconic overture, after composing thirty-nine significant operas in nineteen years Rossini retired from the theatre in 1829. Later, he was affected by physical and mental illnesses and for decades wrote relatively little apart from a setting of the Stabat Mater. A return to Paris from Italy in 1855 was followed by better health, during these, he presented salon music in the form of songs, piano pieces and small chamber ensembles that he called Sins of Old Age. He considered the last of these Sins to be the unusually scored Petite messe solennelle that he wrote in 1863, Rossini had been the most popular opera composer in history, and he was one of the most renowned public figures of his time. A rapid and prolific composer, he was quoted as joking, Give me the laundress bill, a tendency for inspired, song-like melodies is evident throughout his scores, earning him the nickname The Italian Mozart. Use of a build up of orchestral sound over a repeated phrase—commonly known as a Rossini crescendo—also prompted the nickname Signor Crescendo. Gioachino Antonio Rossini was born into a family of musicians in Pesaro and his father, Giuseppe, was a horn player and inspector of slaughterhouses. His mother, Anna, was a singer and a bakers daughter, Rossinis father was sympathetic to the French Revolution and welcomed Napoleons troops when they arrived in northern Italy. When Austria restored the old regime, Rossinis father was sent to prison in 1799, Rossinis mother took him to Bologna, making a living as leading singer at various theatres of the Romagna region. Her husband would ultimately join her in Bologna, during this time, Rossini was frequently left in the care of his aging grandmother, who had difficulty supervising the boy. He remained at Bologna in the care of a pork butcher while his father played the horn in the orchestras of the theatres at which his wife sang and these qualities made him a subject for ridicule in the eyes of the young Rossini. He was eventually taken from Prinetti and apprenticed to a blacksmith, in Angelo Tesei, he found a congenial music master, and learned to sight-read, play accompaniments on the piano and sing well enough to take solo parts in the church when he was ten years of age. Important products of this period are six sonate a quattro, or string sonatas, the original scores, dating from 1804 when the composer was twelve, were found in the Library of Congress in Washington D. C. In 1805, he appeared at the theatre of the Commune in Ferdinando Paers Camilla and he was also a capable horn player, treading in the footsteps of his father
12.
La vestale
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La vestale is an opera composed by Gaspare Spontini to a French libretto by Étienne de Jouy. It takes the form of a tragédie lyrique in three acts and it was first performed on 15 December 1807 by the Académie Impériale de Musique at the Salle Montansier, and is regarded as Spontinis masterpiece. The musical style shows the influence of Gluck and looks forwards to the works of Berlioz, Wagner, Spontini had finished La vestale by the summer of 1805 but had faced opposition from leading members of the Opéra and rivalry from fellow composers. The premiere was made possible with the help of Spontinis patron, the Empress Josephine, La vestale was an enormous success, enjoying over two hundred performances by 1830. Its fame soon spread abroad, it first appeared on the Italian stage in Naples in 1811 and it was premiered in the United States in French at Théâtre dOrléans in New Orleans on 17 February 1828. Important 20th-century revivals include the 1954 production at La Scala with Maria Callas in the title role, La vestale is famous in historical terms but is only very infrequently performed. Two of its arias, Tu che invoco and O Nume tutelar, are known than the work as a whole. Place, Rome About 269 BC Returning to Rome after a victorious campaign, although Julia attempts to avoid going to Liciniuss triumph, she is delegated to present him with a wreath. He tells her that he intends to kidnap and reclaim her, in the temple of Vesta, Julia guards the eternal flame and prays to be freed of temptation. Licinius arrives, during their rapturous reconciliation, the flame expires, Licinius is advised by Cinna to flee. Julia is interrogated by the High Priest but refuses to name Licinius and she is sentenced to death for licentiousness. Despite the pleas of Licinius, Julia is to be buried alive, even when he admits his intrusion to the Temple, a thunderstorm ensues, during which lightning reignites the sacred flame. Recognising this as a sign from the Gods, the High Priest, Jouy, mise en musique par Gaspard Spontini, Paris, Pacini, s. d. Barbier, Patrick, Opera in Paris 1800–1850 Amadeus Press, ISBN 978-2-84049-556-7 Anselm, Gerhard, Vestale, La, in Sadie, Stanley. The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Grove, New York,1997, IV, ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2 Holden, Amanda, The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York, Penguin Putnam. ISBN 0-14-029312-4 Warrack, John, West, Ewan, La vestale, Scores at the International Music Score Library Project Score, University Library, Goethe University Frankfurt About Étienne de Jouy who wrote La vestale
13.
Fernand Cortez
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Fernand Cortez, ou La conquête du Mexique is an opéra in three acts by Gaspare Spontini with a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Joseph-Alphonse d’Esmenard. It was first performed on 28 November 1809 by the Académie Impériale de Musique at the Salle Montansier, the opera was originally intended as political propaganda to support the Emperor Napoleons invasion of Spain in 1808. Cortez symbolises Napoleon while the bloodthirsty Aztec priests are meant to represent the Spanish Inquisition, the emperor himself is said to have suggested the theme of the opera to Spontini and the premiere was held in his presence. The popularity of the piece declined with the waning of the French armys fortunes in Spain, the 1809 premiere was famous for its spectacular effects, including the appearance of 17 live horses on stage. Critics complained about the harmony and the loudness of the music. The richness of the staging, extensive use of dance and the treatment of an historical subject make Spontinis work the precursor of French Grand Opera and it was greatly admired by Hector Berlioz. Spontini substantially revised the opera for a revival in Paris on 28 May 1817, two further revisions were made for performances in Berlin in 1824 and 1832. This is based on the version of 1809. The opera is based on the story of the Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortés, at the beginning of the opera, Cortez persuades his mutinous troops not to embark for home. His brother, Alvaro, is a prisoner of the Aztecs and Cortez is also in love with the Aztec princess, amazilys brother, Télasco, arrives and tells the Spaniards to leave Mexico. Cortez responds by setting fire to his own ships, the Spaniards advance on the Aztec temple with Télasco their prisoner. Télasco accuses his sister Amazily of being a traitor and the Aztecs threaten to behead her if Alvaro is not returned to them, Amazily decides to sacrifice herself and hands herself over to the Aztecs. Cortez orders his men to attack the temple, in the temple, the priests prepare to sacrifice Alvaro when Amazily arrives. An oracle from the god announces that he wants the blood of his enemies, news arrives that the Aztec emperor Montezuma has been captured by the Spaniards. The high priest decides to go ahead with the sacrifice of Amazily, the Spaniards arrive just in time to save her. Amazily and Cortez are united in marriage, de Jouy et Esmenard, Mise en Musique et Dédiée à Son Excellence Monsieur le Comte de Pradel. Par G. Spontini, Paris, Hanry, ca 1817 Holden, Amanda, The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York, Penguin Putnam,2001. ISBN 0-14-029312-4 Del Teatro Amadeus Online Other sources Faul, Michel, Les aventures militaires, littéraires et autres dEtienne de Jouy, Editions Seguier, France,2009
14.
Il crociato in Egitto
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Il crociato in Egitto is an opera in two acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer, with a libretto by Gaetano Rossi. It was first performed at La Fenice theatre, Venice on 7 March 1824, the part of Armando was sung by the famous castrato, Giovanni Battista Velluti, the opera was probably the last ever written to feature a castrato. It is the last of Meyerbeers series of operas in Italian, after its successful Venetian premiere, Il Crociato was staged at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Trieste, Padua, and at His Majestys Theatre in London. For each of these productions Meyerbeer revised the work and composed new music for parts of it, over the next twenty to thirty years the opera was performed in almost every major opera house in Europe, and even in Mexico City, Havana and Constantinople. The opera formed the basis for the future great success. While it has not been staged complete in the 20th century there have been performances in both London and New York City which were recorded on LP. A staged revival was promised in Venice for the 2005-2006 season and this performance featured a natural male soprano Michael Maniaci. One of the earliest of these operas is Meyerbeers Il crociato in Egitto and it has much in common with Rossini, but, on closer examination, some significant innovations become apparent. One is the greater complexity of the finale to the first act. In Adrianos Suono funereo there is what may well be one of the earliest cases of that strain of lyrical pathos which was to be such a dominant factor in later bel canto works. Another example is Palmides big aria in Act 2, Duna madre sventurata in which the desperation of the mother comes through in the music. Place, Damietta Time, During the Sixth Crusade, which commenced in 1228, before the opera begins, Armando, missing presumed dead in fighting, has become confidante to the Sultan Aladino, under an assumed name. He has fallen in love with Aladinos daughter, who has him a son. Adriano arrives at the Sultans palace to negotiate a truce, there he recognises Armando, as does Felicia, who has disguised herself as a knight to find her betrothed. Armando and the other Christian prisoners are sentenced to imprisonment. The ambitious Osmino arms the prisoners under Armando with the intention of killing the Sultan, the Sultan relents, peace is agreed with the Knights and Armando and Palmide are reunited. Il crociato in Egitto, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, cond, soloists include Yvonne Kenny, Bruce Ford. Il crociato in Egitto Live performance DVD from Teatro La Fenice, dynamic DV33549 DVD Notes Sources Brown, Clive
15.
Giacomo Meyerbeer
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Giacomo Meyerbeer was a German opera composer of Jewish birth who has been described as perhaps the most successful stage composer of the nineteenth century. With his 1831 opera Robert le diable and its successors, he gave the genre of grand opera decisive character, Meyerbeers grand opera style was achieved by his merging of German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. These were employed in the context of sensational and melodramatic libretti created by Eugène Scribe and were enhanced by the up-to-date theatre technology of the Paris Opéra and they set a standard which helped to maintain Paris as the opera capital of the nineteenth century. Born to a very wealthy Berlin family, Meyerbeer began his career as a pianist but soon decided to devote himself to opera. His 1824 opera Il crociato in Egitto was the first to bring him Europe-wide reputation and he was at his peak with his operas Les Huguenots and Le prophète, his last opera was performed posthumously. His operas made him the most frequently performed composer at the leading opera houses in the nineteenth century. He was a supporter of Richard Wagner, enabling the first production of the latters opera. He was commissioned to write the patriotic opera Ein Feldlager in Schlesien to celebrate the reopening of the Berlin Royal Opera House in 1844, apart from around 50 songs, Meyerbeer wrote little except for the stage. Meyerbeers works are infrequently performed today. Meyerbeers birthname was Jacob Liebmann Beer, he was born in Tasdorf, near Berlin, then the capital of Prussia, to a Jewish family. His father was the wealthy financier Judah Herz Beer and his mother, Amalia Wulff, to whom he was particularly devoted. Their other children included the astronomer Wilhelm Beer and the poet Michael Beer and he was to adopt the surname Meyerbeer on the death of his grandfather Liebmann Meyer Wulff and the first name Giacomo during his period of study in Italy, around 1817. Judah Beer was a leader of the Berlin Jewish community and maintained a synagogue in his house which leaned towards reformist views. Jacob Beer wrote a cantata for performance at this synagogue. The brothers Alexander von Humboldt, the renowned naturalist, geographer and explorer, beers first keyboard instructor was Franz Lauska, a pupil of Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and a favoured teacher at the Berlin court. Beer also became one of Muzio Clementis pupils while Clementi was in Berlin, the boy made his public debut in 1801 playing Mozarts D minor Piano Concerto in Berlin. Beer, as he named himself, studied with Antonio Salieri. Louis Spohr organised a concert for Beer at Berlin in 1804 and continued his acquaintance with the lad later in Vienna, beers first stage work, the ballet Der Fischer und das Milchmädchen was produced in March 1810 at the Court Opera in Berlin
16.
Venice
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Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated across a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and these are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, the lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a World Heritage Site. In 2014,264,579 people resided in Comune di Venezia, together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, with a total population of 2.6 million. PATREVE is a metropolitan area without any degree of autonomy. The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC, the city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice. Venice has been known as the La Dominante, Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Water, City of Masks, City of Bridges, The Floating City, and City of Canals. The City State of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial center which gradually emerged from the 9th century to its peak in the 14th century and this made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period, Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi. Venice has been ranked the most beautiful city in the world as of 2016, the name Venetia, however, derives from the Roman name for the people known as the Veneti, and called by the Greeks Eneti. The meaning of the word is uncertain, although there are other Indo-European tribes with similar-sounding names, such as the Celtic Veneti, Baltic Veneti, and the Slavic Wends. Linguists suggest that the name is based on an Indo-European root *wen, so that *wenetoi would mean beloved, lovable, a connection with the Latin word venetus, meaning the color sea-blue, is also possible. The alternative obsolete form is Vinegia, some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen on the islands in the original marshy lagoons. They were referred to as incolae lacunae, the traditional founding is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto — said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421. Beginning as early as AD166 to 168, the Quadi and Marcomanni destroyed the center in the area. The Roman defences were again overthrown in the early 5th century by the Visigoths and, some 50 years later, New ports were built, including those at Malamocco and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The tribuni maiores, the earliest central standing governing committee of the islands in the Lagoon, the traditional first doge of Venice, Paolo Lucio Anafesto, was actually Exarch Paul, and his successor, Marcello Tegalliano, was Pauls magister militum. In 726 the soldiers and citizens of the Exarchate rose in a rebellion over the controversy at the urging of Pope Gregory II
17.
Florence
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Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
18.
Etienne de Jouy
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Victor-Joseph Étienne, called de Jouy, French dramatist, who abandoned an early military career for a successful literary one. Étienne was born at Versailles in 1764, at the age of eighteen he received a commission in the army, and sailed for South America in the company of the governor of Guiana. He returned almost immediately to France to complete his studies, and he was sent to India, where he met with many romantic adventures which were afterwards turned to literary account. On the outbreak of the Revolution he returned to France and served with distinction in the early campaigns and he drew suspicion on himself, however, by refusing to honor the toast of Marat, and had to flee for his life. He was acquitted of this charge, but, weary of repeated attacks, at some point Jouy married the British born daughter of the novelist Lady Mary Hamilton who had moved to France with George Robinson Hamilton. Jouy now turned his attention to literature, and produced in 1807 with immense success the libretto for Gaspare Spontinis opera La vestale. The piece ran for a hundred nights, and owing in part to its libretto, was characterized by the Institut de France as the best lyric drama of the day. Other opera librettos followed, including Spontinis Fernand Cortez and Cherubinis Abencérages, in 1821 his tragedy of Sylla gained a triumph due in part to the genius of the actor Talma, who had studied the title-rôle from Napoleon, it opened 27 December 1821 at the Théâtre-Français. Under the Restoration Jouy consistently fought for the cause of freedom and he died in rooms set apart for his use in the Château de St Germain-en-Laye,4 September 1846. Out of the long list of his librettos, tragedies and miscellaneous writings may be mentioned, La Vestale, opera, music by Spontini Fernand Cortez, opera. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Jouy. Michel Faul, Les aventures militaires, littéraires et autres dEtienne de Jouy March 2009, ISBN 978-2-84049-556-7) Étienne de Jouy on Data. bnf. fr Site on Étienne de Jouy and his biography
19.
Guillaume Tell
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Guillaume Tell is an opera in four acts by Gioachino Rossini to a French libretto by Étienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis. Based on Friedrich Schillers play William Tell, which drew on the William Tell legend, fabio Luisi said that Rossini planned for William Tell to be his last opera even as he composed it. The overture, in four sections and featuring a depiction of a storm as well as a vivacious finale, the March of the Swiss Soldiers, is often played. Charles Malherbe, archivist at the Paris Opéra, discovered the original score of the opera at a secondhand book sellers shop. It was first performed by the Paris Opéra at the Salle Le Peletier on 3 August 1829, but within three performances cuts were being made and after a year only three acts were performed. The operas length, roughly four hours of music, and casting requirements, when performed, the opera is often cut. Performances have been given in both French and Italian, political concerns have also contributed to the varying fortunes of the work. In Italy, because the work glorified a revolutionary figure against authority, the opera encountered difficulties with the Italian censors, the Teatro San Carlo produced the opera in 1833, but then did not give another production for around 50 years. The first Venice production, at the Teatro La Fenice, was not until 1856, by contrast, in Vienna, in spite of censorship problems there, the Vienna Court Opera gave 422 performances over the years 1830–1907. In New York, William Tell was first presented on 19 September 1831 and it was revived at the Metropolitan Opera in 1923 with Ponselle and Martinelli, and there were revivals during the 1930s in Milan, Rome, Paris, Berlin and Florence. When the opera was performed at Gran Teatre del Liceu in 1893, in the later 20th century there were major productions in Florence, Geneva, La Scala, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Covent Garden, and then Opéra Bastille as well as at the Sportspalace in Pesaro. In 2010 there was an important revival of the opera, when it opened the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilias season and this performance was of the French version, with some cuts to particularly the fourth act. The performance was well reviewed, and marked the first full performance of the work in the history of the Proms. According to an anecdote, when an admirer told the composer that he had heard his opera the previous night, another version of the story refers only to Act II. In 1864 Offenbach quoted the patriotic trio from Act 2, Lorsque la Grèce est un champ de carnage in La Belle Hélène, today, the opera is remembered mostly for its famous overture. Its high-energy finale, March Of The Swiss Soldiers, is particularly familiar through its use in the American radio and television shows of The Lone Ranger. The overture has four parts, each linked to the next, The Prelude is written only for the section, the double basses. The Storm is a dynamic section played by the orchestra, with backup from the trombones
20.
La muette de Portici
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La muette de Portici, also called Masaniello in some versions, is an opera in five acts by Daniel Auber, with a libretto by Germain Delavigne, revised by Eugène Scribe. The work has an important place in history as the earliest French grand opera. It is also known for its role in the Belgian Revolution of 1830, the opera was first given at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opéra on 29 February 1828. The role of Masaniello was taken by the famous tenor Adolphe Nourrit, the dancer Lise Noblet played the mute title role, a part later taken by other dancers such as Marie Taglioni and Fanny Elssler, also the actress Harriet Smithson. Alphonse was created by Alexis Dupont, who was Lise Noblets brother-in-law, the conductor at the premiere was Henri Valentino. La muette was innovative in a number of ways, first, it marked the introduction into opera of mime and gesture as an integral part of an opera plot. The new genre was consolidated by Rossinis Guillaume Tell and Meyerbeers Robert le diable. La muette was revived in Paris immediately after the French July Revolution of 1830. The opera was chosen for a performance at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels on 25 August 1830, the opera would cap the three-day festival of fireworks, feasts, and processions. William I had been present at the Brussels premiere of the opera in 1829, although, when nationalist disturbances occurred during a performance around the time of the July Revolution in Paris, the opera was temporarily banned. The ban was lifted for the August 25th performance, the Kings festival announcement were met with open plans for revolt. Posters were put up around Brussels that advertised, Monday, the 23rd, fireworks, Tuesday, the 24th, illuminations, Wednesday, the 25th, revolution. However, the Kings only concession to safety was to cancel the fireworks and procession on the final night. Prior to the performance of Aubers opera, the Courrier des Pays-Bas newspaper issued a call for attendees to leave prior to the fifth act. There are some disagreements about when in the opera the exodus actually began, one contemporary account describes what happened in the theater during the duet, When Lafeuillade and Casscl began singing the celebrated duet. Amour sacre de la patrie enthusiasm exploded irresistably and found it necessary to start afresh in the midst of the cheering, finally, when Masaniello launched into his entreaty, the invocation Aux Armes. The public could no longer be restrained and they acclaimed aria and actor, they booed the fifth act in order to stop the performance, and the delirious crowd out of the hall—into history. Welcomed by the crowd which waited outside, it joined in the demonstrations which loosed the revolution of 1830. The opera is based on the historical uprising of Masaniello against Spanish rule in Naples in 1647
21.
Daniel Auber
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Daniel François Esprit Auber was a French composer. The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy, though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments. His first teacher was the Tirolean composer, Josef Alois Ladurner, at the age of 20 Auber was sent to London for business training, but he was obliged to leave England in 1804 when the Treaty of Amiens was breached. Auber had already attempted musical composition, and at this period produced several concertos pour basse, modelled after the violoncellist Lamare, in whose name they were published. The praise given to his concerto for the violin, which was played at the Paris Conservatoire by Mazas, encouraged him to undertake a resetting of an old comic opera and he also began to study with the renowned Luigi Cherubini. In 1813 the unfavourable reception of his one-act debut opera Le Séjour militaire put an end for some years to his attempts as composer, but his failure in business, and the death of his father in 1819, compelled him once more to turn to music. He produced another opera, Le Testament et les billets-doux, which was no better received than the former, but he persevered, and the next year was rewarded by the complete success of La Bergère châtelaine, an opera in three acts. This was the first in a series of brilliant successes. In 1822 began his association with librettist Eugène Scribe. Their first opera, Leicester, shows evidence of the influence of Gioachino Rossini in its musical style, Auber soon developed his own voice, however, light, vivacious, graceful, and melodious—characteristically French. Le maçon was his first major triumph, staying in the repertory until the 20th century, an ensemble from the latter found its way into Herolds ballet La Somnambule as an air parlante. Auber achieved another triumph in La muette de Portici, also known as Masaniello after its hero. Produced in Paris in 1828, it became a European favourite, and the foundation work of a new genre, grand opera. La Muette broke ground also in its use of a ballerina in a leading role, official and other dignities testified to the public appreciation of Aubers works. In 1829 he was elected a member of the Institut de France, Fra Diavolo, which premiered on 28 January 1830, was his most successful opera. That same year,1830, he was named director of the court concerts, next year, on 20 June 1831, he had another big success, with Le Philtre, starring Adolphe Nourrit. The libretto was translated into Italian and set by Donizetti as Lelisir damore, two years later, on 27 February 1833, Gustave III, his second grand opera, also triumphed and stayed in the repertory for years. The libretto was to be used more, first by Saverio Mercadante for Il reggente, with the action transferred to Scotland
22.
William Tell (opera)
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Guillaume Tell is an opera in four acts by Gioachino Rossini to a French libretto by Étienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis. Based on Friedrich Schillers play William Tell, which drew on the William Tell legend, fabio Luisi said that Rossini planned for William Tell to be his last opera even as he composed it. The overture, in four sections and featuring a depiction of a storm as well as a vivacious finale, the March of the Swiss Soldiers, is often played. Charles Malherbe, archivist at the Paris Opéra, discovered the original score of the opera at a secondhand book sellers shop. It was first performed by the Paris Opéra at the Salle Le Peletier on 3 August 1829, but within three performances cuts were being made and after a year only three acts were performed. The operas length, roughly four hours of music, and casting requirements, when performed, the opera is often cut. Performances have been given in both French and Italian, political concerns have also contributed to the varying fortunes of the work. In Italy, because the work glorified a revolutionary figure against authority, the opera encountered difficulties with the Italian censors, the Teatro San Carlo produced the opera in 1833, but then did not give another production for around 50 years. The first Venice production, at the Teatro La Fenice, was not until 1856, by contrast, in Vienna, in spite of censorship problems there, the Vienna Court Opera gave 422 performances over the years 1830–1907. In New York, William Tell was first presented on 19 September 1831 and it was revived at the Metropolitan Opera in 1923 with Ponselle and Martinelli, and there were revivals during the 1930s in Milan, Rome, Paris, Berlin and Florence. When the opera was performed at Gran Teatre del Liceu in 1893, in the later 20th century there were major productions in Florence, Geneva, La Scala, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Covent Garden, and then Opéra Bastille as well as at the Sportspalace in Pesaro. In 2010 there was an important revival of the opera, when it opened the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilias season and this performance was of the French version, with some cuts to particularly the fourth act. The performance was well reviewed, and marked the first full performance of the work in the history of the Proms. According to an anecdote, when an admirer told the composer that he had heard his opera the previous night, another version of the story refers only to Act II. In 1864 Offenbach quoted the patriotic trio from Act 2, Lorsque la Grèce est un champ de carnage in La Belle Hélène, today, the opera is remembered mostly for its famous overture. Its high-energy finale, March Of The Swiss Soldiers, is particularly familiar through its use in the American radio and television shows of The Lone Ranger. The overture has four parts, each linked to the next, The Prelude is written only for the section, the double basses. The Storm is a dynamic section played by the orchestra, with backup from the trombones
23.
Gustave III (Auber)
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Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué is an opéra historique or grand opera in five acts by Daniel Auber, with a libretto by Eugène Scribe. The opera was a success for the composer, with 168 performances until 1853. When the beautiful curtain is raised, you find yourself in an immense ballroom and this salle de bal is overlooked by boxes, these boxes are filled with masks, who play the part of spectrators. At their feet, constantly moving, is the crowd, disguised in every imaginable costume. Harlequins of all fashions, clowns, peddlers, what shall I say, peasants, marquises, princes, monks, I know not what, mingle in one rainbow-hued crowd. It is impossible to describe this madness, this whirl. I, who am so well accustomed to spectacles like this — I, place, Stockholm Time,15 and 16 March 1792 The opera concerns some aspects of the real-life assassination of Gustavus III, King of Sweden. Notes Sources Budden, Julian, The Operas of Verdi, Volume 2, booklet notes to the Bonynge recording listed above Casaglia, Gherardo. 27 Febbraio 1833 at AmadeusOnline, accessed 30 October 2008, clayton, Ellen Creathorne, Queens of Song. Being Memoirs of Some of the Most Celebrated Female Vocalists Who Have Performed on the Lyric Stage from the Earliest Days of Opera to the Present Time,2, pp. 583–584, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie. Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué, libretto, Paris, Librairie de lAcadémie Royale de Musique. Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué, libretto for a performance in Amsterdam on 3 September 1835, oeuvres complètes de M. Eugène Scribe, membre de lAcadémie française, nouvelle édition, tome deuxième. Chroniques de lAcadémie Royale de Musique et du théâtre, à Paris sous les deux restorations, gustave III, Scores at the International Music Score Library Project Visual documentation of the premiere on Gallica
24.
La Juive
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La Juive is a grand opera in five acts by Fromental Halévy to an original French libretto by Eugène Scribe, it was first performed at the Opéra, Paris, on 23 February 1835. La Juive was one of the most popular and admired operas of the 19th century and its libretto was the work of Eugène Scribe, the prolific dramatic author. In addition to this, there could be choral interludes, ballet, at the time of composition, the July Monarchy had liberalised religious practices in France. Meyerbeer and Halévy were both Jewish, and storylines dealing with topics of tolerance were common in their operas, some believe that the libretto of La Juive has a goal of reconsidering the status of Jews in French society. Others believe that the portrayal of the Jew Eléazar as secretive, vengeful. The operas first, ornate production, costing 150,000 francs, was conducted by François Habeneck, the performances of the soprano Cornélie Falcon in the title role and the dramatic tenor Adolphe Nourrit as Eléazar were particularly noted. The production was notable for its lavishness, including the organ in Act I, the enormous supporting cast. La Juive enjoyed a success comparable to that of Meyerbeers grand operas. It made its American premiere at the Théâtre dOrléans on 13 February 1844, the work was also used for the inaugural performance at the newly constructed Palais Garnier in Paris on 5 January 1875. Richard Wagner, who admired La Juive, may have borrowed from it the Act I organ effect, moreover, Eléazars tapping at his goldsmiths work is echoed by Hans Sachss cobbling during Die Meistersinger. The opera was produced by New Yorks Metropolitan Opera in 1919 as a vehicle for its star tenor, Eléazar was the last role Caruso added to his repertoire, as well as the last he sang in performance prior to his death in 1921. Giovanni Martinelli succeeded Caruso in the role at the Met and both he and Caruso recorded the operas best known aria, Rachel, the opera was programmed regularly until the 1930s. In Zurich, the action was changed from the 15th century to late 19th century France when anti-Semitism was rampant during the Dreyfus affair. In addition, the Royal Opera, London presented concert performances at The Barbican in 2006, with Dennis ONeill and Marina Poplavskaya singing the roles of Eléazar, the synopsis below reflects the original version of the opera. Modern performing versions often somewhat adapt this storyline for convenience, when he was young, the Jew Eléazar had lived in Italy near Rome and witnessed the condemnation and executions of his sons as heretics by Count Brogni. Eléazar himself was banished and forced to flee to Switzerland, during his journey, Eléazar found a baby near death, abandoned inside a burnt-out house which turned out to be the home of the Count. Bandits had set fire to the house, attempting to kill the family of Brogni. Eléazar took the child, a girl, and raised her as his own daughter, Brogni discovered the ruins of his house and the bodies of his family upon his return
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Les Huguenots
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Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. In five acts, to a libretto by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps, Les Huguenots was some five years in creation. Coming from a family, Meyerbeer could afford to take his time, dictate his own terms. The very detailed contract which Meyerbeer arranged with Louis-Désiré Véron, director of the Opéra, while Meyerbeer was writing the opera, another opera with a similar setting and theme was also produced in Paris. Like Meyerbeers, Hérolds work was popular in its time. Les Huguenots was premiered by the Paris Opera at the Salle Le Peletier on 29 February 1836, both Adolphe Nourrit and Cornélie Falcon were particularly praised by the critics for their singing and performances. It was indeed Falcons last important creation before her voice so tragically failed in April of the following year, hector Berlioz called the score a musical encyclopaedia. Les Huguenots was the first opera to be performed at the Opéra more than 1,000 times and continued to be produced regularly up to 1936, more than a century after its premiere. Its many performances in all other of the major opera houses give it a claim to being the most successful opera of the 19th century. Other first performances included London,20 June 1842, and New Orleans on 29 April 1839, Les Huguenots was chosen to open the present building of the Covent Garden Theatre in 1858. In the Soviet Union, the opera was given a new libretto as Dekabristi, like others of Meyerbeers operas, Les Huguenots lost favor in the early part of the twentieth century and it no longer forms part of the standard operatic repertoire. One reason for the lack of revivals is cost, another is the extraordinary difficulty in casting the work. Les Huguenots has seven leading roles—two sopranos, one mezzo-soprano, two baritones, a tenor, and a bass, moreover, the tenor part, Raoul, is one of the most taxing in all of opera. He is on stage for large sections of all five acts, dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge were the major force in the operas revival during the second half of the 20th century. Sutherland chose the opera for her performance at the Sydney Opera House on 2 October 1990. In 1975, the New Orleans Opera Association staged the epic, with Marisa Galvany, Rita Shane, Susanne Marsee, Enrico Di Giuseppe, Dominic Cossa, and Paul Plishka heading the cast. The cast included Alexandra Deshorties, Michael Spyres, Erin Morley, Andrew Schroeder, Peter Volpe, Marie Lenormand, a new production opened at the Staatstheater Nürnberg in 2014, conducted by Guido Johannes Rumstadt with stage direction by Tobias Kratzer, a co-production with Opéra de Nice. Deutsche Oper Berlin presented a new staging of the opera as part of its Meyerbeer cycle, in a production by David Alden with Juan Diego Flórez as Raoul and these performances were a success with both audiences and critics
26.
La Esmeralda (opera)
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La Esmeralda is a grand opera in four acts composed by Louise Bertin. The libretto was written by Victor Hugo, who had adapted it from his novel Notre-Dame de Paris, the opera premiered at the Théâtre de lAcadémie Royale de Musique in Paris on 14 November 1836 with Cornélie Falcon in the title role. Despite the lavish production, the premiere was a failure, and La Esmeralda proved to be the last opera composed by Bertin, partially paralyzed from birth, and basically chair-bound, Louise Bertin had been somewhat of a child prodigy. She painted, wrote poetry, and when she was only 19 composed her first opera, Guy Mannering for which she wrote the libretto based on Sir Walter Scotts novel. Two of her operas were produced at the Opéra-Comique, Le loup-garou in 1827. Although many of Victor Hugos plays and novels were adapted as operas, La Esmeralda was the first. Shortly after he completed Notre-Dame de Paris in 1830, Hugo began sketching out an operatic adaptation, the success of the novel had brought him many offers from composers anxious to turn it into an opera, including Meyerbeer and Berlioz. He had declined those proposals, but according to Hugos wife, in September 1832, while Hugo was staying with the Bertins, Louise, supported by her father Louis-François Bertin, asked him for permission to create an opera from the work. He immediately commenced work on a libretto, completing it on his return to Paris, the process of preparing the final libretto was slow, and rehearsals for the opera did not begin until over three years after Hugo wrote the first lines. Bertins requests for lines of various lengths to fit the music contributed to this as well as the task of condensing a long novel into a four-hour opera. The main protagonist of the novel, Quasimodo, has a reduced role in the opera. At Bertins request, the ending of the novel was changed with Esmeralda escaping execution. In 1834, Notre-Dame de Paris had been placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the opera libretto was submitted to the censors in January 1836 who required the title to be changed to La Esmeralda and all references to Claude Frollo as a priest to be removed. No expense was spared for the production, the four principal roles were assigned to the reigning stars of the Paris Opera, Cornélie Falcon, Adolphe Nourrit, Nicolas Levasseur and Jean-Étienne Massol. The well known interior and theatrical designers Humanité-René Philastre and Charles-Antoine Cambon designed the sets, Bertins limited mobility made it difficult for her to participate in the rehearsals, and her father commissioned Berlioz to conduct the rehearsals and direct the singers. The singers and orchestra were unenthusiastic, and showed it during the rehearsals and he wrote to Franz Liszt, What an inferno that whole world is, an ice-cold inferno. Hugo was travelling in Brittany and absent for almost all the rehearsals, according to Adèle Hugo, on his return he was not pleased with the set and costume designs in which he found nothing rich nor picturesque. In particular, he found the use of new cloth to clothe the beggars and vagabonds inappropriate
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Louise Bertin
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Louise-Angélique Bertin was a French composer and poet. Louise Bertin lived her life in France. Her father, Louis-François Bertin, and also her brother later on, were the editors of Journal des débats, as encouraged by her family, Bertin pursued music. She received lessons from François-Joseph Fétis, who directed a private performance of Guy Mannering, Bertins first opera. This opera, never produced, took its story line from the book of the same name. Two years later, Bertins second opera, Le Loup-garou, was produced at the Opéra-Comique. At the age of 21, Bertin began working on an opera semiseria, Fausto to her own libretto in Italian, based on Goethes Faust, a performance of the completed opera was scheduled for 1830. However, due to unforeseen complications, Fausto did not actually reach the stage until a full year later. It was not well received and only saw three performances, shortly before this, Bertin became friends with Victor Hugo. Hugo himself had sketched out a version of his book Notre-Dame de Paris. Bertin was the composer to have collaborated directly with Hugo on an opera. During the seventh performance, a riot ensued and the run of La Esmeralda was forced to end, though a version of the opera continued to be performed over the next three years. The composer Hector Berlioz, who helped Bertin with the staging and production of La Esmeralda, was accused of providing the better music of this work. In frustration, Bertin refused to write any more operas, in 1837, Franz Liszt transcribed the orchestral score for solo piano, and made a piano transcription of the Air chanté par Massol. Bertin did however continue to compose in many different genres and her later compositions include twelve cantatas, six piano ballades, five chamber symphonies, a few string quartets, a piano trio, and many vocal selections. Of these, only the ballades and the trio were published, Bertin also wrote and published two volumes of poetry, Les Glanes in 1842 and Nouvelles Glanes in 1876. The former of these received a prize from the Académie française, Bertin died the year after the publication of Nouvelles Glanes. La Esmeralda Maya Boog, Phoebus - Manuel Núñez Camelino, Claude Frollo - Francesco Ellero d’Artegna & Quasimodo - Frédéric Antoun, festival de Radio France et Montpellier, Accord
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Stradella (opera)
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Stradella is a Grand Opera in five acts by Louis Niedermeyer to a libretto by Emile Deschamps and Émilien Pacini. Based on a romanticized version of the life of the composer Alessandro Stradella. The storyline of the opera is fashioned from the legend told by Pierre Bourdelot in his 1715 Histoire de la musique. Interest in Stradella in Paris had been growing in 1830s Paris, after the musician François-Joseph Fétis had included an aria, in an 1833 concert, the melody soon became extremely popular. In July 1836 the Revue et gazette musicale, run by Maurice Schlesinger, had serialised a work by Jules Janin, Stradella, or the Poet, moreover, a vaudeville with music by Flotow on the same subject opened in Paris a month before Niedermeyers opera. The opera was Niedermeyers first venture in the Grand Opera vein, the leading roles were taken by two of the Operas strongest singers, Adolphe Nourrit and Cornélie Falcon, both then at the height of their careers. However for both of them it represented some of their last appearances in Paris singing full operatic roles, Falcon lost her voice catastrophically during the second performance of Stradella at the Opéra in March 1837. When Nourrit as Stradella asked her Demain nous partirons – voulez-vous, Falcon was unable to sing her line Je suis prête, fainted, and was carried offstage by Nourrit. Hector Berlioz, who was present, describes raucous sounds like those of a child with croup, guttural and her career never recovered from this disaster, and after 1840 she never performed publicly again. Nourrit gave a performance in April 1837 after the first performances of Stradella, and later that year travelled to Italy. The opera had a mixed reception, but I must warn you not to believe a word I say. The opera was revised to suit Gilbert Duprez when he took over the role from Nourrit in 1837. It is now almost totally forgotten, the opera takes place in Venice and Rome, about 1660. In Act I, in Venice, Stradella shields Léonor who is pursued by the Duke of Pesaro and they plan to flee together but the Duke recaptures Léonor. In Act II Stradella rescues Léonor from the Duke by threatening him with a pistol, Act III takes place in Rome during Holy Week, where Stradella is to sing during the celebrations amongst the pilgrims. In Act IV, preparing to be crowned with laurel for his singing and to marry Léonor, Stradella is captured by the Duke, in Act V, the Duke becomes Doge of Venice, and condemns Stradella to execution. However he is forced to relent by the pleas of Léonor, berkeley, California, University of California Press. Histoire de la musique dramatique en France, ferchault, Guy and Jacqueline Gachet, Niedermeyer, Louis in Grove Music Online, Hibberd, Sarah
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Louis Niedermeyer
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Born in Nyon, Switzerland, Niedermeyer studied piano in Vienna with Ignaz Moscheles and composition with Emanuel Aloys Förster. He studied further in Rome with Vincenzo Fioravanti and in Naples with Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli, while in Rome, he had the luck to meet Gioachino Rossini, who befriended him and urged the production of some of Niedermeyers operas. His first opera, Il reo per amore, was put on in Naples in 1820 with some success. Like Rossini, Niedermeyer settled in Paris, and there, in years, four more of his operas were staged, though with little success, La casa nel bosco, Stradella, Marie Stuart. After these attempts at an operatic career Niedermeyer devoted himself primarily to sacred, in October 1853, he reorganized and re-opened the school then known as the Ecole Choron. It was renamed the École Niedermeyer, although it has had further name changes, the school is still open. His church music remained in use in France and elsewhere into the 20th century, although he studied in Austria and Italy, he is generally described today as a French composer because of his chosen country of residence. The Oxford Companion to Music, 10th Ed, free scores by Louis Niedermeyer at the International Music Score Library Project
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Guido et Ginevra
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Guido et Ginevra, ou La Peste de Florence is a grand opera in five acts by Fromental Halévy to a libretto by Eugène Scribe. It was premiered on 5 March 1838 by the Paris Opera at the Salle Le Peletier, Guido et Ginevra was only a moderate success for Halévy, not nearly as applauded as his previous grand opera La Juive or as La reine de Chypre which followed it. However, after its premiere it was played in all the major European centres. When the opera was revived in Paris in 1840 it was cut to four acts and it was translated into Italian and performed in three acts by the Théâtre-Italien at the Salle Ventadour beginning on 17 February 1870. It was performed in German in Mannheim beginning on 3 April 1879, the opera contains touches of the composers innovative orchestration, with a melophone in Act II, and with Ginevras tomb scene set to dark woodwind and brass instruments using diminished harmonies. Scribe drew the elements of his plot from the history of Florence by Louis-Charles Delécluze The Medici court Ginevra is to be married to the Duke of Ferrara. During the ceremony, a poisoned veil she has been given causes her to faint away in a deathlike trance and it is assumed that she has the plague. The Medici vault Buried in the Medici vault she awakes, the village of Camaldoli Ginevra is reunited with her father, who agrees to her marriage with Guido. A procession of thanksgiving ends the opera, histoire de la musique dramatique en France, pp. 309–425. The Grand Operas of Fromental Halévy, in The Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera, totowa, New Jersey, Rowman and Littlefield. Guido et Ginevra, article in Grove Music Online
31.
La favorite
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La Favorite is a grand opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play Le comte de Comminges by Baculard dArnaud. It premiered on 2 December 1840 at the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris, originally, Donizetti had been composing an opera by the name of Le Duc dAlbe as his second work for the Opéra in Paris. However, the director, Léon Pillet, objected to an opera without a prominent role for his mistress, Donizetti therefore abandoned Le Duc dAlbe and borrowed heavily from Lange de Nisida, an unrealized project from 1839, to create La Favorite. Donizetti wrote the final act in three to four hours, with the exception of the cavatina and a part of a duet. Revivals at the Palais Garnier, on 25 January 1875 and 3 February 1896, increased the scale of the staging but remained true to the original concept of 1840. The opera continued to be performed each season at the Opéra up to 1894, remaining in its repertoire until 1918, in 1897 Toscanini conducted the work in Bergamo for the Donizetti centenary. The London premiere was in English at Drury Lane in 1843 with soprano Emma Romer, New Orleans first saw the piece in 1843 in French, and the Metropolitan Opera mounted a production 1895. The opera was given at the Metropolitan Opera with Shirley Verrett, the opera is now more commonly given in Italian rather than French. Scene 1 In the Monastery of St James, the monks are making their way to worship, superior Balthazar, father of the Queen of Castile, enters with Fernand. Balthazar knows that Fernand is preoccupied by something, Fernand confesses that he has fallen in love with a beautiful, but as yet unknown, lady. His faith in God remains, but he wishes to leave the monastery in search of her, Balthazar angrily sends Fernand out of the monastery, warning him of the dangers of the outside world. He predicts that Fernand will one day return to the cloisters, scene 2 Fernand has found his lady, Léonor, declared his love and received it in return, but he is still unaware of her real identity. She has arranged to meet him on the island of Leon and he is met by Inès, her companion, who impresses upon him the need for secrecy. She tells him that they can never marry and that they must not meet again, shortly afterwards the arrival of the King is announced and Léonor leaves. Fernand is left to speculate about her social position. Reading the document she has him, he finds a commission in the army — an opportunity for advancement. Alfonse has defeated the Moors and taken Alcazar, in conversation with the courtier Don Gaspar, the King expresses his pleasure at Fernands bravery. Alone, the King expresses his love for Léonor and his desire to divorce the Queen and he realizes that this will provoke the opposition of his powerful father-in-law Balthazar who is ultimately backed by the Pope
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Gaetano Donizetti
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Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, Donizetti was a composer of the bel canto opera style during the first half of the nineteenth century. Donizettis close association with the bel canto style was undoubtedly an influence on composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. Donizetti was born in Bergamo in Lombardy, there he received detailed training in the arts of fugue and counterpoint. Over the course of his career, Donizetti wrote almost 70 operas, in all, Naples presented 51 of Donizettis operas. Before 1830, success came primarily with his operas, the serious ones failing to attract significant audiences. However, his first notable success came with an opera seria, Zoraida di Granata, significant historical dramas did appear and became successful, they included Lucia di Lammermoor given in Naples in 1835, and one of the most successful Neapolitan operas, Roberto Devereux in 1837. Up to that point, all of his operas had been set to Italian libretti, Donizetti found himself increasingly chafing against the censorial limitations which existed in Italy. From about 1836, he interested in working in Paris. The first opera was a French version of the then-unperformed Poliuto which, two new operas were also given in Paris at that time. As the 1840s progressed, Donizetti moved regularly between Naples, Rome, Paris, and Vienna continuing to compose and stage his own operas as well as those of other composers, but from around 1843, severe illness began to take hold and to limit his activities. Eventually, by early 1846 he was obliged to be confined to an institution for the ill and, by late 1847, friends had him moved back to Bergamo. The youngest of three sons, Donizetti was born in 1797 in Bergamos Borgo Canale quarter located just outside the city walls and his family was very poor and had no tradition of music, his father Andrea being the caretaker of the town pawnshop. Simone Mayr, a German composer of internationally successful operas, had become maestro di cappella at Bergamos principal church in 1802, in 1807, Andrea Donizetti attempted to enroll both his sons, but the elder, Giuseppe, was considered too old. He remained there for nine years, until 1815, however, as Donizetti scholar William Ashbrook notes, in 1809 he was threatened with having to leave because his voice was changing. In 1810 he applied for and was accepted by the art school, the Academia Carrara. Then, in 1811, Mayr once again intervened, as Ashbrook states, this was nothing less than Mayrs argument that Donizetti be allowed to continue his musical studies. The piece was performed on 13 September 1811 and included the character stating the following, Ah, by Bacchus
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Poliuto
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Poliuto is a three-act tragedia lirica by Gaetano Donizetti from the Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, which was based on Pierre Corneilles play Polyeucte written in 1641–42. It reflected the life of the early Christian martyr Saint Polyeuctus, however, close to the time for rehearsals to begin, King Ferdinand II refused to allow the martyrdom of a Christian saint to be seen on stage and forbade the production. It was presented in Paris on 10 April 1840, when eventually given in Italy, it was initially presented in a translation from the French version under the title of I martiri. It took until 30 November 1848, months after the composers death, however, by the late 1830s, Nourrit’s popularity in Paris was in decline, and he was in danger of being supplanted in the publics affections by rising star Gilbert Louis Duprez. Donizetti returned to Naples, arriving by February 24, where he began planning for the production of Poliuto, however, he had also hoped for a permanent supervisory appointment at the Collegio di San Pietro a Maiella. Instead, it went to the composer, Saverio Mercadante, the composer began work by 10 May on the music for the opera, which appears to have been planned for the autumn season. Barbaja backed up Cammaranos objection, which included his inability to meet with the newly appointed censor, Royer. Finally, the completed libretto moved up the chain of command with Royers support until it reached the King, on 8 March 1839 he jumped to his death from a window of his apartment in Naples. For his part, Cammarano re-used some of the verses he had set for Poliuto in other librettos, including Mercadantes La Vestale, Donizetti offered his Poliuto to the Académie Royale de Musique and it was accepted for performances to begin in April 1840. This commission, which known as Le duc dAlbe, was never completed. During 1839, Lucia di Lammermoor, after being translated into French, became Lucie de Lammermoor, and this version was presented in August. With rehearsals for Les martyrs not planned until early 1840, the composer had time to yet another opera, La fille du régiment. It received its premiere on 11 February 1840, by which time Les martyrs was in rehearsal for performances in April. 19th century Prior to the original Poliuto being presented in Italy, however, the more compact, three-act Poliuto was generally preferred and under its original title, it was given its premiere on 30 November 1848, a few months after Donizettis death. As Poliuto, it was not until 25 May 1859 that it was given in New York, 20th century and beyond Productions of Poliuto staged from 1940 onward have included those at La Scala, Milan in 1940. It was also given at the Roman Baths of Caracalla with Giacomo Lauri-Volpi in 1948, at that point in her career, Callas was at the height of her fame, albeit having been absent from La Scala for two years. However, her performances were regarded as triumphs with the public, another Rome Opera production followed in 1989 with Nicola Martinucci and Elizabeth Connell and two productions were presented by the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo in 1993 and 2010. Other concert performances were given in the 1990s in cities such as Vienna, Montpelier, the ABAO company in Bilbao staged the work in February 2008 with Francisco Casanova and Fiorenza Cedolins in the two principal roles
34.
La reine de Chypre
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La reine de Chypre is an 1841 grand opera in five acts composed by Fromental Halévy to a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges. Joseph Mazilier was the choreographer, and the ballet starred Adéle Dumilâtre, Natalie Fitzjames, the publisher Maurice Schlesinger was reputed to have paid the enormous sum of 30,000 francs for the rights to the opera. The opera prompted an extended eulogy from Richard Wagner, who was present at the first night, in the Dresden Abend-Zeitung, however, since the 19th century it has been rarely revived. Now, adds Wagner, let us see how Herr Saint-Georges has used this historical find for a lyric drama. Time,1441 Place, Venice, Cyprus In the Cornaro palace in Venice, Mocenigo however announces the decision of the Council of Ten to marry her to the King of Cyprus, otherwise Andrea faces execution. He is given one hour to make up his mind, Andrea revokes his promise to Gérard, to the scandal of all present. Catarinas chamber in the Cornaro palace, Andrea asks Catarina to forgive him. They retreat to the passage while Gérard enters and, to his bewilderment, when he has left Mocenigo reemerges and seizes Catarina to take her to Cyprus. A feast, in Cyprus, awaiting the arrival of Catarina, Mocenigo is informed that Gérard may be lurking in the vicinity. He sets his swordsmen on Gérard, who is saved by the intervention of a stranger, each tells the other his story - as is the custom in such melodramas, without actually giving away their true identities - and they promise eternal brotherhood. The guns sound for Catarinas arrival, at Catarinas marriage festivities, Gérard seeks to revenge himself by slaying her husband, but recognises him at the last moment as his deliverer. The King is equally astonished but prevents Gérard from being slaughtered by the crowd, the King is dying, and reveals that he knows of her love for Gérard. He hopes she may be happy with him, enter Gérard, as a Knight of Malta - he announces that the King is fact dying of Venetian poison and hopes that he can still be saved. Enter Mocenigo to tell them it is too late to save the King, Catarina and Gérard however successfully resist the Venetian invasion. The King with his last breath hands his crown to Catarina, Wagner praised the libretto of Saint-Georges for its competence, even allowing for its lack of poetry. The music he called noble, feeling and even new and elevating, however, George Sand, who was also at the premiere, wrote to Eugène Delacroix, You did well, old friend, not to go to the Opera. It was boring to death in spite of the magnificence and pomp of the spectacle, I trust your truffles gave you more inspiration than La Reine de Chypre gave to M. Halévy. Notes Sources Grove Music Online Jordan, Ruth, Fromental Halevy, His Life, kahn & Averill,1994 ISBN9781871082517 ISBN 187108251X
35.
Charles VI (opera)
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Charles VI is an 1843 French grand opera in five acts with music composed by Fromental Halevy and a libretto by Casimir Delavigne and his brother Germain Delavigne. Achieved separate fame as a song of political protest, the opera was first presented on 15 March 1843 by the Paris Opera at the Salle Le Peletier. It continued to be performed there, and in a revised form beginning on 4 October 1847, up to 1848, beginning on 5 April 1870 it was produced at the Théâtre Lyrique with Rosine Bloch in the role of Odette and was given there a total of 22 times. Charles VI was also performed in French in Brussels, The Hague, New Orleans, Buenos Aires, Batavia, Barcelona, Mexico and it was performed in German in Hamburg and in Italian in Milan. Performances in the 20th century were rare, but the opera was revived at Compiègne in 2005. Place, France Time, Several years after the battle of Agincourt The opera centres on King Charles VI of France, the final scene takes place in the Abbey of Saint-Denis. The King is dying as he and the assembled French swear to the Dauphin, Jamais en France, Jamais lAnglais ne régnera. Histoire de la musique dramatique en France, Delavigne, Casimir, Delavigne, G. Charles VI. Musique de F. Halévy, pp. 221–233 in Chefs-doeuvre du théâtre Moderne, Fromental Halévy, His Life & Music 1799–1862. Bibliothèque musicale du Théâtre de lOpéra, volume 2, totowa, New Jersey, Rowman and Littlefield. Charles VI in Sadie 1992, vol, Halévy, Fromental in Sadie 1992, vol. The Paris Opéra, An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, the New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Review of Fromental Halevy, His Life and Work, 1799-1862 in The Musical Times, second Empire Opera, The Théâtre Lyrique Paris 1851–1870
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Marie Stuart (opera)
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Marie Stuart is a grand opera in five acts composed by Louis Niedermeyer to a libretto by Théodor Anne loosely based on events in the life of Mary, Queen of Scots. It premiered at the Théâtre de lAcadémie Royale de Musique in Paris on 6 December 1844 with Rosine Stoltz in the title role, Marie Stuart was Niedermeyers fourth opera and his second foray into the grand opera genre. The production was designed by Philastre and Cambon and directed by Jean Coralli who also choreographed the ballet divertissement for Act 3, the ballet, starring Adèle Dumilâtre, was presented as a performance attended by Mary Stuart at her palace. Like many such ballets in the age of grand opera. Its theme, the triumph of Esther over the fallen queen Vashti, after the premiere, Niedermeyer was made a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour, but Marie Stuart had only a modest success. It remained in the repertoire of the Paris Opera with some cuts to the score until 1846 and it was, however, revived in Stuttgart in 1877, and extracts from the work were performed by Zurich Opera at the 2002 Festival della Valle dItria in Italy. Several pieces from the opera were published separately and were performed in concerts. The most notable of these was Maries aria in Act 1 where she bids her farewell to France and it was performed in recitals by both male and female singers in the 19th century and continues to be performed today. It was also published in various arrangements for solo instrument including violin, piano, cultural depictions of Mary, Queen of Scots Stradella, Niedermeyers first grand opera Notes Sources Académie Royale de Musique. Marie Stuart, opéra en 5 actes, Marie Stuart, opéra en 5 actes. The Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera, Niedermeyer, Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie génèrale de la musique, Volume 6, 2nd edition. Firmin-Didot Garo, Edouard, Loeuvre de Louis Niedermeyer
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Giuseppe Verdi
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Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian opera composer. Verdi was born near Busseto to a family of moderate means. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, whose works influenced him. In his early operas Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy and he also participated briefly as an elected politician. He surprised the world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida. The baptismal register, prepared on 11 October 1813, lists his parents Carlo, additionally, it lists Verdi as being born yesterday, but since days were often considered to begin at sunset, this could have meant either 9 or 10 October. Verdi himself, following his mother, always celebrated his birthday on 9 October, Verdi had a younger sister, Giuseppa, who died aged 17 in 1833. From the age of four, Verdi was given lessons in Latin and Italian by the village schoolmaster, Baistrocchi. After learning to play the organ, he showed so much interest in music that his parents provided him with a spinet. Verdis gift for music was apparent by 1820–21 when he began his association with the local church, serving in the choir, acting as an altar boy for a while. After Baistrocchis death, Verdi, at the age of eight, Carlo Verdi was energetic in furthering his sons education. something which Verdi tended to hide in later life. He picture emerges of youthful precocity eagerly nurtured by a father and of a sustained, sophisticated. Verdi returned to Busseto regularly to play the organ on Sundays, at age 11, Verdi received schooling in Italian, Latin, the humanities, and rhetoric. By the time he was 12, he began lessons with Ferdinando Provesi, maestro di cappella at San Bartolomeo, director of the music school. This information comes from the Autobiographical Sketch which Verdi dictated to the publisher Giulio Ricordi late in life, in 1879, written, understandably, with the benefit of hindsight, it is not always reliable when dealing with issues more contentious than those of his childhood. The other director of the Philharmonic Society was Antonio Barezzi, a grocer and distiller. The young Verdi did not immediately become involved with the Philharmonic, by June 1827, he had graduated with honours from the Ginnasio and was able to focus solely on music under Provesi. By 1829–30, Verdi had established himself as a leader of the Philharmonic, none of us could rival him reported the secretary of the organisation, Giuseppe Demaldè
38.
L'enfant prodigue (Auber)
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Lenfant prodigue is a grand opera in five acts composed by Daniel Auber to a French libretto by Eugène Scribe based on the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Chapter 15 of the Gospel of Luke. It was first performed at the Théâtre de lAcadémie Nationale de Musique in Paris on 6 December 1850, the role of Azaël was sung in the premiere by the celebrated French tenor, Gustave-Hippolyte Roger. The ballet music was used by Constant Lambert in 1933 for the ballet Les Rendezvous with choreography by Frederick Ashton, charlton, David, The Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera, Cambridge University Press,2003. ISBN 0-521-64683-9 Lacombe, Hervé, The Keys to French Opera in the Nineteenth Century, University of California Press,2001
39.
Naples
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Naples is the capital of the Italian region Campania and the third-largest municipality in Italy, after Rome and Milan. In 2015, around 975,260 people lived within the administrative limits. The Metropolitan City of Naples had a population of 3,115,320, Naples is the 9th-most populous urban area in the European Union with a population of between 3 million and 3.7 million. About 4.4 million people live in the Naples metropolitan area, Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Bronze Age Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, a larger colony – initially known as Parthenope, Παρθενόπη – developed on the Island of Megaride around the ninth century BC, at the end of the Greek Dark Ages. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. Naples was the most-bombed Italian city during World War II, much of the citys 20th-century periphery was constructed under Benito Mussolinis fascist government, and during reconstruction efforts after World War II. The city has experienced significant economic growth in recent decades, and unemployment levels in the city, however, Naples still suffers from political and economic corruption, and unemployment levels remain high. Naples has the fourth-largest urban economy in Italy, after Milan, Rome and it is the worlds 103rd-richest city by purchasing power, with an estimated 2011 GDP of US$83.6 billion. The port of Naples is one of the most important in Europe, numerous major Italian companies, such as MSC Cruises Italy S. p. A, are headquartered in Naples. The city also hosts NATOs Allied Joint Force Command Naples, the SRM Institution for Economic Research, Naples is a full member of the Eurocities network of European cities. The city was selected to become the headquarters of the European institution ACP/UE and was named a City of Literature by UNESCOs Creative Cities Network, the Villa Rosebery, one of the three official residences of the President of Italy, is located in the citys Posillipo district. Naples historic city centre is the largest in Europe, covering 1,700 hectares and enclosing 27 centuries of history, Naples has long been a major cultural centre with a global sphere of influence, particularly during the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras. In the immediate vicinity of Naples are numerous culturally and historically significant sites, including the Palace of Caserta, culinarily, Naples is synonymous with pizza, which originated in the city. Neapolitan music has furthermore been highly influential, credited with the invention of the romantic guitar, according to CNN, the metro stop Toledo is the most beautiful in Europe and it won also the LEAF Award 2013 as Public building of the year. Naples is the Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide, Naples sports scene is dominated by football and Serie A club S. S. C. Napoli, two-time Italian champions and winner of European trophies, who play at the San Paolo Stadium in the south-west of the city, the Phlegraean Fields around Naples has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. The earliest Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, sailors from the Greek island of Rhodes established a small commercial port called Parthenope on the island of Megaride in the ninth century BC
40.
Mount Vesuvius
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Mount Vesuvius is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about 9 km east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes which form the Campanian volcanic arc, Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera caused by the collapse of an earlier and originally much higher structure. Mount Vesuvius is best known for its eruption in AD79 that led to the burying and destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, more than 1,000 people died in the eruption, but exact numbers are unknown. The only surviving account of the event consists of two letters by Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus. Vesuvius has erupted many times since and is the volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years. Vesuvius has a historic and literary tradition. An inscription from Capua to IOVI VESVVIO indicates that he was worshipped as a power of Jupiter and it was inhabited by bandits, the sons of the Earth, who were giants. With the assistance of the gods he pacified the region and went on, the facts behind the tradition, if any, remain unknown, as does whether Herculaneum was named after it. An epigram by the poet Martial in 88 AD suggests that both Venus, patroness of Pompeii, and Hercules were worshipped in the devastated by the eruption of 79. Mount Vesuvius was regarded by the Romans as being devoted to the hero, Vesuvius was a name of the volcano in frequent use by the authors of the late Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. Its collateral forms were Vesaevus, Vesevus, Vesbius and Vesvius, writers in ancient Greek used Οὐεσούιον or Οὐεσούιος. Many scholars since then have offered an etymology, as peoples of varying ethnicity and language occupied Campania in the Roman Iron Age, the etymology depends to a large degree on the presumption of what language was spoken there at the time. Naples was settled by Greeks, as the name Nea-polis, New City, the Oscans, a native Italic people, lived in the countryside. The Latins also competed for the occupation of Campania, etruscan settlements were in the vicinity. Other peoples of unknown provenance are said to have been there at some time by various ancient authors. Some theories about its origin are, From Greek οὔ = not prefixed to a root from or related to the Greek word σβέννυμι = I quench, from Greek ἕω = I hurl and βίη violence, hurling violence, *vesbia, taking advantage of the collateral form. From an Indo-European root, *eus- < *ewes- < *wes-, shine sense the one who lightens, the Gran Cono was produced during the A. D.79 eruption. For this reason, the volcano is also called Somma-Vesuvius or Somma-Vesuvio, the caldera started forming during an eruption around 17,000 years ago and was enlarged by later paroxysmal eruptions, ending in the one of AD79
41.
Brussels
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Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and an area with a population of over 1.8 million. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an Alpha global city, historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages, Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. The most common theory of the origin of Brussels name is that it derives from the Old Dutch Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning marsh, Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695 when it was still a hamlet. The origin of the settlement that was to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580. The official founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel, Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven gained the County of Brussels around 1000 by marrying Charles daughter, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time, in the 13th century, the city got its first walls. After the construction of the city walls in the early 13th century, to let the city expand, a second set of walls was erected between 1356 and 1383. Today, traces of it can still be seen, mostly because the small ring, Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, who had been heir of the Low Countries since 1506, was declared King of Spain in St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and it was in the Palace complex at Coudenberg that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant. In 1695, during the Nine Years War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery, together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels
42.
July Revolution
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Supporters of the Bourbon would be called Legitimists, and supporters of Louis Philippe Orléanists. On 16 September 1824, Charles X ascended to the throne of France and he was the younger brother of Louis XVIII, who, upon the defeat of Napoleon I, and by agreement of the Allied powers, had been installed as King of France. Both Louis and Charles ruled by right rather than Revolution. Upon the abdication of Napoleon in 1814, continental Europe, the Congress of Vienna met to redraw the continents political map. Another very influential person at the Congress was Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, although France was considered an enemy state, Talleyrand was allowed to attend the Congress because he claimed that he had only cooperated with Napoleon under duress. Talleyrand proposed that Europe be restored to its borders and governments. France returned to its 1789 borders and the House of Bourbon, the Congress however forced Louis to grant the Charte constitutionnelle française, the French Constitution otherwise known as La Charte. This document was the trigger of the July Revolution. On 16 September 1824, after an illness of several months. Therefore, his brother, Charles, aged 66, inherited the throne of France. On 27 September Charles X as he was now known, made his entry into Paris to popular acclaim. But eight months later, the mood of the capital had sharply worsened in its opinion of the new king, the causes of this dramatic shift in public opinion were many, but the main two were, The imposition of the death penalty for anyone profaning the Eucharist. The provisions for financial indemnities for properties confiscated by the 1789 Revolution and these indemnities to be paid to any one, whether noble or non-noble, who had been declared enemies of the Revolution. Critics of the first accused the king and his new ministry of pandering to the Catholic Church, the second matter, that of financial indemnities, was far more opportunistic than the first. But opponents, many of whom were frustrated Bonapartists, began a campaign that Charles X was only proposing this in order to shame those who had not emigrated. Both measures, they claimed, were nothing more than clever subterfuge meant to bring about the destruction of La Charte and this, too, was about to change. On 12 April, propelled by both genuine conviction and the spirit of independence, the Chamber of Deputies roundly rejected the proposal to change the inheritance laws. The popular newspaper Le Constitutionnel pronounced this refusal a victory over the forces of counter-revolutionaries, the popularity of both the Chamber of Peers and the Chamber of Deputies skyrocketed, and the popularity of the king and his ministry dropped
43.
Hector Berlioz
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Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts. Berlioz made significant contributions to the orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works, and he also composed around 50 songs. His influence was critical for the development of Romanticism, especially in composers like Richard Wagner, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss. Hector Berlioz was born in France at La Côte-Saint-André in the département of Isère, Louis was an agnostic, with a liberal outlook, his mother, Marie-Antoinette, was a devout Roman Catholic. He had five siblings in all, three of whom did not survive to adulthood, the other two, Nanci and Adèle, remained close to Berlioz throughout his life. Berlioz was not a prodigy, unlike some other famous composers of the time, he began studying music at age 12, writing small compositions. As a result of his fathers discouragement, he never learned to play the piano and he became proficient at guitar, flageolet and flute. He learned harmony from textbooks alone—he was not formally trained, the majority of his early compositions were romances and chamber pieces. While yet at age twelve, as recalled in his Mémoires, he experienced his first passion for a woman and he also began to visit the Paris Conservatoire library, seeking out scores of Glucks operas and making personal copies of parts of them. He recalled in his Mémoires his first encounter with Luigi Cherubini, Cherubini attempted to throw the impetuous Berlioz out of the library since he was not a formal music student at that time. Berlioz also heard two operas by Gaspare Spontini, a composer who influenced him through their friendship, and whom he later championed when working as a critic, from then on, he devoted himself to composition. He was encouraged in his endeavors by Jean-François Le Sueur, director of the Royal Chapel, in 1823, he wrote his first article—a letter to the journal Le corsaire defending Spontinis La vestale. Despite his parents disapproval, in 1824 he formally abandoned his studies to pursue a career in music. This work was rehearsed and revised after the rehearsal but not performed until the following year, Berlioz later claimed to have burnt the score, but it was re-discovered in 1991. Later that year or in 1825, he began to compose the opera Les francs-juges, the work survives only in fragments, the overture has been much recorded and is sometimes played in concert. In 1826 he began attending the Conservatoire to study composition under Jean-François Le Sueur and he also submitted a fugue to the Prix de Rome, but was eliminated in the primary round. Winning the prize would become an obsession until he won it in 1830
44.
Robert le diable (opera)
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Robert le diable is an opera in five acts composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer from a libretto written by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne. Robert le diable is regarded as one of the first grand operas at the Paris Opéra and it has only a superficial connection to the medieval legend of Robert the Devil. It is a masterpiece. Meyerbeer has made himself immortal. It also had influence on development of the ballet, and was mentioned and discussed in contemporary French literature. Robert continued as a favourite in opera houses all over the world throughout the nineteenth century, after a period of neglect, it began to be revived towards the end of the twentieth century. Giacomo Meyerbeers early studies had been in Germany, but from 1816 to 1825 he worked in Italy, there he studied opera, then dominated by Gioachino Rossini, and wrote his own Italian operas, which were moderately successful and also had some performances in other European countries. Meyerbeer first mentions Robert le diable in his diaries in February 1827, the libretto was fabricated on the basis of old legends about Duke Robert the Magnificent of Normandy, the father of William the Conqueror, alleged in some versions to have been the son of the Devil. The librettists padded out this outline with a variety of melodramatic incidents, the libretto was originally planned as a three-act opéra comique for the Opéra-Comique theatre. Meyerbeer stopped work on the opera in 1827 when the theatre underwent financial difficulties, in August 1829, the composer and librettists agreed to refashion the work in a five-act form to meet the requirements of the Paris Opéra. This entailed some significant rewriting of the storyline, reducing the essentially comic role of Raimbaut and it also meant that the traditional pairing of lovers in opéra comique was swept aside in favour of concentration on the more sensational story-line of Roberts diabolic ancestry. The contract for the opera, specifying it as an opera in five acts and seven scenes, was signed by the then director of the Opéra, Émile Lubbert. Meyerbeer completed the composition of the work in Spa, Belgium in June and its characterisation as a grand opera placed it in succession to Aubers La muette de Portici and Rossinis Guillaume Tell in this new genre. He also rewrote the two major roles of Bertrand and Robert to suit the talents of Nicolas Levasseur and Adolphe Nourrit. The opera premiered on 21 November 1831 at the Paris Opéra, the success owed much to the operas star singers – Levasseur as Bertram, Nourrit as Robert — and to the provocative Ballet of the Nuns in the third act, featuring the great ballerina, Marie Taglioni. The choreography for the ballet was elaborated by the ballerinas father, the audiences prurient delight in this scandalous scene is well conveyed by the reviewer for the Revue des Deux-Mondes, A crowd of mute shades glides through the arches. What a pleasure to see these light women, the set for the ballet was an innovative and striking design by Henri Duponchel and Pierre-Luc-Charles Ciceri. Duponchel had also introduced technical innovations for the staging, including English traps for the appearance and disappearance of the ghosts. Taglioni danced the Abbess only six times in Paris, she was replaced by Louise Fitzjames, at the invitation of Nourrit, Cornélie Falcon made her debut at the age of 18 at the Opéra in the role of Alice on 20 July 1832. Although suffering from stage fright, Falcon managed to sing her first aria without error, on hearing her in the role, Meyerbeer himself declared his opera at last complete
45.
Gustave III (opera)
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Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué is an opéra historique or grand opera in five acts by Daniel Auber, with a libretto by Eugène Scribe. The opera was a success for the composer, with 168 performances until 1853. When the beautiful curtain is raised, you find yourself in an immense ballroom and this salle de bal is overlooked by boxes, these boxes are filled with masks, who play the part of spectrators. At their feet, constantly moving, is the crowd, disguised in every imaginable costume. Harlequins of all fashions, clowns, peddlers, what shall I say, peasants, marquises, princes, monks, I know not what, mingle in one rainbow-hued crowd. It is impossible to describe this madness, this whirl. I, who am so well accustomed to spectacles like this — I, place, Stockholm Time,15 and 16 March 1792 The opera concerns some aspects of the real-life assassination of Gustavus III, King of Sweden. Notes Sources Budden, Julian, The Operas of Verdi, Volume 2, booklet notes to the Bonynge recording listed above Casaglia, Gherardo. 27 Febbraio 1833 at AmadeusOnline, accessed 30 October 2008, clayton, Ellen Creathorne, Queens of Song. Being Memoirs of Some of the Most Celebrated Female Vocalists Who Have Performed on the Lyric Stage from the Earliest Days of Opera to the Present Time,2, pp. 583–584, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie. Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué, libretto, Paris, Librairie de lAcadémie Royale de Musique. Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué, libretto for a performance in Amsterdam on 3 September 1835, oeuvres complètes de M. Eugène Scribe, membre de lAcadémie française, nouvelle édition, tome deuxième. Chroniques de lAcadémie Royale de Musique et du théâtre, à Paris sous les deux restorations, gustave III, Scores at the International Music Score Library Project Visual documentation of the premiere on Gallica
46.
Un ballo in maschera
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Un ballo in maschera is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. However, Sommas libretto was based on the five act libretto which playwright Eugène Scribe had written for Daniel Aubers 1833 opera, Gustave III. Scribe wrote about the assassination in 1792 of King Gustav III of Sweden who was killed as the result of a conspiracy against him. He was shot while attending a masked dance and died 13 days later of his wounds. It was to take two years between the time of the commission from Naples and planned for a production there and its premiere performance at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on 17 February 1859. In order to become the Un ballo in maschera which we know today, Verdis opera was forced to undergo a significant series of transformations and title changes. These changes were caused by a combination of censorship regulations in both Naples and Rome, as well as by the situation in France in January 1858. It became one of the most frustrating experiences of Verdis career, from the mid-20th century, it has become more common for the setting to revert to its original 18th-century Stockholm location. A re-creation of the original Gustavo III has been staged in Sweden, when this proved to be impracticable, Verdi turned to the subject of King Gustav IIIs assassination as portrayed in Scribe and Aubers opera, albeit not an historically accurate narrative. That subject was known and had been used by other composers. Sommas new libretto, known as Gustavo III, was presented to the censors in Naples by late 1857, as had happened with Rigoletto, changes in characters names and titles were proposed and the location was moved from Stockholm to Stettin. Working together with Somma over Christmas, Verdi accommodated these changes, Somma was asked to change the names of the characters on the Gustave libretto while Verdi worked on completing sketches of the music. The name of the opera became Una vendetta in dominò, by 9 January 1858, prior to setting out for Naples, Verdi wrote from his home the San Carlo that the opera is done and even here I am working on the full score. The imposition of further, more stringent requirements by the censor incurred Verdis wrath. He broke his contract, returned to SantAgata in April, and was sued by the management of the San Carlo house and this provoked him to lodge a counter-claim against the theatre for damages and, eventually, the legal fight ended. When the legal issues were resolved within a few months, Verdi was free to present the libretto, there, the censors demanded further changes. Removing the action from Europe, the location became Boston during the British colonial period and the character became Riccardo. At this point, the opera became Un ballo in maschera set in North America, Un ballo in maschera received its premiere performance at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on 17 February 1859 and was immediately successful
47.
Donizetti
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Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, Donizetti was a composer of the bel canto opera style during the first half of the nineteenth century. Donizettis close association with the bel canto style was undoubtedly an influence on composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. Donizetti was born in Bergamo in Lombardy, there he received detailed training in the arts of fugue and counterpoint. Over the course of his career, Donizetti wrote almost 70 operas, in all, Naples presented 51 of Donizettis operas. Before 1830, success came primarily with his operas, the serious ones failing to attract significant audiences. However, his first notable success came with an opera seria, Zoraida di Granata, significant historical dramas did appear and became successful, they included Lucia di Lammermoor given in Naples in 1835, and one of the most successful Neapolitan operas, Roberto Devereux in 1837. Up to that point, all of his operas had been set to Italian libretti, Donizetti found himself increasingly chafing against the censorial limitations which existed in Italy. From about 1836, he interested in working in Paris. The first opera was a French version of the then-unperformed Poliuto which, two new operas were also given in Paris at that time. As the 1840s progressed, Donizetti moved regularly between Naples, Rome, Paris, and Vienna continuing to compose and stage his own operas as well as those of other composers, but from around 1843, severe illness began to take hold and to limit his activities. Eventually, by early 1846 he was obliged to be confined to an institution for the ill and, by late 1847, friends had him moved back to Bergamo. The youngest of three sons, Donizetti was born in 1797 in Bergamos Borgo Canale quarter located just outside the city walls and his family was very poor and had no tradition of music, his father Andrea being the caretaker of the town pawnshop. Simone Mayr, a German composer of internationally successful operas, had become maestro di cappella at Bergamos principal church in 1802, in 1807, Andrea Donizetti attempted to enroll both his sons, but the elder, Giuseppe, was considered too old. He remained there for nine years, until 1815, however, as Donizetti scholar William Ashbrook notes, in 1809 he was threatened with having to leave because his voice was changing. In 1810 he applied for and was accepted by the art school, the Academia Carrara. Then, in 1811, Mayr once again intervened, as Ashbrook states, this was nothing less than Mayrs argument that Donizetti be allowed to continue his musical studies. The piece was performed on 13 September 1811 and included the character stating the following, Ah, by Bacchus
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I Lombardi alla prima crociata
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Its first performance was given at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 11 February 1843. Verdi dedicated the score to Maria Luigia, the Habsburg Duchess of Parma, in 1847, the opera was significantly revised to become Verdis first grand opera for performances in French at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opera under the title of Jérusalem. Julian Buddens analysis of the operas origins notes, In 1843 any subject where Italians were shown united against an enemy was dangerous. However, given Verdis refusal to any changes to the music. 19th century While the premiere performance was a success, critical reactions were less enthusiastic. However, one noted, If created this young mans reputation. Even in the late 1880s, well after Jérusalem had been given and this was the first of Verdis operas to be heard in the United States, at Palmos Opera House, on 3 March 1847 in New York. 20th century and beyond I Lombardi was presented in 1930 at La Scala in Milan as the opening production. The cast included Matteo Manuguerra, Cristina Deutekom, Juan Pons, carlo Bergonzi and Paul Plishka, along with Cristina Deutekom appeared in the San Diego Operas short-lived summer Verdi Festival in June 1979 and it is claimed that this was a West Coast premiere. Over the years, New York audiences have seen the opera presented first by New York City Opera in 1982, I Lombardi was presented at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo in late 2001 with Dimitra Theodossiou in the cast. The Teatro Regio di Parma produced it in January 2009, also as part of a complete Verdi cycle, the Parma performance is preserved on a DVD. Sarasota Operas Verdi Cycle featured the opera during its 2011 season, in March 2013 the UCOpera company gave four performances of I Lombardi in the Bloomsbury Theatre in London. And on 7 April a concert performance was given by the Opera Orchestra of New York with Angela Meade, hamburg State Opera presented a production by David Alden as part of a mini-festival of three Verdi operas in October/November 2013. Pagano, who threatened the life of his brother, has returned from exile. A throng gathers in front of the church of SantAmbrogio to celebrate, Viclinda, now Arvinos wife, and their daughter Giselda are on hand to witness the reconciliation. A crusade to the Holy Land is announced and Arvino is to lead it, Pagano secretly vents his enduring frustration to Pirro, Arvinos squire, he still desires Viclinda. As nuns sing in the background, Pirro and a gang of cut-throats agree to help Pagano take Viclinda for himself, scene 2, The Folco palace Viclinda and Giselda are concerned about Pagano and his supposed reformation. Arvino asks them to watch his father, Lord Folco
