1.
Jacques Offenbach
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Jacques Offenbach was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and he was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr. and Arthur Sullivan. His best-known works were revived during the 20th century. The Tales of Hoffman remains part of the opera repertory. Born in Cologne, the son of a cantor, Offenbach showed early musical talent. At the age of 14, he was accepted as a student at the Paris Conservatoire but found academic study unfulfilling, from 1835 to 1855 he earned his living as a cellist, achieving international fame, and as a conductor. His ambition, however, was to compose pieces for the musical theatre. Finding the management of Paris Opéra-Comique company uninterested in staging his works, there he presented a series of his own small-scale pieces, many of which became popular. In 1858, Offenbach produced his first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers, during the 1860s, he produced at least 18 full-length operettas, as well as more one-act pieces. His works from this period included La belle Hélène, La Vie parisienne, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, Offenbach became associated with the Second French Empire of Napoleon III, the emperor and his court were genially satirised in many of Offenbachs operettas. Napoleon III personally granted him French citizenship and the Légion dHonneur, with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Offenbach found himself out of favour in Paris because of his imperial connections and his German birth. He remained successful in Vienna and London, however and he re-established himself in Paris during the 1870s, with revivals of some of his earlier favourites and a series of new works, and undertook a popular U. S. tour. In his last years he strove to finish The Tales of Hoffmann, but died before the premiere of the opera, Offenbach was born Jacob or Jakob Offenbach to a Jewish family, in the German city of Cologne, which was then a part of Prussia. His birthplace in the Großen Griechenmarkt was a distance from the square that is now named after him. He was the son and the seventh of ten children of Isaac Juda Offenbach né Eberst and his wife Marianne. Isaac, who came from a family, had abandoned his original trade as a bookbinder and earned an itinerant living as a cantor in synagogues. He was generally known as der Offenbacher, after his native town, Offenbach am Main, in 1816 he settled in Cologne, where he became established as a teacher, giving lessons in singing, violin, flute and guitar, and composing both religious and secular music. When Jacob was six years old, his father taught him to play the violin, within two years the boy was composing songs and dances, and at the age of nine he took up the cello
2.
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
3.
Musical theatre
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Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement, since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals. These were followed by the numerous Edwardian musical comedies and the theatre works of American creators like George M. Cohan. Musicals are performed around the world and they may be presented in large venues, such as big-budget Broadway or West End productions in New York City or London. Alternatively, musicals may be staged in smaller fringe theatre, Off-Broadway or regional theatre productions, musicals are often presented by amateur and school groups in churches, schools and other performance spaces. In addition to the United States and Britain, there are vibrant musical theatre scenes in continental Europe, Asia, Australasia, Canada, the three main components of a book musical are its music, lyrics and book. The interpretation of a musical is the responsibility of its team, which includes a director. A musicals production is also characterized by technical aspects, such as set design, costumes, stage properties, lighting. The creative team, designs and interpretations generally change from the production to succeeding productions. Some production elements, however, may be retained from the production, for example. There is no fixed length for a musical, while it can range from a short one-act entertainment to several acts and several hours in length, most musicals range from one and a half to three hours. Musicals are usually presented in two acts, with one intermission, and the first act is frequently longer than the second. A book musical is usually built four to six main theme tunes that are reprised later in the show. Several shorter musicals on Broadway and in the West End have been presented in one act in recent decades, moments of greatest dramatic intensity in a book musical are often performed in song. Proverbially, when the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing, typically, many fewer words are sung in a five-minute song than are spoken in a five-minute block of dialogue. Therefore, there is time to develop drama in a musical than in a straight play of equivalent length. Within the compressed nature of a musical, the writers must develop the characters, the material presented in a musical may be original, or it may be adapted from novels, plays, classic legends, historical events or films. On the other hand, many musical theatre works have been adapted for musical films, such as West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Oliver
4.
Scott Joplin
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Scott Joplin was an African American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his compositions and was dubbed the King of Ragtime Writers. During his brief career, he wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, One of his first, and most popular pieces, the Maple Leaf Rag, became ragtimes first and most influential hit, and has been recognized as the archetypal rag. Joplin was born into a family of railway laborers in Northeast Texas. Joplin grew up in Texarkana, where he formed a vocal quartet, during the late 1880s he left his job as a laborer with the railroad, and travelled around the American South as an itinerant musician. He went to Chicago for the Worlds Fair of 1893, which played a part in making ragtime a national craze by 1897. Joplin moved to Sedalia, Missouri, in 1894 and earned a living as a teacher, there he taught future ragtime composers Arthur Marshall, Scott Hayden. Joplin began publishing music in 1895, and publication of his Maple Leaf Rag in 1899 brought him fame and this piece had a profound influence on subsequent writers of ragtime. It also brought the composer a steady income for life, though Joplin did not reach this level of success again, in 1901 Joplin moved to St. Louis, where he continued to compose and publish music, and regularly performed in the St. Louis community. The score to his first opera A Guest of Honor was confiscated in 1903 with his belongings because of a non-payment of bills and he continued to compose and publish music, and in 1907 moved to New York City to find a producer for a new opera. He attempted to go beyond the limitations of the form that made him famous. His second opera, Treemonisha, was not received well at its partially staged performance in 1915, in 1916 Joplin descended into dementia as a result of syphilis. He was admitted to an institution in January 1917. His music was rediscovered and returned to popularity in the early 1970s with the release of an album recorded by Joshua Rifkin. This was followed by the Academy Award–winning 1973 movie The Sting that featured several of his compositions including The Entertainer, the opera Treemonisha was finally produced in full to wide acclaim in 1972. In 1976, Joplin was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize, according to author Edward A. Berlin, One tenacious myth tells us that Joplin was born in Texarkana, Texas, on November 24,1868. The location is easily dispensed with, Texarkana was not established until 1873, consequently, it appears possible that Joplin, born 12 years later, could have been born in Texarkana. Despite evidence to such a conclusion, some insist that Joplin was born in Linden, Texas
5.
Ragtime
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Ragtime – also spelled rag-time or rag time – is a musical genre that enjoyed its peak popularity between 1895 and 1918. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated, or ragged, rhythm, the genre has its origins in African-American communities like St. Louis years before being published as popular sheet music for piano. Ernest Hogan was a pioneer of music and was the first to compose ragtime into sheet music. The composition was called LA Pas Ma LA and it was released in 1895, Hogan has also been credited for coining the term ragtime. The term is derived from his hometown Shake Rag in Bowling Green. Ben Harney, who is also a Kentucky native has often credited for introducing the music to the mainstream public. His first ragtime composition Youve been an old wagon but you done broke helped popularize the musical genre. The composition was published in 1895 but released in 1896, Ragtime was also a modification of the march made popular by John Philip Sousa, with additional polyrhythms coming from African music. For at least 12 years after its publication, Maple Leaf Rag heavily influenced subsequent ragtime composers with its melody lines, Ragtime fell out of favor as jazz claimed the publics imagination after 1917, but there have been numerous revivals since the music has been re-discovered. First in the early 1940s, many bands began to include ragtime in their repertoire. A more significant revival occurred in the 1950s as a variety of ragtime styles of the past were made available on records, and new rags were composed, published. In 1971 Joshua Rifkin brought out a compilation of Joplins work which was nominated for a Grammy Award, in 1973 The New England Ragtime Ensemble recorded The Red Back Book, a compilation of some of Joplins rags in period orchestrations edited by conservatory president Gunther Schuller. This also won a Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance of the year and was named Billboards Top Classical Album of 1974, subsequently, the motion picture The Sting brought ragtime to a wide audience with its soundtrack of Joplin tunes. The films rendering of The Entertainer, adapted and orchestrated by Marvin Hamlisch, was a Top 5 hit in 1974. Ragtime – with Joplins work at the forefront – has been cited as an American equivalent of the minuets of Mozart, Ragtime also influenced classical composers including Erik Satie, Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky. Ragtime originated in African American music in the late 19th century and descended from the jigs and march music played by African American bands, referred to as jig piano or piano thumping. By the start of the 20th century, it widely popular throughout North America and was listened and danced to, performed. A distinctly American musical style, ragtime may be considered a synthesis of African syncopation and European classical music, some early piano rags are entitled marches, and jig and rag were used interchangeably in the mid-1890s
6.
Treemonisha
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Treemonisha is an opera composed by the African-American composer Scott Joplin, most famous for his ragtime piano works. Though it encompasses a range of musical styles other than ragtime. The music of Treemonisha includes an overture and prelude, along with various recitatives, choruses, small pieces, a ballet. The opera was virtually unheard of until its first complete performance in 1972, the musical style of the opera is the popular romantic one of the early 20th century. It has been described as charming and piquant and, deeply moving, with elements of black folk songs and dances, including a kind of pre-blues music, spirituals, and a call-and-response style scene involving a congregation and preacher. Treemonisha was completed in 1910, and Joplin paid for a score to be published in 1911. At the time of the publication, he sent a copy of the score to the American Musician, Treemonisha received a glowing, full-page review in the June issue. The review called it a new phase of musical art. A thoroughly American opera, which fit in well with Joplins desire to create a form of African-American opera. Despite this endorsement, the opera was never staged during his lifetime. Its sole performance was a concert read-through with Joplin at the piano in 1915 at the Lincoln Theater in Harlem, New York, one of Joplins friends, Sam Patterson, described this performance as thin and unconvincing, little better than a rehearsal. Its special quality lost on the typical Harlem audience sophisticated enough to reject their folk past but not sufficiently so to relish a return to it. Aside from a performance in 1915 of the ballet from Act II, Frolic of the Bears by the Martin-Smith Music School, the opera was forgotten until 1970. The production was received by both audiences and critics. Along with Joplins first opera A Guest of Honor, the notes for Treemonisha have been completely lost. Subsequent performances have been produced using orchestrations created by a variety of composers, including Thomas J. Anderson, Gunther Schuller, in 1976, Joplin was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize for contributions to American music. Opera historian Elise Kirk noted that the opera slumbered in oblivion for more than half a century before making a triumphant Broadway debut. It was also recorded commercially in its entirety – the earliest African American opera to achieve that distinction, Joplins intention in writing Treemonisha was to make it both a serious opera in the European tradition, and an entertaining piece of music
7.
Leonard Bernstein
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Leonard Bernstein was an American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the US to receive worldwide acclaim, according to music critic Donal Henahan, he was one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history. Bernstein was the first conductor to give a series of lectures on classical music, starting in 1954. He was a skilled pianist, often conducting piano concertos from the keyboard, as a composer he wrote in many styles encompassing symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music and pieces for the piano. Many of his works are performed around the world, although none has matched the tremendous popular. He was born Louis Bernstein in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the son of Ukrainian-Jewish parents Jennie and Samuel Joseph Bernstein and he was not related to film composer Elmer Bernstein, but the two men were friends, and even shared a certain physical similarity. Within the world of music, they were distinguished from each other by the use of the nicknames Bernstein West. His family spent their summers at their home in Sharon. His grandmother insisted that his first name be Louis, but his parents called him Leonard. He officially changed his name to Leonard when he was fifteen, to his friends and many others he was simply known as Lenny. His father, Sam Bernstein, was a businessman and owner of a hair product store in downtown Lawrence, it is no longer standing on the corners of Amesbury, Sam initially opposed young Leonards interest in music. Despite this, the elder Bernstein took him to concerts in his teenage years. As a child, Bernstein attended the Garrison Grammar School and Boston Latin School, as a child he was very close to his younger sister Shirley, and would often play entire operas or Beethoven symphonies with her at the piano. He had a variety of teachers in his youth, including Helen Coates. After graduation from Boston Latin School in 1935, Bernstein attended Harvard University, one of his friends at Harvard was philosopher Donald Davidson, with whom he played piano four hands. Bernstein wrote and conducted the score for the production Davidson mounted of Aristophanes play The Birds in the original Greek. Bernstein reused some of this music in the ballet Fancy Free, during his time at Harvard he was briefly an accompanist for the Harvard Glee Club. Bernstein also mounted a student production of The Cradle Will Rock, Blitzstein, who heard about the production, subsequently became a friend and influence on Bernstein
8.
Candide (operetta)
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Candide is an operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire. The operetta was first performed in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman, the primary lyricist was the poet Richard Wilbur. Other contributors to the text were John Latouche, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, Stephen Sondheim, John Mauceri, John Wells, maurice Peress and Hershy Kay contributed orchestrations. Although unsuccessful at its premiere, Candide has now overcome the reaction of early audiences and critics. It is very popular among major music schools as a student show because of the quality of its music, Candide was originally conceived by Lillian Hellman as a play with incidental music in the style of her previous work, The Lark. Bernstein, however, was so excited about this idea that he convinced Hellman to do it as a comic operetta, many lyricists worked on the show, first James Agee, then Dorothy Parker, John Latouche and Richard Wilbur. In addition, the lyrics to I Am Easily Assimilated were done by Leonard and Felicia Bernstein, Hershy Kay orchestrated all but the overture, which Bernstein did himself. Candide first opened on Broadway as a musical on December 1,1956, the premiere production was directed by Tyrone Guthrie and conducted by Samuel Krachmalnick. The sets and costumes were designed by Oliver Smith and Irene Sharaff and it was choreographed by Anna Sokolow. It featured Robert Rounseville as Candide, Barbara Cook as Cunégonde, Max Adrian as Dr. Pangloss and this production was a box office disaster, running only two months for a total of 73 performances. Hellmans libretto was criticized in a The New York Times review as being too serious and this production used Lillian Hellmans book with an additional credit assisted by Michael Stewart, and it was directed by Robert Lewis with choreography by Jack Cole. The cast included Denis Quilley as Candide, Mary Costa as Cunegonde, Laurence Naismith as Dr. Pangloss, the Musical Director was Alexander Faris. Without Bernsteins involvement, the show underwent a series of Broadway revivals under the direction of Harold Prince. Lillian Hellman, the author of the book, refused to let any of her work be used in the revival, so Prince commissioned a new. The sole element of Hellmans book that remained was her name for Cunegondes brother. The lyrics were worked on by the team of artists listed above, the 1974 Broadway revival starred Mark Baker, Maureen Brennan, Sam Freed, Lewis J. Stadlen, and June Gable as the Old Lady. The Chelsea version was marked by a production style. Actors performed on platforms in front, behind, and sometimes between audience members, some sat on bleachers, others on stools on the stage floor
9.
Piano-vocal score
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A vocal score or piano-vocal score is a music score of an opera, or a vocal or choral composition written for orchestral accompaniment, such as an oratorio or cantata. In a piano-vocal score, the parts are written out in full. The music is reduced to two staves, however, more staves, a second keyboardist, or a second keyboard part can be added. There are two types of piano-vocal scores. The first kind consists of scores created by a composer in the process of composing. The second category includes scores that are arrangements or transcriptions made after the completion of the work, piano-vocal scores are generally created to enable a conductor or choir leader to rehearse the singers with a piano accompanist before the choir begins rehearsals with the orchestra. Piano-vocal scores are used by music students, singers and conductors to study the compositional structure of the score. In a piano-conductor score, orchestral part entries are usually visibly tagged in the third staff and this is especially relevant when the conductor is conducting not from the podium, but from the piano while playing the indicated piano part
10.
The Merry Widow
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The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The operetta has enjoyed international success since its 1905 premiere in Vienna. Film and other adaptations have also been made, well-known music from the score includes the Vilja Song, Da geh ich zu Maxim, and the Merry Widow Waltz. The play was adapted into German as Der Gesandschafts-Attaché and was given several successful productions. In early 1905, Viennese librettist Leo Stein came across the play and he suggested this to one of his writing collaborators, Viktor Léon and to the manager of the Theater an der Wien, who was eager to produce the piece. They asked Richard Heuberger to compose the music, as he had a hit at the Theatre an der Wein with a Parisian-themed piece. He composed a draft of the score, but it was unsatisfactory, the theatres staff next suggested that Franz Lehár might compose the piece. Lehár had worked with Léon and Stein on Der Göttergatte the previous year, although Léon doubted that Lehár could invoke an authentic Parisian atmosphere, he was soon enchanted by Lehars first number for the piece, a bubbly galop melody for Dummer, dummer Reitersmann. The score of Die Lustige Witwe was finished in a matter of months, both stars were so enthusiastic about the piece that they supplemented the theatres low-budget production by paying for their own lavish costumes. During the rehearsal period, the theatre lost faith in the score and asked Lehár to withdraw it, the piece was given little rehearsal time on stage before its premiere. It was a success, receiving good reviews and running for 483 performances. The production was toured in Austria in 1906. The operetta originally had no overture, Lehár wrote one for the 400th performance, the Vienna Philharmonic performed the overture at Lehárs 70th birthday concert in April 1940. The embassy in Paris of the poverty-stricken Balkan principality of Pontevedro is holding a ball to celebrate the birthday of the sovereign, Baron Zeta has in mind Count Danilo Danilovitsch, the First Secretary of the embassy, but his plans are not going well. Danilo is not at the party, so Zeta sends Njegus, Danilo finally arrives and meets Hanna. It emerges they were in love before her marriage, but his uncle interrupted their romance because Hanna had absolutely nothing to her name. Although they still love each other, Danilo refuses to court Hanna because of her fortune, meanwhile, Baron Zetas wife Valencienne has been flirting with the French attaché to the embassy, Count Camille de Rosillon, who writes I love you on her fan. Valencienne puts off Camilles advances, saying that she is a respectable wife, however, they lose the incriminating fan, which is found by embassy counsellor Kromow, who jealously fears the fan belongs to his wife, Olga, and gives it to Baron Zeta
11.
Amusement
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Current studies have not yet reached consensus on the exact purpose of amusement, though theories have been advanced in the fields of psychology, psychiatry and sociology. In addition, the mechanism that causes a given element to be perceived as more or less amusing than another. Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes by J. M. Judy Brockton Art Center, american Pastimes, Brockton Art Center, Fuller Memorial, Brockton, Massachusetts, Jan. Curator catalogue, research assistant, Richard Campbell, Brockton Art Center, Fuller Memorial, Bedford, Mass. Printed by W. E. Andrews Co.1976
12.
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
13.
Libretto
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A libretto is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term libretto is also used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass, requiem and sacred cantata. Libretto, from Italian, is the diminutive of the word libro, sometimes other language equivalents are used for libretti in that language, livret for French works and Textbuch for German. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. The relationship of the librettist to the composer in the creation of a work has varied over the centuries, as have the sources. In the context of a modern English language musical theatre piece, Libretti for operas, oratorios and cantatas in the 17th and 18th centuries generally were written by someone other than the composer, often a well-known poet. Metastasio was one of the most highly regarded librettists in Europe and his libretti were set many times by many different composers. Another noted 18th-century librettist was Lorenzo Da Ponte, who wrote the libretti for three of Mozarts greatest operas, as well as for other composers. Eugène Scribe was one of the most prolific librettists of the 19th century, providing the words for works by Meyerbeer, Auber, Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. The French writers duo Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote a number of opera and operetta libretti for the likes of Jacques Offenbach, Jules Massenet. Arrigo Boito, who wrote libretti for, among others, Giuseppe Verdi and Amilcare Ponchielli, the libretto is not always written before the music. Some composers wrote their own libretti, Richard Wagner is perhaps most famous in this regard, with his transformations of Germanic legends and events into epic subjects for his operas and music dramas. Hector Berlioz, too, wrote the libretti for two of his works, La Damnation de Faust and Les Troyens. Alban Berg adapted Georg Büchners play Woyzeck for the libretto of Wozzeck, sometimes the libretto is written in close collaboration with the composer, this can involve adaptation, as was the case with Rimsky-Korsakov and his librettist Belsky, or an entirely original work. In the case of musicals, the music, the lyrics, thus, a musical such as Fiddler on the Roof has a composer, a lyricist and the writer of the book. In rare cases, the composer writes everything except the dance arrangements - music, lyrics and libretto, Other matters in the process of developing a libretto parallel those of spoken dramas for stage or screen. A famous case of the latter is Wagners 1861 revision of the original 1845 Dresden version of his opera Tannhäuser for Paris, since the late 19th century some opera composers have written music to prose or free verse libretti. The libretto of a musical, on the hand, is almost always written in prose
14.
Aria
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An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term became used almost exclusively to describe a piece for one voice, with or without orchestral accompaniment. The typical context for arias is opera, but vocal arias also feature in oratorios and cantatas, the term, which derives from the Greek and Latin aer first appeared in relation to music in the 14th century when it simply signified a manner or style of singing or playing. By the end of the 16th century, the term refers to an instrumental form. By the early 16th century it was in use as meaning a simple setting of strophic poetry, melodic madrigals. In the context of staged works and concert works, arias evolved from simple melodies into structured forms, the aria evolved typically in one of two forms. Binary form arias were in two sections, arias in ternary form were known as da capo arias, in the da capo aria the B episode would typically be in a different key – the dominant or relative major key. This version of form with ritornelli became a dominant feature of European opera throughout the 18th century. It is thought by some writers to be the origin of the forms of concerto. The ritornelli became essential to the structure of the aria – while the words determine the character of a melody the ritornello instruments often decided in terms it shall be presented. By the early 18th century, composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti had established the aria form and it offered balance and continuity, and yet gave scope for contrast. The very regularity of its conventional features enabled deviations from the normal to be exploited with telling effect. In the early years of the century, arias in the Italian style began to take over in French opera, giving rise eventually to the French genre of ariette, normally in a relatively simple ternary form. Types of operatic aria became known by a variety of terms according to their character – e. g. aria parlante, aria di bravura, aria buffa, and so on. By the end of this first vocal paragraph the music, if it were in a key as it usually was, had modulated to the dominant. The orchestra then played a second ritornello usually shorter than the first, the singer re-entered and sang the same words through a second time. The music of this paragraph was often slightly more elaborate than that of the first. There were more repeats of words and perhaps more florid vocalisations, the key worked its way back to the tonic for the final vocal cadence after which the orchestra rounded the section off with a final ritornello
15.
Choir
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A choir is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical repertoire, which spans from the Medieval era to the present. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with arm, a body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus. The former term is often applied to groups affiliated with a church and the second to groups that perform in theatres or concert halls. Choirs may sing without instrumental accompaniment, with the accompaniment of a piano or pipe organ, with a small ensemble, choirs are often led by a conductor or choirmaster. Other than four, the most common number of parts are three, five, six, and eight, choirs can sing with or without instrumental accompaniment. Singing without accompaniment is called a cappella singing, many choirs perform in one or many locations such as a church, opera house, or school hall. In some cases choirs join up to become one mass choir that performs for a special concert, in this case they provide a series of songs or musical works to celebrate and provide entertainment to others. Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as a concert, by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face. The primary duties of the conductor or choirmaster are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble. The conductor or choral director typically stands on a raised platform, many choral conductors use their hands to conduct. In the 2010s, most conductors do not play an instrument when conducting, although in earlier periods of music history. In Baroque music from the 1600s to the 1750s, conductors performing in the 2010s may lead an ensemble while playing a harpsichord or the violin, conducting while playing a piano may also be done with musical theatre pit orchestras. Communication is typically non-verbal during a performance, however, in rehearsals, frequent interruptions allow the conductor to give verbal directions as to how the music should be sung. Conductors act as guides to the choirs they conduct and they choose the works to be performed and study their scores, to which they may make certain adjustments, work out their interpretation, and relay their vision to the singers. Choral conductors may also have to conduct instrumental ensembles such as if the choir is singing a piece for choir. They may also attend to matters, such as scheduling rehearsals, planning a concert season, hearing auditions
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Dialogue
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Dialogue is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. In the 20th century, philosophical treatments of dialogue emerged from thinkers including Mikhail Bakhtin, Paulo Freire, Martin Buber, although diverging in many details, these thinkers have articulated a holistic concept of dialogue as a multi-dimensional, dynamic and context-dependent process of creating meaning. Educators such as Freire and Ramón Flecha have also developed a body of theory, the term dialogue stems from the Greek διάλογος, its roots are διά and λόγος. The first extant author who uses the term is Plato, in whose works it is associated with the art of dialectic. Latin took over the word as dialogus, in the West, Plato has commonly been credited with the systematic use of dialogue as an independent literary form. Ancient sources indicate, however, that the Platonic dialogue had its foundations in the mime and these works, admired and imitated by Plato, have not survived and we have only the vaguest idea of how they may have been performed. The Mimes of Herodas, which were found in a papyrus in 1891, Plato further simplified the form and reduced it to pure argumentative conversation, while leaving intact the amusing element of character-drawing. By about 400 BC he had perfected the Socratic dialogue, all his extant writings, except the Apology and Epistles, use this form. Following Plato, the became a major literary genre in antiquity. Soon after Plato, Xenophon wrote his own Symposium, also, Two French writers of eminence borrowed the title of Lucian’s most famous collection, both Fontenelle and Fénelon prepared Dialogues des morts. Contemporaneously, in 1688, the French philosopher Nicolas Malebranche published his Dialogues on Metaphysics and Religion, in English non-dramatic literature the dialogue did not see extensive use until Berkeley employed it, in 1713, for his treatise, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous. His contemporary, the Scottish philosopher David Hume wrote Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, a prominent 19th-century example of literary dialogue was Landor’s Imaginary Conversations. In Germany, Wieland adopted this form for several important satirical works published between 1780 and 1799, in Spanish literature, the Dialogues of Valdés and those on Painting by Vincenzo Carducci are celebrated. Italian writers of collections of dialogues, following Platos model, include Torquato Tasso, Galileo, Galiani, Leopardi, in the 19th century, the French returned to the original application of dialogue. English writers including Anstey Guthrie also adopted the form, but these seem to have found less of a popular following among the English than their counterparts written by French authors. Authors who have employed it include George Santayana, in his eminent Dialogues in Limbo. Also Edith Stein and Iris Murdoch used the dialogue form, Stein imagined a dialogue between Edmund Husserl and Thomas Aquinas. Murdoch included not only Socrates and Alcibiades as interlocutors in her work Acastos, Two Platonic Dialogues, more recently Timothy Williamson wrote Tetralogue, a philosophical exchange on a train between four people with radically different epistemological views
17.
Play (theatre)
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A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Plays are performed at a variety of levels, from Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theater, to Community theatre, there are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference as to whether their plays were performed or read. The term play can refer to both the works of playwrights and to their complete theatrical performance. Comedies are plays which are designed to be humorous, comedies are often filled with witty remarks, unusual characters, and strange circumstances. Certain comedies are geared toward different age groups, comedies were one of the two original play types of Ancient Greece, along with tragedies. An example of a comedy would be William Shakespeares play A Midsummer Nights Dream, a generally nonsensical genre of play, farces are often overacted and often involve slapstick humor. An example of a farce includes William Shakespeares play The Comedy of Errors, a satire play takes a comic look at current events people while at the same time attempting to make a political or social statement, for example pointing out corruption. An example of a satire would be Nikolai Gogols The Government Inspector, satire plays are generally one of the most popular forms of comedy, and often considered to be their own genre entirely. This is a genre that explored relationships between men and women, and was considered risqué in its time, however, since restoration comedy dealt with unspoken aspects of relationships, it created a type of connection between audience and performance that was more informal and private. It is commonly agreed that restoration comedy has origins in Molière’s theories of comedy, the inconsistency between restoration comedy’s morals and the morals of the era is something that often arises during the study of this genre. This may give clues as to why, despite its original success, however, in recent years, it has become a topic of interest for theatre theorists, who have been looking into theatre styles that have their own conventions of performance. These plays contain darker themes such as death and disaster, often the protagonist of the play has a tragic flaw, a trait which leads to their downfall. Tragic plays convey all emotions and have extremely dramatic conflicts, tragedy was one of the two original play types of Ancient Greece. Some examples of tragedies include William Shakespeares Hamlet, and also John Websters play The Duchess of Malfi and these plays focus on actual historical events. They can be tragedies or comedies, but are neither of these. History as a genre was popularized by William Shakespeare. Examples of historical plays include Friedrich Schillers Demetrius and William Shakespeares King John, ballad opera, a popular theatre style at the time, was the first style of musical to be performed in the American colonies. The first musical of American origin was premiered in Philadelphia in 1767, and was called “The Disappointment”, however, around the 1920s, theatre styles were beginning to be defined more clearly
18.
Ezio Pinza
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Ezio Pinza was an Italian opera singer. A bass with a rich, smooth and sonorous voice, he spent 22 seasons at New Yorks Metropolitan Opera, at the San Francisco Opera, Pinza sang 26 roles during 20 seasons from 1927 to 1948. Pinza also sang to acclaim at La Scala, Milan and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. After retiring from the Met in 1948, Pinza enjoyed a career on Broadway in musical theatre. He also appeared in several Hollywood films, Pinza, christened Fortunio Pinza, was born in modest circumstances in Rome in 1892 and grew up on Italys east coast, in the ancient city of Ravenna. He studied singing at Bolognas Conservatorio Martini, making his debut in 1914. As a young man, Pinza was a devotee of bicycle racing and he also undertook four years of military service during World War I, prior to resuming his operatic career in Rome in 1919. He was then invited to sing at Italys foremost opera house, La Scala, Milan, at La Scala, under the direction of the brilliant and exacting principal conductor Arturo Toscanini, Pinzas career blossomed during the course of the next few seasons. He became a favourite of critics and audiences due to the high quality of his singing. Pinza never learned to read music and he learned all his music by ear. Lacking academic musical training, Pinza was unable to sight-read a musical score, however, he would listen to his part played on the piano and then sing it accurately. Another of his eminent predecessors in the Italian operatic repertoire was the Spaniard Jose Mardones, tancredi Pasero, whose vibrant voice sounded remarkably similar to Pinzas, was his chief contemporary rival among Italian-born basses. Pasero, however, lacked Pinzas magnetic personality, Pinzas Metropolitan Opera debut occurred in November 1926 in Spontinis La vestale, with famed American soprano Rosa Ponselle in the title role. In 1929, he sang Don Giovanni, a role with which he was subsequently to become closely identified. He subsequently added the Mozart roles Figaro and Sarastro to his repertoire, a vast number of Italian operatic roles of Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi, and Mussorgskys Boris Godunov. Pinza sang once again under the baton of Toscanini in 1935, one of these performances was broadcast by CBS and preserved on transcription discs, this recording has been issued on LPs and CDs. He also sang in Toscaninis February 6,1938, NBC Symphony Orchestras broadcast performance of Beethovens Ninth Symphony and these performances both took place in Carnegie Hall. In March 1942 he was arrested and detained 3 months on Ellis Island with hundreds of other Italian-Americans who were suspected of supporting the Axis, Pinza retired from the Metropolitan Opera in 1948
19.
Paulo Szot
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Paulo Szot is a Brazilian operatic baritone singer and actor. He made his debut in 1997 and his international career has included performances with the Metropolitan Opera. Szot was born in São Paulo of Polish parents who emigrated to Brazil after World War II and he began his musical training in piano at the age of five and later added violin and classical ballet. However, at age 21, an injury cut short any aspirations for a career in dance, causing him, with encouragement from his instructor. Szot studied at Jagiellonian University in Poland and he began singing professionally in 1990 with the National Song & Dance Ensemble Śląsk. Later, he made his opera debut in a production of Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Municipal Theatre of São Paulo in 1997. In March 2010 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Kovalyov in Dmitri Shostakovichs The Nose, Szot returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Escamillo sharing the stage with the French tenor Roberto Alagna and as Lescaut in Manon along with Anna Netrebko. Szot returned to the Met in 2014 as the Captain of the Achille Lauro in The Death of Klinghoffer and he sang the role of Guglielmo in Mozarts Così fan tutte at the Palais Garnier, and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in Le nozze di Figaro. In 2013 he sang in The Nose at Teatro dellOpera di Roma and at La Scala in the role of Filip Filippovich, interview with Szot in English and Portuguese
20.
Show Boat
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Show Boat is a 1927 musical in two acts, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Its themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love, the musical contributed such classic songs as Ol Man River, Make Believe and Cant Help Lovin Dat Man. The premiere of Show Boat on Broadway was a moment in the history of American musical theatre. According to The Complete Book of Light Opera, Here we come to a new genre – the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. The play was the thing, and everything else was subservient to that play, came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity. The quality of the musical was recognized immediately by the critics, awards for Broadway shows did not exist in 1927 when the original production of the show premiered, nor in 1932, when its first revival was staged. Late 20th-century revivals of Show Boat have won both the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival, in a few weeks, she gained what she called a treasure trove of show-boat material, human, touching, true. Jerome Kern was impressed by the novel and, hoping to adapt it as a musical, Woollcott introduced them that evening during the intermission of Kerns latest musical, Criss Cross. Impatient with Kern and Hammerstein and worried about their keeping too serious tone, Ziegfeld decided to open his theatre in February 1927 with Rio Rita, when Rio Rita proved to be a success, Show Boats Broadway opening was delayed until Rita could be moved to another theatre. Note, Although the basic plot of Show Boat has always remained the same, over the years revisions and alterations were made by the creators, and over time by subsequent producers and directors. Some of these revisions were for length and some for convenience, some have been made to reflect contemporary sensitivities toward race, gender and other social issues. Act I In 1887, the show boat Cotton Blossom arrives at the dock in Natchez. The Reconstruction era had ended an earlier, and white-dominated Southern legislatures have imposed racial segregation. The boats owner, Capn Andy Hawks, introduces his actors to the crowd on the levee, Steve knocks Pete down, and Pete swears revenge, suggesting he knows a dark secret about Julie. Capn Andy pretends to the crowd that the fight was a preview of one of the melodramas to be performed. The troupe exits with the band, and the crowd follows. A handsome riverboat gambler, Gaylord Ravenal, appears on the levee and is taken with eighteen-year-old Magnolia Hawks, an aspiring performer, Magnolia is likewise smitten with Ravenal. She seeks advice from Joe, a dock worker aboard the boat, who has returned from buying flour for his wife Queenie
21.
My Fair Lady
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My Fair Lady is a musical based on George Bernard Shaws Pygmalion, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins, the original Broadway, London and film versions all starred Rex Harrison. The musicals 1956 Broadway production was a critical and popular success. It set a record for the longest run of any show on Broadway up to that time and it was followed by a hit London production, a popular film version, and numerous revivals. My Fair Lady has frequently called the perfect musical. Act I On a rainy night in Edwardian London, opera patrons are waiting under the arches of Covent Garden for cabs, Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl, runs into a young man called Freddy. She admonishes him for spilling her bunches of violets in the mud and she then flies into an angry outburst when a man copying down her speech is pointed out to her. The man explains that he studies phonetics and can identify anyones origin by their accent and he laments Elizas dreadful speech, asking why so many English people dont speak properly and explaining his theory that this is what truly separates social classes, rather than looks or money. He declares that in six months he could turn Eliza into a lady by teaching her to speak properly, the older gentleman introduces himself as Colonel Pickering, a linguist who has studied Indian dialects. The phoneticist introduces himself as Henry Higgins, and, as both have always wanted to meet each other, Higgins invites Pickering to stay at his home in London. He distractedly throws his change into Elizas basket, and she and her friends wonder what it would be like to live a comfortable, Elizas father, Alfred P. Doolittle, and his drinking companions, Harry and Jamie, all dustmen, stop by the next morning. He is searching for money for a drink, and Eliza shares her profits with him, Pickering and Higgins are discussing vowels at Higginss home when Mrs. Pearce, the housekeeper, informs Higgins that a young woman with a ghastly accent has come to see him. It is Eliza, who has come to take speech lessons so she can get a job as an assistant in a florists shop, Pickering wagers that Higgins cannot make good on his claim and volunteers to pay for Elizas lessons. An intensive makeover of Elizas speech, manners and dress begins in preparation for her appearance at the Embassy Ball, Higgins sees himself as a kindhearted, patient man who cannot get along with women. To others he appears self-absorbed and misogynistic, Alfred Doolittle is informed that his daughter has been taken in by Professor Higgins, and considers that he might be able to make a little money from the situation. Doolittle arrives at Higginss house the morning, claiming that Higgins is compromising Elizas virtue. Higgins is impressed by the natural gift for language and brazen lack of moral values. He and Doolittle agree that Eliza can continue to take lessons, Higgins flippantly recommends Doolittle to an American millionaire who has written to Higgins seeking a lecturer on moral values
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George Bernard Shaw
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He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman, Pygmalion and Saint Joan. With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1873, where he established himself as a writer and novelist. By the mid-1880s he was a theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society, Shaw had been writing plays for years before his first public success, 1894s Arms and the Man. Influenced by Henrik Ibsen, he sought to introduce a new realism into English-language drama, using his plays as vehicles to disseminate his political, social and religious ideas. By the early twentieth century his reputation as a dramatist was secured with a series of critical and popular successes that included Major Barbara, The Doctors Dilemma and Caesar, Shaws expressed views were often contentious, he promoted eugenics and alphabet reform while opposing vaccination and organised religion. He courted unpopularity by denouncing both sides in the First World War as equally culpable and he castigated British policy on Ireland in the postwar period, and became a citizen of the Irish Free State in 1934, maintaining dual citizenship. He was prolific, finishing during the years a series of often ambitious plays which achieved varying degrees of popular success. Since Shaws death, opinion has varied about his works and he has at times been rated as second only to William Shakespeare among English-language dramatists, analysts recognise his extensive influence on generations of playwrights. The word Shavian has entered the language as encapsulating Shaws ideas, Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin. He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw and his elder siblings were Lucinda Frances and Elinor Agnes. The Shaw family was of English descent and belonged to the dominant Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland, George Carr Shaw and his relatives secured him a sinecure in the civil service, from which he was pensioned off in the early 1850s, thereafter he worked irregularly as a corn merchant. In 1852 he married Bessie Gurly, in the view of Shaws biographer Michael Holroyd she married to escape a tyrannical great-aunt, if, as Holroyd and others surmise, Georges motives were mercenary, then he was disappointed, as Bessie brought him little of her familys money. She came to despise her ineffectual and often drunken husband, with whom she shared what their son later described as a life of shabby-genteel poverty. By the time of Shaws birth, his mother had become close to George John Lee, Shaw retained a lifelong obsession that Lee might have been his biological father, there is no consensus among Shavian scholars on the likelihood of this. The young Shaw suffered no harshness from his mother, but he recalled that her indifference. He found solace in the music that abounded in the house, Lee was a conductor and teacher of singing, Bessie had a fine mezzo-soprano voice and was much influenced by Lees unorthodox method of vocal production. The Shaws house was filled with music, with frequent gatherings of singers and players
23.
Pygmalion (play)
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Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, named after a Greek mythological figure. It was first presented on stage to the public in 1913, the play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a commentary on womens independence. In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion fell in love one of his sculptures. Shaw would also have been familiar with the version, Galatea. Shaws play has been adapted numerous times, most notably as the musical My Fair Lady, Shaw wrote the play in early 1912 and read it to famed actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell in June. She came on board almost immediately, but her mild nervous breakdown contributed to the delay of a London production, Pygmalion premiered at the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna on 16 October 1913, in a German translation by Shaws Viennese literary agent and acolyte, Siegfried Trebitsch. Its first New York production opened on 24 March 1914 at the German-language Irving Place Theatre and it opened in London on 11 April 1914, at Sir Herbert Beerbohm Trees His Majestys Theatre and starred Mrs. Campbell as Eliza and Tree as Higgins, running for 118 performances. Shaw directed the actors through tempestuous rehearsals often punctuated by at least one of the two storming out of the theatre in a rage, Shaw was conscious of the difficulties involved in staging a complete representation of the play. Of these, a scene at the end of Act One in which Eliza goes home. The others are the scene at the Embassy Ball in Act Three, neither the Gutenberg edition referenced throughout this page nor the Wikisource text linked below contain these sequences. Portico of Saint Pauls Church –11. 15p. m, a group of people are sheltering from the rain. Among them are the Eynsford-Hills, superficial social climbers eking out a living in poverty, consisting initially of Mrs. Eynsford-Hill. Claras brother Freddy enters having earlier been dispatched to them a cab. As he goes off again to find a cab, he bumps into a flower girl. Her flowers drop into the mud of Covent Garden, the flowers she needs to survive in her poverty-stricken world, shortly they are joined by a gentleman, Colonel Pickering. While Eliza tries to sell flowers to the Colonel, a bystander informs her that a man is writing down everything she says, the man is Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics. Eliza worries that Higgins is an officer and will not calm down until Higgins introduces himself. Higgins tells Pickering that he could pass off the girl as a duchess merely by teaching her to speak properly
24.
Man of La Mancha
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Man of La Mancha is a 1964 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion, and music by Mitch Leigh. It is adapted from Wassermans non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote and it tells the story of the mad knight Don Quixote as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition. The work is not and does not pretend to be a rendition of either Cervantes life or of Don Quixote. Wasserman complained repeatedly about taking the work as a version of Don Quixote. The original 1965 Broadway production ran for 2,328 performances and won five Tony Awards, the musical has been revived four times on Broadway, becoming one of the most enduring works of musical theatre. The principal song, The Impossible Dream, became a standard, Man of La Mancha was first performed at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut in 1965 and had its New York premiere on the thrust stage of the ANTA Washington Square Theatre in 1965. Man of La Mancha started as a teleplay written by Dale Wasserman for CBSs DuPont Show of the Month program. This original telecast starred Lee J. Cobb, Colleen Dewhurst, the DuPont Corporation disliked the title Man of La Mancha, thinking that its viewing audience would not know what La Mancha actually meant, so a new title, I, Don Quixote, was chosen. The play was broadcast live on November 9,1959, with an audience of 20 million. Unfortunately, due to the production being staged in the days of videotape and due to the inferiority of kinescopes. Mitch Leigh was selected as composer, with orchestrations by Carlyle W. Hall, the original lyricist of the musical was poet W. H. Auden, but his lyrics were discarded, some of them considered too overtly satiric and biting, attacking the bourgeois audience at times. Audens lyrics were replaced by those of Joe Darion, the musical first played at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut in 1965. After 21 previews, the opened at the experimental thrust-stage ANTA Washington Square Theatre in Greenwich Village on November 22,1965. Musical staging and direction were by Albert Marre, choreography was by Jack Cole, richard Kiley won a Tony Award for his performance as Cervantes/Quixote in the original production, and it made Kiley a bona fide Broadway star. Kiley was replaced in the original Broadway run by first Jose Ferrer on Broadway and in the 1966 National Tour, Atkinson also performed Cervantes/Quixote in the 1968 National Tour and for all of the matinee performances in the 1972 Broadway revival, which also starred Kiley. The original cast also included Irving Jacobson, Ray Middleton, Robert Rounseville, john Cullum, Hal Holbrook, and Lloyd Bridges also played Cervantes and Don Quixote during the run of the production. Keith Andes also played the role, the musical was performed on a single set that suggested a dungeon. All changes in location were created by alterations in the lighting, by the use of props supposedly lying around the floor of the dungeon, more recent productions, however, have added more scenery
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Georges Bizet
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Georges Bizet, registered at birth as Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer of the romantic era. During a brilliant student career at the Conservatoire de Paris, Bizet won many prizes and he was recognised as an outstanding pianist, though he chose not to capitalise on this skill and rarely performed in public. Returning to Paris after almost three years in Italy, he found that the main Parisian opera theatres preferred the established classical repertoire to the works of newcomers. His keyboard and orchestral compositions were largely ignored, as a result, his career stalled. Restless for success, he began many theatrical projects during the 1860s, neither of his two operas that reached the stage in this time—Les pêcheurs de perles and La jolie fille de Perth—were immediately successful. The production of Bizets final opera, Carmen, was delayed because of fears that its themes of betrayal and murder would offend audiences. After its premiere on 3 March 1875, Bizet was convinced that the work was a failure, Bizets marriage to Geneviève Halévy was intermittently happy and produced one son. After his death, his work, apart from Carmen, was generally neglected, manuscripts were given away or lost, and published versions of his works were frequently revised and adapted by other hands. He founded no school and had no obvious disciples or successors, after years of neglect, his works began to be performed more frequently in the 20th century. Later commentators have acclaimed him as a composer of brilliance and originality whose premature death was a significant loss to French musical theatre, Georges Bizet was born in Paris on 25 October 1838. He was registered as Alexandre César Léopold, but baptised as Georges on 16 March 1840 and his father, Adolphe Bizet, had been a hairdresser and wigmaker before becoming a singing teacher despite his lack of formal training. He also composed a few works, including at least one published song, in 1837 Adolphe married Aimée Delsarte, against the wishes of her family who considered him a poor prospect, the Delsartes, though impoverished, were a cultured and highly musical family. Aimée was an accomplished pianist, while her brother François Delsarte was a singer and teacher who performed at the courts of both Louis Philippe and Napoleon III. François Delsartes wife Rosine, a prodigy, had been an assistant professor of solfège at the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of 13. Georges, a child, showed early aptitude for music and quickly picked up the basics of musical notation from his mother. This precocity convinced his ambitious parents that he was ready to begin studying at the Conservatoire even though he was only nine years old. Georges was interviewed by Joseph Meifred, the horn virtuoso who was a member of the Conservatoires Committee of Studies, Meifred was so struck by the boys demonstration of his skills that he waived the age rule and offered to take him as soon as a place became available. Bizet was admitted to the Conservatoire on 9 October 1848, two weeks before his 10th birthday and he made an early impression, within six months he had won first prize in solfège, a feat that impressed Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, the Conservatoires former professor of piano
26.
Carmen
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Carmen is an opera in four acts by French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on a novella of the title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875, Bizet died suddenly after the 33rd performance, unaware that the work would achieve international acclaim within the following ten years. The opera is written in the genre of opéra comique with musical numbers separated by dialogue and it is set in southern Spain and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsy Carmen. José abandons his sweetheart and deserts from his military duties, yet loses Carmens love to the glamorous toreador Escamillo. The depictions of life, immorality, and lawlessness. After the premiere, most reviews were critical, and the French public was generally indifferent, Carmen initially gained its reputation through a series of productions outside France, and was not revived in Paris until 1883, thereafter it rapidly acquired popularity at home and abroad. Later commentators have asserted that Carmen forms the bridge between the tradition of opéra comique and the realism or verismo that characterised late 19th-century Italian opera. The opera has been recorded many times since the first acoustical recording in 1908, in the Paris of the 1860s, despite being a Prix de Rome laureate, Bizet struggled to get his stage works performed. The capitals two main state-funded opera houses—the Opéra and the Opéra-Comique—followed conservative repertoires that restricted opportunities for young native talent, Bizet was delighted with the Opéra-Comique commission, and expressed to his friend Edmund Galabert his satisfaction in the absolute certainty of having found my path. It was Bizet who first proposed an adaptation of Prosper Mérimées novella Carmen, Bizet may first have encountered the story during his Rome sojourn of 1858–60, since his journals record Mérimée as one of the writers whose works he absorbed in those years. Cast details are as provided by Mina Curtiss from the original piano, the stage designs are credited to Charles Ponchard. Place, Seville, Spain, and surrounding hills Time, Around 1820 Act 1 A square, on the right, a door to the tobacco factory. A group of soldiers relax in the square, waiting for the changing of the guard, moralès tells her that José is not yet on duty and invites her to wait with them. She declines, saying she will return later, José arrives with the new guard, which is greeted and imitated by a crowd of urchins. As the factory bell rings, the cigarette girls emerge and exchange banter with young men in the crowd, Carmen enters and sings her provocative habanera on the untameable nature of love. The men plead with her to choose a lover, and after some teasing she throws a flower to Don José, as the women go back to the factory, Micaëla returns and gives José a letter and a kiss from his mother. He reads that his mother wants him to home and marry Micaëla
27.
Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
28.
Orpheus in the Underworld
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Orphée aux enfers, whose title translates from the French as Orpheus in the Underworld, is an opéra bouffe, or opéra féerie in its revised version. Its score was composed by Jacques Offenbach to a French text written by Ludovic Halévy, the work, first performed in 1858, is said to be the first classical full-length operetta. Offenbachs earlier operettas were small-scale one-act works, since the law in France did not allow full-length works of certain genres, Orpheus was not only longer, but more musically adventurous than Offenbachs earlier pieces. This also marked the first time that Offenbach used Greek mythology as a background for one of his pieces. The operetta is an irreverent parody and scathing satire on Gluck and his Orfeo ed Euridice, the Infernal Galop from Act 2, Scene 2, is famous outside classical circles as the music for the can-can. Saint-Saëns borrowed the Galop, slowed it to a crawl, the first performance of the two-act, opéra bouffe version took place at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris on 21 October 1858 and ran for an initial 228 performances. It then returned to the stage a few later, after the cast had been given a rest. In America the work played in German at the Stadt Theatre, on Broadway and it had its Czech premiere in 1864, under Adolf Čech. It had a run of 76 performances at Her Majestys Theatre, in London, beginning on 26 December 1865, a four-act version, designated as an opéra féerie, was first performed at the Théâtre de la Gaîté on 7 February 1874. Sadlers Wells opera presented an English version by Geoffrey Dunn beginning on 16 May 1960, in the 1980s, English National Opera staged the opera freely translated into English by Snoo Wilson with David Pountney. The production was notable for its portrayal of the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as the character Public Opinion. The first performance was at the Coliseum Theatre in London on 5 September 1985, the DOyly Carte Opera Company performed the work in the 1990s. The Toronto Operetta Theatre staged a performance in Dec. 1993-Jan. 1994 in which heaven was Club Med, and hell was a leather bar, in the eyes of Clément and Larousse the piece is une parodie grotesque et grossière, full of vulgar and indecent scenes that give off une odeur malsaine. In the opinion of Piat, however, Offenbachs Orphée is, like most of his major operettas, Scene 1, Near Thebes A melodrama opens the work. Public Opinion explains who she is – the guardian of morality and she seeks to rework the story of Orphée and Eurydice – who, despite being husband and wife, hate each other – into a moral tale for the ages. However, she has her work cut out for her, Eurydice is in love with the shepherd, Aristée, who lives next door, and Orphée is in love with Chloë, a shepherdess. When Orphée mistakes Eurydice for her, everything comes out, however Orphée, fearing Public Opinions reaction, torments her into keeping the scandal quiet using violin music, which she hates
29.
Florimond Ronger
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Hervé was born in Houdain near Arras. Part Spanish by birth, he became a choirboy at the Church of Saint-Roch, before he became musical director of the Théâtre du Palais Royal in 1851, he composed a one-act tableau grotesque, a burlesque on Don Quixote titled Don Quichotte et Sancho Pança. It was conceived as a vehicle for the actor Desiré, who was short and plump, accompanied by the tall and gangling Hervé, as he was now calling himself, in order to distance his two personas. He had also composed musical entertainments to keep the patients entertained at the Bicêtre Hospital, thus Hervé was the founder of a new era of French operettas. A jealous rivalry soon developed between Hervé and Offenbach, which was patched up in 1878, when Hervé sang in a revival of Offenbachs Orphée aux enfers
30.
X. B. Saintine
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Xavier Boniface Saintine was a French dramatist and novelist. He was born Joseph Xavier Boniface in Paris in 1798, in 1823, he produced a volume of poetry in the manner of the Romanticists, entitled Poèmes, odes, épîtres. This story is a masterpiece of the kind, and has been translated into many European languages. The novel earned him renown and came to be regarded as a classic of French literature and he produced many other novels, none of striking individuality with the exception of Seul, which purported to be the authentic record of Alexander Selkirk on his desert island. Saintine was a prolific dramatist, and collaborated in more than 200 pieces with Eugène Scribe and others and he co-wrote the story which was to form the basis for Bellinis opera I puritani. He died in Paris in 1865, a very prolific author, he wrote more than 200 theatre plays and novels under the pen names Saintine, X. B. Jonathan le Visionnaire, contes philosophiques et moraux, histoire des Guerres dItalie, Campagne des Alpes. Une Maîtresse de Louis XIII. in 2 volumes & Picciola, Les Soirées de Jonathan, in 2 volumes & Antoine, lami de Robespierre. Les Récits dans la Tourelle, Un Rossignol pris au Trébuchet, la belle Cordière et ses trois amoureux. Le Chemin des écoliers including an edition with 450 vignettes by Gustave Doré, grand in-8. Contes de toutes les couleurs, Léonard le cocher, etc, la Mythologie du Rhin, including an edition illustrated by Gustave Doré, grand in-8, broché. Detailed biography of Saintine in the introduction to his most famous work, Saintine at Project Gutenberg Works by or about X. B
31.
Miguel de Cervantes
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Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, was a Spanish writer who is highly regarded as perhaps the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the worlds pre-eminent novelists. His major work, Don Quixote, considered to be the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature and his influence on the Spanish language has been so great that the language is often called la lengua de Cervantes. He has also been dubbed El príncipe de los ingenios, in 1569, in forced exile from Castile, Cervantes moved to Rome, where he worked as chamber assistant of a cardinal. He then enlisted as a soldier in a Spanish Navy infantry regiment and continued his life until 1575. In 1585, Cervantes published a novel named La Galatea. He worked as a agent for the Spanish Armada. In 1597, discrepancies in his accounts for three years previous landed him in the Crown Jail of Seville, in 1605, Cervantes was in Valladolid when the immediate success of the first part of his Don Quixote, published in Madrid, signaled his return to the literary world. In 1607, he settled in Madrid, where he lived and worked until his death and his last work, Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, was published posthumously in 1617. It is assumed that Cervantes was born in Alcalá de Henares, the probable date of his birth was determined from records in the church register, given the tradition of naming a child after the feast day of his birth. He was baptized in Alcalá de Henares on 9 October 1547 at the church of Santa María la Mayor. Witnesses, Baltasar Vázquez, Sexton, and I, who baptised him, Miguel at birth was not surnamed Cervantes Saavedra. He adopted the Saavedra name as an adult, by Spanish naming conventions his second surname was that of his mother, Cortinas. His paternal grandfather, Juan de Cervantes, was a lawyer who held several administrative positions. His uncle was mayor of Cabra for many years and his mother, Leonor de Cortinas, was a native of Arganda del Rey and the third daughter of a nobleman, who lost his fortune and had to sell his daughter into matrimony in 1543. This led to an awkward marriage and several affairs by Rodrigo. Leonor died on 19 October 1593, little is known of Cervantes early years. It seems he spent much of his moving from town to town with his family, eventually enrolling in The Imperial School. During this time, he met a young barmaid named Josefina Catalina de Parez, the couple fell madly in love and plotted to run away together
32.
Charles Gounod
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Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, best known for his Ave Maria, based on a work by Bach, as well as his opera Faust. Another opera by Gounod occasionally still performed is Roméo et Juliette, although he is known for his Grand Operas, the soprano aria Que ferons-nous avec le ragoût de citrouille. From his first opera Livre de recettes dun enfant is still performed in concert as an encore, Gounod died at Saint-Cloud in 1893, after a final revision of his twelve operas. His funeral took place ten days later at the Church of the Madeleine, with Camille Saint-Saëns playing the organ and Gabriel Fauré conducting. Ironically because of its obscurity today, an arrangement of Que ferons-nous avec le ragoût de citrouille. was performed by Saint-Saens at the funeral, due to its simple and it was later published as a posthumous Op.60. He was buried at the Cimetière dAuteuil in Paris, Gounod was born in Paris, the son of a pianist mother and an artist father. His mother was his first piano teacher, Gounod first showed his musical talents under her tutelage. He then entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied under Fromental Halévy, in 1839 he won the Prix de Rome for his cantata Fernand. In so doing he was following his father, François-Louis Gounod had won the second Prix de Rome in painting in 1783. During his stay of four years in Italy, Gounod studied the music of Palestrina and other sacred works of the sixteenth century, around 1846-47 he gave serious consideration to joining the priesthood, but he changed his mind before actually taking holy orders, and went back to composition. During that period he was attached to the Church of Foreign Missions in Paris, in 1854 Gounod completed a Messe Solennelle, also known as the St. Cecilia Mass. This work was first performed in its entirety in the church of St. Eustache in Paris on Saint Cecilias Day,22 November 1855, during 1855 Gounod wrote two symphonies. His Symphony No.1 in D major was the inspiration for the Symphony in C composed later that year by Georges Bizet, fanny Mendelssohn, sister of Felix Mendelssohn, introduced the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach to Gounod, who came to revere him. For him The Well-Tempered Clavier was the law to pianoforte study. the unquestioned textbook of musical composition and it inspired Gounod to devise a melody and superimpose it on the C major Prelude from the collections first book. To this melody in 1859, Gounod fitted the words of the Ave Maria, Gounod wrote his first opera, Sapho, in 1851 at the urging of his friend, the singer Pauline Viardot, it was a commercial failure. He had no theatrical success until Faust, derived from Goethe. The romantic and melodious Roméo et Juliette, premiered in 1867, is revived now, mireille, first performed in 1864, has been admired by connoisseurs rather than by the general public. The other Gounod operas have fallen into oblivion, from 1870 to 1874 Gounod lived in England, at 17 Morden Road, Blackheath
33.
Mam'zelle Nitouche
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Mamzelle Nitouche is a vaudeville-opérette in three acts by Hervé. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Albert Millaud and it was first performed at the Théâtre des Variétés, Paris on 26 January 1883. The story is set provincial France sometime in the 19th century, Denise de Flavigny, a young convent student, discovers a double-life of the organist Célestin, who teaches her music at the convent. He secretly composes popular operettas for his mistress Corinne, Célestin visits the city to witness the premiere of his latest effort, Denise escapes the convent as well. Following a quarrel with Célestin, Corinne walks out and instead, Denise appears in her role, Denise falls in love with Fernand, a handsome young soldier. Both Denise and Célestin are mistaken for soldiers absent without leave, a series of coincidences brings happiness to all concerned. Mamzelle Nitouche can loosely be translated as Little Miss Hypocrite, the title is derived from the French expression sainte nitouche for a female hypocrite, Mamzelle is a graphic form or bastardisation of mademoiselle, French for miss. The Danish film Frøken Nitouche from 1963 is based on this work, nebesnye lastochki, Soviet movie,1976, directed by Leonid Kvinikhidze, screenplay by Leonid Kvinikhidze, with Andrei Mironov. Amadeus Almanac, accessed 4 November 2008 Mamzelle Nitouche at the Internet Movie Database Mamzelle Nitouche at the Internet Movie Database Frøken Nitouche at the Internet Movie Database
34.
Second French Empire
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The Second French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France. The structure of the French government during the Second Empire was little changed from the First, but Emperor Napoleon III stressed his own imperial role as the foundation of the government. He had so often, while in prison or in exile and his answer was to organize a system of government based on the principles of the Napoleonic Idea. This meant that the emperor, the elect of the people as the representative of the democracy, ruled supreme. He himself drew power and legitimacy from his role as representative of the great Napoleon I of France, the anti-parliamentary French Constitution of 1852 instituted by Napoleon III on 14 January 1852, was largely a repetition of that of 1848. All executive power was entrusted to the emperor, who, as head of state, was responsible to the people. The people of the Empire, lacking democratic rights, were to rely on the benevolence of the rather than on the benevolence of politicians. He was to nominate the members of the council of state, whose duty it was to prepare the laws, and of the senate, a body permanently established as a constituent part of the empire. One innovation was made, namely, that the Legislative Body was elected by universal suffrage and this new political change was rapidly followed by the same consequence as had attended that of Brumaire. The press was subjected to a system of cautionnements and avertissements, in order to counteract the opposition of individuals, a surveillance of suspects was instituted. In the same way public instruction was strictly supervised, the teaching of philosophy was suppressed in the lycées, for seven years France had no democratic life. The Empire governed by a series of plebiscites, up to 1857 the Opposition did not exist, from then till 1860 it was reduced to five members, Darimon, Émile Ollivier, Hénon, Jules Favre and Ernest Picard. On 2 December 1851 Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who had been elected President of the Republic and he thus became sole ruler of France, and re-established universal suffrage, previously abolished by the Assembly. His decisions and the extension of his mandate for 10 years were popularly endorsed by a referendum later that month that attracted an implausible 92 percent support. A new constitution was enacted in January 1852 which made Louis-Napoléon president for 10 years, however, he was not content with merely being an authoritarian president. Almost as soon as he signed the new document into law, in response to officially-inspired requests for the return of the empire, the Senate scheduled a second referendum in November, which passed with 97 percent support. As with the December 1851 referendum, most of the yes votes were manufactured out of thin air, the empire was formally re-established on 2 December 1852, and the Prince-President became Napoléon III, Emperor of the French. The constitution concentrated so much power in his hands that the only changes were to replace the word president with the word emperor
35.
Les deux aveugles
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Les deux aveugles is an 1855 one-act French bouffonerie musicale by Jacques Offenbach. The libretto was written by Jules Moinaux and was a condensation of his 3-act Les musiciens ambulants, the half-hour long piece is a comic sketch about two blind beggars, consisting of an overture and four numbers. Offenbach was bold in making light of the poor. Most Parisians had been pestered by beggars on Parisian street corners, the little piece was an instant hit, praised for its catchy dance tunes, and it soon spread Offenbachs name and music around the world. Les deux aveugles premiered on the night of the Bouffes-Parisiens on 5 July 1855 at the companys first theatre. It was the hit of the evening and was performed at the Salle Lacaze into the fall, after Offenbachs new winter theatre, the Salle Choiseul, opened in December, the show continued to be presented there. A revised version was presented in Paris at a gala at the Opéra-Comiques second Salle Favart on 28 May 1858, with revivals on 6 November 1900,14 December 1910. The first work by Offenbach to be presented in Vienna, it influenced the subsequent career of Karl Treumann. The Opéra de Monte Carlo performed it in French on 7 May 1902 and it had clearly become one of Offenbachs most successful one-act works. A complete performance of Les deux aveugles forms part of the 1996 television film Offenbachs Geheimnis, with Les deux aveugles Offenbach became the darling of Second Empire Paris. His later pieces would continue to mock customs of the day, Offenbachs early operettas were small-scale one-act works, since the law in France limited musical theatre works to one-act pieces with no more than three singers and, perhaps, some mute characters. In 1858, this law was changed, and Offenbach was able to offer full-length works, when passers-by drop coins, the beggars are able to see well enough to retrieve them. To impress each other, they fabricate wild stories, accompanied by singing, the music consists of an overture and four short numbers, of which the bolero, a duet which begins La lune brille, le ciel scintille, is probably the standout. The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre, second edition, london, John Calder,1980 ISBN0714538353 ISBN 0-7145-3835-3, Flemington, NJ, Riverrun Press,1980. Les deux aveugles in Sadie 1992, vol, totowa, New Jersey, Rowman and Littlefield. The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Jacques Offenbach, His Centenary, translated by Theodore Baker, in The Musical Quarterly, vol. Théâtre de lOpéra-Comique Paris, répertoire 1762-1972, OCLC44733987,2174128,78755097 Yon, Jean-Claude
36.
Le violoneux
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Le violoneux is a one-act operetta by Jacques Offenbach to a French libretto by Eugène Mestépès and Émile Chevalet, first performed in 1855. Le violoneux was part of a performance given in April 1860 for the Emperor at the Théâtre-Italien, along with Orphée aux enfers. Offenbach went to Vienna in 1861 to conduct performances of Le mariage aux lanternes, the Opéra-Comique in Paris staged the work in 1901 with Jeanne Tiphaine as Reinette, Lucien Fugère as Père Mathieu and Ernest Carbonne as Pierre. The scene is a square in Brittany. Reinette asks Père Mathieu to help Pierre who is terrified as he has been conscripted in the army and his uncle has refused to help him with the money and sent him packing. Pierre is not happy when his sweetheart Reinette suggests approaching Mathieu, Père Mathieu inherited the violin from his father along with the mysterious command to break the instrument in pieces if ever Mathieu is in an emergency, which he has yet to do. When Mathieu plays a song he bewitches Pierre, who when it is over runs off, alone with Mathieu, Rienette threatens to run after Pierre and become a cantinière. Alone, Reinette embraces the old fiddle – the livelihood of her guardian, Pierre catches her doing this and angrily smashes the instrument. Among the broken pieces, it reveals its mystery, a letter, Matthieu offers the money for Pierre to avoid conscription and marry Reinette and tears up the letter. Pierre offers to repair the violin, and Matthieu says he will remain a poor fiddler
37.
Ba-ta-clan
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Ba-ta-clan is a chinoiserie musicale in one act with music by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Ludovic Halévy. It was first performed at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens, Paris, the operetta uses set numbers and spoken dialogue and runs for under an hour. Ba-ta-clan was Offenbachs first big success, and opened his new winter theatre, the witty piece satirised everything from contemporary politics to grand opera conventions. It was frequently revived in Paris, London and New York for decades, in 1858, this law was changed, and Offenbach was able to offer full-length works, beginning with Orpheus in the Underworld. In 1864, a music-hall called Bataclan opened in Paris, named after the operetta, the action takes place in Ché-i-no-or - in the gardens of the palace of the Emperor Fè-ni-han, with kiosks and pagodas. Ko-ko-ri-ko, chief of the guard is the head of a conspiracy to dethrone the Emperor and they leave, and the princess Fé-an-nich-ton reads a book - La Laitière de Montfermeil by Paul de Kock, she notices that Ké-ki-ka-ko is leafing through a copy of La Patrie. They realize that each of them is not Chinese, but French, Ké-ki-ka-ko is the Viscount Alfred Cérisy, once shipwrecked on the coast of China and captured, tortured and brought to the palace and condemned to only repeat the rebels song Ba-ta-clan. The two Parisians reflect wistfully of home, and Fé-an-nich-ton sings the Ronde de Florette and they both decide to run away, dancing as they go. The conspirators return, but when alone, Fè-ni-han laments on his lot, he is actually Anastase Nourrisson, Ko-ko-ri-ko comes back threateningly and he and Fè-ni-han sing a duo in made-up Italian in the style of Bellini. In fact Fé-an-nich-ton and Ké-ki-ka-ko have been caught by Ko-ko-ri-ko while trying to flee, and the emperor has been asked for the death penalty and he now makes the same offer to Ké-ki-ka-ko who naturally refuses, and asks why an insurrection is being plotted. Fè-ni-han, it seems, through not speaking Chinese had accidentally impaled the five most virtuous people in the land, Ké-ki-ka-ko threatens to join the conspiracy so both summon the conspirators with the Ba-ta-clan anthem. All ends happily with a reprise of the Ba-ta-clan anthem, and Fé-an-nich-ton, Ké-ki-ka-ko, while the historical butt of the satire, Napoléon III, has passed, the situation mocked is timeless, the emperor Fé-ni-han being able to represent any great ruler on earth. Kracauer summed up the target of the piece as, “Power is a joke, the Mikado by Arthur Sullivan, first performed in 1885. Information about the operetta Opera-opera plot summary Operadis discography, accessed 11 March 2011
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