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After looking at the vocal chords in action and soprano Simone Kermes having a ball singing Vivaldi last week, this week we'll visit three of the earliest operas that were written within 40 years of each other. And we'll take a look at what's on the radio this weekend, too.
Youtube Clip of the Week
The first opera ever performed is generally regarded to be Jacopo Peri's Dafne, an opera based on Greek legend. The opera was premiered in 1597 but no written music survives for us to know what it sounded like. But there are several surviving operas from around the same period. We'll look at one from Italy, one from England, and one from France.
The earliest surviving operas that are still performed today are those of Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi. His opera L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea) was premiered in 1642 and is the story of a Roman noblewoman, Poppea, who manages to wrap the Emperor Nero around her finger and get him to divorce his wife, execute his advisor Seneca, and marry her so that she will become Empress.
In this movie version of the opera, the role of Nero is sung by a tenor. When the opera premiered, the role would have been sung by a castrato, or a man whose voice was of such exceptional quality as a boy, he would undergo an operation that would prevent his voice and body from changing at puberty. In recent years, roles originally written for castrati are sung by countertenors, or mezzo-sopranos.
We'll see the famous final duet from the opera, Pur ti miro, pur ti godo (I adore you, I embrace you). Poppea has reached her goal and is crowned Empress.
Next we'll see a very famous British opera, and perhaps the most famous English-language opera aria, Dido's Lament from Henry Purcell's 1689 opera Dido and Aeneas. Based on mythological story of Dido, the historical Queen of Carthage, and her romance with Aeneas, a Trojan warrior prince who was the son of mortal man and the goddess Venus. Dido is devastated when Aeneas leaves her and founds the city of Rome.
Purcell wrote this three act, one hour opera for a British girls school. It premiered just 37 years after the debut of Monteverdi's Poppea. How does this opera sound different from that of Monteverdi's? Dido and Aeneas was the most frequently performed British opera until the 20th Century when composer Benjamin Britten began writing opera.
In this filmed version, Dido is sung by the American soprano Maria Ewing, who was highly regarded for her intense dramatic acting. While she began her career as a mezzo-soprano, she started singing soprano roles later in her career.
The French began writing their own operas in their own style. One of the first successful French opera composers was Jean-Baptiste Lully. He had a rather unusual death in that back then there were no conductors. A staff was banged onto the floor to keep time. Lully was striking the staff against the floor and accidentally hit his foot. The resulting injury was so bad, the foot developed a gangrene infection and the composer died.
Lully was born in Italy as Giovanni Battista di Lulli. He came to Paris to work in the court of King Louis XVI as a dancer, but then became an important composer. Dance was so important to the French, they made sure there was dance in their operas. The dances were sometimes known as divertissements.
Another neat feature of the early French operas was their use of a prologue. Prologues were like mini-operas that would focus on the themes featured in the opera proper but would have a completely different set of characters. We'll see a portion of the Prologue from a highly acclaimed production of Lully's 1676 opera Atys from Les Arts Florissants. The producers attempted to recreate what operas looked like in the late 17th century and use period instruments, costumes, and sets. It's a fascinating look into the arts and culture of the time.
Opera on the Radio this weekend
This weekend WRTI, 90.1 FM features Richard Wagner's legendary opera Tristan und Isolde in a performance taped live from the Lyric Opera of Chicago. It stars Deborah Voigt and Clifton Forbis. Don't forget to tune in on Saturday at 12:30 PM, or click here to listen to WRTI on your computer!
Don't forget to invite your friends to sign up to receive these alerts by emailing their name, school, and age to us at outreach@operaphila.org. Again, if you have suggestions of things you'd like to see, please let me know and I'll find a few clips as well.
Until next week...
After looking at the vocal chords in action and soprano Simone Kermes having a ball singing Vivaldi last week, this week we'll visit three of the earliest operas that were written within 40 years of each other. And we'll take a look at what's on the radio this weekend, too.
Youtube Clip of the Week
The first opera ever performed is generally regarded to be Jacopo Peri's Dafne, an opera based on Greek legend. The opera was premiered in 1597 but no written music survives for us to know what it sounded like. But there are several surviving operas from around the same period. We'll look at one from Italy, one from England, and one from France.
The earliest surviving operas that are still performed today are those of Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi. His opera L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea) was premiered in 1642 and is the story of a Roman noblewoman, Poppea, who manages to wrap the Emperor Nero around her finger and get him to divorce his wife, execute his advisor Seneca, and marry her so that she will become Empress.
In this movie version of the opera, the role of Nero is sung by a tenor. When the opera premiered, the role would have been sung by a castrato, or a man whose voice was of such exceptional quality as a boy, he would undergo an operation that would prevent his voice and body from changing at puberty. In recent years, roles originally written for castrati are sung by countertenors, or mezzo-sopranos.
We'll see the famous final duet from the opera, Pur ti miro, pur ti godo (I adore you, I embrace you). Poppea has reached her goal and is crowned Empress.
Next we'll see a very famous British opera, and perhaps the most famous English-language opera aria, Dido's Lament from Henry Purcell's 1689 opera Dido and Aeneas. Based on mythological story of Dido, the historical Queen of Carthage, and her romance with Aeneas, a Trojan warrior prince who was the son of mortal man and the goddess Venus. Dido is devastated when Aeneas leaves her and founds the city of Rome.
Purcell wrote this three act, one hour opera for a British girls school. It premiered just 37 years after the debut of Monteverdi's Poppea. How does this opera sound different from that of Monteverdi's? Dido and Aeneas was the most frequently performed British opera until the 20th Century when composer Benjamin Britten began writing opera.
In this filmed version, Dido is sung by the American soprano Maria Ewing, who was highly regarded for her intense dramatic acting. While she began her career as a mezzo-soprano, she started singing soprano roles later in her career.
The French began writing their own operas in their own style. One of the first successful French opera composers was Jean-Baptiste Lully. He had a rather unusual death in that back then there were no conductors. A staff was banged onto the floor to keep time. Lully was striking the staff against the floor and accidentally hit his foot. The resulting injury was so bad, the foot developed a gangrene infection and the composer died.
Lully was born in Italy as Giovanni Battista di Lulli. He came to Paris to work in the court of King Louis XVI as a dancer, but then became an important composer. Dance was so important to the French, they made sure there was dance in their operas. The dances were sometimes known as divertissements.
Another neat feature of the early French operas was their use of a prologue. Prologues were like mini-operas that would focus on the themes featured in the opera proper but would have a completely different set of characters. We'll see a portion of the Prologue from a highly acclaimed production of Lully's 1676 opera Atys from Les Arts Florissants. The producers attempted to recreate what operas looked like in the late 17th century and use period instruments, costumes, and sets. It's a fascinating look into the arts and culture of the time.
Opera on the Radio this weekend
This weekend WRTI, 90.1 FM features Richard Wagner's legendary opera Tristan und Isolde in a performance taped live from the Lyric Opera of Chicago. It stars Deborah Voigt and Clifton Forbis. Don't forget to tune in on Saturday at 12:30 PM, or click here to listen to WRTI on your computer!
Don't forget to invite your friends to sign up to receive these alerts by emailing their name, school, and age to us at outreach@operaphila.org. Again, if you have suggestions of things you'd like to see, please let me know and I'll find a few clips as well.
Until next week...
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