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Last week we looked at music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This week, the opera timeline progresses with excertps from Beethoven's only opera, one of Rossini's comic masterpieces, and the dawn of the Germanic romatic age.
Beethoven's Fidelio
Ludwig van Beethoven had long wanted to write an opera, and despite a few tries at it, didn't complete his first and only opera, Fidelio, until 1805. The opera was based on a French text by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used an opera by another composer. It is supposedly based on a true story of a woman disguised herself as a man to rescue her husband from death in a political prison during the French Revolution.
The themes of freedom and the common man resonated with Beethoven. The Age of Enlightenment was an era culminating with the French Revolution (1789) in which people started to rethink the roles of the aristocracy and of class. It expanded people's thinking about equality and power.
The opera's premiere in Vienna was not a success. At the time, the city was under French military occupation and the majority of the people in the audience were French military officers. The opera's themes of freedom from oppression probably did not go over too well with the French!
Beethoven tinkered with the opera twice, arriving at its finalized version in 1814. It was deemed a masterpiece.
In this excerpt we'll see the scene when Leonore, disguised as the jailer Fidelio, finds her husband in the dungeon and saves his life, just as he is about to me murdered by the corrupt prison warden, Don Pizarro. This is a film version of a stage production from the Vienna State Opera with legendary American conductor Leonard Bernstein leading the performance.
Rossini's La cenerentola
Premiered just three years after the final version of Beethoven's Fidelio, Gioachino Rossini championing the bel canto style of writing with elegant vocal fireworks lots of opportunity for singers to strut their vocal stuff.
In La cenerentola Rossini turned to the centuries old fairy tale of Cinderella. The opera is rather different from what we know from the Walt Disney movie: there is an ornery step father rather than a wicked step mother and because customs of the time thought that it was immoral for a woman to show her ankle in public, a sparkling bracelet was used instead of a glass slipper.
In this scene, Prince Charming has just arrived at Cinderella's home. Recognizing the sparkly bracelet on her wrist, he knows that she is the woman with whom he fell in love the night before at his ball. Cinderella's step father is dumbfounded and sinks into his chair.
Rossini takes a moment to have fun with language, particularly the classic rolled "r" in Italian. Listen for the exaggerated "r" in words like gruppo, rintrecciato, sgruppa, raggruppa, and arresta.
This enchanting performance is also a filmed version of the opera. It comes from the famed La Scala opera house in Milan and stars American mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade as Cinderella.
Weber' s Der Freischütz
German composer Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) is thought to have been one of the important composers of German Romantic opera. He bridged the gap in between Beethoven (1770-1827) and Richard Wagner (1813-1883).
He's mostly remembered for his opera Der Freischütz, a dark fairy tale about a Max, a man who is persuaded by an evil man, Kaspar, to use bullets that have been tainted by black magic to win a shooting contest. Kaspar sold his soul to the devil and he hopes that if Max uses the diabolic bullets he can persuade the devil to take Max instead.
In this excerpt from a concert performance, we'll here bass Ben Wager, from Havertown, PA, sing Kaspar's fiendish aria "Schweig, schweig, damit dich niemand warnt!" (Hush, hush, that none may warn you!) in which Kaspar summons the help of demons so that Max will use the evil bullets.
Opera on the Radio this weekend
This weekend WRTI, 90.1 FM features Walter Braunfels' extremely rare opera Die Vogel or The Birds in a performance taped live from the Los Angeles Opera. Check out the youtube clip below for a preview of the opera.
The opera stars Italian coloratura soprano Désirée Rancatore and up-and-coming American tenor Brandon Jovanovich. Don't forget to tune in on Saturday at 1:00 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...
Last week we looked at music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This week, the opera timeline progresses with excertps from Beethoven's only opera, one of Rossini's comic masterpieces, and the dawn of the Germanic romatic age.
Beethoven's Fidelio
Ludwig van Beethoven had long wanted to write an opera, and despite a few tries at it, didn't complete his first and only opera, Fidelio, until 1805. The opera was based on a French text by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used an opera by another composer. It is supposedly based on a true story of a woman disguised herself as a man to rescue her husband from death in a political prison during the French Revolution.
The themes of freedom and the common man resonated with Beethoven. The Age of Enlightenment was an era culminating with the French Revolution (1789) in which people started to rethink the roles of the aristocracy and of class. It expanded people's thinking about equality and power.
The opera's premiere in Vienna was not a success. At the time, the city was under French military occupation and the majority of the people in the audience were French military officers. The opera's themes of freedom from oppression probably did not go over too well with the French!
Beethoven tinkered with the opera twice, arriving at its finalized version in 1814. It was deemed a masterpiece.
In this excerpt we'll see the scene when Leonore, disguised as the jailer Fidelio, finds her husband in the dungeon and saves his life, just as he is about to me murdered by the corrupt prison warden, Don Pizarro. This is a film version of a stage production from the Vienna State Opera with legendary American conductor Leonard Bernstein leading the performance.
Rossini's La cenerentola
Premiered just three years after the final version of Beethoven's Fidelio, Gioachino Rossini championing the bel canto style of writing with elegant vocal fireworks lots of opportunity for singers to strut their vocal stuff.
In La cenerentola Rossini turned to the centuries old fairy tale of Cinderella. The opera is rather different from what we know from the Walt Disney movie: there is an ornery step father rather than a wicked step mother and because customs of the time thought that it was immoral for a woman to show her ankle in public, a sparkling bracelet was used instead of a glass slipper.
In this scene, Prince Charming has just arrived at Cinderella's home. Recognizing the sparkly bracelet on her wrist, he knows that she is the woman with whom he fell in love the night before at his ball. Cinderella's step father is dumbfounded and sinks into his chair.
Rossini takes a moment to have fun with language, particularly the classic rolled "r" in Italian. Listen for the exaggerated "r" in words like gruppo, rintrecciato, sgruppa, raggruppa, and arresta.
This enchanting performance is also a filmed version of the opera. It comes from the famed La Scala opera house in Milan and stars American mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade as Cinderella.
Weber' s Der Freischütz
German composer Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) is thought to have been one of the important composers of German Romantic opera. He bridged the gap in between Beethoven (1770-1827) and Richard Wagner (1813-1883).
He's mostly remembered for his opera Der Freischütz, a dark fairy tale about a Max, a man who is persuaded by an evil man, Kaspar, to use bullets that have been tainted by black magic to win a shooting contest. Kaspar sold his soul to the devil and he hopes that if Max uses the diabolic bullets he can persuade the devil to take Max instead.
In this excerpt from a concert performance, we'll here bass Ben Wager, from Havertown, PA, sing Kaspar's fiendish aria "Schweig, schweig, damit dich niemand warnt!" (Hush, hush, that none may warn you!) in which Kaspar summons the help of demons so that Max will use the evil bullets.
Opera on the Radio this weekend
This weekend WRTI, 90.1 FM features Walter Braunfels' extremely rare opera Die Vogel or The Birds in a performance taped live from the Los Angeles Opera. Check out the youtube clip below for a preview of the opera.
The opera stars Italian coloratura soprano Désirée Rancatore and up-and-coming American tenor Brandon Jovanovich. Don't forget to tune in on Saturday at 1:00 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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