Lohengrin stands as a pivotal work in the career of Richard Wagner. In terms of its structure and approach, it is usually grouped at the end of his early operas; at the same time, it demonstrates many of the ideas and techniques that would achieve full fruition in his later music dramas.The story is set […]
12
okt
okt
The libretto for Giuseppe Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’ was adapted by Francesco Maria Piave from Victor Hugo’s play Le roi s’amuse which was so controversial it had been banned in Paris after one performance. It is still recognised as one of Verdi’s finest scores. The opening of the final act contains two of the most famous pieces […]
Italian/English. Translated by Ducloux.
Ruggiero Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci was his first opera to be performed. The text, by the composer, is based on one of the cases encountered by Leoncavallo’s father, a police magistrate in Naples. The actual case concerned a middle-aged actor who murdered his unfaithful wife. Leoncavallo sets his sordid subject matter to melodic material of high […]
12
okt
okt
The 1815 masterpiece ‘Il Barbiere Di Siviglia’ is widely considered the greatest of comic operas. The libretto of ‘The Barber of Seville’ was adapted by Cesore Sterbini from the first of a trilogy of plays by the French dramatist Beaumarchais, considered highly subversive for their depiction of nobility as buffoons dependant on and manipulated by […]