Sylvia Plath

Writers Datebook: October 27

 

Famous American Writer of Modern Women's Movement, Poet & Novelist

Brief biography of famous American Poet and Novelist Sylvia Plath – her life and works - still shrouded with controversy due to her suicide at young age of 30.

Sylvia Plath, born in Boston, Massachussetts on October 27, 1932, was a renowned American poet whose brilliant career was cut short by her tragic suicide, February 11, 1963, aged 30. Nearly 20 years after her death, in 1982, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her Collected Poems.

Plath's father, a German immigrant and biology professor, died when she was eight. She was close to her father as evident in her poetry. Her mother was a secondary school teacher. From an early age, Plath had a drive to achieve. After the trauma of her father's death, she published her first poem. By the time she was 18, she had published poetry and stories, and won a scholarship to Smith College.

While still at Smith College, she had bout with depression, and had a mental breakdown which became the subject of her autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar. Despite her illness, she returned to Smith and graduated with honours, then went to Cambridge University on a Fulbright Fellowship. At Cambridge, she met and married the English poet, Ted Hughes. Plath retained her maiden name.

The couple lived briefly in the US after graduating from Cambridge, and taught at Smith. At age 28, she gave birth to a daughter and also published her poetry collection, The Colossus. The same year, they returned to England and she had a son two years later.

Georges Bizet

Classical Music Composer's Datebook: October 25

French Composer famous for songs 'Habanera' and 'The Toreador's Song' from Opera Carmen

 

Georges Bizet's brief biography – his life and works. Best known for his masterpiece 'Carmen,' one of best-loved opera consistently performed.          

 

French composer Georges Bizet (1838-1875) is best celebrated for his masterpiece Carmen, popular to this day. Bizet, born in Paris on October 25 1838, was trained by his parents who were musical, his father a pianist and a voice teacher.

He was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire before his 10th birthday. There he studied counterpoint with Zimmerman and Gounod and composition with Halevy. Under Marmontel’s tuition he became a brilliant pianist. In particular, Halevy (composer of La Juive) and Gounod (composer of Faust) had strong influence on his career.

His exceptional strengths as a composer were apparent from his conservatory years, especially his Symphony in C (1855). This was followed by his operetta, Le Docteur Miracle (The Miracle Doctor), the start of his operatic career.

During his three years in Rome, Bizet started many compositions but shortly after his return to Paris, in September 1861, his mother died. He was devastated and consoled himself with his parents’ maid by whom he had a son.

Bizet lived Paris during a time when opera in Paris was at its height, with almost all 19^th-century opera composers including Wagner and Verdi, wanted to perform their works in Paris Opéra.  

In 1863, he produced the opera Les pecheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers).

With more abortive works and his quinsy, the year 1868 was a crisis for Bizet. It was also during this time that he re-examined his religious beliefs. He was convinced that in Djamileh he had found his true path.

He produced the incidental music and his most popular orchestral work L’Arlesienne (The Girl from Arles), followed by his operatic masterpiece Carmen in 1874. From Carmen's inspiration, he reached new levels in his depiction of musical character and atmosphere. However, his Carmen was condemned for its ‘obscene’ libretto, and the music was criticized as undistinguished, obscure, and without taste. This reception left Georges Bizet devastated, acutely depressed. He fell victim to another attack of quinsy, and with two heart attacks from which he died on 3rd of June 1875, in Bougival.

Sadly, Georges Bizet never knew the success of his masterpiece Carmen, as his death occurred exactly three months after its world premiere, 3rd of March 1875. Only then was his true stature appreciated.  

 

George Bizet's Major Works:

1855  Symphony in C 

1856  Operetta, Le Docteur Miracle ('The Miracle Doctor')  

1863  Opera, Les pecheurs de perles ('The Pearl Fishers') 

1866  Opera, La jolie fille de Perth, based on the novel by Sir Walter Scott 

1871  Opera, Djamileh  

1871  Jeux d'enfants for piano duet, orchestrated as 'Petite Suite'  

1872  Incidental music to Alphonse Daudet's play L'Arlésienne Suites 1 & 2 ('The Girl from Arles')  

1875  Opera in four acts, Carmen.

 

Suggested CD:

Carmen, Erato 2292-45207-2. J. Migenes (Carmen) and P. Domingo (Don José)

Image Credit:

Georges Bizet. Public Domain.

Resources: 

Georges Bizet. en.wikipedia.org. 

Sadie, Stanley, Ed. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2^nd Ed. London: Macmillan Publihsers. 2000.

Note:  I published my original article for www.suite101.com in 2007 prior this amended piece. / Tel   

 

(c) September 2007. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Beethoven Opera Fidelio

 Classical Music / Opera

Ludwig van Beethoven's Only Opera, in Two Acts

 

Fidelio, the only opera by Ludwig van Beethoven: opera plot synopsis, character description, and other Beethoven opera information.

Opera: Fidelio  

Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Libretto: Joseph F. Sonnleithner based on a libretto by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, later, revised by G.F. Treitschke. Also revised by Beethoven with premieres on March 29, 1806 and May 23, 1814. The work has a long and complicated history of composition. It went through three versions during Beethoven's career. However, there are four versions of the overture.  The composer spent more time writing the overture to Fidelio than Rossini and Donizetti spent on an entire opera, overture included. Beethoven wrote a total of four overtures to this, his only opera.

Language: German

First performance: Vienna, Theater an der Wien, November 20, 1805. Final version performed at the Theater am Karnthnertor, Vienna, May 23, 1814. 

Setting: 18^th century Spain, a fortress near Seville.  

Opera in Two Acts.

For all of Beethoven's many works including symphonies, concertos, chamber music and songs, the master only produced one opera, Fidelio.  

The plot of Fidelio is simple: love triumphs over injustice, in particular, marital love. By this time he was writing this, Beethoven was beset with hearing problems and eventually deafness.

Fidelio carries Beethoven's musical signature, a powerful orchestration, and therefore requires equally powerful vocalists to blend with the orchestra. Fidelio exhudes that glorious music displayed both in the exquisite aria opening, for example, by Florestan in Act 2 in his dark solitary dungeon, as well as the prisoners' chorus at the end of Act 1.   

Enjoy this video I found from YouTube. Leonard Bernstein conducts the Vienna State Opera, with Gundula Janowitz and Lucia Popp singing. Directed by Otto Schenk. Uploaded by Stanley Chang. Accessed 23 May 2021.  

The Characters / Roles in Fidelio

Florestan, A Spanish nobleman (tenor)

Leonore / Fidelio, His wife, in disguise as Fidelio  (soprano)

Don Pizarro, Governor  (bass baritone)

Rocco, The jailer (bass)

Marzelline, Rocco's daughter (soprano)

Jaquino, The porter (tenor)

Don Fernando, The Minister  (bass)

 

Plot Summary / Synopsis of Fidelio 

Act 1.

Scene 1. A room in Rocco's jail quarters

The jailer's daughter Marcelline, loves Fidelio and ignores the advances of the porter Jaquino. Fidelio is the poor young man hired by her father as an assistant. What Marcelline does not suspect is that Fidelio is really Leonora, a woman in disguise, who came out in search for her husband Florestan. Rocco the jailer is most impressed with Fidelio and plans to offer him his daughter Marcelline. Fidelio/Leonora persuades Rocco to let her help him with his work in prison. Meanwhile, Rocco tells them about a mysterious political prisoner whom he has been starving on the orders of overseer Don Pizarro. This mysterious prisoner is none other than Florestan.

Scene 2. The courtyard of a state prison

Pizarro has wrongly imprisoned Florestan and plots to murder him. He is worried when he learns that the minister Fernando is coming. When Rocco refuses to kill Florestan,  Pizarro decides to do it himself. Marcelline and Leonora persuade Rocco to let the prisoners go out for a walk. Pizarro arrives, furious at Rocco's lenient treatment of the prisoners.

Act 2.

Scene 1: Florestan's dark dungeon

Leonora still disguised as Fidelio, has come to find Florestan. When Rocco and Fidelio/Leonora enter Florestan's cell and dig out an old well for a makeshift grave, Leonora immediately recognizes Florestan. She and Rocco give him food and reveal that Pizarro is the overseer of the jail. When Pizarro tries to stab Florestan, Leonora reveals her identity and draws a pistol. Pizarro rushes out and husband and wife embrace.

Scene 2: On the ramparts before the castle

The prisoners and guards are jubilant and hail Don Fernando's arrival and their liberation. The minister is surprised and pleased to learn that Florestan is alive. Upon learning from Rocco what has happened, Fernando frees Florestan and has Pizzaro arrested. All hail Leonora's courage and devotion.

 

Resources:

Martin, Nicholas Ivor. The Da Capo Opera Manual . Da Capo Press (1997)

Riding, Alan & Leslie Dunton-Downer, DK (2006)

 

© October, 2007. Updated May 23, 2021. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Gustave Flaubert

Literature / Writers Datebook: December 12

 

French writer, a Realist novelist, famous for Madame Bovary

 

Brief biography of French novelist Gustave Flaubert, his life and major books. He is considered one of the greatest and most influential novelists in his time.

 

A son of a doctor, French novelist Gustave Flaubert (1821-80), was born in Rouen, near Paris on December 12. His was a highly respected middle-class family of doctors.  

He was known to rebel against his background and was expelled from school. He reluctantly studied law in Paris, where his friendship with Victor Hugo, Maxime du Camp, and the poet Louise Colet, his lover for some eight years, stimulated his considerable apparent talent for writing.

When barely past his student days he was afflicted by an obscure form of nervous disease, something like epilepsy. Some critics think that this may have been to some extent responsible for the morbidity and pessimism which characterized his work from the very beginning. These traits, together with a violent hatred and contempt for bourgeois society, are revealed in his first masterpiece, Madame Bovary (1857), English translation 1881).

After contracting the disease, he failed his law exams. His father bought him a house on the River Seine, in Croisset. Here, he settled to write. At 25, following the death of his father and sister, his mother and niece joined him.  

As a writer, Gustave Flaubert was a perfectionist who constantly revised his manuscripts until he got them right. 

 Madame Bovary is a painful but powerful tragedy of a bored and unhappy bourgeois housewife who lived in a small French town. She seeks solace in dreams of ideal love, and miserable affairs. The book achieved a scandalous nevertheless successful, after it had been condemned as immoral and Flaubert prosecuted, therefore unsuccessfully, but to this day Madame Bovary holds its place among the classics. His second work, Salammbo, dealt with the struggle between Rome and Carthage and is over-weighed with archaeological detail.

L'Education sentimentale (Sentimental Education) was less effective, but in 1874 appeared the splendid LaTentation de St Antoine (The Temptation of St Anthony) appeared, the masterpiece of its kind.  Trois contes (Stories or Tales) reveals his mastery of the short story and foreshadows Guy de Maupassant, whom he greatly influenced.

After his death appeared Bouvard et Pecuchet (Bouvard and Pecuchet), which had not received his final revision. His correspondence with George Sand was published in 1884.

Although he became very bitter with life, he brought a new awareness of structure and form to the novel. Gustave Flaubert died, aged 58. 

 

Books by Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary 1857

Salammbo 1862

A Sentimental Education 1869

The Temptation of Saint Antoine 1874

Three Tales 1877

Bouvard and Pecuchet 1881 (Published after he died)

 

Image Credit:

Gustav Flaubert. NNDB / Public Domain.

 

Resources:

Cambridge Guide to Literature in English by Ian Ousby.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring. Larousse Kingfisher Publishing,  1994.

Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org

 

(c) September 2007. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserrved.   

Luciano Pavarotti

Opera / Performers / Operatic Tenor

Italian Opera Singer, a Tenor Divo of the Late 20^th Century  

Luciano Pavarotti, the world's most celebrated tenor of all time passes away today. This is a tribute to his life, his voice and his performances that endeared him to millions worldwide.

Acclaimed opera singer, great artist, extraordinary voice

By Tel Asiado, Sept 7, 2007

Legendary Italian operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti, takes a final bow yesterday in his home in Modena, Italy. At 71, he died of pancreatic cancer.

The son of a baker, Pavarotti was born Oct. 12, 1935, in Modena. Pavarotti showed more interest in soccer, but fond of listening to his father's recordings of tenor greats like Beniamino Gigli and Giuseppe Di Stefano, his favorite. In his teens, Pavarotti joined his amateur singer tenor father in the church choir and local opera chorus. He was also influenced by the American actor-singer Mario Lanza.

Luciano Pavarotti sings "Nessun Dorma" from Turandot (The Three Tenors Original Concert.)

Pavarotti trained to become a teacher but at 20, he traveled with his Modena chorus group to an international music competition in Wales. They won first place. Pavarotti began to dedicate himself to singing and studied with Arrigo Pola and Ettore Campogalliani. After his studies, he made his debut at the Teatro Municipale in Reggio Emilia as Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème. 

Pavarotti followed with a series of successes in small opera houses throughout Europe. He sang in Amsterdam and repeated his success in the role of Rodolfo at Covent Garden as a last-minute substitute for Giuseppe Di Stefano. He sang Idamante in Mozart's Idomeneo at Glyndebourne.  Impressing conductor Richard Bonynge, Pavarotti got the role opposite Dame Joan Sutherland (Bonynge's wife), in a Miami production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lamermoor. He was signed a 14-week tour of Australia in 1965 with Sutherland's company, singing opposite her in Lucia di Lammermoor, which they later recorded together.

My Fair Lady

Musicals / My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady is a musical stage play based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story centres around Henry Higgins,  a conceited language professor (phoneticist) who teaches Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl from the gutter who takes speech lessons from the professor so that she may pass and behave like a lady. 

Adapted by Ian Dalrymple, the play was later remade as My Fair Lady, which won several Oscars. Stars Oscar-winning actors Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller. (Be aware: The video contains profanity.)

Marrying Mozart - A Novel

Marrying Mozart: A Novel by Stephanie Cowell

(Released by Viking Penguin)


Marrying Mozart is a novel about the life and loves of the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a family of four beautiful musical sisters.

Marrying Mozart: A Novel

The lives of the four Weber sisters are changed by the arrival of twenty-one-year-old Wolfgang Mozart, a young man struggling to find his place in the eighteenth-century musical world. The sisters will inspire him with their singing; he will write great music for them (including the "Queen of the Night") and fall in love with at least two of them, but the one he eventually marries is not the one he first loves.

This is Stephanie Cowell's fourth published novel. She is an American Book Award winner and a lyric coloratura soprano. The novel will be translated into German and Italian.

For more information on the novel and the author, visit her website at  www.StephanieCowell.com

(c)  2007-2017.  Tel Asiado.  Written for Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.

Leoncavallo Opera I Pagliacci

Classical Music / Opera 

Leoncavallo's 'I Pagliacci' in Two Acts   

I Pagliacci, an Italian opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Pagliacci opera plot summary, character list, and other Pagliacci opera information.
   

Ruggero Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci (The Clowns), is a tragic opera that cultivated a new style in the late 19^th-century Italian literary movement called verismo, meaning 'realism' or 'truthful' in the late 19^th-century. I Pagliacci  was the second of the nine operas by Leoncavallo. In a prologue and two acts that span about an hour's time in performance, it tells the story of an acting troupe led by a jealous man who is ultimately driven to murder his actress wife and her lover. Invariably linked with realism along with Leoncavallo's Pagliacci is Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana.       

Composed: 1892
Librtto: Ruggero Leoncavallo
First Performance: Teatro dal Verme, Milan, May 21, 1892
Language: Italian 
Setting: Near Montalto, Calabria
Time: Feast of the Assumption, 1865-70

The 2-act opera carries 19^th-century Italian literary movement verismo or 'realism.' 

Pagliacci Brief Summary

Leoncavallo's opera I Pagliacci ('The Clowns') refers to a small group of strolling players. It follows their loves and jealousies which spill over into their stage performance, climaxing in murder. Even though the character knows that his wife has betrayed him, the poor clown has to go on stage and continue to make people laugh.   


Despite simmering tensions, the performance goes ahead and the performers each take up their characters, all mimicking  their real-life situations. It’s all too much for Canio. Art and reality blur and things quickly spiral out of control, towards Pagliacci’s bloody conclusion.

The Main Characters

Canio, (Pagliaccio), Leader of the troupe (Tenor)

Nedda (Colombina) His wife (Soprano)

Tonio (Taddeo) A player (Baritone)

Beppe (Arleccino) A player (Tenor)

Silvio A villager (Baritone)

Non-Musicians Contemporaries of Mozart

Mozart Contemporaries / Non-Musicians

 

* DAVID  ALLAN, (1749-1832), Scottish history painter, known for portraits and for genre paintings such as Scotch Wedding, which earned him the title 'the Scottish Hoarth.'

* JANE AUSTEN, (1775-1817), English novelist who observed speech and manners with wit and precision as revealed in her characters. Most famous works: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion.

* JOEL BARLOW , (1754-1812), American poet and diplomat, a member of the literary circle the 'Connecticut Wits.' He published an epic entitled The Vision of Columbus in 1787 but is particularly remembered for Hasty Pudding (1796), a celebration of an American dessert.

Mozart Opera Così fan tutte

Classical Music / Operas

 

Così fan tutte, an opera buffa (comic opera), remains one of the four most popular operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 

 

Wolfgang A. Mozart wrote some 20 operas. Four of them have been extremely famous on stage and record. Aside from Cosi fan tutte, the other three are: The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze Figaro), Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte).

Cosi fan tutte is a comic (opera buffa) with an unusual title. Cosi means "in this way" or "like this"; fan means "do"; and tutte means the Italian feminine version for "all".  So the title can be translated as "In this way do all (women)" or "Like this do all (women)." Or it can even be "Women are all Alike."  It's a farce, a fun opera, nevertheless, the genius Mozart wrote some of his great music.      

This opera was commissioned to Mozart by Emperor Josef II subtitled The School for Lovers.

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Libretto in Italian by Lorenzo da Ponte. 

First performed: Burgtheater, Vienna, January 26 (or 28), 1790, conducted by Mozart himself.

Setting:  Naples during the 18^th century. It is in two Acts, approximately two hours and thirty minutes.

The Characters:

Fiordiligi and Dorabella   Two sisters from Ferrara   (Both Sopranos)

Despina   The sisters'  maid   (Soprano)

Ferrando  An officer in love with Dorabella   (Tenor)

Guglielmo   An officer in love with Fiordiligi   (Baritone)

Don Alfonso   An elderly philosopher   (Baritone)

Cosi fan tutte is said to have been composed by Mozart at the height of his fame. Here's my favourite quote which  I've taken from The Harrap Opera Guide by Sir Alexander Morley, London, 1970, in my readings: "The artificial comedy, verging at times on the farcical, is set to apt and witty music, with a strong element of parody but also of a sentimentality which is constantly spilling over into genuine and touching sentiment."   

Mozart's music for Cosi consists of an overture, formal arias, symmetrical ensembles of various combination of the characters with a delightful presence, lively recitatives, and full finales.  

             

Brief Synopsis:

Don Alfonso, an old philosopher and cynic, is determined to prove to his two young friends, Guglielmo and Ferrando, that their fiancées, Fiordiligi and Dorabella, are not to be trusted like any other woman. With the help of Despina, the ladies' maid, Alfonso lays his plot. First he tells them that as officers, their lovers have been called up on duty; and as a part of the old man's plan, he introduces the sisters to two Albanians, who are, in fact, Guglielmo and Ferrando disguised. After inner conflicts the two women succumb to the advances of the "Albanians," forcing Guglielmo and Ferrando to concede defeat. However, Don Alfonso reveals the plot to the two deceived ladies and they are reconciled with their original lovers.  

Video Credit:

Mozart's Così Fan Tutte Complete opera with English Subtitles, 1992. France 

Amanda Roocroft - Fiordiligi, Rosa Mannion - Dorabella, Rodney Gilfry - Guglielmo, Rainer Trost - Ferrando,  Eirian James - Despina,  Claudio Nicolai - Don Alfonso.  Monteverdi Choir.  English Baroque Soloists .  John Eliot Gardiner - Conductor,  Peter Mumford - Director. (Youtube, uploaded by Aimee. Accessed 25 January 2018.)  

 

Suggested Reading:

Cosi fan Tutte in the Mirror: Eternal truths on being human. A Musical Vision. Accessed January 26, 2016.   

 

Trivia:   

A sort of a joke from the jovial Mozart. The role of Fiordiligi in Cosi was created for Adriana Ferraresi, Da Ponte's mistress, who was reputed to be arrogant and ugly. Mozart wrote her a difficult aria, full of vocal leaps - in Cosi fan tutte - aria "Come scoglio".  Mozart was banking on Ferraresi's tendency to lower her chin on the low notes and throw back her head on the high notes, making her head bob back and forth, just like a  chicken.  

I'm quoting from my Course Guidebook: Mozart - His Life and Music, p.35, by Prof. Robert Greenberg. It's from his lecture 8: The Last Years.  This course is one of the three classical music courses I studied under him: from The Great Course / The Teaching Company.  Actually, the first time I read about this jolly-humoured  'episode' of our Wunderkind was in fact, from the book 'The Operas of Mozart' written by William Mann, English Music Critic. His original book was published in 1977, the copy I read was in paperback version, 1986.  / Tel, 4 May 2007.  

 

Further suggested reading: 

 

Mozart's Fiordiligi: Adriana Ferrarese del Bene.  Published online by Cambridge University Press (27 August 2008, pp. 199-214). Written by Patricia Lewy Gidwitz. (Journal: Cambridge Opera Journal / Volume 8 / Issue 3/ Print publication: Nov 1996

 

 

Resources: 

Various books in my private collection of Mozart books, and other classical music reference materials, including opera books of  Da Capo and Batta. Also, from Course Guidebooks, when I was a student at The Teaching Company / The Great Courses.  "Great Masters: Mozart - His Life and Music." / Tel


 

(c) May 4, 2007.  Updated January 27, 2010.  Tel. Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.  

Storace Siblings and 18th-century English Theatre

Mozart Contemporaries / The Storace Siblings

 

THE ROLE OF THE STORACE SIBLINGS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH THEATRE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

© By Agnes Selby, Guest Writer-Friend

Towards the end of the eighteenth century, English theatre audiences did not possess the sophistication of their European counterparts . On any given night it was not unusual for warring factions to invade the stage and do battle there, damaging the scenery as well as their opponents in the process, while a favourite Italian castrato continued to belt out his aria.The late eighteenth century forefathers of today's English soccer hooligans found English theatres a perfect venue, not only for their battles but also for warmth during the winter months.

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: April 1

Rachmaninoff was a superb pianist, a brilliant composer and conductor. His music is 19th century rooted yet adheres to Classical form. His concertos and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, are among the most popular in piano and orchestra literature.  He was a protégé of Piotr Tchaikovsky.

Sergei (Sergey) Rachmaninoff (also Rachmaninov or Rakhmaninov) was a Russian composer, conductor and pianist. He was born in Semyonovo, 1 April 1873.

Pianist and Composer

Initially, he studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1882 and later at the Moscow Conservatory in 1885-1892. It was during this time that he showed himself to be an outstanding pianist. In 1891, he wrote his first piano concerto and his well-known Prelude C#. Two years later, he scored success with Aleko, his first opera composition as his graduation work.

Symphony No. 1 written in 1895 was not successful causing him emotional stress.  With the help of a hypnotist Dr. Dahl, he returned to composition. His confidence returned with the huge success of his Piano Concerto No.2 in 1901.  He dedicated this concerto to Dr. Dahl. The following year he married his cousin Natalie Satin. 

Below,  listen and enjoy Rachmaninoff's famous Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, op. 30, in the powerful interpretation and superb performance of 18-year old gold medalist Yunchan Lim: his emotion, his technique. Likewise brilliantly conducted by Marin Alsop, with Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.  2022 Cliburn Competition. Accessed April 1, 2023.

 

Lichnowsky Versus Mozart Lawsuit Discovered

A Lawsuit Discovered - Lichnowsky Versus Mozart  

(c) By Agnes Selby, Guest Writer-Friend

(This article is posted with the kind permission of "Quadrant", first published in January 1992. It is re-printed here in its entirety.)

In 1991 new information surfaced regarding hitherto unknown debt Mozart owed Prince Karl Lichnowsky, which provides another puzzling link with Mozart's elusive past. There is no doubt that a whole new generation of scholars will spend researching and writing about it, changing once again our concept of the great master. Quite recently W. Brauneis came across significant information in a Logbook of the special Court of Aristocrats in Vienna. This entry reminded the Imperial Court Chamber of Vienna on 9th November 1791 to enforce an Order of Attachment of Mozart's possessions and half his salary as Court composer to the amount of 1,435 gulden and 32 kreutzer. Included also were court costs of 24 gulden. The debt was owed to Prince Karl Lichnowsky and was found uncollectable. The research into this new discovery at the time of writing [1992], is still in its infancy. Most of the "Lichnowsky Archives" had been destroyed during the Second World War but an article by Jaroslav Celeda, "Mozart, Beethoven and Lichnowsky" published in Prague in 1967 may reveal some information regarding this matter. Unfortunately this article has so far not been made available to Western scholars by the Czech Music Foundation.

Gioachino Rossini

Classical Music / Composers Datebook: 29 February

Italian Composer, Creator of the Early 19^th-Century Italian Romantic Style of Opera.

Gioachino Rossini's brief biography – his life, operas, other works. Master of the Italian Opera, famous for The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia.)     

Gioachino (Antonio) Rossini (b. 29 February, Pesaro - d. 13 November 1868), Passy), was an Italian composer famous for opera The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia), together with countrymen Donizetti and Bellini, created the Romantic style of Italian opera in the early 19^th century. Rossini, nicknamed ‘Signor Crescendo’, was the most successful opera composer of his time, producing 20 operas in the span of 8 years, from 1815.  Rossini's parents were both musicians, his father a horn player and his mother, a singer. He was born in Pesaro on the 29^th of February 1792, a year after Mozart died.

He married his mistress of long-standing, the singer Isabella Colbran and re-married to Olympe Pelissier after Isabella’s death.

Rossini's first success was the opera Tancredi based on a play by Voltaire. Tancredi  was followed by a string of hugely popular works, including L’Italiana in Algeri (An Italian in Algiers), Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra (Elizabeth, Queen of England, 1815), and what is considered to be his masterpiece, opera buffa Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) produced in Rome.  

Le siège de Corinthe (The Siege of Corinth) was Rossini's first French opera (known also in its Italian version as L'assedio di Corinto). It was first performed at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opéra on October 9, 1826.

Rossini's Stabat Mater is based on the traditional structure of the Stabat Mater sequence for chorus and soloists. Initially he used his own librettos and compositions for a portion of the work and, eventually, the remainder by Giovanni Tadolini, who composed six additional movements. Rossini presented the completed work to Varela as his own. It was composed late in his career after retiring from the composition of opera. He began the work in 1831 but did not complete it until 1841.

His other operas include La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie), Mosé in Egitto, Semiramide, Il viaggio a Reims (The Voyage of Rheims , and Le comte Ory and Guillaume Tell (William Tell).

Handel Oratorio Samson

Classical Music Milestone: February 18 

George Handel's oratorio Samson premieres at London's Covent Garden

Samson is an oratorio based on a libretto by Newburgh Hamilton, who based it on Milton's Samson Agonistes, which which in turn was based on Samson in the Holy Bible's Old Testament Book of Judges.  Samson is considered one of Handel's finest dramatic works.

Below is I think a brilliant recording performed by Münchener Bach-Chor Münchener Bach-Orchester, Karl Richter conducting.  Soloists: Sheila Armstrong, Martina Arroyo, Helen Donath, Ezio Flagello, Norma Procter,  Thomas Stewart,  Alexander Young.




Here's the recording tracks: 
1. Overture 00:00
2. Chorus of Philistines: Awake the trumpet's lofty sound! 06:38
3. Air (Philistine woman): Ye men of Gaza, hither bring 08:42
4. Air (Samson): Total eclipse 12:52
5. Chorus of Israelites: Then round about the starry throne 17:23
6. Air and chorus (Micah, Israelites): Return oh Gof of hosts! 19:25
7. Duet and chorus (Dalila, Virgin, Virgins): My faith and truth, oh Samson prove 29:35
8. Air (Samson): Your charms to ruin led the way 36:37
9. Air (Harapha): Honour and arms such a foe 40:17
10. Duet (Samson, Harapha): Go, baffled coward, go 45:45
11. Chorus of Israelites: With thunder armed 48:16
12. Chorus of Israelites and Philistines: Fix'd in his everlasting seat 51:24
13. Air (Samson): Thus when the sun from's wat'ry bed 54:36
14. Air and chorus (Philistine man, Philistines): Great Dagon has subdued our foe 58:35
15. Chorus of Philistines: Hear us our God, oh hear our cry! 01:02:28
16. Dead March 01:03:52
17. Solo and chorus (Israelites): Glorious hero, may thy grave 01:06:46
18. Air (Israelites woman): Let the bright Seraphim 01:13:06
19. Chorus of Israelites: Let their celestical concerts all unite 01:16:20

 The premiere on February 18, 1743, was a great success leading to a total of seven performances in its first season, the most in a single season of any of Handel's oratorios. Samson retained its popularity throughout Handel's lifetime.  It is usually performed as an oratorio in concert form. On occasions it has also been staged as an opera.

Video Credit: 

Handel - Samson.  VSP musicale. Accessed Feb 18, 2018.  

Resource:

Handel's Oratorio Samson.  operastanford.edu (Libretto Homepage).  Accessed February 18, 2015.


© 2007. Updated February 18, 2018. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights Reserved. 

Tchaikovsky's None but the Lonely Heart

Tchaikovsky Music / Song 


In late 1869, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed a set of six romances for voice and piano, Six Romances, Op. 6.  The last of these songs, TH93:6, is one of his best-loved songs, the melancholy "None but the Lonely Heart." It is a setting of Lev Mei's poem "The Harpist's Song," which in turn was translated from Johann Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship.   

Tchaikovsky dedicated "None but the Lonely Heart" to Alina Khvostova. The song was first performed by Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya, a Russian mezzo-soprano, in Moscow, 1870, following it with its St. Petersburg premiere the following year during an all-Tchaikovsky concert hosted by Nikolai Rubinstein.

The music is used in the film of the same name, starring Cary Grant and Ethel Barrymore, directed by Clifford Odets.  

Here's  Tchaikovsky's "None but the Lonely Heart", interpreted by the late violinist Isaac Stern. Uploaded by DaMenke. Accessed February 14, 2014.




Here's another link of "None but the Lonely Heart", interpreted by violinist Daniel Lozakovich (arranged by Elman).

Lorenzo Da Ponte, Librettist of Wolfgang A. Mozart

Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart's librettist of some of the composer's greatest operas

Guest Writer:  (c) Agnes Selby
 
On 20th August 1838, while the trees in the Roman Catholic cemetery swayed gently in the breeze, a distinguished group of New York citizens gathered around an open grave bidding farewell to the scholarly old gentleman who had died peacefully in his ninetieth year. He had been the first Professor of Italian Literature at Columbia University and had endowed Columbia's library with a large collection of rare Italian books.

Exceedingly handsome even in his old age, he had looked patriarchal with a mane of glistening white hair and piercing eyes. He had been a popular citizen of New York, his children had married into the best American families, and his wife, who had died before him, was remembered as a gentle, ladylike creature of exquisite beauty.

The distinguished citizens did not mourn the old man too deeply. He had died of old age and had lived a long and fruitful life. Some even smiled to themselves as they remembered his little lies, boasting of writing librettos for the immortal Mozart, counting the Emperor Joseph II of the Holy Roman Empire amongst his friends and knowing Casanova intimately. Oh, he could tell some stories... and added to his little fibs was the gossip that he had once been a practicing priest. This gossip, they believed, was spread by his Italian enemies. On top of all that, the gossips said he had been born a Jew.

Mozart Birthday Remembered 2007

Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: January 27

 

Remembering Mozart Birthday 2007

Thanks to those who sent email on how they remembered Mozart's 251st birthday,  in particular, the music they opted to listen.

Susi from Germany, writer on Baesle (Marianne Mozart, Mozart's first cousin), listened to a bunch of the wunderkind's best piano concertos.

Stephanie Cowell, author of Marrying Mozart was listening to some violin sonatas.

Building my Classical CD Collection

Classical CDs

By the end of the millennium (2000), approximately, I had about 5,000 classical CDs in my collection. Though I also love soft jazz, and variety of pop music for easy listening, I doted mainly on the works of the world's greatest classical composers. 

My classical CD collection sets out to include what I consider the most important or the best known works of my favourite composers, but I've also included lesser known composers, with the aim of widening new areas of interest. I have my favourite operas in my collection, though I mainly mention samples of arias and choruses.    

In time, more CDs will be added to this collection...  6 January 2007 

 

Bach, Johann Sebastian:

Brandenburg Concertos 1, 2 & 3, 4, 5 & 6; "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", Orchestral Suites Nos. 1 & 2, 3 & 4; Violin Concertos; Organ Favourites; three Preludes and Fugues and the great D minor Toccata and Fugue. 

Bartok:

Concerto for Orchestra & Music for Strings

Beethoven:

Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral" & Symphony No. 1, Symphony No. 9 "Choral", Moonlight, Pathetique & Appassionata Sonatas, Emperor Concerto & Piano Concerto No. 2; Eroica Symphony & Symphony No. 8; Violin Concerto & Romances Nos. 1 & 2; Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 4; Spring & Kreutzer Violin Sonatas

Bizet:

Suites from L'Arlesienne & Carmen

Boccherini:

Cello Concerto in Bb

Borodin:

In the Steppes of Central Asia & Polovtsian Dances; String Quartet No. 2  

Brahms:

Piano Concerto No. 2; Hungarian Dances; Violin Concerto; Symphony No. 1 & 3 

Britten:

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

Bruch:

Violin Concerto No. 1 

Bruchner:

Symphony No. 4 "Romantic"

Chopin:

Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, Nocturnes & Waltzes; Piano Sonatas nos. 1, 2 & 3

Delibes:

Coppelia, Sylvia

Debussy:

Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune, Nocturnes & La mer

Dvořák:

New World Symphony & Symphonic Variations; Cello Concerto; Slavonic Dances; Serenade

Elgar:

Cello Concerto; Dream of Gerontius, Enigma Variations "Nimrod" 

Faure:

Requiem 

Gershwin:

Rhapsody in Blue, Piano Concerto & An American in Paris

Grieg:

Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 & 2, Piano Concerto

Handel:

Music for the Royal Fireworks & Water Music; Messiah

Haydn:

Surprise, Clock & Hen Symphonies; Cello Concertos Nos. 1 & 2; Emperor, Fifths & Sunrise String Quartets

Holst:

The Planets & Suite de Ballet

Janacek:

Sinfonietta, Taras Bulba & Lachlan Dances

Kreisler, F:

Romantic Violin favourites melodies

Liszt:

Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

Mahler:

Symphony No. 4 & 8

Mendelssohn, Felix:

Violin Concertos; Italian Symphony & A Midsummer Night's Dream; Scottish Symphony, Hebrides, Calm Sea & Prosperous Voyage & Ruy Blas Overtures

Mozart, Wolfgang A:

Eine kleine Nachtmusic & Serenata Notturna, Requiem, Bassoon Concerto & Horn Concerto, Oboe Concerto & Clarinet Concerto, Violin Concertos Nos. 3 & 5, Adagio & Rondo, Symphonieis Nos. 40 & 41; Coronation Mass, Laudate Dominum, Ave verum corpus & Exsultate, jubilate; Mozart Overtures, ranging from his early Apollo et Hyacinthus to The Magic Flute overtures and La clemenza di Tito; Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 21, K.466 & K.467    

Note: Like any Mozartian, including me, I have my own list of Mozart music I consider my best (or favourites). Here's one list from classicfm.com - The 15 greatest pieces of classical music by Mozart.

Mussorgsky:

Pictures at an Exhibition & Night on the Bare Mountain 

Orff:

Carmina Burana 

Paganini:

Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

Prokofiev:

Peter & the Wolf; The Love for Three Oranges, Romeo & Juliet and Cinderella; Classical Symphony & Symphony No. 5

Rachmaninov:

Piano Concerto No. 2 & 3, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

Ravel:

Bolero, Daphnis et Chloe (Suite No. 1)

Respighi:

Symphonic Poems 

Rimsky-Korsakov:

Romantic Violin Favourites - Song of the Volga Boatmen, Londonderry Air

Rossini:

Overtures, including William Tell

Saint-Saëns, Camille:

Organ Symphony; Carnival of the Animals  

Scarlatti:

Piano Sonatas

Schubert:

Trout Quintet & Adagio, Impromptus, Piano Sonatas D 960 & 958, Rondo Concertante; Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished", Symphony No. 5 & Rosamunde Ballet Music No. 2; String Quartet "Death and the Maiden" 

Schumann, Robert:

Piano Concerto; Carnaval, PApillons & Scenes of Childhood 

Shostakovich:

Symphonies Nos. 5 & 9

Sibelius:

Finlandia, Karelia Suite, The Swan of Tuonela & Valse Triste; Violin Concerto

Strauss, Johann II:

Waltzes

Strauss, Richard:

Also sprach Zarathustra, Salome's Dance & Waltzes from Der Rosenkavalaier

Tchaikovsky:

Piano Concerto No. 1, Symphony No. 5 & 6 "Pathetique", 1812 Overture, Capriccio Italien, Romeo & Juliet; Violin Concertos; Francesca da Rimini; Nutcracker & Swan Lake; Sleeping Beauty

Telemann:

Three Violin Concerto, Viola Concerto, Two Horn Concerto

Verdi:

Opera Choruses - from the chorus of Hebrew slaves in Nabucco to the gypsies of La Traviata and Il Trovatore and the patriotic march & chorus from Aida.

Vivaldi:  

The Four Seasons & Concerto alla Rustica

Wagner:

The Flying Dutchman, Tannhauser & Lohengrin

Miscellaneous:

Guitar Concertos - Rodrigo, Tarrega, Villa-lobos, Ponce

Invitation to the Dance - C. M. von Weber's Invitation to the Dance, Adam's Giselle, Ponchielli's  Dance of the Hours

 

(c) January 2007. Updated May 2024. Tel Asiado. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.