A castrato rare recording of a Mozart aria, from Mitridate...

Opera / Mozart's Mitridate, re di Ponto


The video (below) is a modern castrato ultra rare recording, with credit to Quatrapuntal who shared it. This is a live recording from 1999 that he had all this time but never released. The piece is an aria "Va, l'error mio palesa" from Wolfgang A. Mozart's opera Mitridate, re di Ponto. It was composed by Mozart at the age of only 14 whilst touring Italy with his family. 

Full details about the piece are in the video itself. 




Castrato defined: A 'castrato' (Italian, plural: castrati), is a type of classical male singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice is produced by castration of the singer before puberty, or it occurs in one who, due to an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity.




Video Credit: 

"A modern castrato (NOT falsetto) ultra rare recording! Mozart Va, l'error mio palesa from Mitridate". YouTube, uploaded by Quatrapuntal, Sept 5, 2020.  Accessed September 6, 2020.



(c) September 2020. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Ravel's Sheherazade and Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana

Classical Music Milestone:  May 17


Maurice Ravel's Shéhérazade for solo voice and orchestra is first performed in Paris, May 17, 1904. It is a song cycle for soprano (or tenor) solo and orchestra, after three poems by Tristan Klingsor: "Asie," "La flûte enchantée," and "L'indifférent," written in 1903. The performance was at the Société Nationale, Paris, with Jeanne Hatto and the orchestra conducted by Alfred Cortot.

Pietro Mascagni's famous and most successful opera,  Cavalleria Rusticana, is first performed in Costanzi Theater, Rome, also on the same day, May 17 (1890).



Michèle Losier - Shéhérazade, I. Asie (Ravel)


 

Cavalleria Rusticana - Mascagni (opera completa) - Noto (SR) 31/08/2013

 

Video Credit:

Sheherazade by Ravel.  YouTube uploaded by Bellerophon.  Accessed 17 May 2016. 

Cavalleria Rusticana. by Mascagni.  YouTube uploaded by Giacomo Mazzoni. Accessed 17 May 2018.


Resources:


Myers RH. Ravel: Life and Works. Thomas Yoseloff, New York, 1960.

Sadie, Stanley, Ed. (1994).  The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, Ne wUpdated Edition. London: Macmillan Publishers. 


(c) May 2016. Updated May 18, 2018. Tel. Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.

Puccini Opera Madama Butterfly

Classical Music / Opera

Madama Butterfly (Madame Butterfly) is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.

 

It is based on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther Long, which in turn was based on stories told to Long by his sister Jennie Correll and on the semi-autobiographical 1887 French novel Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti. Long's version was dramatized by David Belasco as the one-act play Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan, which, after premiering in New York in 1900, moved to London, where Puccini saw it in the summer of that year.

 

On February 17, 1904, Giacomo Puccini's masterpiece, Madama Butterfly premiered at Teatro alla Scala, sung in Italian. 

 

The opera, briefly

 

Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton, an officer in the U.S. Navy, is captivated with Cio-Cio San, a young geisha, known as 'Madam Butterfly'. Pinkerton's desire for Butterfly is so strong that he would do anything to have her. He therefore arranges through Goro, a marriage broker, to marry her in a Japanese wedding ceremony.

 

This tale of a young Japanese geisha who marries an American naval officer who then leaves her explores themes of devotion and responsibility, fidelity and justice. 

 

Food for thought: It should be noted that 'Madama Butterfly' was composed by Puccini during the 18th and 19th century opera – quite different from the current gender and racial implications, to a degree that no small number of hyper-critical observers are demanding its removal from the repertoire entirely for what may be construed as racist. Simply, let's enjoy the show, the music, the performance.  

 

Opera Cast: 

 

Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly)	soprano
Suzuki, her maid	mezzo-soprano
B.F. Pinkerton,  Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy	tenor
Sharpless, U.S. consul at Nagasaki	baritone
Goro, a matchmaker	tenor
Prince Yamadori	tenor
The Bonze, Cio-Cio-san's uncle	bass
Yakusidé, Cio-Cio-san's uncle	bass
The Imperial Commissioner	bass
The Official Registrar	bass
Cio-Cio-san's mother	mezzo-soprano
The aunt	soprano
The cousin	soprano
Kate Pinkerton	mezzo-soprano
Dolore ("Sorrow"), Cio-Cio-san's child	silent
Cio-Cio-san's relatives and friends and servants

 

Video: 2018.Puccini - Madama Butterfly full Opera english subtitles. Soprano Mirella Freni Tenore Placido Domingo. 

 

Synopsis:

Act I. 

Japan, at the turn of the 20th century. Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton of the U.S. Navy inspects a house overlooking Nagasaki harbor he is leasing from Goro, a marriage broker. The house comes with three servants and a geisha wife named Cio-Cio-San, known as 'Madam Butterfly'. Subject to a monthly renewal, the lease runs for 999 years. Sharpless, the American consul, arrives breathless from climbing the hill. Pinkerton describes his philosophy of the fearless Yankee roaming the world in search of experience and pleasure. He intends to marry Butterfly although unsure of his feelings for the young girl. Sharpless warns him that the girl may view the marriage differently, but Pinkerton brushes off such concerns and says someday he will take a real, American wife. He offers the consul whiskey and proposes a toast. Butterfly arrives with her friends for the ceremony. After the formal introduction, Butterfly admits her age is 15, and explains that her family was once prominent but now earns a living as a geisha to earn her living. Her relatives arrive for the marriage of Butterfly to Pinkerton. Cio-Cio-San shows Pinkerton her few possessions and tells him that she has been to the Christian mission and will embrace her husband’s religion. The Imperial Commissioner reads the marriage agreement, and the relatives congratulate the couple. Suddenly, a threatening voice is heard from afar—it is the priest Bonze, Butterfly’s uncle. He curses the girl for going to the mission and rejecting her ancestral religion. Pinkerton orders them to leave, and as they go, the Bonze and the relatives denounce Cio-Cio-San. Pinkerton tries to console Butterfly. Suzuki helps her into her wedding kimono before the couple meets in the garden, where they make love.

Act II. 

Three years have passed. Cio-Cio-San continuously awaits her husband’s return. Suzuki prays to the gods for help, but Butterfly berates her for believing in lazy Japanese gods rather than in Pinkerton’s promise to return.  Sharpless appears with a letter from Pinkerton, but before he can read it to Butterfly, Goro arrives with the latest suitor, the wealthy Prince Yamadori. Butterfly politely serves the guests tea but insists she is not available for marriage—as she awaits her husbands return. Sharpless attempts to read Pinkerton’s letter and suggests that perhaps Butterfly should reconsider Yamadori’s offer. In response, she presents the consul with her young son by Pinkerton. She says that his name is “Sorrow,” but will be called "Joy" when his father returns. Unable to read Pinkerton's letter, Sharpless leaves, promising to tell the former of the child. A cannon shot in the harbor announces the arrival of a ship. Butterfly and Suzuki take a telescope to the terrace and read the name of the vessel—it is Pinkerton’s. Overjoyed, Butterfly joins Suzuki in decorating the house  to welcome Pinkerton. Butterfly, her son, and Suzuki settle into a vigil watching over the harbor but  with no Pinkerton in sight.

Act III.

Another Dawn breaks. Suzuki insists that Butterfly get some sleep. Butterfly carries the child into the house. Sharpless appears with Pinkerton and Kate, Pinkerton’s new wife. Suzuki realizes who the American woman is and agrees to help break the news to Butterfly. Pinkerton is overcome with guilt and runs from the scene, pausing to remember his days in the little house. Cio-Cio-San rushes in hoping to find Pinkerton, but sees Kate instead. Grasping the situation, she agrees to give up her son but insists Pinkerton return for him. Dismissing everyone, Butterfly takes out the dagger with which her father committed suicide, choosing to die with honor rather than live in shame. She is interrupted when the child comes in, but Butterfly says goodbye and blindfolds him. She stabs herself as Pinkerton arrives, calling out for her.

 

Video Credit:

2018.Puccini - Madama Butterfly full Opera english subtitles Soprano Mirella Freni Tenore Placido Domingo. YouTube, uploaded by Giacomo James. Accessed February 17, 2023. (Note: Herbert Von Karajan, Norbert Balatsch; Wiener Philarmoniker, staged and directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. Artists: Mirella Freni, Placido Domingo, Christa Ludwig, Robert Kerns, Michel Sénéchal, Marius Rintzler, Elke Schary, Giorgio Stendoro.)

 

Resources:

Madama Butterfly. en.wikipedia.org.  

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

 

(c) February 17, 2018. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Mozart Opera La Clemenza di Tito

Classical Music / Operas

La clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus), K. 621, is an opera seria in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzola, after Metastasio, an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti. Mozart's La clemenza was started after the bulk of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), the last opera that Mozart worked on, was already written. The work premiered on 6 September 1791, at the Estates Theatre in Prague.

Sadly, Mozart did not live to hear the premiere of this opera since he passed away December 5, 1791.

Mozart's opera LA Clemenza di Tito about a power struggle. In ancient Rome, the ambitious daughter of a deposed emperor, Vitellia, manipulates Sesto her lover into attempting to assassinate the new Emperor Tito. The plot revolves around power struggle, political intrigue, love, betrayal, and jealousy, culminating in the test of Emperor Tito's virtue, his decision to show mercy rather than seek vengeance, and the ultimate theme of forgiveness.

Enjoy the video of  Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito. YouTube, uploaded by Bergen Nasjonale Opera. Accessed September 6, 2025.  This is a recording of the live stream of W. A. Mozart's opera La clemenza di Tito in Grieghallen in Bergen, 15th of March 2021, with six soloists, Edvard Grieg Kor and Edward Gardner conducting the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Listening Pleasures:

Mozart's Opera La Clemenza di Tito. Uploaded by EGMusic Opera Production. Accessed September 6, 2018. Live performance at the Covent Garden, 1976. With Janet Baker, Yvette Minton, Werner Hollweg. Covent Garden Orchestra, conducted by J. Pritchard.

Aria  "Ah, perdona al primo affetto", beautifully sung by Lucia Popp and Frederica von Stade.
 


Resource:

La clemenza di Tito. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed September 6, 2011. 



(c) September 2011. Updated September 6, 2025. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Wagner Opera Parsifal

Classical Music / Opera 

Wagner took most of the story from a medieval poem Parzival by the German poet Wolfram von Eschenbach.  Parsifal was the last opera Wagner completed.

Parsifal, WWV 111 ('WWV' denotes Wagner's catalogue of musical works in German, meaning "Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis")  is and opera in three acts by German composer Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, a 13th-century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his quest for the Holy Grain (12th century). Wagner first conceived the work in April 1857 but did not finish it until twenty-five years later. It was his last completed opera.

Parsifal was first produced at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882. The Bayreuth Festival maintained a monopoly on Parsifal productions until 1903, when the opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Wagner's widow Cosima (Franz Liszt's daughter), was outraged that she declared none of the singers involved in the unauthorised production would ever work at Bayreuth again.  Bayreuth only lifted the baon on January 1, 1914. Parsifal was so popular that in the first six months after the ban was lifted, numerous European opera houses staged performances.

Massenet Opera Werther

Classical Music / Operas  


Werther is an opera (drama lyrique) in four acts by French composer Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann (who used the pseudonym Henri Grémont). It is loosely based on the German novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Die Leiden des jungen Werther (English: The Sorrows of Young Werther), which was based both on fact and on Goethe's own early life. It was first performed in Vienna (in German), on February 16, 1892.

The photo is that of Ernest van Dyck, the first singer in the title role, ca. 1892. 

 

In the video below, Antonio Pappano introduces the music of Massenet's Werther (The Royal Opera)

 

Suggested Listening:  

 

'Life and death on the stage': What makes Werther a masterpiece (The Royal Opera). Joyce DiDonato, Vittorio Grigòlo, Antonio Pappano and other members of the cast and creative team reveal why they think Massenet's Werther is an operatic masterpiece. Accessed February 16, 2023.

 

Massenet: Werther - Pourquoi me réveiller (Jonas Kaufmann). Werther - Jonas Kaufmann. Charlotte - Sophie Koch. Conductor / vezényel: Michel Plasson.  Opéra Bastille 2010. Uploaded by 70Tamas. Accessed February 16, 2023. 

 

Image Credit: 

Ernest van Dyck. en.wikipedia.org / Public Domain

Video Credit:  

 

Antonio Pappano introduces the music of Werther (The Royal Opera). YouTube, uploaded by Royal Opera House. Accessed February 16, 2023.


Resource: 

Werther. En.wikipedia.org.


(c) February 2018. Updated February 16, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Mozart Opera Don Giovanni

Classical Music / Opera 

A Unique Blend of Comic and Serious Opera

Four of about twenty two operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have remained extremely popular on stage and record. One of them is Don Giovanni. 

Don Giovanni is in two Acts, approximately two hours and thirty minutes. Libretto is in Italian by Lorenzo da Ponte after Giovanni Bertati's libretto for Giuseppe Gazzaniga's  The Stone Guest, the contemporary version of the Don Juan legends.It was first performed 
 
First performance: National Theatre, Prague, in October 29, 1787. Subtitled "drama giocoso," the opera blends comedy, melodrama, and supernatural elements. In Vienna, it was first performed May 7, 1788.

Wagner Das Rheingold

Classical Music / Opera (Music Drama)

Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold), WWW 86A, is the first of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (English: The Ring of the Nibelung.) It premiered at the National Theatre Munich on 22 September 1869, with August Kindermann as Wotan, Heinrich Vogl as Loge, and Karl Fischer as Alberich. Wagner allowed the performance only of this first cycle at the insistence of his patron King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The work was first performed as part of the complete cycle on 13 August 1876, in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.



Video Credit: 

Wagner - Der Ring Nibelungen: Das Rheingold. Richard Wagner. Das Rheingold. Adam Fischer/Vienna State Opera, 2016.  Youtube, uploaded by Randall G. Malstrom. Accessed April 20, 2023.

Resource:

Das Rheingold. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed September 22, 2016. 



(c) 2016-2017. Updated April 20, 2023.  Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.   

Wagner Opera Tristan und Isolde

Classical Music / Opera  


Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde, or Tristan and Isolda, or Tristran and Ysolt) is an opera or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by him, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Strassburg. Composed between 1857 and 1859, it was first performed in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bulow conducting. Wagner referred the work not as an opera but called it "Eine Handlung" (literally a drama, a plot or an action). 

In 1886, 1st of December, Richard Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde in its American premiere is enormously successful. Anton Seidl conducted the Metropolitan Opera in the New York opening.
 

This work by Wagner was inspired by the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, as well as Wagner's affair with Mathilde Wesendonck. Acknowledged as one of the peaks of the operatic repertoire, Tristan und Isolde was notable for Wagner's unprecedented use of chromaticism, orchestral colour, harmonic suspension and tonality, and was enormously influential among Western classical composers.

 

The Prelude to Act I and Isolde's Liebestod (Love Death) are often performed as concert item.

 

Listening Pleasures: 

 

Love Duet from Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" Pt. I (English Subtitles). YouTube, uploaded by Eric Anderson. Accessed December 1, 2020.

 

Richard Wagner "Tristan Und Isolde" | Carlos Ludwig Kleiber. YouTube, uploaded by Adagio. Accessed June 10, 2015. Richard Wagner - Tristan and Isolde, Complete Opera, WWV 90. Staatskapelle Dresden, Carlos Ludwig Kleiber. Deutsche Grammophon, 1982. Act I. Prelude  Act III. Liebestod

 

Live Performance:

Below is Act I of Tristan und Isolde performed in 2015 by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, conducted by American conductor David Robertson.  Christine Brewer (soprano) – Isolde, Lance Ryan (tenor) – Tristan, Katarina Karnéus (mezzo-soprano) – Brangäne, Boaz Daniel (baritone) – Kurwenal, Angus Wood (tenor) – Melot,  John Tessier (tenor) – Young Sailor, Shepherd, John Relyea (bass) – Marke, King of Cornwall, Harrison Collins (baritone) – Steersman. Tristan und Isolde Act I - SSO.  YouTube, uploaded by Sydney Symphony Orchestra.  Accessed December 1, 2016. 
For those interested: Act II - here,  and Act III - here.

 

Resource:

Tristan und Isolde. en.wikipedia.org.  Accessed June 10, 2016. 

Tristan und Isolde. Opera Online. Accessed June 10, 2018.

(c) December 2016. Updated Dec 1, 2020. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Handel Opera Alessandro

Opera Alessandro by Handel premieres, May 5

Opera Alessandro by George Frideric Handel is first performed on May 5, 1726. The venue is at London's King Theatre, with Faustina Bordoni making her debut as Rossane.  The opera is in 3 acts, text by Paulo Antonio Rolli.

Summary of Handel Opera Alessandro

Opera Alessandro (Alexander the Great, HWV 21) is an opera written for the Royal Academy of Music in 1719, composed by George Frideric Handel in 1726. Paolo Rolli was the librettist who based the story on Ortensio Mauro's La superbia d'Alessandro.  The opera was first performed on 5 May 1726 at the King's Theatre, London.

Verdi Opera Nabucco

Classical Music / Opera Datebook: March 9

Giuseppe Verdi's Opera Nabucco Premieres

Nabucco (English Nebuchadnezzar), is an Italian opera in four acts composed by Giuseppe Verdi in 1841 to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera.  It is based on Biblical stories from the Books of Jeremiah and Daniel. Under its original name of Nabucodonosor, the opera was first performed at La Scala in Milan on 9 March 1842.

The opera Nabucco is considered to have permanently established Verdi's reputation as a composer. He commented that "this is the opera with which my artistic career really begins. And though I had many difficulties to fight against, it is certain that Nabucco was born under a lucky star."

APOLOGY:  This video is not available for embedding. It contains content from nikitaventures music, who has blocked it from display on this website or application.  Watch it on YouTube

 

Verdi's La Traviata and Bellini's La Sonnambula

Classical Music Milestone: March 6

Verdi's La Traviata and Bellini's La Sonnambula first performed the same day

This day on March 6, 1831, the opera La Sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini premieres in Milan's Teatro Carcano. Opera La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi is also performed for the first time, March 6, 1853, at Teatro la Fenice in Venice.

La sonnambula (The Sleepwalker) is a two-act  opera in semi-seria, with music in Bellini's tradition in bel canto to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani.  It is based on a a ballet-pantomime called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur  by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer.

La traviata is a three-act opera by Giuseppe Verdi. It is set to an Italian libretto by Francisco Maria Piave, based on  La dame aux Camélias (1852), a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or The Woman Who Goes Astray.  Originally, it was entitled Violetta, after the Verdi's main character.

Bellini: la Sonnambula, 2010, Nathalie Dessay, air final

Video Credit: Bellini's Opera La Sonnambula - youtube.com, uploaded by MrClifton68.
Retrieved March 6, 2013.

Dame Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti - 'Parigi, o cara' Verdi's La Traviata

Video Credit:

 

Verdi's La Traviata: "Parigi, o cara". youtube.com, uploaded by OperaAustralia. Retrieved March 6, 2013.



Resource:

Batta, András (2000). Opera: Composers, Works, Performers. Cologne: Könemann.

(c) March 2013. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Nicole Car Stars in Verdi's Opera Luisa Miller

Classical Music / Opera:  February 2016

Australian Soprano Nicole Car is Luisa Miller in Verdi's opera of the same name.

Soprano Nicole Car is one of the most outstanding young singers to emerge from Australia in recent years. She is currently starring in the title role of Verdi's "Luisa Miller" - an opera of love, intrigue, and poison.  

"Luisa Miller" is still on:  February 24 (Wednesday),  27 (Saturday), and 29 (Monday), 7.30pm for all performances at the Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House.
(For Sydneysiders interested, get your tickets while there are few seats left.) 

Delius Opera A Village Romeo and Juliet

Classical Music / Opera

A Village Romeo and Juliet is an opera by Frederick Delius. The composer himself, with his wife Jelka, wrote the English-language libretto based on the short story Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe by the Swiss author Gottfried Keller. The first performance, as Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe, was at the Komische Oper Berlin, on 21 February 1907.  The British premiere was performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London, February 22, 1910, with Thomas Beecham conducting.

The Walk to Paradise Garden

This meltingly beautiful music is taken from "The Paradise Garden," a work of artist/painter John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836- 1893).  Delius' heart-warming music "The Walk to the Paradise Garden" is the orchestral interlude between scenes 5 and 6 of Delius' A Village Romeo and Juliet.  While this  opera has been rarely staged, "The Walk to the Paradise Garden" is heard separately in concerts and has been recorded many times.

Below is a video of "The Walk to the Paradise Garden," performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, with Sir John Barbirolli conducting.



"The Paradise Garden" is a dilapidated pub where the lover's Sali and Vreli can "dance all night". This rural lover have known each other since childhood and are willing to die together rather than give in to the pressures that will separate them.

Brief Synopsis
(The opera A Village Romeo and Juliet has six scenes)

Beginning. Sali, son of the farmer Manz, and Vrenchen (Vreli), daughter of the farmer Marti, are children. They are playing together one September morning on a plot of land. The Dark Fiddler is the rightful owner of this disputed land, but because he is illegitimate and thus without legal rights, he cannot exert control over the land. He appears to the children and warns them that the land must not be tilled. Manz and Marti dispute ownership of the land, and put a stop to the relationship between their respective children.

Six years later.  At Marti's now run-down house, Sali and Vrenchen plan a meeting. Since their childhood, a lawsuit about the land has ruined both Manz and Marti. Sali persuades Vrenchen to meet him on the plot. The Dark Fiddler re-appears once more and invites them to join him. He also tells them that, regardless, they will meet again. Marti sees the two lovers and takes Vreli away. In trying to stop Marti, Sali injures him severely. As a result, Marti loses his reason and must be confined in an asylum. Sali returns and sees Vreli at her house, which is to be sold. The two declare their love and decide to leave together.

Sali and Vreli buy rings at a local fair. Sali mentions an inn, the Paradise Garden, where they can dance all night, and they go there. There, the Dark Fiddler and some vagrants are drinking. He greets the lovers, and suggests they join him to share a vagabond life in the mountains. Instead, Sali and Vreli decide that they cannot live such an existence, and they resolve to die together, uncompromising in their love for each other. They leave the inn and find a hay barge, which they release from the dock to begin to float down the river. As the Dark Fiddler observes them, Sali removes the plug from the bottom of the boat, and Sali and Vreli sink with the boat.

On reflection.  Delius' music interlude seems to synthesize many elements found in the opera, where in "Paradise Garden", a seedy country dance hall, the two lovers make a pact to do themselves in, a plot of land where they played together during their childhood, with the Dark Fiddler and his symbolic social conflicts, the hay barge that will sink in the river and carry the lovers to their death, and most of all, the heartbreak of love...  Painful, it weaves in long unbearable phrases, in this familiar operatic play akin to Shakespeare's tragic Romeo and Juliet.

Video Credit:

Frederick Delius, The Walk to the Paradise Garden, John Atkimson Grimshaw. YouTube, uploaded by Thomas Turner.  Accessed February 22, 2016.  

Resources:

A Village Romeo and Juliet. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed February 21, 2016.

The Walk to the Paradise Garden. LAPhil.com Accessed February 21, 2016.

Wagner Opera Siegfried

Classical Music / Opera

Wagner Opera Siegfried:  Plot, Synopsis and Character Descriptions of a German Opera

Siegfried is the third of the four operas that comprise Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). It was first performed at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, Germany, on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring.  Hans Richter conducted.

Siegfried, the opera, incorporates an earlier symphonic poem music of Wagner, Siegfried Idyll, which he composed for his wife, Cosima.

This part of Siegfried opera is primarily inspired by the story of the legendary hero Sigurd in the Norse mythology.

Mozart Opera Die Entführung aus Dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio)

Classical Music / Opera

This opera, a German singspiel, is about an attempt by the hero Belmonte, assisted by his servant Pedrillo, to rescue beloved Constanze from the harem of Pasha Selim. 

Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) 

The Abduction from the Seraglio is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Gottlieb Stephanie, based on Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's Belmont und Constanze, oder Die Entführung aus dem Serail. The work premiered on 16 July 1782 at the Vienna Burgtheater, with the Mozart himself conducting.  It is a coincidence that the opera's heroine has a name almost identical to that of Mozart's future wife, Constanze, but one can only imagine that the sensuality in his music is in some sense dedicated to her (they married less than a month after the Seraglio's premiers. Who knows, perhaps Wolfgang Mozart saw in himself something of Belmonte. His arias are imbued with grace. 

 
Music:  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Libretto:  In German by J.G. Stephanie the Younger, adapted from an original libretto by Friedrich Breitzner's Belmonte and Constanze (1782, Vienna).  

Opera:  A comedy, in three acts.  Approximately 130 minutes.

First performed: Burgtheater, Vienna, July 16, 1772.

Setting: Turkey, 16^th century, but often played in 18^th-century dress. 

Characters:

Constanze    A Spanish lady (Soprano)

Blonda    Constanze's maid  (Soprano)

Belmonte    Constanze's lover (Tenor)

Pasha Selim (Speaking Part)

Osmin    Selim's Overseer (Bass)

Pedrillo    Former servant of Belmonte  (Tenor)

Menotti and Bridge: Christmas Operas in One-Act

Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors and Bridge's The Christmas Rose


Amahl and the Night Visitors tells the story of the little cripple boy's reception of the Magi on their way to Bethlehem (The Three Kings traveled from afar to celebrate the birth of Jesus and give their gifts.)  The Christmas Rose is an opera for children.

Two popular Christmas one-act operas, often traditionally played to celebrate Christ's birth: American composer Gian Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors and English composer Frank Bridge's The Christmas Rose. 

 

Video:

 

Amahl and the Night Visitors by Carlo Gian Menotti. YouTube, uploaded by Gian Carlo Menotti Archive. Accessed December 24, 2025.

 

 

 

 

(c) December 12, 2014. Updated December 24, 2025. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.  

Tchaikovsky Opera The Queen of Spades

Pikovaya Dama (The Queen of Spades), a Russian tragedy drama by Tchaikovsky: opera plot summary, character list, and other opera information.

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) composed Pikovaya Dama (The Queen of Spades), a three-act Russian tragic drama. Libretto was written by Modest Tchaikovsky based on a story by Pushkin.  It was premiered at St. Petersburg, Maryinsky Theater, December 19, 1890. The setting is in St. Petersburg, Maryinsky in the later 18th century.



 

Video Credit:

The Queen of Spades - Pyotr Tchaikovsky.  Uploaded by Maria Maksakova. Accessed December 19, 2023.  

 

 

(c) Dec 2014. Updated December 19, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Zoltán Kodály Opera Háry János

Classical Music Milestone:  October 16

 Zoltán Kodály opera Háry János was premiered.

Háry János is an opera in four acts by Zoltán Kodály  to a Hungarian libretto by Bela Paulini and Zsolt Harsanyi, based on the comic epic The Veteran (Az obsitos) by Janos Garay. It was first performed at the Royal Hungarian Opera House, Budapest, October 16, 1926.


According to Kodály, Háry János is "the personification of the Hungarian story-telling imagination. He does not tell lies; he imagines stories; he is a poet.

The story is of a veteran hussar in the Austrian army in the first half of the 19th-century. He sits in the village inn regaling his listeners with tales of heroism: his supposed exploits include winning the heart of the Empress Marie Louise, Napoleon's wife, and then single-handedly defeating Napoleon and his armies. Nevertheless, he finally renounces all riches in order to go back to his village with his sweetheart.

Bizet Opera Carmen

Classical Music / Opera

 

 

Opera synopsis, characters, and other information of Bizet's Carmen

The French opera Carmen by Georges Bizet is one of the most famous and loved operas of all-time. The libretto is written by Henry Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novel by the same name, written by author Prosper Mérimée. Bizet found great opposition to the work, as many critics and the general public found the opera plot “indecent” during the time.

Carmen is first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on March 3, 1875. For French opera, Carmen broke new dramatic ground as it moved away from opera buffa (comic opera), to a deeper tragic story. Sadly, composer Bizet did not live to see that his work was to become one of the most often performed operas in the world.

The 4-act opera setting takes place in Seville, Spain. The original opera production of Carmen had spoken dialog rather than recitative. After Bizet's death, his friend Ernest Guiraud replaced the dialog to a sung recitative.


Famous Arias from Carmen:

• L'amour est un oiseau rebelle - Carmen
• La fleur que tu m’avais jetée (The flower song) - Don José
• Votre toast, je peux le rendre (Toreador song) - Escamillo

Apology: The video Originally featured is no longer available.  

Below is from Bizet's Opera Carmen - Bastille Opera.