Verdi’s last opera, Falstaff was the third taken from William Shakespeare, this time from his Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2. Verdi wrote the opera when he was 79, but it was not his only comic opera, as is often supposed. There was another, Un giorno di Regno, which ...
‘The Mastersingers of Nuremberg’ Die Meistersinger has often been described as a comedy. This, though, is not ‘comedy’ as found in the operas of Rossini or in Verdi’s Falstaff: what ‘comedy’ means in this context is the bitter ‘human comedy’. The premiere of Die Meistersinger took place in Munich on 21 June 1868. Wagner based his opera on the real-life ...
‘The Triptych’ In constructing an operatic triple-bill, Puccini followed no precedent. He had nursed the idea for some time, to the despair of Giulio Ricordi, who felt it would be a box-office disaster. With the publisher’s death in 1912, Puccini soon felt able to work on the project. His librettist for La rondine, Giuseppe Adami, ...
was 76 and, by the standards of the seventeenth century, a very old man. Comparisons have been made with Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901), who wrote his last opera, Falstaff (1893), in old age. Modern research has revealed that Poppea may not have been all Monteverdi’s own work. It was ascribed to him by Cristoforo Ivanovich (1628–89), an Italian librettist ...
reign of George V were not greeted with the popular acclaim he had come to expect. Symphony No. 2 (1913) is a simpler construction than No. 1 and ends quietly. Falstaff (1913), a symphonic study of supreme mastery that emphasized the knightly qualities of the mostly disreputable Sir John, bewildered its early audiences. Success continued with works of minor importance ...
second season. He sang at Glyndebourne 1950–61, and made his debut at La Scala in 1960. Appearances in America included Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger (Chicago, 1959) and Verdi’s Falstaff (Metropolitan Opera, 1964). Renowned for many years in Mozart roles, in later life he added the buffo parts of Donizetti’s Dulcamara and Don Pasquale and Rossini’s Bartolo to ...
conventional. Salieri served the Viennese court for 50 years; he was an admired teacher and a generous man and did much for music and musicians in the city. Recommended Recording: Falstaff, soloists, Madrigalists of Milan, Orchestra Guido Cantelli (cond) Alberto Veronesi (Chandos) Introduction | Classical Era | Classical Personalities | Johann Schobert | Classical Era | Classical ...
centred on Vienna, where he wrote some 30 operas, including both opera seria and opera buffa, including La fiera di Venezia (‘The Fair of Venice’, 1772) and Falstaff (1799), although he was interested in combining both elements in a single work. Most Salieri operas were produced in Vienna, but he also scored much success in Milan, ...
(Ar-i’-go Bo-e’-to) 1842–1918 Italian composer and librettist Boito furnished the librettos for two of Verdi’s greatest Shakespearean masterpieces, Otello (1884–86) and Falstaff (1893). The premiere of his own operatic masterpiece Mefistofele, at La Scala, Milan (1868), was greeted with whistles due to the work’s extreme length (over five hours) and Germanic influences. As a result Boito for a while ...
the Cardiff Singer of the World competition. He made his debut in 1990 as Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) for Welsh National Opera. He has performed Figaro worldwide. He sang Verdi’s Falstaff at the reopening of Covent Garden in 1999. His recordings include Figaro, Strauss’s Jokanaan, both Don Giovanni and Leporello, and discs of arias, Lieder and English ...
1914–2005 Italian conductor Giulini first conducted at La Scala, Milan in 1952, and was principal conductor 1953–56. He conducted Verdi’s Falstaff at the Edinburgh Festival in 1955 and Don Carlos at Covent Garden in 1958. He returned to Covent Garden for Il barbiere di Siviglia (1960), Il trovatore (1964) and La traviata (1967), but shortly after abandoned opera until ...
1925–2012 German baritone Fischer-Dieskau made his opera debut in Berlin as Posa (Don Carlos) in 1948. The following year he appeared in Vienna and Munich, and in 1952 at Salzburg. He sang at Bayreuth 1954–56, and appeared at Covent Garden in 1965 as Richard Strauss’s Mandryka (Arabella) and in 1967 as Verdi’s Falstaff. He was widely known as a ...
1835–1900, German The German baritone Franz Betz made his debut in Hanover in 1856, singing the part of Heinrich in Wagner’s Lohengrin. Three years later, he was at the Hofoper in Berlin as Don Carlo in Verdi’s Ernani. He also sang Don Giovanni in Mozart’s opera, Amonasro in Verdi’s Aida and the title roles in Hans Heiling ...
, there were more achievements to come. In an astoundingly creative old age, Verdi produced two operas based on Shakespeare’s plays – the tragedy Otello and the comic opera Falstaff – and, in 1897, his Quattro pezzi sacri (‘Four Sacred Pieces’) for voices and orchestra. His second wife, the soprano Giuseppina Strepponi (1815–97), had died the same ...
opera-lover, did not appear as virtues to the London musical establishment. Gradually the critical climate changed, and after the production of his two final operas, Otello and Falstaff, universally acclaimed as masterpieces, even the critics were willing to admit that Verdi was a genius. After the composer’s death, his reputation continued to grow, although ...
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