Verdi’s three-act opera Rigoletto, based on Victor Hugo’s play Le roi s’amuse (‘The King Amuses Himself’, 1832), was originally entitled La maledizione (‘The Malediction’) – a reference to the curse placed on the superstitious court jester Rigoletto, which fulfills itself in the final scene. The first performance of Rigoletto took place at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice on ...
operas, Il trovatore (‘The Troubadour’) provides the fullest panorama of melodies, each of them memorable in its own right. Il trovatore did not have the subtle characterization of Rigoletto, and suffered from an all but impenetrable plot, but nonetheless became as frequently played. The Miserere (meaning ‘Have Mercy’) sung by a chorus of monks in Act IV ...
1873–1921 Italian tenor Caruso’s first great success was in L’elisir d’amore at La Scala in 1901, followed by his Covent Garden (1902) and Metropolitan Opera (1903) debuts in Rigoletto. He sang regularly at the Metropolitan thereafter, mainly in Verdi and Puccini, and also sang the French repertory including Faust, Manon and Samson et Dalila. He is considered ...
at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice in 1844. This was followed by I due Foscari, Macbeth, Il corsaro, Stiffelio (plus its revision as Aroldo, 1857), Rigoletto, La traviata, the first version of Simon Boccanegra (1857) and La forza del destino. Introduction | High Romantic | Opera Personalities | Amilcare Ponchielli | High Romantic | ...
Verdi The dramatic effect was not lost on the 20-year-old Verdi, who was studying in Milan in 1833. Eighteen years later, Verdi used a similar device in his Rigoletto (1851), as musical background to the furtive meeting between Rigoletto and the assassin Sparafucile. In this and other ways, Donizetti was an important forerunner of Verdi, pioneering greater ...
prima Crociata 1844 Ernani; I due Foscari 1845 Giovanna d’Arco; Alzira; Attila 1847 Macbeth; I masnadieri; Jérusalem 1848 Il corsaro 1849 La battaglia di Legnano; Luisa Miller 1850 Stiffelio 1851 Rigoletto 1853 Il trovatore; La traviata 1855 Les vêpres siciliennes 1857 Aroldo; Simon Boccanegra 1859 Un ballo in maschera 1862 La forza del destino 1867 Don Carlos 1871 Aida 1887 Otello ...
captivity of the Hebrews in Babylon. Produced at La Scala in 1842, Nabucco was a huge popular success. The Galley Years In the nine years between Nabucco (1842) and Rigoletto (1851), Verdi wrote 12 operas. He called this period his ‘years in the galley’, and it is undeniable that some of the operas are, to put it bluntly, ...
stars. His voice eclipsed his contemporaries; he was the only dramatic baritone able to sing an open high C. Among his best performances were those in Verdi’s Il trovatore, Rigoletto, La traviata, Un ballo in maschera and Macbeth. He collapsed onstage at the Met during a performance of ‘Urna fatale’ from La forza del destino, and died ...
vocal category popular in the nineteenth century termed baritenore. Battistini’s voice was also capable of a darkness and edge that made him ideally suited to his most famous roles including Rigoletto, Germont and Eugene Onegin. Introduction | Turn of the Century | Opera Personalities | Enrico Caruso | Turn of the Century | Opera Techniques | Bel Canto | Early ...
1942 Italian premiere of Berg’s opera. Gobbi’s La Scala debut also took place that year, and he became popular in London for his interpretations of Verdi roles such as Rigoletto and Iago. His most memorable partnerships were with reigning diva Maria Callas; her Tosca and his Scarpia became part of opera lore. Introduction | Modern Era | Opera Personalities | ...
1877–1953 Italian baritone Ruffo sang for one season only at Covent Garden, before appearing at La Scala, Milan 1903–04, as Verdi’s Rigoletto. His US debut was in 1912; he first sang at the Metropolitan Opera in 1922. His repertory included Don Carlo (Ernani), Tonio (Pagliacci), Rossini’s Figaro and Ambroise Thomas’s (1811–96) Hamlet. Introduction | Modern Era | Classical ...
1802–85, French Like the Scots novelist Sir Walter Scott, the French writer Victor Hugo had the happy facility for writing fiction that naturally lent itself to opera. Apart from his genius as a story-teller, Hugo’s secret lay in his vigorous attachment to Romantic principles, which exercised profound influence over librettists and composers of Romantic opera. Hugo himself ...
deepened the portrayal of human dramas that was central to Verdi’s view of his art: Falstaff (1892), his last opera, shows a more subtle depiction of his characters than Rigoletto (1851), an opera from the middle of his career, for example. The radical transformation of opera, and the entire language of Western music, was left to the ...
they affected characters not unlike themselves. There were the agonies of jealousy endured by Verdi’s Otello or by Canio, the betrayed husband, in Pagliacci (‘Clowns’, 1892) by Leoncavallo. Verdi’s Rigoletto struggled to preserve his daughter from would-be rapists, the consumptive Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata (‘The Fallen Woman’, 1853) was doomed to early death from a then-incurable disease. In ...
trouble over the fiery, patriotic choruses in I Lombardi alla prima Crociata (‘The Lombards at the First Crusade’, 1843), which were considered politically dangerous and in 1851, his Rigoletto was initially banned because of its unflattering portrait of a ruler, the licentious Duke of Mantua. Censorship and Fear These were not the only occasions when Verdi fell foul ...
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