#La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina

[lavenderfeminist]

I’m trying to explore arias for my senior recital so I’ve been starting from the beginning:

La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina (The Libération of Ruggiero from the island of Alcina) by Francesca Caccini is the first known opera written by a woman and was likely the first Italian opera to be performed outside Italy. I am partial to the Siren’s aria and there’s a recording of it from McGill University that I’ve watched parts of!

Operas I’ve actually fully listened through by women are:

Le dernier sorcier (The Last Sorcerer) by Pauline Viardot (lots of killer arias)

Cendrillon (Cinderella) by Pauline Viardot (premiered when she was 83!!)

Alice in Wonderland by Unsuk Chin (the staging of one is CRAZY)

The Little Prince by Rachel Portman (the music is magical)

Cold Mountain by Jennifer Higdon (tbh I didn’t enjoy this one much and would need to listen again probably, but I’ve seen it live and met her AND she’s a lesbian so that’s pretty cool)

It’s just so depressing how many operas there are by women and how few of them are ever staged, let alone part of the operatic canon

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

of course I got slammed with HW tonight even after work, so I won’t be liveblogging a filmed production but I WILL be listening to this recording while I work!

first-ever opera composed by a woman—what could be better for today?

[thetudorslovers]

Francesca Caccini was born to composer and musician Giulio Caccini. She received a musical education as a child and began performing as a singer and instrumentalist, her first recorded public appearance being in 1600 at the marriage of Henry IV and Marie de Medici. For two decades, from 1607 to 1627, Francesca served as a singer, composer, and teacher at the Medici court. The first of her five operas, La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina (1625), was the first opera composed by a woman and also the first Italian opera to be performed outside of Italy.

Francesca Caccini wrote some or all of the music for at least sixteen staged works. All but La liberazione di Ruggiero and some excerpts from La Tancia and Il passatempo published in the 1618 collection are believed lost. Her surviving scores reveal Caccini to have taken extraordinary care over the notation of her music, focusing special attention on the rhythmic placement of syllables and words, especially within ornaments, on phrasing as indicated by slurs, and on the precise notation of often very long, melodically fluid vocal melismas. Although her music is not especially notable for the expressive dissonances made fashionable by her contemporary Monteverdi, Caccini was a master of dramatic harmonic surprise: in her music it is harmony, more than counterpoint, that most powerfully communicates affect.

Opera and stage works:

• La Stiava , performed 1607 & lost

• La mascherata, delle ninfe di Senna, balletto, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 1611

• La tancia, incidental music, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 1611

• Il passatempo, incidental music to balletto, Pallazo Pitti, Florence, 1614

• Il ballo delle Zingane, balletto, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, music lost, 1615

• Il Primo libro delle musiche a 1–2 voci e basso continuo (1618)

• La fiera, incidental music, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 1619

• Il martirio de S. Agata, Florence, 1622

• La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina, musical comedy, Villa Poggio Imperiale, Florence (1625)

• Rinaldo inamorato, commissioned by Prince Wladislaw of Poland, 1626.

[nonbinaryresource]

I’m writing a paper on a seventeenth century opera (La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina) in which one of the main characters, Mellissa, is arguably non binary. Men are in sharp keys, women in flat, but Melissa has neither (C Major). Melissa also appears as both a man and a woman (singing in C Major both ways). Do you have any ideas for appropriate and respectful pronouns to use? I totally understand if this is too esoteric.

In general, we don’t respond to posts like this but opera makes me nostalgic for when I used to sing soprano.

If you’re writing your paper in English, they/them/their pronouns are likely the simplest for your teacher/professor/teaching assistant to read and understand. Singular they is a pronoun that has existed for centuries and has been used by various literary greats so you shouldn’t have to worry about being graded down for non-binary pronoun use. They/them/theirs is also respectful and a good general catch-all sort of pronoun. You could also simply refer to Melissa as Melissa, or other descriptive factors, as in, “With this canzonetta, Melissa musical analysis words all the words... this character/this protagonist/the sorceress demonstrates how Francesca Caccini used the structure of a stile moderno to musical analysis words.”

If you’re writing in other languages,  https://genderneutralpronoun.wordpress.com/ can be helpful. So could http://askanonbinary.tumblr.com/pronouns. I’m unsure about Italian pronouns and I wasn’t able to find anything (beyond comparing it to the issues with French and other romance languages). Followers might have more advice.

-Bion

[verdiprati]

Mostly Mezzo Mondays: Prina in Vivaldi; Coote, Rice, et al. in Adès; and Caccini’s “Liberazione”

Mostly Mezzo Mondays: a recurring (though not weekly) feature where, on Monday nights, I blog a list of the upcoming broadcasts that have caught my eye on World Concert Hall. My interests: baroque vocal music, art song recitals, and a list of favorite singers.

Sonia Prina sings the title role in a new production of Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso to be video livestreamed from La Fenice. The director is Fabio Ceresa; more production details here. Tuesday, April 17 on Culturebox.

I’m not familiar with any of the performers in this broadcast of Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina, but I might listen just because we don’t get a whole lot of performances of this early opera by a female composer. Tuesday, April 17 on France Musique.

Just to pick out a couple of mezzo names from the outstanding, mostly British ensemble cast, you can hear Alice Coote and Christine Rice among many others in a deferred broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera revival of Adès’ The Exterminating Angel. Saturday, April 21 on WQXR. 

[timothyabernard]

Review: The First Opera by a Woman Dances Out of Obscurity

Francesca Caccini’s 1625 opera “La Liberazione di Ruggiero Dall’Isola d’Alcina” received a rare, humble staging by the Boston Early Music Festival. Article source here:New York Times Arts Section

[michaelgabrill]

Francesca Caccini’s 1625 opera “La Liberazione di Ruggiero Dall’Isola d’Alcina” received a rare, humble staging by the Boston Early Music Festival.

[topnewsfromtheworld]

Review: The First Opera by a Woman Dances Out of Obscurity

By JOSHUA BARONE Francesca Caccini’s 1625 opera “La Liberazione di Ruggiero Dall’Isola d’Alcina” received a rare, humble staging by the Boston Early Music Festival. Published: November 28, 2018 at 01:00AM from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/2Qwe8nb

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

anyway this opera slapped in the BEST early-Baroque way and the women’s duets all gave me HUGE gay vibes and the orchestration??? *chef’s kiss*

also we STAN powerful sorceresses (plural!) battling it out

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

50 New Operas In 2021, By The Numbers

So, uh, yeah. 50 operas through May 2, 2021. By comparison: in the entire year of 2020, I experienced 52 new-to-me operas. We’re barely a third of the way through 2021 and I’ve already almost matched that.

Some Stats:

Video vs. Audio:

Video: 40

Audio: 10

Breakdown by language:

French: 25

Italian: 12

English: 2

German: 6

Russian: 4

Danish: 1

Breakdown by century of premiere:

17th: 3

18th: 4

19th: 28

20th: 14

Multiple centuries: 1 (17th, 18th, and 21st centuries for The Secret Life of Paintings because of the issue of the music’s original premieres versus the premiere of this)

Operas by first-time-for-me composers vs. not:

First time: 24 (by 23 composers)

Not: 25 (by 16 composers)

In between: 1 (The Secret Life of Paintings contains music by Vivaldi, and I have never seen any of his operas, but I have seen both Handel and Monteverdi operas)

Total: 50 operas by 40 composers 

Adam, Adolphe*

Le postillon de Lonjumeau (The Postilion of Lonjumeau)

Alfano, Franco*

Cyrano de Bergerac

Auber, Daniel François Esprit*

Fra Diavolo (Brother Diavolo)

Gustave III, ou le bal masqué (Gustave III, or The Masked Ball)*

Borodin, Alexander*

Knyaz Igor (Prince Igor)

Busoni, Ferruccio*

Doktor Faust (Doctor Faust)

Caccini, Francesca*

La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina (The Liberation of Ruggiero from Alcina’s Island)*

Chabrier, Emmanuel*

L’étoile (The Star)

Charpentier, Gustave*

Louise

Donizetti, Gaetano

Poliuto

Dukas, Paul*

Ariane et Barbe-bleue (Ariadne and Bluebeard)

von Flotow, Friedrich*

Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond (Martha, or The Market at Richmond)

Godard, Benjamin*

Dante*

Gounod, Charles François

La colombe (The Dove)*

Grétry, André*

Richard Cœur-de-lion (Richard the Lionheart)

Hahn, Reynaldo*

Ô mon bel inconnu (Oh, my beautiful unknown one)*

Halévy, Fromental

La reine de Chypre (The Queen of Cyprus)*

Handel, George Frideric

Rodelinda, regina de’Longobardi (Rodelinda, Queen of the Lombards)

Semele

Hervé (real name: Louis Auguste Florimond Ronger)*

Mam’zelle Nitouche

Korngold, Erich Wolfgang

Das Wunder der Heliane (The Miracle of Heliane)

Lortzing, Albert*

Zar und Zimmermann (Czar and Carpenter)

Lully, Jean-Baptiste*

Armide

Massenet, Jules

Don César de Bazan*

Don Quichotte (Don Quixote)

Le jongleur de Notre-Dame (The Juggler of Our Lady)

Sapho*

Meyerbeer, Giacomo

L’étoile du nord (The North Star)

Monteverdi, Claudio

L’Orfeo (Orpheus)

Nielsen, Carl*

Maskarade (Masquerade)

Offenbach, Jacques

La belle Hélène (The Beautiful Helen)

La vie parisienne (The Parisian Life)

Pergolesi, Giovanni Battista*

La serva padrona (The Servant Girl Turned Mistress)

Prokofiev, Sergei

Igrok (The Gambler)

Ravel, Maurice*

L’heure espagnole (The Spanish Hour)

Reynolds, Peter*

Sands of Time*

Rossini, Gioachino

La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie)

L’Italiana in Algeri (The Italian Woman in Algiers)

Saariaho, Kaija*

L’amour de loin (Love from Afar)- #50!!! (May 2, 2021)

Saint-Saëns, Camille

Henry VIII

Le timbre d’argent (The Silver Bell)*

Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich

Orleanskaja deva (The Maid of Orléans)

Pikovaya dama (Pique Dame/The Queen of Spades)

Various Composers

The Secret Life of Paintings (pastiche of excerpts from operas by George Frideric Handel, Claudio Monteverdi, and Antonio Vivaldi)

Verdi, Giuseppe

Giovanna d’Arco (Joan of Arc)

Oberto

Wagner, Richard

Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman)

Parsifal

Wolf-Ferrari, Ermanno*

Il segreto di Susanna (Susanna’s Secret)

Zandonai, Riccardo*

Francesca da Rimini

Here’s to the next fifty!

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

In Which notyouraveragejulie Catalogues All the Operatic Works She Experiences for the First Time in 2021

(to be continually added onto throughout the year)

the list is organized by alphabetical order of composers’ last names and then in alphabetical order of titles. an asterisk by a title, unless otherwise indicated, means my first full experience of that opera was audio-only. an asterisk by a composer’s name indicates that this year marks the first time I’ve ever experienced a full opera by them.

so, the ongoing list:

Adam, Adolphe*

Le postillon de Lonjumeau (The Postilion of Lonjumeau)

Alfano, Franco*

Cyrano de Bergerac

Auber, Daniel François Esprit*

Fra Diavolo (Brother Diavolo)

Gustave III, ou le bal masqué (Gustave III, or The Masked Ball)*

Aucoin, Matthew*

Eurydice

Bachelet, Alfred*

Scemo*

Barber, Samuel*

A Hand of Bridge

Blanchard, Terence*

Fire Shut Up in My Bones

Borodin, Alexander*

Knyaz Igor (Prince Igor)

Britten, Benjamin

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Busoni, Ferruccio*

Doktor Faust (Doctor Faust)

Caccini, Francesca*

La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina (The Liberation of Ruggiero from Alcina’s Island)*

Chabrier, Emmanuel*

L’étoile (The Star)

Charpentier, Gustave*

Louise

David, Félicien*

Herculanum*

Debussy, Claude*

La damoiselle élue (The Chosen Young Lady)*

L’enfant prodigue (The Prodigal Son)*

Pelléas et Mélisande (Pelléas and Mélisande)

Donizetti, Gaetano

Lucrezia Borgia

Poliuto

Dukas, Paul*

Ariane et Barbe-bleue (Ariadne and Bluebeard)

Eötvös, Peter*

Angels in America

Fauré, Gabriel*

Pénélope*

von Flotow, Friedrich*

Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond (Martha, or The Market at Richmond)

Glass, Philip*

Akhnaten

Godard, Benjamin*

Dante*

Gounod, Charles François

La colombe (The Dove)*

La reine de Saba (The Queen of Sheba)*-#100!!! (December 30, 2021)

Grétry, André*

Richard Cœur-de-lion (Richard the Lionheart)

Hahn, Reynaldo*

Ô mon bel inconnu (Oh, my beautiful unknown one)*

Halévy, Fromental

La magicienne (The Sorceress)*

La reine de Chypre (The Queen of Cyprus)*

Le dilettante d’Avignon (The Dilettante of Avignon)*

Handel, George Frideric

Rodelinda, regina de’Longobardi (Rodelinda, Queen of the Lombards)

Semele

Susanna*

Theodora

Hersant, Philippe*

Les Éclairs (Lightning)

Hervé (real name: Louis Auguste Florimond Ronger)*

Mam’zelle Nitouche

Ibert, Jacques*

Persée et Andromède (Perseus and Andromeda)*

Janáček, Leoš

Osud (Destiny)

Kimper, Paula M.*

Patience and Sarah

Korngold, Erich Wolfgang

Das Wunder der Heliane (The Miracle of Heliane)

Lecocq, Charles*

La fille de Madame Angot (The Daughter of Madame Angot)*

Lortzing, Albert*

Zar und Zimmermann (Czar and Carpenter)

Lully, Jean-Baptiste*

Armide

Martínez, José “Pepe”*

Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face of the Moon)*

Mascagni, Pietro

L’amico Fritz (The Friend Fritz)*

Massenet, Jules

Don César de Bazan*

Don Quichotte (Don Quixote)

La Navarraise (The Navarrese Woman)*

Le jongleur de Notre-Dame (The Juggler of Our Lady)

Sapho*

Thérèse*

Messager, André*

Passionnément (Passionately)*

Meyerbeer, Giacomo

L’étoile du nord (The North Star)

Monteverdi, Claudio

L’Orfeo (Orpheus)

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario)*- #75 (July 28, 2021)

Mussorgsky, Modest

Khovanshchina (The Khovansky Affair)

Nielsen, Carl*

Maskarade (Masquerade)

Offenbach, Jacques

La belle Hélène (The Beautiful Helen)

La vie parisienne (The Parisian Life)

Orff, Carl*

Antigonae*

Pergolesi, Giovanni Battista*

La serva padrona (The Servant Girl Turned Mistress)

Ponchielli, Amilcare

I Lituani (The Lithuanians)*

Prokofiev, Sergei

Igrok (The Gambler)

Purcell, Henry*

Dido and Aeneas*

King Arthur*

Ravel, Maurice*

L’enfant et les sortilèges (The Child and the Spells)

L’heure espagnole (The Spanish Hour)

Reynolds, Peter*

Sands of Time*

Rossini, Gioachino

La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie)

L’Italiana in Algeri (The Italian Woman in Algiers)

Saariaho, Kaija*

L’amour de loin (Love from Afar)- #50!!! (May 2, 2021)

Salieri, Antonio*

Prima la musica e poi le parole (First the music and then the words)*

Saint-Saëns, Camille

Henry VIII

Le timbre d’argent (The Silver Bell)*

Scarlatti, Domenico*

L’Ottavia restituita al trono (Ottavia Restored to the Throne)*

Shostakovich, Dmitri

Ledi Makbet Mtsenskogo uyezda (Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District)*

Smetana, Bedřich*

Prodaná nevěsta (The Bartered Bride)

Spontini, Gaspare*

Olimpie*

Stephan, Rudi*

Die ersten Menschen (The First Humans)

Strauss, Richard

Salome

Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich

Orleanskaja deva (The Maid of Orléans)

Pikovaya dama (Pique Dame/The Queen of Spades)

Various Composers

L’Aiglon (The Eaglet; music by Arthur Honegger and Jacques Ibert; this is the first time I have heard an opera by Honegger but not the first time I’ve heard one by Ibert)*

La jacquerie (The Jacquerie Revolt; music by Édouard Lalo and Arthur Coquard; this is the first time I have heard any operas by either composer)*

The Secret Life of Paintings (pastiche of excerpts from operas by George Frideric Handel, Claudio Monteverdi, and Antonio Vivaldi; this is the first time I have heard an opera even partly using the music of Vivaldi)

Verdi, Giuseppe

Alzira

Giovanna d’Arco (Joan of Arc)

Oberto

Un giorno di regno

Viardot, Pauline*

Le dernier sorcier (The Last Sorcerer)*

Vivaldi, Antonio*

Dorilla in Tempe

Wagner, Richard

Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman)

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg)

Parsifal

Weill, Kurt

Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny)

Wolf-Ferrari, Ermanno*

Il segreto di Susanna (Susanna’s Secret)

Zandonai, Riccardo*

Francesca da Rimini

von Zemlinsky, Alexander*

Der Zwerg (The Dwarf)

Final Count: 100

[verdiprati]

Francesca Caccini’s “La liberazione di Ruggiero” broadcast TODAY

Just a quick reminder for anyone who’s interested: “La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina,” the earliest known surviving opera written by a woman (it dates to 1625), is to be aired today (November 11) on the German radio station WDR 3. It will be a live broadcast of a concert performance at the Tage Alter Musik in Herne (Herne Early Music Days). Performances of this opera don’t come around very often; it was staged at the Brighton Early Music Festival two years ago and I think the BBC broadcast it, but I don’t seem to have caught it.

The broadcast is scheduled from 8:04 - 10:00 p.m. local time today; that makes it 7:04 - 9:00 p.m. in the UK and 2:04 - 4:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time in North America. Casting and other details are included in the World Concert Hall listing.