#and then la traviata and don carlos

[automaticdreamlandkid]

Verdi's Operas compilation

[4operalove]

RENATA SCOTTO

as Vitellia in MOZART's *La Clemenza di Tito*, 1984 (ph 1&2)

IDEM

as Violetta Valery in VERDI's *La Traviata* (ph 3)

as Amina in BELLINI's *La Sonnambula* (ph 4)

as La Gioconda (PONCHIELLI) (ph 5)

as Lady Macbeth in VERDI's *Macbeth*

as Elisabetta di Valois in VERDI's *Don Carlo*

as Lucía in DONIZETTI's *Lucía di Lammermoor* Copyright ©️ Tamino Autographs

as Anna Bolena in DONIZETTI's opera of the same name.

in *Iván Susanin*

[lliftedup]

Gonna send a call out to opera Tumblr and ask suggestions for which operas I should watch (and how? I have some resources but not all) as I've not seen one in a while and have an urge to change that. The ones I've seen so far are (in no particular order):

Parsifal

La Boheme

Don Carlo

La traviata

Il trovatore

Tristan und Isolde

Tosca

Billy Budd

Romeo et Juliet

Falstaff

Eugene Onegin

Carmen

The Barber of Seville

I'll take suggestions for new ones to see, favorite productions of ones I've already listed, I'll take em all*, so feel free to comment or repost or message me with some suggestions! Just throwing this out into the ether

*Except parsifal. I can't. I can't do that again I'm sorry Wagner (no not really) I entered into that opera unaware of the toll it would take on my psyche and I have not recovered I can't do it again-

[princesssarisa]

Don Pasquale: *disinherits Ernesto*

Ernesto: Alas, I'm doomed to poverty! I must renounce my beloved Norina rather than let her share my misery!

The Audience: Um... there are other ways of supporting a wife than just inheriting an uncle's fortune, you know.

(To be fair, in past centuries, upper class people couldn't work for a living, or else they'd lose their social standing. I don't know if that was as true in Italy as it was in England, but maybe that's the issue here. Still, to modern audiences at least, Ernesto seems clueless.)

I was kinda inspired by my earlier post and got this idea…

Reblog with your favorite Clueless Tenor Moment

[the-tenth-arcanum]

Verdian tenors ranked from 'I Like Him' to 'Kill Him with Hammers':

Manrico (Il trovatore): he's a teenager in love. what else do you need me to say. he enters the scene serenading his beloved, like a guy holding a boom box over his head. he's a reckless hothead who's not afraid to get into fights shouting "what are you gonna do, stab me?". and he's a mama's boy. he admittedly loses a few points for getting angry at leonora when she comes to rescue him, but he's awaiting execution, so he's not thinking clearly. mitigating circumstances. he dies as he lived – in the most dramatic way possible. I wish more tenors were like him.

Don Alvaro (La forza del destino): destiny's favourite chew toy. unluckiest man on the face of the earth. you can't help but feel sorry for him. I don't know if this counts as "liking" him, but it's gotta count for something.

Ernani: look I don't LOVE him, but his has gotta be the second coolest job on this list after "troubadour". he's a bandit in a cool, robin hood sort of way. literally just having a merry time with his men. sure, the whole oath with silva was dumb, but well, he's a tenor. kudos for following through with it.

Don Carlo: flop tenor. go girl, give us nothing. well done on the homoerotic duet and unrequited love and mysterious abduction by a monk. splendid work. but to me he comes across as a bit whiny. he exists on the same continuum of suffering as don alvaro, but towards the cringer end of the spectrum, which is why he doesn't rank higher.

Middle of the pack – Arrigo (La Battaglia di Legnano) / Arrigo (I vespri siciliani) / Radamès (Aida): military men. they're OK, I guess. la battaglia's arrigo gets bonus points for jumping out of a window to follow his men into battle and swearing loyalty to a corp called the knights of death, are you kidding me? that's metal as hell. unfortunately he's stuck in a fairly forgettable opera and he's also mean to his love interest for no reason (as per). i vespri's arrigo has potential – torn between personal and political interests, plus being part of a love triangle that would, in my opinion, work very well as a triad (based on what? vibes. don't worry about it.) radamès... I mean, he gets sealed alive in a tomb with his beloved. romeo and juliet's level of tragic lovers. Ultimately though they're all just some guy to me. they've not done anything especially offensive, but they don't stand out either.

Riccardo (Un ballo in maschera): look, I don't hate him. I'm kind of fond of him, actually. but one has to face the facts, which are – 1. he was ready to fuck his best friend's wife (he doesn't go through with it, but I don't think he deserves points for that) 2. he's more than a little dumb. he literally gets told who will kill him – the guy whose wife he is planning to seduce – and still he goes, "my best friend? I cannot think of any reason why he should want to kill me!" not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and a bad friend to boot. sure, there are worse sins, but there are better tenors. he's funny though.

Gabriele (Simon Boccanegra): Sento avvampar nell'anima is such a banger, but jealous tenors who make a scene and accuse their love of being unfaithful is never a good look, and he borderline threatens to kill her, so. he ain't it.

Alfredo (La traviata): I don't care that he repents immediately, he humiliates Violetta in public because she dared leave him for someone else, after he promised to love her forever and sucked her dry. she might have forgiven him at the end but I did not.

Rodolfo (Luisa Miller): murder-suicide immediately gets you to the bottom of the list as far as I'm concerned. how dare you? just kill yourself next time. at least he has the decency to sing a beautiful duet before dying. least he could do.

Otello: see above + I don't like this opera.

Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto): there's something so infuriating about this man. he's a bully and a rapist. he drives a girl to suicide. he learns nothing from this. he never even finds out! he's superficially charming and silly, so people forget how despicable he truly is. but not me. not me.

Not classified:

Macduff (Macbeth): it ain't about him.

All other tenors: I don't know them.

[vera-dauriac]

as of today, there are 105 different operas and operatic works bookmarked in the Opera Fics collection.

24 Italian Art Songs and Arias Aida - Verdi/Ghislanzoni Akhnaten (1983) - Philip Glass Andrea Chénier - Giordano/Illica Ariadne auf Naxos - Strauss/Hofmannsthal Ariane et Barbe-Bleue—Dukas/Maeterlinck Attila - Verdi/Solera Billy Budd - Britten/Forster & Crozier Carmen - Bizet/Halévy & Meilhac Catone in Utica - Pietro Metastasio Cavalleria rusticana - Mascagni/Targioni-Tozzetti & Menasci Così fan tutte - Mozart/Da Ponte Der fliegende Holländer | The Flying Dutchman - Wagner Der Freischütz Der Ring des Nibelungen | The Ring of the Nibelung - Wagner Der Rosenkavalier | The Knight of the Rose - Strauss/von Hoffmannsthal/von Kessler Dialogues des Carmélites - Poulenc/Bernanos Die Csárdásfürstin | The Gypsy Princess - Kalman/Stein/Jenbach Die Entführung aus dem Serail - Mozart/Bretzner Die Fledermaus - Strauss Die Lustige Witwe | The Merry Widow Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Wagner Die Zauberflöte | The Magic Flute - Mozart/Schikaneder Don Carlos | Don Carlo - Verdi/du Locle/Méry Don Giovanni - Mozart/Da Ponte Don Pasquale-Donizetti/Ruffini Drot og marsk | King and Marshal - Heise/Richardt Ernani - Verdi/Piave Eugene Onegin - Tchaikovsky Faust - Gounod/Barbier Florencia en el Amazonas - Catán/Fuentes-Berain Giulio Cesare in Egitto - Händel/Haym Guillaume Tell- Rossini/de Jouy/Bis I Capuleti e i Montecchi - Vincenzo Bellini/Felice Romani I Lombardi alla prima crociata—Verdi/Solera Idomeneo - Mozart/Varesco Il barbiere di Siviglia | The Barber of Seville - Rossini/Sterbini Il tabarro - Puccini/Adami Il trovatore - Verdi/Cammarano Il viaggio a Reims—Rossini/Balocchi Její pastorkyňa - Janáček Juditha Triumphans - Vivaldi/Cassetti La bohème - Puccini/Illica/Giacosa La Cenerentola - Rossini/Ferretti La Clemenza di Tito | The Clemency of Titus - Mozart/Mazzolà/Metastasio La Fanciulla del West | The Girl of the Golden West - Puccini/Civinini & Zangarini La Forza del Destino - Verdi/Piave La Rondine - Puccini/Adami/Willner & Reichert La sonnambula - Bellini/Romani La Traviata - Verdi/Piave La vie parisienne - Meilhac/Halévy/Offenbach La Wally - Catalani/Illica L'amico Fritz - Mascagni/Suardon Le nozze di Figaro | The Marriage of Figaro - Mozart/Da Ponte L'elisir d'amore | The Elixir of Love - Donizetti/Romani Leonore | Fidelio - Beethoven/Sonnleithner & Treitschke Les Contes d'Hoffman - Offenbach/Barbier Les Huguenots - Meyerbeer/Deschamps & Scribe Les pêcheurs de perles | The Pearl Fishers - Bizet/Cormon & Carré Les Troyens - Berlioz Les vêpres siciliennes|I vespri siciliani—Verdi/Scribe/Duveyrier L'italiana in Algeri | The Italian Girl in Algiers - Rossini/Anelli Lohengrin - Wagner L'Olimpiade - Pietro Metastasio Lucia di Lammermoor - Donizetti/Cammarano Lucrezia Borgia - Donizetti/Romani Luisa Miller - Verdi/Cammarano Lulu - Alban Berg Madama Butterfly - Puccini/Illica/Giacosa Manon - Fandom Moses und Aron - Schoenberg Nabucco—Verdi/Solera Norma - Bellini/Romani Oberto Conte di San Bonifacio—Verdi/Solera Orfeo ed Euridice | Orpheus and Eurydice - Gluck Pagliacci - Ruggero Leoncavallo Parsifal - Wagner Partenope - Händel/Stampiglia Pelléas et Mélisande - Debussy/Maeterlinck Polyeucte - Charles Gounod Porgy and Bess -- George Gershwin Rigoletto - Verdi/Piave Robert Devereux- Donizetti/Cammarano Rodelinda (Met Opera 2011) Rusalka - Dvořák/Kvapil Siegfried - Wagner Simon Boccanegra - Verdi/Piave Stiffelio—Verdi/Piave Suor Angelica - Puccini/Forzano Tannhäuser - Wagner The Maid of Orléans - Tchaikovsky The Medium (Opera) The Pearl Fishers (Bizet) The Queen of Spades (opera) The Rake's Progress - Stravinsky/Auden/Kallman The Tales of Hoffmann Tosca - Puccini/Illica/Giacosa Tristan und Isolde | Tristan and Isolde - Wagner Turandot - Puccini Turn of the Screw - Britten/Piper Un Ballo in Maschera | A Masked Ball - Verdi/Somma Un giorno di regno—Verdi/Romani Иоланта | Iolanta - Tchaikovsky Пиковая Дама | Pique Dame - Tchaikovsky Снегурочка–Весенняя сказка | Snow Maiden - Rimsky-Korsakov

This is so crazy exciting!!!! I really should do a sweep of all the theater fandoms again and see if there are any missing operas. Should probably check these old fandoms for new works, too. I haven't done a thorough look since I set up the Opera Fics bookmark.

Thanks, nonny! 😊

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

characters from verdi operas as dril tweets, in no particular order:

jacopo foscari (i due foscari): see this watch? i got it by Crying. my car? crying. my beautiful wife? Crying. My perfect teeth? Crying. now get the fuck out of my office

grand inquisitor (don carlos): blocked. blocked. blocked. youre all blocked. none of you are free of sin

attila (opera of the same name): joke's on you; i actually love being body slammed by one dozen perfect wrestlers. and my mouth isn't filled with bloodm, it's victory wine

don carlos (opera of the same name): im actualy, probably, the most superbly relatable and normal person in this jail cell as of right NOw

alfredo and annina (la traviata): "Food $200

Data $150

Rent $800

Candles $3,600

Utility $150

someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying"

"spend less on candles"

"no"

[rayatii]

sleepover Saturday!

Recs- My opera rotation (basically Tosca, forza, Don Carlo, Romeo+julliette, Simon boccanegra, traviata)is getting a bit stale as it’s been on repeat for a few years now. Recommendations? Can be similar or drastically different in vibe :)

Ooooh!! I'll try to get pretty diverse stuff:

Andrea Chénier and Fedora (both by Giordano), for some verismo feels!

Falstaff, for some comedic Verdi.

L'amico Fritz (by Mascagni), I've been kind of in the mood since me and my family picked cherries at our farm yesterday.

If you like something similar to Gounod!Roméo et Juliette, how about replaying Faust?

For some lesser-known Puccini, La fanciulla del West and La rondine!

And I have been mostly working on fanfic for L'elisir d'amore!

Don't know if I might add more, but here's some stuff I have so far.

[verdiesque]

unpredictably. i will ask you for your favourite songs by giuseppe verdi

Oughhhhhhh. Okay I'll try

In no particular order, limiting myself to an aria per opera and bearing in mind that the list changes all the time:

Tu che le vanita from Don Carlo

Miserere from Il trovatore

Act 2 duet (Violetta and Germont) from La traviata

Act 4 duet (Alvaro and Carlo di Vargas) from La forza del destino

Vieni, t'afretta from Macbeth

[opera-ghosts]

Wanda Wermińska - Libiamo ne’ lieti calici (Giuseppe Verdi, "La Traviata")

Wanda Wermińska (18 November 1900 – 30 August 1988) was a Polish operatic dramatic soprano and mezzo-soprano.

made her operatic debut in 1923 at the Grand Theatre, Warsaw as Amneris in Verdi's Aida with great success. For the role of Carmen in Bizet's opera, she took dance lessons with the flamenco dancer La Argentina. In operas such as Il trovatore, Un ballo in maschera, Don Carlos, Fidelio, Le nozze di Figaro, Andrea Chénier, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Die Walküre and Halka she took on more than forty roles in the mezzo-soprano and soprano genres in the 1920s.

In 1929, Wermińska left Poland and made guest appearances in Vienna, Berlin, Bucharest, Prague, Riga, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Milan, Rome, Venice, Madrid and Alexandria, among other places. In Budapest she appeared alongside Feodor Chaliapin in Faust, which invited her to perform in Boris Godunov at several European theatres.

During the period of the Second World War, Wermińska lived in South America, where she had engagements in Argentina (Teatro Colón), Brazil, Chile and Mexico, under the conductors Bruno Walter Fritz Busch and Wilhelm Furtwängler and with soloists such as Kirsten Flagstad, Maria Caniglia, Fedora Barbieri, Beniamino Gigli, Lily Pons and Mario del Monaco.

She returned to Poland in 1947, where she continued to perform as an opera and concert singer, also on radio and television, and worked as a music teacher. She was highly regarded as the "Mother of Polish Opera".

[elmartillosinmetre]

"Ser titular de una orquesta como la ROSS sería un placer"

[Giacomo Sagripanti ayer en el Maestranza, momentos antes de esta entrevista / Juan Carlos Muñoz]

El maestro italiano vuelve a dirigir a la ROSS, casi una década después, con un programa que incluye la Sinfonía de Réquiem de Benjamin Britten y la Sinfonía nº4 de Gustav Mahler 

El director italiano Giacomo Sagripanti (Giulianova, Abruzzo, 1982) dirigirá jueves y viernes en el Teatro de la Maestranza, donde tiene lugar esta entrevista, el programa Gran Sinfónico 3 de la ROSS, que, dentro del ciclo Andalucía Sinfónica, la orquesta sevillana llevará también el domingo al Villamarta de Jerez. Sagripanti vino por primera vez a Sevilla en febrero de 2014 para dirigir una Cenerentola de Rossini y un concierto sinfónico y regresó con la ROSS en noviembre de 2015.

Pregunta.–¿Qué recuerdos tiene de aquellos conciertos?

Respuesta.–Vine para hacer Cenerentola, pero el director que estaba previsto para el concierto sinfónico aquella semana tuvo una baja y, como era un programa italiano, me lo pidieron a mí. Lo recuerdo muy bien. Fue muy interesante, pero ahora es mejor porque tenemos tres días de ensayos en el mismo escenario del concierto y eso es un lujo.

P.–¿Cómo ha encontrado a la orquesta?

R.–Más joven. De repente se ha convertido en una orquesta de jóvenes. Eso es normal, porque en diez años se producen muchos cambios. Muchos de los que quedan me recordaban y vinieron a saludarme al camerino. Creo también que ahora es mejor orquesta. Lo aprecié desde la primera lectura. Fueron muy profesionales, muy atentos a todos los detalles y muy disciplinados. Pienso que han aprovechado estos diez años para mejorar.

P.–Viene de hacer un Nabucco en Toulouse y mirando su agenda le siguen Rondine, Don Pasquale, Turco in Italia, Traviata, Trovatore, Barbero... ¿Se considera básicamente director de ópera?

R.–Intento hacer cinco o seis programas cada año en sinfónico. El mes próximo debuto en la Philharmonie de París con la Orquesta de Cámara de París y la 7ª de Beethoven. Una muy buena orquesta con un programa muy interesante. Es cierto que he ganado mi fama haciendo ópera, y la ópera me permite trabajar en todos los grandes teatros del mundo, Viena, Londres, París, Madrid, este año también Nueva York. Pero intento siempre hacer programas sinfónicos con orquestas buenas. No he trabajado todavía con la Filarmónica de Berlín o la de Viena, pero puede ser que eso llegue algún día. Lo que me interesa es no parar con el sinfónico y hacer mucho repertorio, que es muy importante.

P.–¿Cuál es para un director la principal diferencia entre ambos repertorios, la ópera y el sinfónico?

R.–Hay enormes diferencias. En el estudio y en la técnica. El trabajo del director de ópera italiana es técnicamente el trabajo más virtuoso, el más difícil. Porque es un trabajo puramente técnico: en escena pueden pasar mil cosas y mantener la coordinación es esencial. El trabajo del sinfónico no tiene los problemas que tiene un teatro, el foso, la distancia, el coro, los solistas, la escena, pero tienes otras cosas que son detalles de trabajo musical. Es más fácil ir todos juntos con el sinfónico, porque hay solo una plantilla, pero es mucho más difícil buscar sonidos, atmósferas, los matices, es una cocina más refinada, si quiere. Para un director de ópera es importante hacer sinfónico, porque en el foso puedes utilizar este refinamiento del sonido que debes tener en el sinfónico. Es algo que te sirve para destacar detalles en una obra de Verdi, por ejemplo, en la ópera francesa o en Puccini, que es un compositor muy sinfónico, por no hablar de Wagner. Uno puede empezar haciendo ópera de joven y con el tiempo ir metiéndose en el sinfónico. Al revés es mucho más difícil, por esa cuestión técnica que le decía, porque tienes que acostumbrarte a muchísimas más cosas. Yo empecé con la ópera belcantista, pero siempre haciendo sinfónicos. Por supuesto que en ese terreno también hay obras de gran dificultad técnica –pienso en Stravinski, por ejemplo–, pero lo puedes preparar: el 99% de lo que ensayas sale en el concierto. En la ópera es imprevisible. Un día un cantante no tiene la voz como el día anterior y tienes que cambiar el tempo, las dinámicas..., y de todo eso tienes que darte cuenta sobre la marcha, en el foso, comprender la situación al instante y hacerlo.

"El trabajo del director de ópera italiana es técnicamente el trabajo más virtuoso, el más difícil. Porque es un trabajo puramente técnico: en escena pueden pasar mil cosas y mantener la coordinación es esencial"

P.–¿No lo han vuelto a llamar del Maestranza para una ópera?

R.–Muchas veces, pero no he podido por problemas de agenda. Este año me propusieron Turandot, y en este caso me lo impidió un problema familiar. Buscamos un proyecto más corto y salió este concierto, que me interesa muchísimo.

P.–Una obra no muy difundida en nuestro entorno, la Sinfonía de Réquiem de Britten, y una muy popular, la 4ª de Mahler...

R.–Me interesó mucho la propuesta. Primero, porque la obra de Britten no la había dirigido nunca. Segundo, porque temáticamente es muy interesante: todo el programa se modula en torno a la muerte. La obra de Britten es un Réquiem sin palabras. Cada uno de los tres movimientos lleva el título de un número de la misa de difuntos: Lacrymosa, Dies Irae, Requiem Aeternam. Eso parece significar que quiso dar una dirección muy clara a cada movimiento, y en este sentido es una obra si quiere expresionista, pero en la interpretación los dilemas son puramente musicales: mucho contrapunto, una orquestación muy interesante, muy del siglo XX. Todo se basa en la construcción del sonido. Mahler es otra cosa. La 4ª es la última de sus sinfonías Wunderhorn. Y la plantea como un viaje a la muerte, pero desde el punto de vista infantil. Toma el texto del poema y a la vez este concepto de muerte muy alemán y muy eslavo, porque la muerte en este mundo es una parte de la vida. Hay que aceptar la muerte con una sonrisa, como lo puede hacer un niño. Y esa es una idea muy mahleriana. Para nosotros los latinos tiene algo de macabro. Pero en la cultura alemana es normal: ver la muerte con los ojos de un niño y hacer bromas con la muerte. El primer movimiento de la sinfonía es una descripción muy infantil del mundo terrenal, de lo que pasa en la vida. Pero llega entonces una llamada de las trompas, que es la llamada de Dios, y empieza también a jugar con el fídel, el instrumento del diablo [Mahler lo representa con el primer violín en scordatura, un tono más alto]. Es el segundo movimiento, una danza de la muerte, otra figura típica de la cultura alemana, que Berlioz y Liszt también utilizaron. El tercer movimiento es el más mahleriano, el más profundo, el que expresa el sufrimiento por la muerte. Y en el cuarto se abre la puerta del paraíso para mostrar todo este mundo infantil, de una gran dulzura, hasta el punto de que todo termina como en un sueño. Estás vivo, y esa es la magia de la obra, que cierra todo un mundo en Mahler.

[Otra foto de Giacomo Sagripanti tras el ensayo del miércoles por la mañana en el escenario del Maestranza / Juan Carlos Muñoz]

P.–Cuando estuvo en Sevilla en 2014, la ROSS buscaba director y su nombre estuvo entre los candidatos. Ahora curiosamente la orquesta vuelve a buscar director, ¿lo han sondeado?

R.–No lo sabía. Me enteré al llegar. Yo no tengo de momento una orquesta y considerar una orquesta sinfónica del nivel de la ROSS es seguramente un placer. Creo que estas cosas dependen de muchos factores... He tenido algunos puestos de responsabilidad en teatros y orquestas, pero creo que son cosas que no pueden forzarse, tienen que salir de forma muy natural...

P. –¿Lo consideraría si se lo propusieran?

R.–Claro que sí, porque Sevilla es una ciudad que adoro, tengo muchísimos recuerdos extraordinarios de aquí. Y la orquesta tiene ahora mucho mejor nivel que hace diez años. Para mí como director italiano ser titular de una orquesta como esta sería un placer. Además hago ópera en los mejores teatros del mundo. Me consta que ha habido problemas de coordinación entre la ópera y los conciertos sinfónicos en este teatro. Y creo que sería la primera vez que en la ROSS puede haber un director artístico que también puede hacer ópera al máximo nivel. Sería una opción muy interesante, pero ya le digo que tiene que ser algo que surja de forma natural. Mi relación con los músicos de la orquesta está siendo muy buena, soy feliz por estar aquí y si en la orquesta también están contentos conmigo... Ya veremos lo que pasa.

[Diario de Sevilla. 10-10-2024]

[operaportugues]

Canal de TV “Film & Arts” em maio/2024

O canal de TV “Film & Arts” está disponível nestas operadoras:

Claro TV: Canal 148; Canal 648 (HD)

SKY: Canal 116; Canal 516 (HD)

NET: Canal 148; Canal 648 (HD)

Clique no item abaixo para ver as datas/horários em maio/2024.

Canção Secreta - Alban Berg´s Lyric Suite

Ópera do Mendigo - Robert Carsen

Anna Netrebko & Rolando Villazón- La Traviata

Concerto de Paris 2023

Montserrat Caballé canta Norma

Sonho de uma noite de Verão

Moisés - Gioachino Rossini - Duomo Di Milano

Arthur Rubinstein - Chopin

Kathleen Battle & Jessye Norman

Três tenores - de Caracalla para o mundo

Don Quixote, com Marianela Nuñez e Carlos Acosta

Lucia di Lammermoor- Piotr Beczala

O anel centenário em Bayreuth

Viscera/ Tarde de um Fauno/ Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux/ Carmen

O Barbeiro de Sevilha

[greatoperasingers]

Luciano Pavarotti

After a bit of waiting, my second blog is finally up... the name is self-explanatory, and who better a great opera singer to kick this blog off with than the late Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007).

The first time I heard Luciano Pavarotti's voice, it was on a recording of Puccini's Madama Butterfly; this was the famous recording with Luciano's childhood friend Mirella Freni (who, incidentally, never sang the part on stage). Luciano had sung the part of Pinkerton a couple of times on record; according to the BBC Classical Music website, the very first time he did so was in 1963 in Northern Ireland's Grand Opera House. He performed this role only a few times early in his career; however, he did sing Pinkerton's short aria "Addio, fiorito" in concert in his later years.

Hailing from Modena in Italy, Luciano Pavarotti had loved singing since he was a boy, however an impromptu rendition of "Vesti la giubba" (from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci) at the age of 5, made his neighbors tell him to shut up. Luciano began his formal training as a young adult under Arrigo Pola, and he made his operatic debut as Rodolfo in Puccini's La Boheme at Reggio Emilia in 1961. This role would become one of his most renowned roles, and one with which he would make several of his opera house debuts. The story goes that during one performance of Boheme, Luciano delivered Rodolfo's act 1 aria "Che gelida manina" - which contains a famous high C near the end - and as he finished the aria, even the soprano standing next to him came completely out character, turned to him, and joined the congregation in applause!

Over time Luciano would associate himself largely with the operas of Verdi and Puccini. He himself has confessed that he has performed the role of Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca more than any other role in his career. He has also done the Duke in Verdi's Rigoletto, Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata, Radames in Verdi's Aida, the title roles in Verdi's Il Trovatore, Verdi's Don Carlo, and Giordano's Andrea Chenier, and perhaps most famously, Calaf in Puccini's Turandot.

The role of Calaf has largely been associated with Luciano because of the Act 3 aria, "Nessun dorma", which needs no introduction. Luciano sang Calaf on stage only twice in his career - in 1977 at San Francisco, with Montserrat Caballe as Turandot and Riccardo Chailly at the baton; and again 20 years later in 1997 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, with Jane Eaglen as Turandot and Maestro James Levine conducting. The latter recording is one of the most difficult to find; several audio excerpts exist online, as does a small video of him singing the "No no principessa altera" from Act 2, complete with its long, seemingly unending high C (see video below), but to date there is no known complete audio or video of this performance. The Met has yet to announce a release.

The relationship between Luciano and Levine has long been one of the best ever; many are aware that both were more than just friends or colleagues. It was "Jimmy" who encouraged Luciano to expand his repertory and take on more roles (I have discussed a lot about this in my Pride Month tribute post to James Levine in my mane blog). Under Levine's guidance, Luciano took on such demanding roles as Calaf and Chenier, as well as - yes, this is wacky but legit - the Italian Singer in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier in 1982!

And Levine didn't stop there; he encouraged Luciano to take on more, language-wise. Luciano admitted in his autobiography that he loved French opera, and two roles he always wanted to sing on stage were the title role in Massenet's Werther and Don Jose in Bizet's Carmen. Indeed, Werther's Act 3 aria "Pourquoi me reveiller?" had always been one of Luciano's favorites to perform live as a concert piece - he even did so at one of the Three Tenors concerts, as you can see in this next video.

Luciano was all set to do his first Werther in 1991 at Covent Garden; but the performance was taken over by the British conductor George Solti, who decided that the performance would be a concert performance of Verdi's Otello instead.

Then the cancelations began, those which Luciano became very infamous for in his later years. In 1996, not long after doing his first Chenier under Levine, Luciano was going to do his first Don Jose at a Xmas performance of Carmen, with Waltraud Meier in the title role (and again with Levine conducting); but - shockingly - he fell ill and canceled at the eleventh hour. In her book, Molto Agitato, reporter Johanna Fiedler recounts that when it was announced that Luciano had called in ill and was canceling Don Jose, the Met's general manager Joe Volpe allegedly said to the audience in a pre-show announcement: "The good news is that Mr Pavarotti asked me to send you all his holiday greetings. The bad news is that he sends you his greetings from Modena." Luciano was understudied in the role of Don Jose for that performance by his good friend, tenor Placido Domingo. (Luciano did, however, recover in time to perform Calaf the year after.)

Luciano never stopped trying new things out. In 1994, for the soundtrack of the Charlie Sheen movie The Three Musketeers, he recorded the theme song "All for love" with Bryan Adams, one of his first forays into modern popular music:

Of course, Luciano never lost his roots; he was no stranger to the traditional Arie Antiche, the series of 24 Italian songs and arias from the 1700s compiled by Alessandro Parisotti which today are used primarily for music pedagogy, especially vocal auditions. In fact, he adored these arias, and always opened every recital with one. Here is Luciano's rendition of "Caro mio ben", perhaps the single most infamous Arie Antiche ever, accompanied by La Scala's music director Riccardo Muti on piano, from 1995:

As the new millennium began, Luciano performed Radames in Verdi's Aida at the Met in 2001, with Deborah Voigt in the title role and again with Levine conducting. His farewell to the stage was in 2004 as Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca, one of his most renowned roles, with Carol Vaness in the title role, Samuel Ramey as Scarpia, and again with his beloved "Jimmy" Levine at the podium.

The world mourned Luciano's loss in September 2007, after he passed away at the age of 72, reportedly of a heart attack due to his weight, with which he struggled for much of his life. We are all the poorer for Luciano's loss. His opera performances on video and record will be his everlasting memorial.

Here, to round it up, is a full-length video of Luciano giving a masterclass at Juilliard in New York in 1979:

[princesssarisa]

Here's a big list I've made (because of course I had to) of opera birthdays, for anyone who wants to remember and celebrate them.

(Les Contes d'Hoffmann shares my birthday!)

January

2: Der Fliegende Holländer

3: Don Pasquale

14: Tosca

15: Vanessa

19: Il Trovatore, Manon

21: Jenufa

22: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

23: Eugene Onegin

24: I Puritani

25: La Cenerentola, Elektra

26: Cosí Fan Tutte, Der Rosenkavalier, Dialogues des Carmélites

27: Boris Godunov

29: Idomeneo

February

1: La Bohéme, Manon Lescaut

2: Louise

3: Semiramide

5: Otello

6: La Voix Humaine

7: Orphée aux Enfers, Four Saints in Three Acts, Il Matrimonio Segreto,

9: Falstaff, Khovanschina

10: Les Contes d’Hoffmann

11: La Fille du Régiment

16: Werther

17: Madama Butterfly, Un Ballo in Maschera

19: Don Quichotte

20: Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Giulio Cesare, La Wally

23: La Juive

24: Rinaldo

29: La Forza del Destino

March

3: Carmen

6: La Traviata, La Sonnambula

9: Nabucco, Ernani, Die Lustige Weiber von Windsor

11: Rigoletto, Don Carlos, I Capuleti e I Montecchi

12: Simon Boccanegra

13: Médée (Cherubini)

14: Macbeth

16: Thaïs

17: Attila

19: Faust

21: L’Enfant et les Sortileges

27: La Rondine

28: Andréa Chenier

31: Rusalka

April

5: Die Fledermaus

8: La Gioconda

10: L’Amore dei Tre Re

14: Lakmé

15: Serse

16: Alcina, Le Prophéte

25: Turandot

27: Roméo et Juliette

28: L’Africaine

30: Pelléas et Melisande

May

1: Le Nozze di Figaro

5: Mefistofele

12: L’Elisir d’Amore

17: Cavalleria Rusticana

18: Iphigénie en Tauride

19: L’Heure Espagnole

21: Pagliacci, Doktor Faust

22: L’Italiana in Algeri

24: Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, Cendrillon

30: The Bartered Bride

June

6: Moses und Aron

7: Peter Grimes

10: Tristan und Isolde

11: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Britten)

12: War and Peace

13: Les Vêpres Siciliennes/I Vespri Siciliani

18: Der Freischütz

20: Albert Herring, La Navarraise

21: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

26: Die Wälkure

July

1: Arabella

16: Die Entführung aus dem Serail

26: Parsifal

August

3: Guillaume Tell

9: Béatrice et Bénédict

14: Il Turco in Italia

16: Siegfried

17: Götterdämmerung

28: Lohengrin

September

5: La Serva Padrona, Satyagraha

6: La Clemenza di Tito

11: The Rake’s Progress

14: The Turn of the Screw

22: Das Rheingold

24: La Donna del Lago

26: Lucia di Lammermoor

30: Die Zauberflöte, Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Porgy and Bess

October

5: Orfeo ed Euridice

7: The Golden Cockerel

10: Die Frau ohne Schatten

19: Tannhäuser

22: Nixon in China

25: Ariadne auf Naxos

28: Roberto Devereux, Cappriccio

29: Don Giovanni

31: L’Amico Fritz

November

4: Les Troyens, Prince Igor, Intermezzo

6: Adriana Lecouvreur, The Cunning Little Vixen

10: La Forza del Destino

16: Stiffelio

17: Fedora

20: Fidelio

23: Kát���a Kabanová

25: Martha

27: L’Arlesiana, Ruslan and Lyudmila, The Bohemian Girl

December

1: Billy Budd

2: Samson et Dalila, La Favourite

4: Die Tote Stadt

6: La Damnation de Faust

8: Luisa Miller

9: Salome

10: La Fanciulla del West

14: Il Trittico (Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi), Wozzeck

18: Iolanta

19: Pique Dame, The Ghosts of Versailles

23: Hänsel und Gretel

24: Aida, Amahl and the Night Visitors

26: Norma, Alceste, Anna Bolena

30: The Merry Widow, Maria Stuarda, The Love for Three Oranges

i do think it’s a really fun feature that operas have birthdays. i know that everything can have a birthday if you know how to look at things but i love that every march 6 i see people saying happy birthday la traviata!! and every october 29 i see jokes about how of course don giovanni the opera is a scorpio (although i think don giovanni the character should have been born in may). there’s something so kind about it

[spghtrbry]

…shit happens

[vera-dauriac]

@thyroid-deployment The recs from my dear @lenskij are, of course, great, and starting with La Traviata is such a good choice. (It was my first Verdi.) But if you want to get just a little taste of Verdi, as a cellist, I think you will appreciate this aria from Verdi's Don Carlo. It has the most exquisite cello solo!

My cello teacher told me I should start listening to opera. He recommended I start with Puccini or Verdi. Are there any particular operas you'd recommend to start with?

Welcome to opera! There's drama, there's blood, there's crossdressing, vengeance, rivalries, love, and more drama!

There are as many opera opinions as there are opera listeners, and there is so much variety in opera. The most played operas are always a safe bet - there's a reason they're popular! - and it's a good place to start, pick something that tickles your fancy, maybe an intriguing synopsis or a composer you like.

If you want to start with Verdi, I recommend La Traviata and Rigoletto - both are beautiful and devastating in their tragedy. I like to listen to them when I want something familiar to bawl my eyes out at :) I think that's maybe the best place to start!

Another great "starter" opera is Bizet's Carmen. It's full of banger arias and tunes that are well-known even outside of the opera world.

If you want to check out Puccini, I'd recommend La Boheme or Tosca (with the caveat that I don't personally like Puccini operas hehe, they're just not for me).

And of course I cannot not recommend the best opera of all time (as judged by yours truly): Eugene Onegin by the one and only Tchaikovsky. I love it so much I can't even articulate why I love it. It's the inevitable tragedy caused by the characters' own actions, not from malice, but from who they are as people. It's how Tchaikovsky's music beautifully makes the drama soar. It will break your heart and you'll thank Piotr Ilyich for it!

Good luck on your opera journey! There's lots to explore. I mean, the operas listed above are all from the second half of the 19th century, which is just a narrow band of all opera history!