#and then la traviata and don carlos

[spghtrbry]

…shit happens

[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-

[vera-dauriac]

We're half way, folks! But you still have over 3 days to vote, beg your friends to vote, make new accounts to vote, and generally show your passion for Verdi!

Death Match

You voted in the first round, and these were the 4 operas left standing. Now decide which Verdi opera walks away on top!

Reminder--where there are multiple versions of the opera, you are voting for whichever one you love best.

[princesssarisa]

Where do you watch operas?

There are plenty of complete filmed opera performances available on YouTube, which you can watch for free. Unfortunately, not all of them have English subtitles, but if necessary, you can always find a translation of the libretto online to follow along with.

In fact, just for fun, as an example, I'll provide some links to complete filmed performances of the world's top 10 most popular operas, with English subtitles.

Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)

Studio film, 1971 (Nicolai Gedda, Edith Mathis, William Workman, Christina Deutekom, Hans Sotin; directed by Sir Peter Ustinov; conducted by Horst Stein)

La Traviata

Studio film, 1968 (Anna Moffo, Franco Bonisolli, Gino Bechi; directed by Mario Lanfranchi; conducted by Giuseppe Patané)

Carmen

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 2006 (Anna Caterina Antonacci, Jonas Kaufmann, Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, Norah Ansellem; staged by Francesca Zambello; conducted by Antonio Pappano)

La Bohéme

Studio film, 1965 (Mirella Freni, Gianni Raimondi, Rolando Panerai, Adriana Martino; directed by Franco Zeffirelli; conducted by Herbert von Karajan)

Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)

Teatro alla Scala, 2006 (Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, Diana Damrau, Marcella Orsatti Talamanca, Pietro Spagnoli, Monica Bacelli; staged by Giorgio Strehler; conducted by Gérard Korsten)

Tosca

Teatro Real de Madrid, 2004 (Daniela Dessí, Fabio Armiliato, Ruggero Raimondi; staged by Nuria Espert; conducted by Maurizio Benini)

Madama Butterfly

Theatrical film, 1995 (Ying Huang, Richard Troxell, Ning Liang, Richard Cowan; directed by Frédéric Mitterand; conducted by James Conlon)

Don Giovanni

Zurich Opera, 2001 (Rodney Gilfry, László Polgár, Isabel Rey, Cecilia Bartoli, Liliana Nikiteanu, Roberto Saccá, Oliver Wimer, Matti Salminen; staged by Jürgen Flimm; conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt)

Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)

Metropolitan Opera, 2007 (Peter Mattei, Juan Diego Florez, Joyce diDonato, John Del Carlo, John Relyea; staged by Bartlett Sher; conducted by Maurizio Benini)

Act I, Act II

Rigoletto

Studio film, 1982 (Ingvar Wixell, Luciano Pavarotti, Edita Gruberova; directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle; conducted by Riccardo Chailly)

[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

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

@vera-dauriac

[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".

[supercantaloupe]

alright operablr might hate me for this one but i...was not wild about don carlo, tbh. i think it's kind of a mess. before i elaborate i want to stress that a lot of my opinions are taste based and i am not saying that the opera or anyone who likes it are Bad or Wrong, i just don't think it's quite For Me. adding a cut so you can ignore all this if you want

anyway after having seen both nabucco and don carlo within a week of each other (thereby doubling my previous experience with verdi of traviata and otello), i'm starting to feel like, stylistically, early/mid verdi is much more my speed than late verdi. i remember coming away from otello thinking "that was alright" whereas with nabucco and traviata i was thinking "wow that was great!"...after finishing don carlo last night i was just...confused. i feel like i'm missing something.

actually, i definitely am; i've seen people posting about recurring motifs and beautiful arias etc in the music and i definitely missed those. again, late verdi (along with a lot of late romantic music tbh) just Is Not My Thing, i think. and considering how late don carlo is in verdi's output i'm not surprised (very much a post-wagner composition, don carlo is. same with otello). i'm planning on writing a separate post about this so i won't go into much detail here but the music really lacked a lasting memorable-ness for me; what was there was nice, yes, but it didn't feel like anything stood out much. i mean, numbers like the brindisi and amami alfredo in traviata, va pensiero in nabucco, and la donna e mobile in rigoletto -- these all Stand Out, even after only a single listen, but i am not even 12 hours off watching don carlo and i don't think i could hum for you one of its melodies. again, this has a lot to do with personal taste; in general i tend to prefer 18th and early 19th century music styles, and i plan on going into more detail about memorable music in theater in a different post.

and man, the plot is a mess. also, not to apply too modern a lens of story criticism here, but the pacing is all over the place: act ii is, like, twice the length of act i, and act iv is no quick jaunt either, then v is pretty short again. (and really who am i to complain about a 3.5 hour runtime, as a giulio cesare fan, an opera which bumps up against 4? well, at least giulio cesare has a consistent if slow pace...)

it is all over the place. one moment it's a typical operatic romance, then a political intrigue, another it's a gay psychodrama, and then it's about the catholic church. i think this is a feature rather than a bug for some people but it really did not work for me. like it's all well and good watching rodrigo and carlo swearing their loyalty for one another in the most totally heterosexual way possible or making plans to save flanders or deal with carlo's embarrassing crush on his stepmom or whatever, but when the very next scene (with no real warning) is a public parade of heretics for shaming and burning...bit of a tonal whiplash there, i think!

again, taste is a factor here. known sexy oklahoma enjoyer sasha supercantaloupe is no stranger or opponent of tonal whiplash in theater, but when it comes to "no one expects the spanish inquisition!" i think there's a difference between guys with silly outfits and silly accents popping out from behind a corner and a crowd of people dressed in friar habits carrying crosses and torches around onstage...especially to a jewish viewer like me. the plot very much feels like something someone who doesn't like opera would make up to belittle the art form imo: it's like four different things at once all thrown together in a very long, kind of jumbled mess. (i mean, what does eboli even do other than show up, make things Even More Complicated, and then disappear within two acts?)

and...i get the sense that verdi/contemporary audiences might've thought this, too. obviously the fact that it got so many productions that it HAS so many different versions at all shows that people liked it enough to keep performing it -- but there being so many different versions of the opera (disregarding translations), four acts versus five, cut or revised arias, etc, i think also indicates that something about the opera was not working quite right that they kept trying to fix. now i've only seen one version (granted it came highly recommended to me by mutuals, but only one nonetheless) and can't comment on other versions of the opera; maybe another version works better for me, idk. on its own i actually think it's really interesting that there are so many different revisions out there to study -- a real lucky glimpse into the dramaturgical process that you don't normally get to see from shows of the era or earlier. (ask me about hadestown if you want to know more of my thoughts on changes made over the course of a show's development being for better or worse.) but the finished version of the opera (at least the version i saw) is a bit of a mess imo. i definitely think it has its high moments, but i don't think they completely overshadow its lows. comparing it again to otello, which was a much more consistent product in tone and pacing etc. to me, although a bit less interesting overall too.

i feel like i might be disappointing some people by saying all this lol but i have to be honest. don carlo was just not my thing. suffice to say that i think late verdi has absorbed too much wagnerism for my taste, musically and dramatically. maybe i'll rewatch it at some point -- i'd be curious to check it out in french this time -- but i don't expect to be doing that anytime soon, unless a friend or something is watching and really wants me to join (and i can spare four hours...). i can see why y'all like it (well, some of why y'all like it) and i do admit there's some good stuff in there to like. namely the carlo & rodrigo shit. i understand now lol. the opera definitely feels like it's ripe for shitpost/meme content and i am here for that. but i can't say this one is going at the top of my fave shows list. sorry everybody!

[lucygold95]

Third POTO Korea Production Cast(and informations)

- 1. Phantoms(4 Phantoms! Classic Opera Singer, Musical actors and Movie/Drama star.)

조승우(Cho/Jo Seung-woo) - Famous Korean movie/drama star(He is very famous star in Korea. Almost all Koreans know him.) He is also a musical actor. He had casted as a Raoul at 1st Korea Production(2001~2002), but the staff accidentally sent him a wrong message. So he made a contract with other movie.(Soon the staff contacted him again, but that was too late.)

최재림(Choi Jae-rim) - Famous musical actor in Korea. He studied Opera(and as far as I know he did at least one Opera) too.

* According to the news, Mr. Choi will not join in Busan production(2023 March~June), but he will join in Seoul production(2023 July~November).

김주택(Kim Ju-taek. Julian Kim) - Famous young Opera Singer(Bariton) in Korea. He did 'Il barbiere di Siviglia(Figaro)' at Italy, La Traviata, Madama Butterfly, La bohème, L'elisir d'amore, Don Carlo, Lucia di Lammermoor, Simon Boccanegra, I Puritani at Italy(Venice(Venezia), Firenze, Parma...).

전동석(Jeon Dong-suk/Dong-seok) - Famous musical actor.(He did Kopit & Yeston's Phantom(Phantom), Elisabeth das musical(Tod and Rudolf) -> You can see more informations at here 👇

). He studied Opera too.

[spghtrbry]

Hi! I'm quite shy to write this directly, so I hope it's okay that I'm asking this here XD

What's the best opera to start with? And also, what's your favourite Verdi's opera? (The only opera I've listened to so far is Rigoletto, so I hope the questions doesn't sound weird or dumb lol 🥲)

hi and thanks for the ask! ofc it's fine, don't worry, i'm always okay with the asks asjkaslklkjlk

hmm i think i'm not the Right Guy to answer this bc i'm just making opera memes and that's all but... um.. that's the most obvious thing ever but yeah carmen is a good opera to start with. (and also you can see that that's my favorite opera lmao) just because there's a lot of popular tunes that you've 100% heard before in another media (habanera etc) and the plot is quite simple sooo. yes. that's literally what every person would say lol

also puccini's la boheme or tosca would go good, but i personally don't really like boheme bc i find it boring ..but it's popular AND short so why not. yeah i guess the good opera for Beginners tm is a short opera, bc if you'll start with shit that lasts 4 hours you'll probably find yourself asleep at the second hour. at soprano's aria. so don't ever start with wagner.

tchaikovsky’s eugene onegin is also fine but i genuinely Don’t like both thaikovsky and pushkin. it's easy to see why

if you don't want to start with the operas where everybody dies you can check mozart's le nozze di figaro (the marriage of figaro), which also has a lot of bangers ... but requires reading subtitles if you don't know italian. also for those who's not afraid of belcanto...maybe il barbiere di siviglia (which is le nozze's prequel) or la fille du regiment would be a good choice. but i don't think that starting with belcanto is a good decision

and yeah my favorite verdi's opera is probably don carlos (totally not because i love schiller) (NOTE: A BAD OPERA TO START WITH), and funny that rigoletto was one of my first operas in general and first verdi's opera lol. i like rigoletto... and um talking about verdi i think la traviata is also a good opera for beginners (for same reasons as puccini's boheme)

yeah that's it. once again i'm not an expert.. so maybe all this post is bullshit..... but anyway the only advice i can give you is just to watch things you like, even if it's wagner. that's the only thing that matters after all...

[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 4�� 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]

[vera-dauriac]

OK Operablr, let’s decide this once and for all—what’s your favorite Verdi opera? Round one has 28 operas spread over 4 polls. After a week, the winner of each poll will be placed in a new poll for the Verdi Death Match, in which only one opera can come out alive. (Unless there’s a tie, but whatever.)

When voting, assume you are voting for your favorite version of the opera. (We can argue Don Carlo(s) versions in a different poll.)

[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: