Week 6

La Traviata

La Traviata (1853), gestures towards a level of "realism" very rare in earlier operas. For example, the contemporary world of waltzes pervades the score, and the heroine's death from disease is graphically depicted in the music

"Violetta's Death" from La traviata

Renée Fleming as Violetta and Rollando Villázon as Alfredo at the Los Angeles Opera in 2006 -She says she is dying and that she loves him; he says she is going to be fine and that they will be together -She has tuberculosis and can't breathe, so her singing is less grand -Right before she dies, true to the disease, she has a moment of feeling well and sings a few high notes

The score of Falstaff is saturated with:

Scherzos (a sprightly and humorous compositional form in rapid tempo), and fugues (two or more themes developed with a continuous interweaving of their vocal parts). Most of the scherzos and fugues appear during the finales to each act.These comic inventions are composed with brevity, clarity, and organic unity, requiring excellent acting-singers who possess clear diction and deft verbal and musical attack in order to convey their comic essence.

Giuseppe Verdi

-1813-1901 -Works known for emotional intensity, tuneful melodies, and dramatic characterizations -Transformed the Italian opera (traditional set pieces, old-fashioned librettos, and emphasis on vocal displays) into a unified musical and dramatic entity

Verdi's "Middle Period"

-1849-1859 -Operas: Un ballo in maschera (1859), La forza del destino (1862), Don Carlo (1867) -Exhibit a greater mastery of musical characterization and a greater emphasis on the role of the orchestra than his earlier works -Aida (1871): Verdi's most popular opera, commissioned by the khedive of Egypt to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal; it was first performed in Cairo

Verdi's "Late" Period

-1862-1893 -Verdi produced "the supreme expression of his genius:" Otello (1887), which he composed to a libretto by the Italian composer and librettist Arrigo Boito (1842-1918), from the Shakespearean tragedy Othello. -This was followed by Verdi's last opera, Falstaff (1893), also adapted by Boito from Shakespeare, and generally considered one of the greatest of all comic operas.

"Va pensiero"

-A chorus composed by the young and patriotic Verdi in 1841, while northern Italy was under Austrian rule -As the centerpiece of his first successful opera, "Nabucco," the chorus is sung by exiled Hebrew slaves in Babylon -Now it is a patriotic representation of liberty

Leontyne Prince

-As Aida in her final performance at the Metropolitan Opera in 1985 -Leontyne Price was one of the first African American singers to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera -18 minute standing ovation

Verdi's work overlapped with composers of what style?

-Bel canto: "Beautiful singing" -Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini -Verdi used same standard form as them: Division of drama into musical numbers before eventually straying from that

Verdi's pre-1849 works (cavatina), Rigoletto,

-Cavatina: A short aria without da capo, may be an independent piece or as part of a recitative -Rigoletto: Just after 1850, the end of bel canto

Falstaff

-Commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to a libretto by Arigo Boito, after William Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and King Henry IV -Premiered in Milan, Italy at the Teatro alla Scala, 9 February 1893

Musical structure of Verdi

-Even in the late "mature" operas such as Aida, the acts are divided between their musical sections, which are either numbered or given headings such as Scena e grande duetto. -By contrast, there are no such divisions in either Otello or Falstaff. *Each act is an indivisible entity, with the various actions and their music flowing seamlessly into and out of one another. -Over the course of his career, Verdi abandoned the set pieces and "numbers," such as those found in the operas of his predecessors and most of his contemporaries. He was most interested in creating an integrated dramatic flow. -His control of subject matter, libretti and staging all broke the mold of traditional Italian opera and made new developments possible. Like Richard Wagner, Verdi conceived of his work as an integrated whole.

Things to know about Falstaff

-Falstaff was an archetype, a loveable fat scoundrel and rogue who amusingly indulges in mischief. -In character, Falstaff 's music is light and airy, bubbly, delicate, episodic, and possesses an almost seamless accumulation of clever, fragmentary musical inventions -Falstaff was Verdi's first opera buffa in 50 years. -While working on Falstaff,Verdi let it be known that "I am writing it in moments of absolute leisure, simply for my own amusement." -Verdi's Falstaff looks back on Verdi's career and on the genre of opera itself. He filled it with self-quotations and with allusion to other composers, including Mozart, Rossini, and even Wagner. For example, when the comic old woman, Mistress Quickly, sings "paver donna" ("miserable woman"), which is a literal quotation, with the same pitches and in the same key of Violetta's lament that ends the first act of La traviata. When fat Falstaff praises his enormous belly, his lackies sing 'Falstaff immense," parodying the words and music imposingly used to praise the Egyptian god Phtha in Aida." There are many such moments in the opera, testimony to Verdi's private amusement in this late project.

Verdi's Early Works

-Oberto (1839): First opera, was produced at La Scala with some success -Nabucco (1842): Its subject matter dealt with the Babylonian captivity of the Jews. The Italian public regarded it as a symbol of the struggle against Austrian rule in northern Italy ("Va penseiro") -Macbeth (1847): Based on Shakespeare's drama, the first opera that clearly marks the beginning of Verdi's maturity as a composer. Foreshadows leading Italian opera away from the bel canto style: Verdi wanted Lady Macbeth's voice to be hard, stifled, and dark. Wanted a singer with good character depiction and drama, more important than beautiful singing The last three operas of his early period, Rigoletto (1851), Il Trovatore (1853), and La Traviata (1853), brought him international fame and continue to be among the most popular of all operas.

Structure of Falstaff

-The opera's musical focus is not on extensive thematic development of conventional arias, duets and trios, or in ensembles packed with drama, emotion, or psychological development: those conventions are sparse throughout the score. -The vocal lines in the opera are mostly declamatory and exclamatory. There are few arias of any length. -The orchestra lives a life of its own, commenting on the action, not merely accompanying it.

Developing as a composer, how did Verdi stray from the big three?

-Verdi became intimately involved in every aspect of opera production (business details of the contract, choice of subject and librettist, casting, stage design and production; structure of the libretto) -Became most interested in musical and dramatic innovation, the integration of words and music to create a cohesive operatic drama, and the nature of operatic form

Why did Verdi write Falstaff?

-Verdi wrote Falstaff largely because his librettist Boito pushed him to. He wrote the opera in under two years, between the ages of 78 and 80. -He accepted Boito's libretto almost without alteration. Verdi was enthralled with the characterization of Falstaff.

Fuga finale: "Tutto nel mondo è burla" from Falstaff

All the other characters who hate Falstaff dress as fairies/ghosts to scare and embarrass him. Falstaff repents and everyone has a good laugh. It is a fugue, considered very old-fashioned

Overall, Falstaff is:

Falstaff is a wonder of the opera world, an outpouring from a true master of tragic works who ended his career with an ingenious masterpiece that has taken its rightful place beside other great comic operas: Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro,Wagner's Die Meistersinger, and Rossini's The Barber of Seville.

Verdi wrote 3 operas based on Shakespeare plays:

Falstaff, Macbeth, Otello

"Sirena!... Quand'ero paggio" from Falstaff

Sung by Ambrogio Maestri and Angela Meade) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 2013 -Falstaff goes to visit Alice, she fools him by pretending to want him

"Sempre libera" from La traviata

Sung by Renée Fleming as Violetta at the Royal Opera in London in 2009 Violetta tells Alfredo that she likes to have a free lifestyle without a man. This is a kind of cavatina: Designed to show off the voice. There is a slow and fast section

"Reverenza!" from Falstaff

Sung by Stephani Blythe and Ambrogio Maestri at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 2013 -Mrs. Quickly comes to Falstaff and tells him Alice wants to meet with him, that her husband will be out