Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893):
‘Waltz scene’ from Eugene Onegin (1878)
Tchaikovsky adapted Pushkin’s famous poem, preserving much
of the original text. In Act 1, based in
the 1820s, Tatyana had expressed her love for Onegin in a passionate letter but
he rejected her advances. In Act 3,
Onegin will return from exile and fall in love with her but, by then, she will
be married to someone else.
The waltz scene is taken from the first scene of Act 2, set
at a ball in honour of the spurned Tatyana’s name-day. The guests are dancing a waltz, expressing
their enjoyment, although the ‘elderly’ gents grumble about having to dance at
all and yearn for time more profitably spent indulging in outdoor pursuits such
as hunting; the ladies bemoan such an attitude and also begin gossiping about
Onegin and Tatyana. Onegin, is not
enjoying himself, resenting being the object of such idle chatter and bemoaning
his friend Lensky, engaged to Tatyana’s sister Olga, for inviting him in the
first place. Onegin decides to annoy Lensky
by dancing with Olga, making his friend jealous. They quarrel, and this will subsequently
result in the death of Lensky and Onegin’s self-imposed exile. For now, as with much of the opera, we are
swept away by the enchanting dance music.
Gioacchino Rossini
(1792-1868): ‘Villagers’ chorus’ from Guillaume
Tell (1829)
This opera is based on a famous play by Schiller. Set in Switzerland, the people are smarting
under the rule of the Austrian governor, Gesler. He is eventually shot by William Tell with
the second of two arrows (the first of which has shot the famous apple from his
son’s head) and the Swiss will gain their freedom. This chorus follows the famous overture,
setting the scene for Act 1. The
villagers give thanks to God for the serenity of the new morning.
Gaetano Donizetti
(1797-1848): ‘Chorus of the wedding guests’ from Lucia di Lammermoor (1835)
Based on Sir Walter Scott’s novel ‘The bride of Lammermoor’,
this opera is set in Edinburgh around 1700.
Lucia has been promised in marriage to the wealthy Arturo by her
impoverished brother Enrico, but she is already in love with Edgaro who is
travelling in France on a diplomatic mission.
Enrico forges a letter to suggest Edgaro has been unfaithful, following
which Lucia agrees reluctantly to the wedding.
This chorus, a rare moment of joy in an otherwise rather depressing tale,
introduces the signing of the documents as the chorus celebrate the wedding and
Arturo, tenor, vows his love and protection.
Immediately after the signing is completed, Edgaro will appear and a
dramatic sextet will ensue. The famous
mad scene occurs in the last act after Lucia has killed her husband.
Richard Wagner
(1813-1883): Siegfried Idyll (1870)
It is doubtful whether there has ever been a more touching
wake-up call or a more romantic birthday present. Wagner composed this ‘symphonic greeting’ as
a gift for his wife Cosima on the occasion of her birthday, December 25th
1870. 13 hand-picked players assembled at 7.30am on the staircase of their home
in Tribschen and played this music.
Initially known as the Tribschen Idyll, this piece is extraordinarily
intimate and hauntingly beautiful. The
music shares themes from the opera Siegfried but remained a very private piece
for the couple until financial pressures persuaded Wagner to publish the work,
from whence performing forces tended to feature expanded orchestral strings
rather than the original single instrument per part.
Giuseppe Verdi
(1813-1901): Chorus of the Scottish Refugees from Macbeth(1847, rev.1865)
This chorus features in the 1865 version of Verdi’s
adaptation of Shakespeare’s play. The
scene is set in a deserted place on the Anglo-Scottish border with Birnham Wood
visible in the distance (although, in point of fact, over a hundred miles
away). One imagines the people are in
utter anguish at the state of the nation, singing, as they do, ‘Patria oppressa!’
Georges Bizet
(1838-1875): March of the Toreadors from Carmen
(1875)
Carmen is based on
a short novel by Prosper Mérimée and is set in Seville around 1820. Don José, a corporal, is in love with a nice,
pretty girl, Micaela, but their relationship is broken by a wild gyspy beauty,
Carmen, who entices him to run off with her and join the smugglers in the
mountains. She soon tires of him,
however, and her fancy turns to the bullfighter Escamillo. Don José confronts Carmen outside the arena
during a bullfight. She exults upon
hearing the crowd acclaiming Escamillo’s victory and Don José stabs her, giving
himself up to the crowd as they leave the arena.
The March sets the scene for the bullfight.
Giuseppe Verdi
(1813-1901): chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Nabucco (1841)
Verdi wrote, in 1879, that, when opening the libretto for Nabucco for the first time, the page
fell open at ‘Va, pensiero’; the opera’s subsequent success owed much to his
famous melody which is a setting of words paraphrasing Psalm 137. The narrative, which also derives from a
Parisian play of 1836, is based on the biblical story of the Jews in Babylonian
exile in 586BC. It is sung by the
Israelites as they lament the loss of their homeland.
This chorus, amongst the most well-known in all opera, has
become something of a people’s anthem.
It is said that all the stage-hands at the first run of performances would
gather every night in the wings to hear the great chorus. At Verdi’s funeral, the crowd spontaneously
sang it and it has further become associated with Italian patriotism.
Interval
Please join us
downstairs for some refreshments
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
– Messa di Gloria Op. posth. (1878)
Puccini’s Messa a quattro voci con orchestra was composed as
a graduation exercise and first performed in 1880. However, despite being well received, the
manuscript lay dormant for a further 71 years until rediscovered by an American
priest who had been researching Puccini’s life.
Its second performance took place in Chicago the following year and the
work went on to secure popularity and a regular place in the repertoire.
Puccini had been destined to follow the family line as an
organist and church musician. However,
experiencing a performance of Verdi’s Aida
is said to have influenced him to change pathway and he studied at the Milan
Conservatory, subsequently composing several exceptionally successful operas
such as Tosca, Madama Butterfly and La Bohème.
The youthful Puccini already demonstrated ample signs of the
fluent, lyrical composer to come and his setting brings a wonderfully fresh
perspective to a familiar text. The
tuneful Kyrie is followed by a vibrant Gloria the scale of which earns the work
its nickname ‘Messa di Gloria’. A joyful
opening gives way to a sedate ‘et in terra’ and a resounding ‘Laudamus te’. A colourful ‘agimus tibi’ for tenor solo
heralds a sustained ‘Domine Deus’ and then a characterful, operatic melody for
‘Qui tollis’. Following a majestic
‘Quoniam’, the composer resorts to the tried and trusted technique of fugue for
the ‘cum sancto spiritu’, controlling the counterpoint with considerable ease,
and eventually working the opening ‘gloria’ theme back into the music.
The Credo is another substantial movement involving a
dramatic representation of the opening lines, followed by a plaintive ‘Et
incarnatus’ for tenor solo and unaccompanied choir. The bass soloist then sings a ‘crucifixus’
spanning a huge vocal range. Further
sections for ‘et resurrexit’, ‘et in spiritum sanctam’ and a particularly
moving ‘et in unam sanctam catholicam’ preface the surprisingly playful coda,
‘et vitam venturi saeculi’.
The final two movements, Sanctus and Agnus Dei, are
relatively brief by comparison, both nevertheless providing ample evidence of
the composer’s gift for melodic and harmonic appeal. The Sanctus features a baritone solo for the
‘benedictus’ and the choir sings a joyful ‘hosanna’. The work ends in unusually understated terms
with baritone and tenor exchanging brief melodies in compound triple time
whilst the choir responds with a sequence of fifths, the resulting music
entirely appropriate to the words ‘dona nobis pacem’ – grant us peace.
Programme notes by Julian Merson, May 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment