Today’s Operas

[Normally, when there are only one of two operas featured in a class, I will provide fairly full synopses of each in advance. Here, though, we have seven operas, with only a single number from each. So the following are thumbnails only, giving just enough to provide a context for each number. rb.]

Orfeo

Claudio Monteverdi: La favola di Orfeo (1607). "The Story of Orpheus," or Orfeo for short. Text by Alessandro Striggio. Monteverdi's first opera and the first opera by any composer still to be performed at all frequently today. The traditional story of Orpheus and Eurydice is divided into five acts. The first is their marriage. The passage we shall hear comes in the second act: Orpheus is celebrating with his friends, the shepherds, when news arrives of Eurydice's death. The third act is his journey the the underworld, and the fourth is his fatal return. In the fifth act, Orpheus' father Apollo descends and urges him to be reunited with Eurydice in the heavens.

Atys

Jean-Baptiste Lully: Atys (1676). Tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts. Text by Philippe Quinault. Although not originally a popular success, this became a favorite opera of Louis XIV, and was revived several times up to Lully’s death in 1687, being performed both at the royal palace at Saint- Germain-en-Laye and in Paris. Like all Lully’s operas, it gives a special place to dance (the King’s favorite art form), and mixes characters from the human and celestial worlds. The Prologue, which has little to do with the plot, opens with the figure of Time who proclaims that Winter will soon be transformed by Flora into Spring—a reference to the French war with the Netherlands, which had been brought to a temporary halt by wintry weather. The triumph of Flora is interrupted, however, by Melpomene, the Muse of History. who points out that as it is still winter, they might as well hear the story of Atys.

Idaspe

Ricardo Broschi: Idaspe (1730). Text by Domenico Lalli. Ricardo Broschi was contemporary of Handel's, but his success was in part due to his promotion of his brother Carlo, the celebrated castrato known as "Farinelli." This is an opera about which I know very little. Idaspe is a rival to King Artaxerxes for the hand of the beautiful Beatrice. Dario, who sings the aria featured in the film, is Artaxerxes' brother—a mortal, despite his godlike entrance!

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Orlando

George Frideric Handel: Orlando (1733). Text derived from Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (1532), a chivalric epic of the Crusades. Orlando (Roland), a great soldier in Charlemagne's army, falls desperately in love with the pagan princess Angelica, who is in turn in love with another man, Medoro. Orlando cannot accept this and he is driven to madness, prevented from causing absolute carnage only by the magician Zoroastro (who eventually restores his sanity). [Wikipedia] The aria "Fammi combattere" comes in Act I. Orlando gets Angelica to pose tests of his love for her.

Giulio Cesare

George Frideric Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto (1724). "Julius Caesar in Egypt." Text by Nicola Haym. Cesare has joined with Cleopatra against her brother and nominal co-ruler Tolomeo. But Cesare is reported drowned in a storm, and Cleopatra is defeated. In the final scene, Cesare, who has escaped drowning, enters to free his beloved, and all the other conflicts are dealt with appropriately. The aria "Da tempeste il legno infranto" (the ship that has survived the storm) is sung by Cleopatra immediately following her rescue.

Alcina

George Frideric Handel: Alcina (1735). Text taken from an earlier opera on the same subject by Ricardo Broschi (see above), ultimately derived from Ludovico Ariosto's epic of the Crusades, Orlando Furioso (1532). Alcina and her sister Morgana rule over an enchanted isle, where they seduce Christian knights then turn them into animals for their private menagerie. We shall hear the first aria in the opera, sung by Morgana to a handsome new arrival, Bradamante, not knowing that "he" is in fact the lover of her sister's current conquest, who has come in disguise to rescue him!

Les Indes Galantes

Jean-Philippe Rameau: Les Indes galantes (1735). “The Gallant Indes.” Opéra-ballet in a Prologue and four Acts. Text by Luis Fuzelier. The unifying theme of the four quite separate acts is love in exotic places: among the Turks, among the Incas, and in the excerpt we are going to see, among the “Savages.” The attitude is clearly that of benevolent colonizers pleased to see the good qualities among their more primitive subjects—but clearly that attitude will not wash today!

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