Of Operatic Love Courtesan

E. Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) Finally to the first act of La traviata (1854), a highly unusual work in Verdi’s output in that it treats a contemporary subject taken from a play currently playing on French stages. Violetta Valéry is a Paris Vagaries of Operatic Love courtesan. Knowing that she is dying of tuberculosis, she is set on going out in a froth of champagne. But then she meets an admirer, Alfredo Germont, who tries to persuade her to give up this life and move with him to the peace of the country. As we discover in Act Two, she will do so, but not without ending Act One in an aria that is the most remarkable internal examination of the feelings of a woman 11 in love yet seen on the opera stage. The innovative production by Willy Decker was first seen in Salzburg 12 in 2005 and later brought to the Met. Alas, it was replaced by a much less inventive one last season. — La traviata, Act I, second half 18 Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazón. Salzburg, 2005 All materials for the class, including PowerPoint images and video links to these or similar performances, will be posted on the instructor’s website shortly after the end of each class: http://www.brunyate.com/vagariesColumbia/ Click on the image for that particular class to access them. Roger Brunyate may be contacted at [email protected] 1. A Brief History of Love, Monteverdi to Verdi Class One: A Brief History of Love Though there is a scene in which Cleopatra makes Julius Caesar fall in love with her through performing for him in a masque; it begins in enchantment, but the characters end genuinely in love. A boy falls in love with a girl, and she with him. It happens every day and it’s beautiful. Yet in the first two and a half centuries of opera, it — Giulio Cesare, Cleopatra’s masque, “V’adoro, pupille” 5½ is hardly treated at all. People are in love before the opera begins, Danielle de Niese. Glyndebourne, 2005 certainly. People are seduced, or are caught in the grip of lust or enchantment. But to show them fall in mutual love is surprisingly rare. C. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91) Mozart’s three operas to texts by Lorenzo da Ponte form a pattern A. Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. The Marriage of Figaro (1786) Two of Monteverdi’s three surviving operas have their characters has two couples, one about to be married and the other married for already married before the action begins. Orfeo (1607) opens with some years. Don Giovanni (1787), by contrast, has no marriage, only the marriage of Orpheus to Euridice, but she dies before she has an inveterate seducer riding roughshod over all the conventions of even sung a page of music. Penelope in The Return of Ulysses (1641) polite society. Così fan tutte (1790) contrasts these themes. It opens awaits the return of her husband, who has deeb gone for years. Both with two engaged couples, the very paradigm of love-as-data. But it give praise to constant love. The Coronation of Poppea (1642) is just then immediately begins to critique it, in a bet by which the two the opposite, in praise of adultery, lust, and naked ambition. But it male leads must return in disguise to try to seduce the other one’s also contains a delightful scene of two young people just entering fiancée. They succeed—but is this genuine falling in love or merely puberty. We shall contrast it with the first of many scenes in which the acting out of a cynical proverb? Poppea pursues her goal to become Nero’s Empress. — Così fan tutte, Act I, scene ii, “Ah guarda, sorella!” 5 — The Coronation of Poppea, Valletto/Damigella duet 4½ Barbara Frittoli, Angelika Kirchschlager. Vienna, 1996 Cassandre Berthon, Allison Cook. Aix, 1999 — Così fan tutte, Act II, scene iii, “Fra gli amplessi” 4½ — The Coronation of Poppea, first love scene (opening) 3 Barbara Frittoli, Michael Schade. Vienna, 1996 Danielle de Niese, Philippe Jaroussky. Madrid, 2010 — BREAK — B. George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) D. Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868) Handel’s roughly 40 operas were written within the conventions of opera seria, in which a small number of characters would constantly Most of Rossini’s 15 opere buffe involve love at first sight or in place shift position with regard to each other, marking their territory in a before the opera opens. But one, La Cenerentola (Cinderella) of series of arias separated by recitative. Love of course plays a part in 1817, contains a remarkable example of people falling in love as we these alignments, but it is always in place before the opera starts, watch. Don Ramiro, the Prince Charming character in this version, set down in the character descriptions. Where it changes, it is does not want to be loved for his rank or wealth, so disguises himself as his valet when he first visits the house of Cinderella and her step- usually for external reasons, such as madness or enchantment—or sisters. But he does not expect to see her, nor she him. The duet that sheer fantasy, such as Xerxes’ love song to a tree. follows, “A sweet I-know-not-what,” describes the process exactly. — Serse, opening aria of Xerxes, “Ombra mai fu” 2½ — La Cenerentola, Act I, scene i, “Un soave non so che” 5 Ann Murray. London, 1988 Frederica von Stade, Francisco Araiza. Milan, 1981 .

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