Giants of Italian Opera Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini
The names of Gioachino Rossini , Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini will always be associated with the most famous and popular operas of the first half of the 19 th century. Operas like Il barbiere di Siviglia , Tancredi , L’elisir d’amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , Norma and I Puritani have assured their fame and are still regularly performed throughout the world. Yet these three composers wrote so much more (Rossini wrote more than forty operas, Donizetti more than sixty, and Bellini wrote eleven before his life was cut tragically short). As you might expect with such genius composers, listening to any of their works (even those you may not have heard of) reveals delights to the ear.
This 10 - lect ure series will explore the works of these three giants of Italian opera, placing all three composers in their historical and operatic contexts. We will examine both the well - known works as well as some of their lesser known gems.
Rossini was born in Pesaro in 1792, a child prodigy who took Bologna by storm. His first opera came in 1810 at the age of eighteen and over the next nineteen years he composed more than forty operas (sometimes at a furious rate of one a month). Several of these op eras remain performed everywhere around the word – Il barbiere di Siviglia , Cenerentola , Tancredi , Otello , Semiramide and, of course, Guillaume Tell . As well as these, there are operas of great beauty which have not broken into the ranks of regularly perfo rmed works. Guillaume Tell was Rossini’s last opera, written for Paris and coming in 1829 when Rossini was thirty - seven. From that point on, Rossini retired from opera composition until his death in 1868, the reasons for which have never been fully underst ood.
Donizetti was five years younger than Rossini, born in Bergamo, in Lombardy, in 1797. He did not come from a musical family but was taken in and taught by the German composer Giovanni Simone Mayr who had found fame writing Italian opera in Milan. A lso writing his first opera when he was 18, Donizetti found lasting success after he had moved to Naples with Anna Bolena in 1830. This was followed by L’elisr d’amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , Roberto Devereaux , Don Pasquale and more. Donizetti was prolific, perhaps writing as many as seventy operas. Like Rossini (and Bellini after him) Donizetti moved to Paris but ill health forced his early retirement and he died in Bergamo in 1848.
Bellini was born in Catania in Sicily in 1801. He was the eldest of seven and a child prodigy, but from a poor family. Studying at Naples from the age of eighteen, Bellini met Donizetti in Naples. Bellini’s first opera came in in 1825 when he was 24 (relatively old for a first - time opera composer). Bellini’s reputation was secur ed, however, with the smash hit of only his third opera, Il Pirata , in 1827. Thereafter he made a living from his compositions which included I Capuletti e I Montecchi , La sonnambula , and Norma . He then travelled to London and Paris, writing I Puritani fo r the latter in 1835. In Paris he earned the admiration of Rossini. Bellini became extremely ill in September that year and died at the age of only thirty - four, a tragedy mourned by the entire operatic world. Bellini’s beautiful melodies live on and sever al of his eleven operas are among the world’s most popular.
Join Murray Dahm at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura for these informative and enjoyable lectures exploring these giants of Italian opera.
Monday Course fee: 3 February – 6 April 2019 (20 hours) $3 5 0 (whole series) 10 . 30 am – 12 .30 pm $ 35 (per lecture)
Murray Dahm , Tutor
Murray Dahm had been delivering lectures on the history of opera in Australia since 2003. He has also lectured in the UK, USA and New Zealand on various aspects of opera. Murray began life as a historian but fell in love with performing opera. He then had a turn dire cting operas and running his own (small) opera company. He brings a love of opera, performance and the human voice, as well as an appreciation of the historical context to every lecture, not to mention his copious collection of recording and DVDs(!).
I nformation and bookings :
[email protected] or (02) 9261 1780 www.iicsydney.esteri.it