Eight Operas That Changed the World
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Lectures and Community Engagement 2017–18 About the Metropolitan Opera Guild
Lectures and Community Engagement 2017 –18 About the Metropolitan Opera Guild The Metropolitan Opera Guild is the world’s premier arts educa- tion organization dedicated to enriching people’s lives through the magic and artistry of opera. Thanks to the support of individuals, government agencies, foundations, and corporate sponsors, the Guild brings opera to life both on and off the stage through its educational programs. For students, the Guild fosters personal expression, collaboration, literacy skills, and self-confidence with customized education programs integrated into the curricula of their schools. For adults, the Guild enhances the opera-going experience through intensive workshops, pre-performance talks, and community outreach programs. In addition to educational activities, the Guild publishes Opera News, the world’s leading opera magazine. With Opera News, the Guild reaches a global audience with the most insightful and up-to-date writing on opera available anywhere, helping to maintain opera as a thriving, contemporary art form. For more information about the Metropolitan Opera Guild and its programs, visit metguild.org. Additional information and archives of Opera News can be found online at operanews.com. How to Use This Booklet This brochure presents the 2017–18 season of Lectures and Community Programs grouped into thematic sections—programs that emphasize specific Met performances and productions; courses on opera and its history and culture; and editorial insights and interviews presented by our colleagues at Opera News. Courses of study are arranged chronologically, and learners of all levels are welcome. To place an order, please call the Guild’s ticketing line at 212.769.7028 (Mon–Fri 10AM–4PM). -
ARSC Journal
A Discography of the Choral Symphony by J. F. Weber In previous issues of this Journal (XV:2-3; XVI:l-2), an effort was made to compile parts of a composer discography in depth rather than breadth. This one started in a similar vein with the realization that SO CDs of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony had been released (the total is now over 701). This should have been no surprise, for writers have stated that the playing time of the CD was designed to accommodate this work. After eighteen months' effort, a reasonably complete discography of the work has emerged. The wonder is that it took so long to collect a body of information (especially the full names of the vocalists) that had already been published in various places at various times. The Japanese discographers had made a good start, and some of their data would have been difficult to find otherwise, but quite a few corrections and additions have been made and some recording dates have been obtained that seem to have remained 1.Dlpublished so far. The first point to notice is that six versions of the Ninth didn't appear on the expected single CD. Bl:lhm (118) and Solti (96) exceeded the 75 minutes generally assumed (until recently) to be the maximum CD playing time, but Walter (37), Kegel (126), Mehta (127), and Thomas (130) were not so burdened and have been reissued on single CDs since the first CD release. On the other hand, the rather short Leibowitz (76), Toscanini (11), and Busch (25) versions have recently been issued with fillers. -
Voice Types in Opera
Voice Types in Opera In many of Central City Opera’s educational programs, we spend some time explaining the different voice types – and therefore character types – in opera. Usually in opera, a voice type (soprano, mezzo soprano, tenor, baritone, or bass) has as much to do with the SOUND as with the CHARACTER that the singer portrays. Composers will assign different voice types to characters so that there is a wide variety of vocal colors onstage to give the audience more information about the characters in the story. SOPRANO: “Sopranos get to be the heroine or the princess or the opera star.” – Eureka Street* “Sopranos always get to play the smart, sophisticated, sweet and supreme characters!” – The Great Opera Mix-up* A soprano is a woman’s voice type. There are many different kinds of sopranos within the general category: coloratura, lyric, and spinto are a few. Coloratura soprano: Diana Damrau as The Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute (Mozart): https://youtu.be/dpVV9jShEzU Lyric soprano: Mirella Freni as Mimi in La bohème (Puccini): https://youtu.be/yTagFD_pkNo Spinto soprano: Leontyne Price as Aida in Aida (Verdi): https://youtu.be/IaV6sqFUTQ4?t=1m10s MEZZO SOPRANO: “There are also mezzos with a lower, more exciting woman’s voice…We get to be magical or mythical characters and sometimes… we get to be boys.” – Eureka Street “Mezzos play magnificent, magical, mysterious, and miffed characters.” – The Great Opera Mix-up A mezzo soprano is a woman’s voice type. Just like with sopranos, there are different kinds of mezzo sopranos: coloratura, lyric, and dramatic. -
VIVA VERDI a Small Tribute to a Great Man, Composer, Italian
VIVA VERDI A small tribute to a great man, composer, Italian. Giuseppe Verdi • What do you know about Giuseppe Verdi? What does modern Western society offer everyday about him and his works? Plenty more than you would think. • Commercials with his most famous arias, such as “La donna e` nobile”, from Rigoletto, are invading the air time of television… • Movies and cartoons have also plenty of his arias… What about stamps from all over the world carrying his image? • There are hundreds of them…. and coins and medals… …and banknotes? Well, those only in Italy, that I know of…. Statues of him are all over the world… ….and we have Verdi Squares and Verdi Streets And let’s not forget the many theaters with his name… His operas even became comic books… • Well, he was a famous composer… but it’s that the only reason? Let’s look into that… Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi Born Joseph Fortunin François Verdi on October 10, 1813 in a village near Busseto, in Emilia Romagna, at the time part of the First French Empire. He was therefore born French! Giuseppe Verdi He was refused admission by the Conservatory of Milan because he did not have enough talent… …that Conservatory now carries his name. In Busseto, Verdi met Antonio Barezzi, a local merchant and music lover, who became his patron, financed some of his studies and helped him throughout the dark years… Thanks to Barezzi, Verdi went to Milano to take private lessons. He then returned to his town, where he became the town music master. -
The Exhibition FEBRUARY 2015 Der Meister Tön' Und Weisen... Heinz Zednik – 50 Jahre Staatsoper
Der Meister Tön’ und Weisen... Heinz Zednik – 50 Jahre Staatsoper 12.2.–21.9.2015 Lobkowitzplatz 2, 1010 Wien [email protected] T +43 1 525 24 5315 FEBRUARY 2015 The Exhibition In 2015 the music world honours the occasion of two anniversaries of the well-known and popular Austrian tenor Heinz Zednik: he celebrates both his seventy-fifth birthday and five decades as member of the ensemble of the “Haus am Ring”, the Vienna State Opera. On November 5, 1964 the young singer from the Graz Opera gave his first guest performance in Vienna, singing the role of Augustin Moser in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; on September 3, 1965 he appeared for the first time as a full member of the ensemble at the Vienna State Opera – as Count Lerma in Verdi’s Don Carlo. In order to showcase Zednik’s impressive repertory the exhibition focuses both on Zednik’s opera performances in Vienna and beyond – in Milan, Bayreuth and New York – and his work outside the field of opera, which comprises operetta, oratories, lieder and Viennese songs. Markus Vorzellner curated the exhibition; Elisabeth Truxa designed the layout. Der Meister Tön’ und Weisen... Heinz Zednik – 50 Jahre Staatsoper 12.2.–21.9.2015 Lobkowitzplatz 2, 1010 Wien [email protected] T +43 1 525 24 5315 Events RECITAL HEINZ ZEDNIK Piano: Konrad Leitner Wednesday, April 22, 7.30 p.m. Tickets € 22, Verein Freunde der Wiener Staatsoper and Ö1 Club € 19, students € 12 Reservations T +43 1 525 24 3460 „A MUSI, A MUSI“ A viennese evening with Heinz Zednik, Peter Hawlicek (contra guitar) und Roland Sulzer (accordeon) Moderation: Markus Vorzellner Wednesday, September 9, 7.30 p.m Tickets € 22, Verein Freunde der Wiener Staatsoper and Ö1 Club € 19, students € 12 Reservations T +43 1 525 24 3460 „…DASS SICH DIE WELT IN EINEM TAG HERUMDREHT“ After a guided tour through the exhibition by curator Markus Vorzellner you are invited to enjoy his anecdotes of personal encounters with Heinz Zednik, complemented by selected audio-clips. -
Coa-Program-For-Web.Pdf
HOUSTON GRAND OPERA AND SID MOORHEAD, CHAIRMAN WELCOME YOU TO THE TAMARA WILSON, LIVESTREAM HOST E. LOREN MEEKER, GUEST JUDGE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2021 AT 7 P.M. BROADCAST LIVE FROM THE WORTHAM THEATER CENTER TEXT TO VOTE TEXT TO GIVE Text to vote for the Audience Choice Award. On page Support these remarkable artists who represent 9, you will see a number associated with each finalist. the future of opera. Text the number listed next to the finalist’s name to 713-538-2304 and your vote will be recorded. One Text HGO to 61094 to invest in the next generation vote per phone number will be registered. of soul-stirring inspiration on our stage! 2 WELCOME TO CONCERT OF ARIAS 2021 SID MOORHEAD Chairman A multi-generation Texan, Sid Moorhead is the owner of in HGO’s Overture group and Laureate Society, and he serves Moorhead’s Blueberry Farm, the first commercial blueberry on the company’s Special Events committee. farm in Texas. The farm, which has been in the Moorhead family for three generations, sits on 28 acres in Conroe and Sid was a computer analyst before taking over the family boasts over 9,000 blueberry plants. It is open seasonally, from business and embracing the art of berry farming. He loves to the end of May through mid-July, when people from far and travel—especially to Europe—and has joined the HGO Patrons wide (including many fellow opera-lovers and HGO staffers) visit on trips to Italy and Vienna. to pick berries. “It’s wonderful. -
Verdi Falstaff
Table of Opera 101: Getting Ready for the Opera 4 A Brief History of Western Opera 6 Philadelphia’s Academy of Music 8 Broad Street: Avenue of the Arts Con9tOperae Etiquette 101 nts 10 Why I Like Opera by Taylor Baggs Relating Opera to History: The Culture Connection 11 Giuseppe Verdi: Hero of Italy 12 Verdi Timeline 13 Make Your Own Timeline 14 Game: Falstaff Crossword Puzzle 16 Bard of Stratford – William Shakespeare 18 All the World’s a Stage: The Globe Theatre Falstaff: Libretto and Production Information 20 Falstaff Synopsis 22 Meet the Artists 23 Introducing Soprano Christine Goerke 24 Falstaff LIBRETTO Behind the Scenes: Careers in the Arts 65 Game: Connect the Opera Terms 66 So You Want to Sing Like an Opera Singer! 68 The Highs and Lows of the Operatic Voice 70 Life in the Opera Chorus: Julie-Ann Whitely 71 The Subtle Art of Costume Design Lessons 72 Conflicts and Loves in Falstaff 73 Review of Philadelphia’s First Falstaff 74 2006-2007 Season Subscriptions Glossary 75 State Standards 79 State Standards Met 80 A Brief History of 4 Western Opera Theatrical performances that use music, song Music was changing, too. and dance to tell a story can be found in many Composers abandoned the ornate cultures. Opera is just one example of music drama. Baroque style of music and began Claudio Monteverdi In its 400-year history opera has been shaped by the to write less complicated music 1567-1643 times in which it was created and tells us much that expressed the character’s thoughts and feelings about those who participated in the art form as writers, more believably. -
About the Exhibition Tenorissimo! Plácido Domingo in Vienna
Tenorissimo! Plácido Domingo in Vienna May 17th, 2017 - January 8th, 2018 Lobkowitzplatz 2, 1010 Wien [email protected] T +43 1 525 24 5315 About the exhibition An unmistakable dark timbre, highly dramatic expressiveness, an impressive, vast repertoire – all this enraptures the fans of the Spanish crowd-pleaser with waves of enthusiasm. The Theatermuseum celebrates Plácido Domingo on the anniversary of his stage debut: He has been singing at the Vienna State Opera for 50 years. When the Tenor, then still considered as insider tip, made his debut at the State Opera in the title role of Verdi‘s Don Carlo, not only he took stage and cast in storm, but also the hearts of the Viennese audience – a true love relationship, unbroken till today. This performance contributed to an unparalleled career, taking him to the world‘s leading opera houses. Vienna has always been a very special “home port“ for the opera star. Here he performed 30 different roles in 300 shows and was awarded the title Austrian Kammersänger. The exhibition at the Theatermuseum documents the most important appearances of the “Tenorissimo“ in Vienna with original costumes and props, photographs and memorabilia, video and audio samples. The presentation portrays him also as baritone, the role fach on which he concentrated almost exclusively in the past 10 years, and refers to his activities as conductor, taking him regularly to the orchestra pit of the Vienna State Opera since the end of the 1970s. Without hesitation Plácido Domingo can be described as one of the most versatile, curious and longest serving representative of his musical genre. -
Male Zwischenfächer Voices and the Baritenor Conundrum Thaddaeus Bourne University of Connecticut - Storrs, [email protected]
University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn Doctoral Dissertations University of Connecticut Graduate School 4-15-2018 Male Zwischenfächer Voices and the Baritenor Conundrum Thaddaeus Bourne University of Connecticut - Storrs, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Bourne, Thaddaeus, "Male Zwischenfächer Voices and the Baritenor Conundrum" (2018). Doctoral Dissertations. 1779. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/1779 Male Zwischenfächer Voices and the Baritenor Conundrum Thaddaeus James Bourne, DMA University of Connecticut, 2018 This study will examine the Zwischenfach colloquially referred to as the baritenor. A large body of published research exists regarding the physiology of breathing, the acoustics of singing, and solutions for specific vocal faults. There is similarly a growing body of research into the system of voice classification and repertoire assignment. This paper shall reexamine this research in light of baritenor voices. After establishing the general parameters of healthy vocal technique through appoggio, the various tenor, baritone, and bass Fächer will be studied to establish norms of vocal criteria such as range, timbre, tessitura, and registration for each Fach. The study of these Fächer includes examinations of the historical singers for whom the repertoire was created and how those roles are cast by opera companies in modern times. The specific examination of baritenors follows the same format by examining current and -
Connection/Separation
Friday, February 12, 2021 | 4 PM MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC OPERA THEATRE Tazewell Thompson, Director of Opera Studies presents Connection/Separation Featuring arias and scenes from Carmen, Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte, La clemenza di Tito, L’elisir d’amore, Le nozze di Figaro, Les pêcheurs de perles, and Lucio Silla A. Scott Parry, Director MSM Opera Theatre productions are made possible by the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation and the Joseph F. McCrindle Endowment for Opera Productions at Manhattan School of Music. Friday, February 12, 2021 | 4 PM MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC OPERA THEATRE Tazewell Thompson, Director of Opera Studies presents Connection/Separation Featuring arias and scenes from Carmen, Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte, La clemenza di Tito, L’elisir d’amore, Le nozze di Figaro, Les pêcheurs de perles, and Lucio Silla A. Scott Parry, Director Myra Huang, Vocal Coach & Pianist Kristen Kemp, Vocal Coach & Pianist Megan P. G. Kolpin, Props Coordinator DIRECTOR’S NOTE In each of our lives—during this last year especially—we may have discovered ourselves in moments of wanting, even needing some sort of human connection, but instead finding separation by any number of barriers. In the arias and scenes that follow, we witness characters in just this kind of moment; searching for meaningful contact yet being somehow barred from achieving it. Through circumstance, distance, convention, misunderstanding, pride, fear, ego, or what have you, we may find ourselves in situations similar to the characters in this program, while looking forward to the days when connection can be more easily achieved and separation the exception to the rule. -
La Couleur Du Temps – the Colour of Time Salzburg Whitsun Festival 29 May – 1 June 2020
SALZBURGER FESTSPIELE PFINGSTEN Künstlerische Leitung: Cecilia Bartoli La couleur du temps – The Colour of Time Pauline Viardot-Garcia (1821 – 1910) Photo: Uli Weber - Decca Salzburg Whitsun Festival 29 May – 1 June 2020 (SF, 30 December 2019) The life of Pauline Viardot-Garcia – singer, musical ambassador of Europe, outstanding pianist and composer – is the focus of the 2020 programme of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival. “The uncanny instinct Cecilia Bartoli has for the themes of our times is proven once again by her programme for the 2020 Salzburg Whitsun Festival, which focuses on Pauline Viardot. Orlando Figes has just written a bestseller about this woman. Using Viardot as an example, he describes the importance of art within the idea of Europe,” says Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler. 1 SALZBURGER FESTSPIELE PFINGSTEN Künstlerische Leitung: Cecilia Bartoli Pauline Viardot not only made a name for herself as a singer, composer and pianist, but her happy marriage with the French theatre manager, author and art critic Louis Viardot furthered her career and enabled her to act as a great patron of the arts. Thus, she made unique efforts to save the autograph of Mozart’s Don Giovanni for posterity. Don Giovanni was among the manuscripts Constanze Mozart had sold to Johann Anton André in Offenbach in 1799. After his death in 1842, his daughter inherited the autograph and offered it to libraries in Vienna, Berlin and London – without success. In 1855 her cousin, the pianist Ernst Pauer, took out an advertisement in the London-based journal Musical World. Thereupon, Pauline Viardot-García bought the manuscript for 180 pounds. -
NEWSLETTER of the American Handel Society
NEWSLETTER of The American Handel Society Volume XVIII, Number 1 April 2003 A PILGRIMAGE TO IOWA As I sat in the United Airways terminal of O’Hare International Airport, waiting for the recently bankrupt carrier to locate and then install an electric starter for the no. 2 engine, my mind kept returning to David Lodge’s description of the modern academic conference. In Small World (required airport reading for any twenty-first century academic), Lodge writes: “The modern conference resembles the pilgrimage of medieval Christendom in that it allows the participants to indulge themselves in all the pleasures and diversions of travel while appearing to be austerely bent on self-improvement.” He continues by listing the “penitential exercises” which normally accompany the enterprise, though, oddly enough, he omits airport delays. To be sure, the companionship in the terminal (which included nearly a dozen conferees) was anything but penitential, still, I could not help wondering if the delay was prophecy or merely a glitch. The Maryland Handel Festival was a tough act to follow and I, and perhaps others, were apprehensive about whether Handel in Iowa would live up to the high standards set by its august predecessor. In one way the comparison is inappropriate. By the time I started attending the Maryland conference (in the early ‘90’s), it was a first-rate operation, a Cadillac among festivals. Comparing a one-year event with a two-decade institution is unfair, though I am sure in the minds of many it was inevitable. Fortunately, I feel that the experience in Iowa compared very favorably with what many of us had grown accustomed Frontispiece from William Coxe, Anecdotes fo George Frederick Handel and John Christopher Smith to in Maryland.