Of Operatic Love — BREAK —

— Abduction from the Seraglio, "Martern aller Arten" (start) 2½ Ruth Ann Swenson, DVD — Abduction from the Seraglio, Konstanze/Belmonte duet 7 Rainer Trost, Eva Mei. Florence, 2002 Vagaries of Operatic Love — BREAK — C. Donizetti: The Elixir of Love L’elisir d’amore by Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) premiered in 11 1832, and has been a staple of the opera repertoire ever since. Although also an opera buffa, it is less farcical than The Barber of Seville, and instead has a pastoral air. The text, by Felice Romani, 12 was derived from an earlier opera by Daniel Auber. The young Adina, a wealthy widow, is the most attractive and best educated of the women in her village. Too fine for Nemorino anyway, who must worship from afar. But she has her eyes on him too, and might even accept him if he would only summon the courage to take matters into his own hands. When a troop of soldiers arrives at the village, Adina flirts with Belcore, their sergeant, to provoke Nemorino. He turns for aid to another outsider, the quack Doctor Dulcamara, who sells him a bottle of wine relabeled as a love potion. Of course his drunkenness does not help matters, and things take an unexpectedly serious turn before the couple admit their love and the outsiders leave. — Elixir of Love, opening scene (part) 5½ Rolando Villazón, Anna Netrebko. Vienna, 2005 — Elixir of Love, Act I finale 10½ Rolando Villazón, Anna Netrebko, Leo Nucci. Vienna, 2005 — Elixir of Love, central scenes of Act II 17 Rolando Villazón, Anna Netrebko, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo. http://www.brunyate.com/vagariesmcc/ 2. Boy Gets Girl (and vice-versa) — Barber of Seville, Count/Figaro duet (first part) 4½ Class Two: Boy Gets Girl Luigi Alva, Hermann Prey. Milan, 1972 Boy gets girl, girl gets boy: the pretty basic plot of any romantic — Barber of Seville, Act I finale (first part) 7 Juan Diego Flórez, María Bayo, Bruno Praticò. Madrid, 2005 comedy. The interest is not in the beginning, which is more or less assumed, or in the end, which is pretty much preordained, but in — Barber of Seville, Count/Bartolo duet 3 how they get there, what obstacles they must overcome. In The Juan Diego Flórez, Bruno Praticò. Madrid, 2005 Barber of Seville, the obstacle is the virtual imprisonment of the — Barber of Seville, Escape trio 1½ heroine. In The Abduction from the Seraglio, literal imprisonment. Juan Diego Flórez, María Bayo, Pietro Spagnoli. Madrid, 2005 But The Elixir of Love has more subtle obstacles, lying within the personalities of the characters themselves. While the endings of B. Mozart: The Abduction from the Seraglio such romantic comedies are a foregone conclusion, we shall see that they can be quite difficult to handle. Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782) was the first opera presented We shall start, however, with something I came upon only today: a in Vienna by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91). It is an example brief clip to follow up on last week’s discussion of the countertenor of a particularly German genre, theSingspiel , or comic opera with voice. This is from Handel’s Teseo (1713), a good-bye duet for a pair spoken dialogue; The Magic Flute is another. The text by Gottlieb of young lovers, Arcane and Clizia. Whoever put the video together Stephanie is based on a play by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner. It is an really understands how the two voices, even the two personalities, example of the late 18th-century fascination with all things Turkish. merge. Handel originally cast a female soprano in the role of the The Spanish nobleman Belmonte is engaged to Konstanze. But she young man, but a countertenor may be an even better solution. has been captured at sea by pirates and sold to the harem of Pasha Selim, along with her English maid Blonde and Belmonte’s servant — Teseo, Arcane/Clizia duet 3½ Pedrillo. So Belmonte has come to Turkey to rescue her. He gets Jakub Józef Orliński & Natalia Kawałek, 2018 Pedrillo to introduce him as a landscape architect and so gains admittance to the palace grounds. He meets with Konstanze (who is A. Rossini: The Barber of Seville being wooed, rather than taken, by the Pasha) and arranges for a Il barbiere di Sivigila (1816) by Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868), nighttime escape. But they are caught by the overseer Osmin…. though a fiasco at its premiere, quickly became Rossini’s most Even when writing a comedy, Mozart included serious as well as popular opera, and the work that most clearly defines the genre of comic elements in his operas. So while there are moments of opera buffa. The text is adapted from the first of a trilogy of plays by slapstick, such as the trio that ends Act I, there are also numbers of Pierre Beaumarchais (1732–99), making the opera a prequel to deep seriousness or intense drama, as in the defiant aria in which Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, although written 30 years later. Konstanze rejects the Pasha. And when she and Belmonte both find Count Almaviva, on a visit to Seville, has fallen in love at a distance themselves condemned to death, the comedy gives way to deep but with Rosina, and she with him. The problem is that she is kept under transcendent tragedy. lock and key by her jealous and avaricious guardian, Doctor Bartolo. — Abduction from the Seraglio, Act I finale 2½ So the Count has to ask the wily barber Figaro (the Mister Fixit of the Mehrzad Montazeri, Kurt Rydl, Rainer Trost. Florence, 2002 town) for suggestions of how to get close enough to speak with (or may substitute with another version) her—all of which involve outrageous acting on his part! .

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