• 528
• Articles
• 27 Set 2012

The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827). Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best-known works of the Western classical repertoire. Among critics, it is almost universally considered to be among Beethoven’s greatest works, and is considered by some to be […]

• 397
• Articles
• 24 Set 2012

Roussel found himself in the exotic. His major work, the opera “Padmâvatî”, rife with love, lust, fear, and death, makes vibrant the weave of history and legend surrounding the fall of Chitoor, in Rajputan, whose ruins Roussel and his bride visited on their honeymoon in 1909. Though modal and Hindu scales, and an Arab chant […]

• 487
• Articles
• 19 Set 2012

“La traviata” – Act 3 Violetta’s bedroom. Dr. Grenvil tells Annina that Violetta will not live long since her tuberculosis has worsened. Alone in her room, Violetta reads a letter from Alfredo’s father telling her that the Baron was only wounded in his duel with Alfredo; that he has informed Alfredo of the sacrifice she […]

• 1349
• Articles
• 19 Set 2012

MARIA CALLAS 02.XII.1923 – 16.IX.1977. R.I.P. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ40GfZvf2g

• 505
• Articles
• 19 Set 2012

The first performance of “La traviata” was on 6 March 1853 at the La Fenice opera house in Venice. It was jeered at times by the audience, who directed some of their scorn at the casting of soprano Fanny Salvini-Donatelli in the lead role of Violetta. Though she was an acclaimed singer, they considered her […]

• 1536
• Articles
• 19 Set 2012

From the very beginning of what we now call opera—Corsi’s and Peri’s lost scores for Rinuccini’s Dafne (1594–1598), Peri’s Euridice (1600), Monteverdi’s Orfeo (1607)—up to the end of the eighteenth century, composers depended considerably for their plots on classical Greek legends, and often on the dramatic versions of those legends written by the three authors […]

• 503
• Articles
• 19 Set 2012

“My journal entry, dated April 5, 1994: I want to write an essay about Maria Callas, the greatest operatic soprano of the 20th century. Most modern classical music stars dwell in rarefied peaks, free from the glare of the masses, subjects of esoteric study. Maria Callas was an exception. She was a pre-Stonewall icon, the […]

• 509
• Articles
• 19 Set 2012

La Traviata is an exception in Verdi’s operatic output. The love between Violetta and Alfredo does not draw upon historical or legendary sources as tradition virtually dictated in Verdi’s own time. It’s a story – and a highly Romantic one – about a love affair set in the 1850’s. It was its very modernity which, […]

• 421
• Articles
• 19 Set 2012

In 1958 Maria Callas sung in one of her greatest “La traviata”, with Alfredo Kraus, in Lisbon. Here the Finale of the I Act. Alfredo Kraus is Alfredo, Mario Sereni his father, Maria Callas, Violetta. “La traviata” is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. […]

• 497
• Articles
• 19 Set 2012

To lovers of·Italian opera there is something baffling and, certainly frustrating about the adverse criticisms sometimes made of the standard Italian repertoire. It is not uncommon for aficionados of Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi even, to be made to feel embarrassed and defensive by these adversaries who claim for their musical idols superior artistic taste and […]