Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)
Overture to Russland and Ludmilla

It was through the voice of Mikhail Glinka’s operas and other 19th century nationalistic works that Russian music began to be heard and respected in the West. The composer had the good fortune to be introduced to Russian folk and church music as well as Western music and Russian literary works at an early age. Traveling to Italy and Germany for health reasons and to study and perform, Glinka met Bellini, Donizetti, Mendelssohn, and Berlioz. Although he benefitted from his studies abroad, he felt drawn to work in a Russian idiom rather than to continue as an “Italian.” The second of his two operas, Russlan and Ludmilla is based on a Pushkin verse tale set in 10th century pagan Russia. The plot, a mixture of fantastic, romantic, and satirical motifs, gave Glinka plenty of opportunity to create sparkling, colorful tunes. The Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla, a favorite showpiece in the concert repertoire, provides a fine sampling of the themes of the opera. Listen for racing violins, and, during the middle section, solos for nearly everyone else, including the timpani.

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Wolfgang A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Voi, che sapete from The Marriage of Figaro

Undoubtedly, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) remains one of the greatest pieces of comedy and music of all time, filled with charm, wit, spontaneity and satire. Cherubino, the count’s young page, is infatuated with the Countess. This condition drives him to all sorts of mischief and remedies such as composing songs in her honor. In the charming Voi, che sapete he describes his symptoms and asks the Countess and Susannah (who he says should know) if what he is experiencing is love.

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Wolfgang A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Dies Bildnis from Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)

Mozart’s two-act magical fantasy Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) was written in 1791, not long before the composer's death. The work’s immediate popularity has continued unabated to this day. Prince Tamino has wandered into the kingdom of the Queen of the Night pursued by a fearsome dragon. The Queen’s ladies deal with the beast and then hand him a portrait of the Queen’s daughter, Pamina. Tamino instantly falls in love and tenderly sings Dies Bildness as he finds the likeness enchantingly lovely and longs to find the subject and be with her.

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Giacomo Pucinni (1858-1924)
Humming Chorus from Madame Butterfly

The premiere of Madama Butterfly was one of the darkest moments of Puccini’s career. He had been completely captivated by the story of the trusting young geisha and the cavalier American naval officer that he had seen portrayed on the stage in London. Committed to creating an authentic setting for an opera based on this story, Puccini consulted with the wife of the Japanese Ambassador, collected actual Japanese melodies, and upon completing the work was convinced that it was his masterpiece. After suffering the catcalls and jeers from the opening night crowd, the composer muttered “You will see who is right! This is the best opera I have ever written!” After four major revisions and looking back from today’s vantage point, it is clear–this work is an enduring masterpiece. In Act II Butterfly and Suzuki have decorated the house with flowers and are awaiting the return of Pinkerton. As the night wears on the wordless, unseen chorus keeps company with the patient Butterfly.

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George F. Handel (1685-1759)
Ombra mai fu from Xerxes

Handel’s opera based on a fictional account of the court intrigues of the Persian King, Xerxes, was a failure in the composer’s day, acquiring a mere five performances before it was put away until the 20th century. Even today, it is best known for the enduring aria Ombra mai fu where, as the opera opens, King Xerxes sings affectionately in praise of the plane trees and their lovely shade. In the original version and countless arrangements entitled “Largo” this piece is certainly the best known Handel opera aria and likely holds the distinction of being the first music broadcast on radio–Christmas Eve, 1906.

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Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)
Una Furtive Lagrima from L'Elixir d' Amore

Dominant in 19th century Italian opera between the time of Bellini and Verdi, Donizetti produced more than sixty operas in both comedic and serious genres. L’elisir d’amore (The Love Potion) was certainly his most popular success. Nemorino, a peasant, is in love with Adine who is indifferent to him. To try to win her affection, he spends all his money on a love potion, then when that is unsuccessful, he signs up for the army to finance another bottle of the stuff. When these facts are brought to Adine’s attention, she recognizes that his love is real. Nemorino sees her tear and sings Una furtiva lagrima, as he realizes how she really does love him and he would gladly die for the privilege of holding her. The centerpiece of the opera, this aria, imbued with sadness and sweetness, is introduced by the bassoon in a minor key and is transformed to major as it progresses.

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Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)
Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana

Pietro Mascagni, a struggling young music teacher, earned fame and fortune overnight with the immediate success of his first opera, Cavalleria Rusticana. This one act tale of Sicilian peasant life, illicit love, and revenge takes place on an Easter morning. After a stormy duet outside the church (where the Easter services are taking place) Santuzza and Alfio leave. The square is empty, but the action goes on in the orchestra with the famous Intermezzo. In its forty-eight bars, the piece recapitulates what has gone before, and foreshadows the tragedy that is to come.

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Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
Carmen

I. Prelude
II. La Fleur que tu m'avais jetee
III. Toreador Song

Georges Bizet, entering the Paris Conservatoire as a teenager, won many prizes including the premiere composition prize, the Prix de Rome, at age 19. Although Bizet completed many compositions, including over fifteen dramatic musical works, lack of recognition filled his short life of thirty-six years with disappointment. In the end he was not even to know that his Carmen would become one of the most popular operas of all time, as he died three months following its disastrous premiere. The Prelude to the tragic tale of the beautiful gypsy girl, Carmen, and the dangerous love triangle with her jealous lover Don José and the toreador Escamillo, features two themes from the opera. Fiery rhythms of the music of the bullfight from Act IV are heard first, moving directly to the famous Toreador Song from Act II. The concert version heard tonight concludes with a return to the opening theme.

Don José, who had been tasked with guarding Carmen who is under arrest, succumbed to her charms and allowed her to escape. For this he has suffered a prison term, but upon his release Carmen only rewards him with taunts. In spite of all. he takes out a flower and passionately sings La fleur que tu m’avais jetée. This flower was his solace in prison, it brought back the vision of her face. Although he cursed the fates that brought them together, he knew in his heart that he had one hope, to be together. In spite of all he loves her.

Earlier in Act II of Carmen, Escamillo the renowned bullfighter, is being fêted by a crowd in the village tavern. In response he sings the famous Toreador Song describing the great arena, its cheering throngs, the mad rush of the bull and the stalking bullfighter. The chorus joins in stirring refrains and a coda extolling the love that awaits the triumphant Toreador.

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Guiseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
O Figli miei from Macbeth

Guiseppe Verdi is arguably the greatest Italian musical dramatist and one of the world's greatest composers of opera. Macbeth is one of his three operas based on Shakespeare plays. In Act IV Macduff, whose wife and children have been murdered by Macbeth, mourns in O figli miei of his failure to protect his family from this indescribable tragedy.

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Guiseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Va, Pensiero from Nabucco

After a long apprenticeship in the provincial towns of Italy, the young Giuseppe Verdi had finally reached Milan, experienced success in the production of his first opera, and with that success a commission for three more operas. Tragedy struck, and added to the loss of his two children was the illness and death of his beloved wife, Margherita in July, 1840. Despite the composer’s emotional devastation, La Scala demanded that the commission of a comic opera for the fall season be fulfilled. Not surprisingly, the ensuing work, Un giorno di regno, was not a success and was withdrawn after only one performance. Verdi vowed to never compose music again. However, Merelli, La Scala’s impresario, persuaded Verdi, against his will, to consider a libretto for Nabucodonosor. In the composer’s words:

On the way home I felt a kind of indefinable malaise, a very deep sadness, a distress that filled my heart. I got home and with an almost violent gesture threw the manuscript on the table, standing upright in front of it. The book had opened in falling on the table; without knowing how, I gazed at the page that lay before me, and read this line:" Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate." I ran through the verses that followed and was much moved, all the more because they were almost a paraphrase from the Bible (Psalm 137: By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept as we remembered Zion), the reading of which had always delighted me.

While still determined not to compose, Verdi felt compelled to set to music the dramatic conflict of the Hebrew slaves and their Babylonian captors. Following the triumphant premier of Nabucco at La Scala, March 9, 1842, Va Pensiero, the chorus of the Hebrew slaves, was heard on the streets–overnight becoming a symbol of the Risorgimento, the movement for the liberation and political unification of Italy. One of Verdi’s great operatic innovations, demonstrated most effectively in this work, is the importance he gives the chorus, and in particular, the strength portrayed with choral unison. Nabucco is not only a drama of people, but a drama of a people.

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Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Prelude to Die Meistersinger

Wagner’s music drama Die Meistersinger celebrates the guilds and daily life of medieval Nuremberg as the contest of song is to be held. The main characters include Hans Sachs, a mastersinger, cobbler-poet and Walther, a knight who is in love with the goldsmith’s daughter, Eva. The work also gave Wagner an opportunity to pillory his nemesis, the critic Hanslick in creating the pedantic character of Beckmesser. This piece was the composer’s only mature comedy. It was a long time in developing–over twenty years with many intervening projects, financial difficulties and the like–but the final product is a delight. Leitmotifs abound, over forty of them in the opera, with a dozen or so used in the prelude to introduce the main characters and set the stage. This magnificent Prelude falls in three main parts. The first section begins with a pompous march symbolizing the mastersingers who did so much to give fine poetry and music to the 16th century. Tender phrases referring to Walther’s Prize Song and his love for Eva lead to an even weightier march theme inviting us to imagine the procession making its way to the contest at the river. We get a glimpse of Walter’s song, then the central fugal section, dominated by the winds, emerges as Beckmesser is caricatured. This mocking is interspersed with the warm impassioned interjections of Walther and Eva’s motifs. The brass announces the return to the first Meistersinger theme and then the fun really begins as Wagner pulls three and sometimes four of the motifs together. The Meistersingers walk along in the bass while Walther’s Prize Song sings above, and in between the fanfares of the second Meistersinger motif, occasionally Beckmesser’s motifs are heard. The glorious pandemonium swells until the trumpets proclaim the finale of the festivity–and only now, the curtain rises.

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Program notes by Linda Mack. Copyright 2013.
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