Assassinio nella cattedrale | |
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Opera by Ildebrando Pizzetti | |
![]() The assassination of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, the opera's central theme, in a 15th-century depiction by Francke | |
Librettist | Ildebrando Pizzetti |
Language | Italian |
Based on | Murder in the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot |
Premiere |
Assassinio nella cattedrale (Murder in the Cathedral) is an opera in two acts and an intermezzo by the Italian composer Ildebrando Pizzetti. The libretto is an adaptation by the composer of an Italian translation of T. S. Eliot's 1935 play Murder in the Cathedral . The opera was first performed at La Scala, Milan, on 1 March 1958. The opera was performed for the first time in Canada the following year at the Montreal Festivals. [1]
Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 1 March 1958 [2] Conductor: Gianandrea Gavazzeni |
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Thomas Becket | bass | Nicola Rossi-Lemeni |
Herald | tenor | Aldo Bertocci |
First tempter | tenor | Rinaldo Pelizzoni |
Second tempter | bass | Antonio Cassinelli |
Third tempter | bass | Nicola Zaccaria |
Fourth tempter | bass | Lino Puglisi |
First priest | tenor | Mario Ortica |
Second priest | baritone | Dino Dondi |
Third priest | bass | Adolfo Cormanni |
First knight | tenor | Rinaldo Pelizzoni |
Second knight | bass | Enrico Campi |
Third knight | bass | Silvio Maionica |
Fourth knight | bass | Marco Stefanoni |
First coryphée | soprano | Leyla Gencer |
Second coryphée | mezzo-soprano | Gabriella Carturan |
Murder in the Cathedral is a verse drama by T. S. Eliot, first performed in 1935, that portrays the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral during the reign of Henry II in 1170. Eliot drew heavily on the writing of Edward Grim, a clerk who was an eyewitness to the event.
Virginia Zeani, Commendatore OMRI is a Romanian-born opera singer who sang leading soprano roles in the opera houses of Europe and North America. As a singer, she was known for her dramatic intensity and the beauty, wide range, and suppleness of her voice which allowed her to sing a repertoire of 69 roles ranging from the heroines in belcanto operas by Rossini and Donizetti to those of Wagner, Puccini and Verdi. She also created roles in several 20th-century operas, including Blanche in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites. Zeani made her professional debut in 1948 as Violetta in La traviata, which would become one of her signature roles; she has since sung the opera over 640 times. After her retirement from the stage in 1982, she became a well-known voice teacher. She was married to the Italian bass Nicola Rossi-Lemeni from 1957 until his death in 1991. A Distinguished Professor Emerita at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music where she taught for many years, Zeani lives in Palm Beach County, Florida and has continued to teach singing privately.
Ildebrando Pizzetti was an Italian composer of classical music, musicologist, and music critic.
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