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Ruggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Throughout his career, Leoncavallo produced numerous operas and songs but it is his 1892 opera Pagliacci that remained his lasting contribution, despite attempts to escape the shadow of his greatest success.
In Greek mythology, Antigone is a Theban princess and a character in several ancient Greek tragedies. She is the daughter of Oedipus, king of Thebes; her mother/grandmother is either Jocasta or, in another variation of the myth, Euryganeia. She is a sister of Polynices, Eteocles, and Ismene. The meaning of the name is, as in the case of the masculine equivalent Antigonus, "in place of one's parents" or "worthy of one's parents". Antigone appears in the three 5th century BC tragic plays written by Sophocles, known collectively as the three Theban plays, being the protagonist of the eponymous tragedy Antigone. She makes a brief appearance at the end of Aeschylus' Seven against Thebes, while her story was also the subject of Euripides' now lost play with the same name.
In opera, verismo, from vero, meaning 'true', was a post-Romantic operatic tradition associated with Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano, Francesco Cilea and Giacomo Puccini.
Pagliacci is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The opera tells the tale of Canio, actor and leader of a commedia dell'arte theatrical company, who murders his wife Nedda and her lover Silvio on stage during a performance. Pagliacci premiered at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on 21 May 1892, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, with Adelina Stehle as Nedda, Fiorello Giraud as Canio, Victor Maurel as Tonio, and Mario Ancona as Silvio. Soon after its Italian premiere, the opera played in London and in New York. Pagliacci is the best-known of Leoncavallo's ten operas and remains a staple of the repertoire.
Titta Ruffo, born as Ruffo Cafiero Titta, was an Italian operatic baritone who had a major international singing career. Known as the "Voce del leone", he was greatly admired, even by rival baritones, such as Giuseppe De Luca, who said of Ruffo: "His was not a voice, it was a miracle", and Victor Maurel, the creator of Verdi's Iago and Falstaff. Maurel said that the notes of Ruffo's upper register were the most glorious baritone sounds he had ever heard. Indeed Walter Legge, the prominent classical record producer, went so far as to call Ruffo "a genius".
Victor Maurel was a French baritone who enjoyed an international reputation in opera. He sang in opera houses in Paris and London, Milan, Moscow, New York, St Petersburg and many other venues. He was particularly associated with the operas of Verdi and created leading characters in the premieres of the composer's final operas, as Iago in Otello (1887) and in the title role of Falstaff (1893). He was also known for his portrayal of Mozart's Don Giovanni, and won Wagner's praise for his performances in Lohengrin, Tannhäuser and Der fliegende Holländer. After retiring from the stage he taught singing in Paris, London and New York.
Œdipe à Colone is an operatic tragédie lyrique by Antonio Sacchini first performed at Versailles on 4 January 1786 in the presence of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The libretto, by Nicolas-François Guillard, is based on the play Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles. The premiere, intended to inaugurate the new theatre at Versailles, was not a success, possibly due to the quality of the performances, the staging, or the acoustics. Marie Antoinette promised Sacchini a better production at Fontainebleau in the autumn, but the Affair of the Diamond Necklace meant she was unable to have her wish. The news that the production was cancelled is said to have hastened the death of the already seriously ill composer on October 9, 1786. Œdipe was given a posthumous performance by the Paris Opera at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin on February 1, 1787. This time the audience was warmly appreciative and the opera became one of the most popular pieces in the repertoire for several decades, reaching a total of almost 600 performances by 1844.
Œdipe (Oedipe) is an opera in four acts by the Romanian composer George Enescu, set to a French libretto by Edmond Fleg. It is based on the mythological tale of Oedipus, as told by Sophocles in Oedipus the King.
I Medici is an opera in four acts composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo, with a libretto by the composer. Set in Renaissance Florence at the court of Lorenzo de' Medici, it was intended as the first part of a planned but unfinished trilogy called Crepusculum. The opera premiered on 6 November 1893 at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan.
Zazà is an opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo, with a libretto by the composer, which draws on the same material as the French play Zaza (1898). The story concerns the French music hall singer, Zazà, and her affair and subsequent decision to leave her lover, Milio, when she discovers that he is married. The music is influenced by the French music halls where Leoncavallo had spent his early years as a composer.
The heroic drama Oedipus: A Tragedy, is an adaption of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, written by John Dryden and Nathaniel Lee. After being licensed in 1678 and published in 1679, it became a huge success on stage during the Restoration period.
Pasquale Amato was an Italian operatic baritone. Amato enjoyed an international reputation but attained the peak of his fame in New York City, where he sang with the Metropolitan Opera from 1908 until 1921.
Cristoforo Colombo is an opera in four acts and an epilogue by Alberto Franchetti to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. It was written in 1892 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in America.
Giovacchino Forzano was an Italian playwright, librettist, stage and film director. A resourceful writer, he authored numerous popular plays and produced opera librettos for most of the major Italian composers of the early twentieth century, including the librettos for Giacomo Puccini's Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi.
Greek is an opera in two acts composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage to a libretto adapted by Turnage and Jonathan Moore from Steven Berkoff's 1980 verse play Greek. The play and the opera are a re-telling of Sophocles's Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex with the setting changed to the East End of London in the 1980s. The opera was first performed on 17 June 1988 in the Carl-Orff-Saal of the Gasteig, Munich, in a co-production by the Munich Biennale, the Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC.
Oedipus Rex is a play by Sophocles.
Konrad Claude Dryden is an American author who has written extensively on Italian opera, particularly about the movement known as Verismo.
Yvonne D'Arle was a French-born American soprano singer, born Eugenie Marguerite Patet. She sang with the Metropolitan Opera from 1921 to 1925.
Edipo a Colono is a piece of incidental music. Gioachino Rossini composed it in 1817 for bass voice, men's chorus and orchestra. The Italian libretto by Giambattista Giusti is based on the eponymous play by Sophocles.
Oedipus is an opera in two parts composed by Wolfgang Rihm to a German-language libretto that he based on the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles and related texts by Friedrich Nietzsche and Heiner Müller. The work is characterised as Musiktheater. Written in 1986 and 1987, it was premiered on 4 October 1987 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, directed by Götz Friedrich; it was broadcast live and recorded on DVD.
References
- 1 2 Dryden, Konrad (2007). Leoncavallo: Life and Works. Scarecrow Press. pp. 179−180. ISBN 9781461716655.
- 1 2 3 4 Schoell, William (2006). The Opera of the Twentieth Century: A Passionate Art in Transition. McFarland. p. 38. ISBN 9781476605562.
- 1 2 3 4 Healey, Robin (2019). Italian Literature Since 1900 in English Translation. University of Toronto Press. p. 320. ISBN 9781487531904.
- ↑ Mesa, Franklin (2015). Opera: An Encyclopedia of World Premieres and Significant Performances, Singers, Composers, Librettists, Arias and Conductors, 1597–2000. McFarland. ISBN 9781476605371.
- ↑ ""Edipo re," New Opera, Sung By Titta Ruffo In New York". Evening Sun. February 22, 1921. p. 6. Retrieved 2022-03-10– via newspapers.com.
- 1 2 "Leoncavallo's 'Edipo Re' One Man Opera, Made for Ruffo". New York Herald. February 22, 1921. p. 11. Retrieved 2022-03-10– via newspapers.com.
- ↑ "Leoncavallo's 'Edipo Re' Has New York Premiere". New York Tribune. February 22, 1921. p. 8. Retrieved 2022-03-10– via newspapers.com.
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