| Palatsi The Palace | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Aulis Sallinen | |
 Aulis Sallinen in 2009 | |
| Librettist | |
| Language | Finnish |
| Premiere | |
Palatsi (The Palace) is an opera in three acts, Op. 68, composed by Aulis Sallinen, on a libretto by Irene Dische and Hans Magnus Enzensberger. The translation of the libretto into Finnish was by the composer. [1]
The opera was commissioned by the Savonlinna Opera Festival and composed between 1991 and 1993. [1]
Palatsi was first performed on 26 July 1995 at the Savonlinna Opera Festival. It was recorded and issued on CD by Koch Classics, and a performance of the opera was filmed by Ondine and issued as a DVD which included interviews with the composer, librettists, conductor and other members of the production team. [2]
The scenario of Sallinen's fifth opera, between Kullervo (Los Angeles 1992) and King Lear (Helsinki 2000) is loosely based on Mozart's 1781 singspiel Die Entführung aus dem Serail , and on Ryszard Kapuściński's 1978 book The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat which described the fall of Haile Selassie, last Emperor of Ethiopia.
Rodney Milnes described the work as "almost as enigmatic as The King Goes Forth to France , but lighter in tone, a sort of late-20th-century operetta". [3] Critic Michael White reported that "you can legitimately describe anything in late-20th-century opera as 'ravishing' is, of course, something in itself. The music of The Palace is unnervingly attractive: easy on the ear but seriously worked and laced with tension. It is good to hear and grateful to sing…". [4]
The Palace Rhapsody (1996), based on themes from the opera, was commissioned by the Royal Northern College of Music and is in the style of the harmonie arrangements of 18th century operas. [5]
A satire of the collapse of a corrupt regime, The Palace deals with how authoritarian power is wielded and its debilitating effect on those near its centre, which forms a compelling need for them to escape and be free. In the end politics ruthlessly transfers power into new hands where it becomes just as absolute as before.
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 26 July 1995, [2] (Conductor: Okko Kamu) |
|---|---|---|
| Kuningas (The King) | tenor | Veijo Varpio |
| Constance | soprano | Jaana Mantynen |
| Valmonte | baritone | Sauli Tilikainen |
| Petruccio | tenor | Jorma Silvasti |
| Ossip | bass-baritone | Tom Krause |
| Kitty | soprano | Ritva-Liisa Korhonen |
| The Physician | tenor | Pertti Makela |
| The Pillow Bearer | tenor | Lassi Virtanen |
| The Keeper of the Purse | baritone | Sami Luttinen |
| Mestaaja (The Executioner) | bass | Mart Mikk |
| Courtiers, petitioners, beggars | ||
Flutes 2 (1 piccolo), oboes 2, clarinets 2 (1), bassoons 2 (1 contra), horns 4, trumpets 2, trombone, tuba, harp, piano, strings.
It is early morning in the hall of the palace. Petruccio and Ossip, confidants of the King are discussing why he has not left his bedchamber for three days. Courtiers enter and sing a traditional morning song. Ossip eventually decides to go and see the King but is prevented by Valmonte. Valmonte sends in the ruler's doctor. The Pillow Bearer, Keeper of the Purse and Executioner also voice their concerns over the King's absence. The situation also perturbs the courtiers, who are instructed by Valmonte to get continue with their work.
Three days later, Petruccio rehearses the courtiers for the traditional morning hymn. Valmonte approaches him, and asks how he may gain advancement at the court; Petruccio agrees to assist him and praises Valmonte when he sees Ossip. The latter however, is very suspicious of the new arrival.
The Cuckoo sets out the rota of the morning ceremonies at the palace. The King (or Bassa) enters with Queen Constance, and the court sings the morning song. The King only speaks through the voice of Constance, fearing his own words. When he learns that Valmonte has new skills acquired from abroad – such as being able to read the stars – the Bassa makes him Keeper of the Imperial Door and Secretary of Future Affairs. Constance is also fascinated by the newcomer.
In the palace gardens later the same day Petruccio and Ossip are plotting to obtain favours from the King and criticizing each other. Kitty, a lady-in-waiting and Ossip's wife, is bored with her husband. Constance is also tired of the dreary life in the palace and having to be the voice of her husband. Valmonte tells her about the freedom and pleasures outside and suggests that she flee with him. Constance hesitates, as she is afraid of the unknown world outside the Palace. Kitty sets out a plan for her and Constance to escape from the palace during the feast that day by mingling in the crowd of beggars. The King overhears their conversation.
Later, the beggars are allowed in through the gates according to custom for the evening feast, and they beat on their plates for food. The King, disguised as one of them, sings a song to try to convince the Queen to remain in the palace. Ossip, not recognizing the King in disguise, believes him to be a troublemaker and orders the King to be arrested and beaten. As the beggars are sent away from the palace Constance and Kitty flee. The main gates of the palace are then shut and quiet descends, the Royal bedchamber doors open and Valmonte emerges, with an escort and bearing the insignia of the autocrat. [6]
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is a singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Gottlieb Stephanie, based on Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's Belmont und Constanze, oder Die Entführung aus dem Serail. The plot concerns the attempt of the hero Belmonte, assisted by his servant Pedrillo, to rescue his beloved Constanze from the seraglio of Pasha Selim. The work premiered on 16 July 1782 at the Vienna Burgtheater, with the composer conducting.
Un ballo in maschera is an 1859 opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The text, by Antonio Somma, was based on Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's 1833 five act opera, Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué.
La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the libretti written by Charles-Guillaume Étienne for the opera Cendrillon with music by Nicolas Isouard and by Francesco Fiorini for Agatina, o la virtù premiata with music by Stefano Pavesi. All these operas are versions of the fairy tale Cendrillon by Charles Perrault. Rossini's opera was first performed in Rome's Teatro Valle on 25 January 1817.
King Roger is an opera in three acts by Karol Szymanowski to a Polish libretto by the composer himself and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, the composer's cousin. The score was finished in 1924. The opera received its world premiere on 19 June 1926 at the Grand Theatre, Warsaw, with the cast including the composer's sister, the soprano Stanisława Korwin-Szymanowska, as Roxana.
Aulis Heikki Sallinen is a Finnish contemporary classical music composer. His music has been variously described as "remorselessly harsh", a "beautifully crafted amalgam of several 20th-century styles", and "neo-romantic". Sallinen studied at the Sibelius Academy, where his teachers included Joonas Kokkonen. He has had works commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, and has also written seven operas, eight symphonies, concertos for violin, cello, flute, horn, and English horn, as well as several chamber works. He won the Nordic Council Music Prize in 1978 for his opera Ratsumies.
Savonlinna Opera Festival is held annually in the city of Savonlinna in Finland. The Festival takes place at the medieval Olavinlinna, built in 1475. The castle is located amid spectacular lake scenery.
Siroe, re di Persia, is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. It was his 12th opera for the Royal Academy of Music and was written for the sopranos Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni. The opera uses an Italian-language libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym, after Metastasio's Siroe. Like many of Metastasio's libretti, it was also set by Handel's contemporaries, e.g. by Leonardo Vinci, Antonio Vivaldi and Johann Adolph Hasse. Pasquale Errichelli's setting of the libretto premiered in the year of Handel's death.
Poro, re dell'Indie is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. The Italian-language libretto was adapted from Alessandro nell'Indie by Metastasio, and based on Alexander the Great's encounter with Porus in 326 BC. The libretto had already been set to music by Leonardo Vinci in 1729 and was used as the text for more than sixty operas throughout the 18th century.
Irene Dische is an American-Austrian author, journalist, screenwriter, and librettist whose work explores the German-Jewish experience, alienation, and exile.
Le roi Carotte is a 4-act opéra-bouffe-féerie with music by Jacques Offenbach and libretto by Victorien Sardou, after E. T. A. Hoffmann. The libretto, written before the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, lampooned Bonapartists, monarchists and republicans. Staging the piece required elaborate costumes and grand spectacle, including a wide range of locations and numerous scene changes.
Cendrillon is a French opera in three acts by the Maltese-born composer Nicolas Isouard. It takes the form of an opéra comique with spoken dialogue between the musical numbers, although its authors designated it an opéra féerie. The libretto, by Charles-Guillaume Étienne, is based on Charles Perrault's fairy tale Cinderella. The work was first performed by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Feydeau in Paris on 22 February 1810. Cendrillon was a success throughout Europe until its popularity was eclipsed by that of Rossini's opera on the Cinderella theme, La Cenerentola (1817).
The Red Line is an opera in two acts with music by Aulis Sallinen to a libretto by the composer, which premiered on 30 November 1978 at the Finnish National Opera.
The Horseman is an opera in three acts by Aulis Sallinen, based on a libretto by Paavo Haavikko. It was premiered by the Savonlinna Opera Festival on 17 June 1975 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Olavinlinna Castle, and is the first of Sallinen's operas, and is replete with heavy symbolism and historical allegories. According to George Loomis, writing in The New York Times, the work "is widely credited for helping to precipitate a wave of Finnish operas".
Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan is an opera in three acts by Aulis Sallinen, based on the novel of the same title by Paavo Haavikko, who also wrote the libretto. The English singing version is by Stephen Oliver.
Admeto, re di Tessaglia is a three-act opera written for the Royal Academy of Music with music composed by George Frideric Handel to an Italian-language libretto prepared by Nicola Francesco Haym. The story is partly based on Euripides' Alcestis. The opera's first performance was at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 31 January 1727. The original cast included Faustina Bordoni as Alcestis and Francesca Cuzzoni as Antigona, as Admeto was the second of the five operas that Handel composed to feature specifically these two prime donne of the day.
Kuningas Lear is an opera in two acts by Aulis Sallinen, with a libretto by the composer, based on the play by William Shakespeare and premiered in 2000; it was Sallinen's sixth opera.
Kullervo is an opera in two acts, Op. 61, composed by Aulis Sallinen to his own libretto based on the story of Kullervo in the Finnish epic Kalevala. The opera premiered on 25 February 1992 at the Los Angeles Music Center.
Ulf Arne Söderblom was a Finnish conductor and music professor. He was the principal conductor of the Finnish National Opera from 1973 to 1993 and was a key figure in the revival of the Savonlinna Opera Festival. A champion of Finnish music, he has conducted the world premieres of several works by Finnish composers including Kokkonen's The Last Temptations and Sallinen's Kullervo and The Horseman.
Shadows, Op. 52, is an orchestral prelude by the Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen, who wrote the piece in 1982 on commission from the National Symphony Orchestra Association. The prelude's thematic material is closely related to Act III of Sallinen's third opera, The King Goes Forth to France, on which he also was at work in 1982, writing Shadows upon completion of Act II of the opera. Nevertheless, the composer has emphasized that Shadows is "an entirely independent orchestral work", albeit one whose "lyrical and dramatic ingredients reflect the philosophy of the opera". The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) premiered the work on 30 November 1982 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., under the direction of its music director, Mstislav Rostropovich. Shadows so impressed Rostropovich and his orchestra that the NSO requested Sallinen compose a symphony for them, the result of which would be the Fifth (1985).
| Symphonies |
|
|---|---|
| Opera |
|
| Concertante |
|
| Other orchestral |
|
| Chamber |
|
| Collaborators | |
| Teachers | |
