Program Notes: A Night at the Opera
Notes on our September 23 program by Ken Meltzer
Triumphal Scene from Aida (1871)
Giuseppe Verdi was born in Roncole, Italy, on October 9 or 10, 1813, and died in Milan, Italy, on January 27, 1901. The first performance of Aida took place at the Opera House in Cairo, Egypt, on December 24, 1871, conducted by Giovanni Bottesini. Approximate performance time is twelve minutes.
Giuseppe Verdi’s grand opera, Aida, is based upon a story fragment by the renowned Egyptologist François Auguste Mariette, expanded by Camille du Locle. That source material formed the basis for Aida’s libretto, written by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Aida is the first in the trilogy of operas that, along with Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893), constitute Verdi’s “late period”—the masterful culmination of the composer's lifelong quest to achieve an organic synthesis of vocal, orchestral, and dramatic elements.
Aida takes place in Egypt, during the time of the Pharaohs. The opera concerns the love affair between Aida, daughter of the King of Ethiopia, and Radamès, an Egyptian warrior. Aida is now a slave to her rival for Radamès, Amneris, daughter of the King of Egypt. The opening of Act II, the famous Triumphal Scene, takes place before the gates of Thebes. The people have gathered to welcome Radamès and the victorious Egyptian army. The army enters with the Ethiopian prisoners of war, including Aida’s father, Amonasro, King of Ethiopia.
Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy, on December 22, 1858, and died in Brussels, Belgium, on November 29, 1924.
Suite from Turandot (1926) (arr. Honeck/Ille)
Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy, on December 22, 1858, and died in Brussels, Belgium, on November 29, 1924 .The first performance of Turandot took place at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy, on April 25, 1926, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Approximate performance time is twenty-five minutes.
Turandot, Giacomo Puccini’s final opera, is based on a 1762 fairytale drama by Carlo Gozzi. The work remained unfinished at the composer’s death in 1924. At the suggestion of Arturo Toscanini, composer Franco Alfano completed the opera from Puccini’s sketches. Turandot’s premiere took place at the La Scala Opera House in Milan on April 25, 1926, with Toscanini conducting. In one of the most stunning moments in La Scala history, Toscanini stopped the orchestra after the death of Liù in Act III. Turning to the audience, Toscanini announced in a voice choked with emotion: “The opera ends here, because the composer died at this point.” After a prolonged silence, a voice from the balcony cried: “Viva Puccini!” The audience erupted with cheers and applause.
Turandot is set in ancient Peking. The Princess Turandot, in order to avenge the rape and murder of her ancestress, has issued a challenge. Any man who successfully answers three riddles may wed Turandot. But if the suitor fails, he shall be executed. The Prince Calaf accepts the challenge, and answers the three riddles. Calaf then tells Turandot that he is willing to die if, before dawn, she can guess his name. This challenge places the safety of Calaf’s father Timur, and his servant Liù, in peril. In order to save the lives of Timur and Calaf, Liù pretends that she is the only person who knows the Prince’s name. Rather than risk the possibility of disclosing the Prince’s name under torture, Liù kills herself. Calaf reveals his name to Turandot, placing his life in her power. Turandot announces that the prince’s name is “Love.”
Turandot represents Puccini’s richest and most thrilling orchestral score. This concert features an orchestral suite of music from Turandot, arranged by conductor Manfred Honeck and Thomas Ille.
Te Deum, from Tosca (1900)
The first performance of Tosca took place at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, Italy, on January 14, 1900, conducted by Leopoldo Mugnone. Approximate performance time is four minutes.
Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca is based upon a play by Victorien Sardou. The story takes place in Rome, in June of 1800. The artist and patriot, Mario Cavaradossi, vows to help the escaped political prisoner Cesare Angelotti avoid the clutches of the evil chief of police, Baron Scarpia. Cavaradossi is in love with the famous opera singer, Floria Tosca. Scarpia lusts after Tosca. The Baron decides to prey upon Tosca’s jealousy, and convince her that Cavaradossi is having an affair with another woman. Scarpia hopes that Tosca will lead him to both Cavaradossi and Angelotti.
In the Church of the Sant’Andrea alla Valle, the parishioners chant the Te Deum. As they do, Scarpia fantasizes over the prospect of Tosca in his embrace, while Cavaradossi hangs from the gallows (“l’uno al capestro, l’altra fra le mie braccia”). Scarpia then exclaims: “Tosca, mi fai dimenticare Iddio!” (“Tosca! You make me forget God!”) Scarpia joins in the conclusion of the Te Deum, as the curtain falls.
Excerpts from Der Ring des Nibelungen (1876)
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig, Germany, on May 22, 1813, and died in Venice, Italy, on February 13, 1883. The first performance of the complete Der Ring des Nibelungen took place in Bayreuth, Germany, August 13 to 17, 1876, with Hans Richter conducting.
Richard Wagner’s creation of his epic The Ring of the Nibelung, “A stage-festival play for three days and a preliminary evening,” spanned twenty-eight years of the German composer’s life. In 1848, Wagner began the prose sketch of what ultimately became the Ring’s final opera, Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods). In August of 1876, the premiere of the complete 18-hour Ring cycle took place at Bayreuth, in the theater Wagner specially constructed for festival performances of his masterwork.
The two principal sources for the story of Wagner’s Ring are The Poetic Edda, a collection of ancient Norse poems first transcribed in the 12th century, and the 13th-century Nibelungenlied. Wagner employed these ancient tales as a forum for his own philosophical views. In an 1854 letter to his friend August Röckel, Wagner described the meaning of his Ring:
“We must learn to die, in fact to die in the most absolute sense of the word. Fear of the end is the source of all lovelessness, and it arises only where love itself has already faded. How did it come about that mankind so lost touch with this bringer of the highest happiness to everything living that in the end everything they did, everything they undertook and established, was done solely out of fear of the end?
My poem shows how....The course of the drama thus shows the necessity of accepting and giving way to the changeability, the diversity, the multiplicity, the eternal newness of reality and of life.”
The Ring is one of the most significant works in the history of lyric theater. In the Ring, Wagner attempted to depart from what he viewed as the singer-oriented excesses of French and Italian grand opera to create a Gesamtkunstwerk (“total artwork”), a fusion of text, music, and stage drama.
One of the most revolutionary aspects of the Ring is Wagner’s is the elevation of the orchestra from its traditional role as accompanist to that of a protagonist in the drama. This, Wagner achieved not only by the deployment of an ensemble of impressive size and color, but also by the ingenious use of the leitmotif (“leading motif”), a symbolic musical phrase. These leitmotifs journey and develop throughout the Ring to illustrate the dramatic and psychological flow of the drama.
The power, beauty and eloquence of several episodes in Wagner’s Ring have assured their status as favorites, not just within the context of the original operas, but as independent concert works.
Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla, from Das Rheingold (1869)
The first performance of Das Rheingold took place at the Hoftheater in Munich, Germany, on September 22, 1869, conducted by Franz Wüllner. Approximate performance time is seven minutes.
The Ring begins in the River Rhine. The dwarf Alberich steals the Rhinemaidens’ gold. Alberich returns to his home in Nibelheim. By fashioning a ring from the Rhine gold, Alberich hopes to rule the world. Wotan, father of the gods, tricks Alberich into relinquishing the ring. But on the advice of earth goddess Erda, Wotan gives the ring to the giants Fasolt and Fafner. After a storm abates, a bridge appears leading to the gods’ new dwelling in Valhalla. As the Rhinemaidens lament the loss of the gold, the gods enter Valhalla.
The Ride of the Valkyries, from Die Walküre (1870)
The first performance of Die Walküre took place at the Hoftheater in Munich on June 26, 1870, conducted by Franz Wülnner. Approximate performance time is six minutes.
The most famous excerpt from Wagner’s Ring is the opening of the final act of the second opera, Die Walküre (The Valkyrie). The scene takes place on the summit of a rocky mountain. The warrior maiden Valkyries, daughters of Wotan, return on horseback from battle. The stirring music depicts their magical flight through a fearsome storm.
Hagen’s Call, from Götterdämmerung (1876)
The first performance of Götterdämmerung took place at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, Germany, on August 17, 1876, conducted by Hans Richter. Approximate performance time is nine minutes.
In the Ring’s third opera, Siegfried (1876), the hero Siegfried recovers the ring. He discovers the Valkyrie warrior maiden, Brünnhilde. The two fall in love. The Ring concludes with Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods). Siegfried gives Brünnhilde the ring in testimony to his love for her.
A vision of Alberich appears to his son, Hagen. Alberich implores Hagen to win back the ring. Hagen summons the vassals.
Immolation Scene, from Götterdämmerung (1876)
Approximate performance time is eight minutes.
Hagen murders Siegfried. Brünnhilde orders that a funeral pyre be built, and she and rides her horse into the flames to join Siegfried. Brünnhilde returns the ring to the Rhine and the Rhinemaidens. Brünnhilde’s act of self-sacrifice removes the curse of the ring, and redeems the world.