October 6, 2014. Verdi and Saint-Saëns. Several composers were born this week, Giuseppe Verdi being the most important one. Verdi was born on October 9th of 1813 and last year we celebrated his centenary, writing about his four immensely popular operas, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Il Trovatore, and Aida. Don Carlos, almost as popular, was one of Verdi’s late operas (as were, for example, Aida and Otello). It was commissioned by the Paris Opera in 1866. Five years earlier, in 1861, following Garibaldi’s expeditions, large parts of Italy were united and Victor Immanuel II was crowned the King of Italy. And earlier in1866 Italy fought another war of independence with Austria-Hungary; it stared badly but thanks to the simultaneous (and utterly disastrous) war that Austria was fighting with Prussia, Italy emerged victorious. Venice was joined with the rest of Italy and the Italian state came into being practically in its modern form. Italian nationalism flourished and Verdi was at the epicenter of it. By then he was the most famous opera composer in Europe and the most famous person in Italy. It’s said that letters addressed just “G. Verdi” were delivered to him without fail. At the end of every performance of his operas, the public would stand up and shout “Viva Verdi!” and then continue celebrating him on the streets.
The libretto of Don Carlos, which is loosely based on a play by Friedrich Schiller, was written in French. The opera was premiered on March 11, 1867 in the beautiful Salle Le Peletier, which housed the Paris Opera till a fire burned it down in 1873 and the company had to move to the newly built Palais Garnier just a couple blocks away. The story revolves around Don Carlos, Prince of Asturias, whose proposed bride, Elisabeth de Valois, marries the prince’s father, Philip II the King of Spain, instead. As always in Verdi’s opera, there are many additional complications, with Princess Eboli falling in love with Carlos, the heretics being put to death, and the politics of Flanders also playing a role. The opera turned out to be too long, even in Verdi’s own estimation, and he began to paring it down ahead of the premier in Paris. Later the same year Verdi created an Italian version of the Don Carlos (called Don Carlo) for the opera theater in Bologna. This is one of the rare operas that rightfully exist in two different languages. Verdi continued revising Don Carlos and several versions exist in both languages. These days it’s performed more often in Italian, but wonderful French-language recordings exist as well: one, for example, with a phenomenal cast that is headed by Placido Domingo as Carlos, with Katia Ricciarelli as Eizabeth, Lucia Valentini Terrani as Eboli, Leo Nucci as Rodrigue (Rodrigo in the Italian version), Ruggero Raimondi as King Philip II and Nicolai Ghiaurov as the Grand Inquisitor. Luciano Pavarotti as Carlo, Daniela Dessì as Elisabetta and Samuel Ramey as the King, with Riccardo Muti conducting, made a great recording of the Italian version in 1992.
A grand dramatic work, Don Carlos may not be as packed with great arias as, for example, Rigoletto, but it has its share of sublimely beautiful music. Here Samuel Ramey sings Ella giammai m'amò! from Act IV of the famous recording we mentioned above. Riccardo Muti leads the orchestra and the chorus of the Teatro alla Scala, Milan. And here Maria Callas sings Tu che le vanita from Act V in a 1959 concert performance in Hamburg. Send shivers down one’s spine, doesn’t it? Lastly, Carlo Bergonzi as Don Carlo and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Rodrigo sing the duet E lui! desso! L'infante!... Dio che nell'alma infondere...from Act II with the London Royal Opera House orchestra under the baton of Georg Solti (here, in a 1965 recording).
Camille Saint-Saëns was also born on the 9th, in 1835 and usually gets a short shift. We promise to write more on him next year.
Verdi and Saint-Saëns, 2014
October 6, 2014. Verdi and Saint-Saëns. Several composers were born this week, Giuseppe Verdi being the most important one. Verdi was born on October 9th of 1813 and last year we celebrated his centenary,
writing about his four immensely popular operas, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Il Trovatore, and Aida. Don Carlos, almost as popular, was one of Verdi’s late operas (as were, for example, Aida and Otello). It was commissioned by the Paris Opera in 1866. Five years earlier, in 1861, following Garibaldi’s expeditions, large parts of Italy were united and Victor Immanuel II was crowned the King of Italy. And earlier in1866 Italy fought another war of independence with Austria-Hungary; it stared badly but thanks to the simultaneous (and utterly disastrous) war that Austria was fighting with Prussia, Italy emerged victorious. Venice was joined with the rest of Italy and the Italian state came into being practically in its modern form. Italian nationalism flourished and Verdi was at the epicenter of it. By then he was the most famous opera composer in Europe and the most famous person in Italy. It’s said that letters addressed just “G. Verdi” were delivered to him without fail. At the end of every performance of his operas, the public would stand up and shout “Viva Verdi!” and then continue celebrating him on the streets.
The libretto of Don Carlos, which is loosely based on a play by Friedrich Schiller, was written in French. The opera was premiered on March 11, 1867 in the beautiful Salle Le Peletier, which housed the Paris Opera till a fire burned it down in 1873 and the company had to move to the newly built Palais Garnier just a couple blocks away. The story revolves around Don Carlos, Prince of Asturias, whose proposed bride, Elisabeth de Valois, marries the prince’s father, Philip II the King of Spain, instead. As always in Verdi’s opera, there are many additional complications, with Princess Eboli falling in love with Carlos, the heretics being put to death, and the politics of Flanders also playing a role. The opera turned out to be too long, even in Verdi’s own estimation, and he began to paring it down ahead of the premier in Paris. Later the same year Verdi created an Italian version of the Don Carlos (called Don Carlo) for the opera theater in Bologna. This is one of the rare operas that rightfully exist in two different languages. Verdi continued revising Don Carlos and several versions exist in both languages. These days it’s performed more often in Italian, but wonderful French-language recordings exist as well: one, for example, with a phenomenal cast that is headed by Placido Domingo as Carlos, with Katia Ricciarelli as Eizabeth, Lucia Valentini Terrani as Eboli, Leo Nucci as Rodrigue (Rodrigo in the Italian version), Ruggero Raimondi as King Philip II and Nicolai Ghiaurov as the Grand Inquisitor. Luciano Pavarotti as Carlo, Daniela Dessì as Elisabetta and Samuel Ramey as the King, with Riccardo Muti conducting, made a great recording of the Italian version in 1992.
A grand dramatic work, Don Carlos may not be as packed with great arias as, for example, Rigoletto, but it has its share of sublimely beautiful music. Here Samuel Ramey sings Ella giammai m'amò! from Act IV of the famous recording we mentioned above. Riccardo Muti leads the orchestra and the chorus of the Teatro alla Scala, Milan. And here Maria Callas sings Tu che le vanita from Act V in a 1959 concert performance in Hamburg. Send shivers down one’s spine, doesn’t it? Lastly, Carlo Bergonzi as Don Carlo and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Rodrigo sing the duet E lui! desso! L'infante!... Dio che nell'alma infondere...from Act II with the London Royal Opera House orchestra under the baton of Georg Solti (here, in a 1965 recording).
Camille Saint-Saëns was also born on the 9th, in 1835 and usually gets a short shift. We promise to write more on him next year.