October 8, 2012.Verdi and Saint-Saëns.Giuseppe Verdi was born on October 9 (or on the 10th, we don’t know for sure) of 1813 in a village near Busetto, in the province of Parma, Emilia-Romagnia.Through an accident of history, the great Italian composer who was to become the patriotic symbol of unified Italy was actually born on a French territory: Parma, after the Napoleonic wars, was a French Department (it continued to be ruled as a duchy by Marie Louise, the second wife of Napoleon, even after the Congress of Vienna reversed most of Napoleonic conquests).Verdi studied composition in Milan, and wrote his first opera, Oberto, in 1839.It was in 1842 that he achieved the first real success with Nabucco (you can listen to the famous Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, Va, Pensiero, from the Metropolitan Opera 2001 production, James Levine conducting, here, courtesy of YouTube).Verdi wrote a large number of operas in succession (he called this period “galley years”), none of great significance, till Rigoletto in 1851, a masterpiece and an immediate triumph.He followed up with two more stupendous operas: Il Trovatore and La traviata.The following years he produced one masterpiece after another: Un ballo in maschera in1859, La forza del destino in 1861, Don Carlos in1867.Aida was written in in1871.On our site we don’t have much of Verdi’s music and the reason is obvious: opera theaters are not in the habit of uploading their productions to independent music sites.Still, we have an interesting historical performance of the Judgment scene, from Aida.It was recorded at the Bolshoi Theater in 1969. Radamès is the brilliant Georgian-Russian tenor Zurab Andjaparidze, Amneris is Irina Arkhipova, one of the best Soviet mezzo-sopranos.Mark Ermler leads the Bolshoi orchestra (here).In Russia operas were often sung in Russian, so the Italian of this recording, however imperfect, is rather unusual.This recoding was given to us by Mr. Andjaparidze’s daughter, the pianist and a friend of this site, Eteri Andjaparidze.
Camille Saint-Saëns was also born on October 9, in 1835 in Paris (we seem to know his birth date with more certainty than Verdi’s, Paris of the time being one of the most civilized and well organized cities in the world).He lived a long life: when he wrote his first compositions around 1850, Berlioz. Liszt, and Wagner were at the peak of their careers.When he wrote his last pieces, in 1921, the year of his death, Stravinsky, Ravel, and Schoenberg were at their most creative.Even if Saint-Saëns wasn’t the greatest French Romantic, he wrote a lot of enjoyable music.Here, for example, is one of his most popular pieces, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28.It’s performed by the violinist Yang Xu and Janet Kao, piano.
Verdi and Saint-Saëns, 2012
October 8, 2012. Verdi and Saint-Saëns. Giuseppe Verdi was born on October 9 (or on the 10th, we don’t know for sure) of 1813 in a village near Busetto, in the province of Parma, Emilia-Romagnia. Through an accident of history, the great Italian composer who was to
become the patriotic symbol of unified Italy was actually born on a French territory: Parma, after the Napoleonic wars, was a French Department (it continued to be ruled as a duchy by Marie Louise, the second wife of Napoleon, even after the Congress of Vienna reversed most of Napoleonic conquests). Verdi studied composition in Milan, and wrote his first opera, Oberto, in 1839. It was in 1842 that he achieved the first real success with Nabucco (you can listen to the famous Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, Va, Pensiero, from the Metropolitan Opera 2001 production, James Levine conducting, here, courtesy of YouTube). Verdi wrote a large number of operas in succession (he called this period “galley years”), none of great significance, till Rigoletto in 1851, a masterpiece and an immediate triumph. He followed up with two more stupendous operas: Il Trovatore and La traviata. The following years he produced one masterpiece after another: Un ballo in maschera in1859, La forza del destino in 1861, Don Carlos in1867. Aida was written in in1871. On our site we don’t have much of Verdi’s music and the reason is obvious: opera theaters are not in the habit of uploading their productions to independent music sites. Still, we have an interesting historical performance of the Judgment scene, from Aida. It was recorded at the Bolshoi Theater in 1969. Radamès is the brilliant Georgian-Russian tenor Zurab Andjaparidze, Amneris is Irina Arkhipova, one of the best Soviet mezzo-sopranos. Mark Ermler leads the Bolshoi orchestra (here). In Russia operas were often sung in Russian, so the Italian of this recording, however imperfect, is rather unusual. This recoding was given to us by Mr. Andjaparidze’s daughter, the pianist and a friend of this site, Eteri Andjaparidze.
Camille Saint-Saëns was also born on October 9, in 1835 in Paris (we seem to know his birth date with more certainty than Verdi’s, Paris of the time being one of the most civilized and well organized cities in the world). He lived a long life: when he wrote his first compositions around 1850, Berlioz. Liszt, and Wagner were at the peak of their careers. When he wrote his last pieces, in 1921, the year of his death, Stravinsky, Ravel, and Schoenberg were at their most creative. Even if Saint-Saëns wasn’t the greatest French Romantic, he wrote a lot of enjoyable music. Here, for example, is one of his most popular pieces, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28. It’s performed by the violinist Yang Xu and Janet Kao, piano.