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 2010 Spring Concert:
Program Notes
LOVE & LOSS…FAMOUS OPERAS
Habanera from Carmen | Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
Bizet was in many respects a tragic figure: A true prodigy, studying at the Paris Conservatoire at age nine; a pianist whom Liszt declared his own equal; friend or acquaintance of Gounod, Fauré, Saint-Saëns, Dubois, Massenet, and Offenbach, among others; enormously productive. He was dead at age 36, exactly three months after the premiere of his greatest opera—probably the best-known opera in the world, Carmen, set in a city and country he never visited (Seville, Spain).
Carmen was based on an 1845 novelette by Prosper Mérimée, and the libretto was the work of Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, the latter a cousin of Bizet’s wife. Bizet based his “Habanera”—the name identifies a dance supposed to originate in Havana, Cuba—on what he thought to be a folk song; it actually was written by Iradier, a Spanish composer. In the opening scene, Bizet has the gypsy Carmen, on break from her job at the cigarette factory, sing it to taunt the soldier Don José, just arrived for his guard duty. Her sultry song comparing love to a beautiful bird is punctuated by the chorus—almost as a Greek chorus—with the refrain “Prends garde a toi!” (“Young man, take care!”) While setting the stage for the story of the good soldier driven mad with desire, Carmen’s torch song also sets an eternal standard for sexiness and abandon.
Chorus of Wedding Guests from Lucia di Lammermoor | Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)
In 1835, when Lucia premiered in Naples, Donizetti was the rising star of Italian opera. He had written several internationally successful operas in the previous five years, and now had a smash hit with a libretto based on Sir Walter Scott’s novel, “The Bride of Lammermoor.” Sadly, within a decade Donizetti was in an asylum, and died in 1848 at the age of 51. Many of Donizetti’s operas remain in today’s repertory, and he was extraordinarily successful in tailoring his operas to the needs of the singers. This story is set in Scotland in the late 1600’s: Lucia is the sister of the Lord of Lammermoor; she is secretly in love with a rival peer, Edgardo Enrico learns of the romance and resolves to break it up by marrying his sister to wealthy Lord Bucklaw. The plot almost succeeds; Edgardo is banished, and Lucia signs the wedding contract. This chorus has the wedding guests celebrating in the hall of Lammermoor Castle, but the happy scene terminates when the priest tells the horrified guests that Lucia has killed her husband and gone mad. The famous ‘mad scene’ follows, Lucia dies, and Edgardo, on learning this, kills himself to be with her in death.
Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin | Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
This chorus is best known as “Here Comes the Bride,” often used as a processional march. In the opera it appears in Act III as the women of the wedding party escort Lohengrin and his bride, Elsa, to their chamber following their wedding ceremony.
The character of Lohengrin dates back to Arthurian legend. As a Knight of the Holy Grail, Lohengrin is sent to rescue a maiden who may never ask his identity. He travels to her kingdom in a boat pulled by swans. He rescues her and marries her, remaining in her kingdom till the day she asks who he really is. At that point he leaves and is never heard from again.
Wagner adopted this “Knight of the Swan” tale into his opera Lohengrin in 1848. In the opera Lohengrin is sent to the kingdom of Brabant, where Count Telramund, regent and guardian of the young Duke of Brabant, has accused the Duke's young sister, Elsa, of the Duke's murder. Telramund demands that Elsa give the kingdom to him.
Elsa protests her innocence and declares she will accept God's judgment in a trial by combat. Elsa prays for God to send her a protector and Lohengrin appears in a boat drawn by a swan. He agrees to be her champion on the condition that she never asks his name. Lohengrin defeats Telramund in combat and spares his life. After his victory, Lohengrin asks for Elsa's hand in marriage and they wed. One day, Elsa finally asks his name. He is then forced to reveal his identity and bid sad farewell. As his swan boat appears to take him back to the Castle of the Holy Grail, the swan turns into Gottfried, the young Duke who was turned into a swan by an evil spell. A dove appears to take the swan's place and Lohengrin departs. Elsa dies, longing for her beloved.
Voyager’s Chorus from Idomeneo | W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Mozart was living in Salzburg in late 1780, playing at court and composing, but still seeking an opera commission, when opportunity knocked from Munich, and Idomeneo premiered successfully in 1781. While this was Mozart’s eighth opera, the works by which he is known today still lay ahead—as did death and a pauper’s funeral less than 11years later. Idomeneo, on his way home from the Trojan wars, is lashed by terrible storms, and for his salvation vows to sacrifice the first person he meets on returning home. To his horror, the greeter is his son Idamante. Idomeneo sends Idamante off on a ship, hoping to avoid the issue; it is at this point that the voyagers sing of the placid, calm waters. However, soon another storm forces a delay, and Idomeneo, realizing that Neptune is punishing him, reveals all. With something of a happy ending, Idomeneo abdicates in favor of his son and his son’s bride.
Lunge da lei...Dei miei bollenti spiriti from La Traviata | Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
It is difficult today to appreciate the scandal associated in the nineteenth century with the story of Verdi's La Traviata (which translates as “the woman who strayed” or “the fallen woman”). The opera, based on a novel by the French author Alexandre Dumas, is the story of Violetta, a lady of easy virtue who meets and falls in love with Alfredo. She renounces her immoral life and goes to live in the country with him. In this piece, Alfredo sings of their happy life together: “There's no pleasure in life when she's away!” However, Violetta's reputation, and the scandal of living together without marriage, prevent Alfredo's sister from being able to marry. Violetta (who has been ill with tuberulosis since the beginning of the opera) wins our sympathy by sacrificing her love for Alfredo so that his sister can marry, and, in the final scene, she dies.
Quando m'en vó (Musetta's Waltz) from La Boheme | Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Puccini was born into a family of organists and choirmasters in 1858. At the age of 18, he heard a performance of Verdi's Aida and was inspired to write opera. La Boheme was first performed February 1, 1896 in Turin, becoming one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the world. “Quando m’en vó” is sung in Act 2 when Mimi, Marcello, and others are dining in Café Momus. Musetta and Alcindoro, her rich patron, enter. Musetta, having tired of Alcindoro and hoping to regain Marcello’s attention, sings this risqué song.
Chorus of the Hebrew slaves (Va, pensiero) from Nabucco | Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Verdi is one of two composers represented more than once in this program—fittingly, with not two, but four works, for Verdi’s shadow dominates 60 years of 19th-century Italian opera. However, in 1841, only one of the 28-year-old Verdi’s operas was even a moderate success; moreover, he was still grieving the death of his young wife eight months previously. He told the impresario to whom he was under contract that he did not wish to compose any further. The impresario, pleading his own need, proferred a libretto. The morose Verdi took it home and dropped it, where it fell open to the text, “Va, pensiero sull’ ali dorate” which expresses the longing of the Hebrew captives in Babylon for their homes far away. He hesitated to compose, but by August he had a score for the opera. It premiered in March, 1842 in Milan, and, said one critic: “A rare display of praise was given Maestro Verdi (after the chorus ‘Va, pensiero’) and all hands clapped to demand an encore, in spite of the rule that forbids them; and the universal wish was splendidly granted….” One must understand that it was the occupation authorities that had forbidden encores, as they had forbidden most public gatherings; for much of northern Italy was then under the rule of the Habsburg empire of Austria, which feared an uprising. While the Milanis were not the Hebrew expatriates of Act III, they saw a parallel. In any event, Verdi was thrust to the pinnacle of Italy’s composers, and never again lacked for commissions.
At Verdi’s second funeral in February 1901—his first funeral, a simple one which by his request had no music, took place a month earlier—hundreds of thousands of people gathered. Accounts differ—some say that Arturo Toscanini led the action—but the crowd sang ‘Va, pensiero’ almost as a single voice.
Libiamo (Brindisi) from La Traviata | Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Brindisi is a term for a toasting or drinking song. In this case, the toast is offered by young Alfredo
to his hostess, Violetta, to whom he has just been introduced; privately, he thereafter confesses he has had a crush on her for over a year. The jolly mood of the party contrasts with what is to become a less-than-idyllic romance, as the audience soon begins to sense. The 1853 libretto by Francesco Piave is based on a story by Alexandre Dumas, and the locale is outside Paris in about 1840.
Il se fait tard - O nuit d'amore from Faust | Charles Gounod (1818-1893)
(Waltz of Marguerite and Faust)
Gounod's opera Faust, which premiered in 1859, is based on a tragic drama of the same name by the German poet and philosopher Johann Goethe. Gounod's opera concerns an aging and suicidal scholar, Faust, who makes a deal with the Devil (Mephistopheles). Mephistopheles, in exchange for Faust's soul, transforms him into a handsome youth and helps him win the love of Marguerite. In this piece, Faust declares his admiration for Marguerite, whom he is seeing for the first time in person, and offers to escort her home from the country fair that is in progress. She modestly refuses his offer.
Vainement, ma bien-aimée from Le Roi d'Ys | Eduardo Lalo (1823-1892)
Lalo's opera Le roi d'Ys (The King of Ys) was a triumph for him when it premiered in Paris in 1888. The work, based on an old Breton legend about the mythical drowned city of Ys, is now considered his masterpiece. The story takes place on the coast of France in the Middle Ages. In this piece, the most famous one from the opera, Mylio, a young knight, tries to convince Rozenn, his bride-to-be, to leave the protection of her handmaidens (who refuse to allow him entrance to her living quarters) and join him in the wedding procession. He sings, “Since these jealous guardians will not be moved to mercy, ah, let me tell you of my anguish and my torment! In vain, my beloved, do I seem to despair: next to your closed door I am determined to stay!” (The two are, in fact, eventually married, so poor Mylio does not end up camping outside her chambers forever!)
Vissi d'arte from Tosca | Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
“Vissi d'arte” is a soprano aria from Act II of the opera Tosca by Giacomo Puccini. It is sung by Tosca as she thinks of her fate and of her lover’s life which is at the mercy of Baron Scarpia. The aria begins “I lived for art, I lived for love, I never did harm to a living soul!”. She questions God for allowing her to make a decision to give away her dignity in the exchange for her lover’s life.
Witches’ Chorus from Macbeth | Guiseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Verdi was entranced by Shakespeare’s works; Macbeth (1847), Otello (1887), and Falstaff (1893) became part of his legacy. Although the witches open Macbeth, librettist Piave based this text loosely on their appearance in Scene III of Act 1, as they prepare to meet, and prophesy, to Macbeth and Banquo. The cursing of a sailor’s wife, who in the Bard’s tale denied one witch some of her chestnuts, is ascribed in this chorus instead to slighting words; moreover, Piave lets them invoke sinking of the sailor’s vessel, while Shakespeare has them only frighten him (but for 81 weeks!). Much of this chorus repeats the sisters’ boasts of global powers, treated only lightly in the play. But the effect is certainly witchy enough; Verdi’s own marking, staccato e marcato assai, is underlined by his note: “Don’t forget that these are witches who are speaking!”
March of the toreadors from Carmen | Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
There is a legend that the “Toreador Song” was not part of the original score, and that Bizet added it at the urging of the management of the Paris Opera Comique in order to make the opera more popular. Supposedly, Bizet grumbled, “Well, if they want tripe, we will give them tripe,” and dashed off the song. The story is unproven but certainly possible; when the opera was rehearsed in 1874, there were abundant complaints from the chorus, orchestra, and theater management. The latter feared, correctly, that the lust and violence of the plot would lose them the “PG” rating they enjoyed at the time; after all, a character dying violently onstage in the final scene was hardly family fare. However, while the opera was criticized in reviews and by the clergy, it nonetheless played 33 performances in Paris before Bizet’s death and by the following November was being produced in 20 cities, with the “tripe” among its most recognizable signatures. The bullfight music is the background in the last scene, while the fatal confrontation between Don José and Carmen—unrepentant to the last—is taking place outside the bullring. It is sung here in French, with the crowd—including children, who jeer the appearance of the Alguazil, the chief functionary of the bullfighting commission—delighting in each new appearance in the stylized bullring parade, and finally shouting bravos for torero Escamillo, who has replaced Don José in Carmen’s affections.
Easter Hymn from Cavalleria Rusticana | Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)
Mascagni wrote his short first opera, based on a short story by Verga, in 1889 for a competition, which it won. Although he lived nearly 82 years, he was not able to duplicate that first success; he said of himself, “…I was crowned before I became king.” The opera opens on Easter Sunday morning in a Sicilian village square in the late 1800’s. The strains of the Marian invocation, “Regina Coeli,” sung from within the church by the choir, call the villagers to process into the church. Santuzza, a village girl, who is in love with Turiddu, a soldier, cannot enter because she has been excommunicated. However, she implores Turiddu’s mother Lucia, who has come to church, to find him, because she knows he has been having an affair with Lola, wife of a local teamster. This will lead to a duel and Turiddu’s death. The exultant Easter hymn, “O sing praise to the Lord, he has broken the bonds of his prison!”, serves to heighten the contrast with the reality of coming tragedy.
Program notes were authored by The Naperville Chorus, and SVC singers, Marilyn Gaver, Quica Ostrander, and Margaret Weirick.
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