"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis
Friday, February 07, 2014
Sunday Classics "extra": " 'La Traviata' at the foot of Masada" -- say what?
>
"La Traviata at the foot of Masada"
VERDI: La Traviata: Prelude and Opening Scene
(through Alfredo and Violetta's Brindisi)
[You can find an Italian-English libretto for La Traviata
at "DM's opera site."]
[in English] Valerie Masterson (s), Violetta Valéry; Della Jones (ms), Flora Bervoix; Denis Dowling (b), Marquis d'Obigny; Geoffrey Pogson (t), Gastone, Viscount of Létorières; John Brecknock (t), Alfredo Germont; John Gibbs (b), Baron Douphol; English National Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras, cond. EMI, recorded Aug.-Oct. 1980
[clip 1: Prelude; clip 2: Opening Scene] Rosanna Carteri (s), Violetta Valéry; Lydia Marimpietri (s), Flora Bervoix; Leonardo Monreale (bs), Marquis d'Obigny; Glauco Scarlini (t), Gastone, Viscount of Létorières; Cesare Valletti (t), Alfredo Germont; Arturo La Porta (b), Baron Douphol; Rome Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Pierre Monteux, cond. RCA-BMG, recorded 1956 (mono)
by Ken
I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't go just because the idea strikes me as a tiny bit, er, peculiar. It's certainly an amazingly dramatic as well as historic site -- there in the Judean desert, at the foot of the towering plateau of Masada, in range of the Dead Sea.
But "dramatic" in rather particular ways, I would think. I imagine that when the Israeli Opera Festival did Verdi's crypto-Old Testament epic Nabucco, much of which takes place outdoors in the ancient Near East, with scenes of definite blockbuster character, the site may have enhanced the experience. Ditto with Verdi's Egyptian epic, Aida.
The Opera Festival
We witness here the realization of the vision of an international opera festival in one of the most meaningful sites in our history, proving that the State of Israel can become a centre for culture tourism from all over the world. And indeed more than 4,000 tourists will attend these performance of Nabucco in tandem with thousands of Israelis coming to Masada from all corners of the land.
Many partners have joined us in this cultural, historic grandiose cultural celebration including the Tamar Regional Council, The National Parks Authority, The Ministry of Tourism, The Ministry of Culture, The Dead Sea Hotel Association, Discount Bank, IDB who enable thousands of spectators from the periphery attend the performances, The Meitar Family Fund and others. We thank all of them and many others without whom we would not have been able to be here today and enjoy a production that will not be easily forgotten.
I thank you dear guests that you have chosen to enjoy with us Nabucco at the footsteps of Masada. I wish you a unique operatic experience and already am looking forward to seeing you here next year for Aida.
Hanna Munitz
Israeli Opera General Director
But La Traviata?
"La traviata at the foot of Masaada" was the actual legend on the online promotional something-or-other that caught my eye. And what could say "19th-century Parisian demimonde" more surely than the Judean desert, Masada, and the Dead Sea? Not to mention that, while Traviata has party scenes that are crucial to the drama, the heart of the thing is the scenes among the three principals -- Violetta and Alfredo and, later, papa Giorgio Germont.
YouTube caption: For the second year running Eyal Lavee and his production team at The Design Group in Israel returned to the purpose built site they carved out of the desert last year for the Israeli Opera at the foot of Masada Mountain at the Dead Sea.
This historically significant and exquisitely raw setting saw the staging of Verdi's Aida, conducted by Daniel Oren, a co-production with Les Choragies d'Orange in France for the 2011 Dead Sea & Jerusalem Opera Festival 2011.
The Design Group - encompassing 3 different companies - Stage Design, Irgunit and LEDIM - and embracing multiple technical disciplines, handled all aspects of the technical production and site management. Lavee worked with his core production management team of Elad Mainz and Eviatar Banayan, and up to 150 other crew and technicians at peak times on site.
Once again, The Group's international connections were energised to bring onboard HSL and Britannia Row from the UK to provide lighting and audio equipment respectively. "Last year was a huge success, so it made sense to keep the same teams and collaborate with the best companies in the industry to supply the large quantities of premium kit required. Both HSL and Britannia Row did another fantastic job," says Lavee.
COMING UP AT 9pm PT/12 midnight ET:
Everything you need to know about the Sochi Olympics
Sunday Classics: Great choruses (and more) from Verdi's "Nabucco," "Il Trovatore," and "Aida"
>
All those choral scenes and the rough-and-tumble action have made Nabucco a favorite at the outdoor Arena di Verona. Here Anton Guadagno conducts the great Act III chorus "Va, pensiero" in August 1992.
by Ken
Anyone who's dipped into either Friday night's preview or last night's knows that we're talking about three Verdi operas that they "happen" to be seminal operas in the three basic creative periods of the composer's career:
* Nabucco (1841) was Verdi's breakthrough opera, his first success after two flops. For all its unevennesses and crudities, it also qualifies, it seems to me, as his first masterpiece.
* Il Trovatore (1853), as we've noted is the middle opera of a trio composed over an extraordinary period of some two years which marked, rather explosively, the onset of Verdi's "middle" period.
* And Aida (1871), the opera for which Verdi allowed himself to be coaxed out of what he considered retirement, ushering in his "late" period, which includes the Requiem as well as the final operas, Otello and Falstaff.
I've been promising all this time to reveal what prompted me to link these operas, I've mentioned (more than once, I think) the fourth-side filler of the original LP issue of EMI's 1960 recording of Leoncavallo's I Paglicacci, made at La Scala under the direction of that keenly dramatic Croatian conductor Lovro von Matačić. All sorts of solutions were tried for fourth-side fillers for recordings of Pagliacci and its traditional companion piece, Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana. For this recording EMI, taking took advantage of having Italy's best orchestra and chorus at its disposal, recorded great choral scenes from three Verdi operas, the very three we've been poking at. I used to listen to the "filler" side all the time, especially to the third and longest excerpt, the Triumphal Scene from Aida.
Now that I'm having some success doing my own LP-to-MP3 dubs, one of the first things I thought of was those choruses, orphaned by the Paglacci recording's comfortable fit on a single CD. So we're going to hear all three choruses, as well as hearing once again the openers of these operas, and then we're going to add just a bit to our picture of the pieces.
By now you've probably guessed that the first chorus is "Va, pensiero" from Nabucco, and I just mentioned that the last is the Triumphal Scene from Aida. I'm guessing many of you can guess what the middle chorus is, but we'll get back to that in the click-through.
SAY, REMEMBER THAT AIDA "OVERTURE" I PROMISED YOU WE WOULD HEAR TODAY?
No, not the wonderful little Prelude we've been listening to, which was in place at the time of the Cairo premiere in 1871, but the expanded full-scale overture Verdi wrote but chose not to have performed at the Italian premiere the following year. We'll hear it again and make some observations about it in the click-through, but here it is.
Aida: Overture (1872 version, withdrawn by the composer) BBC Philharmonic, Sir Edward Downes, cond. Chandos, recorded July 18, 1999
Sunday Classics preview: "First events" in "Nabucco," "Trovatore," and "Aida"
>
He has a tale to tell:To keep the retainers and soldiers accompanying him alert for their wee-hours vigil in the service of their master, the Count di Luna, their captain, Ferrando (bass Plinio Clabassi), tells them a true-life ghost story from the di Luna family history, in this clip from a 1966 Italian Television production of Il Trovatore conducted by Arturo Basile. A line to note: following the men's immediate response to the story [at 4:33], "And the father?," Ferrando's heartbreakingly simple, poignant reply [at 4:38], "Brevi e tristi giorni visse" -- "Brief and sad days he lived on."
[I wasn't up to another week of grueling translation exercises. This translation at the online Opera-Guide respects enough features of Cammarano's libretto to pass muster. -- Ken]
A hall in the Aliaferia palace; a door on one side leads into the Count di Luna's apartments. FERRANDO and a number of the Count's retainers are resting near the door; some soldiers are pacing back and forth in the background.
[The men have asked their captain, in order "to drive off the sleep that hangs heavy on our eyelids," to tell them "the real story of Garzia, our Count's brother."] FERRANDO: I'll tell you; gather around me. SOLDIERS: We, too... MEN: Listen then. Listen. [0:15] FERRANDO: There lived a happy father of two sons, the good Count di Luna. The second boy's faithful nurse slept next to his cradle. As dawn was breaking one fine morning, she opened her eyes and whom did she find next to that baby? MEN: Who? Speak ... Who was it? [0:56] FERRANDO: A dark, despicable gypsy crone! Wearing the symbols of a sorceress! And with a sullen face, over the boy she cast her bloody, baleful eye! The nurse is seized with horror; she utters a sharp cry in the still air; and, in less time than it takes to tell, the servants hasten into the room; and with shouts, blows, threats, they expel the wretch who dared enter. MEN: Their hearts were moved by righteous scorn; the crazy crone provoked it! [2:16] FERRANDO: She claimed that she wanted to cast the boy's horoscope. The liar! A slow fever began to destroy the poor child's health! Weak, covered with a strange pallor, broken, he trembled at night, and moaned piteously all day long; he was bewitched! [3:04] The witch was pursued, seized and condemned to the stake; but her cursed daughter was left, to administer a horrible revenge! This criminal committed an unspeakable act! The child disappeared, and they found still glowing embers, on the very same spot where the witch had once been burned! And, alas, a child's skeleton, half-burnt, still smoking! MEN: Ah! the wicked, unspeakable woman! It fills me with both rage and horror! [4:33] What about the father? [4:38] FERRANDO: His remaining days were few and sad; yet an undefined presentiment at heart told him that his son was not dead; and when he lay dying, he desired that our master should swear to him not to stop his search. Ah! It was in vain! [5:10] MEN: And was no news ever had of her? FERRANDO: No news! Oh! were it granted me to track her down some day! MEN: But, could you recognise her? FERRANDO: Considering the years that have passed, I could. MEN: It would be time to send her to her mother, in hell. FERRANDO: In hell? [5:48] It's common belief that the wicked witch's damned soul still lives in the world, and when the sky is black she shows herself in various shapes. ALL: It's true! It's true! [6:33] On the edge of the rooftops some people have seen her! Sometimes she changes into a hoopoe or an owl! Other times, a raven; more often, a civet-owl, flying through the dawn like an arrow! FERRANDO:: One of the Count's men died of fear because he had struck the gypsy's forehead! He died, died of fear! He died, died of fear! MEN: Ah! Ah! He died! Ah! Ah! He died! FERRANDO: She appeared to him in the form of an owl, in the deep calm of a silent room! MEN: Of an owl! FERRANDO: She looked with gleaming eye, looked at the sky, sorrowing, with a bestial cry! MEN: She looked! She looked! [7:11] FERRANDO: Midnight was just striking! Ah! MEN: Ah! [Midnight strikes.] ALL: Ah! A curse on her, the infernal witch! Ah! [A drum is heard. The soldiers run to the back. The servants gather at the door.]
by Ken
In last night's preview we heard the openings of three Verdi operas: the Overture to Nabucco, the Introduction to Il Trovatore, and the Prelude to Aida. (Again, the reason for the choice of these operas will become clear tomorrow.) Each prepares us for an "event" of sorts, and tonight we're going to jump ahead to those events, then back up to hear how we got from last night's points A to tonight's points B.
In Nabucco, our "point B" is the first of the gorgeous bass solos that make the Hebrew high priest Zaccaria a plum role for basses plying the Italian reperory. In Il Trovatore it's once again the bass, a captain in the service of the Count di Luna who in the wee hours of the morning tells his band of retainers and soldiers a story that winds up scaring the dickens out of them. And in Aida, our bass is another high priest, this time Egyptian, leaves a young army captain alone to muse in what is certainly the most famous of tenor arias and perhaps the best-known of all operatic arias.
We're going to hear them one at a time, but I thought first we'd dip into the archives for a couple of landmark recordings.
First we hear the first half or so, a single 78 side's worth, but with chorus, of Ferrando's Trovatore narration sung by the foremost Italian-repertory bass in the era of recordings, Ezio Pinza (1892-1957), in 1930 still close to his absolute vocal prime.
Il Trovatore: Act I, Scene 1, Ferrando with retainers and soldiers, "Di due figli" . . . "Abbietta zingara"
MEN: To drive off the sleep that hangs heavy on our eyelids, tell us the real story of Garzia, our Count's brother. [0:18] FERRANDO: I'll tell you; gather around me. SOLDIERS: We, too... MEN: Listen then. Listen. [0:33] FERRANDO: There lived a happy father of two sons, the good Count di Luna. The second boy's faithful nurse slept next to his cradle. As dawn was breaking one fine morning, she opened her eyes and whom did she find next to that baby? MEN: Who? Speak ... Who was it? [1:16] FERRANDO: A dark, despicable gypsy crone! Wearing the symbols of a sorceress! And with a sullen face, over the boy she cast her bloody, baleful eye! The nurse is seized with horror; she utters a sharp cry in the still air; and, in less time than it takes to tell, the servants hasten into the room; and with shouts, blows, threats, they expel the wretch who dared enter. MEN: Their hearts were moved by righteous scorn; the crazy crone provoked it! [Cut to:] [2:38] FERRANDO: It's common belief that the wicked witch's damned soul still lives in the world, and when the sky is black she shows herself in various shapes. ALL: It's true! It's true! [3:30] On the edge of the rooftops some people have seen her! Sometimes she changes into a hoopoe or an owl! Other times, a raven; more often, a civet-owl, flying through the dawn like an arrow! FERRANDO:: One of the Count's men died of fear because he had struck the gypsy's forehead! He died, died of fear! He died, died of fear! MEN: Ah! Ah! He died! Ah! Ah! He died! FERRANDO: She appeared to him in the form of an owl, in the deep calm of a silent room! MEN: Of an owl! FERRANDO: She looked with gleaming eye, looked at the sky, sorrowing, with a bestial cry! MEN: She looked! She looked! [5:05] FERRANDO: Midnight was just striking! Ah! MEN: Ah! [Midnight strikes.] ALL: Ah! A curse on her, the infernal witch! Ah! [Final orchestral flourish is omitted.]
Ezio Pinza, bass; Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Giulio Setti, cond. Victor/RCA/BMG, recorded Apr. 9, 1930
And really I don't see how we can touch on "Celeste Aida" without taking account of Caruso. This is a nice dub of his 1911 Victor recording, which includes the recitative, taken at a notably unhurried -- dare we say contemplative -- tempo.
Aida: Act I, Scene 1, Recitative and aria, Radamès, "Se quel guerrier io fossi" . . . "Celeste Aida"
RADAMÈS: If I were that warrior! If my dreams were to come true! A valiant army led by me… and victory… and the acclamations of all Memphis! And to return to you, my sweet Aida, crowned with laurels… to tell you: for you I fought, for you I conquered!
Heavenly Aida, form divine, mystical garland of light and flowers, of my thoughts you are the queen, you are the light of my life.
I would return to you your lovely sky, the gentle breezes of your native land; a royal crown on your brow I would set, build you a throne next to the sun.
Heavenly Aida, form divine, mystical gleam of light and flowers, etc.
Sunday Classics preview: Verdi shows us three ways to open an opera -- an "overture," a "prelude," and an "introduction"
>
At Berlin's outdoor Waldbühne, Marco Armiliato conducts the Orchestra of the Deutsche Opera Berlin in the Overture to Verdi's Nabucco, part of the Berlin Concert of July 7, 2006 (which featured soprano Anna Netrebko and tenors Plácido Domingo and Rolando Villazón as soloists).
by Ken
It will become clear on Sunday why we're dealing with these particular three Verdi operas together, but we can establish now that they represent seminal moments in the composer's three creative periods: "early" Nabucco, "middle" (Il Trovatore), and late (Aida). For now, though, we're going to consider them for the three very different ways they represent to start an opera.
FOR OPENERS, AN OVERTURE
In English usage an "overture" (which normally corresponds to the Italian sinfonia; yes, our "symphony" had its origins in the early Italian operatic overture) is a fully self-contained, free-standing piece, while a "prelude" (which normally corresponds to the Italian preludio) is a shorter piece meant to lead directly into the action. Full-scale overtures were common among Verdi's "early" Verdi operas, but there are two standouts: those to Nabucco (1842), Verdi's first successful opera, and Luisa Miller (1849).
CHENEY AND AIDA... PERHAPS A POST REGIME CAREER IF HE DOESN'T EVER HAVE TO PAY FOR HIS CRIMES?
>
Earlier today Ken did a post about Aida and mentioned that Verdi created an entire fictional Egypt for his opera. But sometimes art imitates life or life imitates art. In either case, Robert over at Left of Centrist has created a four and a half minute long animated masterpiece that helps tie Bush's Cheney to Verdi's Ramfis. Ken: "...the King and the high priest Ramfis (the two authority figures both cast with basses) preside over the sendoff of the army against the invading Ethiopians (if you wanted to see Ramfis as a sort of Cheney-like warmonger, you might look at the Egyptian intel on which the decision to go to war is based, the Messenger's breathless account of the invasion of 'the sacred soil of Egypt' by the 'Ethiopian barbarians,' laying waste to the fields and 'already marching on Thebes,' and wonder whether perhaps his testimony was coached)..."
(1) Is Aida really lost to us for good in any meaningful way, and (2) does it matter?
>
Any history book, any Aida booklet note will tell you about the curious circumstances of the opera's birth, starting with the curious circumstance that Verdi didn't want to write it.
Not that he had anything against it--"it" didn't exist yet, of course. He was nearing 58 when he received the first, apparently secret feeler from the Khedive of Egypt about writing an opera to celebrate the openings of the Suez Canal and the new Cairo Opera House. (Okay, this age-old story turns out to have some kinks in it, but we'll come to that; you just can't entirely trust those history books and booklet notes. Eventually we're going to have to pursue it all the way into a footnote.)
Actually, I just consulted an Aida booklet note myself--to be exact, the typically chatty one by longtime Metropoolitan Opera Assistant Manager Francis Robinson accompanying the original RCA issue of its 1961 Aida recording--to which RCA lost all rights decades ago, back when there still was such a thing as RCA--conducted by (not yet Sir) Georg Solti, with Leontyne Price in her most famous role plus Jon Vickers, Rita Gorr, and Robert Merrill. This was my first Aida recording, and it's still my favorite. (No, the picture isn't of my trusty old RCA LP box. It's a Decca CD reissue--probably doesn't sound as good, and doesn't have chatty Francis inside either.)
In our Francis's chatty note I was reminded that the Khedive's plan was to approach what he considered the Big Three of contemporary operatic composition: Italy's Signor Verdi, France's Charles Gounod, and Germany's Richard Wagner. I was reminded too that we don't seem to know whether approaches were ever made to Gounod and Wagner.
This was back in 1961, remember. By now, we probably know every detail of these hypothetical correspondences, including that the Khedive took to addressing Wagner as "Poopsie." It was a less knowing time, that 1961. We knew less about these things, but of course hoped one day to know more, believing that it would make better people of us. Go figure.*
Anyway, all the sources will tell you the story: Verdi didn't want to undertake to write an opera for Egypt because he didn't want to undertake to write anything. Incredibly, he thought he was retired.
What makes this so incredible is that we know from our vantage point in time how much important work still lay ahead of Verdi: not just Aida itself, but the seemingly endless revision of his then-most-recent opera, Don Carlos (the most problematic creation of his career); the revision of another of his most personal operas, Simon Boccanegra; and, oh yes, the composition of the monumental Requiem and of two Shakespeare-derived operas, Otello and Falstaff, incomparable masterpieces written at the urging of, and with librettos by, the young writer-composer Arrigo Boito, who earned his stripes on the Boccanegra rehab project.
In fact, at the time of his "retirement" Verdi had more than two decades' worth of work ahead of him. When Falstaff, that improbable final masterpiece was introduced to the world, in February 1893, the composer was in his 80th year. At least as surprising is that this most pessimistic of creative artists rounded out his life's work with an incandescent comedy, shimmering with hope vested in the innocence of the young lovers Nannetta and Fenton.
So what, back in 1869, was all this business about retirement? As a matter of fact, Verdi sort of really meant it. What we think of as his "late" period is in effect a period of retirement--from, that is, the workaday world of operas hammered out in a frenzy of deadline chaos, making it almost impossible to get the damned things right, to make serious artistic statements of them.
We know how unhappy Verdi had been with his early creative years, the period before Rigoletto (1851), which he referred to as his years "in the galley." Even that period produced a lot of enduringly memorable work, including what seem to me three full-fledged masterpieces: Ernani, the first version of Macbeth, and Luisa Miller. Then, in the 18 or so years between Rigoletto and the time Verdi judged himself ready to "retire," he composed Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Les Vepres siciliennes, the first version of Simon Boccanegra, Un Ballo in maschera, both the first and revised versions of La Forza del destino, and the original Paris version of Don Carlos.
That's an awesome run by any standard. But it seems to have left Verdi increasingly disenchanted and frustrated with the real-world conditions of making opera. And it all seemed to him like one hell of a lousy way to create serious art.
In the end, thank goodness, he allowed himself to be talked into undertaking the Egyptian project, which became Aida. What with one thing and another--including the minor inconvenience of the Franco-Prussian War--it didn't come close to making the opening of the Suez Canal or the Cairo Opera House. (We're still going with the old story about the opera being commissioned for the dual openings. What? You mean you didn't read the footnote?)
And in the end, Verdi went through much of the familiar craziness of writing on commission, having to have the thing ready on someone else's schedule and dealing with all the casting crazinesses of real-world opera houses, rather than working in privacy, just him and his librettist, with the understanding that nothing was "ready" unless and until he said it was ready, the way he and Boito eventually wrote Otello and Falstaff.
Nevertheless, in Aida Verdi gave us a mighty demonstration of what he could do when he flexed his artistic muscles. For all that the opera can be seen as lacking in personal characterization (it isn't really, but you can see how it can be seen that way), the ambition is larger. In imagining his ancient Egypt, Verdi had to create in music an internally coherent civilization. Or rather two of them, Egypt and its archenemy Ethiopia, complete with political, religious, and social-class structures.
Verdi took the Egyptian setting seriously, and tried to imbue both the text and the music with as much authentic Egyptian character as he could. But it wasn't "authentic" history he was after. He had always been interested in the underpinnings of society, emphatically including politics, religion, and their intersection--at the core of that dark, bloody masterpiece Don Carlos. In Aida he trained his powers on characterizing the society's belief system.
This is reflected in all seven of the opera's scenes, but in particular the matchless power and surpassing beauty of the opening scene, in which the King and the high priest Ramfis (the two authority figures both cast with basses) preside over the sendoff of the army against the invading Ethiopians (if you wanted to see Ramfis as a sort of Cheney-like warmonger, you might look at the Egyptian intel on which the decision to go to war is based, the Messenger's breathless account of the invasion of "the sacred soil of Egypt" by the "Ethiopian barbarians," laying waste to the fields and "already marching on Thebes," and wonder whether perhaps his testimony was coached); the Temple Scene (Act I, Scene 2), in which Ramfis seeks the blessing of the gods for their choice to lead the army into battle, the young captain Radames; the Triumphal Scene (Act II, Scene 2), in which the victorious army's return is celebrated, the Ethiopian prisoners are marched in and their fate decided; and the Judgment Scene (in Act IV, Scene 1) in which Radames is tried for treason and condemned to die.
It escapes me how anyone could fail to appreciate the power of these scenes, and it utterly confounds me why anyone who performs the piece wouldn't relish the challenge of bringing them to life. Which set me up for a fall a couple of years ago when I finally caught up with the current Met production.
I have to explain that I had all too many encounters with the production it replaced, a stripped-down travesty inflicted by hack director John Dexter. At the time I thought it represented some sort of artistic bottoming out in terms of a staging that fundamentally disrespected Aida. It didn't help that most of the time the show was additionally afflicted with the ain't-got-no-rhythm death grip of Maestro Jimmy L, which has drained the life out of so many Verdi operas at the Met.
Well, the replacement production let me spluttering with rage, almost nostalgic for its hateful predecessor. The people responsible for the present abomination don't even seem to feel any need to disguise their contempt for the piece, which they clearly think is so irredeemably STOO-pid that there's nothing to be done but to turn those public scenes into a giant fraternity par-tay!
The issue, I have to stress, isn't elephants vs. no elephants, as it's often perceived. It's a simple matter of basic respect for the work you're taking money to perform, for its lifeblood and that of the characters who inhabit it.
What made that performance all the more depressing was that, against normal expectations in these days, when casting Aida effectively is so difficult (a polite way of saying "impossible") a task, the cast wasn't absolutely hopeless. With some real artistic direction, those folks might have had some sort of Aida in them. Instead they were plunked into an environment that squealed with gleeful scorn at the utter silliness of it all.
Ever since, I've been trying to think of a good reason why the people responsible shouldn't be lined up on the roomy stage of the Met and machine-gunned into a better world. I'm sure there is a good reason; I just haven't thought of it. The best I've been able to come up with is: Where would you stop? Clearly the people who hired the perpetrators are every bit as responsible, but what about all the other enablers, on up to the critics and audiences who let them get away with such a travesty?
While I sat through it, I kept wondering: What would someone who had never encountered Aida before take away from this performance? What would such a person think of those of us who regard it as a cornerstone of our cultural heritage?
Now we don't want to end on this down note, so let's end with a video clip. Who doesn't like a video clip? Ours doesn't look so great, or sound so great, and for that matter it's not such a great performance. But it is unquestionably a performance of sorts, and I hope it communicates some of the power of Verdi's third-to-last opera.
The clip is from the telecast of Leontyne Price's last stage performance at the Met, on Jan. 3, 1985, nearly 24 years after her first Aida at the Old Met. This is from the Nile Scene (Act III), the scene that follows the Triumphal Scene. In that scene, Aida--an Ethopian woman, and the personal slave of Amneris, the daughter of the king of Egypt--was startled to see, among the captured Ethiopians, her father. The fact that Aida's father is among the captives was of great interest to the assembled Egyptians, suggesting that in the social hierarchy Aida, although a slave, is a person of some stature by virtue of her status as Amneris's slave.
What the Egyptians don't know is that Aida's father is in fact the Ethiopian king, Amonasro. And in the Nile Scene he moves in on her, making politics intensely personal. He knows, he tells her [0:28], that she is in love with Radames, and that he loves her, and that the daughter of the pharaohs is her rival. He tells her [0:53] that, if she wishes it, she can have it all: her fatherland, the throne, and love. [1:20] "You will see again the perfumed forests, the cool valleys, our golden temples." Aida herself imagines it [1:29]. Amonasro reminds her [2:05] of the ravages perpetrated on her homeland by the marauding Egyptians: houses, temples, and altars profaned; virgins raped and bound in chains; mothers, old men, and chldren murdered.
However, he tells her, it can all be avenged and reversed, he tells her; their countrymen are ready to take arms. He just needs to know which route the Egyptians will take. And Aida is the one person who can provide the missing information. [2:20] "I know you are waiting for Radames here. And he loves you, and he commands the Egyptians. Do you understand?" Finally poor Aida does understand, and is horrified [3:15].
Amonasro now accelerates into open rage [3:59], conjuring the horrors her country and countrymen will suffer, all accusing her [4:24]: "Because of you the fatherland is dying." He conjures up the ghost of her dead mother [4:39], who curses her. Finally he hurls at her one of the most famous accusations in opera [4:58]:
"Non sei mia figlia. Dei faraoni tu sei la schiava!" ("You're not my daughter. Of the pharaohs you're the slave.")
Aida, broken, begs her father for mercy [5:33], and he comes back with one of Verdi's most famous, most beautiful, and at the same time, because of the situation, most ambiguous phrases [6:43]:
"Pensa che un popolo, vinto, straziato, per te, per te soltanto risorger puo." ("Consider that a people beaten and destroyed, through you--supported by you can rise again.")
That, of course, is the ballgame. Poor Aida doesn't have a chance.
What we have here is Price well past her prime, with conducting that barely qualifies as pedestrian, and it's that dreadful old production originally staged by John Dexter. Still, it's hard to ruin this scene, given a couple of performers who can deliver some of its basic requirements. And Aida was once one of Price's greatest roles, and bass-baritone Simon Estes is a sturdy Amonasro.
- - - - - - - - - - - *Actually, there's a funny story here. No, really, you'll laugh. I see via Wikipedia that Julian Budden, in Vol. 3 of his massive study of Verdi's operas, debunks the story that Aida was commissioned for the canal and opera-house openings. Apparently he informs us that Verdi summarily rejected the Khedive's invitation to compose some sort of occasional piece for the occasion, on the ground that he didn't compose occasional pieces. Then, I guess, the Khedive came back with the more substantive offer of an operatic commission. I wouldn't know, having dropped out somewhere between Budden's Vols. 1 and 2. Well, I eventually boughtVol. 2 (in paperback), but that doesn't mean I did more than dip into it. We all make choices, and if I have to choose between chatty Francis and finger-waggling Julian, well, that's not much of a contest.
[11/28/2010] Great choruses (and more) from Verdi's "Nabucco," "Il Trovatore," and "Aida" (continued)
>
Yes, our middle chorus is the Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore. Here it is at the Hungarian State Opera, conducted by Géza Török, Mar. 12, 2009.
1. THE CHORUSES
After all this buildup, maybe we should go straight to the recordings of our three choruses which got this whole thing started.
Nabucco: Act III, Scene 2, "Va, pensiero sull'ali dorate"
On the banks of the Euphrates, the captive Hebrews are in chains, at forced labor.
HEBREWS: Go, my thought, on golden wings; go and alight on the slopes and hills, where, warm and gentle, waft the sweet breezes of our native earth!
Greet the banks of the Jordan, the toppled towers of Zion . . . O homeland, so lovely and lost! O memory, so beloved and fatal!
Golden harp of the prophetic bards, why do you hang silent on the willow? Rekindle memories in our breasts! Speak to us of the age that was!
Like the fate of Jerusalem, you heave a sigh of cruel lament. O, may the Lord inspire you a note that teaches virtue to endure!
Il Trovatore: Act II, Scene 2, Anvil Chorus
A broken-down hovel on the side of a mountain in Biscay. At the back, practically in the open, a large fire burns. It is early dawn. A group of Gypsies is gathered around.
GYPSIES: See! the heavens' great vault removes its gloomy, night-time tatters; it seems a widow who takes off at last the dark clothes that enfold her. To work! To work! At it, hammer! Who brightens the Gypsy man's days? The Gypsy maid! MEN [to the women, pausing in their work]: Pour me a draught; strength and courage the body and soul draw from drinking. ALL: Oh, look, look! A ray of the sun sparkles brighter in my (your) glass. To work! To work! At it, hammer!
Aida: Act II, Scene 2, Triumphal Scene
PEOPLE: Glory to Egypt and to Isis, who protects the sacred land; to the King who rules the delta we raise our festive hymns. WOMEN: Let lotus be twined with the laurel on the victors' brows; let a gentle cloud of flowers spread a veil over their arms. Let us dance, maids of Egypt, our mystic dances, as, around the Sun, dance the stars in the sky. PRIESTS: To the supreme judges of victory raise your eyes' render thanks to the gods on this auspicious day. [The troops march past. At last Radamès arrives under a canopy.] PEOPLE: Come, o conquering warrior, come and rejoice with us, in the heroes' path, let us throw laurel and flowers. PRIESTS: To the supreme judges raise your eyes; render thanks to the gods on this auspicious day.
Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro all Scala, Lovro von Matačić, cond. EMI, recorded 1960
2. NO, THAT'S NOT ALL! FIRST, LET'S REVIEW THE OPENINGS OF OUR OPERAS
This was always supposed to be part of today's program, but I couldn't help myself in last night's preview; since we had established all the elements, I couldn't refrain from putting them together. Well, here they are again -- in different performances, of course.
Nabucco: Overture and Opening scene
In the opening choral scene, the Hebrews assembled in the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem await a dismal fate at the hand of the forces of the Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucodonosor, or Nabucco for short).
The High Priest ZACCARIA enters, escorting FENENA, daughter of Nabucco.
ZACCARIA: Have hope, my children! God in His power has given a sign; He delivered into my power a precious hostage: [indicating FENENA] The enemy king's offspring can bring us peace. HEBREWS: The sun of a glad day has perhaps risen for us! ZACCARIA: Curb your fears! Place your trust in God's eternal help! Aria, Zaccaria There on the shores of Egypt He gave Moses life; Gideon's hundred men he rendered invincible one day. Who, in the extreme moment, believing in Him, has perished? HEBREWS: The sun of a glad day etc. ZACCARIA: Curb your fears! etc.
In the continuation of the scene, a noise is heard which turns out to be the arrival of the young Hebrew Ismaele, nephew of Zedekiah, the king of Jerusalem, bearing the news that the Assyrian king is closing in on the temple with his army. ZACCARIA suggests that Heaven may put an end to his wicked doings, entrusts Fenena to Ismaele, and sings a vigorous cabaletta (soon joined by the Hebrews), "Come notte a sol fulgente": "As night before the streaming sun, as dust before the wind, thou shalt vanish in your great trial, false god of Baal! Thou, mighty God of Abraham, descend to fight with us."
Nicolai Ghiaurov (bs), Zaccaria; Gianni Raimondi (t); Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, cond. Live performance, Dec. 7, 1966
Il Trovatore: Opening scene
A hall in the Aliaferia palace; a door on one side leads into the Count di Luna's apartments. FERRANDO and a number of the Count's retainers are resting near the door; some soldiers are pacing back and forth in the background.
FERRANDO: Look sharp there! The Count must be served with vigilance; sometimes, near the house of his beloved he spends whole nights. MEN: Jealousy's fierce serpents are writhing in his breast. FERRANDO: In the Troubadour, whose song rises at night from the gardens, he rightly fears a rival. MEN: To drive off the sleep that hangs heavy on our eyelids, tell us the real story of Garzia, our Count's brother. FERRANDO: I'll tell you; gather around me. SOLDIERS: We, too... MEN: Listen then. Listen. FERRANDO: There lived a happy father of two sons, the good Count di Luna. The second boy's faithful nurse slept next to his cradle. As dawn was breaking one fine morning, she opened her eyes and whom did she find next to that baby? MEN: Who? Speak ... Who was it? FERRANDO: A dark, despicable gypsy crone! Wearing the symbols of a sorceress! And with a sullen face, over the boy she cast her bloody, baleful eye! The nurse is seized with horror; she utters a sharp cry in the still air; and, in less time than it takes to tell, the servants hasten into the room; and with shouts, blows, threats, they expel the wretch who dared enter. MEN: Their hearts were moved by righteous scorn; the crazy crone provoked it! FERRANDO: She claimed that she wanted to cast the boy's horoscope. The liar! A slow fever began to destroy the poor child's health! Weak, covered with a strange pallor, broken, he trembled at night, and moaned piteously all day long; he was bewitched! The witch was pursued, seized and condemned to the stake; but her cursed daughter was left, to administer a horrible revenge! This criminal committed an unspeakable act! The child disappeared, and they found still glowing embers, on the very same spot where the witch had once been burned! And, alas, a child's skeleton, half-burnt, still smoking! MEN: Ah! the wicked, unspeakable woman! It fills me with both rage and horror! What about the father? FERRANDO: His remaining days were few and sad; yet an undefined presentiment at heart told him that his son was not dead; and when he lay dying, he desired that our master should swear to him not to stop his search. Ah! It was in vain! MEN: And was no news ever had of her? FERRANDO: No news! Oh! were it granted me to track her down some day! MEN: But, could you recognise her? FERRANDO: Considering the years that have passed, I could. MEN: It would be time to send her to her mother, in hell. FERRANDO: In hell? It's common belief that the wicked witch's damned soul still lives in the world, and when the sky is black she shows herself in various shapes. ALL: It's true! It's true! On the edge of the rooftops some people have seen her! Sometimes she changes into a hoopoe or an owl! Other times, a raven; more often, a civet-owl, flying through the dawn like an arrow! FERRANDO:: One of the Count's men died of fear because he had struck the gypsy's forehead! He died, died of fear! He died, died of fear! MEN: Ah! Ah! He died! Ah! Ah! He died! FERRANDO: She appeared to him in the form of an owl, in the deep calm of a silent room! MEN: Of an owl! FERRANDO: She looked with gleaming eye, looked at the sky, sorrowing, with a bestial cry! MEN: She looked! She looked! FERRANDO: Midnight was just striking! Ah! MEN: Ah! [Midnight strikes.] ALL: Ah! A curse on her, the infernal witch! Ah! [A drum is heard. The soldiers run to the back. The servants gather at the door.]
Bonaldo Giaiotti (bs), Ferrando; Ambrosian Opera Chorus, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Zubin Mehta, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded 1970
Aida: Prelude and Opening scene
A hall in the Palace of the King at Memphis. Left and right, a colonnade with statues and flowering shrubs. Rear, a great door beyond which can be seen the temples and palaces of Memphis and the Pyramids.
Dialogue, Ramfis and Radamès RAMFIS: Yes, rumour has it that Ethiopia dares to defy us again and to threaten the Nile Valley and Thebes. Soon a messenger will bring the truth. RADAMÈS: Have you consulted holy Isis? RAMFIS: She has named the commander?in?chief of the Egyptian armies. RADAMÈS: Oh happy man! RAMFIS [looking intently at Radamès]: Youthful and valiant is he. Now I bear the divine commands to the King. [Exits.]
Recitative and aria, Radamès RADAMÈS: If I were that warrior! If my dreams were to come true! A valiant army led by me… and victory… and the acclamations of all Memphis! And to return to you, my sweet Aida, crowned with laurels… to tell you: for you I fought, for you I conquered!
Heavenly Aida, form divine, mystical garland of light and flowers, of my thoughts you are the queen, you are the light of my life. I would return to you your lovely sky, the gentle breezes of your native land; a royal crown on your brow I would set, build you a throne next to the sun. Heavenly Aida, form divine, mystical gleam of light and flowers, etc.
James McCracken (t), Radamès; Jerome Hines (bs), Ramfis; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Kazimierz Kord, cond. Live performance, Dec. 25, 1976
Performance note: I wasn't going to use this 1976 Aida, even though there's a lot I like about Kord's conducting, with its capacity for sweetness and lyricism (I have fond memories of his performance with a different cast), and, for all his pitch and other technical oddities, about McCracken's gutsy Radamès as well. Still, there are those pitch and other technical oddities, and the years had definitely taken their toll on Hines's bass. So I'm going back in time to offer an alternative -- well, two alternatives:
Ramón Vinay (t), Radamès; Jerome Hines (bs), Ramfis; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Emil Cooper, cond. Live performance, Mar. 11, 1950 Mario del Monaco (t), Radamès; Jerome Hines (bs), Ramfis; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Fausto Cleva, cond. Live performance, Jan. 24, 1953
NOW, ABOUT THAT AIDA OVERTURE
Again, after the 1871 Cairo premiere of Aida, as Verdi prepared for the Italian premiere the following year he decided that the opera needed a full-fledged Overture, and duly added a selection of additional material from it. But before the premiere took place he thought better of it and left the original Prelude in place, leaving the Overture unperformed until it was resurrected in 1940. Eventually it had the distinction of receiving not one but two "first" recordings. We heard the second one earlier in this post; now here's the earlier "first recording," credited as "reconstructed and revised" by Piero Spada.
Aida: Overture (1872 version, withdrawn by the composer) London Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded 1978
It's a perfectly decent piece, this Overture, but now that we've developed some familiarity with the opera's opening sequence as we know it -- simple short Prelude (with just two basic tunes, the "Numi, pietà" section of Aida's opening-scene aria "Ritorna vincitor," and what we can now recognize from the Triumphal Scene as the stately, vaguely ominous theme associated with the Egyptian priests -- can you imagine how disruptive the full Overture would be in place of the Prelude? Clearly Verdi came to this conclusion.
3. FINALLY, WE COME TO THE "VALUE ADDED" PORTION OF OUR PROGRAM (WELL, SORT OF)
The thing is, I don't know whether you'll be outraged or relieved to learn that I just can't do this to you. We really haven't heard all that much music, but what with all these confounded texts, which I really don't feel right about leaving out, it's simply overwhelming. It's all done, or just about, but when I looked at it all strung together, it was just too much. So we're going to have to put our bits of operatic add-ons till next week. I'll just leave you with these teases:
Il Trovatore: Act III, Scene 2, Aria, Manrico, "Di quella pira"
MANRICO: The horrible blaze of that pyre burns, enflames all of my being! Monsters, put it out; or very quickly I'll put it out with your blood! Before I loved you, I was yet her son; your suffering cannot restrain me... Unhappy mother, I hasten to save you, or at least hasten to die with you! Unhappy mother, I hasten to save you, or at least hasten to die with you! etc. To arms! To arms! To arms!
Jussi Bjoerling, tenor; orchestra, Nils Grevillius, cond. EMI, recorded 1939
Nabucco: Act II, Scene 2, Recitative and prayer, Zaccaria: "Vieni, o Levita!" . . . "Tu sul labbro"
A faintly lit hall in the palace of the king, Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucodonosor, or Nabucco), in Babylon. The high priest of the exiled Hebrews, Zaccaria, enters accompanied by a Levite carrying the Tables of the Law.
Come, o Levite! Give me the Tables of the Law! Of a new miracle God wishes me to be the agent! He sends me a servant for the glory of Israel to tear apart the darkness of an unbeliever.
Thou on the lips of the prophets hast fulminated, o almighty God! To Assyria in strong accents now speak Thou with my lips! And with songs sacred to Thee every temple will resound; over the shattered idols Thy laws will rise. over the shattered idols etc.
Nazzareno de Angelis, bass; orchestra, Lorenzo Molajoli, cond. Italian Columbia, recorded 1928
[11/27/2010 preview] "First events" in "Nabucco," "Il Trovatore," and "Aida" (continued)
>
Hey, somebody get Radamès a flashlight!Tenor Nicola Martinucci sings "Celeste Aida" in Parma, 1988.
Again, in last night's preview we heard how our three Verdi operas begin: Nabucco with its imposing Overture; Aida with its ethereal Prelude; and Trovatore, with that slashing martial orchestral introduction that leads us right into the captain Ferrando's midnight "ghost" story. In each case we're headed toward a "first event." We're jumping right to those musical "events," after which we're going to fill in the blank that got us there -- a full-fledged choral scene in the case of Nabucco, just a wisp of dialogue in the cases of Trovatore and Aida.
1. OUR THREE "FIRST EVENTS"
Nabucco: The Hebrew high priest Zaccaria offers his beleaguered people a ray of hope
Act I, Scene 1, Zaccaria, "Sperate, o figli!" . . . "Del Egitto là sui lidi"
The High Priest ZACCARIA enters the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, where the Hebrews are huddled awaiting doom at the hands of the Assyrian king Nabucodonosor. ZACCARIA is escorting FENENA, daughter of Nabucco.
ZACCARIA: Have hope, my children! God in His power has given a sign; He delivered into my power a precious hostage: [indicating FENENA] The enemy king's offspring can bring us peace. HEBREWS: The sun of a glad day has perhaps risen for us! ZACCARIA: Curb your fears! Place your trust in God's eternal help! Aria, Zaccaria There on the shores of Egypt He gave Moses life; Gideon's hundred men he rendered invincible one day. Who, in the extreme moment, believing in Him, has perished? HEBREWS: The sun of a glad day etc. ZACCARIA: Curb your fears! etc.
[In the continuation of the scene heard in the excerpt from the 1960 Met performance, a noise is heard which turns out to be the arrival of the young Hebrew Ismaele, nephew of Zedekiah, the king of Jerusalem, bearing the news that the Assyrian king is closing in on the temple with his army. ZACCARIA suggests that Heaven may put an end to his wicked doings, entrusts Fenena to Ismaele, and sings a vigorous cabaletta (soon joined by the Hebrews), "Come notte a sol fulgente": "As night before the streaming sun, as dust before the wind, thou shalt vanish in your great trial, false god of Baal! Thou, mighty God of Abraham, descend to fight with us."]
[without chorus] Nazzareno de Angelis, bass; orchestra, Lorenzo Molajoli, cond. Italian Columbia, recorded 1928 [continues through Zaccaria's cabaletta, "Come notte al sol fuggente"] Cesare Siepi (bs), Zaccaria; Eugenio Fernandi (t), Ismaele; Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Thomas Schippers, cond. Live performance, Dec. 3, 1960
Il Trovatore: The army captain Ferrando tells his men a late-night tale of horror
Act I, Scene 1, Ferrando with retainers and soldiers, "Di due figli" . . . "Abbietta zingara"
FERRANDO: There lived a happy father of two sons, the good Count di Luna. The second boy's faithful nurse slept next to his cradle. As dawn was breaking one fine morning, she opened her eyes and whom did she find next to that baby? MEN: Who? Speak ... Who was it? [Pasero: 0:39; Vinco: 0:38] FERRANDO: A dark, despicable gypsy crone! Wearing the symbols of a sorceress! And with a sullen face, over the boy she cast her bloody, baleful eye! The nurse is seized with horror; she utters a sharp cry in the still air; and, in less time than it takes to tell, the servants hasten into the room; and with shouts, blows, threats, they expel the wretch who dared enter. MEN: Their hearts were moved by righteous scorn; the crazy crone provoked it! [Pasero: 1:53; Vinco: 1:51] FERRANDO: She claimed that she wanted to cast the boy's horoscope. The liar! A slow fever began to destroy the poor child's health! Weak, covered with a strange pallor, broken, he trembled at night, and moaned piteously all day long; he was bewitched! [Pasero: 2:36; Vinco: 2:35] The witch was pursued, seized and condemned to the stake; but her cursed daughter was left, to administer a horrible revenge! This criminal committed an unspeakable act! The child disappeared, and they found still glowing embers, on the very same spot where the witch had once been burned! And, alas, a child's skeleton, half-burnt, still smoking! [THE PASERO RECORDING ENDS HERE] MEN: Ah! the wicked, unspeakable woman! It fills me with both rage and horror! [Vinco: 3:57] What about the father? [Vinco: 4:01] FERRANDO: His remaining days were few and sad; yet an undefined presentiment at heart told him that his son was not dead; and when he lay dying, he desired that our master should swear to him not to stop his search. Ah! It was in vain! [Vinco: 4:31] MEN: And was no news ever had of her? FERRANDO: No news! Oh! were it granted me to track her down some day! MEN: But, could you recognise her? FERRANDO: Considering the years that have passed, I could. MEN: It would be time to send her to her mother, in hell. FERRANDO: In hell? [Vinco: 5:06] FERRANDO: It's common belief that the wicked witch's damned soul still lives in the world, and when the sky is black she shows herself in various shapes. ALL: It's true! It's true! [Vinco: 5:46] On the edge of the rooftops some people have seen her! Sometimes she changes into a hoopoe or an owl! Other times, a raven; more often, a civet-owl, flying through the dawn like an arrow! FERRANDO:: One of the Count's men died of fear because he had struck the gypsy's forehead! He died, died of fear! He died, died of fear! MEN: Ah! Ah! He died! Ah! Ah! He died! FERRANDO: She appeared to him in the form of an owl, in the deep calm of a silent room! MEN: Of an owl! FERRANDO: She looked with gleaming eye, looked at the sky, sorrowing, with a bestial cry! MEN: She looked! She looked! [Vinco: 6:17] FERRANDO: Midnight was just striking! Ah! MEN: Ah! [Midnight strikes.] ALL: Ah! A curse on her, the infernal witch! Ah! [A drum is heard. The soldiers run to the back. The servants gather at the door.]
[without chorus] Tancredi Pasero, bass; orchestral accompaniment. Odeon, recorded 1927 Ivo Vinco (bs), Ferrando; Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Tullio Serafin, cond. DG, recorded July 1962
Aida: Another high priest, this one Egyptian, has fanned a flame of hope in a different army captain
Act I, Scene 1, Recitative and aria, Radamès, "Se quel guerrier io fossi" . . . "Celeste Aida"
RADAMÈS: If I were that warrior! If my dreams were to come true! A valiant army led by me… and victory… and the acclamations of all Memphis! And to return to you, my sweet Aida, crowned with laurels… to tell you: for you I fought, for you I conquered!
Heavenly Aida, form divine, mystical garland of light and flowers, of my thoughts you are the queen, you are the light of my life.
I would return to you your lovely sky, the gentle breezes of your native land; a royal crown on your brow I would set, build you a throne next to the sun.
Heavenly Aida, form divine, mystical gleam of light and flowers, etc.
Jussi Bjoerling, tenor; Stockholm Symphony Orchestra, Nils Grevillius, cond. EMI, recorded December 1936 Franco Corelli (t), Radamès; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, George Schick, cond. Live performance, Mar. 3, 1962
2. HOW'D WE GET THERE?
Nabucco: Act I, Scene 1, Chorus of Hebrews, "Gli arredi festivi"
The Hebrews assembled in the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem await a dismal fate at the hand of the forces of the Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucodonosor, or Nabucco for short).
Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Thomas Schippers, cond. Live performance, Dec. 3, 1960
Il Trovatore: Act I, Scene 1, Ferrando and retainers, "All'erta! All'erta!"
FERRANDO: Look sharp there! The Count must be served with vigilance; sometimes, near the house of his beloved he spends whole nights. MEN: Jealousy's fierce serpents are writhing in his breast. FERRANDO: In the Troubadour, whose song rises at night from the gardens, he rightly fears a rival. MEN: To drive off the sleep that hangs heavy on our eyelids, tell us the real story of Garzia, our Count's brother. FERRANDO: I'll tell you; gather around me. SOLDIERS: We, too... MEN: Listen then. Listen.
Ivo Vinco (bs), Ferrando; Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Tullio Serafin, cond. DG, recorded July 1962
Aida: Act I, Dialogue Ramfis-Radamès, "Sì, corre voci che l'Etiope"
A hall in the Palace of the King at Memphis. Left and right, a colonnade with statues and flowering shrubs. Rear, a great door beyond which can be seen the temples and palaces of Memphis and the Pyramids.
Dialogue, Ramfis and Radamès RAMFIS: Yes, rumour has it that Ethiopia dares to defy us again and to threaten the Nile Valley and Thebes. Soon a messenger will bring the truth. RADAMÈS: Have you consulted holy Isis? RAMFIS: She has named the Egyptian armies' commander-in-chief. RADAMÈS: Oh happy man! RAMFIS [looking intently at Radamès]: Youthful and valiant is he. Now I bear the divine commands to the King. [Exits.]
Ezio Pinza (bs), Ramfis; Giovanni Martinelli (t), Radamès; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Ettore Panizza, cond. Live performance, Feb. 6, 1937
3. THE STORY THUS FAR
Really, that's quite enough for a "preview," don't you think? (Of course we haven't actually heard all that much music. It's just all those damned texts that sprawl out over so much online real estate.) Still, having come us this far in our three operas, it seems a shame to wait till tomorrow to put this much together. So here, opera by opera, is "our story thus far." (You'll note that I've cheated with Nabucco, stitching together an Overture and an opening scene that do feature the same conductor and orchestra, but from totally unrelated recordings, an LP of Verdi scenes by the bass Nicolai Ghiaurov and an LP of Verdi overtures and preludes conducted by Claudio Abbado made by different record companies nearly nine years apart.)
Nabucco: Overture London Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded 1978 Act I, Scene 1: "Gli arredi festivi" . . . Zaccaria, "Sperate, o figli!" . . . "D'Egitto là sui lidi" . . . "Come notte a sol fulgente" Nicolai Ghiaurov (bs), Zaccaria; Leslie Fyson (t), Ismaele; Ambrosian Singers, London Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado, cond. Decca, recorded January 1969
Il Trovatore: Introduction and Act I, Scene 1 Giorgio Tozzi (bs), Ferrando; Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestra of the Grand Théâtre, Geneva, Alberto Erede, cond. Decca, recorded July 1956
Aida: Prelude; Act I, Scene 1, Dialogue, Ramfis-Radamès, "Sì, corre voci che l'Etiope" . . . Recitative and aria, Radamès, "Se quel guerrier io fossi" . . . "Celeste Aida" Tancredi Pasero (bs), Ramfis; Beniamino Gigli (t), Radamès; Rome Opera Orchestra, Tullio Serafin, cond. EMI, recorded July-Aug. 1946
