Top Posts Tagged with #opera simplified

Popular Recent

Opera Simplified #7: Les Huguenots—Part I

Les Huguenots

(The Huguenots)

Opera Simplified #7

The Basics:

Music: Giacomo Meyerbeer

Libretto: Augustin Eugène Scribe and Émile de Saint-Amand Deschamps

Premiere: February 29, 1836; Salle Le Peletier (Opéra national de Paris), Paris, France.

Based on: No direct source material except history, although some scenes (but not the overall plot) are likely very loosely based on scenes from Prosper Mérimée’s 1829 novel Chronique du règne du Charles IX (Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX).

Setting: The French province of Touraine (Acts I-II) and Paris, France (Acts III-V); August 1572.

Characters:

Marguérite de Valois, Princess of France, sister of King Charles IX, and soon-to-be Queen of Navarre—soprano

Urbain, her favorite page—soprano*

Valentine de Saint-Bris, her favorite lady-in-waiting—soprano*

Raoul de Nangis, a Huguenot nobleman—tenor

Marcel, his servant and formerly grandfather’s ward, also a seasoned soldier—bass

Le Comte de Saint-Bris, Valentine’s father, leader of the Catholic noble faction, and governor of the Louvre—bass-baritone

Le Comte de Nevers, Valentine’s fiancé, a Catholic nobleman—baritone

Tavannes, also a Catholic nobleman—tenor

Cossé, another Catholic nobleman—tenor

Thoré, yet another Catholic nobleman—tenor

de Retz, still another Catholic nobleman—baritone

Méru, there are way too many extra Catholic noblemen in this opera—baritone

Maurevert, *sigh* ditto except he’s a Special Plotting One in Act III—baritone

Léonard, Nevers’ valet—tenor**

Bois-Rosé, a Huguenot captain—tenor

A nightwatchman—bass

A Catholic student—tenor

Two ladies-in-waiting—sopranos

Two Catholic girls—soprano and mezzo-soprano

Two Roma girls—soprano and mezzo-soprano

Three monks—tenor and two basses

Henri de Bourbon, the Huguenot King of Navarre and Marguérite’s eventual husband—silent

*Note: While Urbain and Valentine were intended to be sung by sopranos, both roles have a history of being cast with mezzo-sopranos, although this is much more extensive in the case of Urbain than of Valentine.

**In some productions and recordings, Léonard is turned into a trouser role mezzo.

A Note Before I Recommend Recordings: The performance and recording history of this opera is…exceedingly complicated. A lot of this is due to a combination of there being LOTS of revisions and cuts over the years, including large chunks of music cut before the premiere, parts of which have since been restored. A critical edition was prepared approximately a decade ago; however, the score/libretto still has not been made available to the general public (possibly because there are some differences in the scenes from original to premiere) and no full recording—either audio or visual—has been made of said edition (although someone did splice together a recording from multiple recordings that comes very close and which was instrumental in the making of this Opera Simplified.)

Further adding to the problem is that while several productions in the last decade have been either audio or visual recorded, all of them use different pieces of the critical edition and none of them are complete or add up to a complete reading. As such, yours truly is working with as much material as she can but this Opera Simplified is not and cannot be truly complete.

[Last note: this also means that while I have done my very best to provide clips that are as complete as possible, a) the level of completeness of any given excerpt may vary and b) some of the clips will overlap.]

Recommended Video Recordings:

The Sydney 1990 production is rather heavily cut but great for a first-timer (source: this recording is what made me fall in love with this opera). Also, this is actually a recording of Dame Joan Sutherland’s final ever full staged performance of any opera, so this is opera history.

The Montpellier 1990 production is an excellent and much-less cut traditional option as well.

The Brussels 2011 (Part I; Part II) and Geneva 2020 productions are both somewhat “out there” direction wise (the latter more than the former) but both are excellent shows overall.

The Paris 2018 production is worth a watch if only for Lisette Oropesa as Marguérite (although that cast is for the most part very good).

Recommended Audio Recordings:

If you can find the Diederich Montpellier 1988 recording, a) snap it up ASAP and b) PLEASE SEND IT TO ME because it was online for a while but then it disappeared and it hasn’t been available for streaming ANYWHERE online for over three years now.

The Bonynge 1970 recording is overall quite good, except the Raoul isn’t great.

This audio recording of a Berlin 2016 performance is overall very good (Juan Diego Flórez as Raoul!!!), although I’m still mad at the Deutsche Oper Berlin for not filming this production.

This Vienna 1971 performance is VERY heavily cut but what we have is really good.

And if you love balls-to-the-wall singing and don’t care about pesky things like French language and style or cuts (no judgment here though, we all need some straight up balls-to-the-wall sometimes) this legendary La Scala 1962 recording is nothing to scoff at.

Shoutout to @carlodivarga-s and @monotonous-minutia for being the best readers/idea-bouncer-offers a writer could’ve ever asked for.

The Opera, Very Simplified: “Way out yonder somewheres, the Lord’s great heart must break at seein’ how men treat one another an’ say they’re doin’ it all for His sake.” -Carlisle Floyd, Susannah, Act I, Scene 5

(btw if you haven’t seen or listened to Susannah, go do so asap. Here’s a recording with Cheryl Studer, Samuel Ramey, and Jerry Hadley.)

ACTUALLY, I lied when I said this was the last note. One more note:

If you are reading this Opera Simplified on the date of its publication, you are reading it on August 24, 2022 (at least in Paris time, which is 7 hours ahead of the author’s time zone). This is deliberate, and you will learn the reason why before too long.

THE OPERA (or at least the first three acts of it):

#opera #opera tag #les huguenots #opera simplified #i will get around to bolding character names eventually i am just so tired and i already had to remake this post #meyerbeer #giacomo meyerbeer #augustin eugène scribe #émile de saint amand deschamps

•18+ Adults Only

Watch Anya Live on Cam

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.

✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions

Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming

The Queen Mab scene from Roméo et Juliette, as written by yours truly in the next Opera Simplified (slightly redrafted since initially sending it to @monotonous-minutia):

Mercutio: ALRIGHT WE’RE ALONE LET’S TAKE OUR MASKS OFF

Roméo: No! Mercutio, you promised that we wouldn’t!

Mercutio: Hey, we're not in the middle of a pandemic or anything. It's not a life-or-death situation in which masks save lives.

Roméo: But we have to be cautious so no one will recognize us here. Better yet, we should just get out of Dodge.

Mercutio: That would be cowardly. Besides, I have something to take care of them right here.

*He indicates his sword.*

Their Buddies: YEAH AND WE HAVE SWORDS TOO

Roméo: We shouldn’t have done this in the first place.

Mercutio: Are you trying to be a Sensible Baritone? Buddy, with that voice, it’s not gonna happen.

Roméo: No?

Mercutio: Then why do you say that?

Roméo: I DREAMED A DREAM IN TIME GONE BYYYYY—

Mercutio: And I’m gonna cut you off right there because that song is overrated. **

Roméo: WHEN HOPE WAS—

Mercutio: *in a comic show of terror* OH NO QUEEN MAB HAS VISITED YOU

Roméo: Huh?

Mercutio: She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes

In shape no bigger than an agot-stone

On the forefinger of an alderman,

Drawn with a team of little atomi

Over men’s noses as they lie asleep.

Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut,

Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,

Time out a’ mind the fairies’ coachmakers.

Her wagon-spokes made of long spinners’ legs,

The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,

Her traces of the smallest spider web,

Her collars of the moonshine’s wat’ry beams,

Her whip of cricket’s bone, the lash of film,

Her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat,

Not half so big as a round little worm

Prick’d from the lazy finger of a maid.

And in this state she gallops night by night

Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love;

O’er courtiers’ knees, that dream on cur’sies straight;

O’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight dream on fees;

O’er ladies’ lips, who straight on kisses dream,

Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,

Because their breath with sweetmeats tainted are.

Sometime she gallops o’er a courtier’s nose,

And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;

And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig’s tail

Tickling a parson’s nose as ’a lies asleep,

Then he dreams of another benefice.

Sometime she driveth o’er a soldier’s neck,

And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,

Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,

Of healths five fathom deep; and then anon

Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,

And being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two,

And sleeps again. This is that very Mab

That plats the manes of horses in the night,

And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs,

Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes.

This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,

That presses them and learns them first to bear,

Making them women of good carriage.

This is she—

Roméo: English, please.

Mercutio: This is English.

Roméo: Then English I can understand.

Mercutio: Alright, so you really are just a stupid tenor. Okay. I was getting a bit worried there.

Long story short: she’s the queen of illusions and she makes people dream of stuff they want. And as for you, who sleeps in his bed alone because he’s never been laid—

Roméo: Gee, thanks.

Mercutio: She makes you dream of kisses!

#opera #opera tag #Opera Simplified #Roméo et Juliette #Romeo and Juliet #notyouraveragejulie writes #Queen Mab #Gounod #Charles François Gounod #Shakespeare #William Shakespeare #my sideblog #sneak peek #stay tuned!#more previews likely coming soon #this sideblog will be back up and running soon!!!

Opera Simplified #6: I Lombardi alla prima crociata

I Lombardi alla prima crociata (The Lombards at the First Crusade)

Opera Simplified #6

The Basics:

Music: Giuseppe Verdi

Libretto: Temistocle Solera

Premiere: February 11, 1843; Teatro alla Scala, Milan.

Based on: Tommaso Grossi’s epic poem of the same name, available here in Italian.

Setting: Milan, Antioch, and various locations in the desert near Jerusalem; 1095-1099 CE.

Characters:

Arvino, a nobleman, one of the two sons of Lord Folco of Rò—tenor

Viclinda, his wife—soprano

Pagano, his brother—bass

Giselda, Arvino and Viclinda’s daughter—soprano

Pirro, Arvino’s squire—bass

Acciano, Governor of Antioch—bass

Sofia, his wife—soprano

Oronte, their son—tenor

A Prior of the City of Milan—tenor

Recommended Audio Recordings: if you can get over the presence of The Tenor Turned Baritone Who Shall Not Be Named [yours truly opts to skip over the parts featuring That Singer, as luckily there are not many such parts], this 1971 recording also starring Cristina Deutekom and Ruggero Raimondi is quite good (YouTube; Spotify). Another quite good recording, with That One Conductor From The Met Who Shall Not Be Named, June Anderson, Samuel Ramey, Luciano Pavarotti, Richard Leech, and young Patricia Racette and Ildebrando d’Arcangelo in supporting roles is this nice 1996 take (YouTube; Spotify). A third is this live recording from Parma in 2009 (YouTube; Spotify).

Recommended Video Recordings: The Met 1993 production, which has [unfortunately] the same conductor as the 1996 recording but also Ramey, Pavarotti, and the delightful Lauren Flanigan, is great (and also the source of the vast majority of the featured video clips). The 2009 Parma production is pretty good too, as is this 1999 Santiago production (Part I; Part II).

The Opera, Very Simplified: After one of the Folco brothers returns from exile to (allegedly) reconcile with his brother, who himself has been named leader of the Lombard forces for the First Crusade, things could not look more rosy. But when the brother just returned from exile horribly botches an attempt to murder the other brother, that combined with the family’s imminent departure for the Crusade throws the family into chaos, especially when the heiress to the family is captured by the enemy and summarily falls in love with a local prince...and who is the mysterious hermit helping the Lombards at every turn anyway?

A couple more things:

Here’s some quick geographical/historical context going in, courtesy of your history and European studies dual-degree student and series author.

DISCLAIMER: the author of this Opera Simplified would like to make explicitly clear that she roundly condemns both the Islamophobic nature of the Crusades and the Islamophobic sentiments that certain characters in this opera voice. At the same time, she has also written about how this opera was not intended to be Islamophobic, although there are certain potentially uncomfy aspects to the drama on account of the subject matter.

With that in mind,

THE OPERA:

#opera #opera tag #opera simplified #I Lombardi alla prima crociata #I Lombardi #The Lombards at the First Crusade #Verdi #Giuseppe Verdi #Solera #Temistocle Solera #oh look hahahaha I'm back after another extended hiatus lol

Opera Simplified #5: Stiffelio

Stiffelio

Opera Simplified #5

The Basics:

Music: Giuseppe Verdi

Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave

Premiere: world premiere: November 16, 1850; Teatro Grande, Trieste, Austria (now Italy). premiere of Verdi and Piave’s complete and uncensored original version: October 21, 1993; Metropolitan Opera, New York, New York.

Based on: Gaetano Vestri’s translation of the last three acts of Eugène Bourgeois’ and Émile Souvestre’s 1849 play Le pasteur, ou l’évangile et le foyer (The Pastor, or The Gospel and the Home), itself based on Souvestre’s 1838 novel Le pasteur d’hommes (The Pastor of Men).

Setting: A castle on the banks of the Salzach River outside of Salzburg, Austria; around the time of composition.

The Characters:

Stiffelio (alias Rodolfo Müller), a Protestant minister- tenor

Lina, his wife- soprano

Count Stankar, her father, a retired military officer, and the owner of the castle- baritone

Raffaele di Leuthold, a longterm guest at Stankar’s house, supposedly a count- tenor*

Jorg, another Protestant minister and Stiffelio’s mentor- bass

Federico di Frengel, one of Lina’s cousins and another longterm guest- tenor

Dorotea, ditto- mezzo-soprano

Fritz, a servant who appears onstage for about ten seconds total but is still a named character- mute

*Souvestre’s novel introduces Raffaele perfectly, but this was too long to put in the above:

Moitié Faust et moitié Don Juan, il était puissant par l'intelligence, par la volonté, par les sens; mais il lui était resté un vide que rien ne pouvait remplir: il n'avait pas de coeur!

(Half Faust and half Don Juan, he was powerful because of his intelligence, his will, his senses; but there remained in him a void which nothing could fill: he did not have a heart!)- p.15

Requested by: no one, but this opera is ridiculously underrated and also I’ve been thinking about it almost nonstop for a couple of weeks, so here you go.

(Special thanks to @sweatershowgirl for being a perfect springboard for ideas and a source of moral support while writing this.)

Recommended Audio Recordings: The 1980 Gardelli recording (YouTube; Spotify) is marvelously performed on all accounts and is still my go-to. However, it does not account for the critical edition discoveries made within the last thirty years; the 2000 Luisotti recording (YouTube; Spotify) does and is also wonderfully performed. Both are good to have in your library.

Recommended Video Recordings: Stiffelio is very lucky on film; just about any production is worth a watch. However, the Venice 2016 production (available here with Italian and French subtitles) is my favorite. The Met 1993 production was my first full one and I would highly recommend it if not for everyone’s least favorite tenor-conductor pair, Placido Domingo and James Levine *sigh*. (I’m still mad at the Met for not filming the 2010 revival with Sondra Radvanovsky as Lina and Michael Fabiano as Raffaele. But I digress.)

The Opera, Very Simplified: A Protestant minister returns home from an extended ministry trip only to get the feeling that something is extremely off, but he doesn’t know what. When he discovers that he has been horribly betrayed, he finds himself in an extreme internal conflict between his desire for revenge and his faith’s calling of forgiveness.

One More Note: Because the censors absolutely sucked, Verdi ended up withdrawing this opera in 1856 and reusing most of the music (although writing a new fourth act to replace the final scene, as well as revising music elsewhere) for another opera entitled Aroldo, which has a somewhat similar plot. However, trust me when I say that it’s nowhere near as good. Watch it as a curiosity, I guess, but seriously this is way better.

(As for Stiffelio, it was thought lost for over a hundred years and the first modern performance wasn’t until 1968, while the first performance using all of Verdi’s original manuscripts wasn’t until 1993. For perspective, that is only ten years before I was born.)

THE OPERA:

#opera #opera tag #Opera Simplified #Stiffelio #Verdi #Giuseppe Verdi #Piave #Francesco Maria Piave #y'all be sleeping on this opera #seriously. you are. and I'm here to change that.

did I seriously not make a “no one expects the Spanish Inquisition“ joke in my Opera Simplified on Don Carlo

I have failed you all

(for those wondering: the tentative plan is to make my grand return in the second half of May with Faust!)

#opera #opera tag #I have failed #Don Carlo #Don Carlos #no one expects the spanish inquisition #Verdi #Giuseppe Verdi #Opera Simplified #coming soon!

•18+ Adults Only

Watch Anya Live on Cam

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.

✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions

Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming

Opera Simplified #4: Così fan tutte

Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti

(Thus Do All Women, or The School For Lovers)

Opera Simplified #4

The Basics:

Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Libretto: Lorenzo da Ponte

Premiere: January 26, 1790; Burgtheater, Vienna, Austria

Based on: No direct source material, although some say it is inspired by either elements of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (as a classics major and someone’s who’s read it...eh) or an incident that had supposedly recently taken place in Vienna.

Setting: Naples, the late 1700s.

Characters:

Fiordiligi, a woman from Ferrara who lives in Naples—soprano

Dorabella, her sister—mezzo-soprano

Despina, their maid—soprano

Ferrando, Dorabella’s boyfriend, a soldier—tenor

Guglielmo, Fiordiligi’s boyfriend, a soldier—bass

Don Alfonso, an old philosopher—bass

*Note: these voice parts are not set in stone; for instance, Despina is occasionally played by a mezzo-soprano and Guglielmo by a baritone.

Requested by: @harry-leroy.

The Opera, Very Simplified (new feature!): “Thus do all women.” Is that really true, or do you just have a raging case of sexism?

Another New Feature: In addition to the notes link provided at the end of each scene, if you click on an asterisk set, it will now also take you to the notes section for that scene.

The Opera:

#opera #opera tag #Così fan tutte #Opera Simplified #Mozart #Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart #da Ponte #Lorenzo da Ponte

Act I of the Opera Simplified for Roméo et Juliette is officially DONE!!!

my inspiration is coming back which means the four remaining acts should be much smoother going

#opera #opera tag #Roméo et Juliette #Romeo and Juliet #Opera Simplified #my sideblog #notyouraveragejulie writes #Gounod #Charles François Gounod #Shakespeare #William Shakespeare #stay tuned!!!#coming soon (hopefully)

@vera-dauriac put out a call for most recent lines written, and I wanted to share the most recent few lines from my next Opera Simplified, even though that's probably not what was originally intended:

Barbier and Carré: ...Do you want us to include more of Shakespeare’s iconic lines?

Veronese Folks: YES YES YES THIS PLAY MADE US FAMOUS

Barbier and Carré: Very well.

(yes, this Opera Simplified will have some meta elements)

#opera #opera tag #writing #notyouraveragejulie writes #Roméo et Juliette #Opera Simplified #stay tuned!#meta