Giuseppe Verdi conducting the Paris Opera premiere of his opera, Aida, at the Palais Garnier on March 22, 1880 As I prepared for this weekâs selection I was shocked that we hadnât yet covered Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi. The only trace of the opera I could find on Opera Daily was from
Non-singer and non-musician question: I'm curious . . .what direction from the composer (a written or verbal instruction from Verdi?) prompts the singers to trill and/or escalate their voices along a higher and higher scale at certain points in the opera? Is there a term for that, or is this bel canto improvisation that has become a tradition?
P.S. Also, whether by accident or design, and despite its tragic themes, "Il Trovatore" was a fine Mother's Day choice. In this second pandemic year, when so many must approach this day with a sense of grief and loss, I hope all who read this will feel peaceđ, if not joy, this Mother's Dayđ.
Your comment made me think of a couple of things...
When Maria Callas talked about always being in service of the music, the composer. And that when a singer is searching for a gesture, how to act on stage, that all they have to do is listen to the music and they will find every motion they need in the score. That the composer has already thought about it for you. A perfect example of how Maria served the music is how she talks about trills. In this masterclass (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNNChAur3wo) , she explains that composers wrote trills in the opera scores to express the range of emotions that the character is feeling. Callas not only sang all of the trills in each score, but in each trill expressed the emotion her character was feeling. Her trills expressed joy, happiness, delight, ecstasy, anger, sadness, power, and fear. I think this is why her singing voice has been described as a âmirror held up to emotionâ. (https://www.youroperadaily.com/p/opera-daily-maria-callas-i-vespri)
Also the âRossini Crescendoâ. Rossini developed many musical characteristics that became his signatures but none more than the âRossini Crescendoâ. He uses this technique, creating a long, ever-building crescendo over many bars with melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic devices. He also adds instruments to build the excitement, which is almost always in his overtures and large ensembles. Crescendo is Italian, derived from the word crescere, which means âto grow.â https://youtu.be/i1XJlFHqpDQ
And also a set of videos that I've shared quite a bit but that I love with Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, Luciano Pavarotti, and Richard Bonynge where they talk about the "bel canto" style/music. They use some advance terms but I think it gives you a good sense of some of the ingredients that make up that style...
Michele, after this first quick reading, I wanted to thank you right away for such an insightful and informative reply. It's one thing to sit in the audience and applaud a finished production. It's an entirely new level of appreciation when you have a sense of how the parts combine to create the whole. It occurred to me that while you've highlighted opera as art/artists weekly, your links to master classes, rehearsals, interviews and the like have subtly schooled us about the craftsmanship involved. Plus, I never tire of anecdotes about Maria Callas, nor of the related artworks you post. You amaze me. Thanks again for your comprehensive answer, and for laying out new paths for exploration.
Happy Mother's Day to you, to your opera-loving Mom, and to your friend and colleague, Heather Johnson!đ„)
Since Giuseppe Verdi's "Il Trovatore" is unexplored opera terrain for me, after reading your introduction, and listening to various interpretations of "D'amor sull' ali rosee...Miserere...Tu vedrai", I went in search of additional insights on the plot (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aPoXJsYfVk&t=48s; https://www.metopera.org/discover/synopses/il-trovatore/).
Wow! Give me an opera in Spain set against a backdrop of war, religion and class conflict. Add a count, a noble woman, a troubadour, star-crossed lovers, gypsies, a curse, revenge, mistaken identities, and a tragic dĂ©nouement and I'm all in. From what I've read, so was the audience when this opera (based on the 1836 play "El trovador" by Antonio GarcĂa GutiĂ©rrez) premiered in 1853 at Rome's Teatro Apollo. I look forward to experiencing the musical, thematic, and emotional complexity of this masterpiece, as have so many others through the ages (https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/works/59496--verdi-il-trovatore/browse).
So, where do I fall along the fault lines of appreciation for the artists featured in this week's reading? No one can argue with the great Leontyne Price's technical virtuosity, who I enjoyed listening to as a child (https://michiganopera.org/celebration-of-leontyne-prices-94th-birthday/). Nevertheless, Sondra Radvanovsky and Montserrat Caballé won the week for me. I love the agility, lyricism and beauty of their soprano voices. I feel that they connect me to their own emotions as artists, as well as to those suggested by the character portrayed.
Non-singer and non-musician question: I'm curious . . .what direction from the composer (a written or verbal instruction from Verdi?) prompts the singers to trill and/or escalate their voices along a higher and higher scale at certain points in the opera? Is there a term for that, or is this bel canto improvisation that has become a tradition?
P.S. Also, whether by accident or design, and despite its tragic themes, "Il Trovatore" was a fine Mother's Day choice. In this second pandemic year, when so many must approach this day with a sense of grief and loss, I hope all who read this will feel peaceđ, if not joy, this Mother's Dayđ.
Your comment made me think of a couple of things...
When Maria Callas talked about always being in service of the music, the composer. And that when a singer is searching for a gesture, how to act on stage, that all they have to do is listen to the music and they will find every motion they need in the score. That the composer has already thought about it for you. A perfect example of how Maria served the music is how she talks about trills. In this masterclass (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNNChAur3wo) , she explains that composers wrote trills in the opera scores to express the range of emotions that the character is feeling. Callas not only sang all of the trills in each score, but in each trill expressed the emotion her character was feeling. Her trills expressed joy, happiness, delight, ecstasy, anger, sadness, power, and fear. I think this is why her singing voice has been described as a âmirror held up to emotionâ. (https://www.youroperadaily.com/p/opera-daily-maria-callas-i-vespri)
Also the âRossini Crescendoâ. Rossini developed many musical characteristics that became his signatures but none more than the âRossini Crescendoâ. He uses this technique, creating a long, ever-building crescendo over many bars with melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic devices. He also adds instruments to build the excitement, which is almost always in his overtures and large ensembles. Crescendo is Italian, derived from the word crescere, which means âto grow.â https://youtu.be/i1XJlFHqpDQ
And also a set of videos that I've shared quite a bit but that I love with Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, Luciano Pavarotti, and Richard Bonynge where they talk about the "bel canto" style/music. They use some advance terms but I think it gives you a good sense of some of the ingredients that make up that style...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk06RvH96NU&t=11s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhwkHts8QTs
Michele, after this first quick reading, I wanted to thank you right away for such an insightful and informative reply. It's one thing to sit in the audience and applaud a finished production. It's an entirely new level of appreciation when you have a sense of how the parts combine to create the whole. It occurred to me that while you've highlighted opera as art/artists weekly, your links to master classes, rehearsals, interviews and the like have subtly schooled us about the craftsmanship involved. Plus, I never tire of anecdotes about Maria Callas, nor of the related artworks you post. You amaze me. Thanks again for your comprehensive answer, and for laying out new paths for exploration.
Happy Mother's Day to you, to your opera-loving Mom, and to your friend and colleague, Heather Johnson!đ„)