Musical Storytelling: Librettist Gene Scheer On Transforming Novels Into Operas
Viviana Freyer Shares a Look Inside Two Current and Upcoming Literary Adaptations For the Stage
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Okay, in 1851 the opera Rigoletto was first performed in Venice. BUT 155 years later, a Canadian film adaptation, ''Rigoletto ...in bluegrass" won Best Originality at the Bluegrass Independent Film Festival in Kentucky.
While most of the music is deliberately corny bluegrass, the Prelude and the Introduction from the original opera are performed by the Mandolin Society of Peterborough.
Replied to Irene
Musical Interlude: Every so often I listen to an opera. One of my faves is "The Jewels of the Madonna," by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, which centers on a group of Camorra outlaws in Naples, and was controversial (even now) for a semi-incestuous love story between a man and his adopted sister, implied criticism of the Catholic church, sacrilegious acts performed by the characters, and best of all, an on-stage orgy. Hey, who says opera is staid and stodgy?
Anyway, here's a lovely piece that played between acts...
"Intermezzo, from I gioielli della Madonna," composed by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.
On turning Moby-Dick into an opera. "one of the things that’s so profound about Moby-Dick, is that when you drop the stone into the pond, it ripples out in an asymmetric way." -- Gene Scheer
#OTD in 1904.
Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly premiered at La Scala in Milan to poor reviews, forcing him to revise the opera.
This was due in part to a late completion by Puccini, which gave inadequate time for rehearsals. Puccini revised the opera, splitting the second act in two, with the Humming Chorus as a bridge to what became Act III, and making other changes.
x7 @jalefkowit I just found out about this a few days ago that it's been available for months!
I've been waiting for this since #Opera introduced Tabs to the Browser world.
Opera then introduced Tabs to any edge of the window. Opera split into #Vivaldi, and now Vivaldi supports awesome tab groups and stacks.
#MSEdge also picked up Vertical tabs for quite a few years now too.
#FIrefox has resolutely resisted having first-party Vertical Tabs all this time. Amazingly ridiculous.
Classical composer Edmund Dédé was born in New Orleans in 1827 but left the city for France in the 1850s as the rights of Black people in the U.S. became more restricted in the years before the Civil War. In Bordeaux, where he had a prestigious position at the Grand Théâtre, he wrote his grand opera, "Morgiane." But after his death in 1902, the manuscript vanished. It was discovered in Harvard's archive in 2007 and is believed to be the first complete opera by an African American. Last week, it had its concert premiere, co-produced by Opera Lafayette and OperaCréole. Here's @CNN's story about the losing and finding of the piece. Click the second link to join a mailing list so you can watch the livestream.
https://operalafayette.org/newsletter
#Music #Opera #BlackHistory @blackmastodon #History @histodons #EdmundDede
Who's Afraid of Opera? by Michael Walsh, 2015
For anyone who has been intimidated, overwhelmed, or just plain confused by what they think opera is, WHO'S AFRAID OF OPERA? offers a lively, readable guide to what author Michael Walsh describes as "the greatest art form yet invented by humankind."
#OTD in 1893.
Verdi's last opera, Falstaff premieres at La Scala, Milan.
The Italian-language libretto was adapted by Arrigo Boito from the play The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2, by William Shakespeare.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falstaff_(opera)
Falstaff : commedia lirica in tre atti at @internetarchive
https://archive.org/details/falstaffcommedia00verd_3
#OTD in 1913.
Claudio Monteverdi's last opera L'incoronazione di Poppea was performed theatrically for the first time in more than 250 years.
Two versions of the musical score of L'incoronazione exist, both from the 1650s. The first was rediscovered in Venice in 1888, the second in Naples in 1930. The Naples score is linked to the revival of the opera in that city in 1651.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27incoronazione_di_Poppea
Books about Monteverdi at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=monteverdi&submit_search=Search
Replied to Alley Stoughton
The playlist for today's (2/3/25) episode of Not Brahms and Liszt can be found at:
https://alleystoughton.us/not-brahms-and-liszt/#show456
And a Samply link (good for 2 weeks only, downloads not allowed) to the high-quality audio file for the show can be found at:
https://samply.app/p/rlgRuUfQWBNMPvz5URF7
You can listen via this link in your web browser, without an account. There is also an iOS app.
#Cambridge #Boston #Radio #ModernClassical #VocalMusic #Opera #ArtSongs
Replied to Alley Stoughton
Beginning at 4pm ET today (2/3/25), Not Brahms and Liszt features my interview with composer and librettist Mark Adamo plus art songs (including arrangements of Beatles classics!) and opera - on WMBR Cambridge 88.1 FM streaming on https://wmbr.org
#Cambridge #Boston #Radio #ModernClassical #VocalMusic #Opera #ArtSongs
#PolymathReadingChallenge book 3 (History of Music)
Honestly I never really got the whole opera thing, but now I am suspecting they were teaching it wrong in Music class. This book was a wild ride, more adventurous than any novel a writer could have come up with. Da Ponte is a holy fool, a hopeless romantic, a charming idiot, an annoying genius, an easy mark, a talented poet, a self-absorbed weirdo, and an all-around fascinating character.
„Als [Opernsängerin] ein bisschen durch den Kakao gezogen wird Megan Marie Hart in der Rolle der «Eitlen»; ihr hat Valtinoni einige preziöse Spitzentöne in die Partie hineinkomponiert – und Ausstatterin Hägebarth das Haar so hochtoupiert, als stünde die Diva am gleichen Abend in Anwesenheit des Sonnenkönigs auf einer feudalen Bühne.“ 
„Wer hätte gedacht, dass eine rote Rose so schön singen kann?” 
Vielen Dank, Jürgen Otten & #Opernwelt!
Interview of Mark Adamo and vocal music by H. Leslie Adams, John Corigliano / Adamo, George Harrison, Lee Kesselman, John Lennon and Paul McCartney - featuring Theo Hoffman / Julia Bullock, Odyssey Opera / Boston Modern Orchestra Project / Anthony Roth Costanzo, Haven Trio & more - on Not Brahms and Liszt Monday (2/3/25) 4-5:30pm ET on WMBR Cambridge 88.1 FM streaming https://wmbr.org
#Cambridge #Boston #Radio #ModernClassical #VocalMusic #Opera #ArtSongs
#OTD in 1896.
La bohème premieres in Turin at the Teatro Regio (Turin), conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini.
It is based on Scènes de la vie de bohème (1851) by Henri Murger, a collection of vignettes portraying young bohemians living in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1840s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_boh%C3%A8me
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scenes_of_Bohemian_Life
Scènes de la vie de Bohème at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/18446
Pjazza Teatru Rjal in Valletta, Malta
Valletta’s outdoor theatre stands within the ruins of a 19th-century opera house.#performances #ruins #opera #theaters #section-Atlas
Pjazza Teatru Rjal
Atlas Obscura · Pjazza Teatru RjalValletta’s outdoor theatre stands within the ruins of a 19th-century opera house.
À l’opéra, «Castor et Pollux» ouvre la voie de la guerre à la paix
Le metteur en scène américain #PeterSellars relooke #JeanPhilippeRameau, qui avait lui-même dépoussiéré la mythologie. Il en résulte un «Castor et Pollux» ultracontemporain aux accents universels. À se demander si l’#opéra ne mènerait pas le monde.
TEASING !
Depuis des années, je mijote un récit cosmique. Le 17 avril, il verra le jour chez @LaVolte
More soon…
#booklaunch #space #naturewriting #evolution #speculativeEvolution #speculativefiction #SFF #poetry #astronomy #astronomie #solarsystem #opera