THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte after a play by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais Premiere

First performed on May 1, 1786, at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. Cast of Characters Count Almaviva................................................................................................................................Baritone Countess Almaviva...........................................................................................................................Soprano Susanna, maid to the Countess..........................................................................................................Soprano Figaro, valet to the Count........................................................................................................................Bass Cherubino, the Counts page...................................................................................................Mezzo-Soprano Bartolo, a doctor from Seville...................................................................................................................Bass Marcellina, housekeeper to Bartolo....................................................................................................Soprano Don Basilio, the music master...............................................................................................................Tenor Don Curzio, a magistrate.......................................................................................................................Tenor Antonio, the gardener, Susannas uncle...................................................................................................Bass Barbarina, daughter of Antonio..........................................................................................................Soprano Brief Summary Setting: The Almavivas country house near Seville during the late 18th century Figaro, the valet to Count Almaviva, and Susanna, the maid to the Countess, are about to be married. Susanna tells Figaro that the Count is turning a philandering eye toward her. Figaro is determined to use his wits to prevent the Count from compromising his wife-to-be. He shares his plan with Susanna and the Countess, who is equally distressed by her husbands behavior. They all agree that the Count needs a good lesson. The Countesss former guardian, Dr. Bartolo, arrives with Marcellina, his old housekeeper. She and Bartolo want to enforce a loan agreement that will require Figaro to marry Marcellina if he does not repay money he owes her. The Counts page, Cherubino, further complicates matters with his lovesick behavior toward the females of the household, and the Countess in particular. He is trying to avoid the Count because he has been caught dallying with the gardeners daughter, Barbarina. Figaro manages to escape marriage to Marcellina by explaining that he cannot get his parents consent to marry because was kidnapped as a baby. When questioned closely about his parentage, the subsequent explanations and clues reveal that he is actually the son of Marcellina and Dr. Bartolo. The various plots ebb and flow until they reach a climax that evening in the garden. Susanna and the Countess have switched clothes, impersonating each other, in hopes of catching the Count red-handed. Everyone ends up in the garden, confused and blundering in the dark. Only the Countess and Susanna, and eventually Figaro actually know what is actually transpiring. When all identities are revealed, the Count is humbled and asks for his wifes forgiveness. She lovingly forgives him. Peace and harmony is restored in the Almaviva household. Full Plot Synopsis and Musical Highlights Act I Figaro, the valet to Count Almaviva, and Susanna, the Countess personal maid, are together in the room they will share after their marriage, which is planned for later in the day. In a little duet, Cinque, dieci, venti (Five, ten, twenty) the couple talks past one another as they are intent on their tasks - Susanna is trying on her wedding bonnet and Figaro is measuring the room to locate the bed. A second duet, Se a casa madama la notte ti chiama,(If perchance Madame should call you at night) reveals that Figaro is pleased that the room is between the apartments of the Count and the Countess so that it will be convenient if their services are required during the night. In the duet Susanna responds as she is leaving, saying that their bedroom might be too conveniently located for the Count if Figaro is away and she is there alone! In a short aria, Se vuol ballare signor Contino, (If you wish to dance Mr. Little Count) Figaro muses somewhat tartly that if this is the case he will have to find a way to outwit the Count and his roving eye. After Figaro leaves, Dr. Bartolo and his old housekeeper, Marcellina, arrive. Marcellina shows the doctor a document that requires Figaro to marry her if he does not repay a sum of money he borrowed. Dr. Bartolo promises to help to help her attain Figaro as a husband because he wants revenge for Figaros part in engineering the

marriage of his ward, Rosina, to the Count. He expresses his feelings in the aria, La vendetta, oh, la vendetta, (Revenge, oh, sweet revenge). Susanna returns and is joined by the Counts page, Cherubino. He is flustered because he has been caught by the Count with Barbarina, the gardeners daughter, and has been dismissed. He explains in a short aria, Non so piu cosa son, (I no longer know what I am) that he seems to be girl crazy and cant explain his actions. He hopes the Countess will intercede on his behalf. Cherubino then snatches one of the Countess ribbons from Susanna and in exchange gives her a love song he has written. The Counts voice is heard outside the door and Cherubino quickly hides behind an armchair. The Count enters, sits in the armchair and tells Susanna of his great affection for her. As he is speaking, the music master Don Basilios voice is heard outside the door. The Count jumps up and hides behind the armchair just as Cherubino quickly jumps into the chair and is covered with a dress by Susanna. Don Basilio enters asking for the Count and also looking for Cherubino. He gossips that Cherubino is in love with the Countess. Upon hearing his wifes name mentioned in such a context, the Count leaps up in consternation. Basilio immediately retreats, making excuses, and Susanna nearly faints. The Count then relates the story of how he discovered Cherubino with Barbarina and in doing so uncovers the page hiding in the armchair. The Count is furious, but is instantly aware that Cherubino has overheard his overtures to Susanna. Figaro arrives with a group of peasants who thank the Count in a choral piece for relinquishing the droit de seigneur, the feudal right of the lord of the manor to take precedence over husbands on their wedding nights. Figaro asks the Count if he is ready to perform their marriage and places a white veil, the symbol of purity, on Susannas head. All applaud the Counts virtue as he acts most agreeable, but it is clear to Figaro that he is playing for time. After the peasants leave, the Count forgives Cherubino (in exchange for his silence) and sends him off immediately for military duty in Seville. Figaro asks Cherubino to see him before he leaves and then sings the aria, Non piu andrai, (No more will you, amorous butterfly). The aria ends with an extended military march which sends Cherubino off to battle as all bid him a fond farewell. Act II The music indicates a quiet, introspective atmosphere. The Countess Almaviva is sitting in her boudoir. The violins begin the beautiful melody that introduces her aria, Porgi amor, (Grant, love) in which she laments the loss of her husbands affection. Susanna enters and the two women begin discussing the Counts behavior. Figaro joins them and together they hatch a plan to curb the Counts passions. Figaro suggests that the Count receive an anonymous letter informing him of a planned rendezvous between the Countess and her lover. This should make the Count jealous and distract him. In addition, Figaro has persuaded Cherubino to delay his departure so that he can participate in another ruse. In this second ploy Figaro proposes that Susanna agree to meet the Count in the gardens after dark, but that in her place will be Cherubino wearing a dress. The Countess will then discover the pair and the humbled Count will be chastened into better behavior. All agree and Figaro leaves to find Cherubino. Presently the page arrives, having been informed by Figaro of the planned ruse, and sings the love song he has composed, Voi che sapete che cosa e amor, (You who know what love is). Afterwards he begins to try on womens clothes. Susanna departs the room for a moment leaving Cherubino alone with the Countess. He wants to use this opportunity to declare his love for the Countess, but before he can do so the Count arrives and demands entry. Cherubino locks himself in the dressing room and the Countess lets her husband in. After a loud noise comes from the closed dressing room, the Count, who has already received Figaros anonymous note, refuses to believe that Susanna made the noise. Susanna has secretly reentered the room and hidden behind a screen. Meanwhile the Count is demanding entrance into the dressing room. When he cannot gain entry he locks all the doors to the room and, taking the Countess with him, leaves to get tools to force the door open. After they leave, Susanna comes out from her hiding place and calls to Cherubino. The page leaves the dressing room and jumps out the window, leaving Susanna to lock herself in the dressing room. As the Count and his wife return, the Countess decides to confess that Cherubino is in the dressing room but that it is only a harmless little prank. The Count, who does not see the joke, is unrelenting in his fury and makes accusations at his wife. When the dressing room door opens it is Susanna who walks out. The startled Count is instantly contrite and begs forgiveness for his hasty words. Figaro arrives to say that all is in readiness for the marriage ceremony. The Count first questions him intently about a certain letter he received anonymously. Figaro is denying all knowledge of it when Antonio, the gardener, arrives, complaining that someone who looked like Cherubino had jumped out of the dressing room window and trampled his flowerbed. Figaro quickly states that it was he who jumped out the window trying to avoid the Count. The disbelieving Count is still questioning Figaro when Marcellina arrives with Dr. Bartolo and Don Basilio. She pleads her case with the Count and shows her document with a flourish. The Count promises her a quick resolution, which causes half the group to rejoice while the other half despairs. This ensemble finale to Act II is one of the most extended numbers in the opera. It begins as an angry duet between the Count and the Countess, Esci omai, garzon malnato, (If youre coming out, low born rat), and becomes a trio, a quartet, and eventually, all the way to septet as all the principals are added. It is organized into three distinct movements and is considered a perfect example of the marriage of music

and drama in opera. Act III The Countess urges Susanna to carry out their plan for a rendezvous with the Count later that night. The Countess, however, decides that she will be the one disguised in Susannas clothes, not Cherubino. She wishes to catch her husband in the act of infidelity. The plan is put into motion. Susanna meets the Count and in a duet, Crudel! perche finora, (Heartless! Why now?) sets the time of their meeting. The delighted Count reaches an understanding with Susanna that after their meeting he will give her the money for Figaro to pay his debt to Marcellina. As Susanna dashes off she meets Figaro and tells him she has won his case for him. Overhearing this remark, the Count angrily sings the recitative, Hai gia vinta la causa! (Their case is won!) and aria, Vedro, mentrio sospiro, (Shall I live to see) and decides to force Figaro to marry old Marcellina, despite the promise he has just made. He rails bitterly that his servants are happy while he is frustrated. Of the fourteen solo arias in the opera, only four of them are preceded by accompanied recitative. This aria is the first of them At this moment Marcellina, Dr. Bartolo and a judge, Don Curzio, enter, dragging Figaro with them. Curzio states that according to the law Figaro must either marry the old housekeeper or pay her the money he owes. Figaro protests, declaring that he is of noble birth and cannot marry without the consent of his parents. When pressed to identify his family, Figaro relates that as a baby he was lost or kidnapped, but the richness of his infant clothes and his unusual birthmark clearly indicated that he was of high birth. Immediately upon his mention of the birthmark, Marcellina questions him closely and then exclaims that he is her long lost son, kidnapped by robbers. In addition, his father is Bartolo! The group embarks on a sextet, Riconosci in questo amplesso, (Recognize in this embrace). At that moment Susanna arrives, carrying a bag of gold, intending to pay off Marcellina. Seeing the old spinster embracing her beloved Figaro, she jumps to the wrong conclusion. While Susanna rages at Figaro, the Count seethes in frustration and Figaro embraces his newly found parents. Finally, the misunderstanding is cleared up and a double wedding ceremony is planned. Barbarina, the gardeners daughter, comes in with Cherubino in tow. The page is petrified that the Count will discover him in the castle. As they depart Barbarina tells him not to worry. She will dress him in womens clothing and he can hide among a group of peasant girls who will be presenting the Countess with a bouquet. The Countess appears, and feeling unsettled and agitated by the deception she is planning, sings the accompanied recitative, E Susanna non vien, (Still Susanna has not come). Thinking tenderly of the past when her husband loved her very dearly she continues with the aria, Dove sono i bei momenti, (Where are the golden moments) as she ponders the sad state of her cold, miserable marriage. Departing, she resolves to change her husbands ungrateful heart. The Count returns, deep in conversation with Antonio, the gardener. Antonio informs his master that Cherubino is still on the premises being disguised as a girl. In a temper the Count decides to investigate further and the two storm off just as the Countess returns with Susanna. In the duet, Che soave zeffiretto, (What a gentle zephyr) they put the finishing touches on their plan by writing a letter to the Count confirming the arrangements for that evenings rendezvous. The letter is fastened with a pin which the Count is instructed to return to Susanna as confirmation that he will keep the appointment. A group of peasant girls, including the disguised Cherubino, arrives with their token of affection for the Countess. As they present her with the flowers, Antonio rushes in with the Count and the two unmask the hapless page. Just as his lordship is about to banish Cherubino forever, Barbarina asks for the favor the Count promised her during an episode of indiscretion. She wishes to marry Cherubino. Embarrassed by this revelation, the Count readily agrees. Finally, the much-anticipated marriage of Figaro and Susanna is to take place. Marcellina and Bartolo, now that their long lost son has been discovered will also marry. During the double ceremony Susanna slips the letter to the Count who pricks his finger on the pin. Figaro notices this and comments on it. The deceptive actions are artfully woven into the dances that accompany the celebration. The wedding ceremony concluded, the Count bids all to enjoy the festivities and rejoice. Act IV Barbarina is searching for a pin that she has dropped. It is the pin that sealed Susannas letter to the Count. He has asked Barbarina to return it to Susanna. Figaro, walking with his newly found mother, sees Barbarinas distress and inquires. When she explains, he realizes that the note passed to the Count during the wedding ceremony was from his new wife Susanna. Figaro gives Barbarina a pin borrowed from Marcellina and rushes off to avenge the wrong he believes the Count and Susanna are committing. Left alone, Marcellina decides to warn Susanna of Figaros actions because she is sure Susanna is innocent of any wrongdoing. And besides, women should stick together! Barbarina briefly reappears on her way to meet Cherubino and slips into an arbor. Figaro returns, meeting Bartolo and Basilio, whom he has called to witness Susannas infidelity. Telling the two older men

to hide until needed, the disenchanted valet begins a bitter monologue on the sad fate of all husbands in the accompanied recitative, Tutto e disposto, (Everything is ready). He continues with the aria, Aprite un poquegli occhi, (Open your eyes for a moment) which is a brilliant character study of Figaros unhappy state. Concluding that women have hearts of stone Figaro returns to his hiding place. Susanna and the Countess sneak into the garden, dressed in each others clothes and accompanied by Marcellina. She warns the two women that Figaro might be hiding nearby. Seeing her husband in the shadows Susanna enjoys teasing him a little by making him believe she is waiting for her lover in the recitative and aria, Deh vieni non tardar, (Come now, do not delay). The Countess goes to her appointed place in the garden where she will wait. All eleven principals are involved in the great finale to the opera, which begins with Cherubinos words, Pian pianin le andro piu presso, (Softly now Ill come closer to you). He is on his way to meet Barbarina when he sees the Countess in disguise and, believing her to be Susanna, tries to steal a kiss. As the page approaches her, the Count appears and Cherubino rushes off, terrified. Figaro moves in closer to see what is going on while the Count begins to woo the woman he and Figaro believe is Susanna. The amorous lord gives her a ring and persuades her to follow him deeper into the shadows. As Figaro starts to interfere, the real Susanna, dressed as the Countess, comes forward to stop him. Though she tries to imitate her mistress, Figaro recognizes her. Realizing the deception the two women have planned, Figaro teases his wife until she reveals her true identity. As they kiss, Figaro and Susanna hear the Count still pursuing Susanna not realizing it is his own wife. The newlyweds decide to practice a final bit of trickery. When the Count approaches they embrace ardently. The Count thinks he is seeing his wife being unfaithful and calls for witnesses. Bartolo. Basilio, Don Cuzio and Antonio come running. Cherubino, Marcellina and Barbarina are pulled from their hiding places. Figaro pretends he is terrified while the Count denounces his wife. Susanna hides her face and asks for forgiveness. The others echo her plea but the Count refuses. The real Countess regally comes forward and, removing her disguise, asks if her intervention might obtain a pardon. The onlookers are amazed but the Count is mortified and realizes he has been caught red-handed. All the tangled plots have now been unraveled and it is time for reconciliation. With a melody of pure beauty the Count begs his wifes pardon, which she grants. The assembled company picks up the melody in a choral benediction that provides the soothing balm of forgiveness and love. Historical and Literary Background During the 1780s the French playwright Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais wrote three plays about a charming rascal named Figaro, an intelligent and enterprising barber who constantly outwitted his aristocratic employers. When Beaumarchais wrote this witty series of plays, the beginnings of revolution were stirring in France. The rigid class system was a focus of discontent. Though set in Spain rather than France, Beaumarchais' plays about Figaro were frowned upon by government censors because their hero was a somewhat rebellious servant who was far cleverer than his noble master. The Marriage of Figaro underwent censorship six times before Beaumarchais could have it performed publicly. King Louis XVI remarked that it was "detestable and unplayable," but artists and intellectuals could see its wit and charm. Another controversial factor was Beaumarchais' portrayal of women as the mental and moral superiors of men. The lovely and intelligent Countess in The Marriage of Figaro eventually outsmarts her husband, who is a philandering scoundrel. Beaumarchais is best known for his plays about Figaro, but he had additional accomplishments in his life that make him as amazing and varied a character as any of those in his plays. He was an excellent musician, a watch-maker, a secret agent for the French government, an architect, an inventor, and an arms dealer, among other professions. He was the harp instructor to the daughters of King Louis XV and maintained a private fleet that helped supply the American rebels in the War of Independence. Beaumarchais was not unlike his famous creation, Figaro, and it is felt that he drew upon his own experiences to produce this wonderful character. Beaumarchais' Marriage of Figaro is remembered today as an important milestone in the run-up to the French Revolution. It is the opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his brilliant librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte, that has enshrined THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO as the masterpiece even more exciting, humorous, and true to life than Beaumarchais original play. Stage director David Farrar once remarked that FIGARO is sometimes likened to Dantes Divine Comedy, revealing the highest and lowest elements of human behavior, its characters emerging from adversity and deception variously wiser and enlightened. Mozart met the adventurous Da Ponte at the Viennese court where he became a successful writer of poems and opera librettos for a variety of composers, including Mozart. When collaborating with Mozart on FIGARO, Da Ponte wisely toned down the political passages of the play and, instead, focused on the human elements of the story. The main theme of the opera became love and forgiveness, rather than revolution. The characters became more sympathetic and realistic; some of the aristocrats turned out to be charming and kind, others bumbling and stupid. The same was true of the servants. To complement Da Pontes words, Mozart wrote music that characterized Figaro and his friends to perfection. For example, the Countess sings two arias that not only express her inner thoughts, but, because of their formal structure and musical style, give her an importance that she lacks in the play. At its premiere in 1786, THE MARRIAGE
OF

FIGARO was highly successful. Unfortunately, the Austrian

emperor was ill at ease with the story's liberal overtones. Rival composers encouraged criticism of the work. There were a total of nine performances in Vienna. Its performance in Prague proved to be more pivotal, leading to the commission of Don Giovanni. The truly great success of Mozart's THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO did not begin until long after the composer's death when his work became more fully appreciated. Today, FIGARO is considered by many to be the most perfect of Mozarts operas. The fineness of his musical characterizations and the ingenuity of the ensembles confirm his talent as a musical dramatist. He is considered one of the world's greatest musical geniuses not just because of his operas but because was the master of all musical forms including opera, symphony, concerto, chamber music, solo vocal and instrumental music and choral works, creating some of the most glorious music known to man. Though he lived barely thirty-six years and his adult life was filled with frustration and poverty, he left the world a legacy that still astounds, excites and fulfills the senses.

DON GIOVANNI:
Synopsis Don Giovanni

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

ACT I. Spain, 1600s. At night, outside the Commendatore's palace, Leporello grumbles about his duties as servant to Don Giovanni, a dissolute nobleman. Soon the masked Don appears, pursued by Donna Anna, the Commendatore's daughter, whom he has tried to seduce. When the Commendatore himself answers Anna's cries, he is killed in a duel by Giovanni, who escapes. Anna now returns with her fianc, Don Ottavio. Finding her father dead, she makes Ottavio swear vengeance on the assassin. At dawn, Giovanni flirts with a high-strung traveler outside a tavern. She turns out to be Donna Elvira, a woman he once seduced in Burgos, who is on his trail. Giovanni escapes while Leporello distracts Elvira by reciting his master's long catalog of conquests. Peasants arrive, celebrating the nuptials of their friends Zerlina and Masetto; when Giovanni joins in, he pursues the bride, angering the groom, who is removed by Leporello. Alone with Zerlina, the Don applies his charm, but Elvira interrupts and protectively whisks the girl away. When Elvira returns to denounce him as a seducer, Giovanni is stymied further while greeting Anna, now in mourning, and Ottavio. Declaring Elvira mad, he leads her off. Anna, having recognized his voice, realizes Giovanni was her attacker. Dressing for the wedding feast he has planned for the peasants, Giovanni exuberantly downs champagne. Outside the palace, Zerlina begs Masetto to forgive her apparent infidelity. Masetto hides when the Don appears, emerging from the shadows as Giovanni corners Zerlina. The three enter the palace together. Elvira, Anna and Ottavio arrive in dominoes and masks and are invited to the feast by Leporello. During the festivities, Leporello entices Masetto into the dance as Giovanni draws Zerlina out of the room. When the girl's cries for help put him on the spot, Giovanni tries to blame Leporello. But no one is convinced; Elvira, Anna and Ottavio unmask and confront Giovanni, who barely escapes Ottavio's drawn sword. ACT II. Under Elvira's balcony, Leporello exchanges cloaks with Giovanni to woo the lady in his master's stead. Leporello leads Elvira off, leaving the Don free to serenade Elvira's maid. When Masetto passes with a band of armed peasants bent on punishing Giovanni, the disguised rake gives them false directions, then beats up Masetto. Zerlina arrives and tenderly consoles her betrothed. In a passageway, Elvira and Leporello are surprised by Anna, Ottavio, Zerlina and Masetto, who, mistaking servant for master, threaten Leporello. Frightened, he unmasks and escapes. When Anna departs, Ottavio affirms his confidence in their love. Elvira, frustrated at her second betrayal by the Don, voices her rage. Leporello catches up with his master in a cemetery, where a voice warns Giovanni of his doom. This is the statue of the Commendatore, which the Don proposes Leporello invite to dinner. When the servant reluctantly stammers an invitation, the statue accepts. In her home, Anna, still in mourning, puts off Ottavio's offer of marriage until her father is avenged. Leporello is serving Giovanni's dinner when Elvira rushes in, begging the Don, whom she still loves, to

reform. But he waves her out contemptuously. At the door, her screams announce the Commendatore's statue. Giovanni boldly refuses warnings to repent, even in the face of death. Flames engulf his house, and the sinner is dragged to hell. Among the castle ruins, the others plan their future and recite the moral: such is the fate of a wrongdoer. by John W. Freeman -- courtesy of Opera News

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Born: Salzburg, January 27, 1756 Died: Vienna, December 5, 1791 At the age of four he could learn a piece of music in half an hour. At five he was playing the clavier incredibly well. At six he began composing, writing his first symphonies at the age of eight. He was constantly traveling all over Europe with his father, Leopold Mozart (1719-1787), a violinist, minor composer and Vice-Kapellmeister at the court of the Archbishop of Salzburg. The musical feats and tricks of young Wolfgang were exhibited to the courts (beginning in Munich in 1762), to musical academicians, and to the public. Between the ages of seven and fifteen, the young Mozart spent half of his time on tour. During these tours, Mozart heard, absorbed, and learned various European musical idioms, eventually crystallizing his own mature style. Fully expecting to find an ideal post outside his sleepy home town of Salzburg and the detested archiepiscopal court, in 1777 Wolfgang went on a tour with his mother to Munich, Mannheim, and Paris. It was in Paris that his mother died suddenly in July, 1778. With no prospects of a job, Mozart dejectedly returned to Salzburg in 1779 and became court organist to the Archbishop. Mozart finally achieved an unceremonious dismissal from the archiepiscopal court in 1781, and thereafter became one of the first musicians in history to embark upon a free-lance career, without benefit of church, court, or a rich patron. Mozart moved to Vienna where he lived for a time with the Webers, a family he had met in 1777. He eventually married Constanze Weber in August of1782, against the wishes and strict orders of his father. Then for a time, things began to look bright for the young composer. Beginning in 1782 with the Singspiel Die Entfhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio), Mozart began turning out one masterpiece after another in every form and genre.

Mozart is probably the only composer in history to have written undisputed masterworks in virtually every musical genre of his age. His serenades, divertimenti and dances, written on request for the entertainment and outdoor parties of the nobility, have become synonomous with the Classical "age of elegance," and are perhaps best exemplified by the well-known Serenade in G major, which the composer called Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A little night music). In Vienna, Mozart became a regular at the court of Emperor Joseph II (1741-1790), where he wrote much of his greatest music. A sampling of Mozart's mature works comprise a virtual honor roll of musical masterpieces: the last ten string quartets, the string quintets, and the Quintet for clarinet and strings; the Mass in C minor and the unfinished Requiem; the Serenade for thirteen wind instruments, the Clarinet concerto, the late piano concertos, and the last six symphonies. Mozart's more than twenty piano concertos remain models of the classic concerto form, developed by him over time into works of symphonic breadth and scope. The concertos often begin with an elaborate sonata form first movement, followed by a tender and melodious second movement, and usually conclude with a brisk, engaging rondo, as in the Piano Concerto no. 22 in E-flat. In his last three symphonies, the second of which is the great Symphony no. 40 in G minor, Mozart infused this form with a passion and expressiveness unheard of in symphonic writing until the advent of Beethoven.

Of Mozart's operas, Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), composed for the Viennese court in 1786, is the earliest opera still found in the repertoire of virtually all of today's opera houses. Through his dramatic and musical genius, Mozart transformed such operatic comedies and characters into living, breathing dramas peopled with real human beings. He found a kindred spirit in this regard at the Viennese court in the person of Lorenzo da Ponte (1749-1838), who supplied Mozart with the librettos of his three Italian operatic masterpieces. Figaro was followed in 1787 by Don Giovanni (Don Juan), written for Prague, where Figaro had been an overwhelming success. The intensity of Mozart's music in the penultimate scene of Don Giovanni, in which the title character is dragged down to hell, unrepentant, at the hands of an avenging spirit, might even be said to have helped usher in the Romantic era. Having scaled the heights of Italian opera buffa, Mozart turned again to the German Singspiel in the final year of his life. Again he produced yet another masterpiece, this time with the unconventional combination of low comedy and high ideals. Die Zauberflte (The Magic Flute) tells of a young prince who successfully endures the trials put to him by a fraternal priesthood in a search for truth and love, while the everyman character of Papageno in his song Der Vogelfnger bin ich, ja yearns for the earthly pleasures of wine, food, and

female companionship. During his years in Vienna, Mozart also made the acquaintance of composer Franz Joseph Haydn. The two became close friends and the older composer's music had a profound influence on Mozart. Between 1782 and 1785, Mozart composed a series of six string quartets which he dedicated to Haydn. Upon playing through some of them together, Haydn said to Mozart's father, who was present, "Before God and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer I know, either personally or by name." Yet through his mismanagement of money (and as a successful composer of operas and a reknowned piano virtuoso, he made a great deal), and the documented incidences of his tactless, impulsive, and at times childish behavior in an era of powdered wigs and courtly manners, Mozart seemed to find it difficult to make a successful living. By 1790 he was writing letters to friends, describing himself and his family (he and Constanze had six children, only two of which survived) in desperate circumstances and begging for money. He was also by this time seriously ill, and had been intermittently for some time, with what was most likely disease of the kidneys. With the success of The Magic Flute and a newly granted yearly stipend, Mozart was just beginning to become financially stable when his illness brought an end to his life and career at the age of thirty-six. He was buried, like most Viennese in those days by the decree of Emperor Joseph, in a common grave, the exact location of which remains unknown. The influence of Mozart on the composers that followed cannot be emphasized too strongly. He was idolized by such late nineteenth century composers as Richard Wagner and Peter Tchaikovsky; and his music came to influence the neoclassical compositions of Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev in the twentieth century.

CARMEN:
Composer: Georges Bizet
ACT I. Corporal Morals and the soldiers while away the time watching the passers-by, among whom is Micala, a peasant girl from Navarre. She asks Morals if he knows Don Jos, and is told that he is a corporal in another platoon expected shortly to relieve the present guard. Avoiding their invitation to step inside the guardroom, Micala escapes. A trumpet call heralds the approach not only of the relief guard but also of a gang of street urchins imitating their drill. As the guards are changed, Morals tells Jos that a girl is looking for him. Zuniga, the lieutenant in command of the new guard, questions Corporal Jos about the tobacco factory. A stranger in Seville, Zuniga is apprehensive of the dangerous atmosphere of the locale. The factory bell rings and the men of Seville gather round the female workers as they return after their lunch break. The gypsy Carmen is awaited with anticipation. When the men gather round her, she tells them love obeys no known laws (Habaera: "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle"). Only one man pays no attention to her - Don Jos. Carmen throws a flower at him. The women go back into the factory and the crowd disperses. Micala returns, bringing news of Jos's mother. She has sent Micala, who lives with her, to give him a letter ("Parle-moi de ma mre"). Jos feels that his mother is protecting him from afar. When he starts to read her letter, Micala runs off in embarrassment since it suggests that he marry her. At the moment that he decides to obey, a fight is heard from within the factory. The girls stream out with sharply conflicting accounts of what has occurred, but it is certain that Carmen and one of her fellow workers quarreled and that the other girl was wounded. Carmen, led out by Jos, refuses to answer any of Zuniga's questions. Jos is ordered to tie her up and take her to prison. Carmen entices him to go dancing at Lillas Pastia's tavern outside the walls of Seville (Sguedille: "Prs des remparts de Sville"). Mesmerized, Jos agrees to help her escape. He unties the rope and, as they leave for prison, Carmen slips away. Don Jos is arrested. ACT II. Carmen and her friends Frasquita and Mercds entertain Zuniga and other officers ("Les tringles des sistres tintaient"). Zuniga tells Carmen that Jos has been released this very day. A torchlight procession in honor of the bullfighter Escamillo is heard, and the officers invite him in. He describes the excitements of his profession, in particular the amorous rewards that follow a successful bullfight (Toreador's Song: "Votre toast"). Escamillo then propositions Carmen, but she replies that she is engaged for the moment. He says he will wait. Carmen refuses to leave with Zuniga, who threatens to return later. When the company has departed, the smugglers Dancare and Remendado enter. They have business in hand for which their regular female accomplices are essential ("Nous avons en tte une affaire"). Frasquita and Mercds are game, but Carmen refuses to leave Seville: she is in love. Her friends are incredulous. Jos's song is heard in the distance. ("Dragon d'Alcala"). The smugglers withdraw. Carmen tells Jos that she has been dancing for his officers. When he reacts jealously, she agrees to entertain him alone (Finale: "Je vais danser en votre honneur"). Bugles are heard sounding the retreat. Jos says that he must return to barracks. Stupefied, Carmen mocks him, but he answers by producing the flower she threw and telling her

how its faded scent sustained his love during the long weeks in prison (Flower Song: "La fleur que tu m'avais jete"). But she replies that he doesn't love her; if he did he would desert and join her in a life of freedom in the mountains. When, torn with doubts, he finally refuses, she dismisses him contemptuously. As he leaves, Zuniga bursts in. In jealous rage Jos attacks him. The smugglers return, separate them, and put Zuniga under temporary constraint ("Bel officier"). Jos now has no choice but to desert and join the smugglers. ACT III. The gang enters with contraband and pauses for a brief rest while Dancare and Remendado go on a reconnaissance mission. Carmen and Jos quarrel, and Jos gazes regretfully down to the valley where his mother is living. Carmen advises him to join her. The women turn the cards to tell their fortunes: Frasquita and Mercds foresee rich and gallant lovers, but Carmen's cards spell death, for her and for Jos. She accepts the prophecy (Card Song: "En vain pour viter les rponses amres"). Remendado and Dancare return announcing that customs officers are guarding the pass: Carmen, Frasquita, and Mercds know how to deal with them ("Quant au douanier"). All depart. Micala appears, led by a mountaineer. She says that she fears nothing so much as meeting the woman who has turned the man she once loved into a criminal ("Je dis que rien ne m'pouvante"). But she hurries away in fear when a shot rings out. It is Jos firing at an intruder, who turns out to be Escamillo, transporting bulls to Seville ("Je suis Escamillo"). When he refers to the soldier whom Carmen once loved, Jos reveals himself and they fight. Carmen and the smugglers return and separate them. Escamillo invites everyone, especially Carmen, to be his guests at the next bullfight in Seville. Jos is at the end of his tether. Micala is discovered, and she begs Jos to go with her to his mother but he furiously refuses ("Dt-il m'en couter la vie"). Micala then reveals that his mother is dying. Jos promises Carmen that they will meet again. As Jos and Micala leave, Escamillo is heard singing in the distance. ACT IV Among the excited crowd cheering the bullfighters are Frasquita and Mercds. Carmen enters on Escamillo's arm ("Si tu m'aimes"). Frasquita and Mercds warn Carmen that Jos has been seen in the crowd. She says that she is not afraid. Jos enters. He implores her to forget the past and start a new life with him. She tells him calmly that everything between them is over. She will never give in: she was born free and free she will die. While the crowd is heard cheering Escamillo, Jos tries to prevent Carmen from joining her new lover. Carmen finally loses her temper, takes from her finger the ring that Jos once gave her, and throws it at his feet. Jos stabs her, and then confesses to the murder of the woman he loved.

GEORGE BIZET:
Geores Bizet is best known for his operatic masterpiece, Carmen. Not so well known is the fact that he died from a heart attack only a few months after its first performance at the age of 36. Death at such a young age immediately reminds us of Mozart, Mendelssohn and Schubert. His life parallels these composers also in the sense that he was yet another musical prodigy whose ability, encouraged by his musical parents, was exceptional. Despite being against the rules, he was admitted into the Paris Conservatory at the phenomenal age of 9! He was born in Paris and originally registered under the name Alexandre Csar Lopold Bizet, but then baptised as Georges by which name he was always to be known. With the exception of a few years in Rome, he stayed in or near Paris for most of his life. At the Conservatory he studied under many great musicians including professor Jacques Halvy. The Halvy family were to have quite an impact on Bizet's life, not least the fact that he was later to marry the professor's daughter Genevive and father a son Jaques, perhaps named after his grandfather. Continuing his precocious youth, he composed his first Symphony (in C) at age 17 (modelled closely on Gounod's Symphony No. 1 in D). Then in 1857 having previously won several prizes at the Conservatoire, he won the prestigious Prix de Rome. The comtemporary French composers of the day which influenced Bizet to varying degrees included Charles Gounod, Lo Delibes, Camille Saint-Sans, Jules Massenet and the German born Jacques Offenbach. All of these were opera composers to some extent though often light or comic opera. In comparison, Bizet's operas and particularly Carmen tended to stand out as highly dramatic and dealing in deeper emotions. Though not straying too far from French traditions, he perhaps adopted some of the styles of Italian and German opera from Verdi and Wagner respectively. While he did make use of the newly invented Saxophone, he wasn't particularly known as a trend-setter. He seemed to change direction several times, dropping ideas that he had started, and seemingly insecure and sensitive to criticism. Although perhaps expected of artists, the public probably thought of him as something of a Bohemian outsider. Musically, he seemed to have a natural gift for melody and a certain artistic confidence seems to flow from his music. When the Franco-Prussian war broke out in 1870, although exempt from national service as a Priz de Rome winner, Bizet nevertheless enlisted in the National Guard. Although many of his coutrymen and fellow musicians were highly nationlistic in their approach to the war, Bizet was far more down-to-earth in his understanding of the real horrors of war. Again we see a realism in his outlook on life which also manifested itself in his operatic story-telling. Above all Bizet aspired to be a composer of Opera, though his numerous (about 30 in total) works for that medium weren't universally successful. He also wrote various Orchestral works, keyboard pieces and songs. The following are his best known or most respected compositions:

Opera - The Pearl Fishers, set in exotic Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), with a famous duet for male voices

Opera - The Fair Maid of Perth Opera - Djamileh Opera - Carmen, in 4 acts, the most famous which we describe in more detail below. Orchestral suites from this opera are sometimes performed as stand-alone works in the concert hall. Symphony in C - composed at age 17, this was not performed until 1935 Rome Suite - orchestral suite intended as a Symphony L'Arlsienne - (the girl from Arles, in Provence) this was originally composed for a limited group of instruments as incidental music to a play by Daudet, but later fashioned into 2 orchestral suites (including the well-known Farandole), the first suite by Bizet himself and the second after his death by a friend Ernest Guiraud Chromatic Variations - for piano Jeux d'Enfants (Children's Games) - for piano duet, but also sometimes heard in orchestral arrangements, "Trumpet and Drum" for example is simply begging to be arranged for Trumpet and Drum Jeux d'Enfants for piano duet is a delightful set of 12 pieces, each based on a different game (many still familiar today), including "The Swing", "The Top", "The Doll", "Wooden Horses", "Battledore and Shuttlecock", "Trumpet and Drum", "Soap Bubbles", "Puss in the Corner", "Blind Man's Bluff", "Leap Frog", "Little Husband, Little Wife", and "The Ball". All of these are great fun to play and as a sample, in our customary Sheet Music, MIDI and MP3 formats, we include La Toupie (The Top) and La Poupe (The Doll).

MEDIUM Gian Carlo Menotti

was inspired to write and compose The Medium after attending a sance in the small town of St. Wolfgang (near Salzburg, Austria) in 1936. The composer wrote of how the powerful desire to communicate with lost loved ones inspired him: "It gradually became clear to me that my hosts, in their pathetic desire to believe, actually saw and heard their dead daughter Doodly (a name, incidentally, which I have retained in the opera). It was I, not they, who felt cheated." Menotti's one-act comic opera The Telephone, or L'Amour Trois was written as a curtain-raiser for The Medium, which was too short for most opera theaters. The Medium premiered in New York on May 8, 1946. Characters in The Medium

Madame Flora (Baba), a medium (Contralto) Monica, her daughter (Soprano) Toby, her mute assistant (Silent) Mrs. Gobineau, a client (Soprano) Mr. Gobineau, her husband (Baritone) Mrs. Nolan, a client (Mezzo-soprano)

Synopsis of The Medium The story's setting in time and nation is purposely vague due to the universal nature of its themes. All of the action takes place in Madame Flora's parlor.

Act I Madame Flora scolds Monica and Toby for fooling around instead of setting the stage for the next sance, in which they provide the "ghosts." Monica soothes her mother's temper.

Mr. and Mrs. Gobineau, regular clients of Madame Flora, enter with Mrs. Nolan, a new visitor. Toby works the lights while Monica poses as Mrs. Nolan's daughter, Doodly. But when Mrs. Nolan asks questions that Monica cannot answer, the "ghost" disappears. Monica then imitates the Gobineaus' lost child. But the session is cut short when Madame Flora feels something touch her. She hurries her clients out, despite their protests that one shouldn't be afraid of the dead. Madame Flora accuses Toby of playing tricks on her, and Monica must reassure her again, this time with a lullaby ("Oh black swan, oh where is my lover gone?"). But Madame Flora still hears voices. When Toby reports that no one is downstairs, Madame Flora prays.

Act II Several days later, Monica and Toby play together, and he dances for her. Monica goes to her room, and Madame Flora enters. She interrogates Toby, accusing him of touching her during the sance, and beats him when he denies it. When the Gobineaus and Mrs. Nolan arrive, Madame Flora confesses everything, showing them how Monica and Toby helped her fake the ghosts. Her clients, however, refuse to believe it, clinging to the notion that they can still communicate with their loved ones. Frustrated, Madame Flora chases her former clients and Toby away. Alone, Madame Flora hears the voices again, and tries to banish them by drinking whiskey and singing Monica's lullaby. She prays and then falls asleep. Toby sneaks back in, looking for something in the prop trunk. He makes a noise and wakes Madame Flora, then hides behind the curtain where the "ghosts" are made to appear. Frightened, Madame Flora takes out a revolver and shoots at the curtain. Toby falls. Madame Flora is certain that she has killed the ghost. February 2, 2007

Gian Carlo Menotti,

Opera Composer, Dies at 95 By BERNARD HOLLAND Correction Appended Gian Carlo Menotti, who wrote his first opera before he was 11 and went on to become perhaps the most popular and prolific opera composer of his time, winning two Pulitzer Prizes, died Thursday in Monaco, where he had a home. He was 95. His death, at Princess Grace Hospital, was announced by his son, Francis, whom Mr. Menotti adopted in the 1970s. Though critics often dismissed Mr. Menottis music as maudlin and unadventurous, many of them still celebrated his impressive lyric gifts, his deft touch with orchestral sound and his talent for making opera comprehensible and enjoyable for people who had previously shunned it. Of critics he once said, They often spoil my breakfast but never my lunch. His contemporaries, too, were sometimes unkind. Igor Stravinsky was dismissive of Mr. Menottis musical language. The composer Luigi Nono withdrew from a project rather than allow his music to appear on the same program as Mr. Menottis. Yet Mr. Menottis Christmas classic, Amahl and the Night Visitors, has been performed more than 2,500 times, often by amateur companies and on high school stages, since it was created for television in 1951. Mr. Menottis works, including The Medium, The Consul, The Telephone and The Saint of Bleecker Street all showed that opera could sustain itself in a Broadway theater, something that Kurt Weill and George Gershwin managed to do only sporadically. Mr. Menottis involvement with the musical theater was complete. He composed 25 operas, almost all in English. He wrote his own librettos and usually staged his own works. He also founded the Festival of Two Worlds, the long-running summer music festival that began in 1958 in Spoleto, Italy, and that he directed for some 40 years. In 1977, he helped establish an American offshoot, Spoleto Festival U.S.A., in Charleston, S.C. Among other things, the festival has given American musicians, composers and choreographers an important forum. He withdrew from the Charleston festival in 1993 after years of wrangling with its administrators and city officials. Much of his professional life was spent in the United States, and he usually spoke of himself as an American composer, despite retaining his Italian citizenship and later moving to an estate of baronial splendor near Edinburgh. In a musical age in which controversy usually centered on the avant-garde, Mr. Menotti was controversial for his conservatism. Writing of his opera The Last Savage in 1964, he said: To say of a piece that it is harsh, dry, acid and unrelenting is to praise it. While to call it sweet and graceful is to damn it. For better or for worse, in The Last Savage I have

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dared to do away completely with fashionable dissonance, and in a modest way, I have endeavored to rediscover the nobility of gracefulness and the pleasure of sweetness. Mr. Menottis operas continue the Italian lyric tradition epitomized by composers like Puccini, to whom he was often compared. Donal Henahan, of The New York Times, once wrote, He has suffered from a fear almost unknown among contemporary composers, the fear of losing touch with his audience and with the conventions of the traditional stage. Gian Carlo Menotti was born on July 7, 1911, in Cadegliano, Italy, a small town near Lake Lugano in Lombardy. He was the sixth of eight children of Alfonso and Ines Menotti, a prosperous merchant family engaged in the coffee business. His mother provided piano, violin and cello lessons for her children, and there were evening musicales in the Menotti household that left a profound impression on Gian Carlo. Mr. Menotti began writing songs when he was 5, and by 11 he had written an opera, The Death of Pierrot, which was performed as a puppet show at home. His second opera, a version of Hans Christian Andersens Little Mermaid, was composed two years later. In 1924, the family moved to Milan, where the young Mr. Menotti attended the Verdi Conservatory of Music for three years and deepened his interest in opera, often taking in performances at La Scala. He read widely fairy tales especially and his growing taste for exoticism, the supernatural and the theatrical was to influence his later work. At 17, he accompanied his mother to Colombia in her final and futile effort to resurrect the familys collapsing coffee business. On her way back to Italy, in 1928, she deposited her son at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Armed with an introductory letter from Arturo Toscaninis wife and a rudimentary command of English, Mr. Menotti began his studies with Rosario Scalero, Curtiss eminent professor of composition. Mr. Scalero found the young man a talent lacking in discipline and set him to a regime of traditional counterpoint and early-music studies. At Curtis, Mr. Menotti began perhaps the decisive partnership of his life with the American composer Samuel Barber. They lived, traveled and worked together intermittently until Mr. Barbers death in 1981. Mr. Menottis first mature opera was begun on a long sojourn in Austria with Mr. Barber after Mr. Menotti graduated from Curtis in 1933. It was called Amelia al Ballo and incorporated characters and situations that were to reappear in his work in this case, a frivolous ladys circumventions of a jealous husband. Amelia was first given a production in Philadelphia in 1937. In its English version, Amelia Goes to the Ball was successful enough at the Metropolitan Opera in New York to win Mr. Menotti a commission for NBC Radio. The work, The Old Maid and the Thief, also a one-act, dealt with a spinsters conspiracy to snare her attractive young lodger. It was first broadcast in 1939 and later reworked for the stage. Mr. Menottis first full-blown opera, The Island God, failed badly at the Met in 1942, but The Medium, written in 1946, ran for 211 performances on Broadway the next year with another piece, The Telephone. The Medium was a compendium of the Menotti style delicate orchestration, lyric writing and often a melodramatic theatricality. By 1950, he had finished The Consul, a tale of political outcasts in Europe pitted against an unresponsive bureaucracy. The Consul ran on Broadway for 269 performances and won both the Drama Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize. Mr. Menottis 1951 opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, written for NBC, was perhaps his most popular and successful stage work. Amahl was inspired by Boschs painting The Adoration of the Magi and tells of the healing of a crippled boy who offers his crutches as a gift to the infant Jesus. The Saint of Bleecker Street, produced on Broadway for the 1954-55 season, carried a theme that preoccupied Mr. Menotti: the tension between mysticism and faith on the one hand, and the cynical real world on the other. It did not make money, but critics liked it, and it earned Mr. Menotti his second Pulitzer. He almost always wrote the words for his operas, and in 1958 he served the same function for Mr. Barber. The opera was Mr. Barbers Vanessa, for which Mr. Menotti provided both libretto and stage direction. Soon afterward he wrote librettos for two other operas: Mr. Barbers Hand of Bridge and Introductions and Goodbyes by Lukas Foss. His own operas kept pouring out, including Labyrinth (1963), The Last Savage (1963), Martins Lie (1964), Help, Help, the Globolinks (1968), The Most Important Man (1971), The Hero (1976), The Egg (1976) and The Trial of the Gypsy (1978). Mr. Menotti was also active composing ballets, cantatas, orchestral tone poems, instrumental concertos, songs and chamber music. And he wrote several plays. In one, The Leper (1970), he offered a plea for tolerance toward homosexuality. Mr. Menotti lived for many years with Mr. Barber in a house known as Capricorn in Mt. Kisco, N.Y. The house was sold in 1973, and Mr. Menotti moved to Yester House, a 16th-century manor in the hills near Edinburgh. The heir presumptive to his personal and musical estate is his son, Francis, who was an aspiring actor when Mr. Menotti met him in the early 1970s. Critics often contended that Mr. Menottis activities at the Two Worlds festival in Spoleto, and his love of the celebritys life, siphoned energy that might better have been directed toward composing. He did not disagree. In 2001, he told The Times: Fate has blessed me. But if theres one thing I regret, its this accursed festival. Its robbed too much of my time from composition and from the chance to just be curious about life, art and philosophy. Suddenly theres no time left, and it makes me feel desperate. Correction: February 8, 2007 An obituary on Friday about Gian Carlo Menotti, the opera composer, referred imprecisely to the number of times his work Amahl and the Night Visitors has been performed since its creation for television in 1951. While it has indeed been performed more than 600 times, the number of performances since that time exceeds 2,500. The Classical Period

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A Short History of Opera The word opera is the plural form of the Latin word opus, which translates quite literally as work. The use of the plural form alludes to the plurality of art forms that combine to create an operatic performance. Today we accept the word opera as a reference to a theatrically based musical art form in which the drama is propelled by the sung declamation of text accompanied by a full symphony orchestra. Opera as an art form can claim its origin with the inclusion of incidental music that was performed during the tragedies and comedies popular during ancient Greek times. The tradition of including music as an integral part of theatrical activities expanded in Roman times and continued throughout the Middle Ages. Surviving examples of liturgical dramas and vernacular plays from Medieval times show the use of music as an insignificant part of the action as do the vast mystery and morality plays of the 15th and 16th centuries. Traditional view holds that the first completely sung musical drama (or opera) developed as a result of discussions held in Florence in the 1570s by an informal academy known as the Camerata which led to the musical setting of Rinuccinis drama, Dafne, by composer, Jacopo Peri in 1597. The work of such early Italian masters as Giulio Caccini and Claudio Monteverdi led to the development of a through-composed musical entertainment comprised of recitative sections (secco and accompagnato) which revealed the plot of the drama; followed by da capo arias which provided the soloist an opportunity to develop the emotions of the character. The function of the chorus in these early works mirrored that of the character of the same name found in Greek drama. The new form was greeted favorably by the public and quickly became a popular entertainment. Opera has flourished throughout the world as a vehicle for the expression of the full range of human emotions. Italians claim the art form as their own, retaining dominance in the field through the death of Giacomo Puccini in 1924. Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, and Leoncavallo developed the art form through clearly defined periods that produced opera buffa, opera seria, bel canto, and verismo. The Austrian Mozart also wrote operas in Italian and championed the singspiel (sing play), which combined the spoken word with music, a form also used by Beethoven in his only opera, Fidelio. Bizet (Carmen), Offenbach (Les Contes dHoffmann), Gounod (Faust), and Meyerbeer (Les Huguenots) led the adaptation by the French which ranged from the opera comique to the grand full-scale tragedie lyrique. German composers von Weber (Der Freischtz), Richard Strauss (Ariadne auf Naxos), and Wagner (Der Ring des Nibelungen) developed diverse forms such as singspiel to through-composed spectacles unified through the use of the leitmotif. The English ballad opera, Spanish zarzuela and Viennese operetta helped to establish opera as a form of entertainment which continues to enjoy great popularity throughout the world. With the beginning of the 20th century, composers in America diverged from European traditions in order to focus on their own roots while exploring and developing the vast body of the countrys folk music and legends. Composers such as Aaron Copland, Douglas Moore, Carlisle Floyd, Howard Hanson, and Robert Ward have all crafted operas that have been presented throughout the world to great success. Today, composers John Adams, Philip Glass, and John Corigliano enjoy success both at home and abroad and are credited with the infusion of new life into an art form which continues to evolve even as it approaches its fifth century. The Operatic Voice A true (and brief) definition of the operatic voice is a difficult proposition. Many believe the voice is born, while just as many hold to the belief that the voice is trained. The truth lies somewhere between the two. Voices that can sustain the demands required by the operatic repertoire do have many things in common. First and foremost is a strong physical technique that allows the singer to sustain long phrases through the control of both the inhalation and exhalation of breath. Secondly, the voice (regardless of its size) must maintain a resonance in both the head (mouth, sinuses) and chest cavities. The Italian word squillo (squeal) is used to describe the brilliant tone required to penetrate the full symphony orchestra that accompanies the singers. Finally, all voices are defined by both the actual voice type and the selection of repertoire for which the voice is ideally suited. Within the five major voice types (Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor, Baritone, Bass) there is a further delineation into categories (Coloratura, Lyric, Spinto, Dramatic) which help to define each particular instrument. The Coloratura is the highest within each voice type whose extended upper range is complimented by extreme flexibility. The Lyric is the most common of the types. This instrument is recognized more for the exceptional beauty of its tone rather than its power or range. The Spinto is a voice which combines the beauty

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of a lyric with the weight and power of a Dramatic, which is the most powerful of the voices. The Dramatic instrument is characterized by the combination of both incredible volume and steely intensity. While the definition presented in the preceding paragraph may seem clearly outlined, many voices combine qualities from each category, thus carving an unique niche in operatic history. Just as each person is different from the next, so is each voice. Throughout her career Maria Callas defied categorization as she performed and recorded roles associated with each category in the soprano voice type. Joan Sutherland as well can be heard in recordings of soprano roles as diverse as the coloratura Gilda in Rigoletto to the dramatic Turandot in Turandot. Below is a very brief outline of voice types and categories with roles usually associated with the individual voice type.

Coloratura

Lyric

Spinto

Dramatic

Soprano

Norina (Don Pasquale) Gilda (Rigoletto) Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor)

Liu (Turandot) Mimi (La Bohme) Pamina (Magic Flute)

Tosca (Tosca) Amelia (A Masked Ball) Leonora (Il Trovatore)

Turandot (Turandot) Norma (Norma) Elektra (Elektra)

MezzoSoprano

Rosina (Barber of Seville) Angelina (La Cenerentola) Dorabella (Cos fan tutte)

Carmen (Carmen) Charlotte (Werther) Giulietta (Hoffmann)

Santuzza (Cavalleria) Adalgisa (Norma) The Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos)

Azucena (Il Trovatore) Ulrica (A Masked Ball) Herodias (Salome)

Tenor

Count Almaviva (Barber of Seville) Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) Ferrando (Cos fan tutte)

Alfredo (La Traviata) Rodolfo (La Bohme) Tamino (Magic Flute)

Calaf (Turandot) Pollione (Norma) Cavaradossi (Tosca)

Dick Johnson (Fanciulla) Don Jose (Carmen) Otello (Otello)

Baritone

Figaro (Barber of Seville) Count Almavira (Le nozze di Figaro) Dr. Malatesta (Don Pasquale)

Marcello (La Bohme) Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni) Sharpless (Madama Butterfly)

Verdi Baritone Germont (La Traviata) Di Luna (Il Trovatore) Rigoletto (Rigoletto)

Scarpia (Tosca) Jochanaan (Salome) Jack Rance (Fanciulla)

Bass

Bartolo (Barber of Seville) Don Magnifico (Cenerentola) Dr. Dulcamara (Elixir of Love)

Leporello (Don Giovanni) Colline (La Bohme) Figaro (Marriage of Figaro)

Buffo Bass Don Pasquale (Don Pasquale) Don Alfonso (Cos fan tutte)

Basso Cantate Oroveso (Norma) Timur (Turandot) Sarastro (Magic Flute)

Opera Production Opera is created by the combination of myriad art forms. First and foremost are the actors who portray characters by revealing their thoughts and emotions through the singing voice. The next very important component is a full symphony orchestra that accompanies the singing actors and actresses, helping them to portray the full range of emotions possible in the operatic format. The orchestra performs in an area in front of the singers called the orchestra pit while the singers perform on the open area called the stage. Wigs, costumes, sets and specialized lighting further enhance these performances, all of which are designed, created, and executed by a team of highly trained artisans. The creation of an opera begins with a dramatic scenario crafted by a playwright or dramaturg who alone or with a librettist fashions the script or libretto that contains the words the artists will sing. Working in tandem, the composer and librettist team up to create a cohesive musical drama in which the music and words work together to express the emotions revealed in the story. Following the completion of their work, the composer and librettist entrust their new work to a conductor who with a team of assistants (repetiteurs) assumes responsibility for the musical preparation of the work. The conductor collaborates with a stage director (responsible for the visual component) in order to bring a performance of the new piece to life on the stage. The stage director and conductor form the creative spearhead for the new composition while assembling a design team which will take charge of the actual physical production.

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Set designers, lighting designers, costume designers, wig and makeup designers and even choreographers must all be brought on board to participate in the creation of the new production. The set designer combines the skills of both an artist and an architect using blueprint plans to design the actual physical set which will reside on the stage, recreating the physical setting required by the storyline. These blueprints are turned over to a team of carpenters who are specially trained in the art of stage carpentry. Following the actual building of the set, painters following instructions from the set designers original plans paint the set. As the set is assembled on the stage, the lighting designer works with a team of electricians to throw light onto both the stage and the set in an atmospheric as well as practical way. Using specialized lighting instruments, colored gels and a state of the art computer, the designer along with the stage director create a lighting plot by writing lighting cues which are stored in the computer and used during the actual performance of the opera. During this production period, the costume designer in consultation with the stage director has designed appropriate clothing for the singing actors and actresses to wear. These designs are fashioned into patterns and crafted by a team of highly skilled artisans called cutters, stitchers, and sewers. Each costume is specially made for each singer using his/her individual measurements. The wig and makeup designer, working with the costume designer, designs and creates wigs which will complement both the costume and the singer as well as represent historically accurate period fashions. As the actual performance date approaches, rehearsals are held on the newly crafted set, combined with costumes, lights, and orchestra in order to ensure a cohesive performance that will be both dramatically and musically satisfying to the assembled audience.

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