Opera Theater 2006–2007
Spring Opera 2007 Information
Friday, February 23 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, February 25 at 3 p.m.
Kobacker Hall
Moore Musical Arts Center
For ticket information or to purchase tickets, contact the Moore Musical Arts Center Box Office, open weekdays Noon–6 p.m. at (419) 372-8171 or (800) 589-BACH (2224).
For 24-hour event information, call the Music Concert Hotline at (419) 372-8888.
Dialogues of the Carmelites by Francis Poulenc
Synopsis
The action takes place during the French Revolution and subsequent Terror.
Act I
The pathologically timid Blanche de la Force decides to retreat from the world and enter a Carmelite convent. The Mother Superior informs her that the Carmelite order is not a refuge: it is the duty of the nuns to guard the Order, not the other way around. In the convent, the jolly Sister Constance tells Blanche (to her consternation) that she has had a dream that the two of them will die young together. The Mother Superior, who is dying, commits Blanche to the care of Mother Marie. The Mother Superior passes away in great agony, shouting in her delirium that despite her long years of service to God, He has abandoned her. Blanche and Mother Marie, who witness her death, are shaken.
Act II
Sister Constance remarks to Blanche that the Mother Superior’s death seemed unworthy of her, and speculates that she had been given the wrong death, as one might be given the wrong coat in a cloakroom. Perhaps someone else will find death surprisingly easy. Perhaps we die not for ourselves alone, but for each other.
Blanche’s brother, the Chevalier de la Force, arrives to announce that their father thinks Blanche should withdraw from the convent, since she is not safe there (being a member of both the nobility and the clergy). Blanche refuses, saying that she has found happiness in the Carmelite order, but later admits to Mother Marie that it is fear (or the fear of fear itself, as the Chevalier expresses it) that keeps her from leaving.
The chaplain announces that he has been forbidden to preach (presumably for being a non-juror under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy). The nuns remark on how fear now governs the country, and no one has the courage to stand up for the priests. Sister Constance asks, “Are there no men left to come to the aid of the country?” “When priests are lacking, martyrs are superabundant,” replies the new Mother Superior. Mother Marie says that the Carmelites can save France by giving their lives, but the Mother Superior corrects her: it is not permitted to become a martyr voluntarily; martyrdom is a gift from God.
A police officer announces that the Legislative Assembly has nationalized the convent and its property, and the nuns must give up their habits. When Mother Marie acquiesces, the officer taunts her for being eager to dress like everyone else. She replies that the nuns will continue to serve, no matter how they are dressed. “The people has no need of servants,” proclaims the officer haughtily. “No, but it has a great need for martyrs,” responds Mother Marie. “In times like these, death is nothing,” he says. “Life is nothing,” she answers, “when it is so debased.”
Act III
In the absence of the new Mother Superior, Mother Marie proposes that the nuns take a vow of martyrdom. However, all must agree, or Mother Marie will not insist. A secret vote is held; there is one dissenting voice. Sister Constance declares that she was the dissenter, and that she has changed her mind, so the vow can proceed. Blanche runs away from the convent, and Mother Marie finds her in her father’s library. Her father has been guillotined, and Blanche has been forced to serve her former servants.
The nuns are all arrested and condemned to death, but Mother Marie is away (with Blanche, presumably) at the time. The chaplain tells Mother Marie that since God has chosen to spare her, she cannot now voluntarily become a martyr by joining the others in prison. The nuns march to the scaffold, singing Salve Regina. At the last minute, Blanche appears, to Constance’s joy; but as she mounts the scaffold, Blanche changes the hymn to Deo patri sit gloria (All praise be thine, O risen Lord).
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (January 7, 1899 – January 30, 1963) was a French composer and a member of Les Six. He composed music in all major genres, including art song, chamber music, oratorio, opera, ballet music and orchestral music. Critic Claude Rostand, in a July 1950 Paris-Presse article, described Poulenc as “half bad boy, half monk,” a tag that was to be attached to his name throughout his career. Later in his life, the loss of some close friends, coupled with a pilrimage to the Black Madonna of Rocamadour, led him to rediscovery of his faith and resulted in compositions of a more sombre, austere tone. His opera, Dialogues of the Carmelites was written at this time.
Spring Information From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialogues_of_the_Carmelites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Poulenc Chester-Novello’s Francis Poulenc biography
Fall Opera 2006 Information
Friday, November 3 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, November 5 at 3 p.m.
Kobacker Hall
Moore Musical Arts Center
Listen to a Public Service Announcement about the opera.
La Canterina by Franz Joseph Haydn
La Canterina (The Songstress or The Diva) is a short, two-act, comic opera or opera buffa by Franz Joseph Haydn, and the first he wrote for Prince Esterhazy. Based on the intermezzo from the third act of Niccolò Piccinni’s opera L’Origille (1760), it lasts approximately 50 minutes. It was written in 1766, and was premiered in the fall of that year.
It was originally intended as a pair of intermezzi, each of the two acts coming between the acts of an opera seria. Similar works include La Serva Padrona by Pergolesi and Pimpinone by Telemann.
This work is very interesting in that it displays two practices of casting that are at once diametrically opposed and in agreement with each other. On one hand, the role of Apollonia (an older woman) is sung by a baritone in female drag, and on the other, the role of Don Ettore (the young suitor) is sung by a mezzo-soprano in male drag. Thus, in one work, we have two opposite examples of gender bending.
The practice of casting a lower-voiced male as an older woman was common in early opera but had started to die out by Haydn’s time. The practice of having a mezzo-soprano play the part of a young boy was just beginning. This is the only opera by Haydn in which both kinds of casting can be found.
Synopsis: Gasparina (soprano) and her duenna, Apollonia (baritone), make sport of their benefactor, Don Pelagio (tenor), Gasparina’s singing teacher. Don Ettore (mezzo-soprano), a wealthy merchant’s son, “borrows” his mother’s jewels to give to Gasparina in an effort to win her favor. Pelagio, who has asked Gasparina to marry him, becomes infuriated when he hears the two women mocking him. He calls the bailiff to put the women out of the house, but Gasparina’s singing and her cunning cause Pelagio to relent and clear the way for Don Ettore to advance his suit.
Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell
Dido and Aeneas is an opera by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell, from a libretto by Nahum Tate. It was first performed in the spring of. It comprises three acts and lasts about an hour.
It is based on a story from the fourth book of Virgil’s Aeneid, of the legendary Queen of Carthage Dido and the Trojan refugee Aeneas.
When Aeneas and his crew are shipwrecked in Carthage, he and the queen fall in love. However, some witches living near Carthage, who hate Dido, remind Aeneas that he is fated to go and be the founder of the Roman Empire. Aeneas leaves Dido, who is heartbroken and kills herself. (This is slightly changed from the version in the Aeneid, where there were no witches. In it, the gods intervene to remind Aeneas of his duty.)
The story is exceptional for opera of this period, because one of the major characters (Dido) dies. In most pre-19th Century opera, the hero or heroine’s life may be threatened, but something usually happens to save the day by the end of the opera.
This work is somewhat problematic, since no score in Purcell’s hand is extant, and the only 17th-century source is a libretto, possibly from the original performance. The difficulty is that no later sources follow the act divisions of the libretto, and the music to the prologue is lost. Part of this stems from the practice of the time of using such entertainments to add spice to another piece, such as a play, breaking up the original work and only using parts of it, rather than putting it on as a complete work.
A monumental work, this Baroque opera is remembered as one of Purcell’s (and perhaps England’s) foremost operatic works. It may be considered Purcell’s only true opera, as compared with his other musical dramatic works such as King Arthur and The Fairy-Queen, as well as the first English opera. It owes much to John Blow’s Venus and Adonis, including structure and overall effect.
Fall Information from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Canterina http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A425909 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dido_and_Aeneas