The setting is Seville and the libretto by Da Ponte is his free adaptation of an old Spanish “legend” which tells of the exploits of the libertine Don Juan (Don Giovanni). In Act 1, the Don has murdered the Commendatore whose statue in the final act comes to life, and whose ice cold hand casts … Read more
Imagine a tale which is a cross between Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and a medieval legend, complete with damsels in distress, knights in shining armour and a band of marauding pirates and there you have the essence of the plot of Weber’s last opera, “Oberon”. Commissioned by Covent Garden, the work received its first … Read more
Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg in 1833. Under the influence of his musical father, he became a proficient pianist and helped with the family income by playing in various bars and restaurants. He also started composing from an early age, eventually making his living as a conductor and teacher in Vienna. He composed many … Read more
The opera, or as Wagner liked to call it the ‘music drama’, was written between 1862 and 1867, but it is clear that Wagner had crystallized the themes well before it was completed. The overture, which contains the main themes, was finished long before the opera and was played several times by itself in concerts. … Read more
Domenico Cimarosa was born of poor working parents in the town of Aversa which stands a little north of Naples. Showing early musical abilities, he was admitted to the Naples Conservatory and was to remain there 10 years. Like Vivaldi in Venice some 70 years earlier, he gained early employment as music master at a … Read more
It was in 1868 in St. Petersburg that Tchaikovsky first made contact with the group of five composers working for the “cause of Russian nationalism in art”. Of that group Mussorgsky is represented in this evening’s programme, the others being Borodin, Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov and Balakirev. The group was not entirely sympathetic to Tchaikovsky’s musical outlook, … Read more
The opera’s plot is Wagner’s reworking of an old German legend. Tannhäuser, Knight and Minstrel, in a moment of weakness enters the grotto of the Venusberg, wherein Venus reigns over everlasting revels and the eventual destruction of the souls of men. Happily, he is rescued by his fellow Minstrel Knights. Entering a “Tournament of Song”, … Read more
Beaumarchais’ play “The Marriage of Figaro” or “The Follies of a Day” was banned in Vienna as being impertinent and subversive. It was felt to be an exposé of the libertine excesses of a ruling aristocracy by the “serving classes”. The Italian poet and librettist Lorenzo da Ponte had recently arrived in Vienna to take … Read more
