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| Italian Favorites |  |  | | | | Gioacchino Rossini | | | 1792-1868 | | |
Gioacchino Rossini
Overture to The Barber of Seville
It is hard to understand today why the premiere of The Barber of Seville in Rome in February 1816 was such an unmitigated disaster. True, the overture we know today was not at the time part of the opera, and another opera called The Barber of Seville, by the aging Giovanni Paisiello, although dated, was considered a classic in Italy. But the simple ebullience and mischievousness of Rossini’s opera buffa did not deserve the vituperation and hostility it encountered.
Following the disastrous premiere, Rossini made a number of modifications and added the overture we know today. According to the composer, the original overture was lost, but there is considerable doubt whether he ever wrote one specifically for this opera.
Although the Overture sounds singularly appropriate for the spirit of the libretto, its melodies do not recall a single theme from the opera proper. And no wonder! This was its third reincarnation. Rossini, like his overworked predecessors, including Bach and Handel, made good use of musical recycling. The two previous operas it served were Aureliano in Palmyra and Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra, both very serious works, and both failures. Nevertheless, Rossini was composing within a formula for the operatic overture that included a slow introduction,  followed by a rousing allegro to get an audience in the mood for a high drama and a suspenseful plot–be it tragic or comic.
Many Rossini overtures have been perennial favorites of audiences and musicians even after the operas themselves had been cast into oblivion. For over a hundred years, the only one of his operas in the standard repertoire in major opera houses has been The Barber of Seville. But Rossini’s ability to captivate audiences and orchestra players alike with snappy rhythms, catchy tunes, surprise changes of tempo and exciting use of instruments, have turned many of the overtures into household tunes. His opera libretti may be silly, the plots too complex and confused to follow, but his overtures will always make people hum along and tap out the rhythm.
An interesting side light: The Barber of Seville was premiered in New York in May 1819, but in English. On November 29, 1825, it was performed again: this time it was the first performance in America of opera in Italian! |
| | |  | | | | Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | | | 1840-1893 | | |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33
Composed in 1876-77, the Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra were inspired by and dedicated to Tchaikovsky’s friend and colleague at the Moscow Conservatory, the German cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen. Not being a cellist, the composer suffered from one of his frequent bouts of self-doubt and asked Fitzenhagen for help. Fitzenhagen ended up having a substantial hand in the final form in which the work was published in 1889, making the cello part more virtuosic and idiomatic, and even changing the order of the variations and eliminating one of them. Only in 1940 was Tchaikovsky’s original version published and is now the one usually performed.
The term “Rococo” applied to these variations refers not so much to the ornate style, popular in eighteenth-century architecture and design, but to its nineteenth-century meaning: “old-fashioned.” The simple theme is Tchaikovsky’s own and is not particularly characteristic of the Rococo period, nor do the seven variations that follow adhere too closely to the theme as was usual in the eighteenth century.
The work is a cellist’s showpiece, technically demanding, light-hearted and cheerful, with none of the emotional storm and stress that usually permeates Tchaikovsky’s works. The work begins with a Moderato introduction that hints of the theme to come. Tchaikovsky introduces the theme in the solo cello, and – as was the case since Beethoven created the variation form as more than a increasingly fancy decoration of a theme – uses the variations to create a series of moods and dance rhythms. The variations become increasingly complex, beginning with the old-fashioned embellishment type in Variation I. Tchaikovsky also explores the interaction of the cello with the orchestral instruments, especially the upper woodwinds, who have a little transition theme used throughout the piece, and in the duet with the solo clarinet and solo flute in Variation VI. Variation V, which also features the flute, is a cadenza for the soloist.
The combination of the sunny mood coupled with the technical demands and lovely melodies has made the Variations standard fare at cello competitions. |
| | | Giuseppe Verdi
Prelude to Act III of La Traviata
“A fiasco!” – this was the judgment of both composer and audience in March, 1853, at the Venice premiere of what is now arguably Verdi’s most popular opera. Already the foremost composer in Italy with 17 operas to his credit – most of them successes – Verdi could afford to expand beyond the artistic conventions of the genre. From its seventeenth century roots serious opera dealt exclusively with mythological or grand historical themes. Verdi’s lifetime interest, however, was the human psyche, regardless of the social rank of the characters. And in La Traviata he completely broke with tradition.
Based on the dramatization of La dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas, a contemporary French bestseller of the previous year that was immediately dramatized, La Traviata was the first tragic opera to treat a contemporary subject. Even more scandalizing was the fact that the heroine was a courtesan; and although Violetta Valéry travels only in the best Parisian circles, the word “traviata” literally means “fallen” or “debauched.” Verdi had also intended that the opera be staged in contemporary dress, an innovation that so disturbed his producer that the composer had to abandon that battle in order to win the war.
As if that weren’t enough, Verdi had to make do with what he considered to be second-rate singers, his first choices having been engaged elsewhere, most likely in other Verdi roles. Fanny Salvini-Donatelli, the soprano who premiered the role of the consumptive Violetta was of a rather hefty build, weighing 290 lbs., and the audience laughed aloud as they watched her die of consumption.
By the next year, the opera was staged again in Venice, now with a more appropriate cast, unlimited rehearsal time and under the complete control of the composer, and played to packed houses and raves. However, the scandalous libretto continued to generate controversy, and Queen Victoria refused to attend a performance of the opera.
This mournful prelude to Act III sets the mood for the final act. Violetta has renounced her lover, Alfredo, for the sake of his family’s honor and his sister’s wedding. Unaware of her sacrifice, Alfredo has denounced her in public as a common prostitute. Violetta, whose health was always precarious, is now dying of consumption and a broken heart. |
| | | Pietro Mascagni
Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana
“It was a pity I wrote Cavalleria first. I was crowned before I was king.” Thus did Pietro Mascagni evaluate his own musical career, citing his youthful success in 1890 with Cavalleria Rusticana. He attempted to repeat this triumph in the remaining 55 years of his life but to no avail. The only one of his 15 other operas occasionally staged is L’amico Fritz, a gentle comedy, the opposite of grim and gritty Cavalleria. Sadly, in his later years, Mascagni became a mouthpiece for Italy’s Fascist government. In 1929 he took over as conductor at La Scala in Milan when Arturo Toscanini resigned in protest over the Fascist regime, and in 1935 he composed an opera Nerone as a tribute to Mussolini – although why anyone would want to be likened to the emperor Nero is anyone's guess.
Mascagni came close to total obscurity. Responding to an advertisement for a one-act opera competition promoted by a publisher, he composed his masterpiece in only a few weeks but did not consider it suitable, choosing to send in an act from an earlier opera instead. His wife, however, submitted the score of Cavalleria without his knowledge, and the rest is history. Cavalleria is an adaptation of the novella by the Sicilian writer Giovanni Verga, the originator and most important writer of the verismo literary movement. Verismo, or “realism,” portrayed the brutality of the social environment and characters of rural Sicily and Southern Italy.
The single act includes an adulterous love triangle, jealousy, betrayal and a duel to the death. The Intermezzo opens the final scene, as the people are in church celebrating Easter Sunday, just before the fatal duel.
The Intermezzo spins out a single theme. |
| | |  | | | | Felix Mendelssohn | | | 1809-1847 | | |
Felix Mendelssohn
Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op. 90, “Italian”
If ever there was a composer who did not fit the romantic picture of the struggling artist, unsure of where his next meal was coming from as he fought for acceptance of his new ideas, it was Felix Mendelssohn. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth and raised in affluence, he enjoyed encouragement and the nurturing of his precocious musical talent. His culturally sophisticated family was unusually enlightened in its support of his artistic aspirations – many other composers well into the twentieth century had to rebel and escape parents who wanted them to become doctors. The Mendelssohn household was a Mecca for the intellectual elite of Germany, and the many family visitors fawned over the prodigy and his talented sister Fanny. Fortunately for the development of his rare abilities, his carefully selected teachers were demanding and strict.
One of the results of the financial security of the Mendelssohn family was Felix’s ability to travel extensively in what was then considered the "civilized" world – Western Europe and Italy. Some of his most successful orchestral compositions represent musical travelogues of such trips: the “Scottish” and “Italian” symphonies and The Hebrides Overture. An added perk to all this travel was that family connections, and Felix’s reputation as a Mozartian Wunderkind attracted the attention to his music throughout Europe. Queen Victoria herself had several audiences with the young composer, during which he play and she sang.
Traveling to Italy in 1830, Mendelssohn stopped in Weimar, where he spent two weeks talking with the forbidding grand old man of German literature, the 80-year-old Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It was a heady experience for the young composer, and he continued on to Italy in high spirits. He was at once completely captivated by the sights and sounds of the sunny country and wrote home “...what I have been looking forward to all my life as the greatest happiness has now begun, and I am basking in it.” He immediately set about composing the “Italian” Symphony, whose premiere he conducted in London in 1833 at the invitation of the London Philharmonic Society.
The first movement, Allegro vivace, opens with a buoyant theme reflecting the sparkle of the Italian sunshine and the young composer’s rush of excitement . The contrasting second theme is a lilting figure for two clarinets playing in parallel thirds.
The Andante con moto second movement is in a darker mood. It was composed after a visit to Naples, where Mendelssohn was greatly depressed by the poverty he saw. The doleful woodwinds and plodding staccato on the cellos and double bass may depict a religious procession he is known to have witnessed in the city streets.
The charming and graceful the Con moto moderato third movement lightens the mood again and uses the traditional scherzo and trio form . The finale, Saltarello: presto with its driving triplets is based on the nineteenth-century folk version of a medieval Italian dance. In fact, Mendelssohn may have taken the two dance themes from folk music he had heard at a Roman carnival, in which he participated during his visit and described in detail in his letters & . But this is one of those assumptions that is more guesswork than demonstrable fact . Both themes provide a difficult staccato workout for the upper winds reminiscent of the scherzo from the Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream. The middle part of the movement, however, is dominated by a new melody for the violins, also in triplets.
It is seldom that an audience has the opportunity to hear a composer’s early drafts of a work. But that is exactly what we do hear every time we attend a concert with this popular work on the program. Mendelssohn was dissatisfied with the Symphony, never again conducted it after the premiere and refused to publish it. It is not clear what displeased him in such a joyous work; perhaps its spontaneity went against the grain of his rigid academic training. In any case, he sat down in 1834 to revise it, rewriting the three last movements and commenting in a letter that he could not get the first movement right “In any way, it has to become totally different.”
As part of the commission, the original score was left with the London Philharmonic, and it is this version, published posthumously in 1851 (hence the high opus number), that became the public favorite; the later version was included in volume 28 of the collection of Mendelssohn’s unpublished manuscripts and was performed for the first time in 1992 and first recorded in 1998.
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| | | | Copyright © Elizabeth and Joseph Kahn 2009 |
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