Rossini is remembered primarily for his immense contribution to the Italian operatic repertoire. He studied at the Bologna Academy of Music, composing his first opera whilst still a student.
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Charles Gounod studied at the Paris Conservatoire. He had read Goethe’s Faust and had the idea of setting the story to music. Faust finally reached the stage of the Théatre-Lyrique in March of 1859. Ten years later, with recitative and a ballet section added, it was performed at the Grand Opéra in Paris. Interestingly, Gounod’s Faust was the opera chosen to open New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House on October 22, 1883.
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Verdi took opera to new heights of drama and musical expression. Both Verdi’s popular vein - as heard in the operas Rigoletto, Il trovatore, and La traviata - and his deeper side - found in Aida, Otello, and Falstaff - demonstrate his mastery and far-reaching development of Italian opera. |
| Everyone keeps their eyes open in Seville. Count Almaviva looks for the beautiful young woman locked up in the doctor’s house. Rosina searches for a way out of marrying her old guardian, the doctor. Dr Bartolo keeps Rosina under lock and key, grooming the perfect bride. But she and Almaviva have other plans, even though they barely glimpse each other when his serenade disturbs the dawn chorus. With Figaro, whose odd-jobbery can access all areas, they try every trick in the book to befuddle Dr Bartolo - secret letters, cunning disguises, a ladder propped up at midnight. After of scheming, the doctor gets tricked, youth gets together, and Figaro finally gets paid. |
Written in 1880, the Capriccio Italien is an ingenious string of unrelated contrasting themes endowed with orchestral brilliance. It begins with a trumpet call inspired by the nightly bugle heard from Tchaikovsky’s room at the Hotel Constanzi, which overlooked the barracks of the Royal Cuirassiers. With occasional returns to the introduction, the various themes proceed: a melancholy melody first heard in the lower strings, a gently swaying folk song and a march. The tarantella brings the piece to a dazzling finale.
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