Bonaventura Somma News
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2024-04-26
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2020-04-20 07:52:48
I need a subject that is grandiose, impassioned & original: the influence of Meyerbeer & French Grand Opera on the operas of Verdi
[…] Lear, but when plans for Re Lear fell through (one of the most intriguing 'might have beens' in Verdi's catalogue), Verdi looked to Daniel Auber’s opera Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué which treated the not historically accurate narrative of King Gustav III of Sweden’s assassination. Auber’s opera had premiered in 1833 at the Paris Opera, but it remained a major success for the composer right into the 1850s. A new Italian text by Antonio Somma was based on the libretto of Eugene Scribe, but this new libretto failed to pass the Neapolitan censors and the opera would finally see light as Un ballo in Maschera in Rome in 1859. The opera is an example of the Italian genre which developed in the second half of the 19th century, opera ballo, where a ballet plays a central role in the opera. An example of the cross fertilisation that happened as […]
2018-06-28 12:23:24
Verdi's Un ballo in maschera at Grange Park Opera
Verdi: Un ballo in maschera - Claire Rutter, Vincenzo Costanzo - Grange Park Opera (Photo Robert Workman) Verdi Un ballo in maschera; Claire Rutter, Vincenzo Costanzo, Roland Wood, Elisabetta Fiorillo, Tereza Gevorgyan, dir: Stephen Medcalf, orchestra of English National Opera, cond: Gianluca Marciano; Grange Park Opera Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 27 June 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★) Verdi's complex opera in its American setting with some strong individual performances Elisabetta Fiorillo - Grange Park Opera (Photo Robert Workman) With it's complex political background, Verdi's opera Un ballo in maschera provides the director with a variety of choices. Antonio Somma's libretto, based on the assassination of King Gustavo III of Sweden, was just too much for the King of Naples' censors, particularly in the light of assassination attempts on Napoleon III, so the opera was ultimately premiered in a version set in colonial-era Boston, […]
2016-10-20 03:01:09
Verdi 's Un Ballo in Maschera on a libretto by Antonio Somma based on a drama by Eugne Scribe had a long and complicated history before being staged at Rome 's Teatro Apollo in 1859: its plot is based on the actual stabbing of the King of Sweden , Gustav III, during a masked ball in 1792. This was a difficult and tricky topic in a country like Italy divided into many different kingdoms, especially after an Italian conspirator had tried to throw a bomb on the carriage of the Emperor of France , Napoleon III, in Paris in 1856.
2016-10-17 16:34:26
Bard of Avon calling
Opera loves its anniversary years, and works inspired by William Shakespeare are everywhere in 2016, marking 400th since his death. Since January I have posted adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, Falstaff, Othello, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This week, I am happy to add two of the newest crop of nods to the Bard of Avon: Lear by Aribert Reimann, and Hamlet by Anno Schreier. A quick glace around the Internet revealed some 49 operas inspired by Shakespeare, from Henry Purcell’s The Fairy-Queen to Thomas Adés’ The Tempest. I’m not counting West Side Story or Re Lear, for which a libretto was completed by Antonio Somma but Giuseppe Verdi unfortunately never got around to finishing the score. Reimann’s opera, set to a libretto by Claus H. Henneberg, famously premiered at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 1978 as a vehicle for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s original production soon transferred to the San […]
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