“O Mio Babbino Caro”.
Sung by: Maria Callas.
From Giacomo Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi”.
Recorded at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris, in the 60s.
Available on YouTube
Poster advertising Puccini’s opera “Gianni Schicchi”, published by G. Ricordi, Milan, in 1918-1919, probably to coincide with the Italian premiere on 11 January 1919.
Source: Scanned from Gallery of John E. Sauvey.
Author: Leopoldo Metlicovitz (1868-1944).
(Wikipedia).
The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,
unless stated otherwise.
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one Act by Giacomo Puccini, to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–1918.
The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante’s Divine Comedy. The Work is the third and final part of Puccini’s Il Trittico (The Triptych) – three one-Act operas with contrasting themes, originally written to be presented together.
Although it continues to be performed with one or both of the other Trittico operas, “Gianni Schicchi” is now more frequently staged either alone or with short operas by other composers.
The Aria “O mio babbino caro” is one of Puccini’s best known, and one of the most popular Arias in opera.
Puccini had long considered writing a set of one-Act operas which would be performed together in a single evening, but, faced with a lack of suitable subjects and opposition from his publisher, he repeatedly put the project aside.
Puccini had long considered writing a set of one-Act operas which would be performed together in a single evening, but, faced with a lack of suitable subjects and opposition from his publisher, he repeatedly put the project aside.
However, by 1916, Puccini had completed the one-Act tragedy “Il Tabarro” (“The Cloak”) and, after considering various ideas, he began work the following year on the Solemn, Religious, all-female opera, “Suor Angelica”.
“Gianni Schicchi”, a comedy, completes the triptych with a further contrast of mood. The score combines elements of Puccini’s modern style of harmonic dissonance with lyrical passages reminiscent of Rossini, and it has been praised for its inventiveness and imagination.
When “Il Trittico” premiered at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in December 1918, “Gianni Schicchi” became an immediate hit, while the other two operas were received with less enthusiasm. This pattern was broadly repeated at the Rome and London premieres and led to commercial pressures to abandon the less successful elements.
When “Il Trittico” premiered at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in December 1918, “Gianni Schicchi” became an immediate hit, while the other two operas were received with less enthusiasm. This pattern was broadly repeated at the Rome and London premieres and led to commercial pressures to abandon the less successful elements.
Although on artistic grounds Puccini opposed performing the three operas except as the original triptych, by 1920 he had given his reluctant consent to separate performances.
“Gianni Schicchi” has subsequently become the most-performed part of “Il Trittico” and has been widely recorded.
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