It is the harrowing tale of a hapless soldier driven by humiliation and jealousy to murder his lover, and Berg only amplifies the suffering and horror with his brilliantly thorny, overwhelmingly powerful score-the ultimate musical depiction of a mind’s descent into madness.Ī timeless tale told in a florid bel canto style, Rossini’s take on the Cinderella story offers an ideal propellant for a virtuosic mezzo-soprano to rocket from rags to riches.
Combined with Franco Zeffirelli’s breathtakingly opulent production, it makes for one of opera’s grandest experiences.Ī brutal yet captivating piece of music and theater, Wozzeck is based on Georg Büchner’s groundbreaking play Woyzeck, a searing, shockingly modern drama that was written in the 1830s but first saw the stage some 80 years later as the First World War inexorably approached. Puccini raises the temperature to boiling by lavishing the legendary tale with some of his finest and most spectacular music-not to mention “Nessun dorma,” one of the catalogue’s most beloved arias. One brave warrior prince rises to the challenge, determined to thaw Turandot’s frozen heart. All of this-the glitter of her earlier wealth, the heat of her passion with the ardent young Alfredo, the pain of their separation, and her tragic end-lands with devastating weight thanks to Verdi, whose score stands as one of music’s greatest depictions of love and loss.Īn ancient Chinese princess presents each new suitor with a series of riddles success will win her hand, but failure costs his head. An elegant courtesan with a heart of gold, she chooses true love over the amusements and riches of her glamorous Parisian life, then sacrifices everything for the sake of a young woman she’s never even met. As he explained: “Why shouldn’t there be two operas about Manon? A woman like Manon can have more than one lover.” And in his take on the alluring young country girl who becomes the toast of Paris before suffering a swift fall and ignominious end, Puccini came through with a masterpiece equal to Massenet’s, trading the French composer’s urbane elegance for overwhelming emotionality.įew operatic figures are as beloved as Violetta, the dignified, selfless, and sickly heroine of Verdi’s classic tragedy. When he set out to write a new opera based on the same irresistible heroine that inspired Massenet’s popular Manon, the young Puccini was undaunted by the risk of provoking comparisons. From an effervescent take on the Cinderella story to a dark and disturbing drama of madness and murder, this week’s schedule of Nightly Opera Streams shows the expressive range of the art form.
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