![]() ![]() L’Orfeo is Monteverdi’s first opera and is an emotional and melancholic opera that tells the mythological story of how Euridice dies from a snake bite. He composed both holy and secular music including three operas that marked the change from Renaissance to Baroque style. Monteverdi was born in Cremona, northern Italy and was a violinist, choirmaster and priest. The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossiniġ0 Well Known Italian Operas You Must See L’Orfeo- By Claudio MonteverdiĬlaudio Monteverdi is nicknamed the ‘father of opera’ as he was one of its early pioneers.10 Well Known Italian Operas You Must See.This makes it a perfect choice for those who cherish classical opera productions. Italian musicologist and music critic Massimo Mila believes that Aida is an opera that is stage directors and designers find hard to modernise without compromising on the work’s splendour. To think that this grand work, despite being untypical for Verdi, was written and orchestrated in just four months. The splendid spectacle still attracts today’s audiences with its extraordinary score, fantastic sets inspired by the ancient world, exquisite duets, in particular the final one sung by Aida and Radamès, and numerous crowd scenes featuring a chorus and extras. Having opened in Cairo on 24 December 1871 and less than seven weeks later in Milan’s La Scala, the opera began a triumphant march across the world’s opera houses. Love that goes against the raison d’état as defined by priests leads to Aida’s demise as she suffers the consequences of her beloved’s choices. The four-page prose scenario was devised by well-known French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette-Bey, yet the actual libretto was written in verse by Antonio Ghislanzoni.Īll of the efforts produced a moving musical tale of love between Aida, a slave at the Pharaoh’s court, and Egyptian military commander Radamès who chooses his heart over his country and his Gods, becoming a tragic protagonist not unlike those in Sophocles plays. Paradoxically, although he rejected the style of grand opera, Verdi decided to create a spectacular large-scale work that would attract huge crowds. That is perhaps why the failure of Un ballo in maschera, whose Naples premiere had not taken place after the composer rejected changes introduced by censors, the frigid reception given to the first version of La forza del destino by the critics and audiences, and the publication of the famous To Italian Art - Sapphic Ode with Glass in Hand by Arrigo Boito who failed to appreciate Verdi’s work – contributed to the birth of this great yet singular opera by Verdi. Having accepted this rather usual commission, Verdi had to work out a compromise with himself, leaving aside the principles he had formulated and applied when writing all his previous operas. ![]() Eventually, however, possibly prompted by a series of unfortunate events and a read of a prose scenario for the opera provided by Camille du Locle, Verdi committed himself to the task. At first the composer initially refused the offer despite a hefty fee. In 1870 Giuseppe Verdi was approached with the request to write an opera for the new Khedivial Opera House in Cairo, erected on the orders of Isma’il Pasha, the viceroy of Egypt. ![]()
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