BBC Music Vol. VI-8 The Grand Tradition – Great Opera Voices

BBC Music Vol. VI-8 The Grand Tradition – Great Opera Voices is a compilation album featuring some of the greatest opera singers of all time.

The Grand Tradition

The grand tradition of opera is one of the longest running and most popular forms of entertainment in the western world. It has been said that the grand tradition of opera is the last great stronghold of western civilization. With its roots in the Renaissance, the grand tradition of opera has survived the centuries and is still going strong today.

The three grand opera voices

There are three grand opera voices: the soprano, the mezzo-soprano, and the tenor. The soprano is the highest voice, the mezzo-soprano is lower, and the tenor is the lowest of the three. All three voices can sing in falsetto (a higher register), but it is more common for the tenor.

The soprano is the highest voice and is often associated with femininity. Most sopranos have a range of about two octaves. Sopranos are often cast as young heroines or love interests. Some of the most famous operas featuring sopranos include “La Bohème” by Puccini, “Madama Butterfly” by Puccini, and “The Marriage of Figaro” by Mozart.

The mezzo-soprano is lower than the soprano and is also associated with femininity. Mezzo-sopranos usually have a range of about two octaves. They are often cast as older heroines or mother figures. Some of the most famous operas featuring mezzo-sopranos include “Carmen” by Bizet and “The Barber of Seville” by Rossini.

The tenor is the lowest voice and is generally associated with masculinity. Tenors usually have a range of about two octaves. They are often cast as young heroes or lovers. Some of the most famous operas featuring tenors include “Don Giovanni” by Mozart, “La Traviata” by Verdi, and “Rigoletto” by Verdi.

The three grand opera composers

Verdi, Wagner, and Puccini are considered the three grand opera composers. All three were born within nineteen years of each other and died within thirteen years of each other. This article will explore the music of these three men who shaped the course of opera.

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian opera composer. Verdi was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, and developed a musical education with the help of a local patron. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Vincenzo Bellini, Gioachino Rossini, and Gaetano Donizetti. By his 30s, he had become one of the pre-eminent opera composers in history.

In his early operas Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy. He also participated briefly as an elected politician. He surprised the musical world by returning to opera, particularly Shakespearean tragedy, after his success with Aida and salad days as a composer of French Grand Opera. His mastery of musical structure, dramatic Selected by Roderick Dunnett as one of fifteen essential recordings Francesco Tamagno’s legendary performance in Otello is captured in a definitive recording that also features Maria Caniglia as Desdemona and Lorenzo Molajoli conducting the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala. honesty and versatility have earned him admiration among critics and contemporaries alike. Wagner wrote that with Verdi’s Aida “composer and poet were completely merged into one”, while George Bernard Shaw declared that “Verdi’s power is supreme”.

In 1858 Verdi married Giuseppina Strepponi, with whom he lived for the rest of his life. They had two children together before she died in 1897: Icilio Romano (who died in 1905 at age 15) and Margherita (who married Emanuele Mucci and had seven children). Through Margherita’s daughter Virginia they also had eight grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren. Virginia’s son Daniele afforded Verdians special insight into their composer’s life through his letters to his father from 1904 until Verdi’s death nine years later; these were used by Budden in writing his biography Giuseppe Verdi: The Man Revealed (2007).

Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) was born in the Tuscan town of Lucca into a family with a strong musical tradition – his great-great grandfather, also Giacomo, had been a composer of church music in the 18th century. Puccini’s father Michele was organist and choirmaster of the local cathedral, and from an early age Giacomo was trained by him in harmony and counterpoint. At the age of 21 he entered the Milan Conservatory, where his teachers included Antonino Franconi, the well-known Italian bass, and Amilcare Ponchielli, composer of the ballet La Gioconda.

Puccini’s first opera Le Villi was produced at the Royal Opera House in Turin in May 1884. Although it was not a success at its premiere, it was successfully revived in Rome the following year, and Puccini began work on his next opera Edgar. However, this was not a success either, and it was not until his third opera Tosca that he achieved real success. This opera has remained one of his most popular works, and is still frequently performed today.

Other well-known operas by Puccini include La Bohème (1896), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (1926).

Richard Wagner

Wagner’s operas are usually classified into two distinct groups, the early, more Romantic operas such as Der fliegende Holländer and Tannhäuser; and the later, “music dramas” or “symphonic poems in dialogue” Parsifal, Lohengrin and the Ring Cycle. The transition from one group to the other is marked by Wagner’s move from Dresden to Munich in 1864. Wagner’s music had always been controversial—he himself insisted that it should provoke strong reactions in his listeners, either for or against—but it was only after his death that it became truly divisive. The conductors Hans von Bülow (a pupil and son-in-law of Wagner) and Arturo Toscanini were leading crusaders for and against his music respectively; today most Wagnerians would acknowledge that both had a point.

The three grand opera houses

The three grand opera houses of the world stand as testaments to the power and grandeur of opera. The Metropolitan Opera in New York, The Royal Opera in London, and La Scala in Milan have been the homes of some of the greatest opera singers of all time. Each of these opera houses has its own unique history and tradition.

The Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager. As of 2018, the company’s current music director is Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply “Covent Garden”, after a previous use of the site of the fruit-and-vegetable market in the 18th century. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Originally called the Theatre Royal, it served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, audience members who were “disorderly” were where thrown into jail by special constables; however in 1800 a critics’ attack on John Bull led at least fourteen others to riot, which forced artists to “flee for their lives”.

In 1847, it was announced that George Doddington had bequeathed £20,000 for improving the theatre. The main auditorium was demolished to make way for a new one designed by Edward Middleton Barry and completed in 1858. Barry’s auditorium was Square in plan, with an epidemial staircase leading up to a gallery over three sides of the pit.[22] The height from floor to ceiling was 50 feet (15 m), and there were eight private boxes along each side of the auditoriumranged symmetrically about the proscenium arch.[23][24]

The Vienna State Opera

The Vienna State Opera is an Austrian opera house and one of the most important performance venues in the world. Located in the centre of Vienna, it was inaugurated on 25 May 1869 with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Until 1918 it was known as the Karlskirche. In 1920, with the development of aerobic bacteria, it became possible to clean contaminated water more effectively and to provide safe drinking water to large cities. As a result, the city of Vienna decided to build a new opera house, which was inaugurated on 14 May 1869 with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. The building has been remodelled several times since then, most recently in 2004 by Austrian architect Johann Staber. It currently seats 1,709 people and is one of the largest opera houses in the world.

The Vienna State Opera is an excellent example of Neo-Renaissance architecture and has a rich history of musical performances. It is home to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and plays host to many operas, ballets and concerts each year. The building itself is a work of art, with its grand marble staircase, ornate chandeliers and lavish decor. If you are interested in visiting the Vienna State Opera, there are guided tours available which take you behind the scenes and give you a glimpse into the inner workings of this magnificent building.