September

Hi all, and welcome to September.
I'm sad to break it to you all, but I decided to stop doing my composer of the month posts (I didn't have very many anyway).
As school gets harder and harder and I need to practice violin longer and longer I can't really find time to write a full on biography of a composer with videos, sheet music, libretti, and pictures. Of course, this doesn't mean I'll be quitting the blog--I will still post opera things I find hiding in the various corners of the Internet!!!
I might have composer's bios and what not occasionally, but certainly not on a monthly basis.
To end this on a light note, here are some videos of FULL operas from the Met on youtube.

Don Giovanni
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D-i4E0QwbQ

Aida
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UIXz3dMO6w

Il Trovatore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYT7zgKmIE4

Le Comte Ory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3v138hBDjU

Les Contes d'Hoffmann
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4Fpt6xvA_A

Anna Bolena
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE1xPxmQfbY

L'Elisir d'Amore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld4z2nG0Gjo

Unfortunately not all the subtitles are in English so it might require some extra translating if you want to understand EVERYTHING they say! :)

400!

We've hit 400 views. Thank you all so much for your support. Danke. Merci. спасибо!

August

Hello, and welcome to August/Août/whatever-you-call-it-in-your-language.

I'm sorry I haven't been posting lately--I've been a bit busy....

First, some news....

Elina Garanca is having her second child and dropped out from the 2013-2014 Met season...
http://www.operanews.com/Opera_News_Magazine/2013/8/News/Garanca_Met_Assignments.html

Anna Netrebko put out a solo album for the first time in her five years of singing...
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/verdi/id665262128

Next, our tradition...
As this is already halfway through the month this guy will be our "Composer of the Month" for August/September.....

COMPOSER OF THE MONTH:

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH 

You would think I would have made him composer of the month earlier.....

Ahh, Bach. He has a HUGE bio so you can see that here http://bachcentral.com/bio.html

The main works I am interested in are the Brandenburg Concerto #3, the violin concerti 1 and 2, and the violin partita in E major (#3). You can find the sheet music for those here:

http://imslp.org/wiki/Brandenburg_Concerto_No.3_in_G_major,_BWV_1048_(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian)

http://imslp.org/wiki/Violin_Concerto_in_A_minor,_BWV_1041_(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian)

http://imslp.org/wiki/Violin_Concerto_in_E_major,_BWV_1042_(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian)

http://imslp.org/wiki/Violin_Partita_No.3_in_E_major,_BWV_1006_(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian)

I've played (or at least TRIED to play) all of these works and I found the concerto #2 in E major quite appealing. Although I haven't performed it yet I certainly would like to in the future! 

--Diana from The Royal Opera's production of "Die Zauberflöte" from 2003. The funny thing is she actually doesn't approve of her daughter in this scene (Right before "Der Hölle Rache).

Composer of the Month July 2013

COMPOSER OF THE MONTH:

GIOVANNI BATTISTA VIOTTI

Although he's not an opera composer, I decided to make Viotti the composer of the month because recently I discovered the two concertos linked at the bottom.

A pupil of Pugnani, Giovanni Battista Viotti could claim to represent the continuing tradition of Italian violin-playing that started in the last quarter of the 17th century with Corelli. Pugnani had been a pupil of Somis, who had been a pupil of Corelli. Viotti made his first concert tour abroad with his teacher in 1780, moving thereafter to Paris, where he made a strong impression with his playing, entered the service of Marie-Antoinette and concerned himself with operatic administration. The Revolution in 1792 caused him to seek refuge in London, where he played at the concerts organized by Salomon, performances in which Haydn was involved during his two visits to London in the 1790s. Political exile from London took him for eighteen months to Germany and on his return to London at the beginning of the new century he occupied himself chiefly with the wine trade, rarely playing in public. The failure of his business was followed by appointment in 1819 as director of the Paris Opéra, a position he was compelled to relinquish two years later, when he returned to stay with friends in London, dying there in 1824. His career as a performer was relatively short, but his influence on violin-playing was very considerable, witnessed notably by the younger generation of players that included Rode, Kreutzer and Baillot.

List of notable violins Viotti owned 

Telláki Stradivarius 1690

Sopkin-Viotti Stradivarius 1695

Jupiter Stradivarius 1700

Viotti Stradivarius 1704

Marie Hall Stradivarius 1709

Viotti Stradivarius 1709

Viotti Stradivarius 1712

Colossus Stradivarius 1716

Arnold Rosé-Viotti Stradivarius 1718

Dragonetti-Milanollo Stradivarius 1728

Parlow-Viotti Guarneri del Gesù 1735

Links:

Viotti violin concerto 22 in A minor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Xx0LRhQFI
Music: http://imslp.org/wiki/Violin_Concerto_No.22_(Viotti,_Giovanni_Battista)
Viotti violin concerto 19 in G minor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm2Pa1setqc
Music:http://imslp.org/wiki/Violin_Concerto_No.19_(Viotti,_Giovanni_Battista)

300!

THANK YOU EVERYONE; WE'VE HIT 300 VIEWS!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for supporting this blog!

In case....

In case you didn't get all the opera jokes from the post a little while ago, here are the actual titles (on the right)...

Bizet: Vanmen--Carmen

Bizet: Les pecheurs de prawns--Les pêcheurs de perles

Mozart: Il bartender di Siviglia--Il Barbiere di Siviglia

Mozart: Die Zauberbanjo--Die Zauberflöte

Rossini: FakeTancredi--Tancredi 

Wagner: The Flying Dutchcap--The Flying Dutchman

Verdi: Un balloon in maschera--Un Ballo in Maschera 

Wagner: Das Rheintanzanite--Das Rheingold

Wagner: Die Shufflekure--Die Walküre

Wagner: Damntheguttering--Götterdämmerung

Saint-Saens: Samsung and the Lilo (the perfect opera for the beach)--Samson and Delilah 

Verdi: Realstaff--Falstaff

Verdi: Madama Slug--Madama Butterfly

Rossini: Il Turdo in Italia--Il Turco in Italia

Gershwin: Porky and Butch--Porgy and Bess

Bellini: I Impuritani--I Puritani

Rossini: Fullyramide--Semiramide

Mozart: Cozzie, fan, tutu (an opera about ballet)--Cosi fan tutte

This is my favorite:

Rossini: La Cenebuytoletola (following the demise of the rental market)-Cenerentola

Götterdämmerung Finale: Possibly the most beautiful ending to a work ever written.

In my opinion, the finale (like the last minute and a half) of Götterdämmerung is the most beautiful ending to a work ever written.
Here it is: http://youtu.be/TMBHxG_RCnM?t=17m27s

I've never seen nor heard anything like this--these 7 bars are truly amazing.

Here's the score. The 7 bars start from the section after "Etwas zurückhaltend"
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6V_-ZciWDh2WGs1RGJ4UXZBTFE/edit?usp=sharing

Here's how it looks in the piano reduction

The thing I love about the piano version is that the music tells you which section is which Leitmotif.

But I digress.


The music

Beautiful. Just sublime. Melody-laying at its finest. 7 bars of Wagner telling us through the orchestra that "All's well that ends well." The brass announcing "The End" with those glorious chords. This is relaxing music that is totally fitting for a sunset at the end of a stress-filled day.

More importantly, this music resolves the conflict. It incorporates the Verklärungsmotiv, Rheingoldmotiv, and the Nixenjubelmotiv. The music just seems to wrap everything up. The world's been purified, the gold is back in the Rhine, and the gods are no longer in power.

 Back to what I said earlier about the sunset. Without the gods, humanity must learn to live on its own. This music also signifies the dawn of a new age with humans in control rather than the gods.

Fun!

I found a page with some spoofed-up opera titles. Although some aren't the 'LOL' kind, they make you smile...some are below...

Bizet: Vanmen

Bizet: Les pecheurs de prawns

Mozart: Il bartender di Siviglia

Mozart: Die Zauberbanjo

Rossini: FakeTancredi

Wagner: The Flying Dutchcap

Verdi: Un balloon in maschera

Wagner: Das Rheintanzanite

Wagner: Die Shufflekure

Wagner: Damntheguttering

Saint-Saens: Samsung and the Lilo (the perfect opera for the beach)

Verdi: Realstaff

Verdi: Madama Slug

Rossini: Il Turdo in Italia

Gershwin: Porky and Butch

Bellini: I Impuritani

Rossini: Fullyramide

Mozart: Cozzie, fan, tutu (an opera about ballet)

This is my favorite:

Rossini: La Cenebuytoletola (following the demise of the rental market)

COMPOSER OF THE MONTH JUNE 2013

COMPOSER OF THE MONTH:

JOSEF STRAUSS

Josef Strauss (August 20, 1827 – July 22, 1870) was an Austrian composer.

He was born in Vienna, the son of Johann Strauss I and Maria Anna Streim, and brother of Johann Strauss II and Eduard Strauss. His father wanted him to choose a career in the Austrian Habsburg military. He studied music with Franz Dolleschal and learned to play the violin with Franz Anton Ries.

He received training as an engineer, and worked for the city of Vienna as an engineer and designer. He designed a horse-drawn revolving brush street-sweeping vehicle and published two textbooks on mathematical subjects. Strauss had talents as an artist, painter, poet, dramatist, singer, composer and inventor. 

He was known as 'Pepi' by his family and close friends, and Johann once said of him: "Pepi is the more gifted of us two; I am merely the more popular..."

The reason I chose this composer for this month is because recently I heard his "Vaterländischer marsch" which he worked on with his brother Johann. It's very interesting because you can hear many famous melodies such as Haydn's Kaiserhymne, Johann Strauss I's Radetzky March, and Berlioz's Marche Hongroise. I also admire Josef's Feuerfest Polka. 

Vaterländischer marsch:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBbMNmO4NvA

Feuerfest Polka:http://youtu.be/4Q9AK3_TLd8?t=11s