1. Music Appreciation Class #13 Romantic Ballet and Opera

2. Peyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 1840-1893

3. Biography Child prodigy ▫Discouraged Composed at 14 Musical training (conservatory) “The Five” ▫Conflicting musical influences Civil service job International success

4. Musical style Russian ▫Folk tunes ▫Harmonies ▫Rhythms European ▫German form ▫Italian melody ▫French lyricism

5. Ballet (Russian Nationalism?) Previously inconsequential music ▫2 nd rate composers Tchaikovsky elevated and expanded ▫Full orchestral tonality Stand-alone quality

6. “Romeo and Juliet” (1869) Scandal!  Musically graphic  Violence/sex Overture Fantasy (11:00) Youtube.com @ 7:45

7. Brief segue Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) ▫“Romeo and Juliet” 1935  Arrival of the Capulets and the Montagues Arrival of the Capulets and the Montagues  Romeo and Juliet’s pas de deux Romeo and Juliet’s pas de deux  Rudolf Nureyev and Lynne Fontanne: Balcony Scene Rudolf Nureyev and Lynne Fontanne: Balcony Scene

8. Nutcracker (1891) Most expansive ballet score to date ▫Immediately popular ▫Critically ridiculed ▫“Sugar Plumb Fairy” from the Kirov Ballet“Sugar Plumb Fairy” from the Kirov Ballet

9. Piano Concerto #1 (1875) Van Cliburn (1934 - ) 1st International Tchaikovsky Competition ▫1958

10. 1812 Overture1812 Overture (1880) Commission ▫Russia’s victory over Napoleon ▫Orchestration  Tubular bells  16 cannon shots on musical cue! Carnegie Hall Philadelphia  Seiji Ozawa and the Berlin Philharmonic @ 4:00 11:45

11. Personal Gay ▫Punishable by prison/execution Paranoid Married ▫Antonina Miliukova  Virtual stranger  Unsolicited love letter  Disastrous marriage

12. Nadezhda von Meck Patron, 1877-90 Letter relationship only Abrupt end

13. “Bob”

14. France Opéra Comique

15. Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

16. Carmen (1875) Prosper Mériméé (1845) Commission ▫Opéra Comique  Light, tuneful music  Comic or silly plot  Spoken dialogue

17. Premiere Acts 1 and 2  Applause, curtain calls Acts 3 and 4  Booing, whistling Bizet’s escape and death

18. Idée fixe “Fate” motive ▫Overture ▫Carmen and Don Jose’s meeting ▫Carmen’s murder

19. Two scenes Habanera Carmen’s murder ▫American singers  Maria Ewing  Barry McCauley

20. Retellings Ballet suite Carmen Jones (1943)Carmen Jones (1943) ▫Oscar Hammerstein IIOscar Hammerstein II  Dorothy Dandridge (Marilyn Horne) Dorothy Dandridge (Marilyn Horne)

21. Germany Richard Wagner Richard Strauss

22. Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

23. Biography Step-father’s influence Composition training ▫Beethoven ▫Bach Opera as drama

24. Gesamtkunstwerk “Complete art work” ▫Total synthesis of  Music  Drama  Theater  Dance  Politics

25. Thirteen complete “music dramas” http://wagneroperas.com/indexwagneroperas.h tmlhttp://wagneroperas.com/indexwagneroperas.h tml

26. Leitmotif Musical idea or Melody ▫Associated with  Character  Event  Prop Idée fixe ▫Hector Berlioz  Symphonie Fantastique

27. “Mad” King Ludwig II

28. King Ludwig and Wagner Admirer Patron ▫Saved Wagner’s career? “Swan King” ▫Lohengrin

29. Neuschwanstein

30. Bayreuth Festspielhaus Mecca for Wagnerites Replacement for Easter/Church Complete “Ring” cycle Hidden Orchestra pit

31. Der Ring des Nibelungen (1848-74) Das Rheingold (The Gold of the Rhine) ▫Creation of the RingCreation of the Ring Die Walküre (The Valkyries) Siegfried Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods)

32. Ring Cycle Facts Libretto ▫German, Scandinavian and Norse myth ▫34 characters  God(s) vs. humans  Aryan culture vs. Jewish “threat” Music ▫15 hours ▫Through-composed

33. Die Walküre (2 nd opera in the cycle) God ▫(Wotan or “Wälse”) Siegmund ▫“victory” + “mouth” (“shield”) Sieglinde ▫“victory” + “gentle”

34. God in Human Form Wagner ideal Sieglinde and Siegmund (“Wehwal”)  Sister/bride and Brother/groom  “Now let our race flourish and continue!”  Siegfried (Savior/Fuhrer/Leader)

35. Background Hunding ▫Mystery wedding party guest Tree with a Sword (“Notung”) Finale of Act I. (Concert version with Domingo) Bayreuth : Jeanine Altmeyer and Peter Hoffman

36. Essays Anti-Semitic Sexist Socialist Inspiration for Nazis

37. The Ring and Star Wars http://www.trell.org/wagner/starwars.html

38. Germany Even Worse…

39. Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

40. Biography Musical family Involved with the Dresden opera ▫Wagner Politically active ▫3 rd Reich

41. Tone Poems (1896) Also sprach Zarathustra ▫Friedrich Nietzsche  “God is dead.” 2001: A Space Odyssey ▫1968

42. Salome Mark 6:21-29 & Matthew 14:6-11 Oscar Wilde ▫Paris, 1891  In French?!  Prison

43. Characters Herod, King of Judea Herodias, his wife (former sister-in-law) Salome, her daughter (14) John the Baptist (“Jochanaan”)

44. Operatic/dramatic problems Orchestra ▫Wager + Salome ▫Vocally demanding  Look 14 years old  Sexually attractive ▫The “Dance of the Seven Veils”

45. Censored! New York, 1907 ▫Metropolitan Opera Dress Rehearsal ▫Sunday afternoon  Patrons = Astors, Vanderbilts  Politicians

46. Opening Day Reviews “…one of the most horrible, disgusting, revolting and unmentionable exhibitions of degeneracy I have ever heard, read or imagined...” “…A sewer is a necessity of our everyday life, but the fact of its existence does not also create the necessity for us to bend over its reeking filth and inhale its mephitic vapours...”

47. Final scene: warning! Catherine Malfitano