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World-renowned soprano star Sonya Yoncheva won the hearts of the audience during her performance at the Opera Gala concert at the 75th Dubrovnik Summer Festival, and this year, after performances at the Metropolitan Opera in NY and the Vienna State Opera, she will present herself to the audience in a rare, exclusive solo program at the Rector's Palace accompanied by pianist Malcolm Martineau.
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PROGRAMME:
Giacomo Puccini:
Sole e amore
Terra e mare
Mentía l’avviso
Canto d’anime
Giuseppe Martucci:
Al folto bosco, placida ombria, op. 68, br. 6
Paolo Tosti:
L’ultimo bacio
Ideale
Giuseppe Verdi:
In solitaria stanza
Ad una stella
L’esule
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Giacomo Puccini:
Le Villi, arija Anne: „Se come voi piccina”
Tosca, arija Tosce; „Vissi d'arte”
Isaac Albéniz:
Tango u D-duru, op. 165 br. 2, za klavir
Giacomo Puccini:
La Bohème, arija Mimì: „Donde lieta usci”
Madama Butterfly, arija Cio-Cio San (Butterfly): „Un bel dí vedremo”
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Sonya Yoncheva and Malcolm Martineau named their selection of art songs and arias after Verdi’s song about a ‘beautiful star of the Earth’. This evening’s programme begins and ends with the works of another great composer: Giacomo Antonio Puccini (Lucca, 1858 – Brussels, 1924) was born into a family of church musicians and initially followed in their footsteps. Although he composed some of the world’s most celebrated operas, which form the core of the repertoire of opera houses around the world, many music historians and critics did not take him seriously at first, considering him too commercial and prone to shocking the audiences. Last year, the world marked the centenary of death of this composer, the last in the long line of classical Italian masters of opera, whose works never leave the stage. Puccini’s songs – romanze – 17 of them in total, are performed less frequently and are usually more restrained, with a more limited vocal range:
He wrote the song Sole e amore – Sun and Love – in 1888, officially to a text by an unknown author, but probably his own, influenced by the sonnet Mattinata by Giosuè Carducci (‘The sun cheerfully taps at your windows. Love softly taps at your heart’). He used the same music in the opera La bohème, in the quartet, or double duet, Addio dolce. However, the short song lacks the great vocal climax from the opera, the part taken over by the piano here. Puccini gave the autograph of the composition as a gift to another composer from this evening’s programme, Tosti. The text of the song contains a dedication to Paganini, or – Paganini: the final sentence reads ‘Al Paganini, G. Puccini’, probably because his publisher, Camilio Sivori, was a student of Paganini, but perhaps also because it was commissioned by the Paganini magazine. Puccini wrote the song Terra e mare (Land and Sea) in 1902 for the Novissima sheet music collection, edited by Edoardo de Fonseca. Each musical phrase is marked by a fixed rhythmic pattern, for ‘the poplars’, ‘the wind’ and ‘the voice of the sea’ from the text by Enrico Panzacchi.
The song Mentía l’avviso (‘The warning was false’) was also included in one of Puccini’s operas, Manon Lescaut. He composed the song in 1883 for the final exam at the Milan Conservatory, to a text by Felice Romani. It appears that he already intended to develop it into a full operatic scene at that time. Soprano Angela Gheorghiu, who has recorded all of Puccini’s songs, said that it was ‘one of the most difficult songs she has ever performed’ and added that the piano part was also very elaborate and demanding. Puccini composed the Canto d’anime (Song of the Souls) in 1904 as part of the contract with the British Gramophone Company, which obtained the exclusive rights to reproduce the piece on its ‘talking machines’. Luigi Illica, Puccini’s librettist, is the author of the text (‘They flee; the years, the betrayals, the foolish thoughts’) about longing for what has passed, but also about the effort to rise towards the ideal and ‘sunlight’.
Giuseppe Martucci (Capua, 1856 – Naples, 1909) was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor, particularly involved in the organization of Italian concert life. The composer Gian Francesco Malipiero described him as a ‘genius in the fullest sense’, and his Second Symphony as the starting point of the renaissance of non-operatic Italian music. Al folto bosco (‘To the thick woods’) was written in 1898 to a text by Rocco Emanuele Pagliara: ‘To the thick woods, to the serene shade, (…) my soul always returns, sad, tormented, in distress’. It is part of the Canzone dei ricordi cycle.
Francesco Paolo Tosti (Ortano sul Mare, 1846 – Rome, 1916) is the author of numerous popular songs, also known for his work as a singing teacher. After his studies and initial success in Italy, he regularly travelled to England, where he moved in 1880 and became a singing master to the royal family, and later at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He was knighted in 1908 and returned to Italy four years later. Composed to Italian, French and English texts, his songs are characterized by flowing and elegant melodies. He wrote the song Ideale (Ideal) to a text by Carmelo Errico (‘I followed you like a rainbow of peace, along the paths of heaven’), and L’ultimo bacio (The Last Kiss) to a text by Emilio Praga (‘If you see him, tell him I love him, just as I did in the early days’).
Like Puccini, Verdi is primarily known for his operas and arias: the name of Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (Busseto, 1813 – Milan, 1901), the composer of 28 Romantic operas, has become synonymous with opera. He achieved great success with his ‘middle period’ operas – Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata. Later, he composed Aida, Requiem, Otello, Falstaff etc. He was also politically active, advocating for the unification of Italy, and he initiated and financed the construction of a special home for retired musicians.
Verdi considered himself ‘the least learned of composers’, but the melodiousness of his arias, the expressiveness of his vocal and orchestral lines, the instrumental emphasis on atmosphere, the representation of characters, and close collaboration with librettists created a praised and distinct musical style. Verdi’s solo songs were not a different, intimate form, but virtually served as exercises for arias. In 1838 he published his first six songs, and in 1845 his second collection.
He wrote the song In solitaria stanza (In a lonely room) in 1839, to verses by Jacopo Vittorelli, about a woman lying alone in a room and suffering (‘Save, o merciful Gods, this heavenly beauty’). The rapturous Ad una stella (To a star, composed to a text by Andrea Maffei), which gave the title to this concert, tells about an imprisoned soul that looks up to the stars and dreams of ‘flying free’. Verdi wrote the song L’esule (The Exile) to a text by Temistocle Solera, in which everything seems idyllic (‘Look! The white moon shines over the hills, the night breeze flows lightly’), but the exile is condemned to sadness and longing.
Giacomo Puccini’s operas are characterized by dramatic power, sentimentality, and dedication to detailed characterisation, as well as skilful, sometimes extravagant, orchestration, and a gift for melody. Many of Puccini’s operas feature a young female character that sacrifices herself or is sacrificed for a cruel man. ‘Se come voi’ is Anna’s aria from Le Villi, Puccini’s rarely performed opera-ballet, his first stage work, composed to a libretto by Ferdinando Fontana. He wrote it for the publisher Sonzogno’s competition in 1883, but did not win. However, his friends supported him and helped him stage the work, which was well received. The plot revolves around young Anna, who is abandoned by her fiancé Roberto and dies of a broken heart. Such women become the ‘villi’ – fairies, or spirits who make unfaithful men dance until exhaustion. In this aria, Anna is still waiting for Roberto’s return and innocently sings to the flowers around her.
The opera Tosca, first performed in 1900 and written to a libretto by Illica and Giacosa, based on the play of the same name by Sardou, is one of the most popular and most appreciated operas in the standard repertoire. Tosca is a work of art that ‘speaks’ about art and artists, but also about politics and love. Floria Tosca is an opera singer in a relationship with the painter Cavaradossi; he is helping Angelotti, who is fighting against the evil and powerful chief of the Roman police, Scarpia. Scarpia wants Tosca and tries to blackmail her: he demands that she give herself to him if she wants Cavaradossi to live. Tosca kills Scarpia, but Cavaradossi does not survive and she leaps to her death. In the aria ‘Vissi d’arte’ in Act 2, Tosca sings about how she ‘lived for art’, did no harm to anyone, decorated altars – and wonders why the Lord is repaying her with such a difficult fate.
Isaac Albéniz (Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz; Camprodón, 1860 – Cambo-les-Bains, 1909) grew up in Barcelona and played the piano from an early age. He often interrupted his music studies (in Spain, Belgium, Germany) to perform and travel. He also conducted and began composing zarzuelas. In Barcelona, he studied composition with Felipe Pedrell, a legendary professor who educated an entire generation of Spanish composers, and taught piano. He developed a national style in his works, but, unlike Pedrell, he did not use folk music as his basic material, but composed music that hinted at links with Spanish tradition. The Tango in D major from 1890, a part of a suite for solo piano, España, is a tango that is less explosive, more dreamy and refined.
Puccini wrote the extremely popular opera La bohème in 1896 to a libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, based on texts by Henri Murger about the bohemian life of Parisian artists. The libretto was commissioned by Giulio Ricordi, who offered it to Puccini, and the unconventional theme shocked some of the audiences at the time. Mimì sings the aria ‘Donde lieta’ after breaking up with Rodolfo: she repeatedly emphasizes that they are parting without anger or resentment and that she only came to get her things. Rodolfo has concluded that his beloved is better off without him because he cannot take care of her now that she is ill, and she thinks it is better for him not to watch her wither. Nevertheless, at the end of the opera, she dies in his arms.
‘Un bel dì’ is one of the most famous opera arias, from the opera Madama Butterfly (1904), composed to a libretto by Giacosa and Illica. In the aria, geisha Cio-Cio San replies to her maid Suzuki and assures her that the American whom Cio-Cio San loves, the father of her child, who has gone to the USA, will return to her after all. After three years, Suzuki does not believe that this will happen, but Cio-Cio San imagines every detail, as well as her future excitement when she sees Pinkerton again. Before her tragic end, Puccini allows us to briefly enjoy the extraordinary vocal beauty.
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