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BEST OF OPERA, VOL. 1 |
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Composer: |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Richard Wagner, Pietro Mascagni, Georges Bizet, Antonin Dvorak |
Artist: |
Jana Valaskova, Graciela Alperyn, Giacomo Aragall, Jussi Bjorling, John Dickie, Miroslav Dvorsky, Stefka Evstatieva, Miriam Gauci, Thomas Harper, Raoul Jobin, Monika Krause, Giorgio Lamberti, Herbert Lippert, Janez Lotric, Andrea Martin, Nicola Martinucci, Anna di Mauro, Lauritz Melchior, Nelly Miricioiu, Tancredi Pasero, Ezio Pinza, Lily Pons, Rosa Ponselle, Yordy Ramiro, Donna Robin, Stella Roman, Helge Rosvaenge, Bidu Sayao, Gladys Swarthout, Renata Tebaldi, Georg Tichy, Alan Titus, Eduard Tumagian, Jonathan Welch, John Brownlee, Luba Orgonasova, Kurt Azesberger, John McCormack, Ian Caddy, Alida Ferrarini, Louise Homer, Nellie Melba, Antonio Scotti, Giuseppe Valdengo, Salvatore Baccaloni, Anna-Lisa Bjorling, Lina Bruna-Rasa, Carlo Galeffi, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Mercedes Capsir, Lionello Cecil, Igor Morozov, Pia Tassinari, Licia Albanese, Beniamino Gigli, Tatiana Menotti, Afro Poli, Feodor Chaliapin, Frida Leider, Richard Tauber, Elisabeth Schumann, Leonard Warren, Erna Berger, Jan Peerce, Nan Merriman, Gino Bechi, Maria Marcucci, Eleanor Steber, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Tiana Lemnitz, Frederic Jagel, Iva Pacetti, Mario Basiola, Giuseppe Nessi, Leone Paci, Maria Caniglia, Lucrezia Bori, Mario Lanza, Ida Conti, Aristide Baracchi, Natale Villa, Lina Pagliughi, Maria Muller, Ruth Jost-Arden, Sigismund Pilinszky, Ivar Andresen, Herbert Janssen, Bo Skovhus, Francesco Merli, Frances Alda, Luisa Tetrazzini, Pasquale Amato, Josephine Jacoby, Mirella Freni, Peter Schreier, Karita Mattila, Margaret Price, Francis Lapitino, Nazzareno de Angelis, Hellen Kwon, Ruth Ziesak, Reinald Werrenrath, Robert Easton, Titta Ruffo, Ernesto Dominici, Hilde Gueden, Charles Kullman, Toti Dal Monte, Vittoria Palombini, Tito Schipa, Giovanni Martinelli, Silvano Carroli, Carlo Tagliabue, Benno Ziegler, Landon Ronald, Magda Olivero, Gina Cigna, Kurt Rydl, Wilfried Gahmlich, Hjordis Schymberg, Boje Skovhus, Alzbeta Michalkova, Irra Petina, Carlo Forti, Fabio Previati, Carmen Gonzales, Ivan Urbas, Boaz Senator, Doina Palade, Maria Zamboni, Grace Moore, Solange Michel, Michel Dens, Martha Angelici, Jennie Tourel, Richard Wright, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Giovanna Casolla, Zinka Milanov, Nicola Moscona, Margaret Roggero, Paul Franke, George Cehanovsky, Lando Bartolini, Masako Deguci, Francisco Heredia, Felipe Bou, Armando Ariostini, Javier Mas, Jose Garcia-Quijada, Gorka Gerrikabeitia, Giuseppe de Luca, Giacinto Prandelli, Giovanni Inghilleri, Fernando Corena, Piero De Palma, Melchiorre Luise, Ildebrando Santafe, Patrice Munsel, Studio pianist, Alan Opie, Dusolina Giannini, Joseph Schmidt, Claramae Turner, Vladimir Kubovcik, Marian Vach, Vittore Veneziani, Ladislav Neshyba, Jan Rozehnal, Alma Gluck, Jan Durco, Folke Alin, Christina Hornell, Robert Merrill, Peter Mattei, Hillevi Martinpelto, Stanislav Benacka, Guiseppe Campora, Nell Rankin, Amelita Galli-Curci, Flora Perini, Ana Maria Martinez, Elisabeth Norberg-Schulz, Andrea Piccinni, Jozef Spacek, Nelly Boschkowa, Robert Szucs, Jozef Abel, Jiri Sulzenko, Richard Novak, Ladislav Hallon, Danilo Rigosa, Ann Liebeck, Dalia Schaechter, Rannveig Braga, Ivica Neshybova, Peter Oswald, Pavol Maurery, Peter Subert, Jitka Saparova, Ana Tomkovicova, Maria Stahelova, Helena Hanzelova, Lotte Leitner, Maria Huder, Adelio Zagonara, Gino Conti, Ingvar Wixell, Dario Caselli, Victoria De los Angeles, Marcello Giordani, Maria Arghiracopulos, Sunhae Im, Martha Lipton, Thelma Altman, Salvatore Cottone, Alberto Rinaldi, Tatiana Lisnic, Mabel Perelstein, Stefano Secco, Gerardo Lopez Gamez, Sara Galli, Celestino Varela, Carlos Ruiz, Claudia Marchi, Javier Zorilla, Antonio Torres Merino, Maria Callas, Rolando Panerai, Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, Angelo Mercuriali, Tito Gobbi, Franco Calabrese, Alvaro Cordova, Heddle Nash, Gerhard Husch, Nicolai Gedda, Renato Bruson, Vicenc Esteve, Carol Brice, Indra Thomas, Kristine Jepson, Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecien, Valerian Ruminski, Mario Sammarco, Diana Soviero, Soile Isokoski, Raffaele Arie, Anna Maria Canali, Rina Cavallari, Ede Gandolfo Marietti, Ines Marietti, Francesco Albanese, Ugo Savarese, Mariano Caruso, Mario Zorgniotti, Alberto Albertini, Gino Bianchi, Franco Rossi, Giulio Mogliotti, Marlis Petersen, Hermann Prey, Juliane Banse, Elizabeth Campbell, Edna Thornton, Camilla Nylund, Fritz Wunderlich, Raimo Sirkia, Geraldine Farrar, Birgit Nordin, Norman Cordon, Rina Gigli, Ebe Ticozzi, Nicola Monti, Lucia Danieli, Mario Borriello, Renato Ercolani, Luisa Villa, Mario Carlin, Plinio Clabassi, Enrico Campi, Norberto Mola, Kitty Wilson, Anna Maria Rota, Hao Jiang Tian, Roberta Peters, John Bolton Wood, Lawrence Tibbett, Enrico Caruso, Antonietta Stella, Lucy Isabelle Marsh, Elena Nicolai, Elvira Galassi, Luisa Mandelli, Adriana Lazzarini, Giuse Gerbino, Giorgio Casciarri, Marcos Fink, Vittorio Tatozzi, Matti Hirvonen, Nicola Zaccaria, William Dickie, Franco Ricciardi, Richard Tucker, Dino Fedri, Dora Labbette, Stella Andreva, Robert Alva, John Reardon, Giorgio Tozzi, Lucine Amara, William Nahr, Thomas Powell, George del Monte, Lado Ataneli, Juha Uusitalo, Renato Capecchi, Silvio Maionica, Giuseppe Zampieri, Arturo la Porta, Tommaso Frascati, Leonardo Monreale, Lidia Grandi, Silvana Celli, Santa Chissari, Andrea Mineo, Giulio Mauri, Hui He, Gino Del Signore, Giulio Scarinci, Ottorino Bagalli, Raymond Keast, Anna-Kristiina Kaappola, Bruno Sbalchiero, Konstantin Wolff, Dermot Troy, Magnus Staveland, Daniel Behle, Eugenio Fernandi, Elisabetta Fusco, Pinuccia Perotti, Manuel Spatafora, Carlo Badioli, Anna Moffo, Eraldo Coda, Cesare Valletti, Mario Zanasi, Marie Collier, Lea Roberts, Forbes Robinson, Rene Moller, Joachim Buhrmann, Anna Grevelius, Inga Kalna, Sarah M'Punga, Ji-Min Park, Simone del Savio, David Kelly, Daniel Schmutzhard, Isabelle Druet, Alois Muhlbacher, Christoph Schlogl, Philipp Potzlberger, Clemens-Maria Nuszbaumer, Christian Koch, Rhydderch Davies, Michael Langdon, Ronald Lewis, Howell Glynne, David Tree, Noreen Berry |
Conductor: |
Landon Ronald, Christoph Poppen, Wilfrid Pelletier, Eugene Goossens, Sten Frykberg, Victor De Sabata, Cesare Sodero, Rene Jacobs, Josef A. Pasternack, Oliviero De Fabritiis, Gabriele Santini, Lawrence Collingwood, Frederik IX (King of Denmark), Will Humburg, Gaetano Merola, Markus Lehtinen, Pietro Mascagni, Arturo Toscanini, Herbert von Karajan, Michael Halasz, Konrad Leitner, Antonello Gotta, Lodovico Zocche, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, Stanford Robinson, Argeo Quadri, Enrico Sivieri, Marcus Creed, Lawrence Renes, Otto Dobrindt, Alberto Erede, Victor Trucco, Giulio Setti, Carlo Sabajno, Steven Mercurio, Izler Solomon, John Barbirolli, Lorenzo Molajoli, Giuseppe Antonicelli, Walter Goehr, Walter B. Rogers, Rosario Bourdon, Umberto Berrettoni, Dino Olivieri, Renato Cellini, Constantine Callinicos, Thomas Fulton, Sixten Ehrling, Selmar Meyrowitz, Franco Ghione, Frieder Weissmann, Karl Elmendorff, Eckhard Weyand, Oliver Dohnanyi, Bjarte Engeset, Nils Grevillius, Ondrej Lenard, Hannu Lintu, Karl Muck, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Ettore Panizza, Alexander Rahbari, Leif Segerstam, Tullio Serafin, Bruno Walter, Johannes Wildner, Joseph Rescigno, Charles Rosekrans, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Carl Schuricht, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Jonel Perlea, Long Yu, Antonino Votto, Thomas Beecham, Leo Blech, Bruno Seidler-Winkler, Andre Cluytens, Vincenzo Bellezza, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, Jean Morel, Roberto Paternostro, Giacomo Spadoni, James Robertson, Gino Marinuzzi, Ivan Anguelov, Wolfgang Grohs, Mikko Franck, Heinz Wallberg, Heinz Fricke, Nicola Rescigno, Kurt Peter Eichhorn, Vladimir Ghiaurov, Otmar Suitner, Shao-Chia Lu, Giovanni Reggioli |
Choir: |
Bayreuth Festival Chorus, Kiev Chamber Choir, New York Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Slovak Philharmonic Chorus, Hungarian Festival Chorus, Favres Solisten Vereinigung, Robert Shaw Chorale, Milan La Scala Chorus, San Francisco Opera Company Women's Chorus, Rome Opera House Chorus, Stockholm Royal Opera Chorus , Opera Australia Chorus, Hungarian Festival Choir, Paris Opera-Comique Chorus, RCA Victor Chorus, Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Santa Cecilia Academy Chorus, Rome, Slovak Philharmonic Choir, Bratislava Children's Choir, Royal Swedish Opera Chorus, Bilbao Choral Society, CETRA Chorus, Columbus Boychoir, Catania Teatro Massimo Bellini Chorus, Slovak Chamber Choir, Capella Vocalis Boys Choir, RAI Chorus, Turin, Philharmonia Chorus, RIAS Chamber Chorus, Bratislava National Opera Choir, Compagnia d'Opera Italiana Chorus, Covent Garden Opera Chorus |
Orchestra: |
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Victor Orchestra, Milan Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, MGM Studio Orchestra, Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Rosario Bourdon Orchestra, Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden, Ukrainian National Opera Symphony Orchestra, Prussian State Orchestra, Budapest Failoni Chamber Orchestra, Stockholm Symphony Orchestra, Stockholm Royal Opera Orchestra , Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, New Symphony Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, RCA Victor Orchestra, Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Belgian Radio and Television Philharmonic Orchestra, Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra, RAI Symphony Orchestra, Turin, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Razumovsky Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Capella Istropolitana, Josef Pasternack Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Catania Teatro Massimo Bellini Orchestra, Rome Opera House Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nils Grevillius Orchestra, Montreal Opera Orchestra, CSR Symphony Orchestra, Bratislava, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, John Barbirolli Orchestra, Eugene Goossens Orchestra, Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Swedish Orchestra, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Mozart Orchestra, Wurttemberg Philharmonic Orchestra, Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Failoni Orchestra, Budapest, Berlin State Opera Orchestra, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Milan La Scala Orchestra , Dresden Staatskapelle, Studio orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra , Paris Opera-Comique Orchestra, Santa Cecilia Academy Orchestra, Rome, Europa Symphony, Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bratislava, Berlin Akademie fur Alte Musik, German Radio Saarbrucken-Kaiserslautern Philharmonic Orchestra, Compagnia d'Opera Italiana Orchestra, Dalasinfoniettan, Covent Garden Orchestra, Covent Garden Opera Orchestra |
Lyricist: |
Giuseppe Giacosa, Ludovic Halevy, Henri Meilhac, Francesco Maria Piave, Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, Guido Menasci, Emanuel Schikaneder, Renato Simoni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Richard Wagner, Eugene Cormon, Michel Carre, Giuseppe Adami, Giovacchino Forzano, Luigi Illica, Temistocle Solera, Jaroslav Kvapil |
Label: |
Naxos |
Catalogue No.: |
8.553166 |
Format: |
CD |
Barcode: |
0730099416627 |
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The Best of Opera Vol.1
The first volume of the Naxos selection of operatic excerpts includes music
ranging from Mozart to Puccini. The first of these composers is represented by
the famous aria of the Queen of the Night from The Magic Flute. Mozart
had settled in Vienna, independent of a patron and of his father's guidance, in
1781. Ten years later, after variable successes, his fortunes seemed about to
take a turn for the better. In 1791, the year of his death, he w rote two
operas, the coronation opera La clemenza di Tito for Prague and the
German Singspiel Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) for a suburban
theatre in Vienna. The latter was still running at the time of his death in
early December. The opera, imbued with masonic symbolism and with a libretto by
the actor-manager Emanuel Schikaneder, who took a leading comic rôle in the
work, deals with the ordeals and initiation of Tamino and his earthier
companion, the bird-catcher Papageno, into the mysteries of enlightenment and
his final union with Pamina, daughter of the Queen of the Night. In the first
act of the opera the latter appears to Tamino, seeking his help in the rescue of
her daughter from Sarastro, whom she brands as evil, although it later
transpires that he is the leader of the enlightened band into which Tamino is
eventually admitted. In Der Hölle Rache she declares, in brilliant
coloratura, her enmity to her former consort Sarastro.
Giuseppe Verdi dominated Italian opera in the second half of the nineteenth
century. For many he seemed a symbol of national unity, at a time when this was
a matter of great moment, his very name an acronym for Vittorio Emanuele, rè
d'Italia (Victor Emanuel, King of Italy). His first great success came in 1842
with the production in Milan of the opera Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar). The
subject, the captivity of the Jewish people under Babylon, had obvious political
significance in an Italy partly dominated by foreign powers. The chorus of
Hebrew slaves, Va pensiero (Fly, my thoughts, on golden wings), toiling
by the waters of Babylon, struck a necessarily patriotic note, particularly at
the words O mia patria, si bella e perduta (O my country, so fair and yet
lost).
Rigoletto, first staged in Venice in 1851, is based on Victor Hugo' s Le
roi s' amuse. The opera deals with the fate of the court jester Rigoletto,
who abets the lascivious Duke of Mantua in his amorous exploits only to have his
own beloved daughter Gilda seduced by his master. He seeks revenge through the
agency of the hired assassin Sparafucile, but his scheme misfires, resulting,
instead, in the murder of Gilda. Bella figlia dell'amore, a quartet for
the Duke, Maddalena, Rigoletto and Gilda, comes at the climax of the opera. The
Duke, whom Rigoletto has planned to have killed, is in the house of his proposed
murderer, dallying with Sparafucile's sister, Maddalena, who is to lure him to
his death. Rigoletto secretly observes the scene, to the distress of Gilda, who
still loves her seducer.
Two years later La Traviata was staged, also in Venice and based on a
French original, this time the play La dame aux camélias of the younger
Alexandre Dumas. Violetta, the heroine, a fashionable courtesan, is loved by the
young Alfredo, but is induced by the latter's father to renounce him in favour
of her old life, so as not to damage the honour of Alfredo' s family and the
marriage prospects of his sister. Alfredo knows nothing of Violetta's
self-sacrifice, and only learns the truth as she lies dying of consumption. The
drinking-song, Libiamo ne'lieti calici, is introduced by Alfredo at
Violetta's house, which he is visiting for the first time, invited by her to a
reception there.
La forza del destino was written for performance in Russia in 1862. It is
based on the Spanish play Don Alvaro o la fuerza delsino by Angel
Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, which recounts a complex tale of the working of fate in
the love of Leonora and Don Alvaro, unwitting cause of her father's death and
therefore the object of vengeance from her brother. The overture sets the scene
for the sombre tragedy that follows.
The leading composer in Italian opera after Verdi was Giacomo Puccini, an
exponent of dramatic realism. He won success in 1896 with his opera La
Bohème, based on a French novel by Henri Murger that deals with life in the
Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1830s. A group of young artists share an
attic apartment. The poet of the group, Rodolfo, is alone when a timid knock at
the door introduces a neighbour, the poor little seamstress Mimi, who seeks a
light for her candle. She and Rodolfo fall in love as their hands meet,
searching for the key she has dropped, and timidly she reveals the name by which
she is known, Mi chiamono Mimi (They call me Mimi). Their love cannot
last, and after various vicissitudes is renewed only on her death-bed.
Puccici's La Tosca followed in 1900, based on a French play by
Victorien Sardou. The heroine of the title loves the painter Cavaradossi, who is
implicated in revolutionary activity, assisting a fugitive to escape, and is
imprisoned and condemned to death by the wicked Chief of Police, Baron Scarpia.
Tosca, a singer, seeks to secure his release, which she can only do at the price
of her honour. She secures what she thinks is a pardon and laissez-passer from
Scarpia, whom she then murders. Scarpia, however, has deceived her, since he has
planned not a mock-execution of Cavaradossi, as he had assured her, but the
man's real death by firing-squad. Tosca, Scarpia's murder undiscovered, believes
until the end that Cavaradossi will escape with her. When she realises that he
is dead and that Scarpia's murder is now known, she leaps from the prison
battlements to her own death. Cavaradossi, in prison in Castel San Angelo,
reflects in E lucevan le stelle on happier times.
In Madama Butterfly Puccini turned for his plot to an American play by
David Belasco on a Japanese subject, the betrayal of the heroine of the title,
the young Japanese girl Cio-Cio-San, by a visiting American naval officer,
Pinkerton, who goes through a form of marriage with the girl, having no serious
intention of remaining true to her. He leaves and Cio-Cio-San patiently awaits
his return, watching for his ship with her loyal servant Suzuki and the boy that
Pinkerton has fathered. When the latter eventually returns he brings with him
his American wife and Cio-Cio-San, Madama Butterfly, kills herself. On her
wedding-day Cio-Cio-San has been cursed by her uncle, the Bonze, and as evening
falls she is comforted by Pinkerton in a love duet, Bimba dagli occhi, which
ends the first act.
Gianni Schicchi formed part of an operatic triptych by Puccini, first
staged in New York in 1918. Gianni Schicchi himself helps the family of Buoso
Donati, who has just died, to frustrate the intentions expressed in his will to
leave his money to a monastery. Schicchi impersonates the dead man and makes a
new will, but secures much of the property for himself, to the anger of Buoso
Donati’s family, who remain powerless. Omio babbino caro is sung by
Schicchi's daughter Lauretta, who wants to marry Rinuccio, a relative of Buoso
Donati who is instrumental in bringing in Schicchi to solve the family' s
difficulties and his own.
Puccini's last opera, Turandot, was left unfinished at the time of his
death in 1924. It is based on the eighteenth century play by Gozzi dealing with
the cold- hearted Chinese princess Turandot, who sets her suitors three riddles.
Those unsuccessful are put to death. Calaf, son of the conquered King of Tartary,
eventually solves the riddles and wins the heart of Turandot. In Nessun dorma
Calaf, having solved the riddles set by Turandot, now agrees that if she can
find out his name in the course of one night, she may have him killed. As the
night passes, none may sleep, as Turandot seizes every means to find out Calaf's
name, but he is certain of victory.
The Italian composers Leoncavallo and Mascagni are often coupled, since their
operas I Pagliacci and La cavalleria rusticana often form a
double-bill in the opera-house. The first, by Leoncavallo, is based on an actual
event and centres on the murder, by the jealous actor Canio, of his faithless
wife Nedda and her lover Silvio during the course of a play in which he, as
Pagliaccio, finds himself in a similar situation with Columbine, the part take
by Nedda. In Vesti la giubba and the dramatic section that precedes it,
Canio resolves to conceal his feelings, hiding behind the make-up and dress of
an actor in a performance during which he eventually drops his mask.
Mascagni's La cavalleria rusticana also deals with jealousy and
murder. The action is set in a Sicilian village, where Santuzza has been seduced
by Turiddu, who now turns his attention to the wife of Alfio, a carter whose
work takes him often away from the village. Santuzza takes her revenge on
Turiddu by telling Alfio of the faithlessness of his wife and provoking a duel
in which Turiddu is killed. The Intermezzo reflects the course of
affairs, coming after Santuzza has told Alfio of Turiddu's behaviour and hinting
at the tragedy to come.
The most important figure in German music-theatre in the nineteenth century
is Richard Wagner, a man inspired by his own grandiose ideals, to which all had
to give way. He created a new form of dramatic unity in a combination of the
arts of music and drama, for which he wrote words and music and which he
directed, eventually in a theatre in Bayreuth constructed to his own novel
design. His Tannhäuser, on the life of the medieval Minnesinger of that
name, has more contemporary connotations. The opera was first staged in Dresden
in 1845. Tannhäuser himself has given way to the pleasures offered by Venus,
but returns to the world to seek redemption. The famous Pilgrims' Chorus Beglückt
darf nun dich marks his return to the world, as pilgrims set out on their
journey to Rome. Returning pilgrims will eventually give Tannhäuser a sign of
his salvation.
Realism came to French opera in particular with Georges Bizet and his last
opera Carmen, based on a play by Prosper Mérimée and first staged in
Paris in 1875, the year of Bizet's death. Love and jealousy again dominate the
plot, set in Seville. The gypsy girl Carmen lures the soldier Don José from his
duty and from his beloved Micaela, persuading him to follow her to the mountain
hide-out of her smuggler companions, after he has been demoted and punished for
allowing her to escape from prison. Carmen then deserts him for the bull-fighter
Escamillo. Don José, in final despair, kills Carmen, as her new lover is again
enjoying triumph in the arena. The famous Toreador's Song is introduced
as Escamillo first describes his glamorous career.
The Czech composer Antonín Dvořák worked for some years as a
viola-player in the opera orchestra in Prague and himself wrote some ten operas.
The penultimate, in order of composition, Rusalka, written
in 1901, is based on de la Motte Fouqué's Undine, the story of a water
spirit who falls in love with a mortal. Rusalka is helped by a witch to assume
mortal shape, but dies when the prince she has married proves unfaithful. O
silver moon, Rusalka's Romance, occurs in the first act of the opera.
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