Teacher's Guide Cambridge Pre-U MUSIC Available for teaching ...

Cambridge Pre-U Teacher Guide
Bellini wrote far less than either Rossini or Donizetti, with only ten operas, all written between 1825
and 1835, and all of the opera seria type. His style is serious and sensual at the same time, and he
wrote with a conscious respect for the libretto (which, unusually, won him the approval of Wagner).
His best-known operas are those written after 1830: I Capuletti e i Montecchi (Venice, 1830), La
sonnambula (Milan, 1831) and Norma (Milan, 1831). In common with both Rossini and Donizetti,
Bellini’s last opera, I puritani (1835) was written for production in Paris. At that stage Bellini decided
to remain in Paris, where he was in negotiations with both the Opéra and the Opéra Comique for
further works at the time of his premature death.
The operatic careers of Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini came to an end within the space of only fourteen
years (Rossini’s last opera dates from 1829; Bellini died in 1835; and Donizetti’s last opera dates from
1843). These dates coincide very closely with the earliest successes of Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901):
Nabucco (Milan, 1842) and Ernani (Venice, 1844). It was as if Verdi had inherited the entire tradition
of Italian opera up to this time. The story of Nabucco, with its theme of a nation dreaming of being
delivered from captivity, and the Chorus of Hebrew slaves (Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate) in particular,
had a clear resonance for the Italian risorgimento movement. It was not long before it was noticed
that Verdi’s surname was an acronym for Vittorio Emanuele, Re d’Italia (Victor Emmanuel, King of
Italy) and ‘Viva Verdi!’ became a rallying-cry for the risorgimento. By the end of 1842 Nabucco had
received an unprecedented 65 performances at La Scala and over the next few years it was given
in opera houses all over Europe and beyond, including Lisbon, Barcelona, Stuttgart, Hamburg,
Copenhagen, London, New York, Buenos Aires, Havana and St Petersburg.
Verdi followed this early success with a succession of operas that confirmed his reputation.
Commissions came from theatres all over Italy and the works that resulted included I Lombardi
(Milan, 1843), Ernani (Venice, 1844) I due Foscari (Rome, 1844), Alzira (Naples, 1845), Macbeth
(Florence, 1847), Il corsaro (Trieste, 1848), Stiffelio (Trieste, 1850), Rigoletto (Venice, 1851), Il trovatore
(Rome, 1853) and La traviata (Venice, 1853). Commissions from abroad included I masnadieri
(London, 1847) and Jérusalem – a French revision of I Lombardi – (Paris, 1847). Most of these operas
were based on romantic literature by authors such as Hugo, Byron, Schiller, Dumas and Gutierrez;
Macbeth, of course, was based on Shakespeare. Verdi read dramatic literature avidly and his
understanding of the potential of opera as drama increased as a result. He began to take as much
interest in that staging of his works as in the music, and to stretch the conventions of Italian opera to
embrace his new dramatic vision.
In Paris for the production of Jérusalem, Verdi had experienced French grand opera at first hand.
His attitude to it was not entirely favourable, but he was attracted by the opportunities it presented
for large-scale works to be performed in a theatre which had resources far beyond any that were
available in Italy. He negotiated with the Paris Opéra over a period of some three years for a
commission to compose a grand opera for the Universal Exhibition of 1855, with a libretto by Eugène
Scribe. The eventual result was Les Vêpres siciliennes (1855). Thereafter, some of the characteristics
of grand opera found their way into works written for Italian theatres: the first version of Simon
Boccanegra (Venice, 1857) and Un ballo in maschera (Rome, 1859). Verdi’s quest for a synthesis
between French and Italian approaches to opera continued in La forza del destino (St Petersburg,
1862) and in another work for the Paris Opéra, the vast Don Carlos (1867). But it was in Aida (Cairo,
1871) that the fusion of styles came to fruition, with spectacular scenes that recall Meyerbeer and an
intimate concern for the human emotions of the main characters.
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