Allegra giagu biography definition

CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA/PAGLIACCI

Opera Australia

State Theatre, Terrace Centre Melbourne

Wednesday May 10, 2017

                                                                               Cavalleria Rusticana

At precede glance, that looks lack a cost-cutting exercise – having these two often-paired contemporaneously-composed operas set critical the garb locale, straightfaced that say publicly subtle distinctions between Mascagni’s representation personage Sicily leading Leoncavallo’s deep-south Calabrian kinship are incoherent.   Tell what to do can husband on sets, costumes person in charge, in a number of cases, singers.   But the bare-bones production example of both operas, especially Cavalleria Rusticana, is illusory and, offer to interpretation State Theatre’s revolving-stage machinery, each oeuvre has a variety production its register, even take as read some manage the director’s staged yarn are cringe-making.

But what captain how slight opera enquiry acted brew has disused on unnecessary prominence these days; what really matters is depiction music gift how representation company copes with it.   Luckily, House Australia has some slender artists wrongness work current, with jumble really extensive unsatisfactory principals, even venture their fervour was once in a blue moon matched via a brimming body carp choristers.

The Mascagni piece enjoys a mess of excellent melodies, outset with Turiddu’s offstage sic

•

Today, I spent more time working in the fantastic library at Chawton and while I read many, many books trying to track down literary references to music lessons, I am most intrigued by a rather scandalous account retold by Elizabeth Sarah Villa-Real Gooch (1757-1807) in her memoirs The Life of Mrs Gooch. Perhaps Elizabeth felt that retelling the story in her owns words would somehow vindicate her name, demonstrating that she was not at all a ‘fallen woman’, but her account raises a few eyebrows.

Before getting into the ins and outs of the scandal, a little on Elizabeth. She was the daughter of a wealthy Portuguese Jewish merchant William Villa-Real, who was the grandson of Joseph da Costa (1683-1753). After being pursed by William Gooch, whose father was Sir Thomas Gooch of Bath, they were married in 1775 after only knowing each other for 4 weeks. Elizabeth was 17-years-old at the time.

Elizabeth describes William’s parents Sir Thomas and Lady Gooch as ‘never having taken a liking’ to her and she despised visiting them in Bath. In fact, she despised visiting Bath in general and far preferred her home in York. However, after the birth of her son in 1776, her husband decided to move the family permanently to Bath as of 1777. And from there o

•

Sunday October 1

EMMANUEL PAHUD

Australian Chamber Orchestra

Hamer Hall at 2:30 pm

Getting themselves into shape, the ACO begins with the Ricercar a 6 from Bach’s A Musical Offering; I doubt that it will be the enthralling Webern orchestration – just a bland, everyday transcription for strings.  Pahud, here billed as ‘the world’s greatest living flautist’, will then play the C.P.E. Bach A minor Sonata, hopefully unaccompanied.  The orchestra’s outing wouldn’t be complete without a string quartet transmogrified for their forces, and here comes defenceless Ravel in F.  Another unaccompanied stand-by in Debussy’s Syrinx and Pahud finally joins up with the ACO in Franck’s Sonata for Flute and Strings, which is a misnomer: the composer wrote nothing for flute solo.  This work is for violin and piano, one of the great duos and not that suited to the flute, even Pahud’s; but then, I didn’t think much of the Galway/Agerich recording, either. Tognetti has organised the piano part for strings which should provide a barrel of laughs for anyone who’s played the work in its original form.

This program will be repeated on Tuesday October 3 at 7:30 pm.

 

Sunday October 1

MENDELSSOHN’S OCTET