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'Otello' (March), 'Andrea Chenier' (April) ...

22/4/2017

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​Our March opera was “Otello” by Gioachino Rossini  (1792 - 1868).
 
Otello, loosely based on Shakespeare’s Othello, was first performed  in December 1816. Desdemona has pledged to marry Otello the Moor whom she loves. Otello’s jealous and faithless friend Iago plots to destroy him by intercepting a letter Desdemona has written to Otello but not written his name. Iago shows it to Otello claiming she wrote it to another lover. Jealousy overwhelms Otello, he confronts her and kills her just before a messenger arrives who reveals the plot to him.  He then kills himself in remorse.  No happy endings here!
 
Rossini had been living in Naples for some time and writing operas.  Otelo was the second of ten serious operas he wrote between 1815 and 1822.  This group of operas were transformational in changing the light joyous C18th style of opera to the C19th style of more serious opera-drama.   It is also a tenor’s dream as all the main male roles are tenors.  John Osborn sang the vacillating Ottello with Peter Kalman as the sly Elmiro and Javier Camarena the faithless friend.  Desdemona was sung by Cecilia Bartoli.  Our recording is the most recent DVD production from the Zurich Opera in 2012.
 
In April we listened to Giordano’s opera, “Andrea Chenier”.
 
This opera was written in 1896 and continues the C19th tradition of composers looking for drama in actual events or situations that are common to their times. The French Revolution [1789 – 1799 ] offers many awful opportunities for a composer to explore revolution, betrayal, brutality and love.  In a way the revolution was far more dreadful than any composer could envisage 90 years later.  The drama is tempered by the love story between the poet Andrea Chenier, a supporter of the revolution and his love Maddalena, the daughter of a Count, a member of a class that is being exterminated by the revolutionaries because of their indifference and cruelty to the middle class and the poor.

There is no Scarlet Pimpernel in this opera to save the two doomed lovers, but we thrilled to the voices of Jonas Kaufmann singing the role of Chenier, the Serbian tenor Zeljko Lucic as Gerard and Eva-Maria Westbroek as Maddalena.  This is a Royal Opera House DVD originally performed in London in 2015.



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    ​Opera - four wonderful seasons with Meg Dillon

     'Opera - On the Dark Side' (2016)
     'In the Mood for Opera' (which included 19th Century favourties) (2017)
     'Exploring New Operas' (when most operas were based on twentieth century novels or events') (2018)
    'A Night at the Opera - French Style', which explored some of the great nineteenth century French composers like Berlioz, Debussy, Ravel and Poulenc who were interested in opera as a musical form.  Lovely arias, tuneful music, great singers and performances. (2019)

    Scroll through these pages to enjoy, and for those who attended, reminisce about, four courses offered by Meg Dillon, supported by Terry, at their home, DVDs of the best possible versions were  screened with subtitles in English.  Limited to 10 members, participants received a synopsis of the story in the week prior to screening. 

    ​Thank you so much, Meg!  What a truly wonderful program you  developed for our members!  

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    Meg Dillon 5762 6558

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    2nd  Wednesdays from 7.00 pm - Semester 1 only in 2018.  

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