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Opera Evening of one-act operas: Alfredo Casella "La Favola d'Orfeo" and Bohuslav Martinu "Ariane"
Brilliant Classical Stanislavsky Ballet and Opera theatre (established 1887, founded by Stanislavsky)

Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes

The performance has 1 intermission

Schedule for Evening of one-act operas: Alfredo Casella "La Favola d'Orfeo" and Bohuslav Martinu "Ariane" 2022

Composer: Alfredo Casella
Composer: Bohuslav Martinu

Orchestra: Stanislavsky theatre symphony orchestra

Opera in 2 act

Premiere in Russia: 18 March 2016 Brilliant Classical Stanislavsky Ballet and Opera theatre (established 1887, founded by Stanislavsky)

On 18 March 2016 Classical Stanislavsky Ballet and Opera theatre has gave the Russian premiere of two operas of 20th century. The first one is La Favola d'Orfeo by Italian composer Alferdo Casella, the second one is Bohuslav Martinu´s lyric opera Ariane.

Libretto by Corrado Pavolini / Bohuslav Martinů

Music Director and Conductor Maria Maksimchuk

Stage Director Ekaterina Vasilyova

Set Designer Alexander Arefiev

Costume Designer Maria Chernyshova

Chorus Master Alexander Rybnov


Alfredo Casella

"La Favola di Orfeo" opera

Alfredo Casella's Orfeo is one of the few twentieth century versions of this tale, which formed the basis for one of the very first operas in the history of the genre. The libretto was written by Corrado Pavolini, and based on a verse drama by Angelo Poliziano. The resulting libretto remains true to the fifteenth century original in plot outline and even in some actual verses. Of Casella's three operas, La Favola di Orfeo is the best loved, and most frequently performed. It premiered at the Teatro Goldoni in Venice on September 6, 1932, to popular and critical acclaim. Casella, who studied with Fauré and wrote about Stravinsky, shows a marked preference for eclecticism in his compositions. Although he was a champion of modern Italian composition early in the twentieth century, his best writing reflects his own neo-Classical tendencies.

 

Bohuslav Martinu 

"Ariane" opera

Ariane is a one-act opera by Bohuslav Martinu to a French libretto by the composer drawn from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th acts of the 1943 play by Georges Neveux, Le Voyage de Thesee, (who had supplied the text to the composer's earlier opera Julietta)

Martinu composed Ariane in 1958 whilst working on his final opera, The Greek Passion – he described it in a letter to his family as 'taking a rest' from the larger work. The composition took just over a month. The bravura style of the writing for Ariadne reflects Martinu's admiration of Maria Callas. The opera is in a straightforward lyrical style with deliberate references to the operas of Monteverdi and other early composers.

Grove describes the music as being in a "warm, mainly tonal lyricism", at times "enlivened by neo-Baroque rhythmic patterns".

The first performance took place in 1961 at the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, as the centre-piece of a triple-bill with Mahagonny by Brecht and Weill and Der Analphabet by Ivo Lhotka-Kalinski, two years after the composer's death.

The Czech premiere took place on 23 October 1962 in Brno alongside Ariadne pieces by Claudio Monteverdi and Jiri Antonin Benda, conducted by Richard Tyn, with Miriam Supurkovska in the title role. In September that year the opera was broadcast live radio on Czechoslovak Radio Brno, conducted by Frantisek Jilek, with Cecilie Strádalová.

The Russian premiere was in Moscow in March 2016, conducted by Maria Maksimchuk.



Synopsis

Synopsis (La Favola d'Orfeo)

The action takes place in two contrasting locations: the fields of Thrace (Acts 1, 2 and 5) and the Underworld (Acts 3 and 4). An instrumental toccata (English: "tucket", meaning a flourish on trumpets)[34] precedes the entrance of La musica, representing the "spirit of music", who sings a prologue of five stanzas of verse. After a gracious welcome to the audience she announces that she can, through sweet sounds, "calm every troubled heart." She sings a further paean to the power of music, before introducing the drama's main protagonist, Orfeo, who "held the wild beasts spellbound with his song".

Scene 1

After La musica's final request for silence, the curtain rises on Act 1 to reveal a pastoral scene. Orfeo and Euridice enter together with a chorus of nymphs and shepherds, who act in the manner of a Greek chorus, commenting on the action both as a group and as individuals. A shepherd announces that this is the couple's wedding day; the chorus responds, first in a stately invocation ("Come, Hymen, O come") and then in a joyful dance ("Leave the mountains, leave the fountains"). Orfeo and Euridice sing of their love for each other before leaving with most of the group for the wedding ceremony in the temple. Those left on stage sing a brief chorus, commenting on how Orfeo used to be one "for whom sighs were food and weeping was drink" before love brought him to a state of sublime happiness.

Scene 2

Orfeo returns with the main chorus, and sings with them of the beauties of nature. Orfeo then muses on his former unhappiness, but proclaims: "After grief one is more content, after pain one is happier". The mood of contentment is abruptly ended when La messaggera enters, bringing the news that, while gathering flowers, Euridice has received a fatal snakebite. The chorus expresses its anguish: "Ah, bitter happening, ah, impious and cruel fate!", while the Messaggera castigates herself as the bearing of bad tidings ("For ever I will flee, and in a lonely cavern lead a life in keeping with my sorrow"). Orfeo, after venting his grief and incredulity ("Thou art dead, my life, and I am breathing?"), declares his intention to descend into the Underworld and persuade its ruler to allow Euridice to return to life. Otherwise, he says, "I shall remain with thee in the company of death". He departs, and the chorus resumes its lament.

Scene 3

Orfeo is guided by Speranza to the gates of Hades. Having pointed out the words inscribed on the gate ("Abandon hope, all ye who enter here"),Speranza leaves. Orfeo is now confronted with the ferryman Caronte, who addresses Orfeo harshly and refuses to take him across the river Styx. Orfeo attempts to persuade Caronte by singing a flattering song to him ("Mighty spirit and powerful divinity"), but the ferryman is unmoved. However, when Orfeo takes up his lyre and plays, Caronte is soothed into sleep. Seizing his chance, Orfeo steals the ferryman's boat and crosses the river, entering the Underworld while a chorus of spirits reflects that nature cannot defend herself against man: "He has tamed the sea with fragile wood, and disdained the rage of the winds."

Scene 4

In the Underworld, Proserpina, Queen of Hades, who has been deeply affected by Orfeo's singing, petitions King Plutone, her husband, for Euridice's release. Moved by her pleas, Plutone agrees on the condition that, as he leads Euridice towards the world, Orfeo must not look back. If he does, "a single glance will condemn him to eternal loss". Orfeo enters, leading Euridice and singing confidently that on that day he will rest on his wife's white bosom. But as he sings a note of doubt creeps in: "Who will assure me that she is following?". Perhaps, he thinks, Plutone, driven by envy, has imposed the condition through spite? Suddenly distracted by an off-stage commotion, Orfeo looks round; immediately, the image of Euridice begins to fade. She sings, despairingly: "Losest thou me through too much love?" and disappears. Orfeo attempts to follow her but is drawn away by an unseen force. The chorus of spirits sings that Orfeo, having overcome Hades, was in turn overcome by his passions.

Scene 5

Back in the fields of Thrace, Orfeo has a long soliloquy in which he laments his loss, praises Euridice's beauty and resolves that his heart will never again be pierced by Cupid's arrow. An off-stage echo repeats his final phrases. Suddenly, in a cloud, Apollo descends from the heavens and chastises him: "Why dost thou give thyself up as prey to rage and grief?" He invites Orfeo to leave the world and join him in the heavens, where he will recognise Euridice's likeness in the stars. Orfeo replies that it would be unworthy not to follow the counsel of such a wise father, and together they ascend. A shepherds' chorus concludes that "he who sows in suffering shall reap the fruit of every grace", before the opera ends with a vigorous moresca.

Original libretto ending

In Striggio's 1607 libretto, Orfeo's Act 5 soliloquy is interrupted, not by Apollo's appearance but by a chorus of maenads or Bacchantes—wild, drunken women—who sing of the "divine fury" of their master, the god Bacchus. The cause of their wrath is Orfeo and his renunciation of women; he will not escape their heavenly anger, and the longer he evades them the more severe his fate will be. Orfeo leaves the scene and his destiny is left uncertain, as the Bacchantes devote themselves for the rest of the opera to wild singing and dancing in praise of Bacchus. The early music authority Claude Palisca believes that the two endings are not incompatible; Orfeo might evade the fury of the Bacchantes and be rescued by Apollo.

 

Synopsis (Ariane)

Prologue – Sinfonia 1

The Watchman learns of the arrival in Knossos of Thesee and his companions from a passing seagull.

Scene 1

Thesee seeks the Minotaur and encounters Ariane. In an ambiguous conversation they seem to fall in love – but Ariane's love may be in fact for the Minotaur. The Old Man announces that the kings daughter is to be married to a stranger. Ariane reveals that she is the king's daughter and Thésée is the stranger – and asks for his name.

Scene 2

After a second sinfonia, Bouroun is dissatisfied that Thesee's infatuation with Ariane is preventing him from killing the Minotaur. Resolving to do the deed himself, he is killed by the Minotaur (offstage). When the Minotaur appears, he turns out to be Theseus's double, and taunts him – "who dares lift his hand to strike himself a death-blow?". Thesee slays the Minotaur however.

Scene 3

A third sinfonia separates the scenes. Thesee and his companions desert Ariane, whose lyrical lament closes the opera.

The whole opera, including the three miniature sinfonias which introduce and punctuate it, lasts little more than 40 minutes (of which Ariane's lament takes about 9).




Schedule for Evening of one-act operas: Alfredo Casella "La Favola d'Orfeo" and Bohuslav Martinu "Ariane" 2022


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