A Night at the Opera
The only thing better than a night at the opera is an evening where you can sample offerings from eleven operas! Scroll down to find out some fascinating facts about the operas City Choir will draw from on our January 25 concert.
Carmen
An initial flop that scandalized the good citizens of Paris, Carmen went on to become, as Tchaikovsky predicted, one of the most famous operas in the world. Tragically, composer Georges Bizet died at age 36 after Carmen’s 33rd performance. You won’t regret watching the wickedly funny—and extremely educational—animated synopsis of Carmen’s plot and history in the video HERE by Classics Explained. (Or, as they describe it, “What happens when a Frenchman writes a Greek tragedy, in an Italian style, about the ultimate Spanish Siren? It’s not the set up to a bad joke, it’s the set up to CARMEN - the spiciest opera ever written.” If you are pressed for time, you can watch a short version HERE.) The City Choir of Washington is excited to share with you Artistic Director Erin Freeman’s curated “Carmen in Miniature” on January 25 in celebration of the opera’s 150th anniversary.
Men in Kilts: 19th-century Scottish Fever in Europe
It is no accident that two of the operas we drawn on for this concert, Verdi’s Macbeth and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, are set in Scotland. Due to the raging popularity throughout Europe of the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), everything Scottish—from plaids to tourism to literature—captured the imagination of a continent. Donizetti’s opera is based on Scott’s novel, The Bride of Lammermoor, and Bizet also wrote an opera, La jolie fille de Perth (premiered in 1867), based on Scott’s 1828 novel The Fair Maid of Perth. Even Goethe wasn’t immune: his Young Werther (the source for Massenet’s opera) evinces intellectual prowess and romantic sensibilities by translating the works of “Ossian,” an ancient Gaelic poet purportedly discovered (but in reality invented!) by Scottish poet James Macpherson (1736-1796).
On January 25, City Choir audiences will be treated to the very Italian(!) and wickedly enchanting Witches’ Chorus from Verdi’s Macbeth, and the joyous Chorus of the Wedding Guests from Donizetti’s Lucia (a brilliant set piece that belies the tragedy to come out the doomed wedding).
The Allure of Orientalism
19th century depictions of “The Orient” can make modern audiences a bit uncomfortable, but just as alluring Scotland enchanted Europeans in the 1800s, so too did the even more exotic eastern lands. With trade at an all-time high, travelers returned from Turkey, North Africa, South Asia, and East Asia with captivating tales and gorgeous artifacts. Composers, too, began to incorporate new and mysterious harmonies associated with the exotic east.
Bizet must have been particularly intrigued: The Pearl Fishers (which gave us one of the most beautiful and beloved duets in opera, “Au fond du temple saint,” which will be performed at our January 25 concert by tenor Logan Wagner and baritone Adam Partridge) is set in Ceylon, and shortly before embarking on Carmen he wrote a one-act opera, Djamileh, which was based on an “oriental tale.” Carmen, too, incorporates striking Spanish tunes and “gypsy” melodies.
Léo Delibes also set his opera Lakmé in India, and the plot turns around such Orientalist tropes as (per Wikipedia), a fanatical Brahmin priest, mysterious Hindu rituals, and exotic locales. The Flower Duet, which Mia Mandineau and Rosario Armas will perform on January 25, remains a timeless, beautiful, and endlessly popular showcase for soprano and mezzo-soprano. It has found a place in popular culture second only perhaps to Carmina Burana’s O Fortuna, having been heard in everything from British Airways ads to movies as disparate as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Carlito’s Way, and The Angry Birds Movie to TV shows including The Simpsons, Sex and the City, and Parks and Recreation!
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly also inhabits an exotic Far Eastern setting. While Puccini tells a very contemporary story about the power dynamics of men and women, and West and East and the audience sees the unfolding of the action primarily from Butterfly’s, rather than Pinkerton’s, point of view, Butterfly meets her end a shocking and extremely alien way (abnegating her self and son when she commits suicide by seppuku). The beautiful and moving “Humming Chorus” that the City Choir of Washington will perform on January 25 sets to music Butterfly’s vigil as she waits for Pinkerton to return between Acts II and III.
Regarding “Va, pensiero”
No opera chorus concert could be complete without a rendition of Verdi’s beloved “Va, pensiero” (Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves), with its introspective longing for home and belonging. Verdi wrote Nabucco at a time when he must have lost his own feeling of “home”: his wife and children had recently died of illness. The chorus was an instant hit—at the first rehearsal, Verdi notes that “the stagehands shouted their approval, then beat on the floor and the sets with their tools to create an even noisier demonstration.” Nabucco was immediately successful, the opera that solidified Verdi’s reputation as a major composer.
The larger meaning of “Va, pensiero,” however, is disputed. Some believe Verdi meant it as an anthem for Italian unification, while other scholars feel that such an interpretation is overstating Verdi’s political beliefs. In any case, the chorus is inextricably linked to Italian pride, patriotism, and love of Verdi—when the composer died, the crowd along his funeral route in Milan spontaneously burst into singing the chorus. In 1981 and 2009 there were attempts to make “Va, pensiero” the official national anthem of Italy, but thus far these efforts have not come to fruition.
“Va, pensiero” is one of the few opera choruses that is allowed an encore—and also one of the few that sometimes invite audience singalongs!
“So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright” - Shining Brow, an Opera by Daron Hagen
When composer Daron Hagen was commissioned to write an opera based on the life of iconic architect Frank Lloyd Wright, he chose a dramatic and shocking period from Wright’s life: The period between 1903 and 1914 when Wright left his wife and children to embark on a relationship with Mamah Cheney (she and her husband were clients), and the subsequent murders of Mamah and her children and the conflagration at Taliesin (named for the famous bard, and meaning “shining brow” in Welsh), Wright and Mamah’s home in Spring Green, Wisconsin. The opera takes Wright to the point at which he vows to rebuild Taliesin in Mamah's memory.
The chorus from Shining Brow which the City Choir of Washington will perform is entitled “Balm in Gilead” and builds on one of the primary musical motives Hagen uses in his opera. (You can hear some of the melody in the trailer linked below.) Erin Freeman describes the chorus as, “[Bernstein’s] ‘Make Our Garden Grow’ meets ‘Zion’s Walls’ by Copland meets the incredible creative stylings of Daron Hagen.” Erin took a video of City Choir’s first rehearsal of the piece in December and sent the recording to the composer. His reply:
After first hearing: “Oh my friend I cannot tell you much that meant to me! So thoughtful of you and generous of the singers. I got goosebumps and all the feels. It brought it all back.❤️❤️❤️ Thank you!”
The next morning: “I watched the little movie again tonight and just beamed. So thoughtful of you, Erin. xox”
Then later: “Now, THAT’S a conductor and a choir!”
City Choir is greatly looking forward to sharing this work with our audience on January 25! If you would like to learn more about the opera, we invite you to visit Daron Hagen’s website, explore the Wikipedia Article, or research Taliesin.
