front cover of Alzira
Alzira
Tragedia lirica in Three Acts by Salvadore Cammarano
Giuseppe Verdi
University of Chicago Press, 1995
Alzira is the seventh work and the sixth opera to be published in the critical edition of The Works of Giuseppe Verdi. Composed during the middle of the very productive period of Verdi's first large-scale successes, Alzira premiered at Naples on August 12, 1845. Cammarano's libretto is based on a play of Voltaire, who used a real incident in sixteenth-century Peru during the Spanish conquest to shape a critique of the morality of the noble savage as against Christian values. The inherent conflicts and exotic setting appealed to Verdi's dramatic sense, and in its best moments the music of Alzira fully realizes his potential as a masterful composer for the theater.

Because the success of the premiere was not repeated, Alzira fell out of the repertory and no orchestral score was ever published. The critical edition, based on Verdi's autograph score and important secondary sources, provides the first reliable full score of the work. It is complemented by an introduction tracing the opera's genesis, sources and performance history and practices. Together with the detailed critical commentary, discussing problems and ambiguities in the sources, the edition provides scholars and performers alike with unequalled means for interpretation and study of this poorly known work.
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front cover of The Operas of Giuseppe Verdi
The Operas of Giuseppe Verdi
Abramo Basevi
University of Chicago Press, 2014
Abramo Basevi published his study of Verdi’s operas in Florence in 1859, in the middle of the composer’s career. The first thorough, systematic examination of Verdi’s operas, it covered the twenty works produced between 1842 and 1857—from Nabucco and Macbeth to Il trovatore, La traviata, and Aroldo. But while Basevi’s work is still widely cited and discussed—and nowhere more so than in the English-speaking world—no translation of the entire volume has previously been available. The Operas of Giuseppe Verdi fills this gap, at the same time providing an invaluable critical apparatus and commentary on Basevi’s work.
 
As a contemporary of Verdi and a trained musician, erudite scholar, and critic conversant with current and past operatic repertories, Basevi presented pointed discussion of the operas and their historical context, offering today’s readers a unique window into many aspects of operatic culture, and culture in general, in Verdi’s Italy. He wrote with precision on formal aspects, use of melody and orchestration, and other compositional features, which made his study an acknowledged model for the growing field of music criticism. Carefully annotated and with an engaging introduction and detailed glossary by editor Stefano Castelvecchi, this translation illuminates Basevi’s musical and historical references as well as aspects of his language that remain difficult to grasp even for Italian readers.
 
Making Basevi’s important contribution to our understanding of Verdi and his operas available to a broad audience for the first time, The Operas of Giuseppe Verdi will delight scholars and opera enthusiasts alike.
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front cover of Tre cantate napoletane
Tre cantate napoletane
Gioachino Rossini
University of Chicago Press, 2000
These three festive cantatas were composed for celebrations at the Neapolitan court of King Ferdinand IV between 1816 and 1819: Giunone (poetry by Angelo Maria Ricci) for the king's birthday, Omaggio umiliato a Sua Maestà (poetry by Antonio Niccolini) for his recovery from serious illness, and Cantata per Francesco I, Imperatore di Austria (poetry by Giulio Genoino) for an imperial visit. Calling for all the forces of the royal opera theater, these occasions exploited fine solo singers, large orchestra and mixed chorus, and dancers. Although the cantatas share the stylistic splendor of Rossini's operas from this period (among them Il barbiere di Siviglia,La Cenerentola, and Armida), they are ideal for concert performance because they are shorter and require only one, two, or three soloists.

This volume makes conveniently available the chorus and ballet music shared by the two later cantatas, present in only one of the autographs. A block of missing music has been reconstructed and the entire number adapted by the editors according to Rossini's written instructions in the manuscripts.
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