Word: boito
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...secret of Falstaff's miraculous funnies doesn't end there. The phenomenon of Falstaff is that the composer, Verdi, and his librettist, Boito, changed roles. Verdi composed like a playwright and Boito wrote like a musician. Take away all the words from Falstaff and you will still know exactly what is going on. When the orchestra trills from one end to the other, you know that Falstaff has just taken a colossal chug of wine which is going to work on his insides; when the trombones blast, you know that Ford is feeling the full gamut of green-eyed emotions...
...Boito's text is more like a score--attentive to rhythm, and the ability of rhythm to characterize and to conjure atmosphere. Like Shakespeare he writes word music; he has a head start, of course, writing in Italian. His verse is eminently singable. Boito also pulls together the woolly Merry Wives plot, making it compact not to mention viable...
...magnificent performance of Part One in 1949, the bicentenary of Goethe's birth. They made one bad mistake; used a phonograph recording of Holst's The Planets, when they had to hand the rich fare of Faust music, Wagner's Overture, Liszt's Symphony, Berlioz's dramatic oratorio, and Boito's opera Meflstofele...
...from a total lack of style, from seeming solidly, even a little clumpingly, echt Deutsch. It may not seem too German for those who know German; for those who do not, Faust is more rewarding in Marlowe's play, or Berlioz' or Gounod's or even Boito's music. But, if not exactly something to see, as a great classic it may yet, perhaps, be something to have seen...
Gioconda's absurd libretto (by "Tobio Gorria," anagram for Arrigo Boito, Verdi's great librettist) revolves about a love plot of pentagonal complexity; Barnaba is in love with Gioconda, who is in love with Enzo, who is in love with Laura, who is married to Alvise. By the time Gorria-Boito sets things right, four acts and nearly that number of hours have elapsed. But La Gioconda is a singers' opera, and it gives the principals some rousing tunes, including Enzo's great second-act aria, Cielo e mar, superbly rendered last week by Tenor Tucker...