Word: orfeo
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Franz Joseph Haydn was busily conducting the first rehearsal of his opera, Orfeo ed Euridice, when into the new King's Theater walked the royal bailiffs with an order prohibiting the performance. King George III had decided that the London of 1791 was big enough for only one Italian opera company-his own at the rival Pantheon...
...GLUCK: ORFEO ED EURIDICE (RCA Victor; 3 LPs). An opera for people who do not like singing, Orfeo is long on dances, and its best-known aria (in the Dance of the Blessed Spirits) is reserved for a flute. Renato Fasano and the Virtuosi di Roma give a pastel but translucent orchestral performance, almost otherworldly, as befits the score. Unfortunately, the singers are a bit too bloodless, even the promising young mezzo, Shirley Verrett, who sings Orfeo...
...Renaissance, probably as an attempt to recreate Greek drama with its choruses and chanted poetry. From the first, the creators of opera felt the urge to avoid artifice. Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-87) said that it was silly not to have "realistic" characters in opera-so he created Orfeo and Euridice, with their set, face-front arias. Bellini (1801-35) and Donizetti (1797-1848) thought Gluck's characters were insufficiently real-so they created the stylized Norma and Lucia. Wagner (1813-83) avowed the same sentiment-and created Lohengrin and his swan. Puccini (1858-1924) proclaimed a brand...
...Busch-Reisinger Museum presents in its garden daily recorded music concerts, 1-2 p.m. Next week: Gluck's Orfeo, Milhaud's Sketches for Woodwinds (after Wateau), Duke's Surrealist Suite, MacDowell's Woodland Sketches (the last three works are related to art), Mozart's piano Concertos no. 21 and 27, and Rameau's Les indes galantes...
...high standard with last year's staging of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos that one critic feared listeners would expect a triumph every time. In fact there have been many triumphs, including standout productions of Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte and Monteverdi's Orfeo. Audience response matched the performances: paid season subscriptions rose from 322 in 1957 to nearly 2,000 this season...