Word: pizzetti
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...this year at the Metropolitan. They are: Richard Strauss' Die Aegyptische Helena to be given Nov. 6 with Maria Jeritza as Helen; Ottorino Respighi's La Campana Sommersa to be given late in November, with Elizabeth Rethberg and Giovanni Martinelli; Ernst Krenek's Jonny Spielt Auf in January; Hdebrando Pizzetti's Fra Gherardo in March. Three operas return to the repertoire: Massenet's Manon in December with Lucrezia Bori and Beniamino Gigli; Verdi's Ernani with Rosa Ponselle and Weber's Der Freischiilz later...
...Giulio Gatti-Casazza. Last week he announced plans for the coming year. There would be several premieres including: Strauss's already famous Die Aegyptische Helena, in German, with presumably Rethberg or Jeritza, both of whom have sung the role in Europe, singing Helen; Fra Gherardo, Ildebrando Pizzetti's new opera which was sung for the first time a month ago in Milan; and Jonny Spielt Auf, by Ernst Krenek, which is called a "jazz" opera, by Europeans who use the word to describe anything peculiarly modern or bizarre, rather than to indicate with idiomatic precision a certain distribution...
...Scala, in Milan, Arturo Toscanini conducted a new opera by Ildebrando Pizzetti. Its story, taken from a mediaeval monk's chronicle, was that of "a young Parman of low birth, layman, idiot, and fool," one Gherardhino Segarello, whose reckless career of devotion and debauchery caused him to be put in jail, led out only to amuse guests when the Bishop of Parma gave a banquet. Pizzetti had chosen to make a martyr of this squalid clown, to endow his dishonorable poverty with Franciscan splendor...
Such is the tragic tale which Pizzetti has adorned with perhaps the most splendid music of his career. The opera was undoubtedly too long and it seemed to contain a superfluity of dialogue, of inactive interludes that were only vaguely melodic. Lyrical passages were few. Fra Gherardo was original mainly for its orchestration and for the thunderous, muttering chorus which reached its climax in a mob scene at the end of the third act. These choruses were unlike anything that Milanese operagoers had ever seen before. There was something terrible and true in that imitation of the angry shouted songs...
Ildebrando Pizzetti was born in Parma and he has honored it before this in, for example, his Ildebrando da Parma. He studied at the Conservatory of Parma for six years, specializing in the model qualities of Greek and Gregorian music. Since 1918, he has directed the Florence Conservatory. In Florence he lives now in almost ratlike retirement. His wife, a descendant of Stradivarius, is dead. He likes quiet and hates traveling; he was made sorrowful before the War when his enemies, on account of his "revolutionary" music, made him the object of belligerent slander. His most famed work previous...