How
are you?
Following
the last week, I am going to start my 42nd lecture.
I had
conducted music lectures at Art Collage JANG in Seoul, South Korea every
Saturday from March 2015 to December 2017.
I am
going to introduce the lecture by the lecture’s order every Saturday.
Please
refer to the following link for my previous lectures.
Today's
lecture is five operas featuring “Fairy Tales/Legends”, which were introduced
in “The 42nd ACJ Music Academy” on April 9, 2016.
1. Die Zauberflöte
(Mozart)
2. Faust
(Gounod)
3. Les contes
d'Hoffmann (Offenbach)
4.
Rusalka (Dvořák)
5. Pelléas
et Mélisande (Debussy)
1. Die Zauberflöte (Mozart)
The opera “Die Zauberflöte” is a two-act opera composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The opera was written in the form of a Singspiel that included both singing and spoken dialogue, which was popular at the time. It was also premiered at the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, Schikaneder's theater, on September 30, 1791, just two months before Mozart's death.
The opera's plot shows a fight between the worlds of light and darkness, which are contrasting each other. The world of darkness that appears first is the world dominated by The Queen of the Night, where magic and witchcraft play in chaos. The world of light, on the contrary, is dominated by the sage “Sarastro”, where wisdom, reason, and nature form a trinity to teach people a happy and modest way of life.
Sarastro attempts to kidnap The Queen of the Night's daughter Pamina into his world and protect her from the queen, and the enraged Queen of the Night tries to take over the innocent prince Tamino to get back her daughter.
At this time, the queen gives the prince a “magic flute” that can calm the wild beasts, as a guard, and Papageno, a bird catcher who will accompany him, a magical bell with an iridescent sound. The queen visits her daughter Pamina in the middle of the night, saying, "If you don't kill Sarastro with your hands, you're not my daughter." And gives her a dagger to kill him, but Pamina falls to Sarastro's rational persuasion and forsakes her mother's world. The Vengeful Queen of the Night is launching an attack to destroy Sarastro's Empire of the Sun and seize power, but eventually the victory returns to the world of light and the queen and the world of darkness perish together.
2. Faust (Gounod)
It is a five-act grand opera composed by Charles Gounod with a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play “Faust et Marguerite”, loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part One.
The main storyline of the opera is a love story of Marguerite, a young maiden, and Faust, who became a young man with a contract with the devil. The old philosopher Faust despairs about gaining wisdom in the book, lamenting the vainness of life, and the moment he attempts to commit suicide with poison, the devil Méphistophélès appears. The devil tells Faust that he can give him everything, and Faust says he wants to be young and love again. In response, the devil proposes to give Faust youth and introduce Marguerite to him in exchange for taking Faust's soul. As soon as he sees the vision of charming Marguerite, Faust immediately contracts with the devil.
Then, Faust approaches Marguerite and says he will protect her, but Marguerite refuses it. Eventually, Méphistophélès helps Faust to get Marguerite's love. A few months later, Marguerite kills her child in an accident because of his brother Valentin's death and Faust, who never returns. Faust and Méphistophélès appear in front of Marguerite, who was imprisoned and became insane. Méphistophélès encourages Faust to decide whether to die with her here or flee. Eventually, Faust falls to hell with Méphistophélès, and Marguerite saves her soul with the help of an angel and ascends to heaven.
3. Les contes d'Hoffmann (Offenbach)
It is a three-act opera with prologue and epilogue composed by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story.
The opera is proceeded in the form that a writer, Hoffmann, is seated at a bar in Berlin, and tells college students the stories of his youth and past lovers.
The first lover Olympia was a doll made by a doctor, who is a physicist and mechanical engineer, but Hoffmann, who thought it was a real woman, loves the doll. He confesses love to Olympia and dances with her, but in the end this love ends by the envy and the jealousy in surroundings.
Antonia, who was his second lover, is a woman who inherited pulmonary tuberculosis with a beautiful voice from her mother who passed away early. She should not sing because of illness, but she sings endlessly with the skillful persuasion of her demon-like doctor and is eventually exhausted and dies.
The third lover is a courtesan, Giulietta, in Venice and if someone wants to sleep with her, he has to sell his soul to the devil. Indulged in Giulietta singing barcarolle "Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour", Hoffmann kills a man in a duel to get the key of her room, but Giulietta ridicules him, rides on a gondola and disappears with the devil. The Muse comforts Hoffmann, who was never successful in love, saying “The artist always fails in love, but the experience of that passion helps to create a better works” and the opera ends.
4. Rusalka (Dvořák)
It is a three-act opera composed by Antonín Dvořák. The Czech libretto was written by the poet Jaroslav Kvapil based on the fairy tales of Karel Jaromír Erben and Božena Němcová. A rusalka is a water sprite living in a lake or river from Slavic mythology.
Rusalka, a mermaid living in the river, falls in love with a prince who occasionally comes to the forest for hunting and earnestly prays to the moon in the sky. Like "The Little Mermaid," Rusalka goes to the witch and loses her voice instead of gaining legs.
The prince is fascinated by the cold beauty of Rusalka, but instead of her who is unable to express her mind with words, he loves a princess in a neighboring country who confesses love with fiery passionate words. Then, Rusalka rejects the witch's temptation that “if she kills the prince, she can return to the mermaid again'' and wanders in despair alone.
But after the prince left Rusalka, he has an incurable disease that cannot survive and wants only Rusalka. Rusalka, who realized that only death can end the pain of the prince, returns and kisses him as he wishes, causing the prince to sleep forever, and the god of water sighs with repentance.
5. Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy)
It is a five-act opera composed by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's famous symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande. This opera, which Debussy rejected the conventional name, “opera” and called it “drama lyrique", is often called "Impressionist Opera."
Prince Golaud, grandson of King Arkel of Allemonde, a fictitious country, take Mélisande, a princess from a distant country whom he met at a spring in the forest, as his wife and to the castle. In the castle, Mélisande becomes acquainted with Golaud's half-brother Pelléas.
Golaud, who is jealous of Pelléas, asks him to leave the castle. Then, Golaud tells Yniold, who is a son with his ex-wife, to watch the two. Before the departure, when Pelléas confesses his love to Mélisande at the spring in the garden, Golaud appears and kills Pelléas. Mélisande, who is seriously wounded, dies, leaving a young baby who was just born.
1. Die Zauberflöte (Mozart)
The opera “Die Zauberflöte” is a two-act opera composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The opera was written in the form of a Singspiel that included both singing and spoken dialogue, which was popular at the time. It was also premiered at the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, Schikaneder's theater, on September 30, 1791, just two months before Mozart's death.
The opera's plot shows a fight between the worlds of light and darkness, which are contrasting each other. The world of darkness that appears first is the world dominated by The Queen of the Night, where magic and witchcraft play in chaos. The world of light, on the contrary, is dominated by the sage “Sarastro”, where wisdom, reason, and nature form a trinity to teach people a happy and modest way of life.
Sarastro attempts to kidnap The Queen of the Night's daughter Pamina into his world and protect her from the queen, and the enraged Queen of the Night tries to take over the innocent prince Tamino to get back her daughter.
At this time, the queen gives the prince a “magic flute” that can calm the wild beasts, as a guard, and Papageno, a bird catcher who will accompany him, a magical bell with an iridescent sound. The queen visits her daughter Pamina in the middle of the night, saying, "If you don't kill Sarastro with your hands, you're not my daughter." And gives her a dagger to kill him, but Pamina falls to Sarastro's rational persuasion and forsakes her mother's world. The Vengeful Queen of the Night is launching an attack to destroy Sarastro's Empire of the Sun and seize power, but eventually the victory returns to the world of light and the queen and the world of darkness perish together.
2. Faust (Gounod)
It is a five-act grand opera composed by Charles Gounod with a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play “Faust et Marguerite”, loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part One.
The main storyline of the opera is a love story of Marguerite, a young maiden, and Faust, who became a young man with a contract with the devil. The old philosopher Faust despairs about gaining wisdom in the book, lamenting the vainness of life, and the moment he attempts to commit suicide with poison, the devil Méphistophélès appears. The devil tells Faust that he can give him everything, and Faust says he wants to be young and love again. In response, the devil proposes to give Faust youth and introduce Marguerite to him in exchange for taking Faust's soul. As soon as he sees the vision of charming Marguerite, Faust immediately contracts with the devil.
Then, Faust approaches Marguerite and says he will protect her, but Marguerite refuses it. Eventually, Méphistophélès helps Faust to get Marguerite's love. A few months later, Marguerite kills her child in an accident because of his brother Valentin's death and Faust, who never returns. Faust and Méphistophélès appear in front of Marguerite, who was imprisoned and became insane. Méphistophélès encourages Faust to decide whether to die with her here or flee. Eventually, Faust falls to hell with Méphistophélès, and Marguerite saves her soul with the help of an angel and ascends to heaven.
3. Les contes d'Hoffmann (Offenbach)
It is a three-act opera with prologue and epilogue composed by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story.
The opera is proceeded in the form that a writer, Hoffmann, is seated at a bar in Berlin, and tells college students the stories of his youth and past lovers.
The first lover Olympia was a doll made by a doctor, who is a physicist and mechanical engineer, but Hoffmann, who thought it was a real woman, loves the doll. He confesses love to Olympia and dances with her, but in the end this love ends by the envy and the jealousy in surroundings.
Antonia, who was his second lover, is a woman who inherited pulmonary tuberculosis with a beautiful voice from her mother who passed away early. She should not sing because of illness, but she sings endlessly with the skillful persuasion of her demon-like doctor and is eventually exhausted and dies.
The third lover is a courtesan, Giulietta, in Venice and if someone wants to sleep with her, he has to sell his soul to the devil. Indulged in Giulietta singing barcarolle "Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour", Hoffmann kills a man in a duel to get the key of her room, but Giulietta ridicules him, rides on a gondola and disappears with the devil. The Muse comforts Hoffmann, who was never successful in love, saying “The artist always fails in love, but the experience of that passion helps to create a better works” and the opera ends.
4. Rusalka (Dvořák)
It is a three-act opera composed by Antonín Dvořák. The Czech libretto was written by the poet Jaroslav Kvapil based on the fairy tales of Karel Jaromír Erben and Božena Němcová. A rusalka is a water sprite living in a lake or river from Slavic mythology.
Rusalka, a mermaid living in the river, falls in love with a prince who occasionally comes to the forest for hunting and earnestly prays to the moon in the sky. Like "The Little Mermaid," Rusalka goes to the witch and loses her voice instead of gaining legs.
The prince is fascinated by the cold beauty of Rusalka, but instead of her who is unable to express her mind with words, he loves a princess in a neighboring country who confesses love with fiery passionate words. Then, Rusalka rejects the witch's temptation that “if she kills the prince, she can return to the mermaid again'' and wanders in despair alone.
But after the prince left Rusalka, he has an incurable disease that cannot survive and wants only Rusalka. Rusalka, who realized that only death can end the pain of the prince, returns and kisses him as he wishes, causing the prince to sleep forever, and the god of water sighs with repentance.
5. Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy)
It is a five-act opera composed by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's famous symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande. This opera, which Debussy rejected the conventional name, “opera” and called it “drama lyrique", is often called "Impressionist Opera."
Prince Golaud, grandson of King Arkel of Allemonde, a fictitious country, take Mélisande, a princess from a distant country whom he met at a spring in the forest, as his wife and to the castle. In the castle, Mélisande becomes acquainted with Golaud's half-brother Pelléas.
Golaud, who is jealous of Pelléas, asks him to leave the castle. Then, Golaud tells Yniold, who is a son with his ex-wife, to watch the two. Before the departure, when Pelléas confesses his love to Mélisande at the spring in the garden, Golaud appears and kills Pelléas. Mélisande, who is seriously wounded, dies, leaving a young baby who was just born.
You
can listen to all the arias selected in this course from following YouTube
link.
1. Der
Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen, Die Zauberflöte (Mozart)
2. Le
veau d’or, Faust (Gounod)
3.
Belle nuit, o nuit d’amour, Les contes d'Hoffmann
(Offenbach)
4. Mesicku
na nebi hlubokem, Rusalka (Dvořák)
5. Quel
est ce bruit?, Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy)
You can
also review this lecture from following media.
Next
week, I will lecture 9th "Opera" course as my 43rd lecture.
Thank
you.
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