Wednesday, April 29, 2020

OPERAWISE: OPÉRA COMIQUE


In this series of podcasts, Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean gives listeners a taste of nine different types of traditional opera. Opéra comique, a native French form of lower-brow musical theater, features spoken dialogue, catchy tunes with easy-to-sing refrains, and middle-class values. Many of the opéra-comiques still performed today (including Carmen, The Daughter of the Regiment, and Beatrice and Benedict, as well as opéra-comique derivatives such as Faust and The Tales of Hoffmann) deal, sentimentally or ironically, with a way of life and a value system which now belongs mostly to ancient history.



Musical examples on the podcast include:
  • •Act 3 Ensemble from Carmen, forces of Seattle Opera conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti, 2019
  • •Dialogue from La fille du régiment starring Spiro Malas and Monica Sinclair (Decca 1967)
  • •March from Beatrice and Benedict, forces of Seattle Opera conducted by Ludovic Morlot, 2018
  • •Trio from Beatrice and Benedict, Shelly Traverse, Hannah Hipp, Avery Amereau, and the orchestra of Seattle Opera conducted by Ludovic Morlot, 2018
  • •“Tous les trois réunis”La fille du régiment, Spiro Malas, Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti and the orchestra of Covent Garden conducted by Richard Bonynge (Decca 1967)
  • •“Que le Sultan Saladin” from Richard Coeur de Lion, Michel Trempont and chorus and orchestra de chambre de la RTB conducted by Edgard Doneux (EMI Classics 1956)
  • •“Habanera” from Carmen, Zanda Svede and the chorus and orchestra of Seattle Opera conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti, 2019
  • •“Toreador Song” from Carmen, chorus and orchestra of Seattle Opera conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti, 2019
  • •Church Scene from Faust, Victoria de los Angeles, Boris Christoff, chorus and orchestra of Operá National de France conducted by André Cluytens (EMI 1953).
  • •Portrait Trio from Les contes d’Hoffmann, Leah Partridge, Alfred Walker, Tichina Vaughn, and the orchestra of Seattle Opera conducted by Yves Abel, 2014
Stay tuned for another podcast introducing another kind of opera next week!

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