Bellini's "Puritans"

Synopsis

For most of the 19th century, the operatic capital of the world was not Naples or Vienna or Berlin but Paris. "If I can make it there, I can make it everywhere" seemed to be the sentiment of all the great Romantic opera composers.

On today's date in 1835, the Italian opera composer Vincenzo Bellini scored one of his biggest successes in Paris when his new opera "I Puritani" (or "The Puritans") was staged at the Theatre Italien. Bellini didn't even try to write an opera in French, but, after some consultations with his elder colleague Rossini, Bellini tailored his new opera to French tastes. The result is a quintessentially Italian opera for Paris's most famous Italian-language opera house.

"I Puritani" is a romantic tale set during the English Civil War between the Puritans and Royalists, and proved a major hit in London, where, three day's before its British premiere, some excerpts were performed as part of the 16th birthday celebrations for a music-loving British princess named Victoria. The English critic Chorley recounted how commoners as well as the future Queens were smitten with "Puritani-fever." "Errand-boys whistled it," he wrote, "and barrel-organs ground out its tunes."

"I Puritani" was given during the inaugural season of New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1883, but with the rise of the more realistic, even gritty "verismo" opera around the turn of the century, "I Puritani" was deemed too old-fashioned. In the 1950s and 60s, however, the presence of singers like Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland and Beverly Sills on the scene prompted successful revivals.

Music Played in Today's Program

Vincenzo Bellini (1801 –1835) A te, o cara , from I Puritani Raul Gimenez, tenor; Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Michelangelo Veltri, cond. Nimbus 5224

On This Day

Births

• 1712 - Frederick II the Great, King of Prussia, monarch, flutist and composer, in Berlin;

• 1776 - German composer, author, conductor and music critic E. T. A. Hoffmann, in Königsberg;

• 1913 - American composer Norman Dello Joio, in New York City;

• 1918 - Austrian composer Gottfried von Einem, in Bern, Switzerland;

• 1919 - American composer Leon Kirchner, in Brooklyn, N.Y.;

Deaths

• 1851 - Italian opera composer Gaspare Spontini, age 76, in Ancona, Italy;

• 1883 - German opera composer Friedrich von Flotow, age 70, in Darmstadt;

Premieres

• 1835 - Bellini: opera "I Puritani," in Paris at the Théatre-Italien;

• 1875 - Saint-Saëns: "Dance macabre" for orchestra, in Paris;

• 1885 - Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suite No. 3, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Jan.12);

• 1895 - ; Ippolitov-Ivanov: “Caucasian Sketches” (Gregorian date: Feb. 5);

• 1906 - Rachmaninoff: two one-act operas "The Miserly Knight" and "Francesca da Rimini" in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theater (Julian date: Jan.11);

• 1922 - Walton: entertainment, "Façade," with Edith Sitwell reciting her poetry;

• 1922 - Nielsen: Symphony No. 5, in Copenhagen, with composer conducting;

• 1946 - Stravinsky: "Symphony in Three Movements," by New York Philharmonic, with the composer conducting; This work was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic-Society;

• 1957 - Piston: Wind Quintet, at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, by the Boston Woodwind Quintet;

• 1959 - Shostakovich: operetta "Moscow, Cheryomushki," at the Moscow Operetta Theater;

• 1981 - John Harbison: Violin Concerto, at Emmanuel Church in Boston, with soloist Rose Mary Harbison and the Emmanuel Chamber Orchestra, Craig Smith conducting;

• 1991 - George Perle: Piano Concerto No. 1, with San Francisco Symphony conducted by David Zinman, with Richard Goode the soloist;

Others

• 1705 - Birthdate if the famous Italian castrato singer Carlo Farinelli (born Carlo Broschi), in Andria; His life is depicted in the 1994 film "Farinelli";

• 1813 - The Royal Philharmonic Society in formed in London.