Synopsis
On today’s date in 1893, a talented Italian composer died of tuberculosis at 39. His name was Alfredo Catalani, and, in his short lifetime, he completed six operas. The last of these, La Wally, premiered the year before his death and proved the most successful.
The opera had some passionate fans — including the famous Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini, who even named one of his daughters Wally, after the title character.
These days Catalani’s operas are rarely staged, but one aria from La Wally has kept his name alive. In Act One, the mountain maid Wally sings “Ebben? Ne andrò lontana” (“Well, then? I’ll go far away”) as she decides to leave her home forever.
This aria became very popular with sopranos and has been recorded by artists ranging from Maria Callas to Renée Fleming.
Oddly enough, the aria plays a major role in a movie — a 1981 French crime thriller, Diva, about an obsessed opera fan who has a secret recording made of his favorite soprano singing it — an artist who (in the movie) refuses to be recorded, so (of course) everyone wants to get their hands on his bootleg.
Music Played in Today's Program
Viardot-Garcia, Pauline (1821-1910): 12 Poems by Pushkin, Fet and Turgenev: No. 12. Les Étoiles; Laetitia Grimaldi, soprano; Ammiel Bushakevitz, piano; Bis 2546
On This Day
Births
1818 - English-born French composer, pianist and music publisher Charles Henry Litolff, in London
1868 - British composer Sir Granville Bantock, in London
1896 - Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona, in Havana. He composed a number of popular Latin pop melodies, including his famous “Malagueña.”
1921 - Czech-born, American composer and conductor Karel Husa, in Prague; He became an American citizen in 1959. In 1969 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his String Quartet No. 3.
1925 - Spanish-born American composer Julián Orbón, in Aviles
Deaths
1893 - Italian opera composer Alfred Caatalani, 39, in Milan
1913 - Czech composer and cellist David Popper, 69, in Baden (near Vienna)
1970 - German-born American composer Ingolf Dahl, 58, in Bernem Switzerland
Premieres
1912 - Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1, in Moscow, with the composer as soloist (Julian date: July 26)
1977 - Hanson: Symphony No. 7 (A Sea Symphony) at the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan
1981 - Cerha: opera Baal, at the Salzburg Festival in Austria
1981 - John Harbison: Piano Quintet, at the Sante Fe Chamber Music Festival in New Mexico, with Edward Auer (piano), Ani Kavafian (violin), Walter Trampler (viola), Timothy Eddy (cello)
1991 - David Del Tredici: An Alice Symphony (first complete performance), during the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts
2001 - Augusta Read Thomas: Murmurs in the Mist of Memory, at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, by the International Sejong Soloists
Others
1829 - Mendelssohn visits Fingal’s Cave in the Hebrides Islands west of Scotland coast and starts composing the Hebrides Overture.
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.