Italian Opera: Four Centuries of Beauty

About the Topic

In springtime Paris, the heroine of La Dame aux Camélias and the younger Dumas enjoy their happiness in a suburban villa. Butterfly waits beneath falling cherry blossoms for her American husband. Mimì survives winter, only to die smiling in the poet Rodolfo’s arms.

These operatic stories are not remote or forbidding; they are impassioned stories of love.

Opera is closer to us than we may think. Turandot’s story is set in Yuan-dynasty Dadu, and its music draws on the Chinese tune Jasmine Flower. Opera need not remain confined to grand halls.

After many years of pleasure in opera, Yuanfang de Mao would like to gather with old and new friends to share some knowledge and favorite excerpts.

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Selected performances for this session

1. Verdi

a. Drinking Song: modern, contemporary, and concert versions

b. Anvil Chorus: modern version

c. La donna è mobile

2. Puccini

a. La Bohème: Musetta’s Waltz, Anna N.; film version

b. La Bohème: Che gelida manina

c. Madama Butterfly: Un bel dì vedremo; Maria Callas

3. Bizet

a. Carmen: overture

b. Habanera

c. Carmen: children’s chorus

d. Toreador Song

4. Rossini

a. The Barber of Seville

b. La Cenerentola

Let’s spend the weekend listening and talking together.