Bampton Classical Opera pitch up in London on Tuesday 18 September at St Johns Smith Square. Their double bill of Philidor's Blaise le savetier and Gretry's L'amant jaloux debuted in July at the Deanery Garden in July, their 20th anniversary season at Bampton. Popular in the 18th century, the music of Philidor and Gretry has not yet made a real come back though Sir Thomas Beecham was a devotee. So a chance to appreciate them on stage.
Andre Gretry (1741 - 1813) came from a poor family and developed a desire to complete his studies after hearing performances by an Italian opera company, performing Galuppi and Pergolesi. Gretry studied in Rome for five years from 1759 to 1764. He was also influenced by the operas comique of Monsigny, and legend has it that these led Grety to devote himself to opera comique. He wrote around 50 operas, his best known being Zemire et Amor (1771) and Richard Coeur de Lyon (1784). Remarkably, his success continued throughout the revolution with his final opera being premiered at the Paris Opera in 1803. He was one of a group of composers who took the revolutionary spirit into the opera house and created operas which pre-figure the more well known romantic operas. Gretry himself wrote Guillaume Tell (1789) which, according to Winton Dean, anticipates later developments. Anyone interested in the period is recommended to read Winton Dean's Opera under the Revolution republished in Essays on Opera (OUP).
You can hear Sir Thomas Beecham conducting music from Zemire et Amore on Youtube.
Francois-Andre Danican Philidor (1726 - 1795) was not only a composer but a chess player, he was regarded as the best chess player of his age. He came from a musical family, with his grandfather, great-uncle, father and elder brother all being musicians. The family name was originally D'Anican and reputed to be Scottish (Duncan). As a child he was in the royal choir under Louis XV. He lived in Paris from 1740 as a performer, teacher and copyist, but spent 9 years in London where he knew Dr Johnson and Burney. Though some found his music too Italianate, he had great success with his 20 operas comiques and two tragedies lyriques. His best known works were Le Sorcier (1764), Tom Jones, after Fielding, (1765), and Ernelinde (1767).
Sunday 16 September 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
Septura I first became aware of the brass septet, Septura , when noting their 2017/18 concert series Kleptomania at St John's Smith...
-
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos - title page Six Concerts avec plusieurs instruments: Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann; London Handel Players, director ...
-
Retrospect Opera's recording of Stanford's Shamus O'Brien in rehearsal Charles Villiers Stanford’s opera Shamus O'Brien pre...
-
Stravinsky: The Rake's Progess - Act Three, scene one: the graveyard Frederick Jones, Jerome Knox - English Touring Opera (Photo: © Ric...
-
Rediscovering her Polish musical roots: Jennifer Pike on the personal connections in her latest discJennifer Pike (Photo Arno) With her latest recording, violinist Jennifer Pike has been rediscovering her Polish roots. The Polish Violi...
-
Poster for the première of Léo Delibes' Lakmé Léo Delibes: Lakmé; Haegee Lee, Elgan Llŷr Thomas, James Platt, Julien Van Mellaerts,...
-
Stephen McNeff: A Star Next to the Moon - Jacob Harrison (Pedro Páramo) - Guildhall School of Music & Drama (Photo: David Monteith-Hodg...
-
Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra I get all sorts of mail, people sending my information on concerts and recordings. Everything gets gl...
-
The Afghan Youth Orchestra On Thursday 7 March 2024, the Afghan Youth Orchestra makes its debut at the Southbank Centre at the start of its ...
-
Jonathan Dove: The Enchanted Pig - Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, 2023 (Photo Greg Milner) On Monday 29 February 2024, the Royal Birmingha...
No comments:
Post a Comment