introduction. The second aria is Philine’s polonaise, “_Je suis

Titania_” (“_I am Titania_”) from the second scene of the second act. Another delightful orchestral episode from this opera is a suave, graceful little gavotte heard as entr’acte music just before the rise of the second-act curtain. The _Raymond_ Overture is even more popular than that to _Mignon_. _Raymond_ was first performed at the Opéra-Comique on June 5, 1851. The overture opens with a spirited section punctuated with dashing chords. A serene transition, highlighted by a passage for solo cello, brings on a light, tuneful air in the violins against sharply accented plucked strings; a graceful countermelody for the woodwind follows. This appealing material is repeated at some length with embellishments and amplifications until a new thought is asserted: a brisk, march-like melody that slowly gains in sonority and tempo until a climactic point is reached in which this march melody is forcefully given by the full orchestra. The strings then offer a sentimental melody by way of temporary relief. But the overture ends in a dramatic and spirited mood with a finale statement of the march tune. Enrico Toselli Enrico Toselli was born in Florence, Italy, on March 13, 1883. After studying with Sgambati and Martucci, Toselli toured Italy as a concert pianist. But he achieved renown not on the concert stage but with the writing of several romantic songs. One of these is the “_Serenata_,” No. 1, op. 6, through which his name survives. He also wrote some orchestral music and an operetta, _La Principessa bizzarra_ (1913) whose libretto was the work of the former Crown Princess Luisa of Saxony whom he married in 1907 thereby creating an international sensation. Toselli died in Florence, Italy, on January 15, 1926. The “_Serenata_” (“_Rimpianto_”) with Italian words by Alfred Silvestri and English lyrics by Sigmund Spaeth was published in the United States in 1923. This romantic, sentimental, Italian melody, as well loved in this country as in Europe, was for many years used by Gertrude Berg as the theme music for her radio and television program, _The Goldbergs_. It was also used as the theme music for an early talking picture, _The Magic Flame_, in which Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky were starred. Sir Paolo Tosti Sir Francesco Paolo Tosti, one of Italy’s best known song composers, was born in Ortona sul Mare, Abruzzi, Italy, on April 9, 1846. His musical education took place at the Royal College of San Pietro a Maiella in Naples. He left Naples in 1869 after serving for a while as teacher of music. Returning to his native city he now initiated his career as a composer of songs. Though a few of these early efforts became popular he failed for a long time to find a publisher. Success first came to him in Rome at a song recital in which he featured some of his own compositions. He scored an even greater success as singer-composer in London in 1875. He now settled permanently in London, serving as a singing master to the royal family, and as professor of singing at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1908 he was knighted. In 1913 he returned to his native land. He died in Rome on December 2, 1916. Tosti had a remarkable lyric gift that was Italian to its very core in the ease, fluidity, and singableness of his melodies. This talent was combined with an elegant style and a sincere emotion. His best songs are among the most popular to emerge from Italy. The most famous and the most moving emotionally is without question “_Addio_” (“Goodbye, Forever”). Almost as popular and appealing are “_Ideale_” (“My Ideal”), “_Marechiare_,” “_Mattinata_,” “_Segreto_,” “_La Serenata_,” and “_Vorrei morire_.” Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Verdi, the greatest of the Italian opera composers, was born in Le Roncole, Italy, on October 10, 1813. He demonstrated such unmistakable gifts for music in his boyhood that his townspeople created a fund to send him to the Milan Conservatory. In 1832 he appeared in Milan. Finding he was too old to gain admission to the Conservatory, he studied composition privately with Vincenzo Lavigna. For several years Verdi lived in Busseto where he conducted the Philharmonic Society and wrote his first opera, _Oberto_, produced in Milan in 1839. Now settled in Milan, he continued writing operas, achieving his first major success with _Nabucco_ in 1842. During the next eight years he solidified his position as one of Italy’s best loved opera composers with several important works among which were _Ernani_ (1844), _Macbeth_ (1847) and _Luisa Miller_ (1849). A new era began for Verdi in 1851 with _Rigoletto_, an era in which he became Italy’s greatest master of opera, and one of the foremost in the world. _Il Trovatore_ and _La Traviata_ came in 1853, to be followed by _I Vespri Siciliani_ (1855), _Simone Boccanegra_ (1857), _Un ballo in maschera_ (1859), _La Forza del destino_ (1862), and _Aida_ (1871). Now a man of considerable wealth (as well as fame), Verdi bought a farm in Sant’ Agata where he henceforth spent his summers; after the completion of _Aida_, he lived there most of the time in comparative seclusion, tending to his crops, gardens, and live stock. When Cavour initiated the first Italian parliament, Verdi was elected deputy. But Verdi never liked politics, and soon withdrew from the political arena; however, in 1874, he accepted the honorary appointment of Senator from the King. As a composer, Verdi remained silent for about fifteen years after _Aida_. By the time the world became reconciled to the fact that Verdi’s life work was over, he emerged from this long period of withdrawal to produce two operas now generally regarded as his crowning achievements: _Otello_ (1887) and _Falstaff_ (1893). During the last years of his life, Verdi lived in a Milan hotel. His sight and hearing began to deteriorate, and just before his death—in Milan on January 27, 1901—he suffered a paralytic stroke. His death was mourned by the entire nation. A quarter of a million mourners crowded the streets to watch his bier pass for its burial in the oratory of the Musicians Home in Milan—accompanied by the stately music of a chorus from _Nabucco_, conducted by Toscanini. Verdi’s profound knowledge of the theater and his strong dramatic sense, combined with his virtually incomparable Italian lyricism, made him one of the greatest composers for the musical theater of all time. But it is his lyricism—with all its infinite charm and variety—that makes so much of his writing so popular to so many in such widely scattered areas of the world. Selections from his most famous operas are favorites even with many who have never seen them on the stage, because their emotional appeal is inescapable. _Aida_ is an opera filled not only with some of the most wonderful melodies to be found in Italian opera but also with scenes of pomp, ceremony, with exotic attractions, and with episodes dynamic with dramatic interest. This was the opera that brought Verdi’s second creative period to a rich culmination; and it is unquestionably one of the composer’s masterworks. He wrote it on a commission from the Egyptian Khedive for ceremonies commemorating the opening of the Suez Canal. However, Verdi took so long to complete his opera that it was not performed in Cairo until about two years after the canal had been opened, on December 24, 1871. The libretto—by Antonio Ghislanzoni—was based on a plot by Mariette Bey. Radames, captain of the Egyptian guard, is in love with Aida, the Ethiopian slave of Amneris. The latter, daughter of the King of Egypt, is herself in love with Radames. When an invading Ethiopian force comes to threaten Egypt, Radames becomes the commander of the army and proves himself a hero. Lavish festivities and ceremonies celebrate his victorious return, during which the king of Egypt offers him the hand of Amneris as reward. But Radames is still in love with Aida. Since Aida is actually the daughter of the Ethiopian king, she manages to extract from Radames the secret maneuvers of the Egyptian army, information enabling the Ethiopian army to destroy the Egyptians. For this treachery, Radames is buried alive; and Aida, still in love with him, comes within his tomb to die with him. The brief overture opens with a tender melody in violins suggesting Aida. After an effective development we hear a somber and brooding motive of the Priests of Isis, which soon receives contrapuntal treatment. The Aida motive is dramatized, brought to a magnificent climax, then allowed to subside. The Ballet Music is famous for its brilliant harmonic and orchestral colors, exotic melodies, and pulsating rhythms. In Act 2, Scene 1 there takes place the _Dance of the Moorish Slaves_, an oriental dance performed before Amneris by the Moorish boys. The _Ballabile_ is another oriental dance which appears in Act 2, Scene 2, performed by the dancing girls during the celebration attending the arrival of the triumphant Egyptian army headed by Radames. In this scene there is also heard the stirring strains of the _Grand March_. This march begins softly but soon gathers its strength and erupts with full force as the king, his attendants, the Priests, the standard bearers, Amneris and her slaves appear in a brilliant procession. The people raise a cry of praise to the king and their Gods in “_Gloria all’ Egitto_.” After this comes the dramatic march music to which the Egyptian troops, with Radames at their head, enter triumphantly into the square and file proudly before their king. Of the vocal excerpts the most famous is undoubtedly Radames’ ecstatic song of love to Aida in the first act, first scene, “_Celeste Aida_,” surely one of the most famous tenor arias in all opera. Two principal arias for soprano are by Aida. The first is her exultant prayer that Radames come back victorious from the war, “_Ritorna vincitor_” in Act 1, Scene 1; the other, “_O Patria mia_,” in Act 3, is her poignant recollection of her beloved homeland in Ethiopia. Amneris’ moving aria in Act 2, Scene 1, “_Vieni amor mio_” where she thinks about her beloved Radames, and the concluding scene of the opera in which Radames and Aida bid the world farewell, “_O terra, addio_” are also famous. _La Forza del destino_ (_The Force of Destiny_) has a popular overture. This opera was first performed in St. Petersburg, Russia on November 10, 1862—libretto by Francesco Piave based on a play by the Duke de Riva. Leonora, daughter of the Marquis of Calatrava, is in love with Don Alvaro, a nobleman of Inca origin. When they plan elopement, Leonora’s father intervenes and is accidentally killed in the ensuing brawl. Leonora’s brother, Don Carlo, swears to avenge this death by killing Don Alvaro. On the field of battle, Don Alvaro saves Don Carlo’s life. Not recognizing Don Alvaro as his sworn enemy, Don Carlo pledges eternal friendship; but upon discovering Don Alvaro’s true identity, he challenges him to a duel in which Don Carlo is wounded. Aware that he has brought doom to two people closest and dearest to his beloved Leonora, Don Alvaro seeks sanctuary in a monastery where many years later he is found by Don Carlo. In the sword duel that follows, Don Alvaro kills Don Carlo, whose last act is to plunge a fatal knife into his sister’s heart. A trumpet blast, creating an ominous air of doom, opens the overture. An air in a minor key then leads to a gentle song for strings; this is Leonora’s prayer for help and protection to the Virgin in the second scene of the second act, “_Madre pietosa_.” A light pastoral tune, depicting the Italian countryside in the third act, is now heard. Leonora’s song of prayer is now forcefully repeated by the full orchestra, after which the overture ends robustly. _Rigoletto_, introduced in Venice on March 11, 1851, is based on the Victor Hugo play, _Le Roi s’amuse_ adapted by Francesco Piave. Rigoletto is the hunchbacked jester to the Duke of Mantua who jealously guards his daughter, Gilda, from the world outside their home. Disguised as a student, the Duke woos Gilda and wins her love. Since the Duke’s courtiers hate the jester, they conspire to abduct Gilda and bring her to the ducal court to become the Duke’s mistress. Distraught at this turn of affairs, the jester vows to kill the Duke and hires a professional assassin to perform this evil deed. But since his own sister loves the Duke, the assassin decides to spare him and to kill a stranger instead. The stranger proves to be none other than Gilda, disguised as a man for a projected flight to Verona. The body is placed in a sack for delivery to Rigoletto who, before he can get rid of the body, discovers that it is that of his beloved daughter. The following are the best loved and most widely performed excerpts from this tuneful opera: the Ballata, “_Questa o quella_” from the first act in which the Duke flippantly talks of love and his many conquests; the graceful Minuet to which the courtiers dance during a party at the Ducal palace in the same act; Gilda’s famous coloratura aria, “_Caro nome_” from the second act, in which she dreams about the “student” with whom she has fallen in love; the light and capricious aria of the Duke, “_La donna è mobile_” from the third act, in which the Duke mockingly comments on fickle womanhood, and one of the most celebrated tenor arias in the repertory; the quartet “_Bella figlia dell’ amore_”—as celebrated an ensemble number as “_La donna è mobile_” is as an aria—in which each of the four principal characters of the opera (Gilda, Rigoletto, the Duke, and Maddalena) speaks of his or her inner turmoil, doubts, and hatreds in the third act. _La Traviata_ (_The Lost One_) is Francesco Maria Piave’s adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ celebrated romance, _La Dame aux camélias_. Its central theme is the tragic tale of the courtesan, Violetta, who falls in love with and is loved by Alfredo Germont. After they live together for a blissful period, Alfredo’s father is instrumental in breaking up the affair by convincing Violetta she must give up her lover for his own good. She does so by feigning she has grown tired of him. Only too late does Alfredo learn the truth; when he returns to Violetta, she is dying of tuberculosis. The première of _La Traviata_ in Venice on March 6, 1853 was a dismal failure. The public reacted unfavorably to a play it regarded immoral, and to the sight of a healthy prima donna seemingly wasting away with tuberculosis; it also resented the fact that the opera was given in contemporary dress. At a revival, a year later in Venice, the opera was performed in costume and settings of an earlier period. Profiting further from a carefully prepared presentation, the opera now cast a spell on its audience. From this point on, _La Traviata_ went on to conquer the opera world to become one of the most popular operas ever written. The orchestral preludes to the first and third act are celebrated. The Prelude to Act 1 begins softly and slowly with a poignant melody suggesting Violetta’s fatal sickness; this is followed by a broad, rich song for the strings describing Violetta’s expression of love for Alfredo. The Prelude to Act 3 also begins with the sad, slow melody speaking of Violetta’s illness. The music then becomes expressive and tender to point up the tragedy of her life; this prelude ends with a succession of broken phrases as Violetta’s life slowly ebbs away. The following are the principal vocal selections from _La Traviata_: the opening drinking song, or Brindisi (“_Libiamo, libiamo_”); Violetta’s world-famous aria, “_Ah, fors è lui_” in which she reveals her love for Alfredo followed immediately by her determination to remain free and pleasure-loving (“_Sempre libera_”) also in the first act; Alfredo’s expression of joy that Violetta has come to live with him, “_De’ miei bollenti spiriti_” and the elder Germont’s recollection of his happy home in the Provence, “_Di Provenza il mar_” from the second act; Violetta’s pathetic farewell to the world, “_Addio del passato_,” and Alfredo’s promise to the dying Violetta to return together to their happy home near Paris, “_Parigi, o cara_” from the fourth act. _Il Trovatore_ (_The Troubadours_) is so full of familiar melodies that, like a play of Shakespeare, it appears to be replete with “quotations.” It was first performed in Rome on January 19, 1853. The libretto by Salvatore Commarno, based on a play by Antonio Garcia Gutiérrez, is complicated to a point of obscurity, and filled with coincidences and improbabilities; but this did not prevent Verdi from creating one of his most melodious scores, an inexhaustible reservoir of unforgettable arias and ensemble numbers. The story involves Count di Luna in a frustrated love affair with Leonora; his rival is Manrico, an officer of a rival army with whom Leonora is in love. The gypsy Azucena convinces Manrico, her foster son, that Count di Luna had been responsible for the death of Manrico’s father, and incites him on to avenge that murder. Later in the play, Azucena and Manrico are captured by Di Luna’s army. To help free Manrico, Leonora promises to marry the Count. Rather than pay this price, Leonora takes poison and dies at Manrico’s feet. Manrico is now sentenced to be executed. After his death, Azucena, half-crazed, reveals that Manrico is really Count di Luna’s half brother. The long list of favorite selections from _Il Trovatore_ includes the following: Manrico’s beautiful serenade to Leonora in Act 1, Scene 2, “_Deserto sulla terra_”; Leonora’s poignant recollections of a mysterious admirer in the second scene, “_Tacea la notte placida_”; the ever popular _Anvil Chorus_ of the gypsies with which the second act opens, “_Vedi! le fosche_”; Azucena’s stirring recollection of the time long past when her mother had been burned as a witch, “_Stride la vampa_,” and Count di Luna’s expression of love for Leonora, “_Il balen_” also in the second act; in the third act, Manrico’s dramatic aria, “_Di quella pira_” and the rousing soldier’s chorus of Manrico’s troops, “_Squilli, echeggi la tromba guerriera_”; Leonora’s prayer for her beloved Manrico “_D’amor sull’ ali rosee_” followed immediately by the world-famous _Miserere_ (“_Ah, che la morte ognora_”), a choral chant asking pity and salvation from the prisoners, all in the first scene of the fourth act; and the poignant duet of Manrico and Azucena in the final scene, a fervent, glowing hope that some day they can return to their beloved mountain country in peace and love, “_Ai nostri monti_.” While _I Vespri siciliani_, or _Les Vêpres siciliennes_ (_Sicilian Vespers_) is one of Verdi’s less familiar operas, its overture is one of his most successful. The opera-libretto by Eugène Scribe and Charles Duveyrier—was first performed at the Paris Opéra on June 13, 1855. Its setting is 13th-century Sicily where the peasants rise in revolt against the occupying French. The overture is constructed from some basic melodies from the opera. The first _Allegro_ theme speaks of the massacre of the French garrison. A second melody—a beautiful lyrical passage _pianissimo_ against tremolos—is taken from the farewell scene of the hero and the heroine who are about to die. Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner, genius of the music drama, was born in Leipzig, Germany, on May 22, 1813. In his academic studies (at the Kreuzschule in Dresden, the Nikolaischule in Leipzig, and the University of Leipzig) he was an indifferent, lazy, and irresponsible student. But his intensity and seriousness of purpose where music was concerned were evident from the beginning. He studied theory by memorizing a textbook and then by receiving some formal instruction from Theodor Weinlig. In short order he completed an overture and a symphony that received performances between 1832 and 1833; in 1834 he completed his first opera, _Die Feen_, never performed in his lifetime. In 1834 he was appointed conductor of the Magdeburg Opera where, two years later, his second opera, _Das Liebesverbot_, was introduced. Between 1837 and 1838 he conducted opera in Riga. Involvement in debts caused his dismissal from this post and compelled him to flee to Paris, where he arrived in 1839. There he lived for three years in extreme poverty, completing two important operas, _Rienzi_ in 1840, and _The Flying Dutchman_ in 1841. His first major successes came with the first of these operas, introduced at the Dresden Opera on October 20, 1842. This triumph brought Wagner in 1843 an appointment as Kapellmeister of the Dresden Opera which he held with considerable esteem for six years. During this period he completed two more operas: _Tannhaeuser_, introduced in Dresden in 1845, and _Lohengrin_, first performed in Weimar under Liszt’s direction, in 1850. As a member of a radical political organization, the Vaterlandsverein, Wagner became involved in the revolutionary movements that swept across Europe in 1848-1849. To avoid arrest, he had to flee from Saxony. He came to Weimar where he was warmly welcomed by Liszt who from then on became one of his staunchest champions. After that Wagner set up a permanent abode in Zurich. He now began to clarify and expound his new theories on opera. He saw opera as a drama with music, a synthesis of many arts; he was impatient with the old clichés and formulas to which opera had so long been enslaved, such as formal ballets, recitatives and arias, production scenes, and so forth. And he put his theories into practice with a monumental project embracing four dramas, collectively entitled _The Nibelung Ring_ (_Der Ring des Nibelungen_) for which, as had always been his practice, he wrote the text as well as the music; the four dramas were entitled _The Rhinegold_ (_Das Rheingold_), _The Valkyries_ (_Die Walkuere_), _Siegfried_, and _The Twilight of the Gods_ (_Goetterdaemmerung_). It took him a quarter of a century to complete this epic. But during this period he was able to complete several other important music dramas, including _Tristan and Isolde_ in 1859 and _The Mastersingers_ (_Die Meistersinger_) in 1867. In 1862, Wagner was pardoned for his radical activities of 1849 and permitted to return to Saxony. There he found a powerful patron in Ludwig II, king of Bavaria, under whose auspices premières of Wagner’s mighty music dramas were given in Munich beginning with _Tristan and Isolde_ in 1865. In 1876 there came into being one of Wagner’s most cherished dreams, a festival theater built in Bayreuth, Bavaria, according to his own specifications, where his music dramas could be presented in the style and manner Wagner dictated. This festival opened in August 1876 with the first performance anywhere of the entire _Ring_ cycle. Since then Bayreuth has been a shrine of Wagnerian music drama to which music lovers of the world congregate during the summer months. Wagner’s last music drama was the religious consecrational play, _Parsifal_, first performed in Bayreuth on July 26, 1882. Wagner died in Venice on February 13, 1883, and was buried in the garden of his home, Wahnfried, in Bayreuth. Of his turbulent personal life which involved him in numerous and often complex love affairs, mention need here be made only of his relations with Cosima, daughter of Liszt, and wife of Hans von Buelow. Wagner and Cosima fell in love while the latter was still von Buelow’s wife. They had two illegitimate children before they set up a home of their own at Lake Lucerne; and one more (Siegfried) before they were married on August 25, 1870. Wagner’s creative career divides itself into two phases. In the first he was the composer of operas in more or less a traditional style. To the accepted formulas of operatic writing, however, he brought a new dimension—immense musical and dramatic power and invention. In the second phase he was the prophet of a new order in music, the creator of the music drama. It is from the works of his first phase that salon or pop orchestras derive selections that have become universal favorites—sometimes overtures, sometimes excerpts. For these earlier works abound with such a wonderful fund of melody, emotion, expressiveness and dramatic interest that they have become popular even with those operagoers to whose tastes the later Wagner is perhaps too subtle, complex, elusive, or garrulous. From _The Flying Dutchman_ (_Der fliegende Hollaender_) comes a dramatic overture. This opera—text by the composer based on an old legend adapted by Heinrich Heine—was first performed at the Dresden Opera on January 2,