Events

• Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano

• March 2-3, 2012 8:00 PM
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• where: Dell Hall directions
• conductor: Peter Bay

Hector-Louis Berlioz
b. 11 December 1803 in Isère, France; d. 8 March 1869 in Paris France.

Roman Carnival Overture, Op. 9. Premiere: introduced at the Salle Herz, Paris, on February 3, 1844, the composer conducting. A resounding success, the work had to be repeated as an encore. The first performance in the United States took place in New York on April 13, 1856.

The eighteen months that Hector Berlioz spent in Italy in 1830, after having won the coveted Prix de Rome, provided impressions of the country’s popular dances and folk songs. These stayed with him and later served as models for his own Italian themes. At the time, Berlioz had not yet read the memoirs of the famous renaissance artist Benvenuto Cellini, which were to furnish the subject of his opera.
The premiere of Benvenuto Cellini was reported as “hissed with admirable energy and unanimity;” an utter failure. Fortunately for us, Berlioz later mined the work for thematic material for a new overture that he could use as an independent concert piece, the setting of which is a brilliant carnival scene at the Piazza Colonna in Rome. With the flavor of the opera’s locale and his own Italian travels as a guide, Berlioz named the overture Roman Carnival.

A burst of festive music taken from the opera’s carnival scene, a flourish based on a saltarello melody, sets the work in motion. After which, a beautiful solo for English horn begins the slower section with music from the love duet, “Ô Teresa, vous que j’aime plus que ma vie” (“O Teresa, whom I adore”), Cellini’s tenderly passionate address to the seventeen-year-old Teresa Balducci. Consequently the love theme passes through the violas and horns as the faster Mardi Gras carnival music begins to reassert itself in quick, scalar themes with the woodwinds announcing its full-fledged return.

As it proceeds and is repeated, this strain is wrapped in Berlioz’s characteristic, glowing orchestral fabric, complete with the shimmering sounds of the tambourine and triangle. The exuberance of the saltarello, with some rhythmic and harmonic surprises, soon resumes to close the musical Mardi Gras. Amid the swirling joviality of this street festival, a reminiscence of the love song from the opening section is heard in the rich sonorities of bassoons and trombones. The work continues to build in intensity with Berlioz introducing a few surprises along the way, including a fugal section that further delays the overture’s triumphant conclusion.

Although the opera fizzled after its premiere in 1838, the overture was met with a decidedly warmer reception. It soon became one of Berlioz’s most popular works, both in its orchestral form and as a four-hand piano arrangement. A mix of fantasy and passion, the Roman Carnival Overture is a favorite in the concert hall today.

Joseph-Maurice Ravel
b. 7 March 1875 in Ciboure, France. d. 28 December 1937 in Paris, France.

Shéhérazade, Trois Poèmes de Tristan Klingsor. Premiere took place on May 17, 1904 at the Société Nationale under the baton of the respected pianist and conductor Alfred Cortot with soprano Jeanne Hatto.

In the Arabian Nights fables, a collection of Arabian, Indian and Persian stories written in Arabic between the 14th and 16th centuries, a sultan became convinced that all women are capricious. He therefore took a new bride each day and put her to death the next. Princess Scheherazade, his newest consort, invented a clever strategy designed first to postpone, then hopefully, evade her fate. Each evening she told a spellbinding tale, one leading into the next. Finally, after 1001 nights, the Sultan gave in and settled down to a happily married life with Scherherazade. The Arabian Nights became well-known in Europe after they were translated into French in the early 1700s, giving the Western world Aladdin, Sinbad, Ali Baba, and a lasting cultural and literary cliché: magical, exotic Asia.

The most famous music inspired by Princess Scheherazade’s stories is the scintillating orchestral suite that Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed in 1888. Ravel deeply admired the music of Rimsky-Korsakov and in 1898, while studying at the Paris Conservatoire, he began an operatic treatment of the Arabian Nights legends. Two works came from this venture: an overture, which remains his earliest surviving orchestral work, which he designated as an ouverture de féerie, and the song cycle.

The recycled material from overture to song cycle proved to be successful. The outcome became a sumptuous, three-part work based on poems from a recently published collection, entitled Shéhérazade, by Tristan Klingsor, the suspiciously Wagnerian pen name of Ravel’s friend, Arthur Justin Léon Leclère. As soon as Leclère/Klingsor’s Shéhérazade was published in 1903, Ravel indicated his eagerness to orchestrate some of the poems; he began at once, completing the settings before the end of the year. These free-meter verses, conjure the sights, sounds, and philosophies of the mystical east.

Asie, the first and longest movement, offers a dream-like journey through eastern lands. Ravel evokes dazzling orchestral colors, with alternating moods of excitement and languor. The singer’s rising invocation of “Asie,” introduced by the oboe in the exotic “eastern” mode, produces a song that sometimes treats the voice in a Wagnerian manner, chanting the words while the orchestra supplies the melodic interest and descriptive touches.

La Flûte enchantée captures the stillness of a warm afternoon. A girl listens sadly to the haunting sound of a distant flute played by her lover. The cycle concludes with a portrait of a potentially amorous, but eventually unfulfilled encounter between total strangers (note the pleading drop in the voice when the stranger is asked to enter). Ravel scores L’Indifférent in soft, muted colors, which, like the words, suggest levels of deeper, unspoken passions.

Édouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo
b. 275 January 1823 in Lille, France. d. 22 April 1892 in Paris, France.

“De tous côtes j’aperçois” from Le roi d’Ys (The King of Ys). An opera in three acts and five tableaux to a libretto by Édouard Blau. Premiered at the Opéra Comique in Paris on May 7, 1888.

Édouard Lalo was born in Lille in northernmost France where he attended the city’s music conservatory and later the Paris Conservatoire. Julie Besnier de Maligny, a contralto from Brittany, became his bride in 1865 and aroused Lalo’s early interest in opera. Despite their freshness and originality, these works were deemed too progressive and Wagnerian and were not initially well received.

Although best known for his orchestral work, Symphonie espagnole, Le roi d’Ys is Lalo’s most complex and ambitious creation. Based on the old Breton legend of the drowned city of Ys, Lalo uses instrumental color as a background for the vocal parts. With that, he increases the importance of the orchestra and writes in a chromatic idiom that is more similar to music of Liszt than that of Wagner. Although Le roi d’Ys contains certain characteristics of traditional grand opera, this highly individual work marked a new direction in French music of its time.

Lalo created the role of the heroine Margared for his wife though she never actually performed it. Margared, a character of tremendous depth, is onstage throughout the opera and is torn between succumbing to her own passions and doing what is right for others. Her aria “De tous côtes j’aperçois” from Act II is a vengeful song of a princess who, upon discovering that the man she loves actually loves her sister, gives way to an insane jealousy that leads to her betrayal of her home city in the name of vengeance. From a window of the palace, she watches Prince Karnac lead his soldiers against the city, and overhears a loving interview between her sister and Mylio before he goes forth to meet the foe.

Camille Saint-Saëns
b. 9 October 1835 in Paris, France. d. 16 December 1921 in Algiers, Algeria.

“Mon cour s’ouvre à ta voix” and Danse bacchanale from Samson et Dalila, Op. 47. A grand opera in three acts with a libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire. Premiered in Weimar at the Grossherzogliches (Grand Ducal) Theater in a German translation on December 2, 1877, Eduard Lassen conducting.

During a lengthy career, composer/pianist Camille Saint-Saëns became the voice of French musical romanticism. Best known for his impressive piano showpieces and extravagant orchestral works, one area where Saint-Saëns’ efforts proved largely unsuccessful was grand opera. The exception to his failed attempts at creating a large-scale operatic work is the epic Samson et Dalila based on the biblical story of Sampson, the Hebrew leader who is destroyed by his love for a cunning Philistine temptress. Originally conceived as an oratorio, Saint-Saëns, after seeing the work’s theatrical possibilities, transformed the score into the French grand opera manner with magnificent choral ensemble scenes, heroic roles for the two protagonists and colorful ballet sequences. Instead of focusing on the well-known physical prowess of the hero, the opera highlights the struggle Sampson must face in choosing between his loyalty to Israel and his shameless desire for the beautiful Delilah.

Despite the embellishments, Saint-Saëns’ score elicited no interest from any of the French opera houses. If not for Franz Liszt, the work would not have been produced, and might not even have been completed. Liszt, a strong supporter of Saint-Saëns, was impressed with the operatic spectacle and through his influence, Samson et Delila was finally premiered in Weimar in 1877. Securing immediate success, it eventually made the rounds of the world’s great opera houses.

In setting the familiar story to music, Saint-Saëns gives an abundant demonstration of his fine gifts for melody and color. Most notably are Delilah’s seductive aria “Mon cour s’ouvre à ta voix” in Act II and the stunning Danse bacchanale from Act III, which accompanies the orgiastic rites in the Temple of Dagon.

“Mon cour s’ouvre à ta voix”
Alone, Delilah contemplates her chances of success knowing that Sampson will come to her instead of leading the revolution against the Philistines. Sampson, intent on taking his place as the leader of the Hebrew revolt, emerges to say his last farewell. In an attempt to trap Sampson, Delilah tells him seductively that she is completely his. She begs him to respond to her caresses, hoping that he will concentrate completely on her.

Delilah has him in her power demanding that he show his love by confiding in her the secret of his strength. The rolling thunder heard in the distance seems like a warning and Sampson refuses. Delilah weeps and runs into her dwelling. Sampson, momentarily torn, follows Delilah inside. Having finally learned that the secret of Sampson’s strength is his long hair, Delilah calls to hidden Philistine soldiers, who rush in to capture and blind Sampson.

The melismatic setting of the lyrics present a particular challenge for the performance of this aria as it requires legato singing over a wide vocal range. It is one of the most popular arias in the mezzo-soprano repertoire.

Danse bacchanale
After successfully winning his affection in Act II, the femme fatale Delilah calls upon her soldiers to capture and blind Sampson. He later offers himself up as a sacrifice, and as the Philistines prepare for his sacrificial death, they celebrate their victory with the drunken and reckless abandon of the Danse bacchanale.

A bacchanale is often used to cite irrationality or an altered mindset of a principle character. Here, Saint-Saëns uses the exotic musical sounds and foreign scales he picked up in his travels to truly capture what he imagined was an authentic ancient sound. The dance opens with a winding chromatic cadenza in the oboe, accentuating an exotic interval that is often associated with Middle Eastern music and Philistine sensuality. The piece builds into a fiery dance that is tossed throughout the orchestra with an unrelenting rhythm that will doggedly pursue us to the bombastic finale. A contrasting middle section features a passionate, lyrical tune in the strings, perhaps hinting at the mournful heartache of the martyr. The exciting opening material returns and is soon transformed into a chaotic presto that spins out of control in a climactic finish.

Georges Bizet
b. 25 October 1838 in Paris, France. d. 3 June 1875 in Bougival, France.

Habanera (“L’amour est un oiseau rebelle”) and Seguidilla (“Près des remparts de Séville”) from Carmen. Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.

The most popular opera in the entire repertoire, as it contains more familiar tunes than any other, is Bizet’s light-hearted opéra comique Carmen. Critics denounced the opening run of Carmen, and Bizet died of a heart attack three months after the premiere without knowing the popularity and impact it would later achieve. It is a simple and direct story set in Seville, Spain, around 1820, of a Spanish gypsy girl with a fiery temper. Not caring what fate she will meet by the men she chooses to satisfy her great appetite for love, Carmen woos the corporal Don José, an inexperienced soldier. Their relationship leads to his rejection of his former love, mutiny against his superior, and his joining a gang of smugglers. Out of jealousy, Don José murders Carmen when she turns from him to the bullfighter Escamillo.

Habanera (“L’amour est un oiseau rebelle”)
The Habanera has almost become a folksong. Modeled on a Cuban-style song once popular in cabarets, it makes use of graceful dotted rhythms and teasing, exotic chromatic melodies. The fascinating melody is Carmen’s first aria in the opera. In the opening scene, Carmen, on break from her job at the cigarette factory, is taunting the soldier Don José, who just arrived for his guard duty. The factory bell rings and the cigarette girls emerge from the factory, greeted by young men who have gathered to flirt with them (“La cloche a sonné”). Carmen appears and the men ask when she will love them (“Quand je vous aimerai?”). She replies with her sultry song comparing love to a beautiful bird: “Love is a rebellious bird that no one can tame … If you don’t love me, I love you, if I love you, watch yourself!” Her availability to men is strictly on her terms and Don José, who has been ignoring her, is annoyed by her insolence.

Seguidilla (“Près des remparts de Séville”)
After Carmen has been arrested for fighting another girl in the cigarette factory, Don José is assigned to watch her. To escape, Carmen seduces José with the Seguidilla. She sings that she wants to go to her friend Lillias Pastia’s inn and insinuates that she would like him to go with her. The scenes between Carmen and José represent the stages of their relationship and the Seguidilla in Act I is the seduction.

Joseph-Maurice Ravel
b. 7 March 1875 in Ciboure, France. d. 28 December 1937 in Paris, France.

La valse, un poème choréographique pour orchestre. Camille Chevillard conducted the premiere with the Lamoureux Orchestra of Paris on December 12, 1920. Alfred Hertz led the first American performances with the San Francisco Symphony in October 1921.

In just thirteen minutes, we experience the most vivid sound portrait imaginable of the bitter end of an era. In 1906 Ravel began sketching a symphonic poem in tribute to Johann Strauss, the Waltz King, who had died only seven years earlier. He did not take it very far at that time, but the Strauss tribute was not abandoned and by 1914 Ravel settled on Wien (Vienna) as a working title. Yet, after Ravel’s return from World War I, Vienna, and every facet of European life had been drastically changed; his original concept for the piece could therefore not avoid change.

Ravel himself had been distressed by his front-line service as an ambulance driver for an artillery regiment. His health had been affected and his convalescence was extended by his depression over the brutality of war. When Ravel did return to the piece inspired by the Waltz King, he now called it simply La valse, and spoke of it as a “dance (that) may seem tragic, like any other emotion… pushed to the extreme.” La valse still had more than an echo of Johann Strauss, but destiny’s whirl had taken on a darker quality of ferocious fantasy; a terrifying tone poem that helped define a new language of musical macabre.

The music is a masterful suggestion of avoidances and collisions between a brilliant surface and dangerous undercurrents. Ravel provided a brief scenario:

Viennese waltz rhythm (mouvement de Valse viennoise). Drifting clouds allow a
restricted vision of waltzing couples. The clouds gradually disperse and we see an
immense room filled with a whirling crowd. The scene grows progressively brighter.
The light of the chandeliers bursts forth at the fortissimo. An imperial court, about
1855…

The beginning opens ominously, in a mist, while gradually, instruments play fragmented melodies. Eventually the harps lead the orchestra into a graceful melody. Led by the violins, the orchestra erupts into the work’s principal waltz theme. A series of waltzes follows, each with its own character, alternating loud and soft sequences. As it nears its conclusion, the waltz tries once more to build into a climax, but descends into the ‘mist’ of the beginning.

Every melody from the first section is re-introduced, although altered, in the second section. Ravel has distorted each theme with unexpected modulations. As the waltz begins to whirl out of control, Ravel intends us to see what is truly happening: beneath the enthralling exterior of this music is a sinister undercurrent. By midpoint, Ravel’s waltzing couples seem to be in the midst of a storm.
The momentum breaks. A ghoulish sequence begins, gradually building into a disconcerting repetition. The ominously dark music returns, and, whirling faster, the waltzes begin to collide with each other in wild harmonic and rhythmic confusion. The orchestra reaches a danse macabre coda, and the work ends with a final measure as the most violent ending in Ravel’s music.

To note, Ravel had discussed La valse with the famous impresario Serge Diaghilev as music for a ballet. But when Ravel presented the finished score, he saw no dance possibilities in it. Ravel never forgave Diaghilev and Diaghilev never changed his mind about it as a ballet. La valse has, however, been given several choreographed productions and Ravel apparently approved most of the versions presented in his lifetime.

© Jeanne Rogers

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