If I Could Choose Only One Work By...PUCCINI
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 มี.ค. 2023
- In Would Have To Be...La Bohème
Because it's the most perfect of all the verismo operas--great tunes, gorgeous orchestration, four terrific roles, and not a note too long.
The List So Far...
1. Ravel: Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Ballet)
2. Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
3. Schubert: String Quintet in C major
4. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
5. Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”
6. Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
7. Debussy: Preludes for Piano (Books 1 & 2)
8: Handel: Saul
9. Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
10. Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G major
11. Vaughan Williams: Job
12. Bach: Goldberg Variations
13. R. Strauss: Four Last Songs
14. Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust
15. Haydn: “Paris” Symphonies (Nos. 82-87)
16. Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
17. Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor
18. Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor
19. Chopin: Preludes
20. Verdi: Rigoletto
21. Roussel: Symphony No. 2
22. Copland: Appalachian Spring (complete original ballet)
23. Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 and 2
24. Bartók: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
25. Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2
26. Rimsky-Korsakov: Opera Suites (Scottish National Orchestra/Järvi) Chandos
27. Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire
28. Smetana: Ma Vlást
29. Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain
30. Bizet: Carmen
31. Elgar: In the South
32. Sullivan: The Mikado
33. Dvořák: Symphony No. 8; Cello Concerto (Piatigorsky/Munch/Boston Symphony) RCA
34. Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies
35. Monteverdi: Orfeo
36. Scarlatti: Sonatas
37. Schumann: Fantasie in C, Op. 17
38. Berg: Wozzeck
39. Hermann: Psycho (film score)
40. Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini
41. Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
42. Holst: Suites for Military Band
43. Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex
44. Respighi: Three Botticelli Pictures
45. Sibelius: Symphony No. 5; Pohjola’s Daughter (Bernstein, New York Philharmonic) Sony
46. Britten: The Turn of the Screw
47. Borodin: String Quartet No. 2
48. Janácek: The Cunning Little Vixen
49. Korngold: Violin Concerto
50. Tallis: Spem in Alium
51. Nielsen: Symphony No. 5
52. Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915
53. Hindemith: Symphony in E-flat
54. Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
55. Franck: Violin Sonata
56. Rossini: La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie)
57. Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5 “Egyptian”
58. Weill: The Seven Deadly Sins
59. Pergolesi: Stabat Mater
60. Albeniz: Iberia
61. Bernstein: Mass
62. Schreker: Chamber Symphony
63. Walton: Variations on a Theme by Hindemith
64. Dukas: Piano Sonata
65. Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
66. Tippett: Piano Concerto
67. Poulenc: Songs (ATMA, 5 discs)
68. Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No. 1
69. Gluck: Alceste
70. Vivaldi: L’estro armonico, Op. 3 - เพลง
Can't argue with the choice. Boheme is wonderful, and shows how well Puccini could write comic scenes as well as tragic ones. But then the choice could have fallen on any of his mature operas. For me it was Tosca. There's something about that "shabby little shocker" that keeps me coming back for more. The melodrama; the spectacle (Te Deum); the sexiness. Tosca is no innocent little wilting violet, is she? She owns her sexuality, and summons her courage, and power, to confront the evil villain. She's a match for Scrapia, even though Scarpia has triumphs posthumously. But, in the end, when it comes to Puccini operas, I love them all.
I'll go with Turandot. It's the work to which I keep coming back. It's the mature Puccini's musical prowess and power that knocks my socks off. It makes me wish he lived as long as Verdi so we would have more and more mature Puccini.
Turandot for me
Valla, if I needed any proof that Puccini was a gifted man of the theater it was sitting in the dress circle at a Met performance of "Turandot" with Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli.
Apart from the glorious music it was a contest in "anything you can sing I can sing louder" between the two principals.
Then there is "Nessun Dorma" of course.
@@johkkarkalis8860 you make me so envious - to hear those 2 giants together on stage live and in person - and singing the kind of music only their powerhouse voices could do justice to
@@VallaMusic "Powerhouse" describes them well, and they were convincing as characters in the best operatic sense.
I came at a fortuitous time, I guess.
I enjoyed Tebaldi and Corelli in "Boheme". Tebaldi, Mario Del Monaco, Leonard Warren in "Otello". Yikes!
Jussi Bjoerling, Roberta Peters, Leonard Warren in Rigoletto.
Leonard Warren coming before the curtain to sing the Pagliacci prologue garnered a collective grasp from the Cleveland audience, and we took these peerless voices for granted because they represented what was normal at the time.
I imagine those fortunate to live during the "Golden Age" at the Met with the likes of Caruso, Farrar, Scotti, Destinn, Chaliapin felt the same way.
Your Puccini-Debussy connection raises the larger question of imitation, conscious or otherwise. You've said "if you're going to borrow make it better". Ok, but I'd love top hear you take a deep dive into other such connections: Bach-Vivaldi, Corelli-Handel, Haydn-Mozart (mutual influence?), the overwhelming influence of Beethoven, starting with Schubert. Bach-Mendelssohn, Brahms-Dvorak. Schumann seems to have had a variety of influences so much so that it may have impeded his own style, though I believe both Tchaikovsky and Mahler were great admirers. I think this would be perfect for your 'how to listen' series.
When I saw Puccini was the composer in question, I immediately thought " It should be La Boeme!" and then thought "But, boy, I really do love "Tosca". And then I watched the video and realized one of us is psychic. I can't decide who, though.
Dave, finalmente Puccini! Thanks, Dave, for finally getting to Puccini, for a great choice, and for a great review. I am a true Puccini fanatic and consider Puccini and Tchaikovsky to be two of the most underrated of composers, precisely because they are so popular, but their popularity is fully deserved, as both of them are out-and-out geniuses. Like you, I've been to and loved Lucca. Also, I've twice visited his villa on Lake Massaciuccoli, where he wrote "Boheme" and his subsequent operas. Lunch at the next door Ristorante Butterfly and gelato at the gelateria Liu next door were delicious! P.S. As great as she was as Mimi and Madama Butterfly, Renata Scotto was also incomparable as that spitfire Musetta. Thanks again, Dave, for the review and for your praise of Puccini's genius. Perhaps no other opera composer had better theatrical instincts. And yes, that tune you mentioned is in Act III, a perfect operatic act if there ever was one.
May I ask what, setting aside the ballets and symphonies, you love most by Tchaikovsky. I've been enjoying his complete piano works, some of which sound to me like precursors to jazz.
@@jeffheller642 First piano concerto, violin concerto, Marche slave, capriccio italien, and perhaps most of all his Fantasie-Overture "Romeo and Juliet."
@@richardkavesh8299 thanks
Poor Catalani, also born in Lucca. Died young but a not inconsiderable composer. Does his native town throw him a bone at all? How about a Gelato a la Wally?
I envy you your travels, Richard.
True, popularity, as with Puccini and Tchaikovsky is often sniffed at and looked down upon by the would be sophisticates.
I have noted many times on this forum that countless works by the serialists are now collecting dust on the shelves of university libraries while the works of Puccini and Tchaikovsky are being enjoyed somewhere in the world at this moment.
I'm so happy you chose Boheme and for all the reasons you cited. It's Puccini fresh and unspoiled before he came under suspicion of consciously and even cynically manipulating an audience's emotions. In Boheme there's nothing like that, even with Mimi's death. Butterfly at times seems unnecessarily cruel and Suor Angelica spoils the Trittico as an integral work. Tosca is a thrill ride but Boheme is the perfect work, superbly orchestrated like all of his works; it even looks ahead. You cited Melisande, I'll be listening for that next time. But also I wouldn't be surprised if Stravinsky had Act 2 of Boheme somewhere in his head when writing the Fair tableaux in Petrushka. To top it off, Boheme is just the right length, no longer than the Mahler 3rd, if not shorter, and structured like a symphony with two outer expository and development movements that partly recapitulate and echo each other; and an inner Scherzo (Act 2) and Andante (Act 3.) As perfect and uncuttable work as you could find. Like some classical symphonies, each "movement"-act also opens with a variant of the opening theme of the first.
Boheme it is.
B. Bailey, someone once described a pleasurable delight as sitting in front of a roaring fire listening to a vintage recording by Jussi Bjoerling.
Make that the Bjoerling, de Los Angeles, Merrill recording of Boheme in glorious mono sound.
Boheme is a great choice
“Il trittico” if you can see this as one work. I think it summarizes everything Puccini did. But you probably shouldn’t see it as one work.
@@paxpaxart4740 With a prologue, no less.
I love Boheme dearly; always have...and I was impressed when Jimmy Levine (interview during the 1977 1st-ever Met TV broadcast) cited it as perhaps the GREATEST opera of them all...since it is so real, so TRUE. But I think "Butterfly" is the greater work; the panoramic emotional sweep and its meticulous insight into the characters and drama become more impressive and overwhelming with every hearing. The deaths of Mimi and Butterfly both represent, in a way, the immensity of the loss of a single, seemingly insignificant, loving human life...one died in poverty of TB, the other was callously betrayed, ritualistically destroys herself, and makes a last-ditch effort to embrace her little son. It's almost too much to take. The scope of Butterfly's tragedy [that final, UNRESOLVED G Major 6/4 chord..with MAJOR TAM-TAM activity] animated by Puccini's unerringly brilliant theatrical genius makes it, IMO, Puccini's greatest. Boheme's shortcoming is the rather patchwork "Scenes" format, with Act 4 largely consisting of quotes from the previous acts (I know there are 3 new aria/duets in it). Close call, and I don't disagree with Mr Hurwitz for choosing it. LR
Yes, but this is not about which work is "greater"--an impossible question in any case.
Ok. Many have waited for Puccini. Not me. I don’t know my operas.
I am waiting for Martinu, I love his music and very curious to see your pick Dave, as he was such a prolific composer.
Hard for me to pick a composition that best represents his style, which changed through his composing life.
One commentator said A Bouquet of Flowers, which is a nice sunny composition with a folky style.
My pick is Suites from Spalicek, which is a kind of experimental ballet thing he wrote. It is a potpourri of Martinuvian delights.
Hello Dave!
You have made a series called tough symphonists including 15 composers.
So far only one has appeared in this series and that is Tippett. I am now looking forward to see the other 14 appear soon.
They are Gerhard, Penderecki, Pettersson, Hartmann,Enescu,Chávez, Arnold, Braga Santos, Schuman, Valen, Lutosławski, Sessions, Rochberg and Saygun. And to keep the original number 15 I add Freitas Branco.
Best wishes Fred from Kristianstad. 👋🇸🇪🎶
Ahh, to play bass drum in La Boheme! The one solo ‘tap’ in “Che gelida manina” where he goes “Ta-alor dal mio for-zie-re” marked pp eighth note, but you play a ringing mp. And the two you mention in act 3(!) are the same deal, this time w the timpani going “da-da-boom” just when he discovers she’s been listening the whole time. Lovely!
I made my best case for Madame Butterfly, but I've got to admit you've made a stronger case for La Boheme. However, in answer to your rhetorical question, What's not to love? there is this: the hijinks and horseplay of the four roommates in their garret! And Puccini felt there wasn't enough of it in Act I, so he added more in Act IV. But Act III alone is worth the suffering.
But even that's genius. Somehow Puccini wrote the hijinks in Act 4 to sound forced and empty. Deliberately. Everything has changed.
@@bbailey7818 Maybe there's the subtle difference you suggest, but it's still a pill to swallow.
Oh well, some high jinks are forgivable is such a wonderful work.
The roles are often taken by mature singers portraying high spirited kids.
Some might cringe at the card scene in act 2 of "Girl of the Golden West". Oh my! She cheats! but great theater nonetheless.
@@johkkarkalis8860 Now that you mention it, I saw a production somewhere that omitted the playtime in Act IV. I think Baz Luhrman, of all people, was the director. The opera did not suffer. By the way, the poker scene in Fanciulla is brilliant; the underlying music is wonderfully atmospheric. Minnie's card trick is crazy stuff, but what a closing to that scene!
@@dennischiapello3879 Agreed!
The card game is a master stroke.
Poor Jack Rance. He doesn't know he's been bamboozled and all the tension of the scene is released with the full orchestra.
Wagner couldn't have done it better.
I saw my Met performance in Cleveland decades ago with a youngish Leontyne Price.
I believe that she pretty much dropped Minnie from her repertoire.
The written program should come with an advisory: "Not suitable for all ages. The lady cheats".
I would have picked "Turandot" but that's just me, because I'm crazy about it. I'm seriously thinking of getting the new Pappano recording of it to add to my collection.
Fully agree! Pavarotti/Freni!!
I always enjoy your talks Dave! PUccin is great! For me Manon Lescaut and yes Tosca !
So happy that you finally chose Puccini's work, I also agree, La Boheme is Puccini's masterpiece, I also recommend listening to everyone the new release of Turandot directed by Pappano is a gem that includes the original ending of Alfano
Oh Bocherrini a great composer! I read in the book Maestro by H.M. that C.Kleiber got irritated at Musetta doing something she shouldn't have been doing, and he asked her is that really necessary, him conduct it! So so sorry I mssed the the chance to see Kleiber conduct. Any thoughts on the Toscanini rec. and that he cond. the world premiere!
Great choice as usual, dear Dave! Regarding Lucca, it gave birth to Puccini and Boccherini, as you mentioned, and - with no limitation - to Geminiani too! Well, may I dare to say that only in Italy you may find such a crowd of geniuses coming from the same small town? Anyway, the most important thing is just that any human being may enojoy the beauty of their creations. All best!
Once you get a chance to participate in the chorus of La Boheme ( I did in '95 under Marcello Viotti and with Barbara Frittoli as Mimi) you really understand what a genious work this.
During last act as Mimi's death scene is approaching there is even a chord allusion to Wagners Tristan as my Italian opera coach friend Alessandro Amoretti pointed out.
PS: Gorgeously beautiful Lucca is also the native town of Alfredo Catalani composer of La Wally.
Although a controversial choice mine would be IL TABARRO. It is Puccini‘s most atmospheric work & for me the most realistic, powerful, & unlike any of his other operas.
I totally agree. Trittico itself could be a complete choice
Thanks for mentioning it. Il Tabarro is a particular favorite of mine, and yes, its atmosphere is fabulous. The score rewards close listening, as Puccini works various themes and motifs ingeniously. Heck, La Fanciulla is right up there, too. Unfortunately, too many people seem unconcerned about that masterpiece.
@@paxpaxart4740 There was a coupling at the Met of Tabarro and Pagliacci, I believe it was. I saw it on videotape. Domingo and Stratas.
"La Fanciulla del West" for me - by a mile.
For me it was Tosca too!!!!
Tosca would have been a great choice, too.
One of the more enlightened of Dave's listeners can remind me: was it the critic Paul Hume who referred to Tosca as "that shabby little shocker"?
Those are fighting words for Tosca lovers.
It was actually Joseph Kerman. My late brother, a classic Puccini freak, used to call him "Joseph Vermin." I remember how he and our mother both resented a review of Colin Davis's recording of Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito" which began by saying it threw people who thought a great composer's final opera should be at the level of "Falstaff" or "Parsifal." "OR 'TURANDOT!'" my mom and my brother both said.
@@mgconlan Thanks for the correction.
Historical accuracy matters .
What fun to be a fly on the wall while Turandot, Falstaff, and Parsifal were gathered around the table.
What would they chat about?
The fine points of beheadings? The joy of fine wine? The wonder of salvation?
I don't know why Paul Hume was locked in my mind.
Could he have been the poor soul at the mercy of Harry Truman's ire over an unflattering review of dear daughter Margaret's attempts at opera.
Thanks for your recollection.
Did Paul Hume ever review the artistry of Florence Foster Jenkins?
If I could choose only one work by Puccini I'd pick Wagner. Lol!
I think it depends whether the evil god is an opera nut or not. If he (?) is not, then Boheme is perfect for the reasons Dave notes. If he is, then I’d go with Tosca. Opera nuts love feuding over who is the best Tosca. Would be a great way to please and annoy him at the same time.
The bass thumps are in Act III! Right when Mimi starts coughing up and is no longer hidden from Rodolfo.
Edgar is a horrible opera, besides the two soprano arias and the baritone aria. Rondine is wonderful in a perverse way: gorgeous music set to a genre (quasi-operetta) that is completely wrong for Puccini. But I love Manon because you can sort of see Puccini becoming Puccini in real time. It’s like he is trying to break out, but can’t quite fully until the Act II duet. Then everything clicks into place.