Pietro Mascagni - L'amico Fritz, Intermezzo - James Allen Gähres, cond., Ulm Philharmonic скачать в хорошем качестве

Pietro Mascagni - L'amico Fritz, Intermezzo - James Allen Gähres, cond., Ulm Philharmonic

Ulm Philharmonic James Allen Gähres, conductor Pietro Mascagni Intermezzo from Act Three of the opera 'L'amico Fritz'. Andante con moto. Live recorded during open public concert. Ulm, Germany Cover: Portrait of Pietro Mascagni, 1899, by Angiolo Tommasi (Italian painter, 1858-1923). Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori, Livorno, Italy. – Set designs of the premiere of L'amico Fritz at Teatro Costanzi in Rome, on October 31, 1891. – Musical quotation from L'amico Fritz by P. Mascagni, September 1897. P. Mascagni - Cavalleria rusticana, Intermezzo Sinfonico - James Allen Gähres, cond., Ulm Philharmonic:    • Mascagni - Cavalleria rusticana, Intermezz...   First performed on October 31, 1891, at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, L'amico Fritz is Mascagni's second most popular opera and is still staged with some frequency in Italy. Although fans expected another Cavalleria rusticana, and initially expressed their disappointment at not receiving one, the qualities of L'amico Fritz eventually won over its potential detractors. Some, including Gustav Mahler, who led a performance of the opera in Hamburg in 1892, considered L'amico Fritz superior to Cavalleria in many ways. L'amico Fritz is strikingly different; having launched the verismo school with Cavalleria, Mascagni here made a complete stylistic about-face. But this was at least in part because of the commission Mascagni received in early 1891 from the Teatro Costanzi in Rome; the management asked the composer to deliver an opera on a light, entertaining subject. After some searching, Mascagni chose a French comedy by Emile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian, L'Ami Fritz, which had been published in 1864 and adapted for the stage in 1872. The story was further transformed into a libretto by P. Suardon (an anagram for the famous writer, N. (Nicola) Daspuro), who maintained the fundamental ingredients of the original: Fritz Kobus, a wealthy, confirmed bachelor, lives on his estate in Alsace. The Rabbi David (changed to a physician during Italy's Mussolini years), a persistent matchmaker, is determined to get Fritz to marry. Partly through David's plotting, Fritz falls in love with Suzel, the daughter of his steward, and asks her to marry him. So, absent is Cavelleria's stark realism, charged eroticism, and blistering, brief, and frenetic segments of music. Instead, L'amico Fritz offers a subdued, idyllic atmosphere that makes it irresistible and charming. The first performance was a triumph; several numbers were repeated and there were innumerable curtain calls. Within a year of the premiere, L'amico Fritz played across Europe. The characters are exquisitely drawn. The most colorfully illustrated of these is Suzel, a shy person capable of emotional outbursts. Her romance from Act One, "Son pochi fiori," is especially impressive, its melody looking forward to Puccini's Manon Lescaut. Suzel's anguished "Non mi resta che il pianto," from Act Three, has become a concert favorite. Fritz is the next most carefully drawn character; his growing love becomes clear in his impassioned "Quale strano turbamento!" from the second act as well as the Act Three romance, "O amore o bella luce del cuore!" As is the case with most of Mascagni's tenor parts, the tessitura is uncommonly high - a challenge for even the finest singers. Rabbi David's sturdy, serious personality comes across in the stately setting of his "Per voi, ghiottoni inutili," from Act One. Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni (December 7, 1863 – August 2, 1945) was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music. However, though it has been stated that Mascagni, like Leoncavallo, was a "one-opera man" who could never repeat his first success, this is inaccurate. L'amico Fritz and Iris have been popular in Europe since their respective premieres. In fact, Mascagni himself claimed that at one point Iris was performed in Italy more often than Cavalleria. Mascagni wrote a total of seventeen operas and operetta, several orchestral and vocal works, as well as songs and piano music. He enjoyed immense success during his lifetime, both as a composer and conductor of his own and other people's music. If he never repeated the international success of Cavalleria it was probably because Mascagni refused to copy himself. The variety of styles in his operas – the Sicilian passion and warmth of Cavalleria, the exotic flavor of Iris, the idyllic breeze that ventilates the charming L'amico Fritz and Lodoletta, the Gallic chiaroscuro of Isabeau, the steely, Veristic power of Il piccolo Marat, the overripe postromanticism of the lush Parisina – demonstrate a versatility that perhaps surpasses even that of Puccini.