The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: University Opera will stage Verdi’s “Falstaff” – updated to Hollywood in the 1930s — this Friday night, Sunday afternoon and next Tuesday night. Plus, UW-Madison composition and music students perform a FREE recital of new music Wednesday night.
1 Comment
ALERT: Students in the Composition Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music will present their new music in a FREE recital this Wednesday night at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall. The performances of original works feature UW-Madison music students and the composers themselves.
By Jacob Stockinger
University Opera will offer its first production of the season in three performances this weekend and early next week.
It is “Falstaff” by Giuseppe Verdi. The work is the composer’s last opera and is often considered to be his greatest masterpiece.
It is based on “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” “Henry IV” and “Henry V” and is being staged in homage to the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare.
The production also coincides with the exhibit of a First Folio edition of Shakespeare’s plays that is currently at the UW-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art.
In his first production since becoming the full-time and permanent director of University Opera, former interim director David Ronis (below, in a photo by Luke Delalio) is re-imagining the opera as taking place in Hollywood of the 1930s, where Falstaff is a silent movie actor who is out of work with the advent of “talkies.”
“Falstaff” will be sung in Italian with English supertitles.
UW-Madison professor James Smith will conduct the UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra. (You can hear the opera’s finale from a Metropolitan Opera‘s traditional production under James Levine in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
UW-Madison professor and baritone Paul Rowe (below) will sing the title role. But the production, including the cast, sets, costumes and lighting, involves more than 90 UW-Madison students.
Performances in Music Hall, at the bottom of Bascom Hill, are on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. and next Tuesday night, Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $25 for general admission, $20 for seniors; and $10 for UW-Madison students.
On Friday, there will also be a panel discussion at 6 p.m. before the performance.
For much more information about the production and the panel discussion, go to:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/2016/10/04/university-opera-falstaff-2016/
Tags: Arts, baritone, cast, Chazen Museum of Art, Chicago metropolitan area, Classical music, composer, Composition, conductor, costumes, David Ronis, English, Falstaff, finale, First Folio, Henry IV, Henry V, Hollywood, Italian, Jacob Stockinger, James Levine, lighting, Madison, Merry Wives of Windsor, Metropolitan Opera, Music, New Music, opera, Orchestra, Paul Rowe, performer, production, sets, Shakespeare, silent movies, Singing, students, symphony, talkies, the Met, traditional, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University Opera, Verdi, vocal music, William Shakespeare, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: William Shakespeare died 400 years ago today. What is your favorite music inspired by The Bard, the greatest writer of all time?
10 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
He is generally acknowledged as the greatest writer of all time and of any culture.
The English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (below) died 400 years ago today – on April 23, 1616 — in his hometown of Stratford-on-Avon where he returned to after his stage career in London. He was 52 years old.
You may have heard that a touring copy of the rare 1623 First Folio edition of his plays, on loan from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., will be on display this fall at the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dates of the exhibit are Nov. 3-Dec. 11, 2016.
Here is a link with more information:
And this summer’s Madison Early Music Festival will focus on Shakespeare and music of the Elizabethan Age when it is held from July 9 to July 16.
Here is more information about that event:
https://artsinstitute.wisc.edu/memf/
Today, what The Ear wants to know is what is your favorite piece of music inspired by Shakespeare?
The Overture to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Felix Mendelssohn? (The Ear loves that richly atmospheric work. You can hear it, complete with the braying of the “rude mechanical” human who is transformed into a donkey — in a YouTube video at the bottom)
The operas ”Otello” or “Falstaff” by Giuseppe Verdi?
The opera versions of “Romeo and Juliet” by Hector Berlioz and Charles Gounod?
The incidental music to “Henry V,” “Hamlet” and “Richard III” by William Walton?
Franz Schubert’s song “Where is Sylvia”?
The “Romeo and Juliet” Fantasy Overture by Tchaikovsky?
Various setting of songs and ditties in Shakespeare’s plays?
If you need something to jog your memory about possible choices, here is a link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Music_based_on_works_by_William_Shakespeare
Leave your choice, with a YouTube link if possible, in the COMMENTS section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Arts, Bard, Chazen Museum of Art, Classical music, comedy, D.C., drama, Early music, Elizabethan England, England, Falstaff, fantasy, First Folio, Folger Shakespeare Library, Gounod, Great Britain, Hamlet, Henry V, Jacob Stockinger, London, Madison Early Music Festival, Mendelssohn, Music, opera, Otello, Othello, Overture, play, playwright, Queen Elizabeth, Richard III, Romance, Romeo and Juliet, Stratford-on-Avon, Stratford-upon-Avon, tragedy, UK, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Verdi, Washington, William Shakespeare, William Shakespeare's plays, William Walton, Wisconsin, Writer, YouTube
Recent Comments
The Well-Tempered Ear 