Buongiorno, Ether Gamers! Our musical metropolis tour continues this week with the city that all roads lead to. We're strolling down the Via Appia this week, exploring the music of that great Italian city "Rome." Here's our Roman playlist for you...
- Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936), Pines Of Rome – Ottorino Respighi was the first Italian composer of the early 20th century to make a name for himself by composing purely orchestral music, instead of the traditional route of writing operas. He's best known for the three Rome-inspired tone poems: The Fountains of Rome from 1917, The Pines of Rome from 1924, and Roman Festivals from 1929. Pines Of Rome, as you might have guessed, represents the many pine trees found at different locations in the great Italian city, including on its hills, near a catacomb, along the famous Appian Way, or in the Villa Borghese, gardens found in the heart of the city. While Fountains Of Rome was a smashing success, the premiere of Pines didn't go quite as well. The audience was eventually won over, but they actually booed at the sound of the atonal trumpet blasts that ends the first movement.
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- Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924), Tosca – Puccini's opera Tosca is a melodramatic tragedy about an opera singer named Tosca, and the sacrifices she makes to try and save her lover, a painter named Cavaradossi. The famous love aria "E lucevan le stelle" comes from the beginning of Act III, just as Cavaradossi is awaiting execution. The execution is set to take place at a real fortress in Rome called the Castel Sant'Angelo. In fact, while this story is mostly fiction, the historical setting for the opera is completely real. It takes place in the year 1800 in Rome, just as Napoleon's Army was ending its Italian campaign during the French Revolutionary Wars. Rome was so central to the opera that Puccini arranged for the premiere to take place in the city, instead of Milan where most Italian operas premiered. It was a huge event for Rome, with Roman dignitaries like the Prime Minister and Queen attending the premiere.
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- George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), Giulio Cesare In Egitto – Clocking in at just under four hours, Handel's masterpiece of opera seria, Giulio Cesare had its premiere on Feburary 20, 1724. It was among Handel's last operatic offerings before he realized that the English public was tiring of Italian opera. The opera was funded by Handel's greatest non-musical creation: the Royal Academy of Music, a company that poached the hottest stars on the Italian peninsula to perform in London. Unlike many opera seria, Giulio Cesare has a considerable basis in historical record; it loosely follows the plot of the Roman Civil War. The opera begins after the pharaoh Ptolemy has assassinated Pompeo, having falsely extending him refuge from Julius Caesar, his political rival. Making matters worse, he sends Pompeo's head to Caesar in a basket. This cruel and cowardly bid to win Caesar's goodwill instead enrages the noble Roman, setting a complex plot for revenge in motion.
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- Hector Berlioz (1803–1869), Roman Carnival Overture – Berlioz composed his Roman Carnival Overture in 1844, a decade after the less than successful premiere of his opera Benvenuto Cellini. The opera tells the story of a sculptor who is struggling to make a living in 16th century Rome. The opera was a flop due to the extreme technical demands Berlioz made on the singers and instrumentalists, and also due to his mix of tragic and comic elements, which didn't suit the Parisian audiences of the day. The Roman Carnival Overture shares a number of common elements with its operatic predecessor, beginning with the breakneck pace of the opening allegro. The English horn theme that follows is also lifted from the opera's love duet, showcasing Berlioz's knack for long-winded, irregular melodies. The overture has fared much better than its operatic counterpart, becoming a mainstay of the orchestral repertory.
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- Gregorio Allegri (c. 1582–1652), Miserere Mei, Deus – The little-known 17th century Italian composer, Gregorio Allegri, is most famous for his Miserere Mei Deus. What is better known is where Allegri's music was performed in his lifetime. In 1629, Allegri joined the papal choir, a choir in service to the Pope, which would perform in the Sistine Chapel. Works there were sung a cappella, of course, a term which literally means "in the manner of the chapel." His Miserere was written for matins services during Holy Week. Pope Urban VII enjoyed this piece so much, that he restricted copies of the work to be available outside of the Sistine Chapel. This ban held for years. That is, until a teenage Mozart took a trip to Rome right before Easter in 1770. Upon hearing Allegri's Miserere, Mozart was able to transcribe the entire work from memory.
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- Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643), L'Incoronazione Di Poppea, "Addio Roma" – Monteverdi's early opera L'incoronazione di Poppea was produced with the help of three historic Italian cities. It was set in Rome, premiered in Venice, and received its first revival in Naples. As the first opera to pull inspiration from historical subject matter, the opera has attracted curiosity for its cynical, even perverse take on the traditional theme of love's triumph over adversity. In the opera, love triumphs, all right, but does it deserve to? The story concerns the love affair of Roman Emperor Nero and his mistress Poppea, who uses her feminine wiles to manipulate Nero into murdering his mentor, the philosopher Seneca, and sending his wife Ottavia into exile. The Venetian audience of the time would have known their Roman history, however, and recognized that this cynical "triumph" would be short-lived: after losing his mind, Nero would murder Poppea and eventually, following some legendary fiddle work, kill himself.
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- Miklós Rózsa (1907–1995), Ben-Hur – In the 1950s there was a vogue for grandiose historical epics of ancient times. Studios were worried about the newly popular medium of television, and were attempting to compete by embracing an epic style of filmmaking that was too big for the small screen. Thus the film Ben-Hur was made. It's a fictional tale based on an 1880 novel by Lew Wallace, and tells the story of a Judean aristocrat in the time of Christ, enslaved through the betrayal of his Roman friend. Much of the success of Ben-Hur has to do with the score by Hungarian composer Miklós Rózsa. This triumphant march is for a scene in which the charioteers enter the coliseum before the Roman chariot race. Surprisingly, the actual chariot race in the film was left un-scored. The studio felt that the carefully edited sounds of the race itself were interesting enough to "wow" the audience without any music. They were probably right.
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- Percy Grainger (1882–1961), The Power Of Rome And The Christian Heart – The Power of Rome and the Christian Heart is Percy Grainger's last original work for wind orchestra, completed in 1947. The somewhat enigmatic title refers to the struggle early Christians faced when confronted with the Power of Ancient Rome. Grainger, a pacifist, felt a parallel between these early Christians and the many men who were forced to fight against their will in World War I. He actually began working on this piece during the war in 1918, but didn't finish it until 25 years later. In 1947, Grainger received a commission to write a work for wind band. At a loss for ideas and with a rapidly approaching deadline, he decided to re-score this work for organ and wind band for the occasion.
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- Dean Martin, "Arrivederci Roma" – "Arrivederci, Roma" (or "Goodbye Rome") seems like it could be an old Italian folk song, but was in fact written in 1955 for a film. That film was called (appropriately) Arrivederci, Roma in Italy, with the title Seven Hills of Rome in America, and it starred Italian-American singer and actor Mario Lanza. It was a stretch role for Lanza, with him playing the part of… an Italian-American singer. It was a moderately successful film, and Lanza was praised for his many singing performances on screen, including this song. Lyricist Carl Sigman later translated the lyrics into English, and the song became popular with a whole host of (mostly Italian-American) 1950s singers, including Dean Martin, Jerry Vale, Julius La Rosa, Perry Como, and Vic Damone.
