Wednesday, January 7, 2009

SS Course 2009: The Passions of Puccini

Course 251
Date: 26–30 January
Time: 8.00 pm
Venue: Baxter Concert Hall, Rondebosch
Full Price: R380,00 Staff: R280,00 Reduced: R280,00
***Tickets are on sale at the door only if seats are available: R100,00 staff & reduced (on production of cards): R85,00.
The Passions of Puccini
Presented by Professor Angelo Gobbato, former director of UCT Opera School


Women played a key role in the creative and social life of composer Giacomo Puccini, who was born in Lucca on 22 December 1858 and grew up against the changing social and cultural background of the newly created Italian state. In commemorating the recent 150th anniversary of his birth, this course of lecture-performances will investigate how female figures dominated Puccini’s life and influenced the nature of his operas, both lesser and well-known.

Beginning with his early works, Le Villi and Edgar, which show the influence of a powerful mother and loving sisters, the course will reveal parallels between Puccini’s own romantic involvements and the contents of the operas. After focusing on Manon Lescaut, La Bohème and Tosca, there will be discussion of Madama Butterfly, The Girl of the Golden West, La Rondine, and finally his triptych of one-act operas Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, and his last fairy tale opera, Turandot.

Extracts from the operas, to piano accompaniment, will be performed by acclaimed singers from the Cape Town Opera Studio and talented vocalists from the UCT Opera School.

LECTURE-PERFORMANCES
  1. Wild dances with the Willis, and the gypsy charms of Tigrana.
  2. Seduced by Elvira Gemignani and the irresistible Manon Lescaut.
  3. Living with the Gemignanis in the company of Mimì, Musetta and Tosca.
  4. The suicide of a little Butterfly and of a humble chamber-maid: redemption in England and the New World.
  5. Doretta’s swallow, Lauretta’s father, Angelica’s child and a Princess of ice.

No comments:

Post a Comment