Rod's Ramblings
A podcast reminiscing about cultural events and how they affected this sixty something. Join me as we travel on a nostalgic journey through the cultural events that have shaped our lives. From classical composers, iconic music moments, rock stars and unforgettable TV shows. Let’s reminisce about how these events have influenced us all. Whether you’re a fellow baby boomer or just love a good story, Rod’s Ramblings offers a heartfelt, informative and entertaining look at the stories behind these great events. Cheers, Rod.
Rod's Ramblings
Harmonious Histories - Opera's Origins, Caruso's Legacy, and Titanic Triumphs
Ever wondered how an overheard debate in a restaurant could ignite a burning passion? That's exactly how my opera journey began. From the electrifying performance of "Sancta" that left Stuttgart buzzing to Beethoven's relentless struggle with "Fidelio," this episode navigates the captivating and sometimes tumultuous world of opera. We peel back the centuries, tracing opera's roots from the pioneering efforts of the Florentine Camerata to the timeless masterpieces of today. This isn't just a history lesson—it's a celebration of an art form that has continually reinvented itself while staying true to its dramatic and emotive core.
Our exploration doesn't stop there. We venture into the fascinating narrative of Joseph Petrosino, whose life of intrigue and bravery serves as an unexpected gateway into the world of opera. The legendary Enrico Caruso takes center stage, as we explore his profound impact on the genre through iconic operas like Bizet's "Carmen" and Verdi's "Rigoletto." These stories reveal the resilience and genius of the composers and performers who have shaped opera as we know it. Join us as we unravel the myths, confront the controversies, and celebrate the timeless appeal of these operatic masterpieces.
Hello there and welcome to Rod's Ramblings, a podcast reminiscing about cultural events and how they've affected this 60-something. Thank you for your support. It really is appreciated. A few days ago, Mrs C and I went out for a meal and a group of people sitting at the next table were talking about classical music. The topic of conversation got on to opera and during the evening they discussed whether Maria Callas was a better singer than Kiri Takanawa, argued about whether Beethoven had ever written an opera and provisionally made transport arrangements to get to the upcoming Glyndebourne Festival. The part of their conversation that caught my attention was that of an opera called Sancta. It had recently been performed in Stuttgart, Germany, and had apparently caused a number of the audience to need medical assistance. I looked it up when I got home and found out that the story was true. The Independent described it as being a radical feminist opera featuring live piercings, explicit sexual acts, rollerblading nuns and real and fake blood. Now, that'll get your attention, won't it? It had been choreographed by Florentina Holtzinger and is based on a controversial 1920s expressionist opera called Sancta Susanna by Paul Hindemith, which examined the relationship between celibacy and lust in Christianity. Something in the article that made me smile was that when he was asked about the audience members needing medical attention, a spokesperson for the theatre said that warnings had been given regarding the content and recommended that, and I quote when in doubt during the performance, it might help to avert your gaze. Well, that could apply to so many things, couldn't it? While I was on the internet, I also looked up Beethoven and operas, and I have a suggestion as to why our operatic diners were so confused.
Speaker 2:It appears that Beethoven did write one opera, but there were three variations. The story goes something like this In 1803, he entered into a contract with the librettist Immanuel Schickeneder to write an operatic work in exchange for lodgings in an apartment complex within Schickeneder's Theatre and De Vienne. The original work was to be entitled Vestas Foyer, but when Beethoven received the libretto, he wasn't keen on the storyline and, after much discussion between the two men, both parties agreed to terminate the contract. Beethoven subsequently took pieces of work that he'd originally written, developed them into two more numbers and renamed the work Fidelio. Fidelio was performed in 1805 and was extensively revised for subsequent performances in 1806 and 1814. These subsequent performances were called Leonor, or the Triumph of Married Love, but due to confusion with Pierre Gavot's Leonor or L'Amour Conjugale, and Ferdinando Payer's Leonora, the title reverted back to Fidelio. When Beethoven was later asked about it, he said that no other composition had caused him so much frustration and disappointment, and he swore he would never write another one.
Speaker 2:Opera is clearly not as stuffy as I once thought, and I've decided to make it the subject of this episode. It's a genre that I've never really took much interest in, Apart from remembering Luciano Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma during the 1990 World Cup, and Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Cabella's version of Barcelona. I can honestly say that prior to carrying out research for this ramble, I didn't know a great deal about the subjects. In fact, if you'd invited me to a night at the opera, I'd expect us to sit down listening to an album by Queen and ending up in a state of bohemian rhapsody. All joking aside, I'd like to take this opportunity to share my introduction to opera how it all started, how the tenors and sopranos were the rock and roll stars of the day, talk about three famous pieces, with musical highlights from each, and finish off by looking at some of the stunning venues where it is performed. Like all good stories, let's start at the very beginning.
Speaker 2:During the 16th century, a group of poets, musicians and intellectuals known as the Florentine Camerata met regularly to discuss ways of furthering the arts throughout Italy. They enjoyed stories from Greek mythology and, after much research, found out that it was a common practice for part, if not all, of the stories to be sung rather than spoken. As aspiring writers were encouraged to produce work based on the Greek legends and include this traditional method of performance, the style of singing rapidly became the norm and opera as we know it was born. One member of the Florentine Camerata was the Italian composer, singer and instrumentalist, Giacobbo Peri. Peri holds the honour of writing the music to Daphne, the first modern day opera ever to be performed. It took place in 1589 during the Shrove Tide Carnival, which we now refer to as Shrove Tuesday as the Palazzo Corsi in Italy. Sadly, the score of Daphne has been lost, but the libretto written by Ottavio Rincini still exists. It takes up 455 lines and is based on a Greek myth surrounding Apollo, Cupid and the nymph Daphne. The record for being the oldest score that still exists today belongs to another competition by Perry, that of Eurydice, which was performed at the wedding of Henry IV.
Speaker 2:Although Perry's works were seen as groundbreaking for incorporating the new style, they soon lost their way in the popularity stakes and were overtaken by Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, which is regularly performed to this day. L'orfeo was first written by Monteverdi in 1607 with a libretto by Alessandro Srigio. It's based on another Greek legend, that of Orpheus, and tells the story of his descent into Hades and his fruitless attempt to bring his dead bride Eurydice back into the living world. Since Perry and Monteverdi's day, opera has grown in popularity, with many of the world's most famous composers producing operatic classics. According to the classical music website E&O, the most popular operas are La Bohème, Tosca and Madame Butterfly, composed by Giacomo Puccini, the Magic Flute and the Magica Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Rigoletto and La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi I have to fess up here, because my mum was a big Gilbert and Sullivan fan, and a policeman's lot is not a happy one was frequently heard in our house when I was growing up.
Speaker 2:I didn't realise it was from opera at the time. I thought it was just a way of getting me and my brother out of the house when mum wanted a bit of peace and quiet. Each of these composers are now household names, and their music has been reproduced in TV adverts or as the soundtrack in many equally famous movies, but a vital ingredient of the success of the genre has definitely been the singer. Throughout the years, the world of opera has undoubtedly had many great and powerful singers, and although I don't feel knowledgeable enough to say whether Maria Callas or Kiri Takanawa is the best of them, I do know a few, if not necessarily because of opera itself. For a start, there's Wynne Evans, who's currently taking part in Strictly Come Dancing, but I know him from the Go Compare adverts. Alongside Luciano Pavarotti, in the three tenors there were Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras from when they performed at the ancient baths of Carcaer in Rome to kick off the 1990 Football World Cup. By the way, that performance was watched by a global TV audience of around 800 million and its recording went on to be one of the best-selling classical albums of all time.
Speaker 2:The opera singer that I'd like to focus on is Enrico Caruso. He was born in Naples on the 25th of February 1873. He initially trained as a mechanic and, after singing on his hometown streets, began his professional career at the Teatro Nuevo in Naples at the age of 22. He went on to tour Europe and the Americas, sang at La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House in London, the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and the Teatroant in Buenos Aires, and between 1895 and 1920 he appeared with the New York Metropolitan Opera a total of 863 times. His operatic repertoire reads like an eternal shopping list and consists of such classics as Rigoletto, La Traviata, Carmen Lohengrin, La Boheme, Aida and Don Giovanni.
Speaker 2:Caruso was the first opera singer to record on vinyl, making more than 260 recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company, which became RCA Victor, and in 1910 he took part in the first public radio broadcast from the United States. He also appeared in two films the silent movie my Cousin in 1918 and the Splendid Romance in the following year. I think it's amazing that a person known across the world for his outstanding voice gets to make his break into the world of film in a silent movie. You wouldn't believe it, would you? In addition to his incredible musical abilities, Caruso had a reputation for notoriety. He once claimed that his parents had had 21 children, 18 of whom had died in infancy. This has since been proven to be untrue, with Caruso being one of seven children, three of whom survived infancy. He was also famously accused of pinching a lady's backside outside the monkey house at the New York Zoo. When he was charged, he claimed that one of the monkeys had done it. He was found guilty of assault and fined ten dollars. Caruso later claimed that the incident was a case of entrapment.
Speaker 2:Due to his fame, there is a story relating to Caruso that I think would qualify for an opera in its own right. As a result of the success he achieved when he was at the New York Metropolitan Opera, a mafia-like group of extortionists known as the Black Hand approached him and began to make requests for cash. These requests became darker and darker, with threats being made to harm him and his family if the payments weren't made. With threats being made to harm him and his family if the payments weren't made. After an incident involving possible injuries to his throat, Caruso paid them $2,000. The equivalent today would be $63,000. Unfortunately, as is often the case in situations like this, after a short period of time, the threat started again, with the gang demanding another higher amount of $15,000, which would currently equate to about $474,000.
Speaker 2:It was at this point that a New York detective called Joseph Petrosino entered Caruso's life. Petrosino was a pioneer in the fight against organised crime. He joined the NYPD in October 1883, becoming the first Italian speaking officer in their history. As he could speak in a number of Italian dialects, he was regularly assigned crimes that had been committed in the Italian Quarter and rapidly built. A reputation for solving them grew. He received a number of promotions and in December 1908 he was made lieutenant and placed in charge of the Italian squad, an elite corps of Italian-American detectives assembled specifically to deal with the criminal activities of organisations like the Mafia, which he saw as a curse upon the good people and the good name of decent Italians and Italian-Americans and the good name of decent Italians and Italian-Americans. Petrosino was a fan of opera and when he heard of Caruso's Black Hand experiences, he took part in a sting operation where he impersonated the singer. The operation was successful and two Italian men, Antonio Missianio and Antonio Quintotto, were captured and convicted of extortion.
Speaker 2:Petrosino would go on to investigate the infamous barrel murders which took place in New York between 1895 and 1900. These involved placing the victim, who had been shot, stabbed or strangled to death, in a barrel and left on a random street corner or back alley where they were shipped to a non-existent address in another city, or Back Alley where they were shipped to a non-existent address in another city. He infiltrated an Italian-based anarchist organisation suspected of being involved in the assassination of King Umberto I in 1900, and he found evidence that the same organisation intended to assassinate American President William McKinley, evidence that was sadly ignored. Ironically, after working to prevent these assassinations, on the 12th of March 1908, he was invited to a rendezvous at the Piazza Marina in Palermo, Sicily, where he was due to receive information regarding the Mafia's activities. While he was waiting for his informant, two assailants approached him and shot him in the face. An Italian sailor heard the shots and ran to his aid, but wasn't able to save him.
Speaker 2:I might produce an episode of Mr Petrosino at some stage in the future. He sounds quite a character. Having talked about the history of opera and one of its greatest servants, I couldn't leave you without talking about some of the operas themselves and playing an extract from each of them. The difficulty was deciding which ones to choose. I thought about something by Puccini or Wagner, but finally decided on compositions that our chosen singer, Enrico Caruso, had been involved in. So I've gone for Bizet's Carmen, Verdi's Rigoletto and Mozart's the Marriage of Figaro. Let's start with Carmen. This is probably George Bizet's Carmen, Verdi's Rigoletto and Mozart's the Marriage of Figaro.
Speaker 2:Let's start with Carmen. This is probably George Bizet's best-known work and was premiered on 3 March 1875 at the Opéra Comique in Paris. Its dramatic tale of love, jealousy and tragedy has become a fixture in opera houses' repertoires around the world and is one of the most popular operas ever written. The story is inspired by a series of scandalous tales written by Prosper Merinet in 1845, based on his travels around Spain. It's set in a remote frontier town in Seville during the 1820s and features Carmen, a fiery gypsy who works at the local cigarette factory, Don Jose, an army corporal, and Escamillo, a bullfighter. When Don Jose meets Carmen, he falls for her charms, abandons his childhood sweetheart and turns his back on his military career in an attempt to win her heart. Although their relationship starts well, Jose's hopes for the future take a hit when Carmen turns her attention to the handsome Escamillo, and Don José's love for the femme fatale turns suddenly to jealousy and violence.
Speaker 2:Bizet's work wasn't always popular. Following the premiere, the reviews were very critical and the response from the French public was one of indifference. When Bizet died of a heart attack just months after the premiere, he thought that the opera had been a flop. Little did he know that 30 years later there would be a resurgence of interest in his work with the New York Metropolitan Opera, specialising in his compositions. This is a good time to play some music, and the piece I've chosen is from Carmen, Act 1, Scene 5. This is Habanera.
Speaker 1:Thank you. ©. Transcript Emily Beynon. Thank you.
Speaker 2:The second opera that I'd like to talk about is Verdi's Rigoletto, which serves as a powerful reminder of the destructive power of revenge and how it can lead to tragic consequences. It was premiered on March 11, 1851 at La Fenice Theatre in Venice, but our story begins nearly 19 years earlier, on the 22nd of November 1832, when the Comédie-Française Theatre in Paris presented Victor Hugo's play La Roye S'amuse, which translates to the King Amuses Himself. It's set in 16th century Paris and tells the dark story of a lecherous king, francis I, his hunchback, jester Triboulet, and the jester's innocent daughter, blanche, who was raped by the king. Although the play was set 400 years earlier, the censors of the time thought that it portrayed the royal family as being corrupt and the text contained extreme curses which were insulting to the then current king, louis-philippe. In addition, the final scene, in which Tribolet carries a sack containing what he believes to be the body of the king, but is in fact that of his daughter, was thought to be too outrageous and the play was abandoned after only one performance. It would be another 50 years before the ban would be lifted.
Speaker 2:The opera side of the story comes into play in 1850, when La Fonise Theatre was struggling to get customers through the door. In an attempt to rectify the situation, they contacted the popular operatic composer, giuseppe Verdi, and asked him to write a new work for their upcoming season. Verdi accepted the offer, decided to use Victor Hugo's play as the basis for the opera and asked his regular running mate, francesco Piave, to write the libretto. Piave's proposed storyline received similar censorship problems as Victor Hugo's play had, but from many different sources. Initially, the director of La Fenice Theatre described it as immoral. The Vienna police got involved, demanding to see a copy of the libretto before they would allow it to go ahead, and the military governor described it as a deplorable, repugnant and obscene triviality. Described it as a deplorable, repugnant and obscene triviality. In an attempt to appease the censors, piave proposed that the title and the setting be changed, the sex and corrupt behaviour be watered down and the sack in which Tribulet unknowingly drags the body of his beloved daughter be removed. Understandably, when Piave informed Verdi what the authorities had demanded, he found this unacceptable and threatened to withdraw his services, stating that the removal of the sack in the final act would render the tragic ending as absurd.
Speaker 2:After much to-ing and fro-ing, verdi agreed to demote the status of the king to a duke, change the focus of the story from the king to that of his jester and changed the jester's name from Tribolet to Rigoletto. These changes seemed to do the trick and the censors gave the go-ahead for the premiere to take place. Although it was performed in front of sellout crowds, it received mixed reviews and many critics were offended by the subject matter. It has since been taken up by opera companies in Italy and around the world and is now considered to be one of Verdi's greatest works. It's time for our second piece of music now, and I've chosen one of Rigoletto's most instantly recognisable songs La Donna e Mobile.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:My third opera is the Marriage of Figaro. It was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and premiered at Wieners Burg Theatre on 1 May 1786. The libretto was written by Lorenzo da Ponte and, like Verdi's Rigoletto, was also based on an earlier stage play Pierre Beaumarchais' La Faux Bisonnet or Le Marage du Figaro, which translates to the Mad Day or the Marriage of Figaro as we know it today. Like Rigoletto, mozart's opera was also controversial due to its focus on class tensions and privilege, and particularly its portrayal of servants revolting against their masters. It caused outrage amongst the aristocracy, was banned in Vienna for a short time and had to have many political references removed before it gained approval.
Speaker 2:The opera is set in Count Alma Viva's castle near Seville in the late 18th century and takes place over a single day. The servants Figaro and Susanna are due to be married, but are prevented from doing so by Count Alma Viva, who is trying to seduce Susanna. As the day progresses, almavera's wife, countess Rosina, works with the couple to trick the Count, teach him a lesson and allow the wedding to go ahead. The opera has been described as being like a modern day farce, bursting with glee and revelations, thanks to numerous twists and turns, mistaken identities and statements about gender and fidelity. When the opera premiered, its first, two performances were conducted by Mozart himself, and the applause from the audience was so great that five encores were performed on the first night and seven on the second. Emperor Joseph, who was in charge of the Berg Theatre, was so concerned about their effect on the length of the performances that he imposed strict conditions limiting the number of encores that would be allowed during all future performances.
Speaker 2:Mozart's work has continued to be popular around the world, and in 2017, bbc News magazine asked 172 opera singers to vote for which they felt were the best operas ever written. The Marriage of Figaro came in first out of the 20 operas featured, with the magazine describing the work as being one of the most supreme masterpieces of operatic comedy, whose rich sense of humanity shines out of Mozart's musical score. I think that deserves another piece of music. This is the March of the Marriage of Figaro the, the, the, the, the, the.
Speaker 1:The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the.
Speaker 2:The © transcript Emily Beynon. Thank you. As we near the end of this episode, I'd like to take you back to our friendly diners from the next table. If you remember, they were planning a trip to the 2025 Glyndebourne Festival. Glyndebourne is situated in the heart of the Sussex countryside and is one of the most celebrated opera houses in the world, giving performances to around 150,000 people each year. Visitors to next year's festival will be entertained by Rossini's quick-witted comedy, the Barber of Seville. They will experience the power and transcendent beauty of the psychological drama about family duty and private desire that is Wagner's final opera, parsifal. They'll see our very own Marriage of Figaro be played out as Countess Rossini, susanna and Figaro work to outdo the Count. And if that isn't enough, they can watch Falstaff as he bites off more than he can chew when he messes with the merry wives of Windsor in Verdi's madcap comedy of the same name.
Speaker 2:During my introduction into the world of opera, it has become obvious that it's made up of a number of ingredients Great music written by talented composers, librettos sung by powerful singers and dramatic storylines, all performed in spectacular locations. Glyndebourne is one of many such locations, along with the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden here in the UK. Although the current building was built in 1946, the garden has had an opera house on site since George Friedrich Handel performed there in the 18th century. On the other side of the world is the Sydney Opera House, which is a wonderful example of 20th century architecture. The classical music capital of the world, vienna, is the home of the Vienna State Opera, which is famous for giving away free tickets immediately prior to performances to ensure that each opera is played to a full house. The largest opera house in the world is the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, which has a capacity of over 3,800 and stages a different opera almost every day of the week. Of all these venues, the most famous may well be the Beirut Fest Spielhaus in Beirut, germany, which was built by Richard Wagner to showcase his own operas, premiering with Parsifal in 1872. Following Wagner's instructions, it was the first opera house to incorporate an orchestra pit below the stage. Every summer, it holds one of the most prestigious music festivals in the world, the month-long Beirut Festival, exclusively performing Wagner's works. It's thought that the theatre, orchestra and singers collectively produced the ideal Wagnerian sound.
Speaker 2:Finally, I'd like to share a few pieces of trivia with you. Mozart was paid 450 Hungarian florins for the Marriage of Figaro, which was three times his annual salary from when he'd worked as a court musician in Salzburg. Luciano Pavarotti had a reputation of being unreliable and was banned for life from the Lyric Opera of Chicago for cancelling 26 out of 41 scheduled appearances over an eight-year period. It appears that even opera has divas appearances over an eight-year period. It appears that even opera has divas.
Speaker 2:Music from the Marriage of Figaro has been used many times in films such as Wedding Crashers, runaway Bride, trading Places and Willy Wonka. For example, in Shawshank Redemption, one of the inmates risks the wrath of the prison guards when he plays Mozart's Canzonetta Solaria over the prison tentanai system. And in the King's speech starring Colin Firth, king George VI is challenged to recite Hamlet whilst listening to the Marriage of Figaro overture played so loudly that he can't hear his own stammer. Finally, the most expensive opera costume of all time was valued at £50 million and was worn by the Italian soprano Adelina Patti at Covent Garden in 1895. I haven't been able to find out what the performance was, but legend has it that she regularly wore outfits covered with over 3,700 diamonds. Eat your heart out Strictly, come Dancing. I hope you've enjoyed sharing my introduction to the world of opera. I'm off to see if I can find any roller skating nuns. So until the next time of Rad's Ramblings, cheers and take care.
