The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue.
During World War I, in an unnamed country, a soldier named Tamino is sent by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Pamina from the clutches of the supposedly evil Sarastro. But all is not as it seems.
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Andrea Chenier (1896) is a fiery verisimo work very loosely based on the life and writings of a French poet who was guillotined during the French Revolution. The opera excitingly depicts the excesses of the French aristocracy, the idealism of the revolutionaries in their dreams of freedom, equality, and brotherhood, and the excesses of blood lust that ended the Revolution.
Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto is one of the most performed of all operas. It was an enormous hit at its opening in Venice in 1851 and has remained an enduring favourite ever since.
The plot is unremittingly dark. Rigoletto is a viper-tongued hunchback who is court jester of the womanizing Duke of Mantua and who delights in egging on the Duke to torment his courtiers and seduce their womenfolk. In Act I, he takes a jest too far and is cursed by the aged Monterone, whose daughter has been one of the Duke’s conquests. Rigoletto has a secret: his daughter Gilda, who lives hidden away at his home in the city. When the Duke finds and seduces Gilda, Rigoletto arranges to have him murdered, but the vengeance goes horribly awry and falls on himself instead.
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The main character Florestan found himself locked in an unfathomable underground cell, without holding any blame. He had once denounced the illegalities of the governor and, as a result, latter took revenge by condemning him to death by starvation. Leonora, Florestan’s wife, finding out about her husband’s tragic fate, dresses up as a man, names herself Fidelio, goes under the service of Rocco, the guardian of the fortress. She decides to see her husband and save him.
Don Pizzarro, the criminal governor, learns that the news of his ill doings reached even Seville and that Minister don Ferdinando, Folrestan’s friend, whom he thought dead was personally coming to investigate Pizzarro’s activity. He gives order to the guardian of the fortress, Rocco, to kill Florestan, but he refuses, so he decides to murder the prisoner himself. Rocco and Fidelio leave together to dig the prisoner’s grave. Leonora does not recognize Florestan in the dark, where he was wearily sleeping.
Only after he awakes she recognizes her husband. Going after them in the underground dungeon, Pizzarro wants to kill Florestan but Leonora comes between them and says: “Kill the wife first!” Pizzarro’s is stricken with awe and misses his chance. The sound of the bugle makes its way into the dungeon announcing the arrival of the Minister. In the city square, where a large crowd had gathered in the meantime, the Minister recognizes Florestan and immediately becomes aware of Pizzarro’s ill doings.
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti (Thus Do They All, or The School For Lovers)
The cynical Don Alfonso makes a bet with Ferrando and Guglielmo that their fiancées, the sisters Dorabella and Fiordiligi, can't be faithful to them. They accept, agree to follow his instructions, and plan how to use their winnings.
Wolfgang Mozart wrote some 20 operas, four of them extremely famous: Così fan tutte,Le Nozze di Figaro
pan (The Marriage of Figaro), Don Giovanni, and Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute).
Così fan tutte is a comic opera (buffa) with an unusual title. Così means "in this way" or "like this," fan means "do," and tutte means the Italian feminine version for "all." So the title can be translated as "In this way do all (women)" or "Like this do all (women)." Or it can even be "Women are all Alike." It's a farce, a fun opera, nevertheless, the genius Mozart wrote some of his great music.
Presented by Cristina Burns.
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