Operas Flashcards
Aida
Italian opera by Guiseppe Verdi - 1st performed 1871 at Khedival Opera House in Cairo - The Egyptians have captured and enslaved Aida, a Nubian princess. An Egyptian military commander, Radamès, struggles to choose between his love for her and his loyalty to the Pharaoh
La bohème
Italian opera by Giacomo Puccini - 1st performed in 1896 at Teatro Regio in Turin, conducted by Toscanini - Romance between Rodolfo and Mimi, while living a bohemian life in the Latin Quarter of Paris
Don Giovanni (The Rake Punished)
Italian opera by Mozart - 1st performed 1787 at Estates Theatre in Prague - Based on the legends of Don Juan, a fictional libertine and seducer - Blends melodrama, comedic opera buffa, and supernatural elements
La traviata (The Fallen Woman)
Italian opera by Verdi - 1st performed 1853 at La Fenice opera house in Venice - Romance between Violetta Valéry, a famed courtesan, and Alfredo Germont, a young bourgeois from a provincial family who has long adored her from afar
Tosca
Italian opera by Puccini - 1st performed 1900 at Teatro Costanzi in Rome - A melodramatic piece set in Rome in 1800, with Kingdom of Naples’s control of Rome threatened by Napoleon’s invasion of Italy. Contains depictions of torture, murder and suicide. Named for main character Floria Tosca, a celebrated singer
The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte)
German opera by Mozart - 1st performed 1791 at Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna - Prince Tamino tries to rescue the Queen of the Night’s daughter Pamina from a sorcerer with help of a magic flute and the comical birdcatcher Papageno
Madama Butterfly
Italian opera by Puccini - 1st performed 1904 at La Scala in Milan - Japanese girl Cio-Cio-San longs for the return of her American husband Pinkerton, but he returns with American wife Kate, leading to tragedy
Rigoletto
Italian opera by Verdi - 1st performed 1851 at La Fenice in Venice - Its tragic story revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunch-backed court jester Rigoletto, who have both been cursed, and Rigoletto’s beautiful daughter Gilda.
Tristan und Isolde
1865 opera, or music drama, in 3 acts by Richard Wagner with a German libretto by the composer - Based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan by Gottfried von Strassburg - After killing Isolde’s fiancé y taking her to marry his uncle, Tristan is made to drink a potion that causes both to fall madly in love - Hugely influential among Western classical composers
The Barber of Seville (or, The Useless Precaution)
1816 opera buffa by Gioachino Rossini - Based on the 1775 French comedy play of the same name by Pierre Beaumarchais - Count Almaviva comes in disguise to the house of Doctor Bartolo and serenades Rosina, whom Bartolo keeps confined to the house. Figaro the barber, who knows all the town’s secrets and scandals, explains to Almaviva that Rosina is Bartolo’s ward, not his daughter, and that the doctor intends to marry her
Porgy and Bess
1935 opera composed by George Gershwin with libretto by DuBose Heyward y Ira Gershwin - Adapted from Heyward’s 1927 play Porgy - Set in the 1930s in an African-American Charleston neighborhood known as Catfish Row, centers on the tragic love story of the disabled beggar Porgy and beautiful Bess, who longs to turn away from her former life as a prostitute and cocaine addict
