In this series of podcasts, Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean gives listeners a taste of nine different types of traditional opera. Bel Canto Melodrama refers to for serious Italian opera from the first part of the nineteenth century, when opera singing was about dazzling trapeze acts and opera plots tended toward the wild, far-fetched, and grotesque. Inspired by their newfound obsession with Shakespeare, Europe’s Romantic generation created some of opera’s most enduringly popular works, including Verdi’s Rigoletto and Bellini’s Norma.
Musical examples on the podcast include:
- •Scene from L’assedio di Corinto, Marilyn Horne and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Henry Lewis (Decca, 1973)
- •Cabaletta and orchestral introduction from “Caro nome” from Rigoletto, Harolyn Blackwell and the orchestra of Seattle Opera conducted by Phil Kelsey, 1995
- •Various moments from Rigoletto, Giuseppe Altomare (baritone) and Yongzhao Yu (tenor), chorus, and orchestra of Seattle Opera conducted by Carlo Montanaro, 2019
- •”Casta diva” from Norma; Sally Wolf and the orchestra of Seattle Opera conducted by Edoardo Mueller, 2003
- •Conclusion of Norma, Jane Eaglen, Craig Sirianni, and the orchestra of Seattle Opera conducted by Edoardo Mueller, 1994
Stay tuned for another podcast introducing another kind of opera next week!
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