What do you think?
Rate this book
Black Dog Opera Library
نغمهسرای دورهگرد
نغمه سرای دوره گرد اپرای نوآور وردی با تنشهای فراوانی رو به رو شد. از طرفی او نمیدانست طرفداران وفادار پر و پا قرصش را از دست بدهد و از طرفی دیگر نوآوری و نو به نو شدن را برای رشد اپرا لازم میدانست. این آهنگساز مشهور و پرطرفدار و محبوب ایتالیایی بر سر دوراهی قرار گرفته بود و میدانست به ایتالیاییهای موسیقی پرست سنتی قرن نوزدهم روی چندان خوشی به نوگرایی نشان نمیدهد. به یاد داشته باشیم که برلیوز؛ لیست و واگنر نوگرایان به نام آن زمان با سخت کوشی حرف خود را در اروپا به کرسی نشاندند.
وردی، با ترفندی زیرکانه اپرای نغمه سرای دوره گرد را ساخت. جنبههای ملودرام سنتی را در نظر گرفت و برای لحظات هذیان و از خودبی خود شدنهای قهرمانان داستان، از قدرتهای تصویری و گره افکنی تئاتری کامارونه استفاده کرد و از نردبان بلند قله حماسه بالا رفت و به عمیقترین لایههای وجدان راه پیدا کرد. و با گستاخی سدهای دست و پا گیر را شکست و اپرای نغمه سرای دوره گرد را با موفقیتی باورنکردنی بر روی صحنه برد.
وردی، با ترفندی زیرکانه اپرای نغمه سرای دوره گرد را ساخت. جنبههای ملودرام سنتی را در نظر گرفت و برای لحظات هذیان و از خودبی خود شدنهای قهرمانان داستان، از قدرتهای تصویری و گره افکنی تئاتری کامارونه استفاده کرد و از نردبان بلند قله حماسه بالا رفت و به عمیقترین لایههای وجدان راه پیدا کرد. و با گستاخی سدهای دست و پا گیر را شکست و اپرای نغمه سرای دوره گرد را با موفقیتی باورنکردنی بر روی صحنه برد.
- GenresMusic
60 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1853
2 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
About the author
Giuseppe Verdi
1,548 books34 followersFullest artistic form of operas of Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer, included
La Traviata
in 1853,
Aïda
in 1871, and
Otello
in 1887; people credit him with raising the genre.
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, mainly a Romantic, most influenced the 19th century. Houses frequently perform his works throughout the world, and some themes transcended the boundaries of the genre and long took root in popular culture:
* "La donna è mobile" from Rigoletto
* "Va, pensiero" (The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco , and
* "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (The Drinking Song).
Masterworks of Giuseppe Verdi used a generally diatonic rather than a chromatic musical idiom, and people sometimes criticized tendency toward melodrama, which dominates the standard repertoire a century and a half.
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, mainly a Romantic, most influenced the 19th century. Houses frequently perform his works throughout the world, and some themes transcended the boundaries of the genre and long took root in popular culture:
* "La donna è mobile" from Rigoletto
* "Va, pensiero" (The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco , and
* "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (The Drinking Song).
Masterworks of Giuseppe Verdi used a generally diatonic rather than a chromatic musical idiom, and people sometimes criticized tendency toward melodrama, which dominates the standard repertoire a century and a half.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 22, 2020
Foreword: Now that I'm in quarantine (we all are, I guess?) I am watching one or two operas per day, some of which I had watched and loved before, some are totally new to me. It isn't necessary but I've decided to read the whole librettos* of all them, too.
* Libretto is the play or script to which the music is set. It's almost always in heavy poetry.
Now, I should mention that Il Trovatore (the Troubadour) is easily one of my favorite operas ever, I never get tired of it, and I have a lot to ramble on about it, so this is going to be a LONG review.
I knew the story of Il Trovatore, and I had read a synopsis of it before, and I always watched the opera itself with English subtitles, so I knew the plot but I hadn't paid much attention to the details of the libretto, the most important reason being that I don't understand Italian. But now that I have all the free time in the world, why not give this a go?
This book, in particular, offers a detailed synopsis of the plot of Il Trovatore, followed by the original libretto by Salvatore Cammareno and an English translation, followed by some commentary and historical notes. I don't know which one of these I should talk about in this review. I'm not going to get into detail about the opera and its music itself, because that's not the function of a "book review" on Goodreads, But I would like to write my thoughts on the story, its melodrama and the poetry of the libretto.
Now, the story of Il Trovatore (The Troubadour) is presumably set in 1409 CE, and its background is from when the king of Spain dies and seven people claim the right to the throne and a civil war breaks out. The characters of this story are in two opposing sides: one (Count di Luna) is in the army of Prince Aragon (who becomes the new king) and the others (Manrico and the gypsies) are in the army of Prince Urgel, Aragon's rival. The story unfolds from here.
The plot of this story is quite complicated, almost too complicated for an opera. There are three main components: the civil war, a love triangle, and a plot for vengeance. The civil war is there in the background, the love triangle takes the story forward, the vengeance part makes everything complicated. The story is extremely melodramatic, to a point that makes it ridiculous. I am not at all a fan of melodrama in novels and contemporary literature or even in fantasy, but I think opera is the only art form that can pull off a melodrama and make a masterpiece out of it.
I find two things problematic here: one concerning gypsies and the other one concerning witch hunts. It is known that the "witch hunts" of the middle ages (that is, accusing women of being witches and then burning them alive) were one of the darkest parts of European history and a serious historic topic to explore in feminist studies (yes, I have to mention feminism in each and every review). But it's a known and historic fact. My problem is that many new productions of this opera try to modernize it and set the story in the 19th or 20th century, which makes it absolutely absurd and annoying because I think we shouldn't really take witch hunts to the modern ages or suggest that they could still be a thing, and I prefer to keep it in the 1400s. The other thing that bothers me, is how racist and hateful this story is towards the Roma people (or more commonly referred to as gypsies.) Roma people are an ethnic group that has been oppressed and prosecuted and denied basic rights for centuries, and they still are. I hate it that so many plays and movies and novels (mostly older ones) refer to them, appropriate their culture and make racist comments about them just for the sake of a story. I guess, if these 'bad' people or hateful verses in this opera were about Jews instead of Gypsies, this opera would be banned today and considered racist and the politically correct atmosphere wouldn't let companies perform it. But it isn't. It's about Roma people. And somehow, unfortunately, it's still okay to be hateful and racist towards Roma people. As much as I dearly love this opera, every single note of it, I can't help but get annoyed at how racist it is, and its racism shows. It shows when you read the libretto. It shows when they sing "A dark, despicable gypsy crone! Wearing the symbols of a sorceress!" I realize that this was written in the 1850s when discourse around racism wasn't a thing, and I know the story is set in the 1400s, when talking about racism would be a joke, and I'm not trying to cancel this or say I won't watch it, rather I'm trying to comment that I'm aware of this problem with it and it annoys me.
The rest of the dialogues are quite funny, especially because male characters in it are actual embodiments of patriarchy itself: count di Luna sings beautifully of love, of Leonora's smile which is bright like a shimmering star, next second when he realizes Leonora doesn't love him back and she loves Manrico, he bursts out with: "ah! jealousy burns in me with a terrible flame!" or "ah! She is mine alone and even God cannot own her! She is mine!" The sheer misogyny of these characters is ridiculously funny and unsettling at the same time. Again, I know this is about the 1400s! I don't expect them to be any different, but still, it's funny to look at it with my 21st-century viewpoint.
Then there's the complex character of the gypsy woman Azucena, who makes this story the horror melodrama that it is. She is so prominent that Verdi initially wanted to name the opera after her. Azucena is a young woman who witnesses her mother being burned alive because of a wrong accusation, she is traumatized and her whole purpose in life is to obey the last words of her mother: "avenge me." she steals the little son of the count who burned her mother and decides to throw the child in the fire, but in her frenzy, she mistakenly throws his own son in the fire instead. (audience here be like WTF) If that wasn't enough melodrama, she raises the stolen child as her own. Even if this isn't enough melodrama, at the end, it is revealed, rather ambiguously, that she only raised the child to be killed at the right moment so that she could fulfill her vengeance scheme. You never figure out whether she really loves Manrico as her own son, or she is just raising him for slaughter. Her delusions and disturbing character is the main merit of the whole opera and its story. Azucena is what makes this story what it is. A melodrama, a tragedy, and a complex, unsettling tale. She is a hell of a character, and her music is magnificent, too.
Leonora, Manrico and count di Luna (the three other main characters) are typical characters and not that complicated. I do however admire the fact that Leonora is not a damsel in distress (unlike many other leading ladies in opera and drama and basically everywhere), she loves fiercely, she fights for it, and she readily sacrifices herself and dies for it. She is great.
And then, lastly, I just love the poetry of this libretto. This opera has one of my favorite ever arias, (perhaps THE most favorite), "Miserere" from act IV. It is when Manrico is imprisoned and is waiting to be executed, Leonora is singing down at the foot of the prison tower in anguish, and in the background, the nuns are praying for mercy on their souls, when suddenly Manrico (off the scene) hears Leonora and answers her with a serenade in farewell. This aria is heartbreaking and sublime. The libretto goes:
Manrico: Ah! how slow Death
is in its coming,
to him who longs to die!
Nuns: Have mercy, have mercy
Leonora: Over the horrid tower,
ah, Death seems
with wings of darkness
to be poised!
Ah, perhaps these doors
will be opened for him,
only when his corpse
is already cold!
Manrico: I'm paying with my blood
for the love I bore you!
Don't forget, don't forget me,
Leonora, farewell, Leonora, farewell!
Leonora: Forget you? Forget you?
Either at the cost of my life
I shall save your life,
or, forever united to you
I shall descend into the grave!
You will see that never on earth.
Ok now looking at the English translation of this in pure text, it sounds ridiculously cheesy, but I would urge you to go listen to it. Here's a version on youtube, performed live in a concert by Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kauffmann (man crush everyday) which you can listen to Here. And a voice recording by Pavarotti and Dame Joan Sutherland, is available Here. There are so many great versions of this, and so many other beautiful arias that I dearly love. I would definitely recommend listening to (or better, watching) the whole thing.
* Libretto is the play or script to which the music is set. It's almost always in heavy poetry.
Now, I should mention that Il Trovatore (the Troubadour) is easily one of my favorite operas ever, I never get tired of it, and I have a lot to ramble on about it, so this is going to be a LONG review.
I knew the story of Il Trovatore, and I had read a synopsis of it before, and I always watched the opera itself with English subtitles, so I knew the plot but I hadn't paid much attention to the details of the libretto, the most important reason being that I don't understand Italian. But now that I have all the free time in the world, why not give this a go?
This book, in particular, offers a detailed synopsis of the plot of Il Trovatore, followed by the original libretto by Salvatore Cammareno and an English translation, followed by some commentary and historical notes. I don't know which one of these I should talk about in this review. I'm not going to get into detail about the opera and its music itself, because that's not the function of a "book review" on Goodreads, But I would like to write my thoughts on the story, its melodrama and the poetry of the libretto.
Now, the story of Il Trovatore (The Troubadour) is presumably set in 1409 CE, and its background is from when the king of Spain dies and seven people claim the right to the throne and a civil war breaks out. The characters of this story are in two opposing sides: one (Count di Luna) is in the army of Prince Aragon (who becomes the new king) and the others (Manrico and the gypsies) are in the army of Prince Urgel, Aragon's rival. The story unfolds from here.
The plot of this story is quite complicated, almost too complicated for an opera. There are three main components: the civil war, a love triangle, and a plot for vengeance. The civil war is there in the background, the love triangle takes the story forward, the vengeance part makes everything complicated. The story is extremely melodramatic, to a point that makes it ridiculous. I am not at all a fan of melodrama in novels and contemporary literature or even in fantasy, but I think opera is the only art form that can pull off a melodrama and make a masterpiece out of it.
I find two things problematic here: one concerning gypsies and the other one concerning witch hunts. It is known that the "witch hunts" of the middle ages (that is, accusing women of being witches and then burning them alive) were one of the darkest parts of European history and a serious historic topic to explore in feminist studies (yes, I have to mention feminism in each and every review). But it's a known and historic fact. My problem is that many new productions of this opera try to modernize it and set the story in the 19th or 20th century, which makes it absolutely absurd and annoying because I think we shouldn't really take witch hunts to the modern ages or suggest that they could still be a thing, and I prefer to keep it in the 1400s. The other thing that bothers me, is how racist and hateful this story is towards the Roma people (or more commonly referred to as gypsies.) Roma people are an ethnic group that has been oppressed and prosecuted and denied basic rights for centuries, and they still are. I hate it that so many plays and movies and novels (mostly older ones) refer to them, appropriate their culture and make racist comments about them just for the sake of a story. I guess, if these 'bad' people or hateful verses in this opera were about Jews instead of Gypsies, this opera would be banned today and considered racist and the politically correct atmosphere wouldn't let companies perform it. But it isn't. It's about Roma people. And somehow, unfortunately, it's still okay to be hateful and racist towards Roma people. As much as I dearly love this opera, every single note of it, I can't help but get annoyed at how racist it is, and its racism shows. It shows when you read the libretto. It shows when they sing "A dark, despicable gypsy crone! Wearing the symbols of a sorceress!" I realize that this was written in the 1850s when discourse around racism wasn't a thing, and I know the story is set in the 1400s, when talking about racism would be a joke, and I'm not trying to cancel this or say I won't watch it, rather I'm trying to comment that I'm aware of this problem with it and it annoys me.
The rest of the dialogues are quite funny, especially because male characters in it are actual embodiments of patriarchy itself: count di Luna sings beautifully of love, of Leonora's smile which is bright like a shimmering star, next second when he realizes Leonora doesn't love him back and she loves Manrico, he bursts out with: "ah! jealousy burns in me with a terrible flame!" or "ah! She is mine alone and even God cannot own her! She is mine!" The sheer misogyny of these characters is ridiculously funny and unsettling at the same time. Again, I know this is about the 1400s! I don't expect them to be any different, but still, it's funny to look at it with my 21st-century viewpoint.
Then there's the complex character of the gypsy woman Azucena, who makes this story the horror melodrama that it is. She is so prominent that Verdi initially wanted to name the opera after her. Azucena is a young woman who witnesses her mother being burned alive because of a wrong accusation, she is traumatized and her whole purpose in life is to obey the last words of her mother: "avenge me." she steals the little son of the count who burned her mother and decides to throw the child in the fire, but in her frenzy, she mistakenly throws his own son in the fire instead. (audience here be like WTF) If that wasn't enough melodrama, she raises the stolen child as her own. Even if this isn't enough melodrama, at the end, it is revealed, rather ambiguously, that she only raised the child to be killed at the right moment so that she could fulfill her vengeance scheme. You never figure out whether she really loves Manrico as her own son, or she is just raising him for slaughter. Her delusions and disturbing character is the main merit of the whole opera and its story. Azucena is what makes this story what it is. A melodrama, a tragedy, and a complex, unsettling tale. She is a hell of a character, and her music is magnificent, too.
Leonora, Manrico and count di Luna (the three other main characters) are typical characters and not that complicated. I do however admire the fact that Leonora is not a damsel in distress (unlike many other leading ladies in opera and drama and basically everywhere), she loves fiercely, she fights for it, and she readily sacrifices herself and dies for it. She is great.
And then, lastly, I just love the poetry of this libretto. This opera has one of my favorite ever arias, (perhaps THE most favorite), "Miserere" from act IV. It is when Manrico is imprisoned and is waiting to be executed, Leonora is singing down at the foot of the prison tower in anguish, and in the background, the nuns are praying for mercy on their souls, when suddenly Manrico (off the scene) hears Leonora and answers her with a serenade in farewell. This aria is heartbreaking and sublime. The libretto goes:
Manrico: Ah! how slow Death
is in its coming,
to him who longs to die!
Nuns: Have mercy, have mercy
Leonora: Over the horrid tower,
ah, Death seems
with wings of darkness
to be poised!
Ah, perhaps these doors
will be opened for him,
only when his corpse
is already cold!
Manrico: I'm paying with my blood
for the love I bore you!
Don't forget, don't forget me,
Leonora, farewell, Leonora, farewell!
Leonora: Forget you? Forget you?
Either at the cost of my life
I shall save your life,
or, forever united to you
I shall descend into the grave!
You will see that never on earth.
Ok now looking at the English translation of this in pure text, it sounds ridiculously cheesy, but I would urge you to go listen to it. Here's a version on youtube, performed live in a concert by Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kauffmann (man crush everyday) which you can listen to Here. And a voice recording by Pavarotti and Dame Joan Sutherland, is available Here. There are so many great versions of this, and so many other beautiful arias that I dearly love. I would definitely recommend listening to (or better, watching) the whole thing.
February 13, 2018
Libreto da ópera O Trovador, de Giuseppe Verdi, encenada no Coliseu do Porto a 16 de Novembro de 2006. Para além do libreto, contém o roteiro da obra, com a prosopografia dos intérpretes, biografia do compositor e uma pequena história da representação da obra.
February 2, 2024
Nunca tinha lido uma Ópera em si, um libreto de uma Ópera é uma forma interessante de conhecer a história e imaginar as personagens, os ambientes e todo o drama que é representado.
É uma história de amor, de traições, de problemas da sociedade e tramas.
É uma história de amor, de traições, de problemas da sociedade e tramas.
April 27, 2015
I picked this up last year in the bargain books section of a local bookstore. Tonight, my husband and I sat down to listen to the opera. The book comes with a wonderful recording on 2 CDs which is broken down track by track in the second half of the book with the libretto in Italian and English and performance notes.
The first part of the book gives some background on Verdi and the history of the opera and also the background of the performers in the recording. Also, there is a synopsis of the opera act by act which I used to let my husband know what was going on.
Great book. If I can find more operas in this series, I will get them.
The first part of the book gives some background on Verdi and the history of the opera and also the background of the performers in the recording. Also, there is a synopsis of the opera act by act which I used to let my husband know what was going on.
Great book. If I can find more operas in this series, I will get them.
June 17, 2010
Excellent guide to one of Verdi's great masterpieces, with a detailed background to the opera's composition, an account of performance history, a detailed account of the story, and a guide to the performers on the discs. Also includes a performance of the complete opera across two CDs, featuring Leontyne Price, and the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by the legendary Herbert von Karajan.
November 14, 2013
3.5/5
Natürlich macht es wenig Sinn nur den Text einer Oper zu lesen, denn richtig funktioniert der Text nur im Zusammenspiel mit der Musik. Trotzdem hat es mir geholfen die Handlung noch besser zu verstehen und falls ich irgendwann noch einmal die Chance habe “Il Trovatore” live zu sehen, wird es mir dadurch sicher noch besser gefallen.
Natürlich macht es wenig Sinn nur den Text einer Oper zu lesen, denn richtig funktioniert der Text nur im Zusammenspiel mit der Musik. Trotzdem hat es mir geholfen die Handlung noch besser zu verstehen und falls ich irgendwann noch einmal die Chance habe “Il Trovatore” live zu sehen, wird es mir dadurch sicher noch besser gefallen.
Read
September 19, 2023Manrico mammone
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews