Operas Every Child Should Know

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Mary Schell Hoke Bacon. Operas Every Child Should Know

FOREWORD

BALFE

THE BOHEMIAN GIRL

BEETHOVEN

FIDELIO

BERLIOZ

DAMNATION OF FAUST

BIZET

CARMEN

DeKoven

ROBIN HOOD

FLOTOW

MARTHA

HUMPERDINCK

HÄNSEL AND GRETEL

MASCAGNI

CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA1

MEYERBEER

THE PROPHET

MOZART

THE MAGIC FLUTE

SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN

H.M.S.2 “PINAFORE”

VERDI

RIGOLETTO

IL TROVATORE

AÏDA

WAGNER

THE NIBELUNG RING

THE RHEINGOLD

THE NIBELUNG RING. SECOND DAY

THE NIBELUNG RING. THIRD DAY

NIBELUNG RING. FOURTH DAY

THE MASTERSINGERS OF NUREMBERG

LOHENGRIN

Отрывок из книги

THE story of The Bohemian Girl is supposed to have been taken from a French ballet entitled The Gipsy, which was produced in Paris in 1839. Again, it is said to have been stolen from a play written by the Marquis de Saint-Georges, which was named La Bohémienne. However that may be, it would at first sight hardly seem worth stealing, but it has nevertheless been popular for many decades. Balfe, the composer, had no sense of dramatic composition and was not much of a musician, but he had a talent for writing that which could be sung. It was not always beautiful, but it was always practicable.

The original title of La Bohémienne has in its meaning nothing to do with Bohemia, and therefore a literal translation does not seem to have been especially applicable to the opera as Bunn made it. The story is placed in Hungary and not in Bohemia, and the hero came from Warsaw, hence the title is a misnomer all the way around. It was Balfe who tried to establish English opera in London, and to that purpose he wrote an opera or two in which his wife sang the principal rôles; but in the midst of that enterprise he received favourable propositions from Paris, and therefore abandoned the London engagement. When he went to Paris, The Bohemian Girl was only partly written, and he took from its score several of its arias for use in a new opera. When he returned to London he wrote new music for the old opera, and thus The Bohemian Girl knew many vicissitudes off, as well as on, the stage.

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"I'll answer for your safety," the Queen said to Florestein, who was not overmuch reassured by this, but still tried to make the best of things. "Now follow me," she called the band, and went, holding Florestein and dragging him with her.

They had no sooner gone than Arline, who had been awakened by the noise outside the tent, came out into the street. Thaddeus followed her. She was greatly disturbed.

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