Mandolins in opera

[John Craton]

Recently I've been comparing notes with other opera aficionados to see if we could come up with a comprehensive list of all the operas that employ a mandolin in the score. After several days, we've come up with the following list. Want to see if you can name a few we've overlooked?

Alfano - L'Ombre de Don Juan
Breton - Dolores
Coronaro - La Festa a Marina
Giordano - Il voto
Henze - Konig Hirsch
Lehar - The Merry Widow
Massenet - Don Quichotte*
Moussorgsky - Sorochintsy Fair
Pfitzner - Palestrina
Reznicek - Donna Diana
Schiff - Gimpel the Fool
Schillings - Mona Lisa
Schoenberg - Moses und Aron
Spinelli - A basso Porto
Tasca - A Santa Lucia

*In Don Quichotte, the part is sometimes played by guitar.

Gilbert & Sullivan also had a mandolin appear onstage in The Gondoliers, H.M.S. Pinafore, and Patience. but in each of those cases the instrument was merely pantomimed by the orchestra.

Wolki also lists in his history of the mandolin an opera by C. Sernagiotti titled A Cannareggio, but I've never heard of it or been able to find any information about it from other sources.

I guess we could add my current opera project, The Curious Affair of the Count of Monte Blotto, but it is not yet finished (give me another few weeks!). No doubt there are other composers on the list who have employed the mandolin in some of their works, and I'm sure there are a number of lesser known modern operas that have scored for a mandolin. Let's see if we can compile a comprehensive list of mandolin-friendly operas.

[Jim Garber]

John:
I am certainly no expert on opera but what about Mozart's Don Giovanni? I have heard that the mandolin parts are often played by pizz violin, tho.

Jim

[John Craton]

Of course! Actually, that's undoubtedly the most famous of the lot. We all knew it so well we forgot to put it on the list http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[vkioulaphides]

I know that several Austrian composers have used mandolin in their opera scores, e.g. Cerha, von Einem, Urbanner et al. But the names of the actual scores escape me...

Your list, operaguy, is most impressive. I would only add that EVERY opera score ought to have at least some mandolin! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

P.S. Oh, among the too-obvious-to-be-listed, there is the bit from Verdi's Otello, if I am not mistaken; some oddity thereto, however, something to do with its scoring for Milanese or Lombard mandolin... ye better informed, inform us, please.

[etbarbaric]

Hey John,

A very worthwhile persuit! I think this list is potentially quite long. Tyler (in "The Early Mandolin") draws attention to the wealth of relatively unexplored early 18th-century operas for more good places to look. Maybe you're just the man for the job!

As it happens I'm preparing "deh vienne alla finestra" from Mozart's Don Giovanni now (on milanese mandolin) along with the aria "Transit Aetas" from Vivaldi's opera "Juditha Triumphans". The latter will be played on a 5-course mandolino. I just met with singers yesterday and both pieces are truly charming.

In addition to the Vivaldi, don't forget "Saper Bramate" from Paisello's Barber of Seville. I played that years ago and remember it as a very lovely tune.

Best,

Eric

[Jim Garber]

Here are a few noted in Paul Sparks The Classical Mandolin:

Erich Korngold: Violanta and Die tote Stadt
Hindemith: Das Nusch-Nuschi
Weill: Die Dreigroschenoper

Jim

[vkioulaphides]

Say, John... what is your operatic connection, from which your username hails? Mine is, ehm... subterranean: http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif I play bass in the pit of an Italian opera company in New York.

Victor

[btrott]

Not quite opera, but Handel's oratorio Alexander Balus uses mandolin in the aria #Hark! Hark! Hark! He Strikes the Golden Lyre. And according an article in the February 1942 edition of Etude "Nicola Spinelli, in his opera, "A Basso Porto," introduces a charming intermezzo for mandolin and orchestra. Wolf-Ferrari, in his "Jewels of the Madonna," composed a serenade to be played by a group of mandolinists." Ned Rorem has an opera Hearing: a small opera for four singers, that is scored for clarinet/saxophone, trumpet, percussion, piano/harmonium, mandolin, violin, viola, and double bass. Ezra Pound's Le Testament: an opera in one act and two scenes, with song text from Francois Villon is scored for percussion, flute, bassoon, saxophone, trumpet, violin, bass, cello and mandolin.

Barry

[JimD]

So glad to see David Schiff's Gimpel the Fool on the list already. I played a production of it 20 years ago in NYC at the Kaufmann Concert Hall.

I was surprised to see Weill's Die Dreigroschenoper on the list. I have played a number of different productions of this piece (granted it has been a few years) but I don't remember any mandolin in that one. If memory serves, the guitar book included tenor banjo and hawaian guitar as well as bandoneon (which, by strange coincidence, I do play).

Like I said, it has been a few years but my memory for this kind of thing is pretty good because I do love to collect my "doubling fees"http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Slightly off topic:

This year I played mandolin with the Indian Hill Symphony (I've played guitar, mandolin, tenor banjo etc. with them over the past few years) in Massachusetts for a performance of Dominic Argento's Casa Guidi. Not an opera, but a very lovely song cycle with orchestra. So, for anyone compiling a list of orchestral works with mandolin...

[JimD]

Ezra Pound's Le Testament: an opera in one act and two scenes, with song text from Francois Villon is scored for percussion, flute, bassoon, saxophone, trumpet, violin, bass, cello and mandolin.
[QUOTE]Ezra Pound's Le Testament: an opera in one act and two scenes, with song text from Francois Villon is scored for percussion, flute, bassoon, saxophone, trumpet, violin, bass, cello and mandolin.

I would love to hear this one. Pound's ideas on muic theory are fascinating though misunderstood. It would be interesting to hear how he applies his theories (if, in fact, he does).

I avoid his political ideas like the plague, though...

Does anyone know of a recording? or perhaps a source for the score?

[btrott]

Does anyone know of a recording? or perhaps a source for the score?

Jim,

The only copy of the score that I see in searching our interlibrary loan database is in the collections at the State University of New York -- Buffalo. In addition to two scores, they have a recording also. Here's the information on it:

Le testament <sound recording> / text from the poetry of Villon.
PUBLISHER: Berkeley, CA : Fantasy, p1972.
PUBLISHER NO.: 12001 Fantasy
DESCRIPTION: 1 sound disc (51 min.) : analog, 33 1/3 rpm, stereo. ; 12 in.
NOTES: Title on container: Ezra Pound's opera: Le testament de Villon.
Sung in Medieval French.
Program notes and synopsis by Robert Hughes on container; lyrics (<4> p.) inserted.
Recorded in the Berkeley studios of Fantasy Records on Nov. 18 & 19, 1971.
PERFORMERS: Soloists of the Western Opera Theater ; Associated Students of the University of California ; Robert Hughes, conductor.

Here are some other libraries that own the recording:

VA UNIV OF VIRGINIA VA@ #

CA BERKELEY PUB LIBR JQF #
CA CALIFORNIA STATE UNIV, FRESNO CFS #
CA CALIFORNIA STATE UNIV, HAYWARD CSH #
CA SAN JOSE STATE UNIV CSJ #
CA SAN MATEO CNTY LIBR CZA #
CA SONOMA STATE UNIV CSO #
CA STANFORD UNIV LIBR STF #
CA UNIV OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY CUY #
CA UNIV OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES CLU #
CA UNIV OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO CUS #
CA UNIV OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA CUT #

CO AURORA PUB LIBR COB #
CO UNIV OF COLORADO AT BOULDER COD #

CT YALE UNIV LIBR YUS #

DC AMERICAN UNIV EAU #
DC LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, SOUND RECORDINGS LCM #

FL FLORIDA STATE UNIV FDA #
FL JACKSONVILLE PUB LIBR JPL #

IL ILLINOIS STATE UNIV IAI #
IL NORTHBROOK PUB LIBR INO #
IL NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIV JNA #
IL UNIV OF ILLINOIS UIU #
IL WHEATON COL ICW #

IN INDIANA UNIV IUL #

MA ANNA MARIA COL LIBR ULB #
MA BOSTON UNIV BOS #
MA HARVARD UNIV, LOEB MUSIC LIBR HMU #

MD ENOCH PRATT FREE LIBR MDB #

MO UNIV OF MISSOURI, COLUMBIA MUU #

ND JAMESTOWN COL NDJ #

NJ FREE PUB LIBR OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY NPL #

NY EASTMAN SCH OF MUSIC RES #
NY HAMILTON COL LIBR YHM #
NY ITHACA COL XIM #
NY MONROE COMMUN COL LIBR VQT #
NY NEW YORK UNIV ZYU #
NY SARAH LAWRENCE COL VVS #
NY STATE UNIV OF NEW YORK, BINGHAMTON LIBR BNG #
NY SUNY AT BUFFALO BUF #

OH BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIV BGU #
OH DENISON UNIV DNU #
OH KENYON COL LIBR KEN #
OH OBERLIN COL, CONSERVATORY LIBR OBM #
OH UNIV OF TOLEDO TOL #

OK CAMERON UNIV OKC #

PA CARNEGIE MELLON UNIV PMC #
PA DESALES UNIV ALL #
PA FREE LIBR OF PHILADELPHIA PLF #

TN UNIV OF MEMPHIS TMA #

TX DALLAS PUB LIBR IGA #
TX TRINITY UNIV, COATES LIBR TNY #
TX UNIV OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN IXA #

WA UNIV OF WASHINGTON LIBR WAU #

BC SIMON FRASER UNIV SFB #

ON UNIV OF WESTERN ONTARIO

Barry

[JimD]

Wow!

Thanks Barry.

I'll see if the ILL at the conservatory can get it for me.

Are you a music librarian?

[btrott]

Are you a music librarian?

That would be a delight, but I am actually head of the reference department in a medium sized public library in Virginia.

Barry

[JimD]

That would be a delight, but I am actually head of the reference department in a medium sized public library in Virginia.

We'll try not to take too much advantage of your expertise. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Thanks again for your help.

[John Craton]

Say, John... what is your operatic connection, from which your username hails? Mine is, ehm... subterranean: #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif I play bass in the pit of an Italian opera company in New York.
Let's say right off that I'm not a vocalist. I do good to make a joyful noise in my parish choir. I began my career on the violin, but have never played in a pit orchestra. Other than being a long-time opera goer, my principal connection is in composing. I have one full-length opera under my belt (or around my neck, whichever way you want to look at it): Inanna: An Opera of Ancient Sumer (http://www.craton.net/inanna/) (still awaiting a venue) and am near completion of my second, a comic farce that incorporates everything schleppy in opera. I may well be ousted even from the audience after this one.

[John Craton]

have never played in a pit orchestra.
I take that back. I did play rebec once in the pit when our early music consort did the incidental music to Twelfth Night once long ago. That and also sticking a rebec under my arm in The Play of Daniel was the closest I ever came to being in anything theatrical. Funny the things you can remember after a pint of ale.

[Eugene]

...Mmm, ale. #Looks like I missed another day full of good stuff here. #I really don't have much to add other than Handel would have employed a gut-strung mandolino tuned in fourths like that Eric describes using for Vivaldi's "Transit Aetas," and Juditha Triumphans that contains the aria is actually a sacred oratorio, not an opera. #For all Vivaldi's output, he is only credited with four oratorios and Juditha Triumphans, last I knew, is the only to have survived.

[etbarbaric]

Actually... I have my Sierra Nevada Pale Ale right here with me... mmm indeed. I suppose you're right Eugene, about Juditha Triumphans, that is... I guess I'd morph the topic a little to "Mandolins in arias"... BTW, if you like this sort of thing, check out a DVD called "Viva Vivaldi!" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005NNSY/qid%3D1096085286/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/103-2191641-4163057) with Cecilia Bartoli and Il Gardino Armonico... it will simply blow your doors off! There are bits from Juditha Triumphans and Vivaldi's opera Farnance... She makes funny faces but *man* can this woman sing! The band doesn't suck either...

Eric

[Eugene]

Yeah, I have that audio CD. I think I'll take it with me one the road trip today to work Lake Erie. I really like Il Giardino Armonico, probably my favorite baroque orchestra. They do take some inerpretive liberties that potentially could honk off the musically conservative. The one recording I have of the whole of Juditha... is that of The King's Consort on Hyperion. The sound is lush and tasty, but the tempo of "Transit Aetas" is borderline lethargic. Is there another period-instrument recording somebody out there in cyberland could recommend?

[etbarbaric]

Hey Eugene,

I know *exactly* what you mean about the Kings Consort recording of Juditha. I literally didn't recognize the other aria that Cecilia did on "Viva Vivaldi" ("Furia Furia Furia".. man.. watching her you could believe that she's ready to slice off someone's head with her bare hands). I do really recommend the DVD... this woman plunges herself emotionally into each aria to the extent that you can't help but be dragged along.

And yes, Transit Aetas on the Kings Consort recording sounds like someone set the CD player on the wrong speed... it really plods along. I don't understand this as the mandolinist is Lynda Sayce... and she's quite an accomplished lutenist/guitarist/mandora-ist, etc.... I'm sure that they weren't slowing it down for her.

Taking Transit Aetas just a few clicks faster makes it really sparkle... it shouldn't go too fast though... "all is smoke"... you know... I've got my duo partner gently playing the single-line orchestral part (really just plucked violins) on the Baroque guitar. This combo works rather nicely with the mandolino and our young singer (who has a nice clear, non-operatic voice).

Eric

[Eugene]

I've heard a live recording of Neil Gladd performing it on modern mandolin (his big Germanic Seiffert) with the orchestral part reduced to modern quitar. He hit just the right tempo to make it delicious.

[Eugene]

P.S. Oh, among the too-obvious-to-be-listed, there is the bit from Verdi's Otello, if I am not mistaken; some oddity thereto, however, something to do with its scoring for Milanese or Lombard mandolin... ye better informed, inform us, please.
You are as well informed as any of us, Victor. I don't think Verdi specified the mandolin type, but Sparks contends that it fits the instrument of northern Italy better, that which I would call Lombard (I think Sparks might call it Milanese).

[John Craton]

For fellow obsessive-compulsives who may be trying to compile an eventually exhaustive list, I have come up with three other operas in my research that score for mandolin. Hopefully other researchers will also continue adding to the list as titles are (re)discovered.

Grétry - L’Amant jaloux
Paisiello - Il barbiere di Seville
Salieri - Tarare

And I suppose we can now add my unworthy contribution as I finally finished The Curious Affair of the Count of Monte Blotto last week. (Don't hold your breath waiting for a venue.) It has a small part for mandolin in two sections.

I think I next need to petition some of my opera-composing acquaintances to start adding mandolins to their works. This list by all rights should be an ever-expanding one.

[Neil Gladd]

My concert recording of Transit Aetas can be heard online at the website of my singer, Marje Bunday:

http://www.altodiva.com/june2concert.html

I had done it slower with another singer years earlier, but Marje kept saying faster, faster, faster! (Because she can.) Eugene, the aria is only scored for voice, mandolin and (unfigured) bass, which we played on guitar. I've also done it with cello. #I got it from a facsimile edition of Vivaldi's manuscript.

Operaguy, there are at least about 60 operas (oratorios, cantatas, etc.) with mandolin parts. For the next week, I'm busy being Vaudevilleguy, but I'll try to get around to posting them when I have the time.

P.S. - The Library of Congress has the manuscript for Ezra Pound's Le Testament on microfilm. As I remember, there was just one aria with 2 mandolins and cello. I have a copy of it somewhere....

[John Craton]

Operaguy, there are at least about 60 operas (oratorios, cantatas, etc.) with mandolin parts.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the number of mandolin-friendly operas is three times that estimate. There are so many operas, especially from the 18th-19th centuries, that are rarely performed these days that a truly exhaustive list may be an impossibility. Still, I'm trying to amass as many as can be found.

Lovely recoding of the Vivaldi, by the way!

[Arto]

Hi Neal,

that was beautiful music, thanks for informing us about the link.

What mandolin are you playing in that one? Your Tumiati?

Arto

[Neil Gladd]

Hi Arto,

No, that was my Seiffert. I have not yet used the Tumiati in performance, as I need to deal with a sinking bridge problem that causes buzzes on some of the open strings. I don't think I had it yet when I did that concert, and have played mainly contemporary music since then, anyway!

It is a beautiful piece, though, and Vivaldi's least known mandolin music.

Neil

[John Craton]

For those with masochistic tendencies who would like to see my meager contribution to mandolins in opera, I have posted excerpts from my latest travesty at the American Music Center (http://www.newmusicjukebox.org/composers/c_composition.asp?ComposerID=18716&ActorID=39189&CompositionID=72145)website. The sections that include mandolin are file #4 (beginning on page 610) and file #7. To the best of my recollection, this represents the first time I've scored anything for mando since 1974 -- either to my shame or to the benefit of the instrument, whichever way you want to look at it. You'll need the Scorch plug-in to view or listen to the scores, and you also will need to adjust the tempo bar, especially on file #4, as one of the maddening things about Scorch is that it is very inconsistent in reading metronome markings. Even set correctly the music will probably sound strange to you, but bear in mind this is, after all, a comic opera. You have been warned!
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[Plamen Ivanov]

That`s the poster for the upcoming performance of the Bulgarian Mezzo-soprano Mariana Pencheva, soloist of the La Scala Milano, Arena di Verona, etc. There`s no need to describe what you see on the picture. The program includes arias from operas by Verdi, Mascagni, Dоnizzeti, Mussorgsky, etc. Where this scene could be from? So far I don`t know about woman aria with mandolin, obviously it`s just a part of the theatrical scenery. As far as I remember (although it was long ago since I attended the performance) there was a troup of travelling musicians in "Cavaleria Rusticana". Although a mandolin would be an appropriate addition to any opera aria. I don`t know... Calling the more "opera experienced" fellows.

[Plamen Ivanov]

Here is a closer look for those, who want to identify the mandolin.

[vkioulaphides]

[QUOTE]"Where this scene could be from?"

Puccini's Edgar, perhaps? There, the femme dangereuse DOES in fact sing a (most immoral, apparently) song, accompanying herself on a lute-type instrument—#usually a prop. The cultured Bulgarian may have opted for a real mandolin, albeit anachronistic, instead of some hideous, cardboard-and-styrofoam lute-alike prop.

[Plamen Ivanov]

Hello,

Right now i`m listening to Rossini`s "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" perfromed in the Metropolitan in New York and broadcasted by the Bulgarian National Radio. More interesting for me and mandolin related was the comparative analysis made in the radio program one hour before the begining of the broadcast between the work with the same name composed by Giovanni Paisiello and Rossini`s opera. Paisiello`s "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" (pointed by John in this topic as an opera which includes mandolin) includes an aria performed by Count Almaviva accompanied by the mandolin. The piece is very simple, but very pleasant. The recording introduced were made in Brussels, during the late 2006 by the "Le Mone" ("Le Monet"?) Orchestra. Anybody performed/listened to this aria? Any sheet music/recordings available?

Good luck!
Plamen

[Pietrobono]

La Monnaie is the lyric theater of Brussels.
I played the Paisiello last year with Jean-Claude Malgoire and "La Grande Ecurie et la chambre du Roy" orchestra on ancient instruments in Tourcoing (not far from Brussels, in the north of France !), which choosed to play both Barbiere in the same season (a friend of mine played the guitar in the Rossini's) maybe there will be a DVD...

[JeffD]

Great thread, keep it up. I am learning about a whole new world.

[Jim Garber]

Here is a closer look for those, who want to identify the mandolin.
Plamen:
It is an American bowlback by the Samuel Osborn Company of Chicago, IL. Their mandolins were sold under the brand name of Sammo.

Jim

[Plamen Ivanov]

Thank you, Jim! Yes, it was also my believe that it is an American one, but that was all. Now i have the details.

Any info on the last subject - the aria with the mandolin by Paisiello?

Best,
Plamen

[Ali]

Hi
I thought I would quickly add my ideas of pieces ommitted so far:
HENZE
Boulevard Solitude
The Judgement of Calliope (two mandolins)
Elegy for Young Lovers
and I think at least one more but can't put my finger on it right now.....
VERDI
Did someone mention OTHELLO already.... because if they didn't, its a big ommission! We play it at the Opera House in London every 18 months or so.... flipping difficult part too... in B major... every mandolinists favourite key.
MASSENET
Cherubin
- often done as an on-stage part....


There are quite a few other contemporary scores I think that employ mandolin... plus there is a tiny bit in Kurt Weills' Threepenny Opera..... its a tripling part in score..banjo, guitar and mandolin....

I was impressed by already mentioning Hans Pfitzner's (spelling!?) Palestrina - we've done it at Opera House twice - 2 mandolins... in first act (=120 mins) we play about 8 notes.... then we left pit, went out of opera house, walked to nearby Leicester Square, watched a movie at the movie house and then came back to Opera House 2.5 hours later to play in off-stage band in final act!! (whole opera is 4.5 hours long). Its a great opera though, some cracking music in it.
Ok - thats about the most I can contribute right now. Just for the record, I've played all of the above with either the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, London Sinfonietta, Dartington International Festival Opera
All the best
Ali
ps.
Lehar
Der Zarewitsch - recorded the aria: Wolgalied with Thomas Hampson and Jose Carreras.... its actually written for a Balalaika orchestra but is usually done with 2 mandolins, 2 mandolas and a guitar or two.....
think there is another as well by Lehar.....
Giordano
La Cena delle Beffe - Giordano is very much on Lehar wavelength and wrote several operas (maybe as many as 5) with mandolin parts. This one has two mandolins. I've recorded an aria from it with Roberto Alagna and the LSO. The English Chamber Orchestra (I think) did a load of Giordano quite some time ago (recording) and I played on several of those sessions.
LigetiGrand Macabre...... had a torrid time trying to record this with Essa Pekka Salonen and The Philharmonia Orchestra about 10+ years ago.... I was sight-reading and had the flu..... not a day I'd want to re-live!
Ok - finished now I think....

[Plamen Ivanov]

Hi,

Reviewing the whole topic from its very begining, i noticed that Eric has performed the aria from Paisiello`s "Il Barbiere di Siviglia". So, Eric, any idea where the sheet music can be obtained from? Any recordings?

Ali, if "Othello" has not been mentioned in this topic, it`s because of the reason why Mozart`s "Don Giovanni" was not mentioned. I remember we have discussed the mandolins part in details. You are right that it is an emblematic work for the mandolin.

Good luck!
Plamen

[etbarbaric]

Hi Plamen,

I was just scanning this thread (before coffee). #Good Monday morning (there is no such thing, of course... :-)).

It was a long time ago that I played the Paisiello... and I'll have to check for sure... but I think I got the music out of a book. #Could it have been Bone? #I'll have a look in a while. #In any case, it is a lovely little tune. #Failing that, one should be able to find it in a score...

Wait... wait... this just in... Maybe this link (http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_detail.html?item=3242201&cart=338388390518370344)?

Best,

Eric

[Neil Gladd]

It was a long time ago that I played the Paisiello... and I'll have to check for sure... but I think I got the music out of a book. Could it have been Bone?
Yes!

[Plamen Ivanov]

Thank you, Eric! Thank you very much! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif It`s realy a lovely tune!

[etbarbaric]

You are most welcome Plamen... and thanks for the Bone confirmation Neil.

I first played this piece at a recital I gave back in the early 80s (oh my... dating myself). I remember really liking the piece... and then getting together with the tenor... and being just blown away with the combination. Ah... youth... :-)

Eric

[Plamen Ivanov]

Hi Eric,

Ten years ago as a part of a mandolin orchestra accompanying a very beautiful violin player performing Monti`s Czardash with such passion, the same happened to me - i was blown away with thoughts about what a wonderful combination it should be. And we are "combined" since then... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Best,
Plamen

[Margriet]

The link of harper on the thread: "opera en el mercado" brought me here and made me searching.
Here is another opera, with a mandolinpart in it:

Domenico Cimarosa: Il Pittor Parigino (the Parisian painter)

Last summer we were at a performance of it, in the open air. There was a part, done by violinists, with pizzicato, that sounded mandolin-like, rather virtuose for pizzicato. It had a pastorale atmosphere.
Yesterday I checked it at the producer, she asked the musical director Vaughan Schlepp, and YES.
This year they will do a (free) combination of Paisiello's Barbier with Mozart's Le Nozze. I am curious...

I hope this will be a worth add on the list. (or is it already there, the thread is from some years ago)

[vkioulaphides]

Not to mention all those many, many, MANY operas that should have a mandolin! ;) For example, the Harlequin's song in I Pagliacci-- with mandolin-like scoring in the violins, mostly pizzicato, and (usually) staged with the singer/actor holding... a mandolin! :mandosmiley:

So, I think that some ~judicious~ re-orchestration may be in order. Hey... I can think of a certain composer who would even offer such an arrangement to his operatic employers... :whistling:

Cheers,

Victor

[trebleclef528]

Plamen:
It is an American bowlback by the Samuel Osborn Company of Chicago, IL. Their mandolins were sold under the brand name of Sammo.

Jim

Jim is without doubt the best mandolin detective on the cafe!

[joebrent]

Sort of on the subject --

In case anyone's in the New York area on April 25th, Matt Schickele (PDQ's... er, Peter's son) has written a new opera called 'Marymere' which will be workshopping at Flushing Town Hall, and it's got a pretty juicy mandolin part. Starts at 2pm, here's the info:

http://flushingtownhall.org/events/event.php?id=612

[mando Nick]

What I would like to see is John Craton's list amplified:
adding the additions posted here
&
the composer of the operas listed.
Nick Royal
Santa Cruz, CA

[John Craton]

What I would like to see is John Craton's list amplified: adding the additions posted here & the composer of the operas listed.

Glad someone reminded me of this long-ago project. I am posting below my updated list, which includes operas mentioned over the years in this thread. Someone told me once several years ago that they had a list of roughly 60 operas that call for mandolin in the score, but I've never received it. Obviously, that would expand the number of titles on this list exponentially. But for what it's worth, here's what I've come up with to date (and kudos to all who have helped augment my meager first list):

Alfano, Franco - Lombra di Don Giovanni
Breton, Thomas - La Dolores
Cimarosa, Domenico - Il Pittore Parigino
Coronaro, Benvenuto - Una Festa a Marina
Craton, John - The Curious Affair of the Count of Monte Blotto
Giordano, Umberto - La cena delle beffe
Giordano, Umberto - Il Voto
Grétry, André - L’amant jaloux
Henze, Hans Werner - Boulevard Solitude
Henze, Hans Werner - Elegie für junge Liebende
Henze, Hans Werner - The Judgment of Calliope
Henze, Hans Werner - König Hirsch
Hindemith, Paul - Das Nusch-Nuschi
Korngold, Erich - Violanta
Lehár, Franz - The Merry Widow
Ligeti, György - Le Grand Macabre
Massenet, Jules - Don Quichotte
Moussorgsky, Modest - Sorochintsy Fair
Mozart, W.A. - Don Giovanni
Paisiello, Giovanni - Il barbiere di Seville
Pfitzner, Hans - Palestrina
Pound, Ezra - Le Testament
Reznicek, Emil von - Donna Diana
Rorem, Ned - Hearing
Salieri, Antonio - Tarare
Schickele, Matt - Marymere
Schiff, David - Gimpel the Fool
Schillings, Max von - Mona Lisa
Schoenberg, Arnold - Moses und Aron
Sernagiotti, C. - A Cannareggio
Spinelli, Niccola - A Basso Porto
Tasca - Santa Lucia
Verdi, Giuseppe - Otello
Weill, Kurt - Die Dreigroschenoper

(P.S. Victor, you've composed scads of chamber operas. Surely some of them include mandolin? Maybe we could add 20-30 VK titles alone! ;) )

[Margriet]

in the book of the Belgian Robert Janssens "history of the mandolins" (in Dutch) there is a chapter about compositions for mandolin. If you like, I can find the opera pieces out of them and put them on the list here, perhaps within the list, with another colour. No problem to do it - I like that searching work - but there is no need if someone else already does or did. I will leave you the control - I only pick them out of the book.
The Cimarosa one I found and checked myself as I told here some days ago.
Just tell me if you want me to do this.
Margriet

[Margriet]

An addition to my former post:
in the same book, there is a chapter about people who support the mandolin as a classical instrument, like composers, musicians, musicologues. There is mentioned the Greek operacomposer Spiro ( Spyridon) Samara (s) (1861-1917, he is the composer of the Olympic hymn). That suggests that he have parts for the mandolin in his operas.
Something for Victor (again) to find out ? Perhaps it is already in you "Sentimentalia", about the belle-époque ? Good to put Greece again in the sunshine ?

[vkioulaphides]

Good to put Greece again in the sunshine ?

From the Greek Press Office: "We regret to inform you that all Greek sunshine has been mortgaged in perpetuity to the Chinese Central Bank. Subsequent that, all future weather forecasts have been suspended indefinitely, and replaced by default with 'Cloudy'. Islands for sale; low prices, no questions asked, legality of transaction irrelevant, friendly inhabitants included, as are choice pieces of historical souvenir value. Going out of business."

:)) :(

As for Samaras, I will have to look into that, when time allows. To my knowledge, I have not worked on any of his music— yet.

Cheers,

Victor

[alanh]

Verdi's Otello has a scene in which there are two mandolins in the score. (I don't think was in any of the previous postings, but forgive me if it was and I missed it.

[alanh]

Oops, sorry. I went back over the previous postings and saw that Otello was mentioned at least twice.

[joebrent]

On May 22nd, there will be a performance of Wolf-Ferrari's opera "Jewels of the Madonna" at Alice Tully Hall here in New York. It has a plucked string section consisting of 4 mandolins and 6 guitars!

[barbaram]

Michael Hooper (mandolin) has just work-shopped, in Aldeburgh UK, a new Opera The Commission by Berlin based British composer Elspeth Brooke. The mandolin is used as an integral part of the overall accompaniment but the opera starts with a couple of minutes of mandolin solo.

[Tom Wright]

You are as well informed as any of us, Victor. I don't think Verdi specified the mandolin type, but Sparks contends that it fits the instrument of northern Italy better, that which I would call Lombard (I think Sparks might call it Milanese).

Would that explain how it could be comfortable in (mostly) B major? I found it hopelessly exhausting, so I tuned up a half step and played in B flat. Riccardo Muti is doing next year in Chicago, and he wanted 8 (eight!) players. We only used one player for Solti, with Pavarotti.

[Margriet]

in the same book (Janssens),there is mentioned the Greek operacomposer Spyridon Samaras (1861-1917, he is the composer of the Olympic hymn). That suggests that he have parts for the mandolin in his operas.



As for Samaras, I will have to look into that, when time allows. To my knowledge, I have not worked on any of his music— yet.


We were lucky to attend an opera by Samaras, in Athens, last sunday: "The Cretan Girl". All performances were sold out. There were two mandolinparts. Unfortunately you could not hear them, though there were microphones. Maybe a doubling could have helped.
Anyway it was a nice experience, to see that there was so much audience, and that the mandolin still has her place in Greece.

[Owen Hartford]

My wife, Betsey Hartford, and I wrote an opera several years ago for mandolin orchestra. It was originally written for and performed by the Providence Mandolin Orchestra. It's about a half hour long and is based on the Grimm's fairy tale, The Frog Prince.

It was also performed in 2004 by the Canberra Mandolin Orchestra of Australia in conjunction with the opera company, Stopera (http://www.stopera.org.au/productions/frogprince.htm)

Stopera performed The Frog Prince again in 2009 but with a piano accompaniment.
http://www.stopera.org.au/productions/frog09.htm

[aussiemando]

Hello,

Have you got any more information about how the mandolin is used in "The Merry Widow"

Cheers,
Ruth