Post tease: Well, why shouldn't we listen to the (at very rough guess) 8th- or 9th-best Suppé overture?

UPDATED with several additional performances,
including a fourth whole overture!
[Further updated to title the Järvi Fatinitza selection properly]

Don't ask me to dredge up from memory what's going on in Fatinitza as captured in this lithograph; we could all look it up. As to the lithograph itself, the photo viewed at full size tells us that it came from "H. A. Thomas, Lith. Studio, 865 Broadway, N.Y." -- in case you were wondering.

FRANZ VON SUPPÉ: Fatinitza: Overture


Hungarian State Orchestra, János Sándor, cond. Hungaroton

Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Charles Dutoit, cond. Decca
Boston Pops Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler, cond. RCA

MAX SCHÖNHERR (arr.): "Marziale" on themes from the operetta "Fatinitza"
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Neeme Järvi, cond. Chandos

MONDAY EVENING UPDATE: There's a "post-tease afterthought" coming up that will ask (and answer) the question: "If you listened to the performances of Suppé's Fatinitza Overture in the official 'post tease,' did any particular word come to mind?" So, thoughts? That post should go up tomorrow (i.e., Tuesday). (Okay, a hint: I'm thinking "rhythm.")

UPDATE: Okay, the "post-tease afterthought" didn't come Tuesday, but it did come: " 'Post tease' afterthought: If you listened to the performances of Suppé's Fatinitza Overture in last week's 'post tease,' did any particular word come to mind?"

by Ken

Just to be clear, I didn't sit down and list Suppé overtures and arrive at a scientifically precise ranking. It's just that awhile ago we had a post that began with Suppé's Poet and Peasant Overture, and I think we can likely agree that it's either the 1st- or 2nd-best Suppé overtures, neck and neck with Light Cavalry (I think that's the correct one-two order, if only because Poet and Peasant just has higher artistic ambitions, but it could depend on which day you ask me, like if maybe I happen recently to have heard an especially upllifting performance of Light Cavalry), and beyond that there are up to a half-dozen that most of us would probably go to before we get to Fatinitza. Nevertheless, the Fatinitza Overture is still a darned nifty piece (how many composers would have loved to compose one such?), and maybe all the more welcome for not being heard as often as the other six or eight Suppé overtures.

So, although as it happens we do have a reason for visiting Fatinitza, we don't need a reason beyond the fact that it is, you know, a really nifty piece, do we? Oh yes, in case you were wondering, there is neither rhyme nor reason to the order of the above performances of Fatinitza. It's just the order in which I drug up the audio files -- with, for once, no particular thinking. We know how thinking tends to lead inexorably to trouble.


AS LONG AS WE'RE HERE, WHY NOT GIVE A FRESH
LISTEN TO POET AND PEASANT AND LIGHT CAVALRY?

Inaugural Edition, no. 6: Fornow, no explanations, just music (that's the theory, anyways): Two operatic chunks, by Debussy and Verdi, that have lodged in my head

Plus, we're going to wind up (think of it as a "bonus"
of sorts) with yet another stupendous operatic scene

[TUESDAY EVENING NOTE: Since initial posting, this piece has undergone variously significant updating scattered all through it, with possibly more to come -- if I get up the courage to wade into the thing.]

You'd think it'd be a snap to find a shot (no pun intended) of the Prison Scene from Don Carlos. Hah! In the spirit of last week's makeshift "Mélisande tower" (which I'm embarrassed to report we're going to be seeing again), I've wound up making do with, you know, "a prison."

VERDI: Don Carlos: Act IV [or III], Scene 2, Death of the Marquis of Posa ("Che parli tu di morte?" . . . "O Carlo, ascolta" . . . "Io morrò, ma lieto in core")

Recitative, "Che parli tu di morte?" -- and surprise!
DON CARLOS [trembling]: Why do you talk of death?
RODRIGO: Listen! Time grows short.
I have turned back onto me the terrible thunderbolt.
Today it's no longer you who are the rival of the king.
The bold agitator for Flanders -- it's I!
DON CARLOS: Who could possibly believe that?
RODRIGO: The proofs are tremendous!
Your papers, found in my possession,
are clear testaments to rebellion,
and on this head for certain
a price has already been set!
[Two men are now seen descending the prison staircase: One of them is dressed in the garb of the Holy Office; the other is armed with an arquebus. They stop for a moment and point out to one another DON CARLOS and RODRIGO, by whom they are unseen.]
DON CARLOS: I will reveal everything to the King!
RODRIGO: No, save yourself for Flanders!
save yourself for the great work that you will have to accomplish.
A new golden age you will cause to be reborn;
you were meant to reign, and I to die for you!
[The bearer of the arquebus now takes aim at RODRIGO and fires.]
DON CARLOS [stupefied]: Heavens! Death! but for whom?
RODRIGO [mortally wounded]: For me!
The vengeance of the king couldn't be delayed!
[Falls into the arms of DON CARLOS]
DON CARLOS: Great God!
Recitative, "O Carlo, ascolta"
RODRIGO: Oh Carlos, listen! Your mother, at San Yust,
tomorrow will expect you -- she knows everything.
Ah! the ground gives way beneath me --
my Carlos, give me your hand --
Aria, "Io morrò, ma lieto in core"
I die, but light of heart,
since I have thus been able to preserve
for Spain a savior.
Ah! do not forget me!
Do not forget me!
You were meant to rule,
and I to die for you!
Ah! I die, but light of heart,
since I have thus been able to preserve
for Spain a savior.
Ah! do not forget me!
Ah! the ground gives way beneath me!
Ah! do not forget me!
Give me your hand . . . give me . . .
Carlos, farewell! Ah! ah!
[RODRIGO dies. CARLOS falls, in despair, on his body.]

["O Carlo, ascolta" at 1:37; "Io morrò" at 2:39] Robert Merrill (b), Marquis of Posa; with Jussi Bjoerling (t), Don Carlos; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Fritz Stiedry, cond. Live performance, Nov. 11, 1950

["O Carlo, ascolta" at 1:29; "Io morrò" at 2:31] Robert Merrill (b), Marquis of Posa; with Giulio Gari (t), Don Carlos; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Fausto Cleva, cond. Live performance, Apr. 4, 1959

by Ken

I mean it: no talking. Or hardly any. Otherwise we'll never get anywhere. (If you read on, you may wonder at the application of this theory. You would be entirely within your rights. No refunds will be available, however. Meanwhile, I'm thinking that if I just go ahead and post this "as is," it'll be sufficiently embarrassing to force me to go back and at least fill in the more obvious gaps. I'm not confident that much can be done with the stuff between the gaps.)

Some other time I can explain how these particular scenes took up lodging in my brain. One of them, as I trust you've noticed, is the Prison Scene from Verdi's Don Carlos (the first scene of Act IV in the original five-act version; of Act III in the truncated four-act one), which I've heard pared down here to just the actual death of Rodrigo, the Marquis of Posa. We're going to be hearing a bunch more times in more proper context: with what precedes it in this scene . . . .


THAT IS, RIGHT AFTER WE HEAR OUR OTHER SCENE,
THE ONE WE BEGAN LISTENING TO LAST WEEK . . .