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The DeKalb Choral Guild, Inc.
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A Night at the Opera

Presented by The Chamber Singers and
The DeKalb Choral Guild

Mary Evelyn Root, Director
Leanne Elmer Herrmann, Accompanist

Saturday, May 8, 1999
Eastminster Presbyterian Church
3125 Sewell Mill Road
Marietta, Georgia

Waltz by Johann Strauss (1825-1899) from Die Fledermaus
The DeKalb Choral Guild

La donna è mobile by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) from Rigoletto
Jorge Blanco, tenor

Chacun à son goût by Johann Strauss (1825-1899 from Die Fledermaus
Carole Barker, alto

The Bell Chorus by Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857-1919) from Pagliacci
The DeKalb Choral Guild

Vissi d' Arte Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) from Tosca
Paula Keinert, soprano

M'apparì tutt'amor by Freiderich Flotow (1813-1883) from Martha
Steven Asip, tenor

O Isis und Osiris by W. A. Mozart (1756-1791) from Die Zauberflöte
Charles Gabriel, bass

Bridal Chorus by Richard Wagner (1813-1883) from Lohengrin
The DeKalb Choral Guild

Un bel di by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) from Madama Butterfly
Susan Takis, soprano

When the Air Sings of Summer by Gian Carlo Menotti (b. 1911) from the Old Man and the Thief
Bob Folker, bass

Sous le dôme épais by Léo Delibes (1887-1961) from Lakmé
Kristen McDerrnott, soprano, and Mary Root, soprano

O mio Fernando by Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) from La Favorita
Betsy Gabriel, soprano

Trema, trema scelerato by W. A. Mozart (1756-1791) from Don Giovanni
David Mayersky, bass, and Charles Gabriel, bass
The Chamber Singers of The DeKalb Choral Guild

Witch's Song by Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921) from Hänsel und Gretel
Vicki Bolton, soprano

Là ci Darem la Mano by W. A. Mozart (1756-1791) from Don Giovanni
Paula Keinert, soprano, and Bob Folker, bass

Pres des Ramparts de Séville (Seguidilla) by Georges Bizet (1838-1875) from Carmen
Malie Umbach, alto

Humming Chorus by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) from Madama Butterfly
The DeKalb Choral Guild

Si, mi Chiamano Mimi by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) from La Boheme
Peggy Emrey, soprano

Non più andrai by W. A. Mozart (1756-1791) from Le Nozze di Figaro
David Mayersky, bass

Non Più Mesta by Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) from La Cenerentola
Kristen McDennott, soprano
The Chamber Singers of The DeKalb Choral Guild

Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) from Nabucco
The DeKalb Choral Guild

Did you know . . . . ?
by Michaelene Gorney

The first opera was Dafne, written by the Roman composer Jacopo Peri and premiered in Florence, Italy, in 1597. The oldest opera still regularly performed is Monteverdi's La Favola d'Orfeo (The Legend of Orpheus) which was completed a decade later.

Placido Domingo's performance in La Boheme at the Vienna State Opera House in 1983 inspired a record 83 curtain calls which took over 90 minutes.

The most popular subject for operas, presented in 43 versions, is Cervantes' Don Ouixote.

The most prolific opera composer was probably the Austrian Müller Wenzel, (1767-1835) who wrote over 250 operas. Though now largely forgotten, he was the most commercially successful Viennese opera composer of his time.

What price opera? In 1995, at Covent Garden in the UK, a ticket could cost as little as £7 ($10.50) or as much as £140 ($210). In New York, a night at the Metropolitan Opera House ranged from $23 to $137, in Houston from $15 to $200. At the highly rated Santa Fe Opera, the best seats in the house cost a mere $104!

The worst singer of all time was American soprano Florence Foster Jenkins, who became a cult among aficionados of bad taste. "People may say I can't sing," she said, "but no one can ever say I didn't sing."

The longest single opera is the 13-hour-long The Life and Times of ,Joseeph Stalin by Robert Wilson. The longest work in the established repertoire (it actually gets performed!) is Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, just over 5 hours. Wagner's Ring cycle, consisting of 3 operas and a prologue, lasts about 15 hours. Karlheinz Stockhausen's opera cycle Licht (Light) lasts a full week, one opera for each day.

The top 10 operas most often performed at the Met: La Boheme by Puccini; Aida by Verdi; La Traviata by Verdi; Tosca by Puccini; Carmen by Bizet; Madama Butterfly by Puccini; Rigoletto by Verdi; Pagliacci by Leoncavallo; Faust by Gounod; Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni

A Brief History of Opera from the Harvard Dictionary of Music, Second Edition, ed. Willi Apel, 1972

Although the first work now known as an opera dates from 1597, the combination of music and drama is undoubtedly of very early origin. Ancient Greek drama incorporated the choral songs and dances of the earlier dithyrambs, in a tradition that may go back to still older rites of the Bacchic cults. The tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides all give a large place to the chorus, and it is known from theoretical treatises (e.g., Aristotle's Poetics) that music was an essential element of the form, though unfortunately only a single mutilated specimen of Greek dramatic music has survived (fragment of a chorus from Euripides' Orestes).

In the Middle Ages, the Church fostered dramatic music in the liturgical drama (11th-13th centuries) and mystery plays (14th-16th centuries). While religious drama had no direct historical connection with the earliest operas, its tradition may still be traced in some of the operas on religious subjects at Rome and in Germany during the 17th century.

The immediate predecessors of opera are various types of secular dramatic entertainment with music that appeared during the 16th century. These are of two basic categories: (1) works in which music was an adjunct to scenery and dancing, the definitive form in this class being the ballet, brought from Italy to France, where it later exercised a determining influence on the French opera; (2) works in which music served as a diversion from spoken drama, the musical portions usually appearing as intermezzi between the acts of a play. However, the creation of opera itself had to await the discovery of a kind of drama that would lend itself to the continuous use of music that would be suitable for dramatic expression. The necessary poetic form was found in the pastorale, which toward the end of the 16th century displaced practically all earlier dramatic types in Italy.

The history of opera may be divided into five periods:

1590-1680. Development of dramatic style in music al1d of appropriate dramatic and musical forms.

1680-1760: Utilization of established style and forms in serious operas of a standard type; rise of comic opera as an independent type.

1760-1850: Introduction of new subject matter and loosening of traditional forms in the interest of a more direct connection between dramatic content and musical expression; rise of national styles of opera.

1850-1920. Rejection of set forms and formal divisions in favor of continuous music, with recurrence of characteristic motifs; the music drama.

1920-present. Reaction against romantic subject matter and musical amorphousness of the music drama; fusion of opera with oratorio and other dramatic forms; revival of the 18th century "number" opera in 20th century musical idioms.