Opera turning

What do Giordano , Debussy, Dvořák, Humperdinck, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Janacek, Massenet and Puccini have in common?

Yes, OK, they all wrote operas! (Though interestingly, many of them wrote only one, or one successful opera.)

No, obviously they were not compatriots: in order, they were Italian, French, Czech, German, Italian, Czech, French, Italian. And their operas are about as diverse as any you could collect.

Rusalka at the Met, 2016-17 with Kristine Opolais

So why put them together in a term?

That question is the basis for our design of this term. And the answer is that they all lived across the turn of the century, and in different ways, their operas foretell what was happening at this time to music in general, and opera in particular.

The “Golden Age” of opera is ending, but not yet gone. Music is changing, but not consistently. Ideals of drama are wildly varied. Some of these composers cling to the romantic era, others abandon what was established and experiment with forms of opera.

If you’re intrigued by the history lines, go to our past pages for resources. There are timelines, there; the BBC one is fantastic!

We’ll explore 6 famous turn of century operas this term: here are the dates of the composers and works:

Giordano (1867 – 1948) Andrea Chenier 1896

Debussy (1862 – 1918) Pelléas and Mélisande 1902

Dvořák (1841 –1904) Rusalka 1901

Humperdinck (1854 – 1921) Hänsel und Gretel 1893

Pietro Mascagni (1863 –1945) Cavalleria rusticana 1890

Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857 - 1919) Pagliacci 1892

Caruso (who also lived across the turn of century) in Pagliacci.

And then there’s the fabulous four (French, Italian, Czech and German) turn of century composers. As we near the end of the year, we’ll plan how we are going to approach them!

Massenet (1842 – 1912)

Puccini (1858 –1924)

Janacek (1854 –1928)

Richard Strauss (1864 –1949)