Page 233 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

Listening Cue
Georges Bizet, Habanera, from Carmen (1875)
Situation: The scantily clad gypsy woman Carmen, exuding an almost primal sexuality, dances before Don José, soldiers,
and other gypsies.
what to listen for: The sultry habanera rhythm, then Carmen’s sensuous melody, and finally her soaring voice on the word “L’amour” (“Love”) as the chorus accompanies. A second stanza (2:21) follows the same formal plan.
reAD . . . a detailed Listening Guide of this selection online.
LiSTeN TO . . . this selection streaming online.
WATCH . . . an Active Listening Guide of this selection online. WATCH . . . a Muppet performance of this selection online.
DO . . . Listening Exercise 13.3, Bizet, Habanera from Carmen, online.
Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème (1896)
Italian realistic opera of the late nineteenth century goes by its own special name, verismo opera (verismo is Italian for “real- ism”). Yet while it enjoys a separate name, verismo opera in It- aly was little different than realistic opera elsewhere. Although many Italian composers wrote verismo operas, by far the best known today is Giacomo Puccini.
Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924; Figure 13.12) was the scion of four generations of musicians from the northern Italian town of Lucca. His father and his grandfather had both writ- ten operas, and his forebears before them had composed re- ligious music for the local cathedral. But Puccini, like Verdi, was no child prodigy. For a decade following his graduation from the Milan Conservatory, he lived in poverty as he strug- gled to develop a distinctive operatic style. Not until the age of thirty-five did he score his first triumph, the verismo opera Manon Lescaut (1893). Thereafter, successes came in quick or- der: La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), and Madama Butterfly (1904). Growing famous, wealthy, and a bit complacent, Puc- cini worked less and less frequently. His last, and many believe his best, opera, Turandot, was left unfinished at the time of his death from throat cancer in 1924.
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Puccini’s best-known opera—indeed the most famous
operas—is La bohème (Bohemian Life, 1896). The realism of La bohème rests
Figure 13.12
of all verismo
nineteenth-century realistic opera 211
Giacomo Puccini
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T.P./Lebrecht Music & Arts
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