Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Being Cleopatra: Kathryn Hunter
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
50,000 Hits!
I am so happy Being Cleopatra has reached 50,000 hits today! I can't believe it!!
Being Cleopatra started on November 24, 2010 and has been updated every single day! It was created in order to keep tabs on everything Cleopatra as I made my CD on rare classical vocal music that portrays Cleopatra, Cleopatra's Voice.
Please, I'm in desperate need of your support! In order to continue my blogging and my singing. I would really, really appreciate your support:
Thursday, October 27, 2011
An Evening with Cleopatra: Featuring Barbara Rinella
An Evening with Cleopatra: Featuring Barbara Rinella
Milwaukee Public Museum
5:30 - 9:30 p.m. Thursday, November 3
$125 per person
Experience Cleopatra in all her glory as nationally known academic entertainer and book dramatist Barbara Rinella brings Cleopatra to life on stage. Rinella’s performance is based on the book “Cleopatra: A Life,” the new biography by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stacy Schiff.
This event will feature cocktails and hors d'oeuvres prior to the one hour program at 7 p.m., as well as a coffee desert bar afterwards. Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt will also be open to event guests.
To purchase tickets, call 414.278.2728, or click here to order tickets!
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Being Cleopatra: Janet Achurch
Janet Achurch (1864-1916) being Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra that opened at the Olympic Theatre in London on May 24, 1897 and ran for eleven performances
Monday, October 24, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
The Making of 'Cleopatra,' the Ballet
A short documentary on the making of the new ballet, Cleopatra, at Northern Ballet
Music: Claude-Michel Schönberg
Choreography: David Nixon OBE
Design: David Nixon & Christopher Giles
Projections: Nina Dunn
Cleopatra: Martha Leebolt
Caesar: Javier Torres
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Dine in Style Like Queen of the Nile
Photo: University of Chicago Oriental Institute
Ancient Egyptians loved food and had plenty of it. In this painting from Thebes dating from about 800 B.C., a woman pours libation over food offerings in honor of the god Re-Horakhty. The food includes round bread loaves, grapes and dates
"Cleopatra didn't care about walking like an Egyptian.
She wanted to party like one.
When entertaining powerhouse guests like Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, ancient Egypt's most famous queen had to be the world's hottest hostess. Visitors to the Milwaukee Public Museum's upcoming "Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt" will get a taste of her style from the gold artifacts that may have decorated her palace around 51 B.C.
But the main attraction at her royal banquet would have been Queen Cleo's cuisine. She ruled the Mediterranean's richest breadbasket, so "Cleopatra would be distinguished in what she served," says Emily Teeter, Egyptologist at the Oriental Institute in Chicago who has taught ancient Egyptian cooking. "There was a real interest in epicurean meals."
Lavish pharaonic feasts made even the Roman Empire tremble. The audio tour for the Milwaukee "Cleopatra" exhibit has Cleopatra boast: "The fabulous banquets we served astonished many of our Roman visitors. Our ways of celebrating the gods Dionysus, Osiris and Sarapis shocked the Romans, who considered our behavior undignified . . . decadent."
Perhaps mummy told them not to come.
But Cleo was a queen who considered herself a goddess, so she thought it quite proper to "serve the most expensive foods at her parties - beef, pork, lamb - to set her cuisine apart from anyone else's. She'd have the use of a lot of spices, and they were expensive. She'd have sesame seeds, and ground them into oil. She'd also have salt, vinegar, cumin, coriander, parsley, mint, sage, carob, almond and maybe rosemary," Teeter says.
Cleo's banquets were famous for the huge quantities of food served.
"There would be a fruit course, fowl, honey, cheese, a lot of fish and fowl, stewed lentils or broad beans, with seasonings, leeks and onions with the beans - mmm," says Teeter.
Cleopatra's royal wine cellars would, but of course, have been among the best and "most complicated in the ancient world," Teeter says. They'd contain wines made of grapes, figs or other fruits, and brought from all over the Roman Empire and Middle East. Egyptologists have uncovered almost a dozen Egyptian wine designations from "Very, Very Good" to the best vintage label: "For Merrymaking."
No wonder Hollywood has never been able to resist re-imagining Cleopatra's banquets, with the likes of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton cavorting on her golden barge. But can 21st-century party-lovers re-create the real feasts Cleo threw way back in B.C.?
No need to be in de-Nile, experts say. It's relatively easy to stage your own banquet fit for a pharaoh.
First, set the mood. Fill the home with the scent Cleopatra used to drive Roman noses wild. "We know that she liked roses in particular and you can use intense rose oil as perfume," says Joan Ledvina, manager of Egyptian International Art at Mayfair Mall. Rose oil sells for $10 a bottle at the store.
Don't worry about seating arrangements. Teeter notes that Cleo, Mark and Julius would have been the poster kids for decadence by dining "Greek-style triclinium - lying down on couches mobbed by servants bearing trays."
You may want to ensure your guests' gastric health by setting buffet tables, instead. To recapture the feel of ancient royal décor, try using beaded Egyptian scarves in lapis lazuli - the color favored by pharaohs - as tablecloths ($39 to $58 at Egyptian International).
Entertainment? At any of her gigs, Cleo would have had musicians who rocked the Sphinx. Tomb reliefs show that party planners preferred nearly nude female musicians to get guests in the groove.
Today, Haytham Kamel, an Egyptian native now living in Brookfield, says any pharaonic-style feast he'd plan today would "absolutely include a belly dancer." Failing that, Kamel suggests choosing background music performed by Nubian singer Mohamed Mounir. "His music dates back to the pharaohs," says Kamel
As for libations, welcome guests with a pair of cocktails created especially for this Cleopatra bash by Nicholas Kosevich and Ira Koplowitz, the mixologists at Milwaukee's Bittercube. They craft cocktail menus for everything from restaurants to corporate events.
They named one drink the Nea Isis. "Cleopatra often referred to herself as Nea Isis, referencing the idea that she was the reincarnation of the ancient goddess, Isis," Koplowitz says. "Ancient Egyptians were very familiar with cinnamon, and this cocktail uses Blackstrap Bitters, which feature three types of cinnamon. Roaring Dan's Rum is a Milwaukee rum, produced in the Fifth Ward by Great Lakes Distillery."
If there were hieroglyphs labeling Bittercube's second cocktail, they would translate into "Queen of Kings." Koplowitz explains: "Mark Antony, one of Cleopatra's lovers and eventually her husband, anointed her the Queen of Kings."
Or perhaps Your Highnesses would prefer wine. Two Wisconsin wines have tastes that would "have been familiar to Cleopatra." says Anne Schamberg, the Journal Sentinel's On Wine columnist. They are the Sweet Mead honey wine made by White Winter Winery in Iron River ($15 a bottle) and the sweet pomegranate wine made by Three Lakes Wintery in Three Lakes ($10 a bottle).
Then - bring out those trays. First course must be a hummus dip, says Azmi Alaeddin, chef and owner of Aladdin - Tastes of the East at the Milwaukee Public Market. This chickpea spread dates back 7,000 years to the temple festivals of ancient Egypt. Serve with pita bread.
But "any Egyptian party must be centered around rice," says Alaeddin, and it should include onions. Alaeddin sells Egyptian rice already prepared, or you can use their recipe (above) to make it yourself.
Main dishes at your Cleopatra party can also feature roast lamb, spiced chicken or fish. But be sure to also serve the sort of finger foods that Cleo would have snacked on while wearing gold-foil fingertips. Those snacks included such delights as pickled lemons or stuffed cucumbers ($4 a bottle each) at the Holy Land Grocery and Deli, 2755 W. Ramsey Ave.
And lastly, dessert. Almost any sweet or fruit dipped in honey would have made a rich Egyptian smile. "They found powdered honey in the pyramids," says Andy Hemken, owner of the Hemken Honey Co. in Big Bend. Wisconsin's own wildflower honey, which Hemken calls a "full-flavored honey," comes colored a deep gold. Queen Cleo would have approved.
Modern hosts also can serve a sample of Turkish delight-style Bisco Misr cookies from Egypt, sold at Holy Land Grocery.
Whatever you plan for your ancient Egyptian party, be sure to tell your guests that Queen Cleopatra would have had one unbreakable rule.
No one, but no one, may make an asp of himself ..."
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Cleopatra's Closet
Bathe yourself in the soft golden glow of the honey toned glass beads and flatter your skin tone with the reflective shimmer. Trimmed with metallic crystals on gold-plated chain, this is a five-layered tiered collar which looks great worn over autumnal fabrics in ochre, russet and lemon.
This beautiful collar is composed of 226 glass beads, including gorgeous Swarovski elements. A statement necklace with a touch of softness, we rather feel Amber is something Talitha Getty would have worn draped over her Moroccan kaftan on a Marrakesh roof-top.
Handmade in the UK by British London Fashion Week designer Victoria Barker. Part of a limited edition collection, a collectors item.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Fazıl Say composes 'Cleopatra' for solo violin
Fazıl Say makes Turkey premier of ‘Cleopatra’
Sunday, October 16, 2011
ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News
"Turkey’s world renowned pianist Fazıl Say will make the Turkey premier of his latest work, “Cleopatra,” on Oct. 19.
Violin virtuoso Cihat Aşkın will accompany Say at the concert, which will take place at Istanbul’s Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall.
This year for the first time, the Henri Marteau International Violin Competition for violinists aged 25 and under commissioned a composition.
Say wrote “Cleopatra,” a solo violin piece, taking into consideration Henri Marteau’s Caprice No. 10 “Intermezzo;” both pieces were mandatory performance pieces during the competition. The world premiere of “Cleopatra” was made on May 30 in the second round of the competition in Lichtenberg, Germany."
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Being Cleopatra: Florence Lawrence
The Canadian actress, Florence Lawrence, being Cleopatra in the 1908 film Antony and Cleopatra. This was the first full-length film about Cleopatra.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
“This season, it’s the queen of the Nile, Cleopatra"
A sneak peek from Arthur Mendonca's spring 2012 collection. Mendonca says the collections is inspired by strong, confident women. “This season, it’s the queen of the Nile, Cleopatra, as seen through the lens of the 1960 Elizabeth Taylor film.”
Friday, October 14, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Cleopatra's Voice: Johann Adolph Hasse
Johann Adolph Hasse was an 18th-century German composer, singer and teacher of music. Hasse received the highest reputation across Europe during his lifetime, being called the padre della musica (father of music). In fact, few composers were more famous and more quickly forgotten today as Hasse; today, almost completely eclipsed by his contemporary George Frideric Handel. Hasse was married to the famous Italian operatic soprano Faustina Bordoni, the two became an unstoppable "power couple" and dominated the music world.
Hasse was the second of five children born to Peter Hasse, a church organist, and Christina Klessing, the daughter of the Burgomeister (town’s mayor). Hasse came from a long line of musicians; his great grandfather was an organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck and a composer as well as his grandfather, father and brother successively held the position of organist at Bergedorf. Starting out as an operatic tenor, Hasse received his first musical education from his father. When Hasse was fifteen years old, he moved to Hamburg to continue his musical training in composition and singing and, shortly after, in 1718, he joined the Gänsemarktoper (now the Hamburg Opera) as a tenor under the direction of Reinhard Keiser (Handel had held the position of violinist there only a few years earlier). In 1719, he obtained a singing post at the court of Brunswick where he performed operas of Georg Caspar Schürmann (1672 or 1673-1751), Francesco Bartolomeo Conti (1681–1732) and Antonio Caldara (1670 or 1671–1736). Then, in 1721, at the age of 21, his first opera, Antioco, was performed at the court; Hasse himself also sang the title role of the production. Due to the success of his first opera, the duke sent Hasse to Italy to complete his studies. After initially travelling through Venice, Bologna, Florence and Rome Hasse eventually settled in Naples and, in 1724, he started studying with Italian opera composer Nicola (Niccolò) Porpora (1686–1768), with whom, however, he seems to have disagreed both as a man and an artist. This led him to study with Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725). Scarlatti was so impressed by Hasse's talent on the harpsichord, that he accepted him as his pupil. Scarlatti became a teacher, friend and mentor to Hasse, and Hasse is said to have altered his compositional style in several respects to reflect that of Scarlatti. Scarlatti organized Hasse's first commission in 1725, Antonio e Cleopatra.
Il Sesostrate was the first of Hasse's seven operas for the royal opera house of Naples, Teatro San Bartolomeo, within the spand of six years. Il Sesostrate was performed for the 9th birthday of the Princess Maria Theresa on May 13, 1726. Hasse's popularity in Naples increased dramatically at which point they named him "il caro Sassone" (the beloved Saxon [i.e., German]). In this period he composed his only full opera buffa in 1729, La sorella amante, in addition to several intermezzi and serenatas.
The year 1730 was a very defining year for Hasse. He visited the Venetian Carnival where his opera Artaserse was performed at the San Giovanni Grisostomo. This, more importantly, began Hasse's collaboration with the greatest Italian librettist of the century, Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782), who would provide the libretto for many of Hasse's opera and would later work with Mozart on several operas. The English music historian Charles Burney (1726-1814) described this composer librettist pair by saying, "[Hasse] may without injury to his brethren, be allowed to be as superior to all other lyric composers, as Metastasio is to all other lyric poets." This opera included two of the most famous arias of the 18th century: Pallida il sole and Parto qual pastorello. These arias were performed every night for a decade for Philip V of Spain (1683-1746).
In Venice, where he went in 1727, he was introduced to the celebrated mezzo-soprano, Faustina Bordoni (1700-1781). Hasse converted to Catholicism and they secretly married around June 25, 1730 and they would later have three children Maria (Peppina), Cristina and Francesco Maria. 14 years into the marriage, Hasse's librettist Metastasio wrote "...never until now had I happened to see him [Hasse] in all his glory, but always detached from his many personal relationships in such a way that he was like an aria without instruments; but now I see him as a father, husband and friend, qualities which make an admirable union in him with those solid bases of ability and good behaviour, for which I will cherish him so many years..." he then added that Hasse and Bordoni made a “truly an exquisite couple.” Bordoni would appear in many of Hasse’s subsequent operas. Bordoni is the reason that Hasse composed primarily opera serie, since Bordoni believed that opera buffe would damage her voice. While Hasse was building a significant career, Bordoni had already received superstardom. Bordoni was known throughout Europe for being in one of the most intense diva feuds of history. She was brought onto the worlds stage in the 1720s by Handel as the "fresh face" of opera. Bordoni was loved not only for her voice, but for her sultry good looks as the Venetian beauty she was. This of course made Bordoni the rival of the reigning prima donna of the time Francesca Cuzzoni (1696-1778), who was well known for her bad looks and her heated temper.
Also, in 1730 he was given the prestigious title of Kapellmeister for the Dresden court and the couple earned a combined salary of 6,000 thaler in addition to travel expenses (the average annual salary of a pastor in Saxony was 175 thaler). Hasse was quite significant in the development of the music scene in Dresden and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) the Genevan philosopher, writer and composer, described the musical scene in Europe in his Dictionnaire de Musique: "The greatest orchestra in Europe, as far as the number and intelligence of its performers is concerned, is that of Naples; but that which is the best distributed and forms the most nearly perfect ensemble is the orchestra of the opera of the King of Poland at Dresden directed by the famous Hasse." However, the couple did not arrive to Dresden until the July of 1731. Earlier in the year, Hasse took his first trip to Vienna where he supervised a performance of his oratorio Daniello at the Viennese court of Charles VI on February 25. He was delayed from leaving Vienna in June, which had been originally planned, due to an attack of gout which would trouble him throughout his life. Hasse finally arrived in Dresden on July 7, 1731 and on the 26th, Bordoni sang a cantata (now lost) by her husband to celebrate the name-day of Princess Ann of Holstein. On September 13, 1731, Bordoni premiered the title role in Hasse's Cleofide. It was premiered in the Electoral Theatre of the Zwinger where, over the next thirty-four years, he would produce thirty-four operas. In the audience there was a celebrity visitor from nearby Leipzig, the Thomasschule cantor Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) attended and, to the account of Bach's son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), Hasse and his father had become good friends around this time.
Hasse’s position did not confide him to Dresden and, over the course of the next twenty-two years, he and his wife traveled frequently, usually to Italy. In October, Hasse left Dresden to direct premieres of his next operas in Turin and Rome.
On Febuary 1. 1733, just eighteen months after the first performance of Cleofide, Augustus the Strong died and so his reign was brought to an end. He was succeeded by the opera-loving Frederick Augustus II (1797-1854), who would become King Augustus III of Poland. Augustus II inherited from his father a magnificent cultural center and a love of the arts. Even though he also inherited a huge debt, the musical activity in Dresden increased significantly. As the court went into a year of mourning, Hasse was permitted to remain abroad where he went to Italy and many of his sacred works were composed at this time. On May 3, 1733, his opera Siroe was premiered in Bologna with Farinelli and Tesi in the title roles and, by June 21, it was repeated an impressive 25 times.
In 1733, Hasse went to London. People assumed he would develop a rivalry with Handel. However, Hasse merely remained in London long enough to oversee rehearsals for his opera Artaserse (first produced at Venice, 1730). For much of 1734, Hasse was in Dresden where, on July 8, 1734, he revised Cajo Fabrizio which was performed with Bordoni singing the role of Sestria (the first was performed in Rome on January 12, 1732). On November 3 1734, the court departed for Warsaw which gave the Hasse family the freedom to do as they wished until the court returned 18 months later. They went again to Venice and rented a house at the calle grande o di C'a Zen in 1735 and 1736. Hasse wrote a Salve Regina for the Ospedale degli Incurabili (one of four orphanages for girls in Venice that specialized in musical training), and Tito Vespasiano was commissioned for the opening of the Teatro Pubblico del Sole in Pearo in 1735. For Carnival in 1736 at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo Hasse presented Alessandro nell' Indie.
Returning to Dresden during 1737 but, when the court moved to Poland in the autumn of 1738, Hasse and Bordoni returned to Venice for the Carnival season and, according to the French writer and traveller Charles de Brosses (1709-1777), the popularity of Hasse was at its peak. Hasse revised Tito Vespasiano (first performed September 24, 1735 in Pesaro). Hasse entered a highly productive period where he composed five new opere serie all to librettos by the court poet Stefano Benedetto Pallavicino (1672-1742). Of these five operas, Irene was performed on the February 8 for the birthday of the Czarina Anna (1693-1740). Another, Alfonso, was performed on May 9 to celebrate the marriage of Princess Maria Amalia (1782-1866, Friederich Augustus II daughter) to Charles, King of the Two Sicilies (1716-1788, later to become Charles III of Spain). The Dresden opera house was rebuilt and redecorated for this lavish production which included the Kings own Life-Guard in the opera's battle scenes! In September, the court travelled to Poland and Hasse and Bordoni returned to Venice. The annual cycle of one or two operas in Carnival followed by an opera for the Kings name day was becoming established.
His next stay in Dresden was also his longest, between 1740 and 1744. In this time he revised Artaserse, composed new arias for Bordoni, and also wrote a couple intermezzi. In October of 1742, one of Hasse’s most successful operas was produced, Dido abbandonata. It was composed to an outstanding Metastasio libretto and was given at the theatre at Hubertusburg, the electoral summer residence.
On January 17, 1742 Frederick II of Prussia (1712-1786, Frederick the Great) visited Dresden to sign a treaty. He also was able to attend the second performance of Hasse's Lucio Papirio and immediately became an ardent admirer of Hasse's music and, it was at this point, that Hasse's operas were performed regularly in Potsdam and Berlin at the command of Frederick the Great. He was also present at a performance of one of Hasse's Te Deum, and after, ordered a performance of Hasse's Arminio the following day and Hasse and Bordoni were asked to give chamber concerts every night of his nine day stay. Frederick the Great, being a talented flute player, it is likely that many of Hasse's flute sonatas and concertos were indeed written for Frederick the Great.
In January 1746 Hasse visited Venice and Munich, returning to Dresden on June 13, 1747 to stage his opera La spartana generosa, performed to celebrate the double royal wedding between Friedrich Christian and Maria Antonia and between the Saxon Princess Maria Anna and Bavarian Elector Maximilian Joseph. It was the largest event in Dresden since Friedrich August II's wedding to Maria Josepha in 1719. The festivitied surrounding the wedding lasted almost a month and including an elaborate production of Hasse's La Spartana generosa, with sets designed by Giuseppe Bibiena (1696–1757), ballets by the young Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810) and an extraordinary cast made up of Bordoni, Rosa Negri, the castrati Giovanni Carestini (1704-1760) and Giovanni Bindi (whose range was said to go up to a high c), and the tenor Angelo Maria Amorevoli (1716-1798).
One of the brides, Maria Antonia, was an accomplished composer, singer and harpsichordist and was an avid patron of the arts. She studied painting with Anton Raphael Mengs
(1728-1779), poetry with Metastasio (also Hasse's librettist), lute with Silvius Leopold Weiss
(1687-1750) and even composition with Hasse. She brought Porpora (one of Hasse's early composition teachers) to Dresden to be her voice teacher in 1747. Porpora was then appointed to Kapellmeister which promoted Hasse to Oberkapellmeister in 1750.
In 1748 Hasse performed two of his earlier operas Ezio and Artaserse Bayreuth in the half finished Markgräfliches Opernhaus, for the marriage of Elisabeth Fredericka Sophie of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (the daughter of Wilhelmine of Bayreuth). Then the marriage of princess Maria Josepha of Saxony to the French Dauphin gave Hasse the opportunity to journey to Paris in the summer of 1750, where his Didone abbandonata was performed. In 1748 Hasse performed two of his earlier operas Ezio and Artaserse in Bayreuth in the half finished Markgräfliches Opernhaus, for the marriage of Elisabeth Fredericka Sophie of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (the daughter of Wilhelmine of Bayreuth). Then the marriage of princess Maria Josepha of Saxony to the French Dauphin gave Hasse the opportunity to journey to Paris in the summer of 1750, where his Didone abbandonata was performed.The 1751 Carnival in Dresden marked the retirement of Bordoni from the operatic stage, while still retaining her salary of 3000 thaler a year. Hasse remained in Dresden after the Carnival where a Mass in D minor and a Te Deum were performed on June 29 for the consecration of the (at that time, still-incomplete) Katholische Hofkirche (The Catholic Church of the Royal Court of Saxony) by Gaetano Chiaveri (1689-1770).
On February 5, 1753 Hasse premiered his extravagant Solimano, where Bibilena once again designed the sets. Alan Yorke-Long recounts the spectacle of the opera in his book, Music at Court:
"At the twelfth performance Solimano, the Court ladies were still hiring Swiss Guards to keep their places in the theatre, to watch the elephants and camels in the Turkish triumph, and to marvel at [the] last scene of Turkish camp by the Tigris at night, with ships sailing on the river and the gardens of Babylon hanging dizzily in the distance. For Ezio in 1755 the great scene-designer Servandoni was fetched specially from Paris, and in the Roman triumph, which took twenty-five minutes to pass on the stage, four hundred soldiers and more than a hundred horses from the royal stable were deployed."
The level of opulence was certainly raised that night!
In the five years between 1751 and 1756, Hasse composed a last seven operas for Dresden. On August 29, Frederick the Great led his army in a surprise invasion of Saxony, thus starting what we know today as the Seven Years War. On October 14, the court at Dresden retreated to Warsaw, at which point Hasse lived mostly in Italy, traveling to Poland solely to supervise productions of his operas. In the autumn of 1760, he moved to Vienna where he stayed for the next two years. Over the period of the war, Dresden and Saxony became a battleground and it suffered terrible damage and ruin to the economy. Included in the damage was the destruction of the Kreuzkirche, destroyed in 1760 by Prussian bombardment. Charles Burney, an English music historian upon visiting Dresden post-was, described Dresden, the city that had once been called “Florence on the Elbe”:
"Dresden is at present a melancholy residence; from being the seat of the Muses, and habitation of pleasure, it is now only a dwelling for beggary, theft and wretchedness. No society among the natives can be supported; all must retrench; the court is obliged to abandon genius and talents, and is, in turn abandoned by them!"
On returning to Dresden in 1763, Hasse found much his home destroyed and the musical apparatus of the court opera wrecked. Amid the wreckage of the country, Hasse’s Siroe (an earlier work from 1733) was given on August 3, and in October of 1763 a new opera, Leucippo, was performed. However, on October 5, 1763, while on the way to the dress rehearsal for Hasse's Leucippo, Friedrich Augustus II suffered a stroke and died. This would be the end in the magnificent, profligate drama that was Dresden’s Augustan Age; there would be no more lavish opera productions, no more grandiose architectural projects. For his funeral, Hasse composed one of his finest sacred works, the Requiem in C Just by looking at the key of C major, one can notice that this is not a requiem of grief, instead, a festive procession through with joy and pomp. His successor, Friedrich Christian, inherited Saxony; severely ravaged by war and economically drained by the expensive opera productions. On October 7, Hasse and Bordoni were released without pension by Friedrich Christian. After only a very short reign, Friedrich Christian died of smallpox on the December 17. Hasse performed his final duty for Dresden by writing a Requiem in E flat. At the end February 1764 Hasse and Bordoni left Dresden for Vienna. After more than 30 years of service, it was the last time either would see Dresden.
The couple was given a warm welcome in Vienna and, for the most part, they remained in Vienna until 1773. Hasse was commissioned to write a festa teatrale, Egeria for the coronation of Joseph II in 1764 and later the opera Romolo ed Ersilia for the wedding of Archduke Leopold to the Spanish Bourbon Princess Maria Luisa in 1765. Vienna was also the place where Hasse discovered the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). In 1765, the nine-year-old Mozart included the following dedication to his Opus III, K10-15 to Queen Charlotte:
"Let me live, and one day I will offer to her [the queen ] a gift worthy of her and of you [the Genius of Music]; because with your help, I will equal the glory of all the great men of my country, I will become as immortal as Handel and Hasse, and my name will be as famous as that of [Johann Christian ] Bach."
This admiration was reciprocated by Hasse noting, "This youngster will surpass us all to oblivion." Hasse's last opera, Ruggiero, ovvero l'eroica gratitudine was a royal commission for Empress Maria Theresa which he completed despite serious misgivings regarding the libretto. At this time he was also suffering from gout so he had to dictate the parts to his daughter Peppina to transcribe. Hasse travelled to Milan in August 1771 to begin rehearsals and, one of the first to visit him, was Mozart who had been commissioned to write the serenata Ascanio in Alba for the same occasion. Mozart was impressed by Hasse, and wrote a few days later:
"Tonight is Hasse's opera; since however Papa is not going out, I cannot see it. Luckily, I know almost all the arias by heart, and thus I can stay at home and see and hear it in my mind…"
Hasse had succumbed to bankruptcy after his music started to become irrelevant in Vienna's developing music scene. Because of this, and on request of Bordoni to return to her birthplace, Hasse retired to Venice in 1773 where he led a quiet life with his wife and daughter, taught, composed cantatas and religious music and revised earlier compositions. Faustina Bordoni died on November 4, 1781 and Hasse survived her by just over two years. His last composition was a large scale Mass in G minor written in 1783 (the same year as Mozart's Mass in C minor). Hasse died of chest inflammation brought on by a severe attack of gout on December 16, 1783. Two years after his death, he was almost completely ignored, until F. S. Kandler, who had also written a biography on Hasse in 1820, paid for a proper gravestone for Hasse in Venice, where he is buried.
Scarlatti organized Hasse's first commission which was from a wealthy banker. The piece was a serenade for two voices entitled Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra. It was performed in 1725 in Naples at a family celebration of a wealthy merchant by the most famous singers of the day: castrato Carlo Broschi (also known as Farinelli, 1705–1782) and soprano Vittoria Tesi (1700-1775). Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra can be said to mark the end of his apprenticeship, his acceptance by the Neapolitans and the commencement of an international career. Recently, Houston, Texas based Ars Lyrica recorded the complete Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra and it received a 2011 Grammy Award nomination.
Sources:
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Being Cleopatra: Natalie Dessay
Soprano Natalie Dessay being Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto at the Opéra national de Paris in January-February of 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
So, who was Cleopatra?
I first saw this video when I attended an interview at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles, CA with award winning author Stacy Schiff
talking about her recent biography Cleopatra: A Life. This just goes to show you that Cleopatra has taken on a legendary status where everyone has their own view on who Cleopatra was.
talking about her recent biography Cleopatra: A Life. This just goes to show you that Cleopatra has taken on a legendary status where everyone has their own view on who Cleopatra was.Thursday, October 6, 2011
Cleopatra Through the Artist's Eye: Edmonia Lewis
Click here to buy the book Child of the Fire: Mary Edmonia Lewis and the Problem of Art History’s Black and Indian Subject
The Death of Cleopatra
Italian marble
1874-1876
Edmonia Lewis
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Being Cleopatra: Eve Hewson
Eve Hewson being Cleopatra in a Teen Vogue shoot wearing a Paul Smith Jeans shirt and Western Costume Company hat.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
