On 26th April 2013 I was invited to deliver a presentation to the Italian Club’s meeting at the RCS. Marcus Kitchen and I held a 45 minute talk and discussion revolving around early 19th Century Italian opera focusing on Ruggero Leoncavallo’s opera ‘Pagliacci’ and Pietro Mascagni’s opera ‘Cavallria Rusticana’.
We explained that during this period the opera attempted to represent the working class man, it moved from the grand lavish houses of the aristocracy in order to enable the music to be the people’s opera. They also shortened operas to one act. As opera didn’t remain this way I wonder why this alternative format failed to gain the momentum of support needed to carry it through to modern day audiences, this will require more investigation.
Coincidently today there was an article in the Guardian about China’s gift of a 1400 seat opera house to Algeria as an important symbol of Chinese-Algerian friendship, at the end of the article a couple of local residents didn’t feel the opera house was for them and considered it a waste of agricultural land.
Deanna Durbin died recently, it was announced today, aged 91. She was the favourite singer of my Great Grandmother who grew up in an orphanage, worked as a farmhand and then as a cleaner until she retired supporting my belief that beautiful music should be for everyone to enjoy.