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Opera Explained La Traviata

by Thomson Smillie ...

Narrated by David Timson ...

Series series Opera Explained
Unabridged

1 hour 5 min

La Traviata owes its enduring popularity to a superb story of young love and fatal sacrifice, set to music by Italy’s master melodist at the peak of his powers. Interest and poignancy are added by the fact that this is a true story the baritone ‘heavy’ is Alexander Dumas who wrote The Count of Monte Cristo. But it is the central figure, the heroine Violetta, the archetypal ‘whore with the heart of ... Read more

R152,90

La Traviata owes its enduring popularity to a superb story of young love and fatal sacrifice, set to music by Italy’s master melodist at the peak of his powers. Interest and poignancy are added by the fact that this is a true story the baritone ‘heavy’ is Alexander Dumas who wrote The Count of Monte Cristo. But it is the central figure, the heroine Violetta, the archetypal ‘whore with the heart of
... Read more
Audiobook

Opera Explained Carmen

by Thomson Smillie ...

Narrated by David Timson ...

Series series Opera Explained
Unabridged

1 hour 5 min

Carmen is among the most popular operas for all the obvious reasons: great characters, a gripping story and fabulous music. But what sets it on a pinnacle is an amazing combination of three factors: a sizzling gipsy heroine (one of the most psychologically complex and compelling characters in all theatre), great atmosphere (Spain, hot sun, the bull-ring) and the prodigality of melodic invention ... Read more

R152,90

Carmen is among the most popular operas for all the obvious reasons: great characters, a gripping story and fabulous music. But what sets it on a pinnacle is an amazing combination of three factors: a sizzling gipsy heroine (one of the most psychologically complex and compelling characters in all theatre), great atmosphere (Spain, hot sun, the bull-ring) and the prodigality of melodic invention
... Read more
Audiobook

Opera Explained La sonnambula

by Thomson Smillie ...

Narrated by David Timson ...

Series series Opera Explained
Unabridged

1 hour 19 min

La sonnambula was written by Bellini as a vehicle for two of the supreme singers of his age and accordingly is a fine example of the school we call bel canto, where beauty of voice and the virtuosity of the singers is integral to conveying the emotions in the soul of the composer. The fact that Bellini was one of the great melodists, writing long, beautiful vocal lines, that he was a master ... Read more

R181,57

La sonnambula was written by Bellini as a vehicle for two of the supreme singers of his age and accordingly is a fine example of the school we call bel canto, where beauty of voice and the virtuosity of the singers is integral to conveying the emotions in the soul of the composer. The fact that Bellini was one of the great melodists, writing long, beautiful vocal lines, that he was a master
... Read more
Audiobook

Opera Explained La Bohème

by Thomson Smillie ...

Narrated by David Timson ...

Series series Opera Explained
Unabridged

1 hour

La Bohème is one of the three operas the others are Carmen and Aida believed to be the most popular ever written. In the case of La Bohème the reason is that it virtually defines the term ‘romantic’. The poignant story of Mimì and Rodolfo is told in music of such tender beauty, allied, as always, to Puccini’s intuition of what works in the theatre, resulting in an opera that readily appeals to our ... Read more

R152,90

La Bohème is one of the three operas the others are Carmen and Aida believed to be the most popular ever written. In the case of La Bohème the reason is that it virtually defines the term ‘romantic’. The poignant story of Mimì and Rodolfo is told in music of such tender beauty, allied, as always, to Puccini’s intuition of what works in the theatre, resulting in an opera that readily appeals to our
... Read more
Audiobook

Opera Explained Cavalleria rusticana

by Thomson Smillie ...

Narrated by David Timson ...

Series series Opera Explained
Unabridged

1 hour 16 min

Cavalleria rusticana is the short opera that has all the elements of a grand opera compressed into a single highly dramatic time span. The story of love, lust, blood-feud and betrayal played out against the pageantry of the Easter celebrations in a Sicilian village delivers an emotional wallop because of the youthful vigour and musical wealth of its great score which includes the glorious Easter ... Read more

R181,57

Cavalleria rusticana is the short opera that has all the elements of a grand opera compressed into a single highly dramatic time span. The story of love, lust, blood-feud and betrayal played out against the pageantry of the Easter celebrations in a Sicilian village delivers an emotional wallop because of the youthful vigour and musical wealth of its great score which includes the glorious Easter
... Read more
Audiobook

Opera Explained Don Giovanni

by Thomson Smillie ...

Narrated by David Timson ...

Series series Opera Explained
Unabridged

1 hour 19 min

Don Giovanni has long been regarded as Mozart’s supreme theatrical achievement. The subject seems unpromising the last day in the life of the notorious womaniser Don Juan but the skill of the librettist allied to the genius of Mozart at the very peak of his powers has created a work which is not only highly entertaining but reflects an incredible understanding of the human condition. ... Read more

R181,57

Don Giovanni has long been regarded as Mozart’s supreme theatrical achievement. The subject seems unpromising the last day in the life of the notorious womaniser Don Juan but the skill of the librettist allied to the genius of Mozart at the very peak of his powers has created a work which is not only highly entertaining but reflects an incredible understanding of the human condition.
... Read more
Audiobook

Opera Explained Die Fledermaus

by Thomson Smillie ...

Narrated by David Timson ...

Series series Opera Explained
Unabridged

1 hour 19 min

Die Fledermaus is one of the few operatic works to which the phrase ‘never a dull moment’ can be truthfully applied. From the explosive opening of the famous overture reminiscent of a volley of champagne corks through the surging energy of the ‘Fledermaus Waltz’ and the many comic numbers, of which the accelerando trio is the finest, up to such huge concerted numbers as the ‘Duidu’ finale to Act ... Read more

R181,57

Die Fledermaus is one of the few operatic works to which the phrase ‘never a dull moment’ can be truthfully applied. From the explosive opening of the famous overture reminiscent of a volley of champagne corks through the surging energy of the ‘Fledermaus Waltz’ and the many comic numbers, of which the accelerando trio is the finest, up to such huge concerted numbers as the ‘Duidu’ finale to Act
... Read more
Audiobook

Opera Explained Il trovatore

by Thomson Smillie ...

Narrated by David Timson ...

Series series Opera Explained
Unabridged

1 hour 19 min

Il trovatore has been ruthlessly parodied. It is a tale of murder and mayhem, burned babies, roasted hags, would-be nuns, strolling minstrels and bad baritones. And indeed the libretto does call for a willing suspension of disbelief. The reward is in the music, a score as prodigally melodic as only the mature Verdi could write: the ‘Anvil’ Chorus, the ‘Miserere’ scene, two great tenor arias, a ... Read more

R181,57

Il trovatore has been ruthlessly parodied. It is a tale of murder and mayhem, burned babies, roasted hags, would-be nuns, strolling minstrels and bad baritones. And indeed the libretto does call for a willing suspension of disbelief. The reward is in the music, a score as prodigally melodic as only the mature Verdi could write: the ‘Anvil’ Chorus, the ‘Miserere’ scene, two great tenor arias, a
... Read more
Audiobook

Opera Explained Madama Butterfly

by Thomson Smillie ...

Narrated by David Timson ...

Series series Opera Explained
Unabridged

1 hour 5 min

Madama Butterfly runs the gamut of operatic emotions. The title heroine has a fragility wonderfully expressed in her entry music, deep sexual instincts as shown in the love duet, and immense tragic stature in her last hours. The fate of Madama Butterfly married to an American sailor and then abandoned engages our emotions, as it obviously did Puccini’s to a degree equalled by few other opera ... Read more

R152,90

Madama Butterfly runs the gamut of operatic emotions. The title heroine has a fragility wonderfully expressed in her entry music, deep sexual instincts as shown in the love duet, and immense tragic stature in her last hours. The fate of Madama Butterfly married to an American sailor and then abandoned engages our emotions, as it obviously did Puccini’s to a degree equalled by few other opera
... Read more
Audiobook

Opera Explained Falstaff

by Thomson Smillie ...

Narrated by David Timson ...

Series series Opera Explained
Unabridged

1 hour 18 min

Verdi’s Falstaff repays careful study with real pleasure. It is opera’s happiest irony that the great Italian master should cap a career distinguished for its blood-and-thunder tragic masterpieces with the greatest comic opera in the Italian repertory. The genius of Shakespeare is harnessed (in a miracle of compression) by master-librettist Boito to give the eighty-year-old Verdi a superb libretto ... Read more

R181,57

Verdi’s Falstaff repays careful study with real pleasure. It is opera’s happiest irony that the great Italian master should cap a career distinguished for its blood-and-thunder tragic masterpieces with the greatest comic opera in the Italian repertory. The genius of Shakespeare is harnessed (in a miracle of compression) by master-librettist Boito to give the eighty-year-old Verdi a superb libretto
... Read more
Audiobook

Opera Explained Werther

by Thomson Smillie ...

Narrated by David Timson ...

Series series Opera Explained
Unabridged

1 hour 19 min

Massenet’s Werther combines a deeply tender story with music of beauty and eloquence. One act alone contains two of the greatest arias in the repertoire: the mezzo-soprano aria ‘Va! Laisse couler mes larmes’ and the tenor’s ‘Pourquoi me rèveiller’. In their sentimental power and melodic richness these arias encapsulate the qualities that account for the universal popularity of this great work. ... Read more

R181,57

Massenet’s Werther combines a deeply tender story with music of beauty and eloquence. One act alone contains two of the greatest arias in the repertoire: the mezzo-soprano aria ‘Va! Laisse couler mes larmes’ and the tenor’s ‘Pourquoi me rèveiller’. In their sentimental power and melodic richness these arias encapsulate the qualities that account for the universal popularity of this great work.
... Read more
Audiobook

Opera Explained Pagliacci

by Thomson Smillie ...

Narrated by David Timson ...

Series series Opera Explained
Unabridged

1 hour 1 min

Pagliacci may be the most completely compelling short opera in the repertory and owes much of its impact to a brilliant story based, it is said, on true life and told through the device of a play-within-a-play. The action is set in Calabria in the deep south of Italy where the jealousies and illicit passions of a troupe of strolling actors precisely intersect with the play they are performing to ... Read more

R152,90

Pagliacci may be the most completely compelling short opera in the repertory and owes much of its impact to a brilliant story based, it is said, on true life and told through the device of a play-within-a-play. The action is set in Calabria in the deep south of Italy where the jealousies and illicit passions of a troupe of strolling actors precisely intersect with the play they are performing to
... Read more