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Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (10-10 1813 ) was born in Le Roncole, a village near Busseto, then in the Département Taro which was a part of the French Empire after the annexation of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza. Verdi went to Milan when he was twenty to continue his studies and he took private lessons in counterpoint while attending operatic performances , as well as concerts of, specifically, German music. Returning to Busseto, he became town music master and, with the support of Antonio Barezzi, a local merchant and music lover who had long supported Verdi's musical ambitions in Milan, Verdi gave his first public performance at Barezzi’s home in 1830. Because he loved Verdi’s music, Barezzi invited Verdi to be his daughter Margherita's music teacher and the two soon fell deeply in love. They were married in 1836 and Margherita gave birth to two children, both of whom died in infancy, followed by Margherita herself in 1840.
The production of his first opera, Oberto, by Milan's La Scala, achieved a degree of success, after which Bartolomeo Merelli, an impresario with La Scala, offered Verdi a contract for two more works.It was while he worked on his second opera, Un giorno di regno, that Verdi's wife and children died. The opera was a flop and Verdi was close to throw in the towel. However, Merelli persuaded him to write Nabucco in 1842 and its opening performance made Verdi famous. A large number of operas followed in the decade after 1843, a period which Verdi was to describe as his "galley years". These included his I Lombardi in 1843 and Ernani in 1844.For some, the most original and important opera that Verdi wrote is Macbeth in 1847. For the first time, Verdi attempted an opera without a love story, breaking a basic convention in 19th Century Italian opera. In 1847, I Lombardi, revised and renamed Jerusalem, was produced by the Paris Opera. As the "galley years" were drawing to a close, Verdi created one of his greatest masterpieces, Rigoletto which premiered in Venice in 1851. Based on a play by Victor Hugo (Le roi s'amuse), the libretto had to undergo substantial revisions in order to satisfy the epoch's censorship, and the composer was on the verge of giving it all up a number of times. The opera quickly became a great success.
There followed the second and third of the three major operas of Verdi's "middle period": in 1853 Il Trovatore was produced in Rome and La traviata in Venice. The latter was based on Alexandre Dumas, fils' play The Lady of the Camellias.Between 1855 and 1867 an outpouring of great Verdi operas were to follow, among them such repertory staples as Un ballo in maschera (1859), La forza del destino (commissioned by the Imperial Theatre of Saint Petersburg for 1861 . Aida, is sometimes thought to have been commissioned for the celebration of the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, but, Verdi initially turned the commission down until he heard it would be offered to Richard Wagner. As there was little love between them Verdi accepted the commission, it inspired Verdi to write his grand opera, Aida.
During the following years Verdi worked on revising some of his earlier scores. Otello, based on William Shakespeare's play, with a libretto written by the younger composer of Mefistofele, Arrigo Boito, premiered in Milan in 1887. Its music is "continuous" and cannot easily be divided into separate "numbers" to be performed in concert. Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, whose libretto was also by Boito, was based on Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor and Victor Hugo's subsequent translation. It was an international success and is one of the supreme comic operas which shows Verdi's genius as a contrapuntist. While staying at a hotel in Milan, Verdi had a stroke, he died on January 27, 1901. Arturo Toscanini conducted the vast forces of combined orchestras and choirs comprised of musicians from throughout Italy, at the State Funeral for Verdi in Milan, following the composer's death in 1901. To date, it remains the largest public assembly of any event, in the history of Italy.
Verdi was one of the first composers who insisted on patiently seeking out plots to suit his particular talents. Working closely with his librettists and well aware that dramatic expression was his forte, he made certain that the initial work upon which the libretto was based was stripped of all "unnecessary" detail and "superfluous" participants, and only characters brimming with passion and scenes rich in drama remained. Many of his operas, especially the later ones from 1851 onwards are a staple of the standard repertoire. No composer of Italian opera has managed to match Verdi's popularity, perhaps with the exception of Giacomo Puccini.
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Puccini was born December 22, 1858 in Lucca,Tuscany, into a family with five generations of musical history behind them. His father died when he was five years old, and he was sent to study with his uncle Fortunato Magi, who considered him to be a poor and undisciplined student. Later, Puccini took the position of church organist and choir master in Lucca, but it was not until he saw a performance of Verdi's Aida that he became inspired to be an opera composer.
In 1880, with the help of a relative and a grant, Puccini enrolled in the Milan Conservatory to study composition with Amilcare Ponchielli and Antonio Bazzini. In the same year, at the age of 21, he composed the Messa, which marks the culmination of his family's long association with church music in his native Lucca. While studying at the Conservatory, Puccini obtained a libretto from Ferdinando Fontana and entered a competition for a one-act opera in 1882. Although he did not win, Le Villi was later staged in 1884 and it caught the attention of Giulio Ricordi, who commissioned a second opera, Edgar, in 1889.
From 1891 onwards, Puccini spent most of his time at Torre del Lago, 15 miles from Lucca situated between the Tyrrhenian Sea and Lake Massaciuccoli. By 1900 he had acquired land and built a villa on the lake, now known as the "Villa Museo Puccini". He lived there until 1921.
Manon Lescaut (1893), his third opera, was his first great success. It launched his remarkable relationship with the librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, who collaborated with him on his next three operas, which became his three most famous and most performed operas. La Bohème (1896) is considered one of his best works as well as one of the most romantic operas ever composed. It is arguably today's most popular opera. Tosca (1900) was arguably Puccini's first foray into verismo, the realistic depiction of many facets of real life including violence. Madama Butterfly (1904) was initially greeted with great hostility (mostly organised by his rivals) but, after some reworking, became another of his most successful operas.
After 1904, compositions were less frequent. Following his passion for driving fast cars, Puccini was nearly killed in a major accident in 1903. However, Puccini completed La Fanciulla del West in 1910 and finished the score of La Rondine in 1917.In 1918, Il Trittico premiered in New York. This work is composed of three one-act operas, of the three, Gianni Schicchi has remained the most popular, containing the popular O Mio Babbino Caro.
Puccini began to complain of chronic sore throats towards the end of 1923. A diagnosis of throat cancer led his doctors to recommend a new and experimental radiation therapy treatment, which was being offered in Brussels. Puccini died there on November 29, 1924, from complications from the treatment. Turandot, his final opera, was left unfinished; and the last two scenes were completed by Franco Alfano based on the composer's sketches.
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Millenium Classics - Opera Treasures (99, 76min ^ 174mb)
Millenium Classics - Opera Treasures (^ 88mb)
01 - G.Verdi - Nabucco-Va pensiero (Act III)-Chrus of the Hebrew Slaves) (5:28)
02 - G.Bizet - Les pecheurs de perles-Au fond du temple saint (Act I) (5:25)
03 - Lakme - Viens, Mallika (Fllower duet) (Act I) (5:56)
04 - G.Bizet - Carmen-Vortre toast (Air du Toreador) (5:25)
05 - W.A.Mozart - Die Zauberflot-Der Vogelfanger bin ich ja (Akt I) (2:53)
06 - W.A.Mozart - Die Zauberflot-Der holle Rache (Akt I) (2:59)
07 - W.A.Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro, K.492-Voi che sapete (Atto II) (2:58)
08 - P.Mascagni - Cavalleria Rusticana-Regina coeli (7:07)
Millenium Classics - Opera Treasures 2 ( ^ 86mb)
09 - G.A.Rossini - II Barbiere di Siviglia-Largo al factotum (Atto I) (4:50)
10 - G.Puccini - Tosca - Vissi d'arte (Atoo II) (3:06)
11 - G.Puccini - Tosca-E lucevan le stelle (Atto III) (3:23)
12 - G.Verdi - Rigoletto-La donna e mobile (Atto III) (2:23)
13 - G.Verdi - La Traviata-Brindisi-Libiamo ne'liete calici (Atto I) (3:08)
14 - V.Bellini - Norma-Sediziose voci..Casta Diva (Atto I) (9:56)
15 - G.Puccini - Turandot-Nessun dorma (Atto III) (3:22)
16 - G.Verdi - Aida-Gloria all'Egittto (Atto II) (7:34)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
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