Iris (opera)
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Operas
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Iris is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni to an original Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. Its first performance was at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 22 November 1898.
The opera is through-composed and set in Japan during legendary times. (Mascagni's colleague and former roommate, Puccini, was present at the premiere; it is far from coincidental that his opera, Madama Butterfly, first presented in 1904 was also set in Japan. Puccini much admired the music, in particular Mascagni's orchestration, if not the drama: see Carner.)
In common with all of Mascagni's full-length operas, Iris is now rarely performed, even in Italy, although along with L'Amico Fritz it remains one of the composer's more performed operas. Two of the opera's most memorable numbers are the tenor's serenade ("Apri la tua finestra") and the Hymn to the Sun ("Inno al Sole").
The so-called "aria della piovra" ("Octopus aria"), "Un dì, ero piccina", where Iris describes a screen she had seen in a Buddhist temple when she was a child, depicting an octopus coiling with its tentacles around a young woman, may have been inspired by the print "The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife" (1814) by the Japanese artist Hokusai.[1]
[edit] Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 22 November 1898 (Conductor: Pietro Mascagni) |
|---|---|---|
| Iris | soprano | Hariclea Darclée |
| Il Cieco | bass | Giuseppe Tisci Rubini |
| Osaka | tenor | Fernando De Lucia |
| Kyoto | baritone | Guglielmo Caruson |
| Geisha | soprano | Ernestina Tilde Milanesi |
| Haberdasher | tenor | Eugenio Grossi |
| Rag merchant | tenor | Piero Schiavazzi |
| Chorus: shopkeepers, geishas, laundry girls, samurai, citizens | ||
[edit] Notes
- ^ Mallach, Alan (2002). Pietro Mascagni and his Operas. UPNE. p. 127 and note. http://books.google.com/books?id=kUCtUcFvr0IC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved January 28, 2011.
[edit] Sources
- Amadeus Almanac, accessed 30 June 2008
- Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5
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