At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, a so-called realist trend arose in Italian literature and art, the purpose of which was to say that literature and art should truly reflect life, not be closed in the temple as in the past, but only reflect the appearance of emperors and generals. Italian realism should have been inspired and influenced by the French naturalistic literature represented by Zora and Mocissan, which first began in literature, one of the representatives of which was Verga, who had a play The Country Knight (1884). Later, this trend of thought gradually influenced operas closely related to drama, and the Italian composer Mascagni composed "Country Knight" into a one-act opera. The opera's vocals are relatively rarely heard, but an intermission and a chorus are reserved for concerts. Another composer of Italian realist opera was Ruggero leoncavallo, who had a pagliacci (1892) in which the tenor's aria by Canio, "Vesti la giubba", was really breathtaking.
The most successful opera composer of Italian realism was Puccini. Although Puccini was born into a musical family, he always played the organ as a teenager and then taught singing in the choir, and there was no serious job. It was Verdi's Aida that made Puccini less enlightened, and he decided to write a few operas. He took a scholarship to Milan to study opera composition with ponchielli. This Pontelli is also a master of writing operas, his "Jokonda" (1876) is a masterpiece, in the last scene Joconda's aria "I'm going to commit suicide" sang for more than a hundred years is still so good, at the beginning of the formation, not at all the sadness of the dying, the whole one wants to become a Buddha. This Poncelli is also the founding father of Italian realist opera, and Puccini has certainly learned how to express life realistically, rather than the emperors and generals in the palace. Mascagni and Leoncavallo, just mentioned, were also students of Poncelli.
After Puccini's discipleship, he began to write his own works. His first opera was called The Dance of the Demons, and Puccini tried unsuccessfully to win the Grand Prix in Rome. He was an Italian composer, competing for the French composition prize, of course, it was difficult. Later, he wrote a small play "Edgar", which was not very successful. Puccini's third opera, however, was a great success, manon lescaut, which premiered in 1893. The French composer Massneux also had an opera with the same story called Manon. Subsequently, over a period of eight years across the twentieth century, Puccini completed three of his most successful operas, la boheme (1896), Tosca (1900), and madama butterfly (1904). Since then, Puccini has not much affinity with the United States, writing la fanciulla del west (1910), which depicts American life, followed by il trittico (1918), which premiered at the New York Met. The third in three is "gianni schicchi", which has a very famous aria "o mio babbino caro" sung by the heroine Lauretta, which is already a reserved repertoire for sopranos at opera oratorio concerts, and our unit choir also took it out at the Christmas concert last year and sang it in unison.
Puccini was good friends with the famous Italian conductor Toscanini, and Puccini's subsequent opera Turandot was the premiere of The Tuscany conductor. At the time of Puccini's death, Turandot was not finished, and the final ending was only a draft. When Toscanini's premiere was to the point of fragmentation, he lowered his baton, turned to the audience and said, "The composer Puccini has put down his pen here forever." The end of the current performance of "Turandot" was done by someone else based on Puccini's draft, similar to the last forty times of "Dream of the Red Chamber", with different versions. Turandot was written by Puccini specifically for the famous Italian tenor Caruso, but before the opera was completed, Puccini heard the news of Caruso's death. The news was too much of a blow to Puccini, and although he was not devastated by it, the progress of his writing must have been delayed, and the sadness also aggravated his own condition, as if it were throat cancer. You see, if this opera is completed normally, what will it look like? Puccini, Caruso and Toscanini, as long as one of these three names appears, it will make people exclaim, if all three people take the stage at the same time, then the audience will not all go crazy?
In Pontelli's "Joconda", the heroine Joconda finally committed suicide, and Puccini learned this ending of the teacher, and his opera will eventually have the heroine die. The heroine of "Manon Lesko" Mannon finally died of hunger and thirst on the way to escape. Mimi, the embroidered woman in "The Bohemian", finally coughed to death, possibly with throat cancer, foreshadowing Puccini's own destiny. The heroine of "Tosca", Tosca, finally fell to the ground for art and love. The heroine of "Madame Butterfly", Qiaoqiao Sang, killed herself with her ancestral sabre after finally being lonely. The princess Turandot in Turandot is actually uncertain, because Puccini's pen stops after Willow's suicide. Only the heroine of "Joniskiki" finally has a lover and finally becomes a family, which should be a light comedy.
Madame Butterfly is based on two short stories, one by American writer John Luther Lang of the same name. This Mr. Lang is a lawyer and writing novels is as much a hobby as I do listening to music. "Madame Butterfly" is based on an experience of her sister, Jenny, who spent some time in Japan with her missionary husband. Whether Mr. Lang has written other novels has been unsubstantiated, and this "Madame Butterfly" has already made him very famous. The main line of the storyline of the opera "Madame Butterfly" actually comes from the French writer Pierre Lotti's diary novel "Lady Kikuko", which tells the story of a French naval officer who sailed to Nagasaki, Japan, and after a long sea voyage, the officer went ashore to find a marriage agency to rent a Japanese girl as a bride, and the matchmaker of the marriage agency was called Kangoro. Kangoro introduced a "Lady Jasmine" to the French officer, but the French officer fell in love with Lady Jasmine's retinue, Lady Kikuko. After the French officer and Mrs. Kikuko lived for a while, the warship left the port, and the life of renting a wife ended. In the opera "Madame Butterfly", the return of the US Navy officer Pinkerton after three years, the ending of Madame Butterfly and the name Qiaoqiao Sang are most likely novels from Mr. Lang. The script of the opera is based on the one-act stage play by the American playwright Velezco, with another screenwriter rewritten into an opera script, and Puccini composed the opera Madame Butterfly. Velezco also had a stage play, which Puccini also adapted into an opera, "The Girl of the West".
"Madame Butterfly" has two acts, that is, two sets. In the first act, the hillside is on the left and Pinkleton's house on the right. The opera's overture is short and festive. The opening scene is a heavy singing of the consul, Pinkleton, matchmaker Goro, maid Suzuki and others, and some of the main melodic materials of the whole play are displayed one by one. The melody of the American national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner Never Falls," leads to a pincleton's aria, "dovunque al mondo"; the U.S. national anthem is once again more majestic after Pinkleton and the U.S. consul's duet. These re-singing segments are very exciting. After a female voice in the distance, Qiao Qiaosang's voice floated over, "Over a hill again, you will arrive...", she sang "Ecco. son giunte al sommo del pendio)". "I am the happiest girl in the world..." Qiao qiao sang full of joy and yearning for a new life. At this point, the arias of the male and female protagonists have been gorgeously unveiled. Against the backdrop of the Japanese national anthem, a simple wedding was held. After the crowd left, Sang and Pinker's love duo The Night Has Come (Viene la Sera) and Vogliatemi Bene were the most important singing segments of the first half of the scene. The first act is full of festivities, joys, and tenderness, but there is also Pinkleton's frivolity that sets the stage for later tragedies. In the first act, the music is dazzling, with all the main materials of the arias, and different interpretations of these materials come and go.
The second act is desolate at the beginning, the music and the singing are like this, and the prayer of the maid Suzuki is even more sad. Qiao Qiaosan longed for Pinkleton's return and sang "Un bel di vedremo". In fact, the American consul and the matchmaker Goro already knew the reality of Pinkleton, so the matchmaker brought a potential new Lang, but Qiaoqiao Sang refused to give up on Pinkleton halfway, so he rejected them all. The duo of Chochosan and Suzuki sang "Shake the cherry tree, the petals fall like rain (scuoti quella fronda di ciliegio)", which is very beautiful. As night fell, the famous "coro a bocca chuisa" was heard in the distance. The second act is divided into two scenes, and there is a very sad interlude in between, although it is very large, but it is never played in concert, because it is too sad! The second session began with another morning, and in the distance came the song of a sailor (fischi d'uccelli dal giardino). Suddenly, an American warship drove into the harbor, and Pinkleton really returned. The ending is known to everyone, and Qiao Qiaosang committed suicide like her father with the ancestral dagger engraved "It is better to endure humiliation and steal life than to die yujie". Before that, Sang sang the last aria Little God, dear baby ( piccolo iddio !) amore mio）”。
Madame Butterfly premiered on 17 February 1904 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, completely unsuccessful. Puccini revised it again, and it was staged again with great success. Puccini is said to have made a small fortune for Madame Butterfly's royalties, and he used the money to buy a yacht and name it Qiaoqiaosang.
Puccini's operas inherited the tradition of Italian opera and developed greatly, his operas were more melodic, with arias and the melodies of the band very beautiful. Even the dialogue between the characters is not as monotonous and boring as the narrative tones of the past, so I call them repetitions, and they are indeed repetitions. The beautiful music and singing in "Madame Butterfly" reached its extreme, and Pinkleton's first aria, "Frivolous Yankee", was very beautiful. Subsequently, the "wedding march" that Qiao Qiao Sang appeared on was even more beautiful, and every sentence was very moving. Her singing voice advances upwards one level at a time, and finally a representative three-degree step, and then soars to the highest pitch. In the first act of "Madame Butterfly", the love duet of Qiaoqiaosan and Pingkelton is sweet and lyrical, and it is the best opera duet in my opinion, and I can't wait to be sweet and a little bit sweet. The prelude to the band in front of the duet, the two soft strings came out, it was really crispy to the bone. In "Madame Butterfly", there are several arias in which the prelude to the front band contrasts greatly with the later singing segments, but the mood shift is natural. For example, between the majestic melody of "The Star-Spangled Banner Never Falls" in front of "Frivolous Yankee" and the singing segment of Pinkleton in the back; the last aria of Qiaoqiaosang " Little God, dear baby", the strong explosion of the front band and the sad singing of Qiaoqiaosang in the back, are strong contrasts.
In addition to hearing "a clear day" on the radio, I first bought a copy in 1979 to sing "If My Singing Can Fly - Zhang Quan (Soprano) Singing" 33 turn of dense bakelite to hear Madame Butterfly, which contains two arias sung by Zhang Quan, "Qiao Qiao Sang's Wedding March" and "Sunny Day". Speaking of Zhang Quan, we should say two more sentences. Zhang Quan is the earliest Chinese soprano, huang Yuanluo composed China's first opera "Qiuzi", anti-Japanese theme, premiered in 1942 was Zhang Quan as the heroine Qiuzi. In 1949, she went to the Eastman School of Music in New York to study vocal music, and received three certificates of master of arts in music, soprano and opera soprano, which show that she is good at multiple singing styles. She can sing lyrical sopranos or flower cavities, and I've heard her sing "Little Birds." She returned to New China from the United States in 1951, and in 1956, the first Italian opera "La Traviata" performed by the Central Experimental Opera House in China, Zhang Quan sang the corner of Violletta, performing more than a hundred times, sensationalizing the country, my mother listened to the scene that year. Zhang Quan translated all of "La Traviata" into Chinese, and translated all the foreign songs and opera lyrics she sang herself into Chinese, truly introducing foreign music to Chinese audiences. But when "Madame Butterfly" premiered in 1958, Zhang Quan did not catch up. The second section of Qiao Qiaosang's singing in the above record is a 1964 recording by Zhang Quan, with Lai Guoquan conducting the Central Opera House Orchestra. The Li guoquan was also the orchestra conductor of David Oysterhe's visit to China. Zhang Quan worked at the Harbin Opera House for a long time, almost sixteen or seventeen years, and she was one of the initiators of the Harbin Summer Music Festival. Later, he returned to Beijing and served as the vice president of the China Conservatory of Music and the head of the opera department. Zhang Quan not only sang Western operas and songs, but also Chinese songs, and vigorously promoted Chinese national music. Her words are very clear, her voice is sweet and bright, her emotions are very emotional, passionate, and very karas style. She sings even if it is a cappella, it is full of emotion, and because she sings Chinese, we have no barrier to understanding, it sounds more touching. Zhang Quan was also the first Chinese judge to serve on the jury of an international vocal competition, which was held in 1981 at the Rio de Janeiro Vocal Competition in Brazil, and Chinese singers went out to compete for the first time after the reform and opening up, as if the results were not very good. In 2015, Zhong sang a set of two CDs, "If My Singing Voice Can Fly - A Collection of Songs Sung by Famous Vocal Performance Artist Zhang Quan", which won the Golden Disc Award in 2017. Because of her high reputation in the field of Bel Canto soprano in China, everyone respects her as Mr. Zhang Quan.
In 1985, I was working in a factory and had a colleague whose father was the director of the Central Opera House. That year, the opera house rearranged "Madame Butterfly", and my colleague brought a few tickets, and we went to the Tianqiao Theater to see a Western opera that had been performed for the first time after the reform and opening up. I remember that Pinkleton was Liu Weiwei and Qiao Qiaosang was Chen Su'e. At that time, these two had just graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music and came up to sing big dramas, which was also very good. At that time, Liu Weiwei was already a little famous, more famous than Chen Su'e. Later, Chen Su'e went to Italy, and once sang Qiao Qiao Sang with Seiji Ozawa, known as "the best Butterfly Lady in the World". In the past, it was westerners with high heads and big horses to sing small and exquisite Qiaoqiaosang, and the image was much worse, of course, it was not as good as the Orientals. Zhang Quan basically did not perform abroad that year, in fact, Zhang Quan's voice is sweeter than these young sopranos now, but the skills of the new generation of sopranos are much better now.
I now have in my hands a full-play and excerpt (vinyl) version of Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, Pavarotti and Frini, decca 1974;
A full play by Karajan conducting the Scala Theatre, performed by Karas and Gaida, emi 1955;
Elide conducts the Santa Cecilia Orchestra, with Tempardi and Campora singing the full play, Decca 1951.
Of these versions, the best recordings are the Karajan/Pavarotti/Frini version, with Decca's opera recordings being the best. If you want to talk about the best QiaoQiaosang, it must be Karas! The most passionate Pinkerton is Pavarotti, whose vocal voice is tear-jerking in the love duet in the first act. "Madame Butterfly" has high requirements for sopranos, that is, the high-pitched f of the last sentence of "Qiaoqiaosang's Wedding March" in the first act is the f of the three groups of small characters. This tone of Callas is almost perfect, the volume of This tone of Frini is half smaller, Tebaldi hides this tone, Zhang Quan's tone is a quarter of the length of Callas, and Chen Su'e seems to have dodged this tone. It is very difficult for a general lyrical or dramatic soprano to sing a high pitch f of this length, and it is good to be able to sing it like Frini. Only those theatrical sopranos with a background in the flower cavity can sing this sound to the fullest, and the like of Karas can be used as a model. Zhang Quan is also because of his flower cavity skills that he can accurately sing this high note f. To say that this Puccini still likes to play hanging, the previous "Bohemian" gave the boy a high note C, and this "Madame Butterfly" gave the girl a high note F. The climax of the "cold little hand" in "Bohemian" is also a three-degree step, and then soars to the high note C. The oldest recording I've ever heard was "The Wedding March of QiaoQiaosan" sung by New Zealand soprano Frances alda, recorded in 1913. The high note she sang was also very exciting, both relaxed and flowing, and Alda was Caruso's partner at the Metropolitan Opera at that time.
All in all, I think Madame Butterfly is the most beautiful Italian opera and my favorite Italian opera.
(Revised Edition)