Program Notes | elizabethaceto

“Sogno” by Paolo Tosti

Trained at the Naples Conservatory, Paolo Tosti was a resident of London from 1875 to 1912, taught singing to Queen Victoria’s children, and was knighted in 1908. Tosti wrote skillful, refined alone songs for the likes of Enrico Caruso, Nellie Melba, Victor Maurel, John McCormack, and others. In “Sogno,” a lover tells us in Tosti’s trademark mellifluous melody of desire first conquered, then deliciously triumphant — but only in a dream.

“Una donna a quindici anni” from Cosi Fan Tutte by Mozart

First premiered January 1790 in Burgtheater, Vienna, Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte takes place in Naples during the late 18th century. The story begins when two young officers Ferrando and Guglielmo discuss the true faithfulness of their fiancées. A cynical old man named Don Alfonso joins in their conversation and bets them that if they give him one day, he can prove that all women are fickle. The two officers tell their fiancées they have been called to war, but will secretly return in disguise as Albanians. Back in the sister’s home, Despina, the maid, consoles the young mistresses. She tells them to forget their lovers and find new ones in the aria “Una donna a quindici anni.” Throughout the rest of the story, Despina teams up with Don Alfonso, disguising herself as someone different in each scene. Eventually the two sisters fall for each other’s fiancées as they are in disguise, and a wedding is planned. Despina then goes to disguise herself as the marriage notary, and marriage contracts are signed. Soon there was music heard in the distance signaling the soldiers’ return. The women hid their “Albanian” husbands, and the two men quickly change into their uniforms and return to the house. Don Alfonso reveals the signed marriage contracts to the officers, and after becoming furious, they leave the house. Don Alfonso reveals Despina’s true identity to the sisters moments before the two men arrive again dressed as both he officer and the Albanian. When the sisters finally learn of Don Alfonso’s wager, all is forgiven.

Gabriel Fauré

Gabriel Fauré stands as one of the greatest French composers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He studied for eleven years at the Ecole Niedermeyer, a boarding school for the training of church organists and choirmasters. Fauré held a number of successive church-organist positions both in and outsides of Paris. He was passed over for a post as a composition teacher at the Paris Conservatory in 1892 because he was considered too revolutionary, but four years later he won that position and went on to become the director of the Conservatory until 1920. He achieved international recognition as a leading composer of French songs. It fell within the duties of the teacher-composers at the Paris Conservatory to provide competition pieces through which to rate the skills of their students. He composed the Fantasy for flute and piano, Op. 79, for the concours of 1898 and the piece was first performed by first-prize winner Gaston Blanquart. The Fantasy was again used as the set piece of the competition in 1916 and 1925.

Upon infantry discharge from the Franco-Prussian War, Fauré began to hold more church jobs and began to collaborate with the opera singer, Pauline Viardot. In 1877, Fauré became engaged to Viardot’s daughter Marianne, but she broke it off. He began suffering from bouts of depression, which is reflected in much of his music. The melody “Automne” might lead one to read into it’s elements of Fauré’s personal life. His engagement to Marianne Viarodt had recently been broken off and this heart-break never quite left him. What is typical of Fauré is the fluidity and independence of the bass line, and the delicacy of the syncopated quavers that shadow the voice and trace the ghost of a counter-melody. Fauré’s musical style influenced many 20th century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, nocturnes for piano and the songs “Aprés un reve” and “Clair de lune”.

“Vanilla Ice Cream” from She Loves Me by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock

Set in a 1930’s European perfumery, we meet shop clerks Amalia and Georg, who more often that not, don’t see eye to eye. After both respond to a “lonely hearts advertisement” in the newspaper, they now live for the love letters they exchange, but the identity of their admirers remains unknown. As the letters continue to be exchanged, we learn of the couples plans to meet for the first time the following Tuesday. For most of the show, Amalia is in love with her “lonely hearts” column pen pal. The day the two have arranged to meet, Amalia is waiting in a romantic cafe when Georg enters. Confused by the possibility that Amalia could be his “Dear Friend,” Georg sits at her table. Unaware of the possibility that they are the anonymous couple, they immediately begin to argue and ultimately get asked to leave the restaurant. The next day Georg calls in with a vanilla ice-cream cone to see Amalia who is ‘unwell’ (as a result of drinking too much wine the night before.) He is accused of snooping, whereupon she makes a disorganized effort to get ready for work. Georg manages to calm her down and they discuss her failed meeting with “Dear Friend.” After Georg leaves, Amalia tries to write to “Dear Friend” but her thoughts keep returning to Georg (Vanilla Ice Cream). In the end, the two come to the realization they have fallen in love.

“Sonata for Flute and Piano” by Gaetano Donizetti

Gaetano Donizetti was a leading composer of the bel canto opera style during the Nineteenth Century. Over the course of his career, Donizetti wrote almost 70 operas. His best known works include comedies such as L’eslisir d’amore (1832) and Don Pasquale (1843). Donizetti became an important influence on Romantic composer, Giuseppe Verdi. His flute sonata is a work from his relative youth, circa 1819, shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

“Syrinx” by Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy was a French composer considered to be one of the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music, which conveys the moods and emotions aroused by the subject rather than a detailed tone-picture. The short solo “Syrinx” was composed in 1913 to accompany a scene in Gabriel Mourey’s play Psyché. Syrinx is the Greek name for the widespread folk instrument made of end-blown reeds, more commonly called “panpipes.” The name comes from a Greek myth about the nymph Syrinx, who escaped the pursuit of the dissolute satyr Pan by turning herself into a bunch of reeds. Pan, hearing the sound of the wind blowing through the reeds, turned them into the instrument which is commonly associated with him. Debussy seemed to identify with the lustful, half-man, half-goat deity he previously portrayed musically in the song La flûte de Pan and the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. In the scene that this solo accompanies, Pan dies.

“The Roaring Fork” by Eric Ewazen

Commissioned by the Borealis Wind Quintet, the title of Ewazen’s wind quintet implies a new-agey, National Geographic kind of sensibility. The work, which consists of three movements: Whitewater Rapids (Maroon Creek), Columbines (Snow Mass Lake), and At the Summit (Buckskin Pass), was inspired by the spectacular scenery in the valley of the Roaring Fork River in the Rocky Mountains. The theatrical gestures and harmonic languages are reminiscent of the mid-war music of Copeland, Harris, or Hanson. Eric Ewazen is an accomplished composer and professor, and is known for much of his 20th Century compositions. He has been a faculty member of the Julliard School since 1980, where he also received M.M and D.M.A degrees after completing a B.M from the Eastman School of Music. His works are recorded on Summit Records, d’Note Records, CRS Records and many more.