La Gazza Ladra Overture
Nov. 1st, 2006 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fiat_knoxThis was one of Rossini's greatest operatic overtures, in my opinion.
I've heard La scala seta (The Silken Ladder - an overture far more scintillating than the disappointing opera which followed it) and Semiramide, the overture to an opera based on Voltaire's Semiramis, itself based on an ancient Babylonian legend, or so I'm told.
Almost everyone has heard the William Tell Overture, even if they've only ever heard the final movement, famous for being the theme tune of The Lone Ranger, or the second or third movements of same overture, recognisable as the Thunderstorm and Dawn Chorus movements from cheesy cartoons passim.
Of course, there is also his magnum opus, the Barber of Seville, another enjoyable piece.
However, the overture of The Thieving Magpie has to be, for me, his finest piece. I love the tune. It's lightfooted at times, almost mischievous, the melody skipping along in an irrepressible manner, occasionally putting on pomp, sometimes skulking towards the lower end of the sonic frequency range of minor keys, sometimes exploding into majestic crashing sound and ending with a dizzying crescendo, rising to a joyful climax.
This piece of music has been bloody haunting me since I was six.
After 37 years ... guess who finally managed to get his hands on the CD only yesterday, to sit with tear - streaked eyes closed all night long listening to it in a darkened room?
(And before you say it ... yes, I could have discovered it a lot earlier, had I ever stopped to watch Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, but that film has spoiled the enjoyment of classical music for millions of people by using the sublime music as the backdrop to monstrosity, so I've never seen that film - and I never shall).
It may be almost 200 years too late, but ... Grazie, Signor Rossini. Grazie.
I've heard La scala seta (The Silken Ladder - an overture far more scintillating than the disappointing opera which followed it) and Semiramide, the overture to an opera based on Voltaire's Semiramis, itself based on an ancient Babylonian legend, or so I'm told.
Almost everyone has heard the William Tell Overture, even if they've only ever heard the final movement, famous for being the theme tune of The Lone Ranger, or the second or third movements of same overture, recognisable as the Thunderstorm and Dawn Chorus movements from cheesy cartoons passim.
Of course, there is also his magnum opus, the Barber of Seville, another enjoyable piece.
However, the overture of The Thieving Magpie has to be, for me, his finest piece. I love the tune. It's lightfooted at times, almost mischievous, the melody skipping along in an irrepressible manner, occasionally putting on pomp, sometimes skulking towards the lower end of the sonic frequency range of minor keys, sometimes exploding into majestic crashing sound and ending with a dizzying crescendo, rising to a joyful climax.
This piece of music has been bloody haunting me since I was six.
After 37 years ... guess who finally managed to get his hands on the CD only yesterday, to sit with tear - streaked eyes closed all night long listening to it in a darkened room?
(And before you say it ... yes, I could have discovered it a lot earlier, had I ever stopped to watch Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, but that film has spoiled the enjoyment of classical music for millions of people by using the sublime music as the backdrop to monstrosity, so I've never seen that film - and I never shall).
It may be almost 200 years too late, but ... Grazie, Signor Rossini. Grazie.
