The Lighter Classics in Music by David Ewen

an operetta in collaboration with three other students. Following the termination of his studies, he became organist in Cremona, and after that a bandmaster in Piacenza. His first opera, _I Promessi sposi_, was introduced in Cremona in 1856, but it did not become successful until sixteen years later when a revised version helped to open the Teatro dal Verme in Milan. World renown came to Ponchielli with _La Gioconda_, first given at La Scala in Milan in 1876. Though Ponchielli wrote many other operas after that he never again managed to reach the high artistic level of this masterwork, nor to repeat its world success. From 1883 until his death he was professor of composition at the Milan Conservatory. He died in Milan, Italy, on January 16, 1886. What is undoubtedly Ponchielli’s most famous orchestral composition, “The Dance of the Hours” (“_Danza della ore_”) comes from his masterwork, the opera _La Gioconda_. This opera—first performed in Milan on April 8, 1876—was based on Victor Hugo’s drama, _Angelo, tyran de Padoue_, adapted by Arrigo Boïto. The setting is 17th century Venice, and the principal action involves the tragic love triangle of Alvise, his wife Laura, and her beloved, Enzo. “The Dance of the Hours” comes in the second scene of the third act. Alvise is entertaining his guests at a sumptuous ball in his palace, the highlight of which is a magnificent ballet, intended to symbolize the victory of right over wrong. The dancers in groups of six come out impersonating the hours of dawn, day, evening, and night. The music begins with a slight murmur, shimmering sounds passing through the violins and woodwind. Dawn appears. The music is carried to a dramatic climax with a strong rhythmic pulse as the day unfolds. When the music achieves mellowness and tenderness, the softness of evening touches the stage; and with the coming of night the music acquires a somber character. At midnight, the music is reduced to a sigh. The harp presents some arpeggios, and a broad melody unfolds. The mood then becomes excitable as all the twenty-four hours plunge into a spirited dance, as light conquers darkness. The most familiar vocal excerpts from this opera are La Cieca’s romanza from the first act, “_A te questo rosario_”; Barnaba’s fisherman’s barcarolle (“_Pescator, affonda l’esca_”) and Enzo’s idyll to the beauty of the night (“_Cielo e mar_”) from the second act; and La Gioconda’s dramatic narrative in which she plans to destroy herself (“_Suicidio_”). Cole Porter Cole Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, on June 9, 1893 to an immensely wealthy family. Precocious in music, he began studying the violin when he was six, and at eleven had one of his compositions published. He pursued his academic studies at the Worcester Academy in Massachusetts and at Yale; music study took place at the School of Music at Harvard and subsequently in Paris with Vincent d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum. At Yale he participated in all its musical activities and wrote two football songs still favorites there, “Yale Bull Dog” and “Bingo Eli Yale.” In 1916 he wrote the music for his first Broadway musical comedy, _See America First_, a failure. During the next few years he was a member of the French desert troops in North Africa, while during World War I he taught French gunnery to American troops at Fontainebleau. Just after the close of the war he contributed some songs to _Hitchy Koo_ of 1918, and in 1924 five more songs to the _Greenwich Village Follies_, both of them Broadway productions. Success first came in 1928 with his music for _Paris_ which included “Let’s Do It” and “Let’s Misbehave.” For the next quarter of a century and more he was one of Broadway’s most successful composers. His greatest stage hits came with _Fifty Million Frenchmen_ (1929), _The Gay Divorce_ (1932), _Anything Goes_ (1934), _Leave It to Me_ (1938), _Panama Hattie_ (1940), _Let’s Face It_ (1941), _Kiss Me Kate_ (1948), _Can-Can_ (1953) and _Silk Stockings_ (1955). From these and other stage productions came some of America’s best loved popular songs, for which Porter wrote not merely the music but also the brilliant lyrics: “Night and Day,” “Begin the Beguine,” “Love for Sale,” “You Do Something to Me,” “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” and so forth. He was also a significant composer for motion pictures, his most successful songs for the screen including “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “In the Still of the Night,” “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To,” “Don’t Fence Me In,” and “True Love.” The most successful of all the Cole Porter musical comedies was _Kiss Me Kate_ which began a Broadway run of over one thousand performances on December 30, 1948, then went on to be a triumph in Vienna, Austria, where it became the greatest box-office success in the history of the Volksoper where it was given. In Poland it was the first American music performed in that country. The text by Bella and Sam Spewack was based partly on Shakespeare’s _Taming of the Shrew_, but it was really a play within a play. A touring company is performing the Shakespeare comedy in Baltimore, Maryland. The musical comedy moves freely from scenes of that production to the backstage complications in the private lives of its principal performers. In the end, the amatory problems of the two stars are resolved within a performance of the Shakespeare comedy. This was not only Cole Porter’s most successful musical comedy but also the finest of his scores. Never before (or since) was he so prolix with song hits in a single production; never before was his style so varied. The repertory of semi-classical music has been enriched by a symphonic treatment given the best of these melodies by Robert Russell Bennett. Bennett’s symphonic presentation of _Kiss Me Kate_ opens with “Wunderbar,” a tongue-in-cheek parody of a sentimental Viennese waltz. It continues with the sprightly measures of “Another Openin’, Another Show,” and after that come the plangent, purple moods of “Were Thine That Special Face,” “I Sing of Love,” and the show’s principal love song, “So In Love.” Serge Prokofiev Serge Prokofiev was born in Sontzovka, Russia, on April 23, 1891. He was extraordinarily precocious in music. After receiving some training at the piano from his mother, he completed the writing of an opera by the time he was ten. Preliminary music study took place with Glière. In his thirteenth year he entered the Moscow Conservatory where he was a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov and Liadov among others and from which he was graduated with the Rubinstein Prize for his first piano concerto. His advanced musical thinking was already evident in his first major work for orchestra, _The Scythian Suite_, introduced in St. Petersburg in