It was such a pleasure to interview director Alessandro Talevi about his ideas around the double-bill at Central City Opera this summer, Debussy's The Blessed Damozel and Poulenc's Litanies to the Black Virgin. He always has such interesting things to say - and I was especially interested in how he turned two short cantatas into a single staged dramatic arch. Fascinating. A little background on the pieces: Debussy wrote The Blessed Damozel (La Damoiselle élue in French) in the late 1880s. Alessandro mentions that the composer won a prize for it. In my research, I discovered that he was almost right - Debussy entered the piece in 1892 into the contest for the Prix de Rome, France's most prestigious music prize. However, first prize was not awarded that year. He had already won the esteemed prize in 1884 for his piece for his cantata L'enfant prodigue (The Prodigal Son), which happens to be a similar piece to The Blessed Damozel. Maybe that's why it wasn't chosen...? Take a listen to this gorgeous piece here. The text is based on Dante Gabriel Rossetti's poem and painting of the same name. The Blessed Damozel, painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1850) Poulenc wrote Litanies to the Black Virgin as a response to his grief over a close friend being killed in a car accident. During the aftermath of the crash, Poulenc visited the ancient pilgrimage site in Rocamadour, France, where the 3rd-century Saint Amator reputedly built a chapel around a small wooden Virgin Mary statue that he had carved himself. The statue is very dark in color and is known as the Black Virgin. Poulenc grew up Catholic, but hadn't practiced the faith in years - until this pilgrimage. Litanies was his first sacred piece, and he wrote many more after that, including - famously - Dialogues of the Carmelites. You can listen to this stunning nine-minute cantata here. The Black Virgin in Rocamadour If Alessandro's name sounds familiar to you, that's because Alessandro has been at our festival before - but as a director for productions in the opera house, not the shorter works featuring the apprentice and studio artists. He was here just last summer directing The Magic Flute, and also directed The Marriage of Figaro (2014), The Turn of the Screw (2012), and Amadigi di Gaula (2011). Photos of these productions are below. Tenor Joseph Dennis as Tamino in The Magic Flute with members of the Colorado Children's Chorale. Photo by Amanda Tipton (2018) Top row, from left to right: Claire Shackleton (seated) as Marcellina, Joseph Gaines as Don Basilio, Edward Parks as the Count, and Thomas Hammons as Bartolo. Bottom row, from left to right: Michael Sumuel as Figaro, Anna Christy as Susanna, and Sinéad Mulhern as the Countess. The Marriage of Figaro. Photo by Mark Kiryluk (2014) Alisa Suzanne Jordheim as Flora in The Turn of the Screw. Photo by Mark Kiryluk (2012) Christopher Ainslie as Amadigi and Katherine Manley as Oriana in Amadigi di Gaula. Photo by Mark Kiryluk (2011) And finally, while Alessandro and I were discussing religion and music (#deepthoughts) I mentioned the interview with composer John Rutter in which he describes himself as an agnostic supporter of the Christian faith. The anthropologist and historian Alan Macfarlane interviewed Rutter in 2009. If you'd like to read the entire interview, you can find it here. I especially like the part where Rutter says about faith and music: "In a sense, if you believe the specific doctrines of the faith, I think that just the statement it makes about how man should not live by bread alone, is immensely important; music is a part of that because it is useless in a literal sense, you don't have to have music to survive, yet it has always been there; imagining a world without it is impossible, as is a world without faith." Thanks for reading the show notes for Episode 7 of Season 4 of the Central City Opera Podcast. The double-bill opens today (July 23, 2019) and has additional performances on July 24, 31, and August 1. It's not to be missed! Buy your tickets now at centralcityopera.org. -Emily Murdock, Host & Producer

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related