CAVALCANTIRadio Opera by Ezra Pound Ezra Pound’s three-act opera, libretto by Guido Cavalcanti and Ezra Pound Series Editors: Robert Hughes and Margaret Fisher Second Evening Art Publishing, 2003, first edition, double volume, numbered Vol I: Essays about Pound as a composer Vol II: Engraved music score with libretto 442 pages, perfectbound (paper), shrinkwrapped, ISBN 9780972885911, list $65.00 Purchase: amazon About the opera The three-act lyrical opera dramatizes the life of Florentine poet Guido Cavalcanti (c.1250-1300) through eleven of his canzone and ballate. Two additional numbers are settings of poems by Sordello in Provençal. By the 1960s the opera was thought to be lost. Robert Hughes located the missing half of the opera to assemble this complete, fully-engraved performance edition. Duration: c. one hour. About the book
Volume I. A systematic analysis by the editors of Pound’s music training, the application of his musico-poetic theories, methods of composition, and a music analysis of the opera. Additional material: The genesis and sources of Pound’s Great Bass theory; and, Creation of the work as a radio opera to be performed by the BBC’s Features Department. Table of Contents Audio Excerpts from CavalcantiAvailable on audio CD (Other Minds 1005-2)Sol per pietà. Excerpt from Act I, No. 2. Tos temps serai, Act II, No. 2. Performing Forces
(The editors note the opera could, alternately, be done with 8 singers, the principal voices being those of Cavalcanti, Betto Brunelleschi, the three Bianchi, the Cobbler, Vanna and Ricco; and the doubled voices being those of the French Soldier, the Seneschal and Fortuna. It is possible, though not preferable, to present Cavalcanti with 5 singers in a ‘concert’ version or in a theatrical performance using adept staging.)
Rental PartsConductor's score, vocal and instrumental parts, and piano score are available for rental on request from Second Evening Art Publishing, 1420 45th St. #16, Emeryville CA 94608, (USA) 510-653-5009. More InformationMake It New, The Ezra Pound Society’s Online Journal of Ezra Pound Studies, featured two articles concerning the central aria of the opera, Cavalcanti’s philosophical canzone “Donna mi prega”(Act II No. 2). About the EditorsFor the publication of Pound’s complete oeuvre of music, Robert Hughes and Margaret Fisher received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ezra Pound Society (2014).Robert Hughes, composer, conductor, and bassoonist, met Pound in Washington, D.C. Their brief discussion about music eventually led Hughes to mount Pound’s first opera Le Testament with the San Francisco Opera in 1971. He assembled Pound’s complete second opera Cavalcanti from manuscripts that had become separated over time and premiered that work in San Francisco with the Arch Ensemble for Experimental Music. He published performance editions of Pound’s complete works for violin, and is conductor and artistic director of two audio CD’s of Pound's music. Margaret Fisher, Ph.D., is an independent scholar and performance/media artist. She is author of Ezra Pound’s Radio Operas: The BBC Experiments (The MIT Press) and The Recovery of Ezra Pound’s 3rd Opera, Collis O Heliconii (Second Evening Art). Cavalcanti: A Perspective on the Music of Ezra Pound Purchase: amazon |