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Thursday, October 2, 2025

Madame Butterfly by Puccini - Love Duet (Opera Movie, 1995 - subtitled)


Madama Butterfly (Madame Butterfly) is an opera in three acts (originally two acts) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco. Puccini also based it on the novel Madame Chrysanthème (1887) by Pierre Loti. According to one scholar, the opera was based on events that actually occurred in Nagasaki in the early 1890s. The original version of the opera, in two acts, premiered on February 17, 1904, at La Scala in Milan. It was very poorly received despite the presence of such notable singers as soprano Rosina Storchio, tenor Giovanni Zenatello and baritone Giuseppe De Luca in the lead roles. This was due in large part to the late completion and inadequate time for rehearsals. Puccini revised the opera, splitting the second act into two acts and making other changes. On May 28, 1904, this version was performed in Brescia and was a huge success. The opera is set in the city of Nagasaki. Japan's best-known opera singer Tamaki Miura won international fame for her performances as Cio-Cio San; her statue, along with that of Puccini, can be found in Nagasaki's Glover Garden. Butterfly is a staple of the standard operatic repertoire for companies around the world and it is the most-performed opera in the United States, where it ranks as Number 1 in Opera America's list of the 20 most-performed operas in North America.

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

5 songs that will make you feel nostalgic (Filipino songs Editon)



Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé - Barcelona



The ‘Never Boring’ box set out NOW!. Order here: https://freddiemercury.lnk.to/NeverBo... Click here to buy Freddie Mercury – Messenger Of The Gods – The Singles: https://MessengerOfTheGods.lnk.to/Fre... Freddie Mercury was a man of many talents and many different sides. The songs he wrote for and with Queen filled stadiums around the globe and have rightly gone down in history, but he also embarked on a solo career that took him from the clubs of Munich and New York to the great opera houses of the world. He was the ultimate showman, but he kept his private life away from the prying eyes of the media; a larger than life rock star who loved disco, classical music and ballet. He was a restless spirit, a true chameleon who revelled in his own contradictions. All the different sides of this iconic musician can be found on Freddie Mercury: Messenger Of The Gods - The Singles. All formats released September 2nd 2016. On 29th May 1987, a huge festival was held on the island of Ibiza, at a venue called Ku Club. Titled 'Ibiza '92', the event was held to celebrate Spain hosting the Olympic Games in 1992. Along with many other artists, Freddie appeared with Montserrat Caballé to showcase the song they had been working on - seventeen months before it was released as a single. Subscribe to the official Freddie Mercury Solo channel here: https://FreddieMercury.lnk.to/Subscribe Watch more: https://FreddieMercury.lnk.to/BestOfF... About Freddie Mercury Solo: Freddie Mercury; lead singer of Queen and solo artist in his own right. Songwriter, musician, singer of songs, lover of life. Freddie majored in Stardom while giving new meaning to the word Showmanship. He left a legacy of songs that will never lose their stature as classics and will live on forever.

Donna Summer "I Feel Love" (2023 Extended Revisit Mix) ***



For Your Eyes Only ~ Sheena Easton (James Bond 007 Theme HD)



🎻 PART III - 24 famous classical pieces you've heard and don't know the title



Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Dvořák Cello Concerto: how a heartbroken composer’s lost love inspired his greatest work


A yearning for his homeland and the devastating loss of a beloved friend give the Czech’s work an almost unbearable pathos, explains Jo Talbot


Antonín Dvořák © Getty Images

Jo Talbot


Who was Antonín Dvořák?

In September 1892, the 51-year-old Antonín Dvořák arrived in New York to take up the position of director of the National Conservatory – a move that would not only swell his bank account but also see him fêted as something of a celebrity in his adopted home. On top of his teaching duties, Dvořák also performed and travelled widely, absorbing much of the local culture. His compositions from his period in the US are among his most famous, including his Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’, ‘American’ String Quartet No. 12 and, shortly before returning back to his Czech homeland in 1895, his Cello Concerto.  

Dvořák Cello Concerto: the work

Discovering the cello's potential

As Robert Hausmann played Dvořák’s Cello Concerto through, Johannes Brahms turned round to the composer and said, ‘If I had known that it was possible to write a cello concerto like this, I would have tried it as well!’ High praise indeed.

Dvořák’s Concerto is indeed an inspired work, but he hadn’t always been so taken with the cello. He considered his youthful First Concerto, written at the age of 23, to be incompetent, and it was almost 30 years later, on hearing Victor Herbert’s Second Cello Concerto in New York, that he realised the instrument’s potential. He studied Herbert’s score and six months later began sketching his own work, completing the first version in February 1895. Returning to Prague in April, he revised his Concerto over the summer and offered it to Simrock, his publisher.

Yo-Yo Ma performs the Dvořák Cello Concerto with Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra

Tragedy and tribute: the death of Dvořák's beloved sister-in-law

This gives us the timeline of the composition, but misses the personal tragedy that defines its creative impetus. While working on the sketches, Dvořák knew that his beloved sister-in-law Josefina was ill. She wrote to him: ‘Forgive me for not writing, but I have been seriously confined to bed, and unable to do so. I have not heard from you for such a long time. This is not as it should be! However, I shall resign myself to the fact I have nothing to look forward to anymore.  

With the knowledge that Josefina’s health was failing, Dvořák wanted to pay tribute to her in his new work. He includes in the second movement some quotes from the song ‘Lasst mich allein’ (Leave me alone) which was a favourite of Josefina, and a reference to the three-note ‘Lebewohl’ (Farewell) motif from Beethoven’s Sonata ‘Les adieux’. On learning of Josefina’s death, Dvořák was utterly devastated, adding a Coda in the last movement that quotes the same song – a mesmerisingly tender moment. 


Was this an open love letter and farewell?  Dvořák’s early passion for Josefina had come to nothing and she married a German-speaking aristocrat – a better match than his position then as a lowly orchestral player. But the two remained close – Dvořák married her younger sister, and his family visited her estate at Vysoká every summer. The passion and intimacy in the music perhaps tells the story best.

Dvořák Cello Concerto: a stormy route to the first performance

The dedicatee of the Cello Concerto, friend and cellist Hanuš Wihan, stepped in with some virtuosic figurations and advice and was originally going to give the premiere in London. But then he and Dvořák had a major rift. The cause? Wihan had decided his own cadenza should be inserted into the Finale, ruining Dvořák’s intricately wrought tribute to Josefina. Dvořák angrily wrote in October 1895 to Simrock: ‘I have some differences of opinion with friend Wihan. I do not like some of the passages – and I must insist on my work being printed as I have written it. I shall only give you my work if you promise not to allow anybody to make changes. There is no cadenza in the last movement. I told Wihan straight away when he showed it to me it was impossible just to stick such a bit on.’    

Jacqueline du Pré performs the Dvořák Cello Concerto with the LSO conducted by Daniel Barenboim

Wihan dropped the work, and the British cellist Leo Stern took over. It had been a vitriolic spat, as Dvořák’s biographer Otakar Šourek elucidated in a letter: ‘He esteemed Josefina not only as a dear friend, but also as the charming young actress who, long years ago, had awakened in him a secret passion.’ Šourek also mentions the songs Dvořák quoted by way of farewell: ‘For this reason, Dvořák insisted on his own definitive conclusions.’


The Concerto meant everything to Dvořák. In a letter to his friend Alois Göbl he admitted his relentless rehearsal of the work in Prague, taxing Leo Stern to his limit: ‘We studied and practised every day – he was quite in despair and I was insisting that it was good, but that it must still be better.’

Dvořák Cello Concerto: the premiere

It served them both well – the premiere, with Dvořák conducting the Philharmonic Society Orchestra in London in March 1896, was warmly received. ‘All three movements are richly melodious,’ wrote The Times, ‘the just balance is maintained between orchestra and solo instrument, and the passages written for display are admirably devised. Mr Stern played the solo part with good taste and faultless technical skill.’ On the Viennese premiere two years later, Eduard Hanslick, critic of Neue Freie Presse, wrote that ‘Dvořák has written a magnificent work which has brought to an end the stagnation of violoncello literature.’   

Dvořák Cello Concerto: form and style

While teeming with Romantic gestures, there are also interesting modern elements. It is more of a cello symphony than concerto, the solo part integrated into orchestral dialogues. Textures are multi-layered, with a leaning towards Wagnerian chromaticism, and programmatic elements are suggested – the numerous trills perhaps allude to the bird song from the composer’s notoriously early morning walks at Vysoká. And the march that opens the Finale even foreshadows Gustav Mahler, while the Bohemian inflection in the melodies lends a flavour of nationalism to this towering work.   

Itzhak Perlman: legendary virtuoso violinist and the sound behind Schindler's List

 As we celebrate violinist Itzhak Perlman’s 80th birthday, the virtuoso speaks to Charlotte Smith about teaching, conducting, his famous sound – and keeping inspired over a career of more than 60 years


Itzhak Perlman © Drew Gurian

Charlotte Smith


Itzhak Perlman has just turned 80, but it’s a milestone this warm and wonderful violin virtuoso is in no rush to acknowledge. ‘Don’t hurry me,’ he jokes when I wish him an early Happy Birthday during our interview a few months before the big day on 31 August. 


Itzhak Perlman: a huge recording catalogue

Yet it’s an anniversary worth celebrating – and Warner Classics are only too happy to do so, with the release of an enormous 78-CD box set of Perlman’s many mesmerising recordings made for EMI Classics, Teldec, Erato and Warner over a period of more than 40 years. A quick scan of the tracklist is enough to surmise that there’s not a lot Perlman hasn’t recorded – a vast repertoire encompassing everything from Vivaldi and Bach to Brahms and Tchaikovsky to contemporary compositions, klezmer and blues.   

The collaborators, too, have been numerous and starry – among them Martha ArgerichVladimir AshkenazyDaniel Barenboim, Carlo Maria Giulini, Bernard HaitinkYo-Yo Ma, Zubin Mehta, André Previn and Pinchas Zukerman. And throughout it all, Perlman’s generosity and vibrancy have shone through that rich, big-hearted sound. 

Mastering the Impossible: The Hardest Pieces of Classical Music
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Itzhak Perlman... on tone

Perhaps unsurprisingly for one of today’s most recognisable violinists, Perlman has quite a lot to say about sound… or rather tone, which he distinguishes as personal. The first violinist he remembers hearing as a child was Jascha Heifetz, whom he regards as being ‘in many ways the most recognisable fiddle player of all’. 

‘Whether you’re a pianist or a violinist, a wind or brass player, or a singer, the first thing the audience notices is the sound,’ he expands. ‘And that’s not about playing the right notes; it’s about the quality of timbre and the way that it’s produced. Actually, I prefer to call that “tone”. Technically, you can produce a very good sound and that can be taught. But tone is yours personally, like a fingerprint – it’s a personal stamp. The heroes I had growing up were players like Fritz Kreisler, Nathan Milstein, Isaac Stern, Joseph Szigeti and David Oistrakh. Each of these violinists had a different style of playing and tone quality. That made them endlessly fascinating.’   

Itzhak Perlman... a natural, warm and joyful performer

For Perlman himself – easily a violinist worthy of inclusion in that list of greats – his warmth and naturalness of tone has always seemed an extension of a charming and personable stage presence. That he has rarely felt nervous performing has helped him to engage fully and unreservedly with his audiences. (The one exception, he tells me, was taking part in the Leventritt Competition, which he won in 1964 and during which, ‘I never felt so nervous in my life!’)

For a taste of Perlman joy on stage, just head to YouTube and watch him performing the final movement of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy – all relaxed smiles, as his large left hand seems not so much to fly over the fingerboard as to consume it, making light work of that intricate passagework, while his perfectly light and bouncing bow froths away merrily. 

Itzhak Perlman performs Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy

Itzhak Perlman and the power of television

It’s this charisma which no doubt wowed audiences when the 13-year-old Perlman appeared on CBS television’s Ed Sullivan Show in 1958 – a moment that instantly earned him a legion of fans, and which he readily admits was a turning point. ‘That was extremely significant,’ he says. ‘It’s how I came to the US from Israel, but more than that, appearing on television was part of my musical growth. I’ve played so many concerts, but the moment a performance is broadcast on television, it achieves greater magnitude, because of the sheer number of people watching.’      

Itzhak Perlman performs Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1958, aged 13

He’s not wrong. Like cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Perlman has been one of very few instrumentalists to transcend the bounds of classical stardom and become part of the wider cultural landscape. In one of several captivating appearances on the popular American children’s television programme Sesame Street in the 1980s, for instance, Perlman is charm personified, speaking to a six-year-old violinist about the differences between ‘easy’ and ‘hard’. That the conversation plays candidly upon his disability, due to contracting polio in childhood, only increases his relatability. 

Itzhak Perlman appears on Sesame Street

Itzhak Perlman and Schindler's List

His collaboration with John Williams on the soundtrack to Steven Spielberg’s Holocaust-set Schindler’s List in 1993 is yet another example of that Perlman empathy. Through sound alone, he manages to convey all the heartbreak of the Jewish experience. But like Spielberg’s film, Perlman’s tone also conveys humanity and strength.

Itzhak Perlman performs John Williams's theme tune for Schindler's List

‘I actually play the Schindler’s List theme in all my recitals now,’ he says. ‘When I ask people what they’d like me to play, 99 per cent invariably request that music. And it doesn’t matter where I am – I could be in Europe, the US, the Far East, South America! I spoke to John Williams about it recently, and we couldn’t quite understand why – perhaps it’s the subject matter. It’s such a simple piece, after all.’    

Prizes and performing for US presidents

Over the years, Perlman has performed multiple times for US presidents, including most memorably – and again televised to millions – at the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama. He has been honoured over and over again, notably with 16 Grammy Awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 and the Genesis Prize for Lifetime Achievement in 2016. And of course, he’s performed on every stage of any stature around the globe – with all the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and fellow instrumentalists. 

Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill and Gabriela Montero perform John Williams's Air And Simple Gifts at President Barack Obama's Inauguration, Washington DC, 2009

After all that recognition, what keeps Perlman going? A quick look at his schedule reveals a quite dizzying array of forthcoming performances – one that might intimidate a much younger man. ‘I think the key is still being interested in what I do…  And that I can say, “Hey, I’m still excited about this” is quite an accomplishment!’ he laughs. 

Itzhak Perlman's teachers and mentors

It’s worth noting that Perlman’s activities extend beyond performing to conducting and teaching – the latter at both the Juilliard School in New York and through The Perlman Music Program, a US and Israeli school founded 30 years ago by his wife Toby to promote collaboration between talented young students in an uncompetitive environment.   


 

'It's all about listening'

It’s not a bad list, and for Perlman the question has always remained: ‘What do I tell this wonderful orchestra that has played this repertoire so many times before? It’s not a question of what can I teach them that they don’t already know, but what can I do with Beethoven 5, say, that the audience hasn’t heard before? It’s always a challenge, but in the end it’s all about listening.

‘And in fact, it’s listening that connects my playing, teaching and conducting – it’s an endless challenge, to listen intently and to adjust the sound accordingly. It’s the reason I’m still interested in what I do, even after all this time.’ A lifelong passion, then. And one set to continue, no doubt, for many years to come.