UMS Concert Program, November 29, 1951: Seventy-third Annual Choral Union Concert Series -- Salvatore Baccaloni

Season: 1951-1952
Concert: Sixth
Complete Series: 3067
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
CHARLES A. SINK, PRESIDENT THOR JOHNSON, CUEST CONDUCTOR
LESTER MCCOY, ASSOCIATE CONDUCTOR
Sixth Concert 1951-1952 Complete Series 3067
Seventy-third Annual
Choral Union Concert Series
SALVATORE BACCALONI, Basso Buffo Marcel Frank at the Piano
Thursday Evening, November 29, 1951, at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
"Son imbrogliato" from La Serva padrona .... Pergolesi "Le Veau d'or" from Faust........Gounod
"Solche hergelauf'ne Laffen" from Die Entjiihrung
aus dem Serail...........Mozart
"Ha, wie will ich triumphieren" from Die Entjiihrung
aus dem Serail...........Mozart
"Mondo ladro, mondo rubaldo" from Falstaff.....Verdi
"Quand' ero paggio" from Falstaff ... .... Verdi
INTERMISSION
Moment Musical...........Schubert
Minuet in E-flat..........Beethoven
Bolero..............Ravel
Marcel Frank
"Madamina" from Don Giovanni.......Mozart
"Siege of Kazan" from Boris Godounoff .... Moussorgsky Chanson de la puce.........Moussorgsky
Negro Spirituals:
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot Peter, Go Ring dem Bells My Lord, What a Morning
NOTE.--The University Musical Society has presented Salvatore Baccaloni on previous occasions, as follows: May 5. 1943; May 5, 1946; Dec. 5, 1946.
The Stemway is the official piano of the University Musical Society
ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS
PROGRAM NOTES
"Son imbrogliato" from La Serva padrona .... Pergolesi Uberto--the old man inveigled into marrying his maid.
Apparently, even in 1731 there were gold-diggers, judging from Uberto's troubles in Pergolesi's opera, La Serva padrona. This is especially true in this aria, describing the young lady who is determined to marry him.
"Le Veau d'or" from Faust.........Gounod
Mephistopheles sings the famous "Calf of Gold" aria to the townspeople, who appraise him with glowing curiosity--the stranger who utters a few magic phrases and produces wine for the whole company. "To Marguerite," he cries sardonically, raising his glass.
"Solche hergelauf'ne Laffen" from Die Entjiihrung
aus dent Serail..........Mozart
Osmin--the first eunuch of Selim's harem, a crafty fellow.
In Mozart's light-hearted and romantic "singspiel," Osmin is the gross, blustering guardian of the Pasha's harem. In this aria he vents his rage on "Peeping Toms" who make his life miserable. The culprit, although he does not know it, is Belmonte, who is spying out the possibilities of escape for his betrothed, Constance. Osmin, in an aria that was a model for Gilbert and Sullivan, swears by the beard of the prophet that he'll match the malice and cunning of these would-be intruders; that he'll behead them, hang them, split them, burn them, bind them, drown them, skin them!
"Ha, wie will ich triumphieren" from Die Entjiihrung
aus dem Serail..........Mozart
The lady is being helped over the garden wall--the deed all but accomplished, when the insolent abduction is discovered and the lovers are carried off captive. The Pasha, his heart moved by the exhibition of unselfish love, later dismisses them with his blessing. But here the evil Osmin exults in his own alertness and in the imminent death of the plotters. When the noose is 'round their necks he says, "I'll laugh and dance and sing for joy, because after you're done away with, I'll have a long rest from these interruptions."
P. S. They are not hung; and they do live happily ever after!
"Mondo ladro, mondo rubaldo" from Falstaff.....Verdi
Falstafj--the swashbuckling, overfat knight.
Verdi had always wanted to write a comic opera, and when he was nearly eighty, Boito presented him with what is probably the best libretto of its kind in existence.
Falstaff is usually regarded as one of the major musical miracles. No score has ever surpassed or even equaled it for sheer brilliance, for plasticity, for consummate blend?ing of words and music.
This is the monologue in which Sir John, over a beaker of mulled wine, laments a thankless world which has rewarded his years of gallantry by a ducking in the Thames in a basket of foul linen, like a litter of blind kittens. No more good is to be found anywhere, he says--everything is in a decline. . . . "Go thy way, Jack Falstaff, with thee shall disappear forever the true virility of manhood."
"Quand' ero paggio" from Falstaff.......Verdi
In the second brief aria, the fat, amorous knight tells Mistress Ford how slender and good-looking he had once been; and how those had been the gayest, gladdest years of his life.
"Madamina" from Don Giovanni.......Mozart
Leporello--the manservant of Don Giovanni, who knows more about the Don than he does himself.
The disconsolate Donna Elvira mourns that she has been basely abandoned by the most notorious of heart-breakers, Don Giovanni. The Don's sly servant, Leporello, brings her cold comfort by pointing out that she is neither the first, nor likely to be the last, to be so treated. He shows her a book filled with the record of the year's conquests. . . . "In fair Italy, six hundred and forty; Germany, two hundred and thirty-one; a hundred in France; Turkey, ninety-one; but in Spain--ah, in Spain-one thousand and three! Ladies, peasants, countesses, cooks, scullery maids--it made no matter--they needed only to be women for him to fall in love with them!"
"Siege of Kazan" from Boris Godounoff .... Moussorgsky Varlaam--a loquacious monk who boasts of his exploits. Varlaam, a monk, who has escaped from the convent with two companions, and has arrived at an inn at the Lithuanian border, sings a rollicking drinking song filled with a verve and grim humor characteristically Russian. The words tell with fiendish glee how the terrible Czar Ivan, when threatened by rebellion of the Tartars in the town of Kazan, scattered the rebels to pieces by exploding mines in their midst.
Chanson de la puce.........Moussorgsky
The Song of the Flea is the sardonic air sung by Mephistopheles in Auerbach's cellar. The scene is from Moussorgsky's sketch for Goethe's Faust.
CONCERTS
SPECIAL NOTICE
TAX EXEMPTION--A ruling of the Internal Revenue Department provides that under the 1951 tax bill recently passed by Congress, concerts given by the University Musical Society are tax exempt, as of November 1, 1951. This saving is being passed on to ticket pur?chasers, and the prices of all tickets are reduced approximately 20.
Messiah
First Concert......Saturday, December 8, 8:30 p.m.
Second Concert......Sunday, December 9, 2:30 p.m.
University Musical Society Musical Society Orchestra
Nancy Carr, Soprano David Lloyd, Tenor
Eunice Alberts, Contralto James Pease, Bass
Mary McCall Stubbins, Organist
Lester McCoy, Conductor Tickets (either performance): S&$ and 42
THE CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Thor Johnson, Con?ductor, will give a concert in the Choral Union Series, Monday, January 14, at 8:30 p.m. Tickets: $2.50--$2.00--$1.50.
Chamber Music Festival
Three Concerts.......February 15, 16, 17, 1952.
BUDAPEST STRING QUARTET Josef Roisman, Violin Boris Kroyt, Viola
Jac Gorodetzky, Violin Mischa Schneider, Violoncello
Season Tickets: $3.25 and $2.25 Single Concerts: $1.75 and $1.25
For tickets or for further information, please address: Charles A. Sink, President, University Musical Society, Burton Memorial Tower.
1952 MAY FESTIVAL. Orders for season tickets will be accepted and filed in sequence beginning as of December 1.