Child was a Harvard English professor and opera lover, and the text was originally inspired by an incident which occurred to a colleague of his. One evening George Martin Lane was trying to make his way to Cambridge, MA, from Boston. He discovered that he had only 25 cents, which was not enough for both supper and the fare needed to get to Cambridge. As he was very tired and hungry, he stopped at a local diner and asked for half of a serving of macaroni. After he had recounted the story to his friends, he wrote a comic ballad, called The Lone Fish-Ball. A fishball was a fried New England concoction made of potatoes and fish stock, and usually eaten for breakfast. The ballad became very popular with Harvard students, and inspired Child's opera; it also became the source for the popular Tin Pan Alley song, "One Meat Ball".[1]
The opera begins with a chorus sung to the tune of "La dolce aurora" from Rossini's Mosè in Egitto. The song of the Stranger in the second scene is adapted to the "Serenade" in The Barber of Seville; the song of the Padrona in the fourth scene is set to the "Non piu mesta" of La Cenerentola; the duet in the fifth scene to "La dove prende Amor recetto" of The Magic Flute; the "Cavatina" in the sixth scene to the "Di pescator" of Lucrezia Borgia; the aria of the seventh scene, to the "Madamina" of Don Giovanni; the chorus of scene eight to the "Guerra, Guerra" of Norma; the duet of scene nine to the "O sole piu ratto" of Lucia di Lammermoor; the "Cavatina" of scene ten to the "Meco all'altar" of Norma; the chorus of the same scene to the "Bando, Bando" of Lucrezia Borgia, and the trio which follows, to the "Guai se tu sfoggi" of the same opera; the piece concludes with the aria to "Vieni!", from Donizetti's La favorite.[2]
Performance historyedit
It was first performed in a benefit concert for the Sanitary Commission, an organization that treated ill and wounded soldiers of the Union army. In 1864, it was revived for several more benefit performances, this time to aid Unionists in East Tennessee. All the productions were amateur productions, for the humor of the opera is aimed at literati and intellectuals.
The primary sources for the reconstruction of Il pesceballo are the published libretto by Child, and the recitatives and chorus parts penned by Paine, which were discovered by Mary Ellen Brown. Brown employed Eric Knechtges to organize and transcribe this work for a performance at Indiana University.
^Il pesceballo, opera in one act History and libretto
January 01, 1970
pesceballo, fish, ball, 19th, century, american, pasticcio, opera, featuring, music, bellini, donizetti, mozart, rossini, with, spoof, italian, libretto, francis, james, child, which, makes, some, grand, opera, most, popular, melodies, recitatives, chorus, par. Il pesceballo The Fish Ball is a 19th century American pasticcio opera in one act featuring the music of Bellini Donizetti Mozart and Rossini with a spoof Italian libretto by Francis James Child which makes use of some of grand opera s most popular melodies The recitatives and chorus parts were written by John Knowles Paine and James Russell Lowell translated the libretto into English 1 Child was a Harvard English professor and opera lover and the text was originally inspired by an incident which occurred to a colleague of his One evening George Martin Lane was trying to make his way to Cambridge MA from Boston He discovered that he had only 25 cents which was not enough for both supper and the fare needed to get to Cambridge As he was very tired and hungry he stopped at a local diner and asked for half of a serving of macaroni After he had recounted the story to his friends he wrote a comic ballad called The Lone Fish Ball A fishball was a fried New England concoction made of potatoes and fish stock and usually eaten for breakfast The ballad became very popular with Harvard students and inspired Child s opera it also became the source for the popular Tin Pan Alley song One Meat Ball 1 The opera begins with a chorus sung to the tune of La dolce aurora from Rossini s Mose in Egitto The song of the Stranger in the second scene is adapted to the Serenade in The Barber of Seville the song of the Padrona in the fourth scene is set to the Non piu mesta of La Cenerentola the duet in the fifth scene to La dove prende Amor recetto of The Magic Flute the Cavatina in the sixth scene to the Di pescator of Lucrezia Borgia the aria of the seventh scene to the Madamina of Don Giovanni the chorus of scene eight to the Guerra Guerra of Norma the duet of scene nine to the O sole piu ratto of Lucia di Lammermoor the Cavatina of scene ten to the Meco all altar of Norma the chorus of the same scene to the Bando Bando of Lucrezia Borgia and the trio which follows to the Guai se tu sfoggi of the same opera the piece concludes with the aria to Vieni from Donizetti s La favorite 2 Performance history editIt was first performed in a benefit concert for the Sanitary Commission an organization that treated ill and wounded soldiers of the Union army In 1864 it was revived for several more benefit performances this time to aid Unionists in East Tennessee All the productions were amateur productions for the humor of the opera is aimed at literati and intellectuals The primary sources for the reconstruction of Il pesceballo are the published libretto by Child and the recitatives and chorus parts penned by Paine which were discovered by Mary Ellen Brown Brown employed Eric Knechtges to organize and transcribe this work for a performance at Indiana University Roles editRole Voice type Premiere cast Director Kenneth J Pereira Lo straniero The stranger tenor Anthony Webb Il cameriere The waiter baritone Aubrey Allicock La padrona The landlady mezzo soprano Amanda Russo A messenger servants of the Inn students of PaduaReferences edit a b Song for Hard Times Harvard Magazine May June 2009 Il pesceballo opera in one act History and libretto Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Il pesceballo amp oldid 1173797707, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
