THE SONGBIRD: Margaret Price (1941 - 2011) was born in South Wales. She began her music training at Trinity Music College in London as a mezzo-soprano. She made her operatic debut as Cherubino at the Welsh National Opera, which helped her get hired for small roles and as the cover for Cherubino at Covent Garden. And sure enough, in 1963 Teresa Berganza became ill and Price stepped in at short notice to immediate acclaim. In the mid-1960s, Price reframed herself as a soprano with tremendous success in lyric roles, especially by Mozart (Konstanze, Madame Silberklang, Pamina, Donna Anna, Fiordiligi) and Verdi (Nanetta, Desdemona, Amelia, Elisabetta). Price was one of the pre-eminent lieder singers of her generation with about a dozen solo recital recordings of Brahms, Strauss, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Verdi, Debussy, Duparc, and Granados. She was named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1993. Her Semele was sung in concert at the BBC Proms in 1969, with most of the da capo arias severely truncated.
THE MUSIC: Handel's oratorio "Semele" premiered at Covent Garden in London in 1744. It was only performed six times during Handel's life, but regained popularity in the 20th Century and is now regularly performed in concert and as a staged opera. The plot centers around the god Jupiter taking human form for his affair with Semele, a beautiful self-involved mortal. Jupiter's wife Juno discovers this adultery and plots Semele's downfall by cunningly using Semele's own vanity against her. At Juno's persuasion that it will make her immortal, Semele insists that Jupiter reveal his full divine form to her -- he reluctantly agrees and his fiery thunderbolts destroy her. From her ashes arises Jupiter's son Bacchus, god of wine and festivities.
Негізгі бет Музыка Margaret Price - Handel: SEMELE, Myself I shall adore, London Proms, 1969
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