Music
The music is a brilliant, youthful work, free of the influence of Bizet’s teacher Charles Gounod; it is a vital and sparkling imitation of Don Pasquale. The familiar idiom is infused with original touches of harmony, orchestration and melodic turn. The ensembles are particularly successful in using all the stock devices of opera buffa: voices in thirds, staccato chord accompanying and repetition of words. Ernesto’s "Non v’e signor" is an exact parallel of Malatesta's "Bella siccome un angelo" – in both, the baritone describes his sister's charms to the old man, in D flat.
Bizet used several episodes in later works:
- a 2/4 section in the first finale – the Carnival Chorus in Act II of La jolie fille de Perth
- the chorus “Cheti piano!” – “Chante, chante encore” in Act I of Les pêcheurs de perles
- “Sulle piume” – Smith’s serenade in La jolie fille de Perth
while the March in Act I is taken from the finale of his Symphony in C of 1855.
Read more about this topic: Don Procopio
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“From where Pan’s cavern is
Intolerable music falls.
Foul goat-head, brutal arm appear,
Belly, shoulder, bum,
Flash fishlike; nymphs and satyrs
Copulate in the foam.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“So gladly, from the songs of modern speech
Men turn, and see the stars, and feel the free
Shrill wind beyond the close of heavy flowers,
And through the music of the languid hours,
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—Andrew Lang (1844–1912)
“We may live without poetry, music and art;
We may live without conscience, and live without heart;
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—Owen Meredith (1831–1891)