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:
“The harp that once through Tara’s halls The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Tara’s walls As if that soul were fled.”
—Thomas Moore (1779–1852)
“Words move, music moves
Only in time; but that which is only living
Can only die. Words, after speech, reach
Into the silence.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Morning work! By the blushes of Aurora and the music of Memnon, what should be man’s morning work in this world?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)