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Iris (opera)

 

 
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Iris (opera)
 
 
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Iris is an opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
 in three acts by Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni

Pietro Mascagni was an Italy composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece, Cavalleria rusticana, caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and singlehandedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music....
 to an original Italian libretto
Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, sacred or secular oratorio and cantata, Musical theater, and ballet....
 by Luigi Illica
Luigi Illica

Luigi Illica was an Italians librettist who wrote for Giacomo Puccini , Alfredo Catalani, Umberto Giordano and other important Italian composers....
. Its first performance was at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
 on 22 November 1898.

The opera is through-composed and set in Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
 during legendary times. (Mascagni's colleague and former roommate, Puccini
Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italians composer whose operas, including La boh?me, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the List of important operas....
, was present at the premiere; it is far from coincidental that his opera, Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa....
, first presented in 1904 was also set in Japan.)

In common with all of Mascagni's full-length operas Iris is now rarely performed, even in Italy.






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Iris is an opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
 in three acts by Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni

Pietro Mascagni was an Italy composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece, Cavalleria rusticana, caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and singlehandedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music....
 to an original Italian libretto
Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, sacred or secular oratorio and cantata, Musical theater, and ballet....
 by Luigi Illica
Luigi Illica

Luigi Illica was an Italians librettist who wrote for Giacomo Puccini , Alfredo Catalani, Umberto Giordano and other important Italian composers....
. Its first performance was at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
 on 22 November 1898.

The opera is through-composed and set in Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
 during legendary times. (Mascagni's colleague and former roommate, Puccini
Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italians composer whose operas, including La boh?me, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the List of important operas....
, was present at the premiere; it is far from coincidental that his opera, Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa....
, first presented in 1904 was also set in Japan.)

In common with all of Mascagni's full-length operas Iris is now rarely performed, even in Italy. Two of the opera's most memorable numbers are the tenor's serenade ("Apri la tua finestra") and the Hymn to the Sun ("Inno al Sole").

Roles

RoleVoice typePremiere Cast, 22 November 1898
(Conductor: Pietro Mascagni)
Irissoprano
Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four part chorale style harmony the soprano takes the highest part which usually encompasses the melody....
Hariclea Darclée
Hariclea Darclée

Hariclea Darcl?e was a celebrated Romanian opera soprano. She possessed an agile, powerful, and beautiful voice that was wielded with a fine technique....
Il CiecobassGiuseppe Tisci Rubini
Osakatenor
Tenor

The tenor is a type of male voice type and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between the C one octave below middle C to the A above in choral music, and up to high C in solo work....
Fernando De Lucia
Fernando De Lucia

Fernando De Lucia was an Italian opera tenor and singing teacher.De Lucia was famous in his lifetime as a performer of verismo roles and certain Verdi parts....
Kyotobaritone
Baritone

Baritone is a type of European classical music male voice type that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice....
 		Guglielmo Caruson
GeishasopranoErnestina Tilde Milanesi
HaberdashertenorEugenio Grossi
Rag merchanttenorPiero Schiavazzi
Chorus: shopkeepers, geishas, laundry girls, samurai, citizens


Sources

  • Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5