United States or Iceland ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


Her last performance, and perhaps one of the grandest efforts of her life, was the character of Helene in Verdi's "Les Vêpres Siciliennes," the active principal parts having been taken by Bonnehée, Gueymard, and Obin. The production of the work was on a splendid scale, and the opera a great success.

Their popularity was such that Verdi's time was absorbed for several years in their production at various opera-houses, utterly precluding new compositions. Of his later operas may be mentioned "Les Vêpres Siciliennes," produced in Paris in 1855; "Un Ballo in Maschera," performed at Rome in 1859; "La Forza del Destino," written for St.

Nevertheless, long before the inauguration of the theatre a letter was sent to Verdi asking him if he would write an opera on an Egyptian subject, and if so, on what terms. The opportunity was a rare one, and appealed to the composer, who had written "Les Vepres Siciliennes" and "Don Carlos" for Paris, "La Forza del Destino" for St.

The conduct of the conductor and musicians at the production of "Les Vepres Siciliennes" had angered Verdi; and when M. Halanzier, the director of the Academie Nationale, asked for the opera in 1873, his request was refused. Thus it happened that the Theatre Italien secured the right of first performance in Paris.

Near the close of the season she appeared in Verdi's "Vêpres Siciliennes," in which, we are told, "she sang magnificently and acted with extraordinary passion and vigor. At the close of the fourth act, when Helen and Procida are led to the scaffold, the conflicting emotions that agitate the bosom of the heroine were pictured with wonderful truth and intensity by Mlle. Titiens."

Patti always kept a ready repertory for the scene, with a song in the vernacular of the people for whom she was singing to bring the enthusiasm to a climax and a finish: "Home, Sweet Home" in New York and London, "Solovei" in St. Petersburg. Usually she began with the bolero from "Les Vepres Siciliennes," or the shadow dance from "Dinorah." Mme.

'Les Vêpres Siciliennes, which was produced in Paris in 1855, during the Universal Exhibition, only achieved a partial success, and 'Simon Boccanegra' , even in the revised and partly re-written form which was performed in 1881, has never been popular out of Italy.