The Servant of Two Masters
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Composer: |
Vittorio Giannini
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Librettist: |
Bernard Stambler
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Other Artistic Personnel: |
Julius Rudel (Conductor)
Tito Capobianco (Stage Director)
Robert Fletcher (Set and Costume Designer)
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Original Cast: |
Eileen Schauler (Beatrice)
Donna Jeffrey (Clarissa)
Patricia Brooks (Smeraldina)
Frank Porretta (Florindo)
Charles Hindsley (Silvio)
Raymond Myers (Truffaldino)
Michael Devlin (Pantalone)
David Smith (Doctor Lombardi)
Nico Castel (Brighella)
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Premiere Date: |
March 09, 1967
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Producing Company: |
New York City Opera
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Description: |
Goldoni's play elegantly varies the familiar characters of the commedia dell'arte and provides for further variations in the opera. Clarissa is about to marry her beloved Silvio when everything is upset by the entrance of Beatrice, disguised as a man thought to be dead to whom Clarissa had been promised. Truffaldino, the hungry servant of Beatrice, in his search for at least one good dinner, undertakes to also be the servant of Florindo, the missing lover of Beatrice. Truffaldino's manuevers achieve, entirely by accident, the reuniting of Beatrice and Florindo and, thereby, of Clarissa and Silvio. In place of the punishments he has deserved, Truffaldino attains a bride, Smeraldina, and a higher social level, that of shopkeeper.
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Character List (Major): |
3 sopranos, 3 tenors, baritone, bass-baritone, bass
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Reviews: |
The New York Times, Harold C. Schonberg, 3-10-67; The New York Times, Douglas Watt, 3-10-67
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Total Acts: |
Not Available
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Orchestration: |
2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons - 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba - timpani, percussion, xylophone, harp - strings
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Musical Style: |
An amalgam of Wagnerian chromaticism and Puccinian romanticism; lyrical, lighter, romantic-buffo style
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