A free spirit! You might find this expression surprising, and yet it aptly describes the musician who gained international renown as both a pianist and organist, and who was also a composer having revelled in excelling across all genres, played across all continents and held in high esteem by the greatest musicians of his day. Posterity has tended to convey the image of a musician set in his ideas and steeped in academicism, portraying him as an embittered nationalist, an eclectic composer and a prolific author of so-called “easy” music. But these subsequent generations have forgotten that, in his youth, Saint-Saëns was a firebrand, regarded as the standard-bearer of the “progressives” and voicing a certain modernity by upending established customs and institutions.
Living, as it were, both “Mozart’s childhood
and Titian’s old-age” during a lifetime of music spanning 80 years, Saint-Saëns
was also an outspoken writer, bursting with verve and enthusiasm, an
“intermediary” who opened up his contemporaries’ horizons to other repertoires,
and a key witness of the changes sweeping through the musical world. He was an original,
enigmatic and independent-minded character, a restless traveller, who
significantly shaped musical life in his day, as “everyone knew that Saint-Saëns
was there”.
Organised to coincide with the centenary of Camille Saint-Saëns’
death, this exhibition charts the milestones of his life and work, through the
rich collections of manuscripts bequeathed to the State, now in the
Bibliothèque nationale de France’s safekeeping, as well as the souvenirs and
archives which the musician donated to the city of Dieppe.
https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/visits/exhibitions/saint-saens-a-free-spirit
FROM THE METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE, NEW YORK
ARIA CODE
Aria Code
Aria Code—the Met’s acclaimed podcast collaboration with WQXR and WNYC studios—returns for a third season, starting with Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin discussing “Nessun dorma” from Puccini's Turandot, featuring a classic performance of the aria by legendary tenor Franco Corelli. Once again hosted by Grammy Award-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens, the new season will feature 18 extraordinary artists, with additional commentary from noted actors, writers, psychologists, scientists, and other expert guests. The podcast, which The New Yorker hails as “elegantly constructed and effortlessly listenable,” explores the human experience at the heart of opera’s greatest arias and their powerful relevance to contemporary issues. The extraordinary lineup of artists for Season 3 includes Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato, Deborah Voigt, Gerald Finley, Nina Stemme, Pretty Yende, René Pape, and more.
Subscribe to the series at AriaCode.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
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