The standard operas, their plots and their music; . chisio asSemiramide, Barbara, her sister, as Arsaces, and M. Obin asAssur. At Rossinis request M. Carafa arranged the recita-tives and wrote the ballet music. Semiramide was the lastopera Rossini wrote for Italy; and so far did he depart fromthe conventional Italian style, that he was charged with imi-tating the German. It was probably for this reason that theopera when first performed did not meet with a kindly re-ception from the Venetians. Although he was occupied sixmonths in negotiating for his stipulated price (one thousanddollars), he
The standard operas, their plots and their music; . chisio asSemiramide, Barbara, her sister, as Arsaces, and M. Obin asAssur. At Rossinis request M. Carafa arranged the recita-tives and wrote the ballet music. Semiramide was the lastopera Rossini wrote for Italy; and so far did he depart fromthe conventional Italian style, that he was charged with imi-tating the German. It was probably for this reason that theopera when first performed did not meet with a kindly re-ception from the Venetians. Although he was occupied sixmonths in negotiating for his stipulated price (one thousanddollars), he wrote the opera in three weeks. Of its firstperformance, a correspondent of the Harmonicon (a con-temporary musical periodical), who was present, writes: Thefirst act, which lasted two hours and fifteen minutes, wasreceived very coldly, with the exception of one passage in theoverture, which overture, however, was unconscionably second act, which lasted two hours and a half, began toplease in an air of Mariani, but the applause was rather. <-5 t/3 3 E a!H :^ 5 .S o 2 oc o c o ROSSINI 249 directed to this favorite singer. After this a duet betweenher and Colbran, together with an air of Galli, and particu-larly a terzetto between him and the two ladies, were wellreceived. Rossini was also called for at the end of the secondact. The scene of the opera is laid in Babylon, and the storybriefly told is as follows: Ninus, the king of Babylon, hasbeen murdered by his Queen, Semiramis, aided by Assur,a prince enamoured of her and aspiring to the throne. Oneof the Queens warriors, Arsaces, supposed to be of Scythianorigin, but in reality her own son, returns from a foreignexpedition and is loaded with honors for the victory he haswon. Semiramis, ignorant of his parentage, has a secret pas-sion for him, he in the meantime being devoted to Azema,one of the Princesses royal. As all gather together in thetemple to swear allegiance to the Queen, the gates of Ninusstomb suddenly o
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Keywords: ., bookauthorupt, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectoperas
