Zeffirelli'nin Aida'sı 49 Yıl Sonra La Scala'da (Zeffirelli's Aida at La Scala after 49 Years)
AKOB, Akdeniz Opera ve Bale Kulübü Kültür-Sanat Dergisi, No. 13, April 2012, pp. 16-18.
Franco Zeffirelli's Aida, came back to La Scala 49 years after its debut , Lila De Nobili's costumes rolled out of storage to create the golden age of Egypt. On the second night on February 16, 2012, Aida was the Ukranian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska, Amneris was Luciana D’Intino and Radames was Stuart Neill. The orchestra was conducted by Omer Meir Wellber. (in
Turkish). (Click on the cover to download
PDF, 6 pages, 1.5MB)RC Quarterly, Issue 42, Spring-Summer 2012, pp. 80.
The Robert College community lost one of its beloved teachers in November 2011. James Grady Hobson
passed away peacefully at his home in Selma California at the age of 85. It is safe to say that
no one who knew him,
was his student, or worked with him will ever forget him. (Click on the cover to download PDF, 2
pages, 116KB)
Letonya, Riga Wagner Salonu (Latvia, Riga's Wagner
Hall)
AKOB,
Akdeniz Opera ve Bale Kulübü Kültür-Sanat Dergisi, No. 12, February 2012, pp. 26-31.
Young Richard Wagner
lived in Riga during 1837-39 as the city's music director,
before he had to skip town with his wife and Terranova
dog. The beginning of Rienzi was composed here. The old Stadtteater where he worked is now known as Wagner Hall (Vāgnera
zāle).
Many celebrities performed there in the 1840's, among them Franz
Liszt, Clara Wieck-Schumann, Anton Rubinstein and Hector Berlioz
(in
Turkish). (Click on the cover to download
PDF, 7 pages, 3.2MB) İsveç'te Göteborg
Şehrinin Opera Evi (Göteborg's Opera House)
AKOB, Akdeniz Opera ve Bale Kulübü Kültür-Sanat Dergisi, No. 10, September 2011, pp. 8-12.
Göteborg is the
second largest city in Sweden. Its new opera house was completed in 1994 after
almost 70 years of local bickering. Resembling a ship on the
town's harbor, it has over 1100 rooms and the largest stage of any opera
house in Europe. Göteborgs Operan is
home to the Göteborg opera and ballet companies (in
Turkish). (Click on the cover to download
PDF, 6 pages, 2MB) Toplumsal Tarih, No. 211, July 2011, pp. 68-72.
Dignitaries from all around the world converged to London for the coronation of young Queen Victoria on June 28, 1838. The appointed Ottoman representative was Fethi Ahmet Paşa (1801 - 1858), an influential Ottoman and the son-in-law of Sultan Mahmud II. Contrary to many sources, he never made it to London in time for the coronation, arriving almost a month later. The Porte was in fact represented by the then Ambassador Sarim Ibrahim Paşa (in Turkish). (Click on the cover to download PDF, 5 pages, 540KB)
AKOB, Akdeniz Opera ve Bale Kulübü Kültür-Sanat Dergisi, No. 8, May 2011, pp. 38-42.
This article is on the Donizetti's English queens and the Turkish soprano "La Diva Turca" Leyla Gencer who was the main exponent of the Donizetti renaissance of the 20th century. The first part is a short article on the historical Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Elizabeth I. The second part is a translation of Gencer's own views on the interpretation of the Donizetti queens, taken from her lecture-recital in Trieste in 1982 (in Turkish). (Click on the cover to download PDF, 5 pages, 5.2MB)
AKOB, Akdeniz Opera ve Bale Kulübü Kültür-Sanat Dergisi, No. 8, May 2011, pp. 26-27.
Reflections on the personality, friendship and the legacy of composer Daniel Catán who sadly passed away in April 2011 (in English/Turkish). (Click on the cover to download PDF, 2 pages, 2MB)
AKOB, Akdeniz Opera ve Bale Kulübü Kültür-Sanat Dergisi, No. 7, March 2011, pp. 12-18.
Rossini was 22 and living in Milan when he composed Il Turco in Italia.
He was in the audience in the August 14, 1814 premiere at La Scala.
Shortly before he had presented to the Milanese an enormously
successful L'Italiana in Algeri. Il Turco is not simply a farce like L'Italiana in Algeri. LA
Opera's debut production of Il Turco took place on February 19, 2011 starring the brilliant Georgian soprano Nino
Machaidze as Fiorilla and the Italian bass-baritone Simone
Alberghini as the Turkish prince Selim (in English/Turkish). (Click on the cover to download PDF, 8
pages, 4.7MB) AKOB, Akdeniz Opera ve Bale Kulübü Kültür-Sanat Dergisi, No. 6, January 2011, pp. 6-11.
A review of composer-librettist Daniel Catán’s new opera Il Postino. September 23, 2010 saw the premiere Il Postino in Los Angeles starring tenor Plácido Domingo as Pablo Neruda. Tenor Charles Castronovo sang Mario and soprano Amanda Squitieri starred as Beatrice. "... akin to a Verdi or a Puccini work, an understandable opera with the humor of Skármeta’s story and the poetry of Neruda himself." (in English/Turkish). (Click on the cover to download PDF, 8 pages, 3.4MB)
"Sultan Victoria" için Türk Valsi (A Turkish Waltz for Queen Victoria)
NTV Tarih Dergisi, No. 23, December 2010, pp. 62-64.
Johann
Strauss I composed a number of well known works for the occasion of
Queen Victoria's coronation ceremony in London in June 1838,
among them Huldigung der Königin Victoria von Grossbritannien. There appear to be two uncatalogued works from the same period by the elder Strauss titled Sultan's Waltz and Turkish Waltz.
The piano scores of these two waltzes were published in "Strauss' Much
Admired Waltzes" by the John Cole company in Baltimore, and in
"The Coronation Waltzes" by Hewitt & Jacques in New York,
respectively (in Turkish). (Click on the cover to download PDF, 4
pages, 6.6MB)
AKOB, Akdeniz Opera ve Bale Kulübü Kültür-Sanat Dergisi, No. 4, September 2010, pp. 16-26.
An in depth interview with Daniel Catán, the composer of the Spanish language operas "La hija de Rappaccini," "Florencia en el Amazonas," "Salsipuedes, A Tale of Love, War and Anchovies," and more recently "Il Postino." Interview in June 2010 in Santa Clarita, California (in English/Turkish). (Click on the cover to download PDF, 12
pages, 9.1MB) Strauss ve Lanner'in Fethi Ahmet Paşa'ya İthaf Ettiği Valsler (Waltzes Dedicated to Fethi Ahmet Paşa by Strauss and Lanner)
Sanat Dünyamız, No. 118, September 2010, pp. 14-24.
It is interesting that Fathers of the Waltz Strauss and Lanner both chose to dedicate works to Fethi Ahmet Paşa (1801-1858), who was an influential Ottoman and the son-in-law of Sultan Mahmud II. In Vienna, Johann Strauss I played at his residence and dedicated his Ball-Racketen Walzer (Op. 96) to him. Later, when the Paşa was the Ottoman Ambassador to Paris, Joseph Lanner also dedicated a waltz to him: Die Osmanen (Op. 146) (in Turkish). (Click on the cover to download PDF, 11
pages, 5.9MB)Toplumsal Tarih, No. 201, September 2010, pp. 80-85.
An inventory of the belongings of François Couperin after
his death in 1733 revealed a number of items of interest to the
orientalist: books on the history of the Ottoman Empire and the
history of Turks for example. This article is a study
of Couperin's Trio Sonata titled La Sultanne, which is from his mature period and is unique in that it incorporates an independent bass part (in Turkish). (Click on the cover to download PDF, 6
pages, 854KB)AKOB, Akdeniz Opera ve Bale Kulübü Kültür-Sanat Dergisi, No. 3, July 2010, pp. 3-5.
On the Los Angeles Ring Festival and a review of the June 2010 performance
of Wagner's Das Rheingold by the Los Angeles Opera (in Turkish). (Click on the cover to download PDF, 5
pages, 540KB)AKOB, Akdeniz Opera ve Bale Kulübü Kültür-Sanat Dergisi, No. 1, January 2010, pp. 4-6.
A review of the November 2009 performance
of Handel's opera Tamerlano by the Los Angeles Opera, featuring Placido
Domingo as the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid (in Turkish). (Click on the cover to download PDF, 4
pages, 3.5MB)Studia Musicologica 49/3–4, 2008, pp. 1–19,
Final published version DOI: 10.1556/SMus.49.2008.3-4.1.
Before ending his performance career by concerts in Odessa and Elizabethgrad in 1847, Franz Liszt visited Istanbul, gave a number of public concerts and performed twice for Sultan Abdul-Medgid in the Tcheragan Palace. A widely reported
incident in relation to this trip concerns an impostor
named Listmann, who
supposedly passed himself off as Liszt in Istanbul and who received
valuable presents from the Sultan under this pretext. According to some
accounts Listmann almost caused Liszt to be arrested upon his arrival. The
purpose of this work is to present historical data on this folkloric
Liszt-Listmann tale. We present primary sources that show that Herr
Listmann of the Liszt-Listmann incident was in fact a German
Tonkünstler and a man of letters named Eduard Litzmann who toured Spain
and the orient, and who was apparently a pretty competent pianist (in English ). (Click on the cover to download PDF, 20
pages, 854KB)Doğu Masalları: Johann
Strauss'un Sultan II. Abdülhamid'e İthafen Yazdığı Vals (Märchen aus dem
Orient: The Waltz Johann Strauss Composed for Sultan Abdülhamid II)
Sanat Dünyamız, No. 108, Fall
2008, pp. 12-25.
Märchen
aus dem Orient, Opus 444 of Johann Strauss (II),
was composed
in 1892 in Bad Ischl, and dedicated to the Ottoman Sultan of the time,
Abdülhamid
II. The premiere took place on November 27, 1892, conducted by
Johann Strauss himself. Strauss was decorated with the
Ottoman Mecidiye
medal of class 3 for the work, belatedly in 1895. This relatively
little known work is one of the gems of Strauss in which the
Waltz King consciously sought to widen the form of the valse and
transcend the limitations of dance music (in Turkish). (Click on the cover to download PDF, 15
pages, 8.4MB)An interpretation from a 1892 piano version, recorded by pianist Zeynep Üçbaşaran can be found here: Johann Strauss, Opus 444 (mp3).
Musiki Mecmuası (Music Magazine, Special Issue), No. 474, March 2006, pp. 6-37 ( Özel Sayı).
This article is about the Ottoman Sultan Abdül-Medjid (Abdul-medgid) , and music dedicated to him by J. Strauss. Strauss sent this music to the Porte in May 1849 accompanied by a letter. There is a
folkloric belief fueled by music historians that
the author of this music was
Johann Strauss Jr., the infamous Waltz-King. Was it? How exactly do we
know this? It is true that a number of piano works in the collection bear "J.
Strauss" as the author of the works. But... there were quite a few
musical Strausses at the time, not all of whom from Vienna.
This article gives a comprehensive history of who this particular J.
Strauss was,
along with a detailed catalogue of his piano music
presented to the Porte in 1849. The collection is now housed in the
Istanbul University Library. A facsimile of the
piece titled Constantinople, and dedicated to Abdul-Medjid by
Strauss is included (in Turkish). (Click on the cover to download PDF, 32 pages, 11.4MB)Musiki Mecmuası (Music Magazine), No. 477, December 2006, pp. 2-17.
Eduard Strauss is the least popular of the Strauss brothers as a
composer, although his fame as the conductor of the Strauss orchestra
was considerable. Johann Strauss Jr. would jokingly refer to himself as
"Edi's brother". Eduard's Huldigungen Walzer, Op. 88 was written for the 32nd Ottoman Sultan
Abdül-Aziz Khan and published by C. A. Spina in 1872.
A facsimile of the piano version of the work is included (in Turkish). (Click on
the cover to download PDF, 15 pages, 11.5MB)
1453, Journal of Istanbul's Culture and Art, No. 3, January-February-March 2008, pp. 154-158.
Based on the Music Magazine article (Music Magazine, No. 477, December 2006, pp. 2-17 on the Huldigungen Walzer, Op. 88 of Eduard Strauss, which was written for the 32nd Ottoman Sultan Abdül-Aziz Khan and published by C. A. Spina in 1872 (in English/Turkish). (Click on the cover to download PDF, 6 pages, 1MB)
This is a short children's tale by Aziz Nesin. I translated it from Turkish for my daughter's 4-th grade GATE class. It is a beautiful introduction to Poetry. You are welcome to download it and use it for educational purposes.
Aziz Nesin (1915—1995) was a popular Turkish humorist and author of
more than 100 books. His works have been translated into over
thirty languages. In 1972, he founded the Nesin Foundation with the
purpose of taking, each year, four poor children
into the Foundation's home and providing every necessity until they
complete
their education. Aziz Nesin has donated to the Nesin Foundation his
copyrights
in their entirety for all his works. This story is from a book of stories for children published in
1985 (original title "Güzel ile Doğru"). (Click on the photo to download PDF, 5 pages, 70KB)
RC Quarterly, Issue 22, Spring-Summer 2003, pp. 46-48.
An interview with James Grady Hobson, who spent many years teaching at Robert College of Istanbul. (Click on the cover to download PDF, 3 pages, 190KB)