Colorado Chamber Players- String Quartets and Arias of Verdi and Puccini



	String Quartets and Arias of Verdi and Puccini FREE CONCERT, Performing Arts Festival Paul Primus, Violin David Waldman, Violin Barbara Hamilton Primus, Viola Thomas Heinrich, Cello Artists from Opera Colorado Saturday September 18, 2004, 12 noon Boettcher Concert Hall Guiseppi Verdi and Giacomo Puccini are best known as opera composers. But both composers wrote gorgeous music for string quartet. Verdi’s quartet was composed when he was almost sixty, and under unexpected circumstances. In the winter of 1873, Verdi was in Naples for rehearsals of two operas, Don Carlos and Aida. The lead soprano fell ill, and Verdi suddenly had time available when rehearsals were postponed. The result was his beautifully crafted E minor string quartet. Puccini’s sorrowful “Crisantemi” or “Elegy” was written in 1890 as a memorial elegy, and he later recycled the work as an intermezzo in the opera Manon Lescaut. The Colorado Chamber Players will alternate the string quartets with arias from the opera repertoire, as they perform with talented singers from Opera Colorado.

Colorado Chamber Players • P.O. Box 200143 • Denver, Colorado 80220-0143
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