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| THIS IS
OPERA |
| Béatrice et Bénédict |
| The comic opera Béatrice et Bénédict, composed between 1860 and 1862, was Berlioz's last major work. Based on a simplified version of the plot of Much ado about nothing it is another example of his life-long admiration for Shakespeare who inspired several of his greatest works (as early as 1833 Berlioz had toyed with the idea of writing an opera on the subject).
The Overture is one of Berlioz's most delicate and subtle orchestral pieces, and its allusiveness constantly teases the listener. Unlike Benvenuto Cellini, where the main theme of the overture does not in fact appear in the opera, all the music in the overture to Béatrice et Bénédict is adapted from the opera. Though drawn from no less than six different arias or ensembles, the music is seamlessly fused by Berlioz into a coherent symphonic whole, much as Weber had done in his overtures to Der Freischütz, Euryanthe and Oberon./ Source |
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| Roles
Héro lyric soprano Béatrice lyric mezzo Bénédict lyric tenor Don Pedro bass Claudio baritone Somarone bass Ursule contralto Léonato spoken |