Ludwig van Beethoven had a visitor.
A young man stepped into the legendary composer’s attic apartment in Vienna. He was introduced as Gioachino Rossini.
“Ah, Rossini,” Beethoven said. “You, the composer of ‘The Barber of Seville’? … It will be played so long as Italian opera will exist.”
A century later, Rossini’s fellow Italian composer Giacomo Puccini was almost done with his opera “Turandot,” a dark romance about a queen who kills off her suitors like a black widow spider and the man who’s trying to break the pattern. But the composer of “La Bohème” and “Tosca” had been diagnosed with throat cancer. Before departing for treatment in Belgium, he visited conductor Arturo Toscanini and begged, “Don’t let my ‘Turandot’ die.” Days later, Puccini had a fatal heart attack.
But “Turandot” didn’t die. Another composer, Franco Alfano, completed the final scene. It premiered in 1926 and will be presented by the Minnesota Orchestra in a concert setting Thursday and Saturday. As for “The Barber of Seville,” Beethoven was right, as evidenced by the fact that Minnesota Opera will stage it in a production that opens Saturday and runs through May 18.
One is a romance rooted in death and violence, the other a screwball comedy of love, trickery and narrow escapes. And, if you’re the least bit interested in classical music, you should catch one of them.
But which one? We’re here to help, with a little advice from the conductors of each: Minnesota Orchestra Music Director Thomas Søndergård and Minnesota Opera’s principal conductor, Christopher Franklin.
Franklin on ‘The Barber’
Perhaps you’ve heard Rossini’s crafty servant singing of hearing his name everywhere — “Figaro! Figaro!” — as well as the overture that provided the foundation for the Looney Tunes cartoon “Rabbit of Seville.” It might be the funniest thing on which Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd ever collaborated. But conductor Franklin says his favorite music lies elsewhere in the opera.
