Alfredo Catalani
Alfredo Catalani was born in Lucca, Italy, on June 19, 1854. After receiving preliminary instruction in music from his father he was allowed to enter the Paris Conservatory without examinations. He concluded his music study at the Milan Conservatory, where in 1886 he succeeded Ponchielli as professor of composition. In 1880 he had his first opera, Elda, produced in Turin. He continued to confine himself to the stage, his most successful operas being Loreley in 1890, and La Wally in 1892. In his own time, and shortly thereafter, his operas were outstandingly successful in Italy. Today they are remembered almost exclusively because of some orchestral excerpts. Catalani died in Milan on August 7, 1893.
The most popular episodes from Catalini’s two most famous operas are dances often performed by salon orchestras. “The Dance of the Waves” (Danza delle ondine) and “The Waltz of the Flowers” (Valzer dei fiori) appear in Loreley, an opera introduced in Turin in 1890. In this opera the action takes place on the banks of the Rhine. Walter, about to marry Anna, is loved by the orphan girl, Loreley. When Loreley learns she is about to lose her beloved, she calls upon the nymphs and the sprites of the Rhine to help her; throwing herself into the river, she becomes one of them. During the wedding ceremonies, Loreley appears and entices Walter away from his bride. Anna dies of grief; and Walter meets his doom in the Rhine, to which he is helplessly drawn through enticements by the sprites and by Loreley.
“The Dance of the Waves” takes place in the last act. After Anna’s funeral procession passes by, Walter comes to the edge of the Rhine, grief-stricken. Out of the waters come the sprites to dance seductively before Walter and to beckon him on into the river. “The Waltz of the Flowers” is a graceful, even gentle, dance performed in the second act, during the wedding ceremonies of Walter and Anna.
“The Waltz of the Kiss” (Valzer del bacio) is a segment from La Wally, Catalani’s most famous opera, which was such a particular favorite of Arturo Toscanini that not only did he conduct it frequently in Italy but he also named his son after its heroine. La Wally was introduced at La Scala in Milan in 1892. The text, by Luigi Illica, was based on a novel by Wilhelmine von Hillern. The setting is 19th century Switzerland where Wally and Hagenbach are in love, and meet their death in an avalanche; all the while Wally is being sought after by Gellner, whom she detests. The “Waltz of the Kiss” is a caressing piece of music from the second act which accompanies a dance by Wally and Hagenbach, in which they first discover they are in love and yield to passionate kissing while the hateful Gellner watches.