Jules Massenet (Born: Montaud, France 1842, Died: Paris, France 1912)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nIt was not until after the war that Massenet began to see success with works like his oratorio Marie-Magdeleine and his grand opera Le roi de Lahore, inspired by the ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata. Soon after came a work widely considered one of his masterpieces, Manon, based on the Abb\u00e9 Pr\u00e9vost novel L\u2019Histoire de Manon Lescaut. Massenet\u2019s other great works include Werther and Tha\u00efs, after novels by Goethe and Anatole France, respectively. Although Massenet\u2019s other operas and works are rarely performed in more recent times, his M\u00e9ditation intermezzo from Tha\u00efs for solo violin and orchestra, as well as the orchestral piece Le dernier sommeil de la Vierge from his oratorio La Vierge are still in popular repertoire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Navarraise, not to be confused with Massenet\u2019s opera La Navarraise, is part of the ballet suite from his opera Le Cid. Based on a play by Pierre Corneille about the legendary Spanish knight from around the 11th century, it takes place in Burgos during the same period. The opera begins with Rodrigue in the court of Gormas, who is about to be knighted by the King of Castile, Alfonso VI. He is in love with Chim\u00e8ne, the daughter of the Comte de Gormas. The Comte expects to be named guardian and protector of the princess, or l\u2019Infanta (who also loves Rodrigue), but instead, Rodrigue\u2019s father Don Di\u00e8gue is named the guardian. Viewing it as an insult, Gormas challenges Don Di\u00e8gue to a duel. However, due to his old age, Don Di\u00e8gue calls on Rodrigue to fight and kill Gormas on his behalf. Tasked with murdering the father of his beloved, Rodrigue must grapple between his love and his loyalty towards his family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ballet takes place in the town square during Tableau 4 of Act 2, after an aria from l\u2019Infanta. Massenet wrote it for a prima ballerina named Rosita Mauri (1850-1923). According to many, she had a fiery personality (which included a notorious temper) that attracted many artistic individuals, including several composers and writers who created ballets for her and many artists who commonly depicted her. The ballet comprises seven sections: Castillane, Andalouse, Aragonaise, Aubade, Catalane, Madrilene, and Navarraise, each reflecting characteristic music and dance from their respective regions of Spain. The suite concludes with the Navarraise, which opens with sharp, percussive accompaniment and leads into an energetic opening of fast runs followed by powerful tutti chords. This pattern repeats, building fervor until a section of accelerating ricochet in the strings gives way to a quicker version of the previous Andalouse theme. The piece then finishes with quick, off-beat crashes and an exciting flourish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This post was adapted from the Program Notes written by Eric Yang, violinist in the Philharmonic Orchestra, for the performance at the College Orchestra Directors Association National Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Symphony Sundays aims to share some of the greatest recent performances given by our indoor ensembles. Our first post features the Purdue Philharmonic Orchestra, directed by Professor Adam Bodony, performing the Ballet Suite from “Le Cid”, mvt. VII – Navarraise<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":17679,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[0],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-orchestra","category-symphony-sunday"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/bands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/bands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/bands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/bands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/bands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17656"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/bands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48316,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/bands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17656\/revisions\/48316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/bands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/bands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/bands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/bands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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