ISU Symphony Orchestra - Iowa State University MUSIC

Berlioz had seen the English theatre troupe perform Shakespeare’s play in Paris in 1827, and had been immediately
smitten with the actress Harriet Smithson (the inspiration for the Symphonie fantastique (1830) – and his future wife).
The affinities between Cleopatra and Smithson’s Juliet may have added impulse to his creativity, as the heightened passions of the heroine are at the heart of the work and they dictate its musical form. They are conveyed through daring
modulations and juxtapositions of key and mood, and evocative sonorities, as Cleopatra remembers past events and
gradually comes to terms with her present situation. In the opening recitative she expresses the shame of her failure;
this gives way to a strong lyrical aria with a confident animato as she remembers her past conquests and victories.
However, she betrayed Egypt and is now without family or country and has nothing left but death. In the mesmerizing ‘Méditation’ that follows, she is fearful of how the Pharaohs will receive her guilty soul: sotto voce, con terrore, she
is accompanied by somber orchestral timbres and insistent rhythmic repetition in a slow 12/8 form.
Department of Music & Theatre
Berlioz employs a powerful tone painting in the final section of the piece including the strike of the Asp, its poison
then moving through Cleopatra’s blood, and the surging of her heart as her body reacts to the lethal dose. In her
dying moments, Cleopatra finds a resurgence of confidence (‘vous me fuiriez avec horreur’ – you will flee from me in
horror), before her voice finally grows weaker as she fades away, realizing that in death she will at last be worthy of
Caesar.
Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy
In the summer of 1869, shortly after Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony had been savaged by critics, composer
Mily Balakirev suggested to Tchaikovsky – while on a long walk together – that Shakespeare’s play might make a
fitting subject for an orchestral work. Balakirev followed that up with a letter detailing how the work should be laid
out. Tchaikovsky latched onto the idea immediately, but used his own artistic discretion about Balakirev’s suggestions.
Tchaikovsky set to work on October 7 of that year and had the score in first draft by November 27.
After the piece’s premiere in March of 1870, Tchaikovsky decided it needed considerably more work. In revisions
made soon after, he added the brooding opening that establishes a mood of tender pathos, and before publishing it in
1880, he devised the startling conclusion, confirming the tragic denouement with eight searing B-major chords.
Tchaikovsky based his work on three separate themes, each meant to portray one of the forces in the play. The
chorale-like opening passage suggests the pivotal figure of Friar Laurence, alone in his cell. At the Allegro giusto, the
music leaps ahead with a dark and thrusting idea that reflects the violent struggles between the Montague and Capulet
families. And this in turn gives way to the most famous part of this composition, the soaring love music of the young
Romeo and Juliet themselves.
ISU Symphony Orchestra
Violin I
Nathanael Hardy**
Samuel Hall
Tzu-Han Hsu
Janet Horsager
Meredith Lockin
Nikolai Doffing
Tiffany Lam
Natalie Gillenwater
Elden Lai
Amber Ringgenberg
Violin II
Kaitlyn Chase*
Abigail Romano
Katherine Brems
Eswar Iyer
Katelyn Rew
Alan Rongkavilit
Amy Greer
Sariah Garrido
Meghan Sharp
Brianna Allen
Viola
Caroline Weeks*
Christina Sloan
Heather Wilson
Carolyn Jennrich
Joshua Garlinghouse
Hayley Hays
Piccolo
Elaine Kramme
Cello
Victor Mooney*
Griffen Clark
Jonathan Meyer
Elizabeth Held
Daniel Harter
Felicia Kraus
Alex Williams
Nathan Gere
Emily Hurban
Rahne McIntire
Oboe
Corrin Upton
Dereky Yu
Arianna Bohning
Bass
Nathan Miller*
Tanner Thom
Alex Nielsen
Ian Baumgartner
Austin Yurchik
Christafur Ambrose
Ryan Lee
Flute
Irissa Hubka
Eric Leise
Elaine Kramme
English Horn
Arianna Bohning
Clarinet
Luke Pena
Sarah Korneisel
Alice Hinshaw
Bassoon
Emily Arkenberg
Jennifer Keys
Horn
Danielle Kimmler
Abby Crimmins
Madeline Dalbec
Samantha Glick
ISU Symphony Orchestra
Jacob Harrison, conductor
Mary Creswell, mezzo-soprano
Trumpet
Austin Hancock
Damien Emilien
Brandon Ritchie
Taylor Vittitoe
Trombone
Kara Bader
Shelbi Weeks
Bass Trombone
Ryan Hansen
Tuba
David Carlson
Harp
Katherine Quandt
Timpani
Alex Ortberg
Percussion
Andrew Burton
Ryan Pearson
** Denotes Concert Master
* Denotes Principal
Friday, February 14, 2014
7:30 pm
Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall
Our Soloist
Program
Mezzo-soprano Mary Creswell appears throughout the United States in opera, oratorio, and chamber music. Her
active and varied performing schedule includes the operatic roles of Dorabella, Rosina, and Carmen. Her rich mezzo
sound has been heard on the concert stage with the Detroit Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Manchester
Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, Austin Symphony, South Carolina Philharmonic, Chattanooga Symphony and
regularly with orchestras at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. The orchestrated songs of Mahler, Verdi’s Requiem,
and Jeremiah Symphony by Bernstein are gems in her repertoire. She is a frequent guest soloist with the American
Chamber Players and is engaged with them in prestigious concert series spanning the country.
La Mort de Cléopâtre
Hector Berlioz
(1803-1869)
Mary Creswell, mezzo-soprano
Lauded for her extremely versatile voice, Ms. Creswell effortlessly makes the transition from opera house and
orchestra hall to chamber music and song recital. She has been described as having an inner pliability on stage,
which transcends all boundaries. Her programs flow from Brahms and Ravel to folk songs and humor without missing a beat. She has also been a champion of new music and featured on several recordings under the Albany Label.
She received her early training at the University of Michigan where she was the recipient of the Elisabeth
Schwarzkopf-Walter Legge Scholarship for graduate study. Her teachers at Michigan were Beverley Rinaldi and Eugene Bossart. The Metropolitan Opera chose her as a regional finalist, and she has been a guest performer in
New York City’s Avery Fisher Hall.
Intermission
Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy
Recent solo performances include the Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Symphony Number Nine, Mahler’s Symphony
Number Eight, and Mozart’s Requiem. She will be singing the role of Jade Boucher with The Des Moines Metro
Opera’s production of Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie this summer, 2014.
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
(1840-1893)
An enthusiastic teacher of singing, Ms. Creswell served on the faculty of the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp for
twenty seasons. She is now Associate Professor of Music at Iowa State University where she teaches voice and
directs opera. Her students have been finalist in The Metropolitan Opera Auditions and are heard on Broadway
stages and in opera houses throughout the country and Europe.
Program Notes
La Mort de Cléopâtre
Hector Berlioz made four attempts at the Prix de Rome: the prize was two years study at the Villa Medici in Rome
(with a stipend) followed by 3000 francs per year for the next three years, together with a free pass to the lyric
theatres of Paris. Berlioz composed La Mort de Cléopâtre (The Death of Cleopatra) in 1829, to a text by Pierre-Ange
Vieillard as his third bid for a Prix de Rome. He was then 25 years old and had already composed his Eight Scenes
from Goethe’s “Faust” and the concert overtures Waverley and Les Francs-Juges.
In 1828, Berlioz had received second prize in the competition for his work Herminie, also based on a text by Vieillard; and as it had become an established custom to give the first prize each year to the winner of the previous year’s
second prize, Berlioz felt free to “follow my own feelings and my natural style” instead of adjusting to the conservative jurors’ norms. Despite the favorable votes of Cherubini and Boïeldieu (both of whom rising above their declarations that they simply did not understand such music), the jury as a whole was so frightened by the “audacity” of
the work that no prize at all was awarded for 1829.
Cléopâtre was not performed until many years later, when Berlioz conducted it in several of his concerts in Germany,
and only began to be widely heard within the last forty years ago. The work bears no opus number because he did
not acknowledge it in his own catalogue of his compositions, and it was not published until many years after his
death. However, Berlioz was clearly pleased with his work. In his Memoirs he recalled his original motivation:
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The subject was “Cleopatra after the Battle of Actium.” The Queen of Egypt clasps the asp to her bosom and
dies in convulsions; but before dying, she invokes the spirits of the Pharaohs and in holy fear demands to
know if she, a queen of crimes and dissipations, may hope to enter those mighty vaults erected to the shades
of monarchs distinguished for their fame and virtue.
Here was an idea worth expressing in music. I had often in my imagination conceived a musical equivalent
of Juliet’s wonderful monologue, “How if, when I am laid into the tomb,” a passage that had something
in common, at least in its sense of dread, with the feelings contained in the invocation which our French
rhymester had put into the mouth of Cleopatra. I was mad enough to write [that line from Shakespeare],
in English, at the head of my score. This for a start was an unpardonable crime to such Voltairean academicians as my examiners.
La Mort de Cléopâtre
Words by Pierre-Ange Vieillard
C’en est donc fait! ma honte est assurée.
Veuve d’Antoine et veuve de César,
Au pouvoir d’Octave livrée,
Je n’ai pu captiver son farouche regard.
J’étais vaincue et suis déshonorée.
En vain, pour ranimer l’éclat de mes attraits,
J’ai profané le deuil d’un funeste veuvage;
En vain de l’art épuisant les secrets,
J’ai caché sous des fleurs les fers de l’escalavage;
Rien n’a pu du vainqueur désarmer les décrets.
A ses pieds j’ai traîné mes grandeurs opprimées.
Mes pleurs mêmes ont coulé sur ses mains répandus.
Et la fille des Ptolémées A subi l’affront des refus.
Ah! qu’ils sont loin ces jours, Ces jours tourment de ma mémoire,
Où sur le sein des mers, comparable à Vénus
D’Antoine et de César réfléchissant la gloire.
J’apparus triomphante aux rives du Cydnus!
Actium m’a livrée au vainqueur qui me brave;
Mon sceptre, mes trésors ont passé dans ses mains;
Ma beauté me restait et les mépris d’Octave
Pour me vaincre ont fait plus que le fer des Romains.
Ah! qu’ils sont loin ces jours, etc...
En vain de l’art épuisant les secrets, etc....
...Mes pleurs mêmes ont coulé sur ses mains répandus.
J’ai subi l’affront des refus. Moi!
qui sein des mers, comparable à Vénus,
M’élançais triomphante aux rives du Cydnus.
Au comble des revers, qu’aurais-je encor à craindre?
Reine coupable, que dis-tu!
Du destin qui m’accable est-ce à moi de me plaindrè?
Ai-je pour l’excuser les droits de la vertu?
J’ai d’un époux déshonoré la vie.
C’est par moi qu’aux Romains l’Egypte est asservie.
Et que d’Isis l’ancien culte est détruit Quel asile chercher!
Sans parents! Sans patrie! Il n’en est plus pour moi que l’éternelle nuit!
Méditation “How if when I am laid into the tomb…”
(Juliet’s monologue, Shakespeare) added by Berlioz
Grands Pharaons, nobles Lagides, Verrez-vous entrer sans courroux,
Pour dormir dans vos pyramides, Une reine indigne de voux?
Non! de vos demeures funèbres Je profanerais la splendeur.
Rois, encor au sein des ténèbres. Vous me fuiriez avec horreur.
Du destin qui m’accable est-ce à moi de me plaindre?
Ai-je pour l’accuser, ai-je le droit de la vertu?
Par moi nos Dieux ont fui d’Alexandrie,
D’Isis le culte est détruit.
Grands Pharaons, nobles Lagides, Vous me fuiriez avec horreur.
Du destin qui m’accable est-ce à moi de me plaindre?
Ai-je pour l’accuser, ai-je le droit de la vertu? Grands Pharaons,
Non, j’ai d’un époux déshonoré la vie. Sa cendre est sous mes yeux,
son ombre me poursuit. C’est par moi qu’aux Romains l’Egypte est asservie
Par moi nos Dieux ont fui les murs d’Alexandrie,
Et d’Isis le culte est détruit. Osiris proscrit ma couronne.
A Typhon je livre mes jours! Contre l’horreur qui m’environne,
Un vil reptile est mon recours.
Dieux du Nil, vous m’avez trahie! Octave m’attend à son char.
Cléopâtre en quittant la vie Redevient digne de César!
Translation by Mary Creswell
It is therefore done, my shame is complete.
Widow of Anthony and widow of Caesar,
The power of Octavian has been delivered,
I could not capture his cruel gaze.
Already vanquished, I am now dishonored.
To renew the splendor of my charm,
In vain I have profaned my tragic widowhood;
In vain, I have used up all my secrets,
And hidden under flowers, the fetters of my slavery;
Nothing has vanquished the conqueror’s decrees.
At his feet I have dragged my oppressed grandeur
My very tears ran spreading upon his hands.
And the daughter of the Ptolemy has suffered the insult of refusal.
Ah! how distant are those days that torment my memory
When on the crest of the waves, comparable to Venus,
Reflecting the glory of Anthony and of Caesar,
I stood in triumph on the shores of Cydnus!
Actium delivered me into the power of the defiant victor;
My scepter, my treasure passed into his hands;
My beauty remained and Octavius’ scorn
Did more to defeat me than the Roman sword.
Ah! How distant are those days, etc…
In vain I have used up all my sectrets, etc…
…My very tears ran spreading upon his hands
I have suffered the insult of refusal
I, when on the crest of the waves, comparable to Venus
Sprang in triumph upon the shores of Cydnus.
Overwhelmed with misfortunes, what is left for me to fear?
Guilty Queen, what have you to say?
Have I the right to complain for my overpowering destiny?
Must I apologize for the right of virtue?
I was the dishonor of my spouse.
Because of me, Egypt is enslaved by Rome
And the ancient cult of Isis is destroyed.
What asylum, dear, dear? Without family! Without homeland!
There is nothing more for me than eternal night!
Meditation “How if when I am laid into the tomb…”
(Juliet’s Monologue, Shakespeare) added by Berlioz
Mighty Pharaohs, noble Lagides, Will you let me enter without wrath,
To rest in your pyramids, a queen unworthy of you?
No! I will profane the splendor of your funeral homes.
Kings, even within the darkness, you will flee from me in horror.
Have I the right to complain of my overpowering destiny?
Must I apologize for the right of virtue?
Because of me our gods fled from Alexandria.
And the cult of Isis is destroyed.
Mighty Pharaohs, noble Lagides, etc.
Have I the right to complain of my overpowering destiny?
Must I apologize for the right of virtue? Mighty Pharaohs
No, is ashes are before my gaze, his shade pursues me.
It is because of me that Egypt is enslaved by Rome.
Because of me that our gods have deserted the walls of Alexandria,
And the cult of Isis is destroyed. Osiris banished my crown.
To Typhon I give up my life! In the face of the horror that surrounds me
A vile reptile is my recourse.
Gods of the Nile, you have betrayed me! Octavius awaits me in his chariot.
Cleopatra by her death is once more worthy of Caesar!