Because Puccini said so . He wanted to use a North African setting butUS Navy wasn't there and and making a Italian would have got him in
jail .
I knew about Perry when I was ten years old .
Classical Music for Aficionados
On Madame butterfly, Puccini made extensive use of Japanese melodies. Quite different from "North Africa" melodies. "One of the more striking aspects of exoticism in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is the extent to which the composer incorporated Japanese musical material in his score. From the earliest discussion of the work, musicologists have identified many Japanese melodies and musical characteristics that Puccini used in this work." Kunio Hara |
from pianostreet: This performance given by Georges Cziffra took place September 20, 1962 in Montreux, France, under conductor Roberto Benzi with the Orch. National de la RTF. The live recording was never commercially released and is not available in any box set. Neither is it available in full on YouTube, or anywhere else, it appears. It was forwarded to me from a friend's hard-drive collection. The program was: Grieg Concerto in A minor and Liszt's Totentanz, with an encore being the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6. As those familiar with this pianist will tell you, Cziffra's live performances differ a great deal from his studio recordings, which further diminished with the sudden death of his son, Cziffra Jr. The significance of this concert is that, so I believe, Cziffra gives the single greatest performance of his life and, almost by definition, one of the greatest ever. It truly has to be heard to be believed, particularly the Totentanz where he not only plays at mind-boggling speeds but openly improvises. The orchestra is also stunning. 01-Track 1.mp3 (10011.8 kB - downloaded 631 times.) 02-Track 2.mp3 (4625.81 kB - downloaded 540 times.) 03-Track 3.mp3 (7785.17 kB - downloaded 425 times.) 04-Track 4.mp3 (11994.53 kB - downloaded 559 times.) I've attached that encore here. 05-Track 5.mp3 (6129.65 kB - downloaded 1513 times.) https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=49437.0 |