Karl goldmark shakuntala overture center

ON Stage brings you excerpts from the NCPA Quarterly Journal, an unsurpassed literary archive that ran from 1972 to 1988 and featured authoritative and wide-ranging articles. In this multi-part article, scholar, curator and Indophile Robert J. Del Bonta explores operas that mention, are set in or are about India, delving into the oddities that creep in owing to a Western view of the subcontinent.

The hidden gems are rich beyond measure.

Unnumbered are the pearls thy ocean treasure.

Oh, wondrous land! Oh, land of India!

– “Song of India” from Sadko

In the opera Sadko of 1898 by Rimsky-Korsakov, the hero Sadko asks three merchants to sing of their native lands so that he can decide which one he wants to visit. The merchants are the Viking, the Venetian and the Indian. After hearing the three songs including the overly familiar and enticing description of India, “Song of India”, for some unexplained reason Sadko proceeds to choose Venice. I believe that Sadko made a terrible mistake. I say this in spite of the fact that I would describe India in a very different manner; in equally glowing but not quite so affluent terms.

Exotic references

There are many operas which mention or are about India from all periods of our musical heritage. Although many of these operas have been recorded or discussed in books, very little is ever said about their content. Much verbiage is given over to such things as “Hindu melodies”, referring to the oriental flavour of the music. This is especially true in reference to Massenet’s use of the unfamiliar saxophone for a waltz followed by “Hindu melody” for flute in the Paradise scene of Le Roi de Lahore. The use of the title “Hindu” is extremely misleading to a Western reader. No Indian would recognise such a thing as Indian, just as no Chinese would feel that Puccini’s Turandot sounds anything but foreign to his ear. These often-repeated comments are entertaining to read, but

Sanskrit play by Kālidāsa

Abhijñānaśākuntalam (Devanagari: अभिज्ञानशाकुन्तलम्, IAST: Abhijñānaśākuntalam), also known as Shakuntala, The Recognition of Shakuntala, The Sign of Shakuntala, and many other variants, is a Sanskrit play by the ancient IndianpoetKālidāsa, dramatizing the story of Śakuntalā told in the epic Mahābhārata and regarded as the best of Kālidāsa's works. Its exact date is uncertain, but Kālidāsa is often placed in the 4th century CE.

Origin of Kālidāsa's play

See also: Sanskrit drama

Plots similar to the play appear in earlier texts. There is a story mentioned in the Mahābhārata. A story of similar plot appear in the Buddhist Jātaka tales as well. In the Mahābhārata the story appears as a precursor to the Pāṇḍava and Kaūrava lineages. In the story King Duṣyanta and Śakuntalā meet in the forest and get estranged and ultimately reunited. Their son Bharata is said to have laid the foundation of the dynasty that ultimately led to Kauravas and Pāṇḍavas.

Title

Manuscripts differ on what its exact title is. Usual variants are Abhijñānaśakuntalā, Abhijñānaśākuntala, Abhijñānaśakuntalam and Abhijñānaśākuntalam. The Sanskrit title means pertaining to the recognition of Śakuntalā, so a literal translation could be Of Śakuntalā who is recognized. The title is sometimes translated as The token-for-recognition of Śakuntalā or The Sign of Śakuntalā. Titles of the play in published translations include Sacontalá or The Fatal Ring and Śakoontalá or The Lost Ring.

Synopsis

See also: Shakuntala

The protagonist is Śakuntalā, daughter of the sage Viśvāmitra and the apsaraMenakā. Abandoned at birth by her parents, Śakuntalā is reared in the secluded hermitage of the sage Kaṇva, and grows up a comely but innocent maiden.

While Kaṇva and the other elders of th

Hungarian-born Viennese composer (1830–1915)

The native form of this personal name is Goldmark Károly. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Karl Goldmark (born Károly Goldmark, Keszthely, 18 May 1830 – Vienna, 2 January 1915) was a Hungarian-born Viennese composer.

Life and career

Goldmark came from a large Jewish family. His father, Ruben Goldmark, was a chazan (cantor) to the Jewish congregation at Keszthely, Hungary, where Karl was born. Karl Goldmark's older brother Joseph became a physician and was later involved in the Revolution of 1848, and forced to emigrate to the United States. Karl Goldmark's early training as a violinist was at the musical academy of Sopron (1842–44).

He continued his music studies there and two years later was sent by his father to Vienna, where he was able to study for some eighteen months with Leopold Jansa before his money ran out. He prepared himself for entry first to the Vienna Technische Hochschule and then to the Vienna Conservatory to study the violin with Joseph Böhm and harmony with Gottfried Preyer. Until he became a member of Vienna's Carl Theatre in 1850, Goldmark was impoverished, surviving on menial odd jobs and handouts. [Douglas Townsend, liner notes to Columbia Records MS7261, Rustic Wedding (Leonard Berstein, NY Philharmonic)] The Revolution of 1848 forced the Conservatory to close down. Goldmark was largely self-taught as a composer, and he supported himself in Vienna playing the violin in theatre orchestras, at the Carlstheater and the privately supported Viennese institution, the Theater in der Josefstadt. This gave him practical experience with orchestration, an art he more than mastered. He also gave lessons: Jean Sibelius studied with him briefly. Goldmark's first concert in Vienna (1858) met with hostility, and he returned to Budapest, returning to Vienna in 1860.

To make ends meet, Goldmark also pursued a side career as a m