Today's opera events - November 10th, 2006

Today we can celebrate the birthday of Francois Couperin (1668-1733).

Also, the following works premiered on this date:

Leoncavallo's "Zaza" (1900).
Mascagni's "I Rantzau" (1892).
Verdi's "La Forza Del Destino" (1862).

Of note: Fritz Kreisler at the age of thirteen made his American debut
in 1888 at the Old Steinway Hall in New York City. John McCormack made
his MET debut in 1909 singing in Verdi's "La Traviata." And........Bob
Dilley goofed again yesterday by failing to review my syllabus resulting
in my neglecting to post the birthdays of Thomas Quasthoff (1959), and
Aureliano Pertile (1885-1952). My apologies to both artists and all
forum members for these omissions. As always, I promise not to ever do
it again.........until the next time.

The quote for today is: "The first sonata in this collection of the four
suites, LES NATIONS, is the first that I composed, and the first to be
composed in France. Its story is curious. Charmned by those sonatas of
Signor Corelli whose works I shall love as much as I live, much as I
love the French works of M. de Lully, I attempted to compose one.
Knowing the greed of the French for foreign novelties, and lacking in
self confidence, I pretended that a relative of mine in the service of
the King of Sardinia had sent me a sonata by a recent Italian composer.
I rearranged the letters of my own name into an Italian one (Coperuni or
Pernucio), which I used instead. The sonata was devoured eagerly. I
wrote others, and my Italianized name brought me much applause under the
disguise." Francois Couperin.

~thanks to opera-l for the information