# Prominent piano in an opera?



## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

I just realized....I'm not sure whether or not I've heard a piano in any opera. I certainly MAY have, but you know there's so much going on in an opera it may have blended into the musical fabric so to speak.

Well, I absolutely adore the piano!  Especially now that I have one and am learning to play. Any operas where the piano is well featured?


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Start around 1.50.


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## suteetat (Feb 25, 2013)

How about Chi il bel sogno di Doretta from La Rondine?


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## sharik (Jan 23, 2013)

Sonata said:


> Prominent piano in an opera


Tchaikovsky _The Queen Of Spades_ -


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## notreally (Oct 25, 2011)

Zerbinetta' aria 'Großmächtige Prinzessin' from _Ariadne auf Naxos_.


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## Bardamu (Dec 12, 2011)

Nino Rota I due timidi feature the piano since the love affair is a amateur pianist (4:32)





Also a famous pianist (and his compositions) is the base of Orefice most well know Opera: Chopin.





EDIT:
Not Opera in itself but Bellini did some pieces for piano and voice I really like.

Bellini:


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

Well if you include the harpsichord, I can think of a couple Baroque operas that feature it fairly prominently.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

_Albert Herring_ by Britten and _Nixon in China_ by Adams immediately come to mind.


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

Sonata said:


> Any operas where the piano is well featured?


Well featured is Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila, Bayan's singing in the first act accompanied with a piano, an imitation of the old russian instrument gusli). You can find piano also in other russian operas...Boris Godunov, Sadko and The Snow Maiden come to mind at the moment.


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

Sonata said:


> Well, I absolutely adore the piano!


This adoration for the piano is so adorable!


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Donizetti's _Daughter of the Regiment _has either a piano or harpsichord (on stage, as part of the action, not in the orchestra pit). Berg's _Wozzeck _too (on stage in the tavern scene) as well as Gershwin's_ Porgy and Bess _(that one definitely has piano prominently, but whether on stage or in the pit, I can't remember). Set in 19th century colonial Australia, Richard Meale's _Voss _also has an upright piano on stage, the characters stand around it and do a 'sing along' which was what many people did in those days.


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## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

Anyone done opera versions of baroque music with piano instead of harpsichord? I've always wanted to hear that.


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

Manok said:


> Anyone done opera versions of baroque music with piano instead of harpsichord? I've always wanted to hear that.


Not quite baroque, but I had an unpleasant surprise last year attending the Opera in Cinema broadcast of Anna Bolena from the Maggio Musicale in Florence. As the show began the overture was started on a piano... but the orchestra never came in. They had gone on strike on the evening of the filming and the entire opera was presented with piano accompaniment.


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## Celloissimo (Mar 29, 2013)

Nixon in China most definitely. The piano starts booming right at the beginning of the "News has a kind of mystery" aria.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Listen to any of renee Jacobs' Mozart - fortepiano most prominent!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

notreally said:


> Zerbinetta' aria 'Großmächtige Prinzessin' from _Ariadne auf Naxos_.


I adore that aria!


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## Balthazar (Aug 30, 2014)

I know this is an old thread, but thought I would add to the list another "on-stage" example:

Act II of Giordano's Fedora where the pianist Lazinski is entertaining Fedora's guests at her party in Paris, and his recital doubles as accompaniment for the recitative.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

The piano plays a prominent part in Britten's *The Turn of the Screw*.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Indeed.

Also, in the orchestration of "Die Tote Stadt" there is a massive presence of keyboards: (piano, organ, harmonium, celesta,...)


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