Benvenuto Cellini

Has anyone seen the opera Benvenuto Cellini, by Hector Berlioz? The hero is Benvenuto Cellini, who does metal casting, and this figures essentially into the plot. In the last act, he has to produce a metal sculpture or be hanged, and suddenly finds himself short of metal. At the last minute, he orders all his old masterpieces, including his Gingery lathe, to be thrown into the furnace to make the sculpture, and that saves the day.

Well, it doesn't actually say anywhere that it was a Gingery lathe that he sacrificed, but what else could it have been?

Are there any other operas or musicals that feature metalworkers? If anyone is familiar with this opera and thinks they would prefer a different representation of a metalworker, I'd be interested in what they would like to see emphasized (not that I'm about to write an opera...).

Ignorantly, Allan Adler snipped-for-privacy@zurich.ai.mit.edu

****************************************************************************
  • *
  • Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT Artificial *
  • Intelligence Lab. My actions and comments do not reflect *
  • in any way on MIT. Moreover, I am nowhere near the Boston *
  • metropolitan area. *
  • *
****************************************************************************
Reply to
Allan Adler
Loading thread data ...

I don't know the opera but I read his autobiography. A man I worked for told me he owned something cast by BC not a spell I hope.

****************************************************************************
*
*
*
****************************************************************************
Reply to
Kent Frazier

There's always the Anvil Chorus in Verdi's Il Travatore....

ATG

Reply to
ubique

Siegfried is apprenticed to a Blacksmith in The Ring of the Nibelung. And there's the Anvil Chorus in Il Trovatore.

Ned Simmons

Reply to
Ned Simmons

Well..if you are a lover of Russian State Opera from the period of

1920-1984.......

Btw..anyone remember Unka Joe Stalin was a machinist?

Gunner

"Gun Control, the theory that a 110lb grandmother should fist fight a 250lb 19yr old criminal"

Reply to
Gunner

"Gunner" :

Of course criminal grandmothers with guns would _never_ assault friendly fat young men.

Reply to
Rejnold Byzio

Really? I know that in his youth, he was trained for the clergy. I always assumed that that was where he learned his approach to government.

Al Moore

Reply to
Alan Moore

I haven't seen the opera, but that bit about running short of metal sounds like it was taken from a piece near the end of his autobiography. He wasn't actually running short, but needed to adjust the alloy mixture at a critical moment, so he tossed in all his pewter tableware.

His autobiography is a real page-turner; he was a quite a character.

Reply to
Jedd Haas

It is very unlikely that he owned something cast by Benvenuto Cellini. There are very few pieces that are positively identified as to have been made by this great master goldsmith of the Italian renaissance.

One being the famous salt cellar

formatting link

Unfortunately, that piece was stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna in July of 2003

formatting link
And there is the famous "Perseus and Medusa" sculpture in Florence.
formatting link
I own his autobiography with illustrations by Salvador Dali. This book is more valuable, because of the Dali prints, than that it is Cellini's autobiography.

formatting link

Reply to
Abrasha

Know of any?

Gunner

"Gun Control, the theory that a 110lb grandmother should fist fight a 250lb 19yr old criminal"

Reply to
Gunner

"Gunner" :

Of course not, they would never leave witnesses alive. They have too much experience.

Rejnold

Reply to
Rejnold Byzio

Gunner, Not that I disagree with you. I happen to agree with your view point on gun control however as for old lady murderers look here.

formatting link
Alan Wood

Reply to
Alan Wood

Freddy! Its time to dig another Lock for the canal! And please bring up another bottle of elderberry wine.......

I remember that case very well.

Gunner

"Gun Control, the theory that a 110lb grandmother should fist fight a 250lb 19yr old criminal"

Reply to
Gunner

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.