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43-648: The Michael Nyman Band , formerly known as the Campiello Band , is a group formed as a street band for a 1976 production of Carlo Goldoni 's 1756 play, Il Campiello directed by Bill Bryden at the Old Vic . The band did not wish to break up after the production ended, so its director, Michael Nyman , began composing music for the group to perform, beginning with "In Re Don Giovanni ", written in 1977. Originally made up of old instruments such as rebecs , sackbuts and shawms alongside more modern instruments like

86-530: A libellous poem ( Il colosso ) in which he ridiculed the daughters of certain Pavian families. As a result of that incident (and/or of a visit with some schoolmates to a local brothel), he was expelled from the school and had to leave the city (1725). He studied law at Udine , and eventually took his degree at University of Modena . He was employed as a law clerk at Chioggia and Feltre , after which he returned to his native city and began practising. Educated as

129-405: A band member) and Exit No Exit , and plan to record the third recording of Nyman's four string quartets. They are produced by David Cunningham . Many of the current and former band members, including John Harle , Alexander Balanescu , Dave Lee , Madeleine Mitchell , Andrew Findon , and Simon Haram , have released solo albums that include performances of Nyman's music. The membership in

172-489: A born comedian, careless, light-hearted and with a happy temperament, proof against all strokes of fate, yet thoroughly respectable and honourable. Goldoni was born in Venice in 1707, the son of Margherita Salvioni (or Saioni) and Giulio Goldoni. In his memoirs, Goldoni describes his father as a physician , and claims that he was introduced to theatre by his grandfather Carlo Alessandro Goldoni. In reality, it seems that Giulio

215-413: A certain form which I will explain to you." Goldoni thanked his critic, went back to his inn and ordered a fire, into which he threw the manuscript of his Amalasunta . His next play, Belisario , written in 1734, was more successful, though of its success he afterwards professed himself ashamed. During this period he also wrote librettos for opera seria and served for a time as literary director of

258-454: A company of strolling players and returned to Venice. In 1723 his father matriculated him into the stern Collegio Ghislieri in Pavia , which imposed the tonsure and monastic habits on its students. However, he relates in his Memoirs that a considerable part of his time was spent reading Greek and Latin comedies. He had already begun writing at this time and, in his third year, he composed

301-500: A few other works. Corelli's concertino group consisted of two violins and a cello, with a string section as ripieno group. Both were accompanied by a basso continuo with some combination of harpsichord, organ, lute or theorbo . George Frideric Handel wrote several collections of concerti grossi ( Op. 3 and Op. 6 ), and several of the Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach also loosely follow

344-440: A lasting monument to the changes that he initiated: a dramatic revolution that had been attempted but not achieved before. Goldoni's importance lies in providing good examples rather than precepts. Goldoni says that he took for his models the plays of Molière and that whenever a piece of his own succeeded he whispered to himself: "Good, but not yet Molière". Goldoni's plays are gentler and more optimistic in tone than Molière's. It

387-399: A lawyer, and holding lucrative positions as secretary and counsellor, he seemed, indeed, at one time to have settled down to the practice of law, but following an unexpected summons to Venice, after an absence of several years, he changed his career, and thenceforth he devoted himself to writing plays and managing theatres. His father died in 1731. In 1732, to avoid an unwanted marriage, he left

430-458: A master. Goldoni's plays that were written while he was still in Italy ignore religious and ecclesiastical subjects. This may be surprising, considering his staunch Catholic upbringing. No thoughts are expressed about death or repentance in his memoirs or in his comedies. After his move to France, his position became clearer, as his plays took on a clear anti-clerical tone and often satirized

473-399: A modern composer, his romantic Introduction and Allegro strongly resembled the instrumentation setup of a concerto grosso. A concertino , literally "little ensemble", is the group of soloists in a concerto grosso. This is opposed to the ripieno and tutti which is the larger group contrasting with the concertino. Though the concertino is the smaller of the two groups, its material

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516-447: Is actually composed of the concert versions of various film pieces, having undergone years of revisions and refinement, are significantly different from their soundtrack counterparts, to a far more severe extent than typical differences between classical music performances. This album also contains two cuts from the film score to A Zed & Two Noughts , which was originally performed by an orchestra of musicians who were never members of

559-628: Is the comic play Servant of Two Masters , which has been translated and adapted internationally numerous times. In 1966 it was adapted into an opera buffa by the American composer Vittorio Giannini . In 2011, Richard Bean adapted the play for the National Theatre of Great Britain as One Man, Two Guvnors . Its popularity led to a transfer to the West End and in 2012 to Broadway . The film Carlo Goldoni – Venice, Grand Theatre of

602-629: The San Giovanni Grisostomo , Venice's most distinguished opera house . He wrote other tragedies for a time, but he was not long in discovering that his bent was for comedy . He had come to realize that the Italian stage needed reforming; adopting Molière as his model, he went to work in earnest and in 1738 produced his first real comedy, L'uomo di mondo ("The Man of the World"). During his many wanderings and adventures in Italy, he

645-694: The Vendramin family, where he performed most of his plays to 1762. In 1757, he engaged in a bitter dispute with playwright Carlo Gozzi , which left him utterly disgusted with the tastes of his countrymen; so much so that in 1761 he moved to Paris, where he received a position at court and was put in charge of the Théâtre-Italien . He spent the rest of his life in France, composing most of his plays in French and writing his memoirs in that language. Among

688-571: The Venetian language , regional vernacular, and colloquialisms. Goldoni also wrote under the pen name and title Polisseno Fegeio, Pastor Arcade , which he claimed in his memoirs the " Arcadians of Rome" bestowed on him. There is an abundance of autobiographical information on Goldoni, most of which comes from the introductions to his plays and from his Memoirs . However, these memoirs are known to contain many errors of fact, especially about his earlier years. In these memoirs, he paints himself as

731-403: The banjo and saxophone to produce as loud a sound as possible without amplification, it later switched to a fully amplified line-up of string quartet , double bass, clarinet , three saxophones, horn , trumpet, bass trombone , bass guitar, and piano. This lineup has been variously altered and augmented for some works. The band's first recorded album on a professional label was Nyman's second,

774-660: The concerto grosso form. The concerto grosso form was superseded by the solo concerto and the sinfonia concertante in the late eighteenth century, and new examples of the form did not appear for more than a century. In the twentieth century, the concerto grosso has been used by composers including Igor Stravinsky , Ernest Bloch , Ralph Vaughan Williams , Bohuslav Martinů , Malcolm Williamson , Henry Cowell , Alfred Schnittke , William Bolcom , Heitor Villa-Lobos , Andrei Eshpai , Eino Tamberg , Krzysztof Penderecki , Jean Françaix , Airat Ichmouratov , Philip Glass and Paul Ben-Haim . While Edward Elgar may be considered

817-540: The Affair , The Claim , and The Libertine are credited to this group, first implied on that 1994 album. While the former two titles lack detailed credits, the latter three albums show that most of the band (not to say most of those credited as full members over its history) performs in the Orchestra. The band's existence is far from over, however, as Nyman orchestrated his 2002 opera, Facing Goya , specifically for

860-536: The Commedia dell'arte with recognisable local and middle-class realities. His operatic works include two of the most successful musical comedies of the eighteenth century, Il filosofo di campagna ( The Country Philosopher ), set by Galuppi (1752) and La buona figliuola ( The Good Girl ), set by Niccolò Piccinni (1760). In 1753, following his return from Bologna, he defected to the Teatro San Luca of

903-540: The King gave him a pension. He lost this pension after the French Revolution . The Convention eventually voted to restore his pension the day after his death. It was restored to his widow, at the pleading of the poet André Chénier ; "She is old", he urged, "she is seventy-six, and her husband has left her no heritage save his illustrious name, his virtues and his poverty." In his Memoirs Goldoni amply discusses

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946-482: The World , directed by Alessandro Bettero, was released in 2007 and is available in English, Italian, French, and Japanese. The following is a small sampling of Goldoni's enormous output. Concerto grosso The form developed in the late seventeenth century, although the name was not used at first. Alessandro Stradella seems to have written the first music in which two groups of different sizes are combined in

989-541: The arrogant nobility and the pauper who lacks dignity. As in other theatrical works of the time and place, the characters in Goldoni's Italian comedies spoke originally either the literary Tuscan variety (which became modern Italian) or the Venetian dialect , depending on their station in life. However, in some printed editions of his plays, he often turned the Venetian texts into Tuscan, too. One of his best-known works

1032-745: The band is rather fluid, though it has had many core members. Often, whoever plays with the band on a given album is credited as a full member, though just as often, non-members are credited as guest artists. The following people have received credit as full-fledged members on at least one album, followed by a list of every instrument that they have been credited with playing at any time. The recordings prior to Michael Nyman (1981) did not credit individual band members. (Listed chronologically) Carlo Goldoni Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni ( / ɡ ɒ l ˈ d oʊ n i / , also US : / ɡ ɔː l ˈ -, ɡ oʊ l ˈ -/ , Italian: [ˈkarlo oˈzvaldo ɡolˈdoːni] ; 25 February 1707 – 6 February 1793)

1075-482: The band, with solos by band members Nyman, Balanescu, Perry, and Leonard. Similarly, The Piano was performed by members of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra with Harle, Roach, Findon, and Nyman, but is also part of the band's repertoire. In 1993, the band joined with an orchestra for the first time in their recording history with MGV: Musique à Grand Vitesse , a piece commissioned for

1118-602: The band. His previous two opera recordings include band members but are not formally credited to the band, and one, the aforementioned Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs , uses a full-scale orchestra, without Nyman at the baton. Man and Boy: Dada (2004) and Love Counts (2005; recorded 2007), Nyman's newest operas, feature the band conducted by Paul McGrath . In 1996, another offshoot group, The Nyman Quartet, consisting of Cathy Thompson, Gabrielle Lester, Kate Musker, and Tony Hinnigan, recorded The Ballad of Kastriot Rexhepi (with Sarah Leonard --the only singer ever credited as

1161-506: The characteristic way. The name was first used by Giovanni Lorenzo Gregori in a set of ten compositions published in Lucca in 1698. The first major composer to use the term concerto grosso was Arcangelo Corelli . After Corelli's death, a collection of twelve of his concerti grossi was published. Not long after, composers such as Francesco Geminiani , Pietro Locatelli , Giovanni Benedetto Platti and Giuseppe Torelli wrote concertos in

1204-460: The hypocrisy of monks and of the Church . Goldoni was inspired by his love of humanity and the admiration he had for his fellow men. He wrote, and was obsessed with, the relationships that humans establish with one another, their cities and homes, and the study of philosophy . The moral and civil values that Goldoni promotes in his plays are those of rationality, civility, humanism, the importance of

1247-525: The model of Molière with the strengths of Commedia dell'arte and his own wit and sincerity). This style was typified in La Donna di garbo , the first Italian comedy of its kind. After 1748, Goldoni collaborated with the composer Baldassare Galuppi , making significant contributions to the new form of ' opera buffa '. Galuppi composed the score for more than twenty of Goldoni's librettos. As with his comedies, Goldoni's opera buffa integrates elements of

1290-487: The opening of a TGV line, first performed on 26 September 1993, in which the band, according to Nyman's own liner notes, represents the tracks , "resisting the temptation of the concerto grosso ". The album credit is to "The Michael Nyman Band and Orchestra". The group has largely been superseded by the Michael Nyman Orchestra . Such soundtrack albums as Practical Magic , Ravenous , The End of

1333-412: The opera, he was told that his piece "was composed with due regard for the rules of Aristotle and Horace , but not according to those laid down for the Italian drama." "In France", continued the count, "you can try to please the public, but here in Italy it is the actors and actresses whom you must consult, as well as the composer of the music and the stage decorators. Everything must be done according to

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1376-401: The plays which he wrote in French, the most successful was Le bourru bienfaisant , dedicated to Marie Adélaïde , a daughter of Louis XV and aunt to the dauphin , the future Louis XVI of France. It premiered on 4 February 1771, almost nine months after the dauphin's marriage to Marie Antoinette . Goldoni enjoyed considerable popularity in France; in 1769, when he retired to Versailles ,

1419-488: The rising middle class, a progressive stance on state affairs, honour and honesty. Goldoni had a dislike for arrogance, intolerance and the abuse of power. Goldoni's main characters are no abstract examples of human virtue, nor monstrous examples of human vice. They occupy the middle ground of human temperament. Goldoni maintains an acute sensibility for the differences in social classes between his characters as well as environmental and generational changes. Goldoni pokes fun at

1462-558: The self-titled Michael Nyman (1981), which mostly comprised pieces written for the early films of Peter Greenaway . This album was not released on compact disc until 2012. Another self-titled album (1995) has appeared as a promotional item compiling tracks from various other albums, and should not be confused with this one. Along with soundtracks to Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract , Drowning by Numbers , and The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover , their 1980s output included The Kiss and Other Movements (which includes

1505-410: The soundtrack for Greenaway's Prospero's Books (1991). Conversely, Nyman composed music for another adaptation of William Shakespeare 's The Tempest , the ballet-opera Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs , soon after Prospero's Books , some of which was derived from La Traversée de Paris . Their 1992 album, The Essential Michael Nyman Band , may appear to be a greatest hits compilation, but

1548-548: The state of Italian comedy when he began writing. At that time, Italian comedy revolved around the conventionality of the Commedia dell'arte , or improvised comedy. Goldoni took to himself the task of superseding the comedy of masks and the comedy of intrigue with representations of actual life and manners through the characters and their behaviours. He maintained that Italian life and manners were susceptible of artistic treatment such as had not been given them before. His works are

1591-685: The style of Corelli. He also had a strong influence on Antonio Vivaldi . Two distinct forms of the concerto grosso exist: The concerto da chiesa alternated slow and fast movements; the concerto da camera had the character of a suite , being introduced by a prelude and incorporating popular dance forms. (See also Sonata for a discussion about sonatas da camera and da chiesa .) These distinctions blurred over time. Corelli composed 48 trio sonatas , 12 violin and continuo sonatas, and 12 concerti grossi. Six sets of twelve compositions, published between 1888 and 1891 by Friedrich Chrysander , are authentically ascribed to Corelli, together with

1634-575: The titular art song ; a song from Nyman's projected Tristram Shandy opera; a tango ; a movement from the same work as "Memorial" as used in Greenaway's 26 Bathrooms ; and a performance of music (not the original soundtrack) from Greenaway's Making a Splash ) and the modern dance work And Do They Do . They also made a limited edition recording of Nyman's La Traversée de Paris in 1989; many of its individual movements were soon to be dismantled, revised, or simply transplanted whole, to serve as

1677-500: The town for Milan and then for Verona where the theatre manager Giuseppe Imer helped him on his way to becoming a comical poet as well as introducing him to his future wife, Nicoletta Conio. Goldoni returned with her to Venice, where he stayed until 1743. Goldoni entered the Italian theatre scene with a tragedy , Amalasunta , produced in Milan. The play was a critical and financial failure. Submitting it to Count Prata, director of

1720-496: Was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice . His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays of Goldoni for their ingenious mix of wit and honesty. His plays offered his contemporaries images of themselves, often dramatizing the lives, values, and conflicts of the emerging middle classes . Though he wrote in French and Italian, his plays make rich use of

1763-406: Was an apothecary ; as for the grandfather, he had died four years before Carlo's birth. In any case, Goldoni was deeply interested in theatre from his earliest years, and all attempts to direct his activity into other channels were of no avail; his toys were puppets, and his books were plays. His father placed him under the care of the philosopher Caldini at Rimini but the youth soon ran away with

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1806-516: Was constantly at work and when, at Livorno , he became acquainted with the manager Medebac, he determined to pursue the profession of playwriting in order to make a living. He was employed by Medebac to write plays for his theatre in Venice. He worked for other managers and produced during his stay in that city some of his most characteristic works. He also wrote Momolo Cortesan in 1738. By 1743, he had perfected his hybrid style of playwriting (combining

1849-402: Was this very success that was the object of harsh critiques by Carlo Gozzi , who accused Goldoni of having deprived the Italian theatre of the charms of poetry and imagination. The great success of Gozzi's fairy dramas so irritated Goldoni that it led to his self-exile to France. Goldoni gave to his country a classical form, which, though it has since been cultivated, has yet to be cultivated by

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