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Rimsky-Korsakov – Mozart and Salieri

Mozart and Salieri, an opera in one act consisting of two scenes.

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), composer. Libretto derived from Alexander Puskhin's play of the same name.

First performance: 7 December 1898 in Moscow.

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Mussorgsky – Boris Godunov

Boris Godunov, an opera in four acts with prologue


Modest Mussorgsky, composer. Libretto by the composer, based on Alexander Pushkin's drama Boris Godunov and Nikolai Karamazin's History of the Russian Empire


First performance: 8 February 1874 at the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg

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Strauss – Ariadne auf Naxos (Salzburg 1954)

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MOZART: Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Berlin 1949)

Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Singspiel in 3 Acts.

Music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Libretto by Johann Gottlieb Stephanie the Younger, based on an earlier libretto by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner.

MOZART: Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Aix-En-Provence 1954)

Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Singspiel in 3 Acts.

Music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Libretto by Johann Gottlieb Stephanie the Younger, based on an earlier libretto by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner.

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VERDI: Don Carlo

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Die Tote Stadt, an opera in three acts.

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Elektra: Tragedy in one act.

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Repertoire

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe at age 69, painted 1828 by Joseph Karl Stieler.
09 Apr 2013

Music from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“German poet, dramatist and novelist. One of the most important literary and cultural figures of his age, he was recognized during his lifetime for his accomplishments of almost universal breadth. However, it is his literary works that have most consistently sustained his reputation, and that also serve to demonstrate most clearly his many-faceted relationship to music. . . .

Music from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

Goethe's passion for music of all kinds, but particularly his interest in promoting the cause of German poetry, found an important outlet in his early espousal of volkstümlich, ‘folk-style’, or verse and the associated tradition of performance as lieder. . . . [Indeed,] Goethe saw lyric poetry as in some sense incomplete without music, just as written text sought its fulfilment in sound. . . . With hindsight, it can be seen that Goethe's contribution to opera . . . was historically less decisive and less productive than his contribution to the lied. And this was so despite his repeated efforts, his wide experience and his extensive knowledge of opera: he found suitable composers for few if any of his librettos, and several in any case remained as sketches or fragments. His greatest legacy to music drama was undoubtedly Faust, which as far as he was aware was not set operatically during his lifetime. This, he accepted with resignation and a profound realization: ‘it is impossible [that it should now find an effective musical setting]: the horrific, sublime and demonic moments it necessarily has to embrace from time to time go against the taste of the times.” Philip Weller, Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, Grove Music Online. Here we will present a selection of music based on his literary works:

  1. GOUNOD: Faust — 1953
  2. GOUNOD: Faust — Vienna 2008
  3. SCHUMANN: Scenen aus Goethes Faust
  4. THOMAS: Mignon — New York 2005
  5. MASSENET: Werther — Vienna 2000


Previous Themes:

Operas based on French literature

Operas based on the works of Friedrich von Schiller

Der Ring des Nibelungen

Historic Performances: Maria Callas

Works of Giacomo Puccini

Works of Richard Strauss

Works of W. A. Mozart

Works of Jules Massenet

Works on the Theme of “Greeks Bearing Gifts”

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