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5 14 May 2013
“Man is an abyss. It makes one dizzy to look into it.” So utters Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck, repeating what was also a recurring motif in the playwright’s own letters. »
01 May 2013
It would seem a logical step for the mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey to take on
the role of the Composer in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. »
01 May 2013
Hector Berlioz's légende dramatique, La Damnation de Faust, exists somewhere between cantata and opera. Berlioz's flexible attitude to dramatic form made the piece unworkable on the stages of early 19th century Paris and his music is so vivid that you wonder whether the piece needs staging at all. »
16 Apr 2013
The economics of the recording companies dictate much that is not ideal.
Wagner’s operas were not composed as they were in order to permit the
extraction of bleeding chunks, even on those occasions when strophic song forms
do occur. »
31 Mar 2013
“Gli arredi festivi giù cadano infranti, Il popol di Giuda di lutto s’ammanti!”. Verdi’s Nabucco at the Royal Opera House respected the spirit of the opera. »
18 Mar 2013
In the final of scene of Götterdämmerung in a new production at
the Staatsoper Berlin, Brünnhilde appears in a flowing pink gown just as the
music has modulated and penetrates the hall of the Gibichungs, represented by
rows of glowing translucent boxes that preserve the dismembered limbs of their
victims. »
03 Mar 2013
When the soprano Jessica Pratt first arrived in Italy, she had yet to learn the language or sing in a staged opera. »
02 Mar 2013
Samson and Delilah is the only opera by Camille Saint-Saens that is
still regularly performed. He had written two previous operas and would write
several more, along with a long list of instrumental pieces including The
Carnival of the Animals. »
26 Feb 2013
Michael Mayer’s glitzy neon lights production, set in Rat Pack-era Sin City, proves a fitting backdrop for an opera about a curse »
10 Feb 2013
Joyce DiDonato brought her Drama Queens tour to the Barbican Hall last night, 6 February 2012. Accompanied by Il Complesso Barocco, directed by Dmitry Sinkovsky, she enabled us to hear a wide range of arias by mainly Italian baroque composers from Monteverdi to Handel, by way of Porta, Cesti, Orlandini and Hasse. »
06 Feb 2013
Born to a very poor family in 1797, Gaetano Donizetti was lucky enough to become the pupil of Johann Simone Mayr, the Maestro di Capella of his native city, who recognized his talent and made sure he received appropriate instruction. »
01 Feb 2013
The Met’s opulent and well-sung Maria Stuarda cannot overcome its insipid libretto. »
15 Jan 2013
Once a mainstay of the repertory L’Italiana in Algeri now usually gives way to Il Turco in Italia when an opera company wants to give Il barbiere di Sivigllia and La cenerentola a rest. »
23 Dec 2012
Well, so many don’t nowadays, it appears to me, judging by the critical
reception of Robert le Diable at the ROH. Rum-ti-tum? We recall
Macbeth, Rigoletto, Trov and even Trav being characterised
thus, popular fare but risible or blush- making, yet those works now command
the highest respect. »
14 Dec 2012
This recital, which focused on a narrowly specific time and place —
1888-1933 Vienna — paradoxically illuminated not only the musical scope and
richness of that epoch but also, as Renée Fleming notes in her prefatory programme article, the extraordinary extent of the diversity, transformation and flux, both historical and cultural, that characterised the era. »
05 Dec 2012
They say that there’s nothing worse than a musically-obtuse staging of any opera to put a rookie opera-goer off a composer (or even opera itself) for life. »
18 Nov 2012
Who is Patricia Racette? Sexually ripe Nedda, maternal Cio-Cio-San, neurotic Sister Angelica? But now the jealous Tosca? And without question Mme. Racette has again proven herself the Puccini heroine par excellence of this moment. »
10 Nov 2012
When tenor Michael Spyres takes the stage at Carnegie Hall on December 5th, he will be in heady company. »
10 Nov 2012
After a slow, long period of gestation, commencing with a short dramatization at Reigate Priory in 1906 and spanning more than 40 years, the first performance of Vaughan Williams’ The Pilgrim’s Progress took place at Covent Garden on 26 April 1951, as part of the Festival of Britain. »
24 Oct 2012
Parsifal, with its heavy dose of religiosity and strains of racial supremacy, remains at once the most mystical and historically burdened of Wagner’s operas. »
17 Oct 2012
Labelled a “parable of oppression” by the late musicologist, Philip Brett, Britten’s provincial comedy, Albert Herring, is a tough nut to crack. »
12 Oct 2012
Forget Herman Melville, forget struggling with deep human complexities. At least those that possessed nineteenth century Americans. »
09 Oct 2012
Give me good verses, I’ll give you good music, said Bellini to his librettist Felice Romani. Give me a good director and I’ll give you good opera surely thought San Francisco Opera general director David Gockley. »
27 Sep 2012
The venerable Santa Fe Opera served up a richly eclectic mix of high-caliber offerings that surely is one of their best festivals in recent seasons.
»
28 Aug 2012
It is difficult to speak with excessive enthusiasm of the programming of a Salzburg Festival that included both Carmen and La bohème, though it would subsequently be redeemed in part by a staging of Die Soldaten. »
20 Aug 2012
When announced in November, this was trailed as the original version of Ariadne auf Naxos, a rare treat indeed. »
15 Jul 2012
Elijah Moshinsky’s Otello, first seen at Covent Garden in 1987,
and revived numerous times with a range of stellar casts, may be traditional
and conservative, even — excepting the thunderous opening storm scene —
somewhat uninventive; »
09 Jul 2012
Not about tattoo art, not an evocation of the Holocast, and let us not even try to put our finger on what it is about. »
02 Jul 2012
Embodying a range of iconic female characters from history, literature and song — both the ‘good’ and the ‘not-so-good’ — Susan Graham delivered a wonderfully suave and entertaining performance before a delighted Wigmore Hall audience. »
27 Jun 2012
A sensational Les Troyens at the Royal Opera House, London. Berlioz, who understood theatrical gestures so well, builds his opera around the most audacious dramatic device in ancient history: the Trojan Horse. »
15 Jun 2012
A feast for the eyes, a feast for the ears, a Flute from America’s heartland that goes directly to your heart. »
08 Jun 2012
There are many different ways to analyze the health of New York City. My personal measurements judge the town thus: How many aspiring artsy kids are forced to share a single apartment in an outer borough while they “find themselves” and how many small but immensely able opera companies are functional at any given time. »
04 Jun 2012
Detlev Glanert’s Caligula at the ENO shows how powerful modern opera can be. Caligula was a tyrant, but this opera isn’t sensationalist. »
26 May 2012
Director David Freeman tells why this is an event worth experiencing in the Olympic year. »
19 May 2012
It is not long into Act One of Mignon at Geneva’s Grand Theatre when Diana Damrau glides on stage as Philine, commands our rapt attention, and sweeps all before her. »
26 Apr 2012
Massenet’s Manon succeeds in the theater when the soprano has
a real sense of the role and how she wants to present it. »
19 Apr 2012
I have to rethink my week, because somehow I have to get to see Opera Atelier’s production of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Armide again. »
13 Apr 2012
Released in late 2011, Deutsche Grammophon’s DVD of the new staging of Berg’s Lulu at the Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona is an excellent contribution to the discography of this fascinating opera. »
31 Mar 2012
The novels of Sinclair Lewis once shot across the American literary skies like comets, alarming and fascinating readers of that era, but their tails didn’t extend far behind them. »
19 Mar 2012
You can’t keep a good opera buffa down. And Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale is about as good as opera buffa gets. »
05 Mar 2012
Right to the musical ‘score’ board: Zurich Opera stared down the mighty challenge posed by Rossini’s Otello ossia il moro di Venezia, and knocked it out of the ballpark. »
20 Feb 2012
Erwin Schrott triumphed as Don Giovanni in the Mozart/da Ponte series at the Royal Opera House, overcoming the limitations of the staging.
»
03 Feb 2012
To the dismay of New York opera fans, the original Metropolitan Opera House,
located at Broadway and 39th Street, was to be torn down and replaced by a new hall
a mere 30 blocks away. »
25 Jan 2012
War and destruction is everywhere these days, not least in Pesaro where Graham Vick staged a lethal Mosé in Egitto last August, nor less so in San Francisco where baritone Thomas Hampson perished as Rick Rescorla in Heart of a Soldier last September. »
30 Dec 2011
I spoke with Vivica Genaux in December 2011, when she stopped in New York at
the end of one of her concert tours. »
19 Dec 2011
Jean-Philippe Rameau, an organist and music theoretician, was active for much of his life in musical centers distant from the cultural juggernaut of Paris. »
13 Dec 2011
Straight to the point: Netherlands Opera has mounted as luminous and emotionally engaging an Idomeneo as is imaginable. »
02 Dec 2011
At one point in The Met’s history, Faust was performed so frequently that one critic in mocking reference to Wagner’s opera house at Bayreuth coined the theater Faustophilhaus. »
25 Nov 2011
No cuts, not a single one, nearly four hours of non-stop arias, and its only hit tune happens within the first five minutes. »
15 Nov 2011
Deborah Warner’s new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is an evocative and lyrical depiction of elegiac passion. »
01 Nov 2011
It’s very unusual for the Met these days—or any major opera house, in any era—to present a glossy new production with two different stars in the leading role. »
23 Oct 2011
‘Erotic oratorio’ is the odd-sounding definition devised by modern scholars, such as Howard E. Smither, for those pious music dramas employing sex-laden plots from the Bible, the Apocrypha or the lives of Saints in order to give the audience moral instruction in a quasi-operatic, if generally unstaged, form. »
12 Oct 2011
Should I wait until the end of this review to tell you how much fun, how much of a theatrical whoopee cushion Robert Wilson’s production of Die Dreigroschenoper has been at BAM last week? »
28 Sep 2011
Bad news travels fast. Though you are about to read another version of how American diva Renée Fleming failed to bring Lucrezia Borgia alive, let us begin by discussing a few other things you already know. »
21 Sep 2011
What do a ferociously violent melodrama, an ecstatic spiritual revelation and an ironic black farce have in common? »
06 Sep 2011
Bochum’s Jahrhunderthalle, a massive, re-purposed industrial building, seemed an unlikely location to contain and frame the transcendent, unbounded spiritual journey of Wagner’s masterpiece Tristan und Isolde. »
06 Sep 2011
Superstitions surround theatrical productions of Shakespeare’s Scottish tragedy. »
27 Aug 2011
Musical excellence was the centerpiece of three of Santa Fe Opera’s annual offerings. »
20 Aug 2011
Gaetano Donizetti is arguably the established opera composer with the highest ratio of failures to successes. »
13 Aug 2011
Great characters are at the center of all operatic masterpieces, yet opera almost never treads into “operatic biography” territory. »
01 Aug 2011
An appreciation of La traviata plus La clemenza di Tito and Le Nez/The Nose at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. »
22 Jul 2011
Athalia: Oratorio (sacred drama) in 3 acts »
07 Jul 2011
By 1825, as Rossini’s operatic vein was approaching exhaustion, the
Neapolitan Saverio Mercadante ranked as a front-runner for his succession
alongside Bellini and Donizetti; much more so, however, in the field of serious
drama than in opera buffa. »
06 Jul 2011
Some of the experts said it was the best Ring ever, others merely
said it was one of the best (these were lecturers at a Wagner Society
symposium). »
22 Jun 2011
Will Crutchfield made his name as a writer and musicologist in the mid-1980s, becoming the youngest music critic in the history of The New York Times. »
06 Jun 2011
The U.S. premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s Phaedra at the Opera Company of Philadelphia may well be the most important and ambitious new work presented by any American company this season. »
22 May 2011
Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska certainly knows how to make the most
of every opportunity. »
18 May 2011
Gluck’s Orfeo is, intentionally, free of clutter. If you cut
out the scenes of balletic rejoicing just before the finale (and I can’t
think of any good reason not to do so), it’s less than ninety minutes of
music. »
29 Apr 2011
For the second time in a matter of just a few weeks, the Wigmore Hall
audience were treated to an evening of seventeenth-century song and dance. »
24 Apr 2011
It has long been my belief that the problems of the planet would be resolved
(or move on to their next stage) if only the folk of every ethnicity (nation,
faith, historic minority, tribe) would devote their energy to creating
opera—and perhaps theater or dance—out of its musical and mythical
traditions. »
14 Apr 2011
In Britain, Katarina Karnéus is closely associated with Grieg and Sibelius. Indeed, her career has almost been defined by her recordings of their songs for Hyperion. »
28 Mar 2011
Rossini’s penultimate stage work, Le Comte Ory, belongs to
the tradition of sexy scoundrel operas, along with such works as Don
Giovanni, Zampa, Fra Diavolo, Barbe-Bleu,
Les Brigands and Threepenny Opera. »
24 Mar 2011
Opera is alive and well in Sarasota. “It feels like it did before,” says Communications Officer for Sarasota Opera Patricia Horwell. »
15 Mar 2011
Strict courtly hierarchies and the repressed formality of ritual juxtaposed
with violent sexual jealousy and lurid erotic excess … a stage-world
more suited to the Straussian insalubrity of Salomé than to the epic
grandeur of Verdi’s Aida, perhaps? »
06 Mar 2011
Eugène Scribe and Giacomo Meyerbeer were in the business of creating
proto-cinematic spectacles of drama and music, the formula being to take a historical incident in some exotic country or era, put in a tormented love story to hold our attention, and resolve the whole in catastrophe. »
18 Feb 2011
From the sublime (Parsifal, the night before) to the not-even-ridiculous. »
07 Feb 2011
Preparing for the Met premier of Nixon in China, I resolved to
forget—or place on hold—everything I remembered, or thought I
remembered, about the real persons who are characters in this opera, »
31 Jan 2011
Elizabeth Futral has established herself as one of the major coloratura sopranos in the world today. With her stunning vocalism and vast dramatic range, she has embraced a diverse repertoire that includes Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart, Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini, Verdi, Glass, and Previn. »
16 Jan 2011
They have been fiddling with Luc Bondy’s staging of Tosca. Scarpia doesn’t masturbate on the Madonna; he just sort of pinches her erotically. »
31 Dec 2010
Pelléas et Mélisande, Debussy’s impressionist drama closely
based on Maeterlinck’s eerie, symbolist play, is not a terribly vocal opera; it calls more for the subtlety of art song style than the belting of great divas and divos. »
19 Dec 2010
La Fanciulla del West is Puccini’s love letter to an America that had acclaimed him joyously on his triumphant visit of 1907 to attend the Met premieres of Manon Lescaut and Madama Butterfly. »
11 Dec 2010
The opening night of the new season at Teatro alla Scala Milan is a gala event, the most glamorous in the entire Italian opera year. »
03 Dec 2010
It may be as well to put matters in context by saying that Don Carlo is a
favorite opera of mine (and of all Verdi lovers), and that I found the Met’s new staging highly satisfactory, vocally very good if less than top flight, orchestrally thrilling—and that I hope to catch it again this
season. (Interesting rumors have been heard about the alternate tenor.) »
12 Nov 2010
Lucrezia Borgia: Melodramma in a prologue and two acts. »
07 Nov 2010
Minnesota Opera’s recent production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola certainly is a fantastical, comical portrayal of the classical fairy tale. »
24 Oct 2010
The last curtain call at the opera usually goes to the title character, the star of the work just performed. At the end of the Met’s new Boris Godunov, the calls begin with a solo call for the title character, René Pape as Boris, and conclude with one for the Metropolitan Opera Chorus all by themselves. »
16 Oct 2010
Dame Joan Sutherland, ‘La Stupenda’, sang her first Gilda at Covent
Garden in 1957 under the baton of Sir Edward Downes, and sang the role many times and to great acclaim on the ROH stage. »
08 Oct 2010
It will be no surprise to me, a year or five from now, when someone falls to
her or his death from the guy-wires that configure so much of Robert
Lepage’s new state-of-the-art (ah! But which art?) production of Der
Ring des Nibelung. »
26 Sep 2010
The Royal Opera is hardly renowned for its commitment to baroque opera, and
even the great Handel still gets short shrift in his adopted city’s major
house. »
13 Sep 2010
This season Santa Fe Opera offered new productions that ranged from standard
repertoire (Madame Butterfly and The Magic Flute) to a world
premiere (Lewis Spratlan’s Life is a Dream) with The Tales
of Hoffmann and Albert Herring falling somewhere amidst. »
01 Sep 2010
La Esmeralda: Opéra in four acts. »
12 Aug 2010
Ernani: Dramma lirico in four parts. »
14 Jul 2010
Oberst Chabert (Colonel Chabert): Tragic opera in 3 acts. »
23 Jun 2010
Otello: Dramma lirico in four acts.Music composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Libretto by Arrigo Boito after The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice by William Shakespeare. »
21 May 2010
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a comedy in five acts with incidental music. »
24 Apr 2010
Le Marchand de Venise (“The Merchant of Venice”): Opéra in three acts. »
17 Mar 2010
Gli Equivoci (The Comedy of Errors): Opera in two acts. »
07 Feb 2010
Der Sturm: Opera in three acts »
30 Jan 2010
The Fairy-Queen: Semi-opera in five acts. »
18 Jan 2010
Macbeth: Melodramma in quattro parti. »
03 Jan 2010
Das Liebesverbot: Grosse komische Oper in two acts. »
13 Dec 2009
Falstaff: Commedia lirica in three acts. »
30 Nov 2009
Hamlet: Opéra in five acts.Music composed by Ambroise Thomas. Libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier after The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare. »
15 Nov 2009
Otello, ossia Il moro di Venezia (‘Othello, or The Moor of Venice’): Dramma in three acts. »
18 Oct 2009
Béatrice et Bénédict: Opéra comique in two acts »
11 Oct 2009
Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (The Merry Wives of Windsor), a comical-fantastical opera in three acts with dance. »
29 Sep 2009
Otello: Dramma lirico in four acts.Music composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Libretto by Arrigo Boito after The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice by William Shakespeare. »
06 Sep 2009
Werther: Drame lyrique en 4 actes et 5 tableauxMusic composed by Jules Massenet. Libretto by Edouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on Die Leiden des jungen Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe »
23 Aug 2009
Mignon: Opéra comique in three acts. »
03 Aug 2009
Scenen aus Goethes Faust (op. WoO 3 ) [also known as Szenen aus Goethes „Faust“], oratorio in three parts with seven scenes. »
26 Jul 2009
Faust, Opéra en cinq actes. »
12 Jul 2009
Faust, Opéra en cinq actes. »
15 Jun 2009
Turandot, dramma lirico in three acts. »
10 Jun 2009
I masnadieri [The bandits]: Melodramma in four parts
»
17 May 2009
The Maid of Orléans: [Orleanskaya deva]: Opera in four acts »
11 May 2009
Guglielmo Tell: Melodramma tragico in four acts »
03 May 2009
Maria Stuarda: Tragedia lirica in two or three acts. »
26 Apr 2009
Don Carlo: Opera in four acts. »
19 Apr 2009
Luisa Miller: Melodramma tragico in three acts. »
12 Apr 2009
Götterdämmerung: Third day of Der Ring des Nibelungen in a prologue and three acts. »
06 Apr 2009
Siegfried: Second day of Der Ring des Nibelungen in three acts. »
29 Mar 2009
Die Walküre: First day of Der Ring des Nibelungen in three acts.
»
22 Mar 2009
Vorabend (preliminary evening) of Der Ring des Nibelungen, in four scenes. »
15 Mar 2009
Il Barbiere di Siviglia [Almaviva, ossia L’inutile precauzione (‘Almaviva, or The Useless Precaution’)]: Commedia in two acts. »
08 Mar 2009
Medea (Médée): Opéra comique in three acts. »
01 Mar 2009
La sonnambula, Melodramma in due atti »
22 Feb 2009
Tosca: A melodrama in three acts. »
15 Feb 2009
Armida, Dramma per musica in tre atti. »
08 Feb 2009
La Traviata: Melodramma in three acts.
»
01 Feb 2009
Un ballo in maschera: Melodramma in three acts »
25 Jan 2009
Il Pirata: Melodramma in two acts. »
18 Jan 2009
Norma: Tragedia lirica in two acts. »
11 Jan 2009
Lucia di Lammermoor: Opera in three acts. »
04 Jan 2009
Turandot, dramma lirico in three acts. »
28 Dec 2008
Gianni Schicchi: Opera in one act (no. 3 of Il trittico) »
21 Dec 2008
Suor Angelica: Opera in one act (no.2 of Il trittico). »
14 Dec 2008
Il Tabarro [The Cloak]: Opera in one act (no.1 of Il Trittico). »
07 Dec 2008
La Rondine: Commedia lirica in three acts. »
01 Dec 2008
La Fanciulla del West: Opera in three acts. »
23 Nov 2008
La Fanciulla del West: Opera in three acts. »
16 Nov 2008
Madama Butterfly, opera in two acts. »
09 Nov 2008
Tosca: A melodrama in three acts. »
02 Nov 2008
La Bohème, opera in four acts.
Music composed by Giacomo Puccini. Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi lllica, based
on episodes from Henri Murger’s Scènes de la vie de Bohème. »
26 Oct 2008
Intermezzo: Bürgerliche Komödie with symphonic interludes in two acts.
»
20 Oct 2008
Salome, Musikdrama in one act. »
05 Oct 2008
Capriccio: Konversationsstück für Musik in one act. »
28 Sep 2008
Arabella: Lyrische Komödie in three acts »
21 Sep 2008
Arabella: Lyrische Komödie in three acts »
14 Sep 2008
Die ägyptische Helena: Oper in two acts. »
07 Sep 2008
Die ägyptische Helena: Oper in two acts. »
01 Sep 2008
Die Frau ohne Schatten: Oper in three acts »
24 Aug 2008
Die Frau ohne Schatten: Oper in three acts »
17 Aug 2008
Der Rosenkavalier (‘The Knight of the Rose’): Komödie für Musik in 3 acts. »
10 Aug 2008
Der Rosenkavalier (‘The Knight of the Rose’): Komödie für Musik in 3 acts. »
04 Aug 2008
Die Entführung aus dem Serail: Singspiel in 3 Acts. »
27 Jul 2008
Die Entführung aus dem Serail: Singspiel in 3 Acts. »
20 Jul 2008
Idomeneo, rè di Creta: Dramma per musica in tre atti (K. 366). »
13 Jul 2008
Idomeneo, rè di Creta: Dramma per musica in tre atti (K. 366). »
06 Jul 2008
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti (K. 588). Opera buffa in two acts. »
30 Jun 2008
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti (K. 588). Opera buffa in two acts. »
22 Jun 2008
Die Zauberflöte: Singspiel in two acts, K. 620 »
15 Jun 2008
Die Zauberflöte: Singspiel in two acts, K. 620 »
08 Jun 2008
La Clemenza di Tito: Opera seria in two acts, K621. »
01 Jun 2008
La Clemenza di Tito: Opera seria in two acts, K621. »
25 May 2008
Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro): Opera buffa in four acts, K492 »
18 May 2008
Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro): Opera buffa in four acts, K492 »
11 May 2008
Il dissoluto punito ossia il Don Giovanni (K. 527): Drama giocoso in two acts »
04 May 2008
Il dissoluto punito ossia il Don Giovanni (K. 527): Dramma giocoso in two acts »
27 Apr 2008
Chérubin: Comédie chantée in three acts. »
21 Apr 2008
Marie-Magdeleine: Drame sacré in three acts and four scenes »
13 Apr 2008
Le Cid: opéra in four acts and ten tableaux. »
06 Apr 2008
Esclarmonde: Opéra romanesque in four acts and eight tableaux. »
30 Mar 2008
Cendrillion, Conte de Fées in 4 ActsMusic composed by Jules Massenet (1842–1912). Libretto by Henri Cain after Perrault. »
16 Mar 2008
Manon: Opéra comique in 5 acts and 6 tableaux »
09 Mar 2008
Thaïs: Comédie lyrique in three acts and seven scenes. »
03 Mar 2008
Fetonte: Dramma per musica in three acts. »
25 Feb 2008
La Partenope: Dramma per musica in three acts. »
19 Feb 2008
Medea (Médée): Opéra comique in three acts. »
10 Feb 2008
Andromaca: Dramma per musica in three acts. »
03 Feb 2008
Ermione: Azione tragica in two acts. »
27 Jan 2008
Ippolito ed Aricia: Tragedia in five acts. »
20 Jan 2008
Idomeneo: Opera seria in three acts. »
13 Jan 2008
Paride ed Elena: Dramma per musica in five acts. »
10 Jan 2008
Orphée: Opera in four acts.
Music composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck (arranged by Hector Berlioz, 1859).
Libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi »
26 Dec 2007
Alceste, ou Le triomphe d’Alcide: Tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts. »
17 Dec 2007
Alceste: Tragédie opéra in three acts. »
12 Dec 2007
Medea: Melodramma tragico in three acts. »
06 Dec 2007
Oedipe à Colone: Tragédie lyrique in three acts. »
27 Nov 2007
Elektra: Tragedy in one act. »
18 Nov 2007
Fedra: Dramma per musica in two acts. »
11 Nov 2007
Les Troyens: Grand opéra in five acts. »
28 Oct 2007
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Music drama in three acts. »
21 Oct 2007
Ariadne auf Naxos, Oper with a prologue and one act.
Music composed by Richard Strauss. Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. »
21 Oct 2007
Der Schauspieldirektor [The Impresario], Singspiel in one act, K486. »
07 Oct 2007
Divertimento teatrale in one act. »
23 Sep 2007
Andrea Chénier, an opera in four acts. »
16 Sep 2007
La figlia del reggimento [La Fille du régiment (‘The Daughter of the Regiment’)], Opéra comique in two acts. »
09 Sep 2007
La Bohème, opera in four acts.
Music composed by Giacomo Puccini. Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi lllica, based
on episodes from Henri Murger’s Scènes de la vie de Bohème. »
02 Sep 2007
Giovanna d’Arco, dramma lirico in a prologue and three acts.Music composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Libretto by Temistocle Solera. »
27 Aug 2007
Der Templer und die Jüdin, Grosse romantische Oper in three acts. »
19 Aug 2007
Iphigénie en Tauride, Tragédie Lyrique in four acts. »
12 Aug 2007
La Vestale, a tragédie lyrique in three acts. »
04 Jul 2007
The Golden Cockerel [Zolotoy petushok (Le coq d’or)], a dramatized fable with a prologue, three acts and an epilogue. »
24 Jun 2007
Die Schöpfung, Oratorium in drei TeilenMusic composed by Franz Joseph Haydn. Libretto by Gottfried van Swieten based on selections from the Book of Genesis and Paradise Lost by John Milton. »
17 Jun 2007
Theodora, oratorio in three acts (HWV 68). »
10 Jun 2007
Solomon, an oratorio in three acts (HWV 67). »
04 Jun 2007
Israel in Egypt, an oratorio in two parts (HWV 54). »
28 May 2007
Judas Maccabaeus, a sacred drama in three acts (HWV 63). »
20 May 2007
Saul, oratorio in three acts (HWV 53). »
17 May 2007
Jephtha, oratorio in three parts (HWV 70). »
08 May 2007
Hérodiade, opera in four acts. »
02 May 2007
Salome, Musikdrama in one act. »
21 Apr 2007
Nabucco (Nabucodonosor), Drama lirico in four parts. »
15 Apr 2007
Mosè (Moïse et Pharaon, ou Le passage de la Mer Rouge), Melodramma in four acts »
09 Apr 2007
Samson et Dalila, grand opera in three acts and four tableaux. »
03 Apr 2007
Falstaff, commedia lirica in three acts. »
25 Mar 2007
Rigoletto, melodramma in three acts. »
18 Mar 2007
Mefistofele, Opera in un prologo, quattro atti e un epilogoMusic and libretto by Arrigo Boito (1842-1918), based on Faust: Eine Tragödie by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe »
14 Mar 2007
La Gioconda, dramma lirico in four acts.Music composed by Amilcare Ponchielli (1834–1886). Libretto by Arrigo Boito (under the pseudonym Tobia Gorrio), based upon Victor Hugo's Angelo, Tyrant of Padua (1835). »
04 Mar 2007
Il Trovatore, dramma in four parts. »
27 Feb 2007
Opéra comique in four acts.Music composed by Georges Bizet (1838-1875). Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy after Prosper Mérimée’s novella, Carmen. »
20 Feb 2007
Aida, opera in four acts. »
11 Feb 2007
I Pagliacci, dramma in a prologue and two acts. »
05 Feb 2007
Cavalleria Rusticana, melodramma in one act. »
28 Jan 2007
La Bohème, opera in four acts.
Music composed by Giacomo Puccini. Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi lllica, based
on episodes from Henri Murger’s Scènes de la vie de Bohème. »
21 Jan 2007
Manon Lescaut, dramma lirico in quattro atti
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), composer. Luigi Illica and Domenico Oliva, librettists.
First performance: 1 February 1893 at Teatro Regio, Turin. »
15 Jan 2007
Madama Butterfly, opera in two acts. »
07 Jan 2007
Andrea Chénier, an opera in four acts. »
25 Dec 2006
Vier Letzte Lieder [Four Last Songs] »
22 Dec 2006
Les Nuits d'Été (The Nights of Summer), Op. 7. »
10 Dec 2006
Fünf Gedichte für eine Frauenstimme (“Wesendonck Lieder”) [Five Poems for a Female Voice] »
04 Dec 2006
Die Tote Stadt, an opera in three acts.Music composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957). Libretto by Paul Schott (Julius and E. W. Korngold) after the novel Bruges la morte by Georges Rodenbach. »
01 Dec 2006
Hans Heiling, romantic opera in three acts and prologue.Music composed by Heinrich Marschner (1795-1861). Libretto by Philipp Eduard Devrient, based on Bohemian legends. »
28 Nov 2006
Robert Le Diable, grand opera in five acts. Music by Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864). Libretto by Eugène Scribe and Germaine Delavigne. »
19 Nov 2006
Der Vampyr, romantic opera in two acts in the version by Hans Pfitzner (1924). »
12 Nov 2006
Don Sebastiano, Italian translation of Dom Sébastien, roi de Portugal, a grand opera in five acts. »
10 Nov 2006
Les Huguenots, an opera in five acts.Music composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864). Libretto by Eugéne Scribe and Emile Deschamps. »
27 Oct 2006
Don Carlo, an opera in five acts. Music composed by Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901). Libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille Du Locle after Friedrich von Schiller’s dramatic poem Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien. French text revised by Du Locle, Italian translation by Achille de Lauzières and Angelo Zanardini. »
22 Oct 2006
Turandot, dramma lirico in three acts. »
15 Oct 2006
Rita ou Le mari battu, a comic opera in one act.Music composed by Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848). Libretto by Gustave Vaëz. »
08 Oct 2006
Introduction: Philip Gossett is one of those rarities in academia: a scholar of the first order and a consummate teacher. »
01 Oct 2006
Tito Manlio (Titus Manlius), dramma per musica in 3 acts. Music composed by Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) based on a libretto by Matteo Noris (? – 1714). »
24 Sep 2006
I vespri siciliani, grand opera in five acts. Italian edition of Les vépres siciliennes. »
08 Sep 2006
Un ballo in maschera, a melodramma in three acts.Music composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Libretto by Antonio Somma, based upon the work of Eugène Scribe Gustave III ou Le bal masqué (1833) »
28 Aug 2006
Don Carlo, an opera in four acts. Music composed by Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901). Libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille Du Locle after Friedrich von Schiller’s dramatic poem Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien. Revised version in four acts (French text revised by Du Locle, Italian translation by Achille de Lauzières and Angelo Zanardini). »
13 Aug 2006
Tristan und Isolde, Handlung (drama) in three acts.Music and libretto by Richard Wagner. »
30 Jul 2006
La Gioconda, dramma lirico in four acts.Music composed by Amilcare Ponchielli (1834–1886). Libretto by Arrigo Boito (under the pseudonym Tobia Gorrio), based upon Victor Hugo's
Angelo, Tyrant of Padua (1835). »
25 Jul 2006
Un bain au sérail by Théodore Chassériau (1849)Musée du Louvre »
22 Jul 2006
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. »
17 Jul 2006
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. »
08 Jul 2006
Opéra comique in four acts.Music composed by Georges Bizet (1838-1875). Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy after Prosper Mérimée’s novella, Carmen. »
23 Jun 2006
Nestling artistically in a bowl, carefully arranged and lit to suit the camera early in the programme, the testicles seemed to glow softly with their hidden history, their inherent potential and, now, their very lack of future. »
19 Jun 2006
Der fliegende Holländer. Romantic opera in 3 acts.Music composed by Richard Wagner. Libretto by the composer. »
11 Jun 2006
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti (K. 588). Opera buffa in two acts.Music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. »
08 Jun 2006
La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo. Dramma giocoso in two acts.Music composed by Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868). Libretto by Jacopo Ferretti after Perrault. »
21 May 2006
Poliuto, Tragedia lirica in three acts.Music composed by Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848). Libretto by Salvatore Cammarano, after the tragedy Polyeucte (1640) by Pierre Corneille. »
18 May 2006
Alceste. Tragedia in three acts (Italian version).Alceste. Tragédie opéra in three acts (French version). »
15 May 2006
Orfeo ed Euridice. Azione teatrale in three acts (Italian version).Orphée et Eurydice. Tragédie opéra in three acts (French version). »
09 May 2006
Una cosa rara, ossia Bellezza ed onestà. Dramma giocoso in two acts.Music composed by Vicente Martín y Soler (1754–1806). Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte from the comedy La luna de la Sierra by Luis Vélez de Guevara. »
30 Apr 2006
Giulio Cesare in Egitto (HWV 17), Drama in three acts.Music composed by Georg Friedrich Handel (1685–1759). Libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym after an earlier libretto by Giacomo Francesco Bussani. »
20 Apr 2006
I puritani, opera seria in three actsMusic composed by Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835). Libretto by Carlo Pepoli from Têtes rondes et Cavaliers (1833) by Jacques Ancelot and Xavier Saintine. »
17 Apr 2006
Norma: Tragedia lirica in due atti »
09 Apr 2006
La sonnambula, Melodramma in due attiMusic composed by Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835). Libretto by Felice Romani, based on La Sonnambule ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau Seigneur (1827) by Eugène Scribe. »
07 Apr 2006
I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Tragedia lirica in due atti e quattro parti.Music composed by Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835). Libretto by Felice Romani, based on the play Giulietta e Romeo (1818) by Luigi Scevola. »
26 Mar 2006
Die verkaufte Braut (The Bartered Bride; Prodaná nevěsta)Comic opera in three acts.Music composed by Bedřich Smetana. Libretto by Karel Sabina »
23 Mar 2006
Don Pasquale, Dramma buffo in three acts.
Music by Gaetano Donizetti. Libretto by Giovanni Ruffini and the
composer after Angelo Anelli’s libretto for Stefano Pavesi’s Ser
Marcantonio (1810), which was derived from Epicœne or The
Silent Woman by Ben Jonson (1609). »
20 Mar 2006
Roméo et Juliette, Opéra en cinq actes
Music composed by Charles François Gounod. Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. »
12 Mar 2006
Il Matrimonio Segreto, Melodramma giocoso in two acts.Music composed by Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801). Libretto by Giovanni Bertati after The Clandestine Marriage (1766) by George Colman the Elder and David Garrick. »
02 Mar 2006
Oberon, Romantic opera in three actsMusic by Carl Maria von Weber. Libretto by James Robinson Planché after Oberon by Christoph Martin Wieland and the 13th-century French romance Huon de Bordeaux »
18 Feb 2006
Der Freischütz, Romantische Oper in drei Aufzügen.Music composed by Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826). Libretto by Friedrich Kind. »
15 Feb 2006
Armida, Dramma per musica in tre atti. »
12 Feb 2006
Euryanthe, Romantische Oper in drei AufzügenMusic composed by Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826). Libretto by Wilhelmina Christiane von Chézy. »
22 Jan 2006
Parsifal. Bühnenweihfestspiel ("stage dedication play") in three acts.Music and libretto by Richard Wagner. »
15 Jan 2006
La clemenza di Tito. Opera seria in due atti (K. 621).Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Libretto by Caterino Mazzolà based on a text by Pietro Metastasio. »
08 Jan 2006
Idomeneo, rè di Creta. Dramma per musica in tre atti (K. 366).Music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Libretto by Giovanni Battista Varesco after Idomenée by Antoine Danchet. »
06 Jan 2006
Requiem in D Minor (K. 626)Music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Text based on the Mass for the Dead (Requiem Mass). »
01 Jan 2006
Die Schöpfung, Oratorium in drei TeilenMusic composed by Franz Joseph Haydn. Libretto by Gottfried van Swieten based on selections from the Book of Genesis and Paradise Lost by John Milton. »
28 Dec 2005
Faust, Opéra en cinq actesMusic composed by Charles Gounod. Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré after Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe »
25 Dec 2005
La damnation de Faust, Légende dramatique en quatre partiesMusic composed by Hector Berlioz. Libretto by Hector Berlioz, Almire Gandonanière and Gérard de Nerval after Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe »
16 Dec 2005
Mefistofele, Opera in un prologo, quattro atti e un epilogoMusic and libretto by Arrigo Boito (1842-1918), based on Faust: Eine Tragödie by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe »
11 Dec 2005
La Forza del Destino, a melodramma in quattro attiMusic composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave based on the drama Don Alvaro o La fuerza del sino by Angel Perez de Saavedra »
04 Dec 2005
Martha, an opera in four acts.Music composed by Friedrich von Flotow. Libretto by Wilhelm Friedrich.First performance: 25 November 1847 at Theater an der Wien, Vienna. »
01 Dec 2005
La serva padrona, intermezzo in two partsMusic composed by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. Libretto by Gennar'antonio Frederico.First performance: 28 August 1733, Teatro San Bartolomeo, Naples. »
27 Nov 2005
Fidelio, an opera in two acts »
20 Nov 2005
VERDI: Macbeth, melodramma in quattro parti.Music composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play by William Shakespeare. »
12 Nov 2005
Music composed by Johann Strauss II.Libretto by Richard Genée based on Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy/Karl Haffner.First performance: 5 April 1874 at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna. »
24 Oct 2005
Victorien Sardou (1831-1908) was a popular French dramatist during the later half of the 19th Century. He, along with Eugène Scribe, combined melodrama and realism to a produce a more serious form of drama that emphasized careful plot construction. »
10 Oct 2005
Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin (1799-1837) is generally considered Russia’s greatest poet. According to Andrew Kahn, his contemporaries held him “above all the master of the lyric poem, verse that is famous for its formal perfection and its reticent lyric persona, and infamous for its resistance to translation.” [Alexander Pushkin, The Queen of Spades and Other Stories, trans. Alan Myers, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997] »
05 Oct 2005
The Story of the Chevalier Des Grieux and Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost stands as one of the great works of French literature. It first appeared in 1731 as an appendix to the series, Memoirs and Adventures of a Man of Quality. It was later revised in 1753 for independent publication under the title Les Aventures du chevalier Des Grieux et Manon Lescaut with illustrations by Pasquier and Gravelot. »
25 Sep 2005
Only a few months following the premiere of Der Rosenkavalier, Hugo von Hofmannsthal proposed a new opera to Richard Strauss based on Molière’s comedy-ballet, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (in German, Der Bürger als Edelmann). »
18 Sep 2005
By early 1835 Giovanni Pacini had written almost fifty operas during the course of a career launched in 1813. He was tired and he was discouraged. Not only had his earlier works been overshadowed by the force of Rossini’s musical personality, but even after the departure of the Pesarese from Italy in 1823, Pacini’s star did not shine brighter. In his fascinating Memoirs, the composer examined these years and acknowledged his own limitations. Though the first performances of his Irene, o L’assedio di Messina (Naples, Teatro San Carlo, 30 November 1833) were largely rescued by the singers, Pacini knew the creative vein he had been mining was empty. Maturing under the spell of Rossini, he had not yet shown himself to be more than an able follower: “I began to realize that I should withdraw from the field.—Bellini, the divine Bellini, and Donizetti had surpassed me.” »
11 Sep 2005
Das Rheingold is the first of the four works that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen. On the title page of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner refers to Das Rheingold as a Vorabend (a preliminary evening). Nevertheless, Das Rheingold sets the foundation on which the remainder of the Ring is built. »
![Illustration of Parsifal by Rogelio Egusquiza [Courtesy of The British Museum]](http://www.operatoday.com/AN00459076_001_l.gif)