First premiering at the Royal Opera House on December 1st, 1951, Benjamin Britten’s “Billy Budd” is based on a novel of the same name by Herman Melville, author of the famed sea-faring story “Moby Dick.” The libretto was by E.M. Forster in collaboration with Eric Crozier. As Britten composed the score for “Billy Budd,” a one-act opera based on the {…}
“Katya Kabanova” is considered one of the first “mature” operas composed by Leos Janacek. First premiering on November 23, 1921, the opera is adapted from Alexander Ostrovsky’s play “The Storm,” and is said to be influenced by Janacek’s unrequited love for a woman named Kamila Stosslova, with whom he kept frequent correspondence through letters. Centering on the timeless theme of {…}
Giacomo Meyerbeer’s “Robert le Diable” premiered on November 21, 1831, and is among the first of the grand operas performed at the Paris Opera. Based on tales surrounding Robert the Magnificent, duke of Normandy, which claimed he was the son of the devil, the opera’s supernatural plot and dramatic impact made it an instant success. It had over 100 performances {…}
“Fidelio” first premiered on Nov. 20, 1805 and is the only opera composed by Ludwig Van Beethoven. While he was originally working with librettist Emanuel Schikaneder, who wrote “The Magic Flute,” difficulties with the composition, as well as the annulment of their contract, freed up Beethoven to work with Joseph Sonnleithner on what would become “Fidelio.” While it remains a {…}
Umberto Giordano’s “Fedora” will never rank with the likes of “Andrea Chénier” in the operatic canon, but the composer’s second most popular work still gets its looks from time to time. The work premiered on Nov. 17, 1898, with the composer in the pit and a certain Enrico Caruso in the lead tenor role. The work was based on the {…}
Leo Janacek composed some of opera’s greatest masterpieces, including “The Cunning Little Vixen,” or “Příhody lišky Bystroušky” in the original Czech. The opera, which had its world premiere on Nov. 6, 1924, is arguably the composer’s best-known opera, its themes allowing it to be showcased as a more serious drama or even as children’s entertainment. The opera’s finale was played {…}
Francesco Cilea isn’t one of opera’s most famed composers. While he created his fair share of works, only one lives on in the standard repertoire. That opera is, of course, “Adriana Lecouvreur,” a tragedy that has become a vehicle for some of the greatest sopranos in the history of opera. The work premiered at the Teatro Lirico of Milan on {…}
Each of Donizetti’s Tudor Trilogy operas brings its own flavor. “Anna Bolena” is lengthy but filled with tremendous external conflict while “Maria Stuarda” ramps up to a massive encounter between two Queens before becoming an intimate and internalized drama. “Roberto Devereux” brings all those elements together to create arguably the greatest of Donizetti’s dramatic operas. Premiering on Oct. 29, 1837, {…}
“Ariadne auf Naxos” is among the more popular Strauss works in the canon, its status the result of its glorious and lush melodies that accompany its passionate love duet. But the opera as we know it today was not the way it was originally conceived. The version that premiered on Oct. 25, 1912, was actually little more than a 30-minute {…}
Wagner’s ‘Tannhaüser’ is an opera that combines elements of Romantic-era storytelling with those of French grand opera. Premiering on October 19, 1845, the story grapples with the theme of lust versus love, and centers on the experiences of a knight/bard minnesinger named Tannhaüser. Shortly after its premiere, Wagner made a number of changes; after adding vocal selection and clarifying the {…}
Richard Strauss’ “Die Frau ohne Schatten,” is an opera composed to a libretto written by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Premiering on Oct. 10, 1919, the opera faced several problems, critics were unreceptive to the plot, which they felt was over-complicated, and the First World War, which had ended a year earlier, added great difficulty to producing a work which required many {…}