Ethel Smyth’s last large-scale work, written in 1930 by the then 72-year-old composer who was increasingly afflicted and depressed by her worsening deafness, was The Prison – a ‘symphony’ for soprano and bass-baritone soloists, chorus and orchestra.
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.
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
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).
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).
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)
The most notable of all Péricholes of Offenbach’s sentimental operetta is surely the legendary Hortense Schneider who created the role back in 1868 at Paris’ Théâtre des Varietés. Alas there is no digital record.
John Eliot Gardiner's Schumann series with the London Symphony Orchestra, demonstrate the how Schumann’s Lieder and piano music influenced his approach to symphonic form and his interests in music drama.
Passion! Pain! Poetry! (but hold the irony . . .)
Brilliant Emmerich Kálmán’s Ein Herbstmanöver from the Stadttheater, Giessen in 2018, conducted by Michael Hofstetter now on Oehms Classics, in a performing version by Balázs Kovalik.
Medea: Melodramma tragico in three acts.
The 68th Wexford Festival Opera, which runs until Sunday 3rd November, is bringing past, present and future together in ways which suggest that the Festival is in good health, and will both blossom creatively and stay true to its roots in the years ahead.
O Lieb! presents the lieder of Franz Liszt with a distinctive spark from Cyrille Dubois and Tristan Raës, from Aparté. Though young, Dubois is very highly regarded. His voice has a luminous natural elegance, ideal for the Mélodie and French operatic repertoire he does so well. With these settings by Franz Liszt, Dubois brings out the refinement and sophistication of Liszt’s approach to song.
The final performance of San Francisco Opera’s deeply flawed production of the Gounod masterpiece became, in fact, a triumph — for the Romeo of Pene Pati, the Juliet of Amina Edris, and for Charles Gounod in the hands of conductor Yves Abel.
From Albion, The Song of Love featuring songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams, with Kitty Whately, Roderick Williams and pianist William Vann. Albion is unique, treasured by Vaughan Williams devotees for rarely heard repertoire from the composer’s vast output, so don’t expect mass market commercial product. Albion recordings often highlight new perspectives.
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.
Manon Lescaut, dramma lirico in quattro atti
Elektra: Tragedy in one act.
Though Luigi Cherubini long outlived the carnage of the French Revolution his 1797 opéra comique [with spoken dialogue] Médée fell well within the “horror opera” genre that responded to the spirit of its time. These days however Médée is but an esoteric and extremely challenging late addition to the international repertory.
Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer have become an indispensable presence in the contemporary opera world, and their latest premiere, If I Were You, found the duo at the very top of their game.
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]
In or about 1820, he turned to writing fiction and history, which proved to be highly influential upon later writers such as Tolstoy and Turgenev. Of his later output, the best known works are Eugene Onegin, a novel in verse, Boris Godunov, an historical play, and The Queen of Spades (or Pique Dame), a gothic short story.
Outside of Russia, Pushkin is best known from operas based on his works. The following is a list of such operas prepared by Stephany Gould Plecker.
Operas Based on Works of Pushkin
Verse Works
The Triumph of Bacchus...............Aleksandr Dargomyzhskii (1848)
Ruslan and Liudmila.....................Mikhail Glinka (1842)
Eugene Onegin.............................Piotr Chaikovskii (1879)
Mazeppa [Based on Poltava]............Piotr Chaikovskii (1884)
Rusalka.......................................Aleksandr Dargomyzhkii (1856)
The Captive of the Caucasus............Cesar Cui (1883)
Aleko [Based on "The Gypsies"]........Sergei Rakhmaninov (1893)
Mavra [Based on "The Little House at Komna"].........Igor Stravinskii (1922)
Fairy Tales
The Tale of Tsar Saltan.......... Nikolai Rimskii-Korsakov (1900)
The Golden Cockerel............. Nikolai Rimskii-Korsakov (1909)
Little Tragedies
The Stone Guest.......................Aleksandr Dargomyzhskii (1872)
Mozart and Salieri....................Nikolai Rimskii-Korsakov (1898)
A Feast in the Time of Plaque......Cesar Cui (1901)
The Covetous Knight.................Sergei Rakhmaninov (1906)
The Big Tragedy
Boris Godunov...................Modest Musorgskii (1869)
Prose Works
La Dame du pique....................Fromental Halévy (1850)
Pique dame............................ Franz von Suppe (1865)
The Queen of Spades.................Piotr Chaikovskii (1890)
The Captain's Daughter.............Cesar Cui (1911)
Dubrovskii..............................Eduard Napravnik (1895)
Winter Night [Based on "The Snowstorm"]............Ivan Dzerzhinskii (1946)
Lizinka [Based on "Mistress into Maid"].................Ivan Zajc (1878)
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