AUTHORITATIVE | CURATED | First 500 words Free

• Personalities
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

1874–1967, American Born in Aberdeen, Scotland, Garden moved to America when she was six. She studied in Chicago and then Paris, where she debuted as Charpentier’s Louise at the Opéra-Comique. Perhaps her most historically significant role was creating Mélisande in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande in 1902. It was in this part that she made her American debut ...

• Instruments
• Classical
• Contemporary Classical

Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/ Musique (IRCAM), Paris, established in 1976 under the direction of Boulez. Roberto Gerhard’s (1896–1970) Third Symphony (‘Collages’, 1960) incorporated sounds recorded in the composer’s garden, assisted by the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop in London. Other fruits of collaborations with radio stations include Berio’s Visage (1961), which combined synthesized sounds with the electronically treated voice of ...

• Instruments
• Classical
• Classical Era

scene in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Mozart opera provides another nice example of the wind band at work, in Così fan tutte, where a serenade is performed in the garden scene as a seduction is being prepared. Styles & Forms | Classical Era | Classical Instruments | Baryton | Classical Era | Classical ...

• Major Operas
• Late Baroque
• Opera

him that Ginevra is betrothed to Ariodante, a knight. Polinesso then devises a plot by which he can use Dalinda’s love for him to win Ginevra’s heart. In the garden, Ginevra and Ariodante sing of their love for each other. The king gives them his blessing and orders Odoardo to begin the wedding preparations. Meanwhile, Polinesso appeals to ...

• Major Operas
• Modern Era
• Opera

First performed at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden on 1 December 1951, this adaptation of Herman Melville’s short story saw E. M. Forster writing large portions of prose while Eric Crozier focused on the dramatic execution. Accordingly, Billy Budd was one of the most meticulously researched and well-written librettos of any Benjamin Britten opera. Typically for ...

• Major Operas
• Classical Era
• Opera

‘That’s Women for You’ While Don Giovanni was the nineteenth century’s favourite Mozart opera, Così fan tutte, premiered on 26 January 1790, was widely considered frivolous, immoral and (not least by Beethoven) an insult to women. Today we can see it as perhaps the most ambivalent and disturbing of Mozart’s three Da Ponte comedies. In the composer’s ...

• Major Operas
• Classical Era
• Opera

a visiting architect. The Pasha is welcoming but then Osmin tries to deny the two men access to the castle; outwitting him, they go inside. Act II In the garden, Blonde rejects Osmin’s advances, confusing him with her fiery intelligence and promising him pain and violence if he does not leave her alone. Meanwhile, Konstanze laments her ...

• Major Operas
• Classical Era
• Opera

being. At the temple, Papageno and Tamino are preparing to undergo their first ordeal: a vow of silence. The ladies-in-waiting try unsuccessfully to trick them into speaking. In the garden, Monostatos creeps up on the sleeping Pamina. The Queen of Night appears, giving her daughter a dagger with which to kill Sarastro. Monostatos threatens Pamina, but Sarastro ...

• Major Operas
• Early Romantic
• Opera

it is a letter from a mystery lover arranging a rendezvous in the garden. Malatesta feigns incredulity at Sofronia’s dreadful conduct and advises Don Pasquale to go along to the garden and catch his wife red-handed. In the garden Ernesto and Norina meet and sing a romantic duet. Ernesto then leaves, as Don Pasquale and Malatesta arrive. Sofronia feigns horror ...

• Major Operas
• Modern Era
• Opera

, the weapons stained with blood. She may have three more keys, on condition that she asks no questions. The third and fourth doors reveal the treasury and his garden, the jewels smeared with blood and the flowers withering. The fifth opens onto the glory of his kingdom. All this is now hers. Judith cannot rest while two doors ...

• Major Operas
• High Romantic
• Opera

characters and their situation. Composed: 1877–78 Premiered: 1879, Moscow Libretto by the composer and Konstantin Stepanovich Shilovsky after Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin’s novel in verse Act I Seated in the garden of her country estate, Madame Larina listens to her daughters, Tat’yana and Olga, and reflects on the time before her marriage when she loved a cavalry officer. ...

• Major Operas
• Modern Era
• Opera

a model of the Heavenly Mansion. She is shown in ecstasy. She rocks an imaginary child in her arms. Act II The formally dressed Compère and Commère comment on a garden party in the country near Barcelona. There is a Dance of Angels and St Chavez organizes a game. The saints look at the heavenly mansion through a telescope, which ...

• Major Operas
• High Romantic
• Opera

his prospects. Still claiming that he loves her, he arranges another meeting and persuades Halka to leave. Act II While the party continues, Halka comes back to the garden where she meets Jontek, another of Janusz’s serfs, who has long loved her. He unsuccessfully tries to convince her that Janusz cannot be trusted. They hear the guests ...

• Major Operas
• Modern Era
• Opera

kiss her, but turns on Kátya when she tries to embrace him. Act II Kabanicha tells Kátya that if she really loved Tichon she would display more grief. The garden is usually locked, but Varvara has found the key. Kátya wants to throw it in the river, but she hides it when she hears Kabanicha. She must see ...

• Major Operas
• Modern Era
• Opera

the child has ripped out pages from her picture book. The only pages he can find summon up the exhausting ‘arithmetic man’. He follows two noisily amorous cats into the garden, but even there everything has something bad to say about the child. The squirrel has not forgotten being imprisoned in a cage and prodded. The child says it was ...