Composed: 1920–25 Premiered: 1925, Monte Carlo Libretto by Colette (Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette) The child has been naughty. His mother does not think he deserves more than tea without sugar and dry bread. He must think about how sad he has made her. He shouts after her, ‘I don’t love anybody! I’m naughty!’ He starts smashing and ill-treating everything ...
‘The Tales of Hoffmann’ Premiered: 1881, Paris Libretto by Jules Barbier after the play by Barbier and Michel Carré Act I Hoffmann has neglected poetry in his search for love. His muse is transformed into a companion named Nicklausse in order to protect him. Hoffmann’s latest love, Stella, an opera singer, is also admired by Counsellor Lindorf. ...
‘The Danaids’ Composed: 1784 Premiered: 1784, Paris Libretto by François Louis Gand Leblanc Roullet, after Raniero de’ Calzabigi The opera is based on a Greek myth. Under the guise of an act of reconciliation, the daughters of Danaus (the Danaids) have been betrothed to the sons of Danaus’s brother and enemy, Aegyptus, who is now dead. ...
‘The Huguenots’ Composed: 1836 Premiered: 1836, Paris Libretto by Eugène Scribe, Emile Deschamps and Gaetano Rossi Act I Nevers, a Catholic, has invited the Huguenot Raoul to a feast, as the king desires peace between the two factions. The guests describe their experiences of love. Raoul has fallen for a lady whom he saved from some ...
‘The Gallant Indians’ Composed in 1735, Les indes galantes is an opéra-ballet in which each act has its own setting and self-contained plot. Its four entrées include a scene set in a Turkish garden, Incas worshipping the sun in a Peruvian desert, a flower festival at a Persian market and a village ceremony in a North American forest. ...
‘The Pearl Fishers’ While the success of Carmen overshadows his other operas, Bizet’s first lasting success was with Les pêcheurs de perles, written when he was only 24. Set in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), it uses gently oriental inflections to portray the priestess Leïla torn between love and her sacred vows, and a more romantic and dramatic style for ...
‘The Trojans’ Composed: 1856–58 Premiered: 1890, Karlsruhe Libretto by the composer, after the Aeneid by Virgil Act I The Trojans celebrate peace and admire the wooden horse left by the Greeks after the siege. Cassandre (Cassandra), King Priam’s daughter, forsees the fall of Troy. Her husband Chorèbe (Coroebus) urges her to join the celebrations, but she begs ...
‘The Sicilian Vespers’ Verdi inherited the libretto for Les vêpres siciliennes (‘The Sicilian Vespers’) from Le duc d’Albe (‘The Duke of Alba’), an opera left unfinished when its composer, Donizetti, died. Verdi made it a five-act work and it had its first performance at the Paris Opéra, for which it was commissioned, on 13 June 1855. It ...
Les Paul (1915–2009) developed a reputation in modern music beyond his status as a successful performer and guitar innovator through his pioneering work with multitrack recording. Born Lester Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the nine-year-old Paul first picked up the harmonica from a street musician. Soon, he was playing for money in the streets. He was attracted to electronics ...
(Guitar, 1915–2009) At 13 Lester Polfus was playing country music semi-professionally and working on sound-related inventions. In the 1930s and 1940s, he worked his way from Wisconsin to New York, eventually playing for blues shouter Georgia White and bandleader Fred Waring before settling in Hollywood and working with Bing Crosby and others. Paul also developed ideas for an ...
Les troyens was such a monumental proposition that even Berlioz was daunted by it. An entry for 1854 in his memoirs read: ‘For the last three years I have been tormented by the idea of a vast opera for which I would write both the words and the music … I am resisting the temptation of carrying out this project, ...
The Académie Royale de Musique (now known as the Paris Académie de Musique or the Paris Opéra), has had many homes. The Académie opened in 1671, and from 1672–87 was largely controlled by Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–87). In 1763, the building was destroyed by fire, as was the next building in 1781. The Opéra moved to rue de Richelieu ...
The extended polemic between Lullistes and Ramistes was provoked by the former group’s disgust for the Italianate elements in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie, and their arising concern that the repertoire and tradition established by Lully was under threat. In contrast, Rameau’s supporters championed his innovative music that included more elaborate solo songs and increasingly complex use of the orchestra. ...
Between 1860 and 1918 Wagner became the most influential intellectual figure in Europe. For his Gesamtkunstwerk (‘Complete Art-Work’) he drew on a wide range of inspirations, including Greek tragedy, the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) and his own historicist ideas of realizing the latent tendencies of all arts. This ensured that his music-dramas reached into almost every area ...
When Vassar Clements formed a band called Hillbilly Jazz in 1975, Bill Monroe’s former fiddler pulled the cover off the hidden connection between country music and jazz. The two genres had more in common than most people thought. After all, Jimmie Rodgers recorded with Louis Armstrong early in their careers; jazz legend Charlie Christian debuted on Bob Wills’ radio ...
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