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• Major Operas
• Classical Era
• Opera

‘Titus’ Clemency’ Premiered in Prague on 6 September 1791, Mozart’s last opera is based on an old Metastasio libretto, updated (with added ensembles and choruses) for contemporary taste. Popular in the early nineteenth century, it then went into eclipse. Nowadays, though, La clemenza di Tito is valued on its own terms rather than as a pale ...

• Personalities
• Classical Era
• Opera

1714–87, German Famous above all as the composer of Orfeo ed Euridice, Christoph Willibald von Gluck was, more than anyone, responsible for purging opera of what he dubbed the ‘abuses’ of opera seria in favour of ‘beautiful simplicity’, emotional directness and dramatic truth. From Bohemia to Vienna Born in the small town of Erasbach in the Upper ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Contemporary Classical
• Singer

b. 1935 Spanish mezzo-soprano Berganza made her debut as Mozart’s Dorabella at Aix-en-Provence, and sang Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro) at Glyndebourne the next year. Her roles included Sesto (La clemenza di Tito, ‘Titus’ Clemency’), Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and, later, Carmen, but she was most sought after for Rossini heroines. Introduction | Contemporary | Classical Personalities ...

• Classical
• Classical Era

The Enlightenment was a great wave of thought in the eighteenth century that combated mysticism, superstition and the supernatural – and to some extent the dominance of the church. Its origins lie in French rationalism and scepticism and English empiricism, as well as in the new spirit of scientific enquiry. It also affected political theory in the writings of ...

• Opera
• Early Romantic

The Romantic period in opera, music, literature and art lasted more than a century overall, from around 1790 – the year after the French Revolution – to 1910, four years before the outbreak of the First World War. In this context, the meaning of ‘romantic’ went far beyond the usual amorous connotations: it stood for the ...

• Opera
• Late Baroque

The traditions and styles of opera from Venice and Naples dominated operatic life in Rome, although for a short time public opera performances were forbidden in the papal city. The influence of Italian opera stretched much further, and companies were established outside Italy – most notably the Dresden opera house at the court of the Elector of Saxony, ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Classical Era
• Composer

(Wôlf’-gäng Am-ä-da’-oos Mot’-särt) 1756–91 Austrian composer The ‘miracle which God let be born in Salzburg’ – to quote his father, Leopold – came into the world on 27 January 1756 and was baptized the next day as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus; he normally used only the last two names, in the forms Wolfgang Amadeus or Wolfgang Amadè. His father, ...

• Personalities
• Classical Era
• Opera

1756–91, Austrian Alone of the great Viennese classical ‘trinity’ – Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven – Mozart (1756–91) was a born theatre animal. From boyhood, opera was his greatest passion and he built on existing conventions to enrich and deepen three distinct types of opera: opera seria, opera buffa and German Singspiel. The Child Prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ...

• Styles & Forms
• Late Baroque
• Opera

In the late Baroque era, opera was the most widely cultivated musical form. It had its own social and economic subculture and engaged many of the finest composers. By the early eighteenth century, most of the principal cities in Europe had imported opera from Italy and modified it to suit the local audiences’ taste. In France, opera remained ...