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During the early eighteenth century a few composers enjoyed regular close collaboration with a favourite librettist, such as Fux with Pariati, or both Vinci and Porpora with the young Metastasio. However, such examples were rare, and instead it was common for a popular libretto created for one major Italian opera centre to be adapted for the needs ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

Throughout his long career, Verdi worked with several librettists and gained a reputation for being something of a tartar. Sometimes he would even write the text himself, only allowing his librettist to put it into verse. The composer had strong ideas about what he wanted from the text to his operas; in the early compositions this was a dramatic ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

Stravinsky (The Rake’s Progress), Henze (Elegy for Young Lovers, 1961; The Bassarids, 1966), and for less acclaimed works by John Gardner (1917–2011) and Nicolas Nabokov (1903–78). Few opera librettists in recent history have been as prolific. Many composers have preferred to supply their own libretto. Several directors have involved themselves in writing texts, usually for operas which they ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

‘The Daughter of the Regiment’ Donizetti’s opéra comique La fille du régiment acquired its French title because of its French librettists, Jules-Henri Vernoy, Marquis de Saint-Georges (1799–1875) and Jean-François-Alfred Bayard (1796–1853), and its first night was at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 11 February 1840. La fille, which was set in the Tirol, in Austria during the ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

between 1691 and 1716, and the title pages of the printed wordbooks state that he served the Duke of Mantua between 1699 and 1705. Silvani identified with the ‘reform’ librettists such as Zeno and Pariati, and his texts feature clearly motivated plots, elevated language and extensive recitatives. He occasionally based his libretti on literary sources such as Tasso ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

Cairo. This work established the composer’s reputation at the Opéra-Comique after its premiere in 1872, and he was offered a full-length commission, on condition he used the established librettists Henri Meilhac (1831–97) and Halévy. Much to the dismay of the directorate of the Opéra-Comique, Bizet put forward the idea of an opera based on Prosper Mérimée’s Carmen. Compromises ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

reshaping the opera from two acts to three. The revised version was performed at the Teatro Grande, Brescia, in May 1904. This time it was a tremendous success. Librettists Like many other opera composers, Puccini had recurrent trouble with his librettists. Ferdinando Fontana, who wrote the texts for his first two operas, Le villi and Edgar ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

Verdi | High Romantic Personalities | Richard Wagner | High Romantic | Opera Performance | Premiere of Otello | High Romantic | Opera Stage & Scene | Verdi & his Librettists | High Romantic | Opera Houses & Companies | La Scala, Milan | High Romantic | Opera ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

Boccanegra. Eight years later, Tamagno created Otello and Maurel created Iago. Both singers took part in the British premiere of Otello, while Maurel became the first Falstaff. Verdi’s Librettists Verdi bullied his librettists mercilessly. Sometimes he wrote the text himself and merely let the librettist put it into verse; what he wanted in the early operas was a series ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

such as König Hirsch (1956), Elegy for Young Lovers (1961) and The Bassarids (1966). The latter two, arguably his most important works, are notable for his collaborations with librettists W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman – Elegy for Young Lovers is a chamber opera with a 12-tone score, while one-act, full-length opera The Bassarids, an adaption ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

on 11 March 1829, in the large hall of the Singakademie in Berlin. The performance was such a success that St Matthew Passion has never again left the repertory. Librettists and Poets Bach’s vocal works all required a written text. Composers had a wide selection of authors from which to choose, as large quantities of devotional literature were published ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

that for the musical stage. The comic operetta Candide (1956) never took off during its initial run, and it underwent numerous rewrites by Bernstein and no fewer than seven librettists over the course of more than 30 years. Its 1973, revival has become the standard performance version, although that by John Mauceri in 1988–89, a year before ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

libretti were the Roman poet Ovid and the lyrical pastoral legend. His verse, which was well suited to the natural delivery of words, set the style for many librettists after him. Introduction | Early & Middle Baroque | Opera Personalities | Marthe Le Rochois | Early & Middle Baroque | Opera ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

that naturally lent itself to opera. Apart from his genius as a story-teller, Hugo’s secret lay in his vigorous attachment to Romantic principles, which exercised profound influence over librettists and composers of Romantic opera. Hugo himself made one attempt at writing a libretto, Esmeralda (1836). This text, written for the French composer Louise-Angélique Bertin (1805–77) was an ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

stark human drama of its tragedies. The result was opera seria – serious opera. Metastasio and Opera Seria The protagonists of opera seria were not composers, but two Italian librettists – Apostolo Zeno (1668–1750) and Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782). Metastasio was Italy’s most famous poet and, among composers, soon became its most popular librettist. This was how opera libretti ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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