Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Don Giovanni Overture Context Composed in 1787, Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts. Its popularity when it premiered shot it into immediate success, and in the modern day it still remains as one of the most popular operas of all time. Don Giovanni cleverly intertwines both serious drama and comedy Read more…
Leonard Bernstein: Overture to Candide Context Leonard Bernstein composed the music for the operetta Candide in 1955-56. The operetta is based on the 1759 novella of the same name by Voltaire. The premiere was unsuccessful and after some revisions and creative changes, Candide has become a very popular show. The Read more…
Ludwig van Beethoven: Coriolan Overture Context Composed in 1807, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture was used in Heinrich Joseph von Collin’s tragedy of the same name. The overture received its concert premiere in 1807 at a private concert for Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz. At the same concert Beethoven also Read more…
Mikhail Glinka: Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture Context Composed between 1837-42, Mikhail Glinka’s opera Ruslan and Lyudmila is based on Alexander Pushkin’s poem of the same name. Split into five acts, the opera’s libretto was written by Valerian Shirkov, Nestor Kukolnik and N.A. Markevich. Seldom performed as a full-scale opera today, Read more…
Zoltán Kodály: Háry János Suite Context Premiering at the Royal Hungarian Opera House in 1926, Zoltán Kodály’s folk opera Háry János has remained one of his more popular large-scale works. Based on the comic epic The Veteran by János Garay, with a Hungarian libretto by Béla Paulini, Háry János showcases Read more…
Richard Wagner: Lohengrin Prelude to Act I Context Richard Wagner’s Romantic opera Lohengrin was first performed in 1850. During the 1840s, Wagner had spent much time researching and reading into medieval German legends, epics and stories that he could use for one of his own works. By 1845, Wagner had Read more…
Gioachino Rossini: The Barber of Seville Overture Context Gioachino Rossini’s highly popular comic opera, The Barber of Seville was premiered on 20th February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. The libretto for the opera was based on Pierre Beaumarchais’s comedy Le Barbier de Séville (1775). Rossini composed some of Read more…
Ethel Smyth: The Wreckers Overture Context Composed and premiered in 1906, The Wreckers is one of Dame Ethel Smyth’s most intriguing operas. The original libretto was in French and was written by Henry Brewster. Smyth tried hard to get a French performance of the opera, however the first performance was Read more…
Johann Strauss II: Die Fledermaus Overture Context Operettas became popular in Europe from the 1850s, with the quick theatrical pace and comedic plot lines pleasing audiences for years. The infectious melodies that dominated operettas from this time fitted really well with the waltzes and polkas that Strauss had been pleasing Read more…
Johann Strauss II: Tausend und eine Nacht Context Translated as ‘Thousand and One Nights’, Johann Strauss II composed this famous waltz in 1871. The melodies for this waltz came from his first operetta Indigo und die vierzig Räuber (‘Indigo and the Forty Thieves’). Though a triumph for the composer, the Read more…