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The Death of Klinghoffer is an American opera, with music by John Adams to an English-language libretto by Alice Goodman. First produced in Brussels and New York in 1991, the opera is based on the hijacking of the passenger liner Achille Lauro by the Palestine Liberation Front in 1985, and the resulting murder of Jewish-American passenger Leon Klinghoffer. The concept of the opera originated with theatre director Peter Sellars, who was a major collaborator, as was the choreographer Mark Morris. It was commissioned by five American and European opera companies, as well as the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The opera was originally commissioned through a consortium of five opera companies, including La Monnaie, San Francisco Opera, Opéra de Lyon, Los Angeles Opera and Glyndebourne Festival Opera, as well as the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The first performance took place at the Théatre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels, Belgium, on 19 March 1991, directed by Sellars. The first US performance was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on 5 September 1991. Because of the ensuing controversy and reaction to the subject matter and philosophy of the opera (see below), the Glyndebourne and Los Angeles productions did not take place. When the original production was staged at San Francisco Opera in November 1992, the Jewish Information League staged protests.
The next full staging of the opera did not occur until February 2001, in Helsinki at Finnish National Opera. The first complete UK performance was a 2002 concert in London by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Penny Woolcock directed a British television version of the opera, in revised form, for Channel 4, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adams; its soundtrack was made in 2001, the telecast aired in 2003, and a DVD was released on Decca in 2004. The first Australasian performance took place in February 2005 at the Auckland Festival, New Zealand. The first fully staged UK production was given in August 2005 at the Edinburgh Festival by Scottish Opera.
The opera received new concert performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in December 2003, and the Curtis Institute of Music, through its Curtis Opera Theatre and Curtis Symphony Orchestra, gave a performance in Philadelphia in February 2005. Four years later, students at the Juilliard Opera Center performed a semi-staged concert version with Adams conducting. The Death of Klinghoffer received its second full American staging in June 2011 at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, directed by James Robinson. The opera received its first London production on 25 February 2012 at English National Opera, in a co-production with the Metropolitan Opera, which is scheduled to stage the opera in the 2014-2015 season. After being dropped from production by co-commissioner Los Angeles Opera, the opera will finally receive its Los Angeles area premiere in March 2014 with Long Beach Opera, conducted by Andreas Mitisek and staged by James Robinson.
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The Desert Song is an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel. It was inspired by the 1925 uprising of the Riffs, a group of Moroccan fighters, against French colonial rule. It was also inspired by stories of Lawrence of Arabia aiding native guerrillas. Many tales romanticizing Arab North Africa were in vogue, including Beau Geste and The Son of the Sheik.
Originally titled "Lady Fair", after successful out-of-town tryouts in Wilmington, Delaware and Boston, Massachusetts, the original Broadway production opened at the Casino Theatre on November 30, 1926 and ran for a very successful 465 performances. It starred Vivienne Segal. The piece enjoyed a London production and was revived on Broadway in 1946 and 1973. In the 1980s, it was played regularly by the Light Opera of Manhattan and revived by the New York City Opera. It is a popular piece for community light opera groups.
The story is a version of plots such as The Scarlet Pimpernel, Zorro and Superman, where a hero adopts a mild-mannered disguise to keep his true identity a secret. He loves a beautiful and spirited girl, who loves his hero persona but does not know his real personality, which he keeps hidden under the milquetoast persona.
Industry:Drama
Destiny (also known as Fate, Czech: Osud) is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer and Fedora Bartošová. Janáček began the work in 1903 and completed it in 1907. The inspiration for the opera came from a visit by Janáček in the summer of 1903, after the death of his daughter Olga, to the spa at Luhačovice. There, Janáček met Kamila Urválková, who had been the subject of an opera by Ludvík Čelanský, Kamila, where she felt that Čelanský had falsely depicted her personality. After learning that Janáček was a composer, Urválková persuaded Janáček to write another opera to counteract Čelanský's portrait of her.
Janáček submitted the opera to the Brno Theatre in 1906, and to the Vinohrady Theatre in Prague in 1907, but both theatres rejected the score. The score stayed with the Vinohrady Theatre even after Janáček had threatened lawsuits against the theatre and after the Brno theatre made offers of a possible production.
The work did not receive a hearing until after Janáček's death, in 1934 on Brno Radio.
The first staging was in 1958 in Brno, conducted by František Jílek, as part of the 1958 Janáček Festival in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Janáček's death.
However, the structure of the plot was altered from the original to give the story a "flashback" format, where the story begins with Act 3 and interpolates Act 1 and Act 2 as the "flashbacks", before returning to finish Act 3.
The first UK staging was in 1984 at English National Opera, in a translation by David Poutney, but with Janáček's original plot structure intact. The first US production was in July 2003 at the Bard Summerscape Festival. Scholars have criticised weaknesses in the plot as the reason for the opera's neglect.
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The Devil and Kate, Op. 112, B.201, (Čert a Káča in Czech) is an opera in three acts by Antonín Dvořák to a Czech libretto by Adolf Wenig. It is based on a farce by Josef Kajetán Tyl, and the story also had been treated in the Fairy Tales of Božena Němcová. The first performance of the opera was at the National Theatre, Prague, on 23 November 1899, under Adolf Čech.
The Devil and Kate is one of the few operas of Dvořák, along with Rusalka, to have remained in the repertory. This can be attributed to the high demand for Italian grand operas in his time and the difficulties of Dvořák's intricate staging. The opera has great appeal because of its combination of fairy tale and folk music; it is very close in feel to a Czech tone poem. At times, it feels like a Czech version of Hansel & Gretel. The overture was written after the opera itself.
John Clapham has written critical analysis of the opera and noted the presence of the style of Wagnerian declamation in the work.
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The Devil Take Her is an opera in one act by Arthur Benjamin to an original English libretto by Alan Collard and John Gordon. First performance: Royal College of Music, London, 1931. It is not part of the standard operatic repertoire.
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Dialogues des carmélites (Dialogues of the Carmelites) is a 1956 French-language opera in twelve scenes and several orchestral interludes, grouped into three acts, by Francis Poulenc. It is the composer's second opera; he wrote the libretto himself after a scheme by Georges Bernanos. Its première took place (in an Italian translation) in January 1957 at Teatro alla Scala in Milan; French and American premières followed the same year.
The genesis of the opera began in 1953 when M. Valcarenghi approached Poulenc to commission a ballet for La Scala in Milan. When Poulenc found the proposed subject uninspiring, Valcarenghi suggested instead a screenplay by Bernanos based on the novella Die Letzte am Schafott (The Last on the Scaffold or, in one translation, Song at the Scaffold) by Gertrud von Le Fort. The novella derives from historical events at the monastery of Carmelite nuns in Compiègne, northern France, in the wake of the French Revolution, specifically in 1794 at the time of state seizure of the monastery's assets; it traces a fictional path from 1789 up to these events, when nuns of the Carmelite Order were guillotined.
Bernanos had been hired in 1947 to write dialogue for a movie version of the Le Fort work. When it was judged unsatisfactory for a film he turned it into a play which was produced in Paris in 1949. Poulenc saw the play, but it was on suggestion of his publishing firm Ricordi to turn the subject into an opera. The opera was composed between 1953 and 1956. The idea for the opera came at at time when Poulenc had recommitted himself to spirituality and (though openly gay) Roman Catholicism. Some, such as opera critic Alan Rich, also see Poulenc's concerns for the travails of post-World War II France as a subtext within the opera.
Some sources credit Emmet Lavery as librettist or co-librettist, but others only say, "With the permission of Emmet Lavery." The libretto is unusually deep in its psychological study of the contrasting characters of Mother Marie de l'Incarnation and Blanche de la Force.
Dialogues contributes to Poulenc's reputation as a composer especially of fine vocal music. The dialogues are largely set in recitative, with a melodic line that closely follows the text. The harmonies are lush, with the occasional wrenching twists that are characteristic of Poulenc's style. Poulenc's deep religious feelings are particularly evident in the gorgeous a cappella setting of Ave Maria in Act II, Scene II, and the Ave verum corpus in Act II, Scene IV. During the final tableau of the opera, which takes place in the Place de la Nation, the distinct sound of the guillotine's descending blade is heard repeatedly over the orchestra and the singing of the nuns, who are depleted one by one, until only Sister Constance remains.
Poulenc acknowledged his debt to Mussorgsky, Monteverdi, Verdi, and Debussy in the dedication of this opera but still felt apologetic about the opera's conservative harmonic language saying "You must forgive my Carmelites. It seems they can only sing tonal music." Opera historians, such as Anthony Tommasini, feel there is nothing to be ashamed of, saying the "subtle and intricate tonal language is by turns hymnal and haunting. Though scored for a large orchestra, the instruments are often used in smaller groups selected for particular effects and colorings. The most distinctive element of the score, though, is its wonderfuly natural vocal writing, which capture the rhythms and lyrical flow of the libertto in eloquent music that hardly calls attention to itself yet lingers with you."
The opera has been widely praised, and opera historian Charles Osborne reflected on it saying "The inexorable dramatic movement of the work is impressive and, in the final scene in which the nuns walk in procession to the guillotine chanting the Salve regina, extremely moving. Poulenc also found an easy and effective style to which to carry forward without monotony the scenes of convent life."
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Dido and Aeneas (Z. 626) is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The first known performance was at Josias Priest's girls' school in London no later than the summer of 1688. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid. It recounts the love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for the Trojan hero Aeneas, and her despair when he abandons her. A monumental work in Baroque opera, Dido and Aeneas is remembered as one of Purcell's foremost theatrical works. It was also Purcell's first opera, as well as his only all-sung dramatic work. One of the earliest English operas, it owes much to John Blow's Venus and Adonis, both in structure and in overall effect.
Industry:Drama
Dienstag aus Licht (Tuesday from Light) is an opera by Karlheinz Stockhausen in a greeting and two acts, with a farewell, and was the fourth of seven to be completed for the opera cycle Licht: die sieben Tage der Woche (Light: The Seven Days of the Week). It was begun in 1977 and completed from 1988 to 1991, to a libretto by the composer.
Dienstag is an opera for 17 solo performers (three singers, 10 instrumentalists, 4 dancer-mimes), actors, mimes, choir, orchestra, and electronic music. Tuesday is the red day of conflict between Michael and Lucifer (Stockhausen 1989b, 200).
As was the case for most of the operas in the Licht cycle, component sections of Dienstag were commissioned and composed separately, and given seriatim premieres. The first component of this opera was in fact the first part of the entire Licht cycle to be composed: Jahreslauf (Course of the Years), which became the first act of Dienstag, was originally written in 1977 as an independent piece for gagaku ensemble. Stockhausen finished it in Kyoto in the fall of 1977, and it was premiered by the Imperial Gagaku Ensemble at the Tokyo National Theatre on 31 October. This version is dedicated to Jaynee Stephens. A concert version for European instruments, with the slightly different title Der Jahreslauf (The Course of the Years), was performed in the Large Broadcasting Hall of the WDR, Cologne, on 10 February 1979. The day before the premiere, a studio recording was made for commercial release, and the same musicians participated in five staged performances of this act produced by the Paris Opera at the Opéra-Comique from 20 to 24 November 1979 (Stockhausen 1989a, 156). It was while working on this piece in Japan that the idea occurred to him of composing a seven-part cycle of operas, all based on a single, multi-layered musical formula (Kurtz 1992, 2). In the spring of 1991 Stockhausen added a narrative frame for Michael and Lucifer (Kurtz 1992, 236).
Industry:Drama
Djamileh is an opéra comique in one act by Georges Bizet to a libretto by Louis Gallet, based on an oriental tale, Namouna, by Alfred de Musset.
De Musset wrote Namouna in 1832, consisting of 147 verses in three 'chants' (only the last dozen or so deal with the tale of Namouna). In 1871 when Bizet was stalled on other projects for the stage, Camille du Locle, director of the Opéra-Comique suggested to him a piece written some years earlier by Louis Gallet based on Namouna. After some hesitation, Bizet composed the work during the late summer of 1871 but the premiere production was delayed due to trouble in finding suitable singers.
The original production formed part of a trio of new short works at the Opéra-Comique that spring: Paladilhe's Le Passant in April, then Djamileh, and La princesse jaune (also an orientalist work) by Saint-Saëns in June. Bizet had wanted Galli-Marié (the first Carmen) or Marguerite Priola to create the title role - both were singing in the Paladilhe piece, but was obliged to take instead the inadequate Prelly.
On 17 June, Bizet wrote to a friend that, despite the lack of success of his new piece, he at least felt that he had found his path as a composer.
Djamileh received its first performance on 22 May 1872 at the Opéra-Comique, Paris. Although du Locle had lavished great care on the costumes and sets, after ten performances in 1872 it was not revived in Paris until 27 October 1938. Outside France productions were mounted in Stockholm (1889), Rome (1890), and Dublin, Prague, Manchester and Berlin (1892).
The opera has been neglected for most of its existence, despite the admiration it received from both Gustav Mahler, who, after introducing it in Hamburg (21 October 1892), conducted nineteen performances of it at the Vienna State Opera between 1898 (first performance there 22 January 1898) and 1903, and Richard Strauss, who viewed it as a source of inspiration for Ariadne auf Naxos. Jussi Björling sang Haroun in a 1933 revival of an earlier production at the Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm.
Productions were mounted in 2008 by DCA Theater in Chicago and, in 2010, by the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, directed by Jonathan Eaton and starring Matt Morgan as Haroun, Daniel Teadt as Splendiano, and Christina Nassif in the title role.
Industry:Drama
Doctor Atomic is an opera by the contemporary American composer John Adams, with libretto by Peter Sellars. It premiered at the San Francisco Opera on October 1, 2005. The work focuses on the great stress and anxiety experienced by those at Los Alamos while the test of the first atomic bomb (the "Trinity" test) was being prepared. In 2007, a documentary was made about the creation of the opera, titled Wonders Are Many.
The first act takes place about a month before the bomb is to be tested, and the second act is set in the early morning of July 16, 1945 (the day of the test). During the second act, time frequently slows down for the characters and then snaps back into reality. The opera ends in the final, prolonged moment before the bomb is detonated. Although the original commission for the opera suggested that U.S. physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb," be fashioned as a 20th-century Doctor Faustus, Adams and Sellars deliberately attempted to avoid this characterization. Alice Goodman worked for two years with Adams on the project before leaving, objecting to the characterization of Edward Teller, as dictated by the original commission.
The work centers on key players in the Manhattan Project, especially Robert Oppenheimer, General Leslie Groves, and also features Kitty Oppenheimer, Robert's wife, and her anxiety over her husband's project. Sellars adapted the libretto from primary historical sources.
Doctor Atomic is similar in style to previous Adams operas Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer, both of which explored the characters and personalities that were involved in historical incidents, rather than a re-enactment of the events themselves.
Industry:Drama
