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L’amour de loin (Love from Afar) is the first opera by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho from a five act French libretto by Amin Maalouf. The opera was given its world premiere performance on 15 August 2000 at the Salzburg Festival and its US premiere on 31 July 2002 at the Santa Fe Opera.
Saariaho, living in Paris since 1982, had become familiar in 1993 with La vida breve by one of the first great troubadours of the 12th century, Jaufré Rudel. Prior to that she had seen a Peter Sellars’ staging of Messiaen’s opera, Saint-François d'Assise at the 1992 Salzburg Festival, but did not think that she was capable of writing one. However, the production convinced her of the possibility of transforming the poem into an opera, given Sellars’ sensibility and talents: “If that is an opera, then I can write one" she is quoted as saying.
The idea for an opera on this subject was to evolve over the following seven or eight years. After she was so taken by seeing the original manuscripts of the story of Jaufré (the love-struck young poet who wrote to a faraway lover in Tripoli, Lebanon), she set his poem to music as Lonh in 1996, a score for soprano and electronic instruments.
The sensibilities and backgrounds of both Amin Maalouf, a Lebanese-French author and journalist also living in Paris, and Saariaho – both voluntary exiles - brought them together to collaborate to turn “a seemingly simple story into a complex story very simply told. …..(And with) the straightforward trajectory of its plot, L’amour de loin turns anxiously around deeper themes – obsession and devotion, reality and illusion, the loneliness of the artist, the need to belong”.
Having secured an advance commitment from the Salzburg Festival to stage the opera, Saariaho set about writing L'amour de loin in 1999. Gerard Mortier, intendant of the Salzburg Festival, was at the origin of this project which included the participation of the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden-Freiburg, an ensemble well known for its excellence in contemporary music.
L'amour de loin received the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 2003.
Industry:Drama
The Land of Smiles is a romantic operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár. The German language libretto was by Ludwig Herzer (de) and Fritz Löhner-Beda. The performance time is about 100 minutes.
This was one of Lehár's later works, and has a bittersweet ending which the Viennese loved. The title refers to the Chinese custom of smiling, whatever happens in life. (The leading character, Prince Sou-Chong has a song early in the show, "Immer nur lächeln" ("Always smiling") which describes this.)
The work was originally produced under the title Die gelbe Jacke (The Yellow Jacket). This was presented at the Theatre an der Wien, Vienna, on 9 February 1923 with Hubert Marischka as Sou-Chong. It was not a great success, and Lehár later revised it, under the new title of Das Land des Lächelns, which was first performed, at the Metropol Theatre, Berlin, on 10 October 1929. Tauber reprised his role in London (1931 and 1932) South Africa (1939) and New York (1946), as well as in Vienna in 1930 (again at the Theatre an der Wien) and in 1938 (at the Vienna State Opera and also in Prague). Tauber also sang it in London and on tour throughout Britain between 1940 and 1942.
Sadler's Wells Opera produced it in London in the late 1950s, after the success of Lehár's The Merry Widow starring June Bronhill had rescued the company from bankruptcy. Starring Charles Craig, Elizabeth Fretwell and Bronhill, the show didn't attract the same audiences as The Merry Widow. However, Craig's singing on a recording is outstanding, with some top D♭ notes at the end of his big numbers.
Industry:Drama
The Marriage Market is an operetta by Hungarian composer Victor Jacobi. It was premiered on 14 November 1911 at the Király Színház (King Theater) in Budapest and was the composer's first significant success not only in Hungary, but also abroad. The libretto was by Miklós Bródy and Ferenc Martos.
The operetta enjoyed English-language productions in 1913, in an adaptation by Gladys Unger, with lyrics by Arthur Anderson and Adrian Ross. It played at Daly's Theatre in London, starring Gertie Millar, produced by George Edwardes, and at the Knickerbocker Theatre on Broadway, produced by Charles Frohman, with additional songs by Jerome Kern.
Industry:Drama
The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya is an opera in four acts by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The libretto was written by Vladimir Belsky, and is based on a combination of two Russian legends: that of St. Fevroniya of Murom, and the city of Kitezh, which became invisible when attacked by the Tatars. The opera was completed in 1905, and the premiere performance took place at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, on February 7, 1907.
Rimsky-Korsakov and Belsky first became interested in writing an opera on the Kitezh legend during the winter of 1898-1899, while they were working on the libretto to The Tale of Tsar Saltan. The idea of combining the legend of St. Fevroniya into the story was part of the project from the beginning. The project remained in the minds of both composer and the librettist, but would have to wait until 1903 until serious work could begin. During the period between 1898 and the beginning of 1903, the composer was occupied with the composition of the operas The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Servilia, Kashchey the Immortal and Pan Voyevoda. In his My Musical Life, Rimsky-Korsakov mentions "In the midst of work on Pan Voyevoda Belsky and I pondered intensively the subject of The Tale of the Invisible City of Kityezh and of the Maiden Fyevroniya." Rimsky-Korsakov had written a rough draft of the first act by the end of summer, and Belsky had completed the libretto by spring. By summer of 1904, Rimsky-Korsakov had finished the composition of the second tableau of Act III and was orchestrating the opera. During the summer of 1905, while writing his Principles of Orchestration, Rimsky-Korsakov also polished the orchestral score to Kitezh, and made a clean final copy to send to the printers.
The world premiere was given in Saint Petersburg, Russia at the Mariinsky Theatre on 20 February (O.S. 7 February), 1907. The scenic designers were Konstantin Korovin and Apollinary Vasnetsov. A year later, the opera was given its premiere at the Bolshoy Theatre, Moscow, Russia on 15 February 1908. Scenic designers were Korovin, Klodt, Vasnetsov. The first performance out of Russia took place at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu, February 1926.
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The Bravest Hussar is an operetta by Hungarian composer Victor Jacobi. As his second operetta was not considered to be a big success. It premiered on 30 December 1905 in Magyar Színház (Hungarian Theater) in Budapest. The libretto is from Ferenc Martos.
Industry:Drama
Leo, the Royal Cadet is a light opera with music by Oscar Ferdinand Telgmann. The libretto was by George Frederick Cameron. It was composed in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in 1889. The work centres on Nellie's love for Leo, a cadet at the Royal Military College of Canada who becomes a hero serving during the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Empire. The operetta focussed on typical character types, events and concerns of Telgmann and Cameron's time and place.
The story is loosely based on actual events. The character 'Colonel Hewett' is based on Colonel Edward Osborne Hewett, C.M.G. who served as the first Commandant of the Royal Military College of Canada 1875-86. The character of Leo, who leaves his sweetheart Nellie to fight the Zulus in Natal, and other cadets may be based on several early cadets who were decorated for valour. Huntley Brodie Mackay, a Royal Engineer was the first ex-cadet to win a Distinguished Service Order, served in Bechuanaland 1884-9 and as commanding royal engineer in West Africa 1887-9. Mackay fought tribes near Sierra Leone and became an acting administrator of the British East Africa Company. William Henry Robinson, Royal Engineer, the first ex-cadet to be killed in action, died while attempting to blow up the gate of a stockade at Tambi near Sierra Leone. Kenneth J.R. Campbell was the first ex-cadet to be mentioned in despatches for his part in the operation against the town of Brohemie, Niger Coast Protectorate. Sir George Norton Cory participated in operations in Natal, South Africa in 1899 and later edited 'The Diary of Reverend Francis Owen M. A., missionary with Dingaan in 1837-38 together with extracts from the writings of the interpreters in Zulu, Messrs. Hulley and Kirkman'(Cape Town, South Africa: Van Riebeech Society, 1926).
The character Cetcho, a Zulu chief is based on Cetshwayo. The Battalion Sergeant Major character who sings The Royal Cadet - The Battalion Sergeant Major was the senior cadet at the Royal Military College of Canada from 1878–1923 and 1934-42. Since 1952, the senior cadet has been known as a Cadet Wing-Commander.
Industry:Drama
La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina (The Liberation of Ruggiero from the island of Alcina) is a comic opera in four scenes by Francesca Caccini, first performed 3 February 1625 at the Villa di Poggio Imperiale in Florence, with a libretto by Ferdinando Saracinelli, based on Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. It is the first opera written by a woman, and was long considered to be the first Italian opera to be performed outside of Italy. It was performed to celebrate a visit from Prince Władisław of Poland during Carnival 1625, and it had a revival in Warsaw in 1628. The work was commissioned by Regent Archduchess Maria Maddalena of Austria, wife of Cosimo II de' Medici, for whom Caccini worked. Ruggiero was printed under the protection of Maria Magdalena in 1625, only five years after the first printed opera in Italy. It is the only opera by Francesca Caccini to survive.
La liberazione di Ruggiero is written in the stile moderno, that is, the style of Claudio Monteverdi, although the work owes more perhaps to the work of Jacopo Peri. It uses the new stile recitativo, as well as canzonettas in the style of the Concerto delle donne. The scoring of the opera includes the lirone, and somewhat remarkably for the period, does not include a castrato. The scoring of the piece is balanced towards higher voices, with six sopranos, two altos, seven tenors, and only one bass, as well as a trio of recorders. A compositional scheme is used within the work that associates flat keys with the feminine (the female protagonist Alcina and her attendants) and sharp keys with the masculine (the male protagonist Ruggiero and the other male roles). The androgynous (she appears in the form of a man, Atlante) sorceress Melissa is neutral, presented in the key of C major. Alcina is an evil and sexual sorceress, whereas Melissa is androgynous and good. Melissa fights to free Ruggiero from Alcina's spells. Modern critics have interpreted the music as a statement about gender; either that, like Melissa, women must give up their femininity in order to be successful, or that, like Alcina (despite her lack of overt success), women can still be dominant because of the lasting allure of their music.
The work has been recorded, and has been revived a number of times, including in Cologne (1983), Ferrara (1987), Stockholm (1990), Minneapolis (1991), Düdingen (Switzerland), Regensburg and Neuburg an der Donau (Germany) (1999).
Industry:Drama
The Little Prince, subtitled A Magical Opera, is an opera in two acts by Rachel Portman to an English libretto by Nicholas Wright, based on the 1943 book of the same name by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first performed in Houston, Texas in 2003.
The Little Prince was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera and premiered in May 2003 with Nate Irvin as The Little Prince and Teddy Tahu Rhodes as the Pilot. It was then performed by the Skylight Opera Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the Boston Lyric Opera with Jeffrey Walter as the Little Prince. Houston Grand Opera had a return engagement in December 2004 with Jeffrey Walter as the Little Prince and Jeffrey Allison. The University of Kentucky opera (April 2005), The New York City Opera (November 2005), as well as Tulsa Opera and the Santa Fe Opera. The San Francisco Opera and Cal Performances did a joint production in May 2008. Ithaca College Opera also put on a production in February–March 2010.
In the U.K., it was filmed by the BBC following a nationwide talent search for children to play the roles of the Prince, the Rose and a chorus of thirty-six vocalists. Over 25,000 children applied, with over 6,500 taking part in auditions. The television show Blue Peter documented the search for the singers, and filmed their training and rehearsals. The Little Prince was broadcast on BBC2 on Saturday, 27 November 2004 at 7:30 PM.
Industry:Drama
Little Red Riding Hood is an opera-fairytale for children in two acts (three tableaux) by César Cui, composed in 1911. The libretto was written by Marina Stanislavona Pol', based on Charles Perrault's fairytale of the same name.
The printed score from 1912 bears a dedication to Crown Prince Alexey of Imperial Russia.
The earliest date of a performance for this opera has yet to be established. However, it is known to have been staged in 1921, in Gomel, in the Byelorussian SSR (now Belarus), by students from the People's City Conservatory and the Technical School.
Industry:Drama
Lohengrin is a Romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself inspired by the epic of Garin le Loherain. It is part of the Knight of the Swan tradition.
The opera has proved inspirational towards other works of art. Among those deeply moved by the fairy-tale opera was the young King Ludwig II of Bavaria. "Der Märchenkönig" ("The Fairy-tale King"), as he was dubbed, later built his ideal fairy-tale castle and dubbed it "New Swan Stone", or "Neuschwanstein", after the Swan Knight. It was King Ludwig's patronage that later gave Wagner the means and opportunity to compose, build a theatre for, and stage his epic cycle The Ring of the Nibelung.
The most popular and recognizable part of the opera is the Bridal Chorus, better known as "Here Comes the Bride", often played as a processional at weddings in the West.
Industry:Drama
