SKU: HL.50565181
SKU: HL.50565180
SKU: BT.ALHE33396
French.
Cendrillon (Cinderella), with a libretto by Henri Cain based on Perrault's fairytale, premiered in 1899 in Paris. Best known for composing over thirty operas, the composer, Jules Massenet (1842-1912) purposely did not attend thepremiere, but received a telegram the following day from baritone Fugère recording its triumph. Incorporating the composer's sense of humour and wit, the use of recurrent motifs is subtle and often thought to be inspired byRichard Wagner. Cendrillon contains musical echoes of the 18th century, incorporating gallant music, the use of the Lute and Viola D'Amore and a series of Ballet entrées. The Opera is in four acts with 19 characters and a chorus.The role of Prince Charming is a breeches role whilst the melody lines of the Fairy Godmother are characterised by trills and arpeggios. Massenet's Cendrillon remains popular to this day and was notably performed at the RoyalOpera House in 2011.
SKU: BT.EMBZ20017A
English-German-Hungarian.
In 1845 Franz Liszt embarked on a project to compose an Italian opera based on Lord Byron’s tragedy, Sardanapalus (1821). It was central to his ambition to attain status as a major European composer, with premieres variously planned for Milan, Vienna, Paris and London. But he abandoned it half way through, and the music he completed has lain silently for 170 years. Liszt’s difficulty in obtaining a libretto meant that composition only began in April 1850. He completed virtually all the music for Act 1 in an annotated piano-vocal score of 111 pages, contained within his N4 music ‘sketch book’. The unnamed librettist was an Italian poet and political prisoner, seemingly living under house arrest, and a close acquaintance of Cristina Belgiojoso. His libretto survives as underlay in the N4 sketchbook and has been critically reconstructed and translated. Sardanapalo is Liszt’s only mature opera. While he consistently referred to it in French, as Sardanapale, the published title of the Italian opera would almost certainly have used the Italian name, hence this forms the title of the first edition. There are three solo roles and a chorus of concubines. The manuscript was previously thought to be fragmentary and partially illegible, but it was finally deciphered to international acclaim in March 2017. Liszt’s score offers a richly melodic style, with elements from Bellini and Verdi alongside glimmers of Wagner and the symphonic poems ahead: a unique mixture of Italianate pastiche and mid-century harmonic innovation. It remains quintessentially Lisztian. The opera sets Byron’s tragedy about war and peace in ancient Assyria: the last King, effeminate in his tastes, is drawn to wine, concubines and feasts more than politics and war: his subjects find him dishonourable (a ‘man queen’) and military rebels seek to overthrow him, but are pardoned, for the King rejects the ‘deceit of glory’ built on others’ suffering: this leads only to a larger uprising, the Euphrates floods its banks, destroying the castle’s main defensive wall, and defeat is inevitable: the King sends his family away and orders that he be burned alive with his lover, amid scents and spices in a grand inferno. As Byron put it: ‘not a mere pillar formed of cloud and flame, but a light to lessen ages.’ For his part, Liszt told a friend that his finale ‘will even aim to set fire to the entire audience!’ This critical edition includes a detailed study on the genesis of Liszt’s Sardanapalo in English, German, and Hungarian, the libretto in the original Italian as well as in English, German, and Hungarian translation, several facsimile pages of Liszt’s manuscript, and a detailed Critical Report.
SKU: HL.129649
ISBN 9781495011900. UPC: 888680018696. 9x12 inches. Book/CD Packs.
Imagine being able to sing some of the greatest operatic arias in church. Thanks to the creative team of lyricist, William K. Brehm, with text adaptation by Loretta Giles, that dream is now a reality. Committed to detail and exacting excellence, this duo has created a stunning collection of much-loved operatic arias from the pens of Puccini, Mozart, Purcell, Wagner, Rachmaninoff and others, but the lyrics are sacred ? taken from both Old and New Testament texts. This CD includes some of the finest voices singing opera today and will be a cherished collection of sacred classical music for generations to come.
SKU: AP.6-438260
ISBN 9780486438269. English.
An instant and overwhelming success upon its first performance in 1893, Hänsel and Gretel has captivated audiences of all ages ever since. Engelbert Humperdinck combined the simplicity of German folk tunes with the sophistication of Wagnerian technique in a fairy-tale opera, based on the story by the Brothers Grimm. Richard Strauss, who conducted the premiere, proclaimed it a masterpiece of the highest quality. Broadcast from Covent Garden in 1923, it was the first complete opera ever aired on radio, and eight years later it was the first to be transmitted live from the Metropolitan Opera.
SKU: HL.50571218
SKU: HL.50571250
SKU: HL.50571279
SKU: HL.50571277
SKU: HL.50565122