Opera with a Prologue and four Acts (First version) / Opera in five Acts (Second version) Dialogue versions. Par GOUNOD CHARLES. Charles Gounod’s “Faust” secured its international recognition in the version as an entirely sung opera, which from thenceforth has largely obscured the fact that the work was originally composed with spoken dialogues. The early versions staged prior to the 1869 performance at the Paris Opéra containing substantial unknown material and with dialogues and melodramas are the subject of this new edition. (The third version “version opera” was published in a separate edition BA 8713 in 2016.) Even as the rehearsals were taking place at the Théâtre-Lyrique in 1858, during the first series of performances at the theatre in 1859, furthermore as the 1862 revival was approaching and during the performances on the smaller stage at the Place du Châtelet, there were constant changes and revisions. It is, thus, impossible to identify manifestly definitive versions. Nevertheless, by drawing on the entire source material now at hand (including fascinating material only recently discovered) and on the whole gamut of aspects communicated by the reception, Paul Prévost systematically presents us with a score laid out in two main versions in whose chronology constancy and change become transparent. With all the musical changes having been documented, the result is a practicable score for performances which reveals a still far too unknown “Faust” – a “Faust” that is rooted in the tradition of the opéra comique. Quite a few musical numbers are published as a score for the first time in this edition: the trio for Faust, Wagner and Siebel “À l’étude ô mon maître”, the duet of Valentin and Marguerite “Adieu, mon bon frère!”, Méphistophélès’ air “Maître Scarabée”, Siebel’s romance “Versez vos chagrins dans mon âme!”, Valentin’s air with chorus “Chaque jour, nouvelle affaire”, the chorus of witches “Un deux et trois”, and also seven melodramas whose missing or incomplete orchestration has been written for our edition. It was only recently that the long-lost second part of Faust’s original cavatina “Salut! demeure chaste et pure” was unearthed. Only in details of orchestration do other numbers differ from the well-known pieces./ Répertoire / Opéra

A Fairytale Opera In Two Acts-The Thirteenth Child - A Fairytale Opera In Two Acts by Poul Ruders (2014-15). Libretto by Becky Starobin and David Starobin. Scenario by Becky Starobin. Suggested by 'The Twelve Brothers' by the Brothers Grimm. SYNOPSIS Act 1 Scene 1 The neighboring Kingdoms of Frohagord and Hauven are in crisis. Following a warning by his embittered cousin Drokan Regent of Hauven King Hjarne of Frohagord is convinced that his twelve sons are plotting to overthrow him. The twelve princes oblivious to their father's paranoia play in the courtyard. The enraged King threatensthe safety of his sons telling his pregnant wife Queen Gertrude that she must provide him with a female heir  as 'only she shall wear the crown'.  Gertrude calms Hjarne and they sing of the Lilies of Frohagord magical flowers that protect the kingdom.  When Benjamin the youngest prince innocently plucks a lily from the garden Hjarne flies into a mad rage and strikes Gertrude.  Drokan observing the encounter  admits his love for Gertrude and feels 'the trembling of the earth'. Act 1 Scene 2 Eighteen years have passed and King Hjarne has just died. At Hjarne's funeral Frederic Drokan and the mourners tell of the mysterious disappearance of the King's thirteen children and the shadows that haunt the kingdom. Queen Gertrude now mortally ill and her daughter Princess Lyra enter the Royal Chapel. Gertrude is repelled by the sight of Drokan  while Frederic is drawn to Lyra. Drokan plots to usurp the Kingdom of Frohagord and Frederic dreams of the day when Lyra will be his. Act 1 Scene 3 Queen Gertrude is on her deathbed attended by Princess Lyra.  Lyra asks her mother why she was sent away.  Gertrude has Lyra open a secret drawer where Lyra finds twelve shirts

Ed. critica di Charles S. Brauner - Riduzione per canto e pianoforte-Mosè in Egitto (1818) is the fourth of the nine opere serie that Rossini composed for Naples between 1815 and 1822. As his letters to his mother show Rossini was very proud of this opera considering it an especially fine achievement that might appeal more to posterity than to the audiences of his day. In fact it proved to be one of his most frequently performed opere serie. The present reduction for voice and piano in two volumes derives from the critical edition of the score published by Fondazione Rossini Pesaro in collaboration with Casa Ricordi by Charles S. Brauner: the edition is based mainly on the autograph score now housed in theBibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. This autograph score is complete but it is not completely autograph and many sections have offered some problems for the reconstruction of the text: the recitative in Act I and the Aria Mosè in Act II are not by Rossini the first five recitatives in Act II are not in Rossini’s hand and may or may not be by Rossini also not in Rossini’s hand is the Aria Amaltea although undoubtedly by Rossini because borrowed from his earlier opera Ciro in Babilonia. The Preface and the Critical Commentary offer for the first time some valid tools to reconstruct the entire history of the opera since the first performance in Naples (1818 1819) to the Parisian ones (1822 – 1840). In particular in the appendices are included the original Aria Faraone which composed by Michele Carafa for the first two productions of the opera in Naples in 1818 and 1819 was later replaced by the Aria Faraone Rossini himself composed in 1820 and in Appendix II the new ending of the recitative following Duetto N. 3 which Rossini composed for one of the Parisian performances after 1822. 

Standard Version with sung recitatives-Although almost unanimously condemned by contemporary Parisian critics for its overt sexuality and graphic final scene Carmen ultimately reached the public in a way that perhaps no other opera has. Bizet's aim (with Meilhac andHalevy who wrote the libretto) had been to transform the flaccid moralistic bourgeois genre of opéra comique into a more sophisticated type of staged work and he seems to have suceeded in Carmen. Each character has a musicalsignificance and a unique expressive idiom the ultimate example being the dangerous exotic sensual Carmen herself depicted by an exotic and sinewy chromatic motive that also implies the insurmountable power of fate. In aclassic plot device she is contrasted with the 'good girl' of the opera Micaela whose main aria is set in the ternary form of the elevated bel canto French Grand Opera aria to imply her traditionally 'ladylike' retiring nature.Don José's musical styles reflect different levels in his descent from dutiful soldier to the underworld of obsession.This is the Schirmer edition of the Libretto in the original French with an English translation by Ruthand Thomas Martin.

Opera in three acts-Handel???s Agrippina HWV 6 was performed with great success at the 2015 International Handel Festival in G?ttingen (Germany) using the new B?renreiter edition including the performance material and this vocal score.Agrippina is the last opera that Handel completed and premiered in Italy. The excellent libretto is one of the few original opera libretti that he set to music. The plot is tightly constructed the characters sharply etched and equipped with a wide range of human emotions. Agrippina is married to her third husband the Roman emperor Claudius. After he is presumed dead she attempts with deception andintrigue to place her son Nero on the throne.The vocal score includes all the numbers from the appendix of the full score. These were used either during the successful Venetian series of performances in 1709/10 or were deleted or replaced by other numbers versions and variants.Urtext edition based on the Halle Handel EditionPerformance material available for hireHardback full score (BA4092-01) and paperback vocal score (BA4092-90) available for saleVocal scores includes:- A singing translation in German- Extensive bilingual Foreword (Ger/Eng)- Idiomatic uncluttered Piano reduction

Romantische Opera in three acts-Alfonso und Estrella D 732Romatic Opera in 3 ActsIn late September or early October 1821 Schubert and his close friend Franz von Schober vacationed in the countryside of Lower Austria. Their first stopover was at Ochsenburg Castle which belonged to the Bishop of St. Pölten (a close relative of Schober?s) after which they moved on to St. Pölten itself. Roughly a year earlier two stage works by Schubert had been performed in Vienna: the one-act singspiel Die Zwillingsbrüder and the melodrama Die Zauberharfe. The librettos were both written by the seasoned Viennese playwright Georg von Hofmann who blamed the press for the indifferent reception the two works weregiven by the audience. Schubert and Schober now decided it would seem to write a grand romantic opera uninfluenced by the workaday world of the theatre and beholden solely to their own ideas of what an opera should be.Not until 24 June 1854 was the opera finally performed in Weimar under the baton of Franz Liszt. It only achieved success however in an arrangement by Johann Nepomuk Fuchs that was staged on many German and Austrian stages in 1881 2 allegedly with 'brilliant acclaim'.Urtext of the New Schubert EditionFull score (BA5540) and vocal score (BA5540-90) available for salePerformance material (BA5540-72) available for hire

Having a rather idealistic view of England and the English people King Paramount of the south sea island of Utopia decides that his people should adopt all English customs and fashions and that the kingdom should become a company limited.Utopia Limited or The Flowers Of Progress is a Savoy Opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and Libretto by W.S. Gilbert. It was the second-to-last of Gilbert and Sullivan's fourteen collaborations premiering on October 7 1893 for a run of 245 performances.Available here is the vocal score of the Opera.

Henry Purcell’s only Opera proper Dido and Aeneas is a magnificent example of English Baroque music with lively dances and passionate aria sections that demonstrate Purcell’s masterful compositional and choral writing skill. Based on a libretto by Nahum Tate it was first performed in 1689 comprises three acts and lasts about an hour. Filled with dramatic lyricism with a wide range of musical and emotional content it is a monumental Baroque composition considered to be one of England’s foremost operatic works. Dido and Aeneas contains all the elements for a successful opera including a shipwreck sorcery love and lost love anddeath. This is the Vocal and Full Operatic Score edited by Margaret Laurie and Thurston Dart. With its interesting and imaginative realization and authentic editorial process this is an excellent edition that features some performing choices and variants and also includes the reconstructed prologue.

Phaedra by German composer Hans Werner Henze is a 'concert opera' in two acts whose first performance was given at the Berlin State Opera in 2007. Phaedra was Henze's penultimateopera and this item presents the full score with the entire work lasting around 75 minutes. Featuring a unique libretto by Christian Lehnert and sound effects by Francesco Antonioni this opera presents thewonderful story of Phaedra filled with drama and fantastic music. This Full Score?presents the work in German and English language and features detailed instructions for the supplied CD onwhich some sound effects are included that are to be used in conjunction with the instruments. Phaedra was co-commissioned and co-produced by Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin BerlinerFestspiele Thé tre de la Monnaie Brussels Alte Oper Frankfurt and Wiener Festwochen. Hans Werner Henze?was a hugely prolific composer who drew influences from a wide number of sources. Phaedra isregarded as among his greatest works and would certainly make for a stunning performance.

Full Score-The premiere of La Bohème took place at the Teatro Regio in Turin on 1 February 1896. Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica based their libretto for this opera on Scènes de la vie de Bohème by Henry Murger. It took Puccini only a fewmonths to complete a score brimming with wonderful melodic invention and orchestrational genius. The music is a surprisingly supple and sensitive medium for depicting a variety of emotions that animate the young: reckless living full of stop-gapexpedients erratic feelings and sudden explosions of noble sentiment the driving ambitions of one?s art. Puccini?s musical imagery illuminates the different moments and moods of the story with a delicate yet intense lyrical quality; just as therapid decline and death of Mimì subtle yet invincible remind us of the universal reality that all things must inevitably come to an end.On the cover: ?Al Quartiere Latino? sketch by Riccardo Salvadori as a variation on the sketch by Adolf Hohenstein for the world premiere in Turin of Bohème 1896 © Archivio Storico Ricordi

Inspired by models from the Commedia dell?Arte the plot is set in Seville and presents the old ?Greybeard? Don Belflor (a retired bullfighter and womanizer) his young wife Coraline and her lover Tracolin. In a highly contemporary way this leads to a three-way relationship of which everyone approves. The ?accord parfait? is a perfect triad consisting of exactly three notes. It is noticeable that the libretti of the Second Republic were no longer subject to censor.Two arias were planned for each role. As a flautist Tracolin also knows how to evoke famous melodies from the French opera repertoire in his advances. The centrepieces are the two trios.Oneof these the variation number ?Ah! vous dirai-je maman ? is the jewel of the opera: here vocal virtuosity and the comedy of the situation are combined with brilliant ease.The Vocal score is based on the first scholarly-critical edition of the opera. This appears in the series ? L'Opéra français ? edited by Paul Prévost. Here the spoken dialogue text is integrated with the music for the first time.Based on the Urtext of the new series ? L?Opéra français ?.Original French text with singing German translation.Extensive foreword (Fr/Ger/Eng).Full score (BA8701) and Vocal score (BA8701-90) available for sale and performance material available for hire.

Opera in 3 acts; Also available for sale full score (BA4079) and performance material for hire.'Ariodante? was the first work which Handel composed for the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden after his contract with the King?s Theatre Haymarket ran out in mid-1734.?Ariodante? stands out amongst Handel?s opera works by means of its combination of excellent and challenging music coupled with a first-class plot. There is probably no other Handel opera which contains such a wealth of striking and catchy arias as are found in the first act of ? Ariodante ? alone. The three wide-ranging arias composed for thecastrato Carestini are amongst the greatest bravura pieces.The plot is based on an episode in Ariosto?s epic ? Orlando furioso ? (1516). The central event of the drama the trick with which Duke Polinesso convinces his commander Ariodante that Ginevra is unfaithful was also used by Shakespeare in ?Much Ado About Nothing?.The Vocal score is based on Donald Burrows? 2007 Urtext edition in the ?Halle Handel? Edition (Series II/32). It therefore reflects the latest in musicological research. Based on the Urtext of the Halle Handel EditionStraightforward and easy-to-play Piano reductionOriginal Italian text with German singing translation

Divertimento teatrale in one act-Hardback edition of the full score for Antonio Salieri's Prima La Musica E Poi Le Parole.A memorable musical competition commissioned by the Emperor Joseph II took place on 7 February 1786 as part of a festival in the orangery of the Schönbrunn palace. A German Singspiel ensemble performed Mozart?s Schauspieldirektor whilst Antonio Salieri?s Prima La Musica E Poi Le Parole was performed by the Italian court singers and musicians.This charming opera satire belongs to the genre of 'metamelodramma' in which the opera itself becomes the subject of the action. The people who are part of an opera production forexample the librettist composer and prima donna appear as characters on the stage and are presented in a humorous self-reflection. In this ?theatre about theatre? Salieri parodies the music from Giuseppe Sarti?s Giulio Sabino in his insert arias thus playing on the music which was totally familiar with the audience of the time. By reflecting on the musical-dramatic style of that period and discussing whether the word or the music should take priority this masterpiece is considered to be an early forerunner to Richard Strauss' Capriccio.