Premiered in Vienna in February 1892 under the direction of Hans Richter Massenet's Werther has proven an enduring work one of the composer's most tightly constructed and dramatically urgent. The libretto was fashioned bywriters Georges Hartmann Edouard Blau and Paul Millet after Goethe's 'Sorrows of Young Werther'. Charlotte the eldest daughter of a baliff is engaged to Albert. In his absence she is escorted to the local ball by ayoung visiting poet Werther. Albert returns unexpectedly disappointed at not finding Charlotte he promises her sister he will return in the morning. At the ball Werther falls in love with Charlotte but realises that Alberthas returned and urges Charlotte not to break her promise to marry Albert. Three months later Charlotte and Albert now married walk across the town square on their way to church followed by Werther who is stilldistraught. Albert realizes that Werther must be in love with his wife and Charlotte tells him he must leave town until Christmas. Werther rushes away contemplating suicide.Alone at home on Christmas Eve as Charlotterereads the dejected love letters written to her by Werther he appears and reads to her a passage from a poem where the poet foresees his own death. Charlotte begs him to stop and he realises she loves him too. But she runs fromhis embrace and Werther leaves resolved to die. Albert enters and a message arrives from Werther asking to borrow Albert's pistol. Her reaction convinces him of her love for Werther. The pistols are dispensed and when Albert hasgone she hurries off arriving at his quarters to find him dying. She declares her love and he begs forgiveness and dies.This is the Schirmer edition of the Libretto in French and English.

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.

Poul Ruders' opera Tycho in 3 Acts was premiered May 15 1987 by Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and Kaare Hansen (conductor) at Helsingør Theater in Aarhus Denmark. Libretto in Danish by Henrik Bjelke. Vocal score: WH31457C Synopsis: In 1597 the famous Danish astronomer and astrologist the nobleman Tycho Brahe flees his castle cum observatory Uraniburg on one of the small islands off the Danish coast. The newly coronated King Christian the Fourth has a grudge against Tycho who in 1572 discovered a new star Stella Nova by using his naked eye only; the telescopewasn’t invented yet. This discovery gained Tycho tremendous fame among his contemporaries within the European scientific circles. The now weakened and embittered old man moves together with his wife Christina whom he raped when she was an adolescent and Jeppe the Dwarf his fool-servant whose life Tycho once saved to the plague-infested city of Prague. There at the Benatky Castle Tycho encounters the main reason for his departure from Denmark: the young German mathematician Johannes Kepler the only scientist among his contemporaries Tycho acknowledges - Tycho is in severe need of intelligent challenge. Which he gets and with a disastrous result for himself. The encouraging encounter with Kepler turns into Tycho's scientific and earthly death verdict. Slowly Tycho realizes that his own conception of the Earth as the indisputable axes of the Universe is shattered by Kepler s theory about Earth encircling the stationary Sun. The ancient picture of the Universe collapses Tycho feels deceived by Kepler who leaves the castle shaken by Tycho's wrath. But they meet again and reunite in a Romanza a Due at Tycho’s death bed. The opera hovers above immense sadness and extreme ridicule - the cast is most peculiar indeed - so in many ways 'TYCHO' may be described at the best as a'Tragic Operetta'