Ensemble

Les Boréades was actually intended to be performed at the Théâtre de Choisy in Paris in 1763 at the end of the Seven Years' War to celebrate the conclusion of peace. However, after two rehearsals with...

Although Rameau's "Boréades" from 1762 were not performed during his lifetime, they are his musical masterpiece and a synthesis of his compositional output. All the musical innovations to which the co...

After Hippolyte et Aricie and Castor et Pollux, Dardanus is Rameau's third tragédie lyrique for Paris. With its multifaceted music, it is an absolute highlight of this genre. Its reception is very spe...

The libretto of this opera was adapted by John Adams and Peter Sellars from a South Indian folktale and poems translated by A.K.Ramanujan.

With its detailed scene directions and many short forms such as accompagnato recitatives and ariosi, "Belshazzar" is the most dramatic of George Frideric Handel's oratorios. In fact, it is even a sacr...

Text by Franc-Nohain Place and time: The plot takes place in Toledo, in the 18th century Characters: Concepción, Torquemada's wife (Soprano) - Gonzalve, bachelier (Tenor) - Torquemada, clockmaker (Tri...

Das Erbe deutscher Musik setzt die Tradition der deutschen musikalischen Denkmälerpublikationen fort und veröffentlicht wichtige Werke der deutschen Musikgeschichte in kritischer und zugleich praktisc...

Dresdner und Pariser Fassung in Szenenfolge - (Klavierauszug) - Sopran solo (5), Alt solo (2), Tenor solo (4), Bariton solo, Bass solo (3), Gemischter Chor, Klavier - Klavierauszug

This famous aria can be performed by orchestra with almost any solo instrument or voice.

The history of Beethoven's only opera, FIDELIO, is rife with twists and turns, among them that the opera was originally to be called LEONORE. Additionally, the opera is unique in that Beethoven compos...

From the end of Act 2 from Borodin's opera Prince Igor, which remained unfinished at the time of the composer's death in 1887, this most famous version of the Polovtsian Dances (or Polevetsian Dances)...

Jacques Offenbach's (1819-1880) opéra bouffe in three acts, La belle Hélène (The Beautiful Helen) parodies the Greek myth of Helen and Paris' elopement, which set off the Trojan War according to Homer...

LOHENGRIN, first performed in 1850, is a Romantic opera in three acts, written by Richard Wagner (1813-1883) . Based on the legendary 13th century romance of Lohengrin, a knight of the Holy Grail, who...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) wrote the music to COSÌ FAN TUTTE (So do they all), his third collaboration with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, only after his contemporary Antonio Salieri rejected t...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) wrote the music to COSÌ FAN TUTTE (So do they all), his third collaboration with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, only after his contemporary Antonio Salieri rejected t...

La Cenerentola (Cinderella) is based on the fairy tale Cendrillon by Charles Perrault. Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) composed La Cenerentola at age 25 following the success of his opera The Barber of...

One of the most popular ballets, Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) composed Swan Lake in 1875-76. Tchaikovsky borrowed from the Russian and German folk tales to tell the of story a princess, Odette,...

Zaïs by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) was first performed on February 29, 1748 at the Opéra in Paris. It is a pastorale héroïque, a form of the opéra-ballet genre of French Baroque opera that draws...