"works, including the ""Nocturne"" (1959), the ""Spring Symphony"" (1960) and the ""War Requiem"" (1963). The last sold in unexpectedly large numbers for a classical set, and thereafter Decca unstintingly made resources available to Culshaw and his successors for Britten recordings. Sets followed of ""Albert Herring"" (1964), the ""Sinfonia da Requiem"" (1964), ""Curlew River"" (1965), ""A Midsummer Night's Dream"" (1966), ""The Burning Fiery Furnace"" (1967), ""Billy Budd"" (1967) and many of the other major works. In 2013, to mark the anniversary of Britten's birth, Decca released a set of 65 CDs and one DVD, ""Benjamin Britten – Complete Works"". Most of"
"audience, describing Sammy's journey to safety and freedom. Notes Cited sources The Little Sweep The Little Sweep, Op. 45, is an opera for children in three scenes by the English composer Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Eric Crozier. ""The Little Sweep"" is the second part of a stage production entitled ""Let's Make an Opera!"". The first part takes the form of a play in which the cast portray contemporary amateur performers conceiving, creating and rehearsing the opera. Intended as an introduction to and demystification of the operatic genre, the play also provides an opportunity to rehearse the audience in"
"opera in two acts with a libretto by Gene Scheer based on the novel by Herman Melville. Set in 1820, it tells the story of Ahab, captain of the ill-fated whaleship Pequod, and the crew he commands. Having lost one of his legs to the white whale called Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab is obsessed with finding and destroying him at any cost. Only the ship's first mate, Starbuck, sees the deadly implications of Ahab's obsession. ""Moby-Dick"" was commissioned by the Dallas Opera, San Francisco Opera, Calgary Opera, San Diego Opera, and the State Opera of South Australia. It received its highly"
"Albert Herring Albert Herring, Op. 39, is a chamber opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten. Composed in the winter of 1946 and the spring of 1947, this comic opera was a successor to his serious opera ""The Rape of Lucretia"". The libretto, by Eric Crozier, was based on Guy de Maupassant's novella ""Le Rosier de Madame Husson"", with the action transposed to an English setting. After having composed and staged ""The Rape of Lucretia"", Britten decided he should attempt a comedy, preferably set in England. Crozier suggested adapting the Maupassant short story ""Le rosier de Madame Husson"" and transplanting"
"play on Broadway, and as an opera by English composer Benjamin Britten with assistance on the libretto by E. M. Forster. In 1961 Peter Ustinov released a movie based on the stage play and starring Terence Stamp. Melville died at his home in New York City early on the morning of September 28, 1891, at age 72. The doctor listed ""cardiac dilation"" on the death certificate. He was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City. A common story recounts that his ""The New York Times"" obituary called him """"Henry"" Melville,"" implying that he was unknown and"
"Paul Bunyan (operetta) Paul Bunyan, Op 17, is an operetta in two acts and a prologue composed by Benjamin Britten to a libretto by W. H. Auden, designed for performance by semi-professional groups. It premiered at Columbia University on 5 May 1941, to largely negative reviews, and was withdrawn by the composer. Britten revised it somewhat in 1976 and subsequently it had numerous performances and two commercial recordings. The story is based on the folkloric American lumberjack, Paul Bunyan, with the music incorporating a variety of American styles, including folk songs, blues and hymns. The work is strongly sectional in"
"have drowned. Gardiner asks Greenhorn his name. Greenhorn replies: ""Call me Ishmael."" Moby-Dick (opera) Moby-Dick is an American opera in two acts, with music by Jake Heggie and libretto by Gene Scheer, adapted from Herman Melville's novel ""Moby-Dick"". The opera received its premiere at Dallas Opera in Dallas, Texas, on 30 April 2010. Heggie dedicated the opera to Stephen Sondheim. In 2005, Dallas Opera commissioned an opera from Heggie, intended for the company's inaugural season in the Winspear Opera House in 2010. In consultation with Terrence McNally, Heggie suggested ""Moby-Dick"" as the subject. Subsequently, Dallas Opera shared this commission jointly"
"Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British classical music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral and chamber pieces. His best-known works include the opera ""Peter Grimes"" (1945), the ""War Requiem"" (1962) and the orchestral showpiece ""The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra"" (1945). Born in Suffolk, the son of a dentist, Britten showed talent from an early age. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London and privately with the composer"
"opera, perhaps owing to the composer's own homosexuality. Adaptations for cinema and television: Billy Budd Billy Budd, Sailor is the final novel by American writer Herman Melville, first published posthumously in London in 1924 as edited by Raymond M. Weaver, a professor at Columbia University. Other versions were later published. Melville had begun writing the original work in November 1888, but left it unfinished at his death in 1891. Acclaimed by British critics as a masterpiece when published in London, it quickly took its place as a classic literary work in the United States. The novella was discovered in manuscript"
"given the choice, there's no question that you should opt for the DVD version."" The Little Prince (opera) 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 at the Houston Grand Opera on 31 May 2003. ""The Little Prince"" was commissioned by Kathryn and David Berg in memory of their friend, Larry Pfeffer, for the Houston Grand Opera and premiered in May 2003 with Nate Irvin as The"
"The Little Sweep The Little Sweep, Op. 45, is an opera for children in three scenes by the English composer Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Eric Crozier. ""The Little Sweep"" is the second part of a stage production entitled ""Let's Make an Opera!"". The first part takes the form of a play in which the cast portray contemporary amateur performers conceiving, creating and rehearsing the opera. Intended as an introduction to and demystification of the operatic genre, the play also provides an opportunity to rehearse the audience in the four ""Audience Songs"" they will sing after the interval. The"
"not complete the score of the new opera until August 1970. ""Owen Wingrave"" was first broadcast in Britain in May 1971, when it was also televised in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the US and Yugoslavia. In September 1970 Britten asked Myfanwy Piper, who had adapted the two Henry James stories for him, to turn another prose story into a libretto. This was Thomas Mann's novella ""Death in Venice"", a subject he had been considering for some time. At an early stage in composition Britten was told by his doctors that a heart operation"
"awarded commissions for new musical works by the Serge Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress and the Koussevitzky Music Foundation. His stage music includes two operas, ""The Bet"", based on a short story by Anton Chekhov, and ""An unserem Fluss"" (By Our River). The latter was commissioned by Oper Frankfurt, and was premiered during the company's 2014/15 season. He has also written two stage works for children ""The Little Mermaid"" (based in the story by Hans Christian Andresen) and ""The Adventures of Pinocchio"" (based on the children's novel by Carlo Collodi). His oratorio reflecting on The Holocaust, ""And The"
"Young Apollo Young Apollo, Op. 16, is a music composition for piano, string quartet and string orchestra composed by Benjamin Britten. Commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the work was completed in 1939, just after Britten's arrival in the United States. It carries as an epigraph the final lines of ""Hyperion"", an incomplete poem by John Keats but the work was inspired by Wulff Scherchen, a young, German blond who was Britten's first love interest. The work premiered on 27 August 1939 on CBC Radio's ""Melodic Strings"" with Britten as soloist and Alexander Chuhaldin conducting. Britten dedicated the work to"
"composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. He wrote the pieces for a cappella SATB choir in 1951 for the British Federation of Music Festivals, and they remain a popular part of British choral repertoire today. Benjamin Britten The play was adapted into an opera, with music by Benjamin Britten and libretto by Britten and Peter Pears. The opera was first performed on 11 June 1960 at Aldeburgh. Moonwork The theatre company, Moonwork put on a production of ""Midsummer"" in 1999. It was conceived by Mason Pettit, Gregory Sherman and Gregory Wolfe (who directed it). The show featured a rock-opera version of the"
"Orchestra of the Mannes College of Music with Carl Bamberger conducting. Notes Sources A Hand of Bridge A Hand of Bridge, opus 35, is an opera in one act composed by Samuel Barber with libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, and is possibly the shortest opera that is regularly performed: it lasts about nine minutes. It premiered as a part of Menotti’s Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto on 17 June 1959 at the Teatro Caio Melisso. The United States premiere occurred the next year. The opera consists of two unhappily married couples playing a hand of bridge, during which each"
"Milton (opera) Milton is an opéra comique in one act by Gaspare Spontini. The French libretto, by Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy and Armand-Michel Dieulafoy, is based on the life of the English poet John Milton. ""Milton"" was first performed on 27 November 1804 by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Feydeau in Paris . It was Spontini's first major success in France. The composer planned a reworked version for performances in Germany, under the title ""Das verlorene Paradies"" (""Paradise Lost""), but in the event it was never staged. The blind poet Milton and his daughter Emma, fearing political persecution by King"
"opera is an adaptation of Charles Dickens's own one-man version of his novella ""A Christmas Carol"" commissioned by Houston Grand Opera where it received its world premiere in December 2014, directed by the British actor, director and writer Simon Callow, sung by the American tenor Jay Hunter Morris. The opera was subsequently nominated in the World Premiere category at the 2015 International Opera Awards and had its UK premiere at Welsh National Opera in a new production by Polly Graham in December 2015. Bell's third opera is an adaptation of the 1937 First World War epic poem ""In Parenthesis"" by"
"Mansfield Park (opera) Mansfield Park is a 2011 chamber opera in two acts by Jonathan Dove with a libretto by Alasdair Middleton based on the novel by Jane Austen. It tells the story of poor relation Fanny Price, sent at age 10 to live with her uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, at his family estate, Mansfield Park. The opera was commissioned by Heritage Opera, and the world premiere performance was at Boughton House in Northamptonshire on July 30, 2011. The opera is scored for four handed piano (two pianists playing one piano) and was accompanied by Paul Greenhalgh and Jonathan Ellis,"
"will be released. Blue Monday (opera) Blue Monday (Opera à la Afro-American) was the original name of a one-act ""jazz opera"" by George Gershwin, renamed 135th Street during a later production. The English libretto was written by Buddy DeSylva. Though a short piece, with a running time of between twenty and thirty minutes, ""Blue Monday"" is often considered the blueprint to many of Gershwin's later works, and is often considered to be the ""first piece of symphonic jazz"" in that it was the first significant attempt to fuse forms of classical music such as opera with American popular music, with"
"Noye's Fludde Noye's Fludde is a one-act opera by the British composer Benjamin Britten, intended primarily for amateur performers, particularly children. First performed on 18 June 1958 at that year's Aldeburgh Festival, it is based on the 15th-century Chester ""mystery"" or ""miracle"" play which recounts the Old Testament story of Noah's Ark. Britten specified that the opera should be staged in churches or large halls, not in a theatre. By the mid-1950s Britten had established himself as a major composer, both of operas and of works for mixed professional and amateur forces – his mini-opera ""The Little Sweep"" (1949) was"
"The Little Prince (opera) 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 at the Houston Grand Opera on 31 May 2003. ""The Little Prince"" was commissioned by Kathryn and David Berg in memory of their friend, Larry Pfeffer, for 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"
"also released the world premiere recording of Boughton's adaptation of Thomas Hardy's play, The Queen of Cornwall, sponsored by the Trust. Most of Boughton's original manuscript scores can be viewed at the British Library, Euston Road, London. Enquiries about the availability of scores for performance should be made to The Rutland Boughton Music Trust or in some cases via the appropriate publisher. Rutland Boughton His oeuvre includes three symphonies, several concertos, part-songs, songs, chamber music and opera (which he called ""music drama"" after Wagner). His best known work was the opera ""The Immortal Hour"". His ""Bethlehem"" (1915), based on the"
"This production was received enthusiastically, and was repeated the following year; thereafter it became a regular feature and tourist attraction. By the late 1940s Benjamin Britten had established himself as a leading composer of English opera, with several major works to his credit. In 1947 he suggested to his librettist Eric Crozier that they should create a children's opera, based on a bible story. Crozier gave Britten a copy of Pollard's book, as a possible source of material. Nothing came of this project immediately; instead, Britten and Crozier wrote the cantata ""Saint Nicolas"" (1948), the first of several works in"
"that she keeps her promise. Antony's voice is heard, and as distant chanting for rain is heard as in the beginning, she kisses Meïamoun's lifeless lips, and ascends the steps into the palace as her eunuchs again cover her lover's body. Cleopatra's Night Cleopatra's Night is a short opera in two acts by American composer Henry Kimball Hadley. Its libretto is by Alice Leal Pollock based on a short story by French author Théophile Gautier. The opera premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on January 31, 1920. The opera was revived the following season, and was broadcast on NBC radio in"
"Owen Wingrave Owen Wingrave, Op. 85, is an opera (originally written for a televised performance) in two acts with music by Benjamin Britten. The libretto is by Myfanwy Piper, after a short story by Henry James. Britten had been aware of the story since his work with Piper on the previous James opera, ""The Turn of the Screw"" in 1954. BBC television commissioned an opera for television from him in 1966 and, in 1968, he and Piper started working on the libretto. The work was completed by August 1970. The premiere was recorded at Snape Maltings in November 1970 and"
"Written on Skin Written on Skin is an opera by the British composer George Benjamin. Benjamin's first full-length opera, it was premiered at the 2012 Aix-en-Provence Festival as a commission from five opera centres, and received its British premiere at the Royal Opera House in London in March 2013 and its Paris premiere at the Opéra-Comique in November that year; Benjamin conducted for all of these premiere seasons. The libretto by Martin Crimp, who also wrote the libretto for Benjamin's first opera ""Into The Little Hill"", is based on legend of the troubadour Guillaume de Cabestanh; the story is also"
"The Corley Conspiracy The Corley Conspiracy is an opera by Tim Benjamin to a libretto by Sean Starke, who also directed. The work premiered on 19 September 2007 in the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre in London; the orchestral parts were played by the ensemble Radius. The opera was commissioned by the London Design Festival 2007. The performance of the work lasts for about 75 minutes. Unusually for an opera, all the vocal parts are spoken, but unlike a play, the music is continuous and relates strongly to the text. The text of the work is based on Mike"
"Death in Venice (opera) Death in Venice is an opera in two acts by Benjamin Britten, his last. The opera is based on the novella ""Death in Venice"" by Thomas Mann. Myfanwy Piper wrote the English libretto. It was first performed at Snape Maltings, near Aldeburgh, England, on 16 June 1973. The often acerbic and severe score is marked by some haunting soundscapes of ""ambiguous Venice"". The boy Tadzio is portrayed by a silent dancer, to gamelan-like percussion accompaniment. The music of the opera is precise, direct and movingly understated. Britten had been contemplating the novella for many years and"
"Blue Monday (opera) Blue Monday (Opera à la Afro-American) was the original name of a one-act ""jazz opera"" by George Gershwin, renamed 135th Street during a later production. The English libretto was written by Buddy DeSylva. Though a short piece, with a running time of between twenty and thirty minutes, ""Blue Monday"" is often considered the blueprint to many of Gershwin's later works, and is often considered to be the ""first piece of symphonic jazz"" in that it was the first significant attempt to fuse forms of classical music such as opera with American popular music, with the opera largely"
"their locations within programs or documents. The opera ""Hänsel und Gretel"" by Engelbert Humperdinck is one of the most renowned operas, and is considered one of the most important German operas. Hansel and Gretel ""Hansel and Gretel"" (; also known as ""Hansel and Grettel"", ""Hansel and Grethel"", or ""Little Brother and Little Sister""; ) is a well-known fairy tale of German origin, recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812. Hansel and Gretel are a young brother and sister kidnapped by a cannibalistic witch living in a forest, in a house constructed of cake, confectionery, candy, and many more"
"presented each season. 2007 marked the 75th anniversary of the company and a single-season move from 3 to 4 opera productions. ""Short Works"" (selected ten-minute opera scenes), selected one-acts, and ""Lunch & a Song"" (solo luncheon performances), are produced alongside the main opera season by assistant directors and apprentice singers as part of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program. Successful commissions for the company include the American classic ""The Ballad of Baby Doe"" by Douglas Moore, premiered in 1956, the popular one-act opera ""The Face on the Barroom Floor"" by Henry Mollicone, premiered in 1978 and the 2003 world premiere"
"Peter Grimes Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the narrative poem, ""Peter Grimes"", in George Crabbe's book ""The Borough"". The ""borough"" of the opera is a fictional village which shares some similarities with Crabbe's, and later Britten's, own home of Aldeburgh, a town on England's east coast. It was first performed at Sadler's Wells in London on 7 June 1945, conducted by Reginald Goodall, and was the first of Britten's operas to be a critical and popular success. It is still widely performed, both in the UK and internationally, and"