premiere
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“Tamerlano” (Händel) premiered X 31 1724
Synopsis The defeated Ottoman Emperor, Beyazit, is a prisoner of Timurlenk (Tamerlano). When Timurlenk releases him, Beyazit threatens to commit suicide but is dissuaded by Adnronicus. Timurlenk is in love with Beyazit’s daughter, Asteria. In return for her love, Timurlenk will allow him to live. Meanwhile, he also proposes to give his betrothed, Irene, to…
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“Das Rheingold”, by Richard Wagner, premiered on September 22 1869, at the National Theatre, Munich
Das Rheingold, WWV 86AFirst of the four epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner’s cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). Libretto: Richard WagnerMusic: Richard WagnerBased on Nordic and German legendsPremiered: 22 September 1869 at the National Theatre Munich In the depths of the Rhine, the three Rhinemaidens guard the Rhinegold, a…
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Lohengrin (Wagner) premiered today in 1850
Lohengrin, WWV 75Romantic opera in three acts Composition: Richard WagnerLibretto: Richard WagnerPremiere: 28 August 1850, Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach, and its sequel Lohengrin, itself inspired by the epic of Garin le Loherain. It is part of the…
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Götterdämmerung (Wagner) premiered on this day in 1876
Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) is the last in the music drama set of four, entitled Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) or The Ring Cycle or The Ring for short) which premiered at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 17 August 1876, concluding the first performance of the complete cycle. The title is…
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Wozzeck (Berg) premiered today in 1925
Wozzeck, opera in three acts by Austrian composer Alban Berg, who also wrote its German libretto, deriving the story from the unfinished play Woyzeck (the discrepancy in spelling was the result of a misreading of the manuscript) by Georg Büchner. The opera premiered in Berlin on December 14, 1925. Of all rule-breaking avant-garde operas, it…
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“Tamerlano” (Georg Friedrich Haendel) premiered X 31 1724
Synopsis The defeated Ottoman Emperor, Beyazit, is a prisoner of Timurlenk (Tamerlano). When Timurlenk releases him, Beyazit threatens to commit suicide but is dissuaded by Adnronicus. Timurlenk is in love with Beyazit’s daughter, Asteria. In return for her love, Timurlenk will allow him to live. Meanwhile, he also proposes to give his betrothed, Irene, to…
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“Don Giovanni” (Mozart) premiered X 29 1787
Don Juan is a figure which crosses boundaries: the boundary between the sexes, the boundary between the classes and the boundary between life and death showing that even cemetery walls don’t stop him. He is said to have already loved 2065 women, 1003 in Spain alone, 640 in Italy, 231 in Germany and 100 in…
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The Magic Flute (Mozart) — premiered IX 30 1791
The Magic Flute — Singspiel in two acts Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Librettists: Emanuel Schikaneder Premiere: Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden, Vienna, 1791. The Magic Flute In a mythical land between the sun and the moon. Three ladies in the service of the Queen of the Night save Prince Tamino from a serpent. When they leave…
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Siegfried (Wagner) premiered VIII 16 1876
Siegfried – music drama in three acts(third of the four works which constitute the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen) Music – Richard WagnerLibretto – Richard Wagner Premiere – August 16 1876, in Bayreuth FestspielhausLanguage – German Siegfried, Old Norse Sigurd, is a figure from the heroic literature of the ancient Germanic people. He appears in…
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“Parsifal” (Wagner) premiered on July 26 1882
The Poem Parzival, an epic poem, is one of the masterpieces of the Middle Ages, written between 1200 and 1210 in Middle High German by Wolfram von Eschenbach. This 16-book, 25,000-line poem is in part a religious allegory describing Parzival’s painful journey from utter ignorance and naïveté to spiritual awareness. The poem introduced the theme…
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The Valkyrie (Wagner) premiered today in 1870
Valkyrie, also spelled Walkyrie, Old Norse Valkyrja (“Chooser of the Slain”), in Norse mythology, any of a group of maidens who served the god Odin and were sent by him to the battlefields to choose the slain who were worthy of a place in Valhalla. These foreboders of war rode to the battlefield on horses,…
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“Tristan and Isolde” (Richard Wagner), premiered today in 1865
Tristan and Isolde, Tristan also called Tristram or Tristrem, Isolde also called Iseult, Isolt, or Yseult, principal characters of a famous medieval love-romance, based on a Celtic legend (itself based on an actual Pictish king). Though the archetypal poem from which all extant forms of the legend are derived has not been preserved, a comparison…
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Roméo et Juliette (Gounod), premiered on April 27 1867
Roméo et JulietteTragic Opera in five actsComposer – Charles GounodLibretto – Jules Barbier und Michel CarréLanguage – FrenchBased on – Romeo and Julia, William ShakespearePremiere – 27. April 1867, Théatre Lyrique, ParisLength – 2 ½ hours Roles: Juliette – soprano Roméo, son of Montague – tenor Frère Laurent – bass Mercutio, Romeo’s friend – baritone…
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“Turandot” (Puccini) premiered today in 1926
Composer: Giacomo PucciniLibretto: Giuseppe Adami, Renato SimoniWorld premiere: Teatro alla Scala, Milan, April 1926. Principal roles:Princess Turandot – sopranoThe Emperor Altoum, her father – tenor Timur, the deposed King of Tartary – bass The Unknown Prince (Calaf), his son — tenor Liù, a slave girl — soprano ACT IPeking, in the mythic past. Outside the…
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“Carmen” (Bizét) premiered today in 1875
Opéra comique in four actsComposer: Georges BizétLibrettists: Ludovic Halévy, Henri MeilhacLanguage: FrenchBased on “Carmen” by Prosper MériméePremiere: 3 March 1875, at the Opéra-Comique, Paris With a plot based on the 1845 novella of the same name by Prosper Mérimée, Bizet’s Carmen was groundbreaking in its realism, and it rapidly became one of the most popular…
Sila Blume 