The best of Opera

Bohemios was based on Henry Murger’s Scènes de la vie de bohème the same source for the operas of both Puccini and Leoncavallo.At its première in 1904 the Chorus of bohemians in Bohemios received such a rapturous response from the audience that three encores were demanded. The piece was performed an average of nine hundred times per year in its first twenty years and a fully operatic version was later produced. Amadeo Vives was a composer conductor and teacher of music in Spain in the late 19th and early 20th century. He was a choirmaster of renown and composer of many serious works as well as operettas and zarzuelas of which Bohemios was one of his best works. He broughtto zarzuela a raised standard of harmony Orchestration and taste and he suffered the frustrations of people of serious ambition whose lighter works are the most beloved and remembered.

Par BENJAMIN GEORGE. Full score Following the enormous success of George Benjamin’s first opera Into the Little Hill (2006), there has been huge anticipation in the musical world at the prospect of his first full-length work in this genre. After a period of intense work and isolation for Benjamin, his much-awaited new opera, Written on Skin, was premiered at the Aix-en-Provence Festival on 7 July 2012. A long standing ovation was the first of many marks of recognition and praise for this extraordinary work which has been hailed by critics as ‘[one of] the best operas of the 21st century so far,’ ‘the birth of a masterpiece.’ The opera is scored for 60 players, lasts 95 minutes and has a cast of five. An opera tour will be conducted throughout Europe during 2013. / Scores / Répertoire / Orchestre et Voix

Trascrizioni da celebri arie d'opera e pezzi originali-A comprehensive anthology of 35 transcriptions for piano from Puccini’s best operatic repertoire and 3 pieces written for special occasions between 1894 and 1916 suitable for intermediate level pianists.

Salzburg birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart inspired Dutch composer Henk Hogestein to write this musical tribute. Mozart was born in this charming Austrian town in January 1756. He was a musical prodigy - at the age of four he began receiving lessons from his father Leopold and at the age of six he was composing smart minuets and other short pieces. The composition Charming Salzburg is based on a theme from Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte which he completed in 1791. The greatest composer of his day - the greatest of all time according to some - the brilliant Mozart wrote some of the world's best operas with Die Zauberflöte was his last.

The Saint of Bleecker Street is a full-length serious work. Unlike several of Menotti's earlier dramas The Saint of Bleecker Street is more characteristic of a traditional opera. The Saint of Bleecker Street received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best play the Music Critics Circle Award for best opera and the Pulitzer Prize in music in 1955.

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'

This short opera (duration of 50 minutes) aptly designed for children to perform with modest resources is a version of the familiar tale though with certain adaptations. Cinderella is an au pair girl who arrives on the scene bytrain and there are three ugly sisters who get their just deserts in marriage to the appalling leaders of the armed forces. Writing for children in the Orkney Islands Davies has also included some local references: these can bechanged to suit other times and places. Musically the piece is a bright sequence of little songs choruses dialogue scenes and dances probably best suited to children between the ages of eight and twelve though the parts of theugly sisters can usefully be taken by boys with broken voices.Text only.Duration c. 50mins.