Dances from 'The Cossacs'. Par ELLING CATHARIUS. The Opera “The Cossacs” by Catharinus Elling is based on the Nikolai Gogol novel about Taras Bulba. “The Cossacs” was premiered in 1897 at Eldorado in Kristiania (the old name on Norway’s capitol Oslo). Despite positive response in the papers of that time, the opera was newer performed again in it’s entirely. The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation h…

Par PINTSCHER MATTHIAS. Composed in 2004/2005; performance material available for hire. Matthias Pintscher was born in Marl in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in 1971 and studied composition with Giselher Klebe and Manfred Trojahn. Formative influences were his encounters with Hans Werner Henze, who invited him to Montepulciano in 1991 and 1992, and with Helmut Lachenmann, Pierre Boulez and Peter…

Overture. Par MOZART WOLFGANG AMADEUS. In 1786 Mozart composed his wonderful opera Le Nozze di Figaro (KV 492). The Italian libretto, based on the play Le mariage de Figaro by Beaumarchais, was written by Lorenzo da Ponte who also made the libretti of Mozart’s opera’s Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte. In the opera Le Nozze di Figaro, Count Almaviva tries to seduce the fiancée of Figaro, his valet. …

Par RAMEAU JEAN-PHILIPPE. Rameau’s only extant opera based on a libretto by Voltaire has come down to us in two versions (1745 and 1746), that of 1745 having long been regarded as lost. Volume IV.12 of the “Opera omnia Rameau” now provides a complete edition for the first time and thus the means to perform both versions. Voltaire refers to Metastasio in his libretto, in that he wanted to liberate …

Italian-American composer and librettist Gian Carlo Menotti composed his first opera in English, The Old Maid and the Thief, in 1939. It was commissioned by NBC as a radio opera (to be performed on air) and was premiered by the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Years later, Menotti adapted a theme from the opera's third scene, transforming and expanding it into an advanced two-movement work for solo piano. …

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The surviving second and third acts of Catone in Utica, one of Metastasio's most dramatic libretti, premiered in Verona in the spring of 1737 in a setting by Vivaldi, contain some of his finest, most mature, and most original arias, and are published here for the first time. They evince a potential dramatic intensity that makes us regret all the more the loss of the first act. Only one aria of Act…

This beautiful duet from Monteverdi's opera 'L'Incoronazione di Poppea? is a wonderful addition to the CME Opera Workshop series. This duet, which occurs at the end of the opera, beautifully illustrates Monteverdi's ability to interweave the vocal lines in a harmonically intriguing way. Ann Small's edition features an ornamented return of the first section of the duet with stylistic trills that co…