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Abduction from Seraglio, The

(In German: Die Entfurung aus dem Serail). Opera in 3 acts by Mozart; libretto by Gottlob Stephanie, based on Andre's "Belmont und Constanze"; premiered at Burgtheatre in Vienna on July 16, 1782.

Abduction from Seraglio, The

The story takes place at the Pasha's palace in Turkey, Pasha's servant Osmin is in love with Constanze's maid Blonde, the lovers plan to escape, get caught, but Pasha pardons and frees them.

Agripina

Opera in 3 acts by Handel; libretto by Vincenzo Grimani; premiered in Venice on December 26, 1709.

It is Handel's only one of two operas produced in Italy during his three-year stay(other-Rodrigo).

Auber-Fra Diavolo

Fra Diavolo is an opera comique in three acts by French composer Daniel-Esprit Auber, first performed at the Opera-Comique, Paris on January 28, 1830. It is based on the life of the Napolitan bandit Michele Pezza, active in the southern Italy in the period of 1800-1806.

It was considered as the most successful work of comic opera before Offenbach.

The stamp shows composer Auber and the score page of the opera.

Aida

Opera in 4 acts by Verdi; libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni from the French prose of Camille du Locle, plot by Mariette Bey, premiered in Cairo December 24, 1871.

Aida was not, as generally supposed, written for the openning of the Suez Canal(1869), but was commissioned by the Khedive of Egypt to open the new Cairo Opera House the same year.

Aida - Characters, Stage and Costumes

The main characters are:

Aida, Radames, Amneris(princess of Egypt) and Amonasro(King of Ethiopia, father of Aida)

Aida - Verdi's portraits

Aida music score, and Verdi's birth place, La Roncole near Parma, Italy.

Aida in Egypt

The story takes place in ancient Egypt - love triangles between Radames(captain of the Egyptian guard), Aida(princess of Ethiopia, slave-girl), and Amneris(princess of Egypt, the King's daughter), hoping to marry Radames.

Aida/Cairo Opera House

Aida was commissioned by the Egyptian government for the openning of Cairo Opera House in 1869, but was postponed till 1871.

All Well That Ends Well

A Shakespeare's play; two composers wrote operas based on this subjec: Audran and Castelnuovo-Tedesco, an Italian composer.

American Broadway Musicals

The American Musical has been a part of American cultural life since the mid-19th century.

At the turn of 20th-century, George Cohan, librettist, lyricist, and composer, established the basic methods and techniques for the American Comedy. In 1927 "Show Boat" by Jerome Kern revolutionized to new genre-the musical play as distingwished from musical comedy.

After "Oklahoma", Rogers and Hammerstein II were the most important contributions to the musical-play form.

Andrea Chenier

Opera in 4 acts by Umberto Giordano; libretto by Luigi Illica; premiered in Milan, June 1789.

The stamp shows composer and the score of the opera.

Aniara

Opera by Karl-Birger Blomdahl, a Swedish composer; libretto by Lindegren based on the poem by Harry Martinson; premiered in 1959.

The plot is: Controlled by the computer Mima, the space ship Aniara leaves the poisoned earth heading to Mars. The opera deals with the relationship between the individual and the group through time.

Bavarian State Opera

National Theatre, Munich or The Bavarian Staatsoper is an opera company based in Munich, Germany in existance since 1653. The noted conductors were: Gustave Mahler,

von Bulow, Richard Strauss... Zubin Metha. The current conductor is Kent Nagano.

Bohemian(Czech) Operas

(1) Dalibor - a Czech opera in 3 acts by Smetana;

(2) Jakobin - a Czech opera in 3 acts by Dvorak

(3) Janufa(Jeji pastorkyna) - a Czech opera in 3 acts by Janacek.

Ballo in Maschera, Un

(A Masked Ball), Opera in 3 acts by Verdi; libretto by Somma based on Scribe's libretto for Auber's Gustave III ou Le Bal Masque. Premiered in Rome on February 11, 1861.

Bank Ban

A Hungarian opera composed by Ferenc Erkel. It is a tale of love, fidelity and infidelity, treachery, struggle against oppression and high human aspiration.

Barber of Seville, The

(In Italian: Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Opera in 2 acts by Rossini; libretto by Sterbini, after Beaumarchais's comedy; premiered in Rome on April 20, 1816.

Bartered Bride, The

(In Czech: Prodana Nevesta), Opera in 3 acts by Smetana; libretto by Sabina; premiered in Prague on May 20, 1866.

The story takes place during spring festival time in a village in Bohemia.

Bayadere, The

(The Temple Dance) is a ballet, originally staged in 4 acts and 7 tableaux by Murius Petipa, Russian choreographer, to the music of Ludwig Minkus. It was first performed by the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg on February 4, 1877.

Bettelstudent, Der

(The Beggar Student), An operetta in 3 acts by Carl Millocker with German libretto by Zell and Genee, based on "Les Noces de Fermande" and "The lady of Lyons"; premiered at Theatre un der Wein, Vienne on December 6, 1882.

Bianca e Falliero

Two acts operatic melodrama by Rossini to an libretto by Felice Romani, based on Antonio-Vincent Arnalt's play "les Venitiens, ou Blanche et Montcasin".

Biches, Les

A ballet with music by Francis Poulenc, premiered by Ballet Russes in 1924. Poulenc based his work on the painting of Watteau that depicted Louis XIV and various women in his "Parc aus Biches"; the word Biche usually translated as hind, or female deer.

Boheme, La

Opera in 4 acts by Puccini; libretto by Giacosa and Illica, after Henri Murger's "Scenes de la Vie de Boheme"; premiered in Turin on February 1, 1896.

Bolshoi Theater

(In Russian: Bol'shoy Teatr, Large, Grand Theater), it a historic theatre in Moscow, designed by architect Joseph Bove, which holds performances of opera and ballet

Boris Godounov

Opera in 4 acts, with a prologue, by Mussorgsky; libretto by the composer after Pushkin's drama-"The Comedy of the Distress of the Muscovite State, of Tsar Boris, and of Grishka Otrepiev" and Karamazin's "History of the Russian Empire"; premiered the whole opera in St. Petersburg on February 8, 1874.

Boris Godounov

Born to Dance

Cole Porter's songs and tap dancing highlight this musical comedy about a sailor who romances two dancers in New York

Britten's Prodigal Son

Prodigal Son is an opera by Benjamin Britten with a libretto by William Plomer. Based on the Biblical story of the Prodigal Son; premiered at Oxford Church, Suffolk on June 10, 1968.

Bucharest Opera House

Opera House in Bucharest, Romania. Originally a part of National Theater, on December 8, 1921 the new institution inaugurated the performance of Lohengrin conducted by George Enescu thus became the Bucharest Opera House.

Budapest Opera House

Hungarian State Opera House is a neo-Renaissance opera house located in central Pest, a part of Budapest. It was designed by Miklos Ybl, a Hungarian architect, the construction lasted from 1875 to 1884. The first music director was Frenec Erkel, other known conductors were: Gustave Mahler, Otto Klemperer.

Burgtheater, Vienna

Originally known as K. K. Theater an der Burg, is the Austrian National Theatre in Vienna and one of the most important German language theatre in the world.

Three Mozart's operas premiered there; The Abduction of Serail, The Marriage of Figaro, and Cosi Fan Tutte.

On March 12, 1945 the theater was largely destroyed during the war, then it was restored between 1953-1955.

Carmen

Opera in 4 acts by Bizet; libretto by Meilhac and Halevy, after Merimee's "nouvelle"; premiered in Paris on March 3, 1875.

Carmen

Opera "Carmen":

Act I - A Square in Seville in about 1820.

Act II - Lillas Pastia's tavern, a smugglers' haunt.

Act III - The smugglers' cave.

Act IV - Outside the Seville bullring.

Carmina Burana

Scenic cantata by Orff; Latin text based on poems in Latin, Old German, and Old French; premiered in Frankfurt on June 8, 1937.

Caserio, El

The farmhouse lyrical comedy in 3 acts with music by de Jesus Guridi; premiered at the Teatro de la Zarzuela, Madrid on November 11, 1926.

Cavalleria Rusticana

Opera in 1 act by Mascagni; libretto by Mensaci and Targioni-Tozzetti, after Verga's drama based on his story. Winner of the contest for a 1-act opera organized by Sonzogno in 1880. Premiered in Rome on May 17, 1890.

Cinderalla

A ballet with music by Sergei Prokofiev and the originally choreographed by Frederick Ashton.

Clemenza di Tito, La

Opera in 2 acts by Mozart; libretto by Metastasio, altered by Mazzola; premiered in Prague on September 6, 1791.

The plot concerns the unremitting clemency of a Roman emperor to conspirators against him.

Some 20 other composers wrote the same story to operas including Gluck.

Conlon Opera House

The opera house in Buenos Aris, Argentina.

Cosi Fan Tutti

Opera in 2 acts by Mozart; libretto by Da Ponte based on a supposedly true incident; premiered in Vienna on January 26, 1790.

Cossacks beyond the Danube

A Ukrainian comic opera with spoken dialogue in three acts with music and libretto by Semen Hulak-Artmovsky.

The opera, premiered with Russian libretto on April 26, 1863 at St. Petersburg, is one of the best-known Ukrainian operas depicting national themes.

Croatian Opera House

The Croatian National Theater in Zagreb was established in 1840. In 1870 a national opera company was formed based out of the theater. The theater moved to current building in 1895.

Ivan Zajc was the first conductor, Jackov Gotovac was the theater's opera conductor from 1923 to 1958.

Cuca e Maleve

(Cuca's Mountains), an Albanian film of musical drama ballet, produced in Albania in 1974.

Cuvillies Theater

Old Residence Theatre is the former court theatre of the residence in Munich. It was built from 1751 to 1753 by Francois de Cuvillies in rococo style.

Many operas were staged here by the Bavarian State Opera, including the premieres of Mozart's "Idomeneo" in 1781 and Carl Maria von Weber's "Abu Hassan" in 1811.

It was modernised from 2004-2008, and on June 14, 2008, the theatre re-opened with Mozart's "Idomeneo"-a new production.

El Nino Judo

(The Jewish Boy), a zarzuela in 2 acts by Luna; libretto by Paso and Alvarez.

Elisabeth

German-language musical with book/lyrics by Michael Kunze and music by Sylvester Levay. It portrays the life and death of Empress consort of Austria, Elisabeth of Bavaria, wife of Empreor Franz Josepf I. It is the most successful German-language musical of all time.

Damascus Opera House

(Officially Dar al-Assad for Culture and Arts), is the national opera house of Syria. It was inaugurated on May 7, 2004. The opera house is a part of a building complex along with Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts, the Higher Insitute for Music and the Ballet School.

Damnation of Faust, The

Legende dramatique in 4 acts by Berlioz; libretto by composer and Gandoonietre, after Gerard de Nerval's French version of Goethe's Faust, incorporating Huit Scenes de Faust. Concert performance in Paris on December 6, 1846.