Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” in 1782. The work was sponsored by the Nationalsingspiel which was set up by the Austrian Emperor Joseph II in order to create a repertoire of works performed in the German language (as opposed to...
Ring Cycle
From the Director: Mary Stuart
Maria Stuarda is based on the verse play by German Romantic playwright Frederich Schiller whose dramas have provided rich source material for many great operas. Schiller’s Romanticism led him toward taking major liberties with history as is evident in this work. In...
From the Director: The Barber of Seville
If Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais had had his way The Barber of Seville would have been performed as a comic opera as early as 1772. But this was not to be, as it was rejected by the Opéra Comique and had to wait ten years until Paisiello’s setting, and a...
From the Director: Der Freischütz – The Marksman
Melbourne Opera mentioned the possibility of a production of Der Freischütz to me two years ago. It was a piece I really knew nothing about, I had heard of Weber and knew of his influence on Wagner and the development of German Romantic Opera and that was about it....
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