MusiLLection

Claudio Monteverdi in early adulthood. Only one other authentic portrait of the composer survives, dating from his later years. Claudio Giovanni Monteverdi was born on May 15, 1567, in Cremona, a northern Italian city famed for its violin-making tradition and situated on the banks of the river Po. His father, Baldassare, worked initially as an apothecary and later trained as a physician, though financial stability always remained elusive. Monteverdi lost his mother at a young age, and his father remarried for a third time—an early encounter with loss and instability that would later resonate deeply in his music. Encouraged by his teacher, the music director of Cremona Cathedral, Monteverdi published his first work while still a child: a collection of sacred music for three voices. He remained in Cremona for several years, composing and publishing the madrigals that would establish his early reputation. In 1592, his life changed decisively when he moved to Mantua, ruled by the powerfu...

  A 19th-century illustration depicting the " Hunters’ Chorus" that introduces Act Three of Carl Maria von Weber’s opera " Der Freischütz" . In 1817, Carl Maria von Weber assumed the position of composer and director of the Dresden Opera and began working on his new opera Der Freischütz . The premiere took place in Berlin on June 18, 1821, and brought Weber immediate fame. The work was soon performed widely throughout Germany and abroad, establishing his reputation as a leading figure of German Romantic opera. Der Freischütz is widely regarded as the first true German Romantic opera. It combines elements of folklore and rural life with the supernatural world of demons and dark forces, creating a powerful contrast between nature and the unknown. Although Weber composed more sophisticated music in his later operas, he never again achieved the overwhelming success and lasting international impact of Der Freischütz . The opera tells the story of Max, a young forester...

Giuseppe Verdi, the composer who transformed Italian opera and became a symbol of national identity. Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was born in 1813 in Le Roncole , a tiny village in the northern Italian province of Parma , near Busseto. His parents ran the village’s only shop. They were poor and uneducated and never learned to read or write. Yet their son’s musical talent must have appeared early: they bought him a spinet , a small keyboard instrument, and by the age of twelve Verdi was already serving as organist in the village church. The house in Le Roncole where Giuseppe Verdi was born in 1813. A decisive figure in Verdi’s early life was Antonio Barezzi , a wealthy merchant and music lover who supplied goods to Verdi’s father. Living in nearby Busseto, Barezzi took personal responsibility for Giuseppe’s musical education. Verdi moved into his house as a boarder, studied flute, bassoon, horn, piano, and composition, and every Sunday walked barefoot back to Le Roncole to fulf...

Carl Maria von Weber composed the opera Euryanthe between 1822 and 1823, with its premiere in Vienna on October 25, 1823. The work was based on a 13th-century French medieval tale. The year of its debut saw Vienna enthralled with Italian operas, particularly those of Rossini . Although the initial reception was enthusiastic, Euryanthe ran for only twenty performances, with criticism directed at the libretto’s verbosity and the opera’s length. The poet Helmina von Chézy’s wordy libretto was largely blamed, and even Franz Schubert reportedly remarked, “This is not music.” Nevertheless, the overture stands as an outstanding example of orchestral writing and remains one of Weber’s most admired compositions. The overture opens with an energetic and cheerful phrase. Oboe and clarinet, supported by horns and trombones, introduce a theme of three emphatic notes, followed by a shorter ascending group of notes with a pronounced rhythm. The violins soon return vigorously, presenting a new mel...

Set design by Philippe Chaperon for Act IV, Scene 2 of Aida by Giuseppe Verdi , evoking the grandeur of ancient Egypt. Aida was commissioned from Giuseppe Verdi by Isma'il Pasha , Khedive of Egypt, to mark the inauguration of the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo. Although the opera was originally intended for an earlier celebration, its premiere was delayed due to the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War, which prevented the completion and delivery of costumes and stage materials. Aida finally premiered in Cairo on 24 December 1871, conducted by Giovanni Bottesini . The success was immediate and overwhelming. Since then, Aida has remained one of Verdi’s most frequently performed and beloved operas. Written in four acts, the opera features a libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni , combining grand spectacle with intense personal drama. At its core, Aida is a story of love, war, and betrayal. The drama centers on Aida, a captured Ethiopian princess enslaved in Egypt, and Rada...

Set for Rossini's opera La Donna del Lago (The Lady of the Lake), written in 1819. Gioachino Rossini remains one of the most influential figures in the history of opera, particularly celebrated for his mastery of comic opera ( opera buffa ), his melodic brilliance, and his distinctive rhythmic vitality. His output spans opera, sacred music, instrumental works, and vocal compositions, many of which continue to occupy a central place in the repertoire. Operas: Tancredi L'italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers) Il turco in Italia Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione (The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution) Otello, ossia Il Moro di Venezia La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) Armida La donna del lago (The Lady of the Lake) Semiramide Le siège de Corinthe (The Siege of Corinth) Mosè in Egitto (Moses in Egypt) Le comte Ory Guillaume Tell Sacred music: Messa di Gloria Stabat mater Petite messe solennelle Ins...

Costume design for L’italiana in Algeri , reflecting the exotic colour and theatrical elegance of Rossini’s opera buffa .    Gioachino Rossini was only twenty years old when he composed L’italiana in Algeri , a work that would mark his first major triumph in opera buffa and bring him international recognition. Written in less than a month, the opera premiered at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice on 22 May 1813 and was greeted with immediate enthusiasm. Amazed by the opera’s success, the young composer reportedly remarked with characteristic wit: “I believed that when the Venetians heard my opera, they would consider me mad. Instead, they proved they were even madder than I was.” The French writer Stendhal , a passionate admirer of Rossini, famously described the work as “an organized and complete madness.” The opera was composed rapidly to fill an unexpected gap in the programme of the San Benedetto Theatre. Rossini had just achieved a sensational success with Tancredi ,...

Carl Maria von Weber Operas: Das Waldmädchen (The Girl of the Forest) Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn (Peter Schmoll and his Neighbours) Abu Hassan Der Freischütz (The Freeshooter) Die drei Pintos (The Three Pintos) Euryanthe Oberon Orchestral: Symphony No. 1 in C major Symphony No. 2 in C major Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 11 Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 74 Bassoon Concerto in F major Konzertstück in F minor for Piano and Orchestra Chamber music: Clarinet Quintet in B flat major, Op. 34 Piano Quartet in B flat major, Op. 18 Grand duo concertant in E flat major, Op. 48 (Clarinet, Piano) Trio in G minor for flute, violoncello and piano, Op. 63 Songs: Die Kerze Umsonst ensagt ich Entfliehet schnell von mir Wiedersehen Other: Missa sancta No. 1 in E flat major, Op. 75a Missa sancta No. 2 in G, "Jubelmesse", Op. 76

  Gioachino Rossini, composer of Semiramide , one of the last and most monumental operas of his Italian period. Semiramide (1823) stands as Gioachino Rossini ’s final great Italian opera and the most monumental expression of his mature dramatic style before his transition to French opera. Premiered at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the work represents the culmination of the tragic bel canto tradition , uniting lyrical refinement with architectural clarity and theatrical grandeur. Particular importance is attached to the overture , which transcends the function of a conventional operatic prelude. Rather than serving as a detached symphonic introduction, Rossini integrates thematic material drawn from the opera itself, thereby establishing not only an atmospheric but also a structural link between the opening and the drama that follows. This approach reflects an increasingly conscious symphonic conception within Rossini’s late Italian style. The overture opens with characteristic timp...

  Costume design for a character from Oberon by Carl Maria von Weber. The opera was a great success at its London premiere in 1826, despite being rarely performed today. Oberon (or The Elf King’s Oath ) is a three-act romantic opera and the final operatic work of  Carl Maria von Weber . It was composed for London’s Covent Garden Theatre —not the present-day building—and premiered on April 12, 1826, under the composer’s own direction. The opera was met with enthusiastic acclaim from the audience. Tragically, Weber was already gravely ill, and the intense demands of the production are believed to have hastened his death in London on June 5, 1826. The libretto, written by James Robinson Planché , was based on the German poem Oberon by Christoph Martin Wieland , itself inspired by the medieval French epic romance Huon de Bordeaux . Despite its imaginative subject matter, Oberon , like Euryanthe , has never secured a stable place in the operatic repertoire, even though its over...

Prague, the city where Bedřich Smetana came to study and where his love for music often drew him to concerts rather than classrooms. In 1848, liberal revolutions erupted across Europe. Although most of them failed, their impact was profound, awakening among ordinary people an unprecedented sense of national identity. This sentiment was especially powerful in Bohemia, where the Czech people had lived for centuries under Habsburg rule as part of the Austrian Empire. This renewed patriotic spirit found powerful musical expression in Bedřich Smetana ’s three-act festival opera Libuše , composed between 1869 and 1872. A master craftsman of the symphonic poem, Smetana infused his operatic writing with freshness, dramatic intensity, and architectural clarity. Deeply influenced by Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt , Smetana nevertheless forged a highly personal musical language—one that exalted the spirit, history, and aspirations of the Czech nation. The opera draws on legendary events surround...

Between 1830 and 1835, Gioachino Rossini composed a series of arias and duets intended for the cultivated salons of Parisian society, where he was a celebrated and much-admired presence. These pieces were published collectively in 1835 under the title Soirées Musicales . Among them, La Danza stands out as one of the most brilliant and exuberant examples. Written in the lively spirit of the eighteenth-century tarantella, La Danza draws directly on the rhythmic vitality of the Neapolitan folk tradition. From the outset, the orchestra establishes the scene with the frenetic pulse characteristic of the Tarantella Napoletana , a dance form immensely popular at the time. The tenor enters with an impressively sustained opening note, immediately capturing attention before plunging wholeheartedly into the whirlwind energy of the piece. The percussion section—featuring cymbal, drum, and triangle—enhances the music’s exuberant and noisy brilliance, reinforcing its festive character without ove...

Portrait of Georges Bizet, whose short and troubled life concealed one of the most powerful operatic voices of the 19th century. Georges Bizet   was born on October 25, 1838, in a modest family apartment in the Montmartre district of Paris. His mother, Aimée, an amateur pianist, recognized her only son’s musical talent early and began teaching him notes and musical symbols at the age of four. His father, Adolphe, originally a wig maker who later became a singing teacher, also encouraged the boy and passed on what musical knowledge he possessed. The bustling streets of Montmartre, where the young Bizet grew up  amid the artistic life of Paris. This early enthusiasm for Georges’ musical education came at a cost. His growing passion for literature was deliberately suppressed—his mother reportedly hid his books so that he would focus exclusively on music. Yet the family’s single-minded devotion was rewarded when Bizet entered the Paris Conservatoire on October 9, 1848, just days b...

Portrait of Gioachino Rossini, whose natural brilliance and fearless mastery reshaped the art of opera. At the age of thirty-seven, having already composed thirty-nine operas, Gioachino Rossini declared his creative saturation and withdrew permanently from the genre that had both glorified him and been glorified by him. It was a bold decision—one he never reversed for the rest of his life. True to his nature, Rossini redirected his energy toward the pleasures that ranked highest alongside music: beautiful women and exquisite food. Spirited, perceptive, and instinctively social, he adapted effortlessly to every environment, quickly becoming both welcome and admired. He composed with astonishing speed and singular ease, yet his works reveal no trace of carelessness or haste. Rossini’s music flows with effortless naturalness, each phrase proclaiming the abundance of his innate gifts. Free from the anxiety of creative struggle, he produced music that radiates brightness, vitality, and r...

  A wedding scene from The Bartered Bride , reflecting the joyful, communal spirit that permeates Smetana’s comic opera. Composed between 1863 and 1866 to a libretto by Karel Sabina , The Bartered Bride is set in a Bohemian village and unfolds as a unified comic narrative with a romantic core. It was the second of Bedřich Smetana ’s eight operas and a decisive step in his lifelong ambition to establish a distinctly Czech national opera tradition—something that did not yet exist at the time. Smetana revised the work no fewer than five times between 1866 and 1870, gradually transforming it from a modest operetta into the full-scale three-act comic opera known today. This process of refinement strengthened both its dramatic coherence and its musical vitality. Overture Smetana had often been accused of imitating the monumental operatic style of Richard Wagner , and critics claimed he lacked the ability to write light-hearted, joyful music. The Bartered Bride decisively refuted these...

Portrait of Richard Wagner, the composer whose revolutionary vision transformed opera into musical drama. Rebel, pioneer, demagogue, revisionist, heretic. Whether admired or fiercely opposed, no one who engages seriously with Richard Wagner can deny his genius. He proposed a radically different conception of opera—one that came to dominate the second half of the nineteenth century and gave rise to passionate supporters and equally determined opponents, whose disagreements remain unresolved to this day. Wagner called for the complete fusion of music and drama into a single, indivisible entity. Drawing inspiration from ancient Greek tragedy, he envisioned a form of musical drama that went beyond established theoretical models, redefining not only how opera should sound, but how it should be conceived, structured, and experienced. Under his influence, opera was transformed into something fundamentally new, decisively distancing itself from the traditions of bel canto and conventional ly...

A richly detailed Baroque-era painting capturing the musical atmosphere of Handel ’s time, reflecting the grandeur of his festive works and operas. Orchestral: Water Music: Suite No.1, Suite No.2, Suite No3 Music for the Royal Fireworks in D Major, HWV 351 Oratorios: Esther Athalia Alexander Balus Saul Israel in Egypt Messiah Samson Semele Belshazzar Judas Maccabaeus Solomon Jephtha Concertos: Organ Concerto No. 13 in F Major, HWV 295, ("The Cuckoo and the Nightingale" ) Organ Concerto No. 14 in A Major Oboe Concerto No. 3 in G minor Chamber music: Two oboe sonatas Twelve flute sonatas Six Concerti Grossi for strings, woodwinds and continuo, Opus 3 Six organ sonatas, Opus 4 Seven Trio Sonatas, Opus 5 Operas: Almira Rodrigo Rinaldo Giulio Cesare Rodelinda Orlando Ariodante Alcina Serse (Xerxes)

Don Carlos was conceived as a French grand opera based on Schiller’s drama. This stage design by Charles-Antoine Cambon (1867) reflects the Parisian operatic aesthetic, with the city of Paris visible in the background. Don Carlos is one of Giuseppe Verdi ’s most ambitious operatic projects, composed for the Paris Opéra and conceived in the tradition of French grand opera —a genre deeply admired by both the composer and the Parisian audience of the time. The libretto is based on Friedrich Schiller’s homonymous play, transforming its political and psychological conflicts into large-scale musical drama. Although the opera was later adapted into Italian, Don Carlos remains a complex and uneven work, marked by structural revisions and multiple versions. Yet within this vast framework lies some of Verdi’s most inspired music, where intimacy and spectacle coexist with striking dramatic intensity. Canzone del Velo The opera’s protagonist, Don Carlos, is the son of the King of Spain and i...