Music Composers

 

 

 

American Composers

 

Nineteenth Century

               Stephen Foster - (songs) Oh Susanna, My Old Kentucky Home, Jeannie with the Light Brown

                              Hair, Beautiful Dreamer, Camptown Races, The Old Folks at Home

               Scott Joplin - The Entertainer, Maple Leaf Rag, (opera) Treemonisha (Treemonisha tries to drive

                              out charlatans after Zodzetrick almost dupes her mother)

Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

               Amy Beach - (first famous US woman composer) Cabildo

               Charles Edward Ives - Second Piano Sonata: Concord Mass. (incl. Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott,

                              and Thoreau movements), Three Places in New England, The Unanswered Question,

                              Variations on America, (overtures) Browning, Emerson

               John Philip Sousa - Stars and Stripes Forever, Washington Post March, Gladiator, Semper Fidelis,

                              (autobiography Marching Along, headed Marine Band)

               William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan - The Pirates of Penzance (The Slave of Duty; band of pirates

                              swashbuckle amidst ordinary Englishmen in Cornwall), HMS Pinafore (The Lass That

                              Loved a Sailor), The Mikado (The Town of Titipu; Nanki-Poo is supposed to marry Katisha

                              but loves Yum-Yum, who is supposed to marry Ko-Ko), Iolanthe (The Pear and the Pad),

                              Patience (Bunthorne's Bride)

               Daniel Emmett - Dixie

Twentieth Century

               George Gershwin - Porgy and Bess (lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward; Catfish Row:

                              crippled Porgy, gambler Crown, and cocaine-sniffing Sportin' Life love Bess; Porgy kills

                              Crown), Rhapsody in Blue, Of Thee I Sing, An American in Paris

               Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings, Vanessa (Anatol is rejected by Erika but marries Vanessa),

                              Antony and Cleopatra, School for Scandal, Knoxville: Summer of 1915

               Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein - (musicals) Carousel, The King and I, Oklahoma,

                              Sound of Music, South Pacific, Showboat

               Leonard Bernstein - (musicals) On the Town, Candide, West Side Story

               Aaron Copland - Appalachian Spring (farmhouse built for engaged PN couple), Fanfare for the

                              Common Man, Billy the Kid, Rodeo

               Glen Miller - Moonlight Serenade

               Aram Khatchaturian - Gayaneh (including Saber Dance)

               Jerome Kern - (musicals) Showboat, Roberta, (songs) Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Old Man River,

                              All the Things You Are

               Stephen Sondheim - (shows) Company, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park

                              with George, Into the Woods, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, lyrics to

                              West Side Story and Gypsy

               Andrew Lloyd-Webber - (musicals) Cats, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Phantom of the Opera,

                              Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

               Frederick Loewe - My Fair Lady, Camelot, Brigadoon

               Ernest Bloch - Israel Symphony

               Philip Glass - (operas) Einstein on the Beach (written by Robert Wilson; about danger of nuclear

                              war), Akhnaten, The Voyage

               John Adams - Nixon in China (libretto by Alice Goodman; based on Richard Nixon, Henry

                              Kissinger, Mao Zedong, Jiang Qing, and Zhou Enlai in 1972 meeting), Harmonium,

                              Death of Klinghoffer

               Virgil Thomson - Four Saints in Three Acts (libretto by Gertrude Stein), The Mother of Us All

               Irving Berlin (born in Russia) - (songs) I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, Cheek to Cheek,

                              (shows) Annie get your Gun, Call me Madam, (films) Top Hat, Easter Parade

               Paul Hindemith - Mathis der Maler (about painter Grunewald, includes The Entombment and The

                              Temptation of St. Anthony movements)

 

 

Austrian Composers

 

Eighteenth Century

               Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (works catalogued by Koechel) -

                              A Little Night Music (composed while working on Don Giovanni),

                              Jupiter Symphony,

                              Requiem Mass,

                              Prague Symphony,

                              (operas)

                                             The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflute; libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder;

                                                            Prince Tamino is rescued from monster by Three Ladies of the Queen of the

                                                            Night [Flaming Star], who tells him he can marry her daughter Pamina if he

                                                            can rescue her from magician Sarastro; Tamino and bird-catching friend

                                                            Papageno discover queen is evil and Sarastro is spiritual leader; Tamino

                                                            and Pamina marry),

                                             Abduction from the Seragilo (Belmonte comes to Turkish castle of Pasha Selim

                                                            disguised as architect to rescue kidnapped Constanza),

                                             Don Giovanni (libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte; servant Leporello maintains

                                                            catalog of women seduced by Don Giovanni, including Zerlina; he invades

                                                            Donna Anna's bedroom and slays her father the Commendatore in duel;

                                                            Donna Anna and fiance Don Ottavio vow revenge; Donna Elvira loves

                                                            Don Giovanni, who mocks the Commendatore's statue in the cemetery

                                                            and is dragged to hell)

                                             Cosi Fan Tutte (libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte based on Orlando Furioso; All

                                                            Women Are Like That; on bet with Don Alfonso, officers Ferrando and

                                                            Guglielmo test their lovers by disguising themselves as Albanians and

                                                            seducing each other's lovers) ,

                                             The Marriage of Figarro (libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte; Count Almaviva tires of

                                                            wife Rosina and woos her maid Susanna, who is engaged to Figaro;

                                                            Cherubino loves Rosina, who disguises herself as Susanna to trick Almaviva,

                                                            and Susanna tricks Figaro; all are reconciled)

                                             Idomeneo (Ilia offers herself in place of King Idomeneo's son Idamante for sacrifice

                                                            to Neptune)

                                             Bastien and Bastienne (written at age 12; love triangle involving Colas),

                                             The Clemency of Titus (Vitellia attempts to assassinate Titus)

               Franz Josef Haydn - Farewell Symphony #45 (musicians blow out candles and exit), Sun Quartets,

                              The Paris Symphonies, The London Symphonies, Surprise Symphony #94,

                              Clock Symphony #101, Lord Nelson Mass, (oratorio) The Creation, Miracle Symphony #96

Nineteenth Century

               Franz Schubert - The Trout Quintet, The Tragic Symphony #4, The Unfinished Symphony #8, The Great

                              Symphony #9, Erlkoenig, Winter Journey, Death and the Maiden

               Johann Strauss - The Blue Danube, The Bat, Tales from the Vienna Woods, (operettas) The Gypsy

                              Baron, Die Fledermaus (libretto by Richard Genee and Carl Haffner; champagne and nostalgia

                              Viennese style with romantic liaisons and mistaken identities at masked ball)

               Gustav Mahler - Song of the Earth, Titan Symphony #1, Resurrection Symphony #2 (last movement based

                              on poem by Klopstock), Symphony of a Thousand #8, Songs of a Wayfarer, Songs on the

                              Death of Children (Kindertotenlieder)

               Anton Bruckner - Symphony #0, Romantic Symphony #4

Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

               Arnold Schoenberg - (12-tone technique), Pierrot lunaire (based on poems by Albert Giraud),

                              Transfiguration Night (woman confesses she is pregnant by another man but is forgiven),

                              Gurrelieder, Erwartung, Moses and Aaron, In Memorium Dylan Thomas

               Alban Berg - (operas) Lulu (libretto by the composer; Lulu has loveless liaisons with several men

                              and Countess Geschwitz; she becomes a prostitute in London and is killed by Jack the Ripper),

                              Wozzeck (libretto by composer based on Georg Bluchner's play; soldier Wozzeck is abused by

                              his Captain, experimented on by a mad doctor, and beaten by a drum major having an affair with

                              his wife Marie; Wozzeck stabs Marie and drowns in a pond; their child plays on a hobbyhorse)

               Anton von Webern (accidentally shot by US soldier at end of WWII) - Passacaglia, Six Pieces for Orchestra

 

 

Brazilian Composers

 

Twentieth Century

               Heitor Villa-Lobos - Bachianas Brasileiras, Amazonas, Choros

 

 

British Composers

 

Seventeenth Century

               Henry Purcell - (opera) Dido and Aeneas (first performed at Josias Priest's Boarding School for Girls

                              at Chelsea), The Fairy Queen

Eighteenth Century

               John Gay - The Beggar's Opera (musical score by John Pepusch; rivalry of highwayman Captain

                              Macheath and fence Jeremy Peachum satirizes Robert Walpole and his Whig Cabinet)

               Thomas Arne - Rule Brittania

Twentieth Century

               Edward Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance, The Dream of Gerontius, Enigma Variations (includes Nimrod,

                              a tribute to August Jaeger, and part about Elgar's wife Alice), The Apostles

               Gustav Holst - The Planets, Egdon Heath, Hymns from the Rig Veda, The Perfect Fool

               Ralph Vaughan Williams - Sinfonia Antarctica, Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Talus, A London

                              Symphony #2, A Sen Symphony #1, Sir John in Love, The Wasps

               William Turner Walton - Variations on a Theme by Hindemith, Hamlet, Major Barbara

               Benjamin Britten - (operas) A Midsummer's Night Dream, Albert Herring, The Rape of Lucretia,

                              Peter Grimes (libretto by Montagu Slater based on George Crabbe's poem The Borough;

                              Suffolk fisherman Peter Grimes is suspected of killing an apprentice; despite

                              schoolmistress Ellen Orford's protests he takes a second apprentice, who is killed

                              as they flee a mob; Grimes kills self by sinking in his boat), Gloriana, Billy Budd,

                              Death in Venice, The Turn of the Screw, A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra,

                              War Requiem (based on poems by Wilfred Owen)

 

 

Czech/Bohemian Composers

 

Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

               Anton Dvorak - Symphony #9 From the New World, Slavonic Dances

               Leos Janacek - (opera) Jenufa, The Makropulos Affair

               Bedrich Smetana - (opera) The Bartered Bride (Marenka), Ma Vlast (My Country, including The Modau)

 

 

Finnish Composers

 

Nineteenth Century

               Jean Sibelius - Finlandia, The Swan of Tuonela, Karelia

 

 

French Composers

 

Seventeenth Century

               Jean-Baptiste Lully - Bougeois Gentleman, (operas) Alceste, Armide, Pomone, Te Deum

Eighteenth Century

               Jean-Philippe Rameau - Castor et Pollux

Nineteenth Century

               Hector Berlioz - Damnation of Faust, Symphony Fantastique ("Episode in the Life of an Artist",

                              passion for English actress Harriet Smithson), Roman Carnival, Childhood of Christ,

                              Romeo and Juliet, (operas) Benvenuto Cellini, The Trojans, Harold in Italy, Benvenuto Cellini

               Charles Gounod - (operas) Faust (libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carre based on Goethe's

                              poem; scholar Faust sells soul to devil Mephistopheles for love of Marguerite, whom he betrays;

                              Marguerite kills their baby and is imprisoned and dies; Faust kills her brother Valentine in duel

                              and is dragged to Hell), Romeo and Juliet (libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carre; Romeo and

                              Juliet of feuding Montague and Capulet families fall in love, elope, and commit suicide; Mercutio

                              has Queen Mab fairy-tale fantasy)

               Jacques Offenbach - (opera) Tales of Hoffmann (libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carre based

                              on ETA Hoffmann's stories; in a tavern, Hoffmann tells his friends about his three loves: the

                              animated doll Olympia, the courtesan Giulietta, and the singer Antonia; woman he came to

                              meet leaves with another man), Orpheus in the Underworld

               Camille Saint-Saens - Samson and Delilah (libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire; Delilah seduces

                              Hebrew warrior Samson and learns the secret of his strength is his long hair; she cut his hair, the

                              Philistines capture and blind him, but he pulls down their temple and dies), Carnival of the Animals,

                              Dance Macabre

               Georges Bizet - Assembly Ball, (operas) Carmen (libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy

                              based on Prosper Merimee's novella; Seville: soldier Don Jose is arrested when he saves Gypsy

                              smuggler and cigarette factory worker Carmen from prison; on his release he competes with his

                              commander for her and joins the smugglers but she leaves him for bullfighter Escamillo and he

                              kills her), The Pearl Fishers, Children's Games

               Claude Debussy - La Mer, Nocturne, Images, (ballet) Ballade, Afternoon of a Faun, Clair de lune, The

                              Children's Corner, The Prodigal Son, Suite Bergamesque, (opera) Pelleas et Melisande (based on

                              Maurice Maeterlinck's tragedy; unprecedented style; love triangle among Melisande and half-

                              brothers Pelleas and Golaud)

               Massenet - (opera) Manon (libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille based on Abbe Prevost's

                              novel; on way to convent, Manon elopes with Chevalier des Grieux; they are accused of gambling

                              and prostitution and are banished; Manon dies in his arms; the Chevalier vows to be priest)

Twentieth Century

               Maurice Ravel - Mother Goose, Bolero, La Valse, Daphnis and Chloe, The Spanish Hour, (opera)

                              The Child and the Spells, Spanish Rhapsody

               Paul Dukas - The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Ariene and Bluebeard

               Lili Boulanger - (first woman to win Grand Prix de Rome, 1913) Faust et Helene

               Nadia Boulanger - (Lili's sister, second in Grand Prix 1908) La Sirene

               Gabriel Faure (student of Saint-Saens) - Apres une Reve, Requiem Mass

               Erik Satie - Gymnopedies, Parade, Vexations, Desicated Embryos, Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear

               Les Six

                              Darius Milhaud - Creation of the World, Christophe Colomb

                              Arthur Honegger - Judith, Rugby, King David, Pacific 231

                              Georges Auric - Moulin Rouge, The Sailors

                              Louis Durey (Communist) - Flute Sonatina, The Long March

                              Germaine Tailleferre

                              Francis Poulenc - Dialogues of the Carmelites (libretto by Ernest Lavery based on novel by

                                             Gertrude von Le Fort; Sister Marie of the Incarnation, a nun of Compiegne, is martyred during

                                             French Revolution), Gloria, Les Bitches

 

 

German Composers

 

Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

               Johann Pachelbel - Canon in D, (chorales)

               Dietrich Buxtehude (taught Bach)

               Johann Sebastian Bach - Mass in B-Minor, Art of the Fugue, Brandenburg Concertos (6), Well-

                              Tempered Clavier (championed Werckmeister's tuning theory), Goldberg Variations (composed to

                              treat insomnia of Russian envoy Kayserling), Passion of St. Matthew, Passion of St. John

Eighteenth Century

               George Frederic Handel - Messiah, Music for the Royal Fireworks, Water Music; (operas) Renaldo,

                              Judas Maccabeus (Judas Maccabee leads revolt of Isrealites against Antiochus IV)

               Chrisoph Gluck (rival of Niccolo Piccini )- (operas) Orpheus and Eurydice (libretto by Ranieri Calzabigi;

                              musician Orpheus plays so well that Hades lets his wife Eurydice, who had died shortly after

                              their wedding, return to Earth, but she turns back too soon and is returned to Hades), Alcestis

Nineteenth Century

               Ludwig van Beethoven - Emperor Concerto, Egmont, Moonlight Sonata, (opera) Fidelio (libretto

                              by Jean Bouilly; Leonore, disguised as boy Fidelio, outwits prison warden Pizarro to rescue her

                              husband Florestan), Eroica Symphony #3, Fate (or Victory) Symphony #5, Pastoral Symphony #6,

                              Choral Symphony #9 (Ode to Joy by Schiller), Kreutzer Sonato, Sonata Pathetique, The Creatures

                              of Prometheus, Wellington's Victory (celebrates England's victory at Vitoria)

               Johannes Brahms - A German Requiem, Academic Festival Overture (drinking songs; written for acceptance

                              of honorary degree from University of Breslau), Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn,

                              Hungarian Dances

               Felix Mendelssohn - Reformation Symphony #5, Italian Symphony #4, Scotish Symphony #3, (overtures)

                              Hebrides (Fingal's Cave), A Midsummer Night's Dream, (piano) Songs Without Words (includes

                              three Venetian gondola songs), Elijah Oratorio, (revived Bach's St. Matthew's Passion)

               ETA Hoffmann - Undine (fisherman raises Undine, born in ocean; she loves Uldibrand but he turns to ice)

               Richard Wagner - (operas; had own opera house at Bayreuth)

                              Parsifal (libretto by the composer; Wagner's last opera; knight Parsifal, on quest for Holy

                                             Grail, defeats magician Klingsor, resists seductress Kundry, and becomes the "pure fool"

                                             who can weild the Sacred Spear),

                              The Flying Dutchman (man doomed to wander seas in ship Flying Dutchman until loved

                                             by a woman; loves Senta),

                              Lohengrin (knight Lohengrin arrives at Antwerp on swan-drawn boat, marries king's

                                             ward Elsa and kills the king, bringing peace to the kingdom, and leaves),

                              Tannhauser and the Singing Contest at Wartburg Castle (libretto by the composer;

                                             Tannhauser leaves Venusburg to return to Wartburg and compete in Hall of Song; his

                                             songs praising Venus scandalize all, he is banished, and the pope refuses absolution; his

                                             beloved Elisabeth dies of broken heart and he dies),

                              Tristan and Isolde (based on 1100s tale; Irish princess Isolde and Cornish knight Tristan

                                             love each other; its performance is so demanding that its staging was given up the first

                                             two times and the first tenor to play Tristan died),

                              The Ring of the Nibelungen (libretto by the composer; four operas: #1 The Rhinegold, #2

                                             The Valkyrie, #3 Siegfried, #4 The Twilight of the Gods; myths about Volsung race and

                                             the Nibelung treasure),

                              The Mastersingers of Nuremberg (libretto by the composer based on Hans Sachs;

                                             Walther wins holiday songwriting contest run by Nuremberg cobbler Hans Sachs,

                                             gaining the hand of his beloved Eva; opera satirically attacks Beckmesser [based on

                                             Eduard Hanslick])

               Robert Schumann - The Spring Symphony #1, Rhenish Symphony #2, Kreisleriana

               Giacomo Meyerbeer - The Huguenots, Robert the Devil, The African Maid

               Carl Maria von Weber - Die Freischutz (The Freeshooter; forester Max accepts Black Hunstman's magic

                              bullets; last bullet hits his beloved Agathe), Oberon (Weber learned English to write it)

               Engelbert Humperdinck - (opera) Hansel and Gretel (libretto by composer's sister Adelheid Wette

                              based on Grimm's Fairy Tales; siblings Hansel and Gretel find a witch's house when lost in the

                              woods)

Twentieth Century

               Richard Strauss -

                              Death and Transfiguration,

                              Thus Spake Zarathustra,

                              Don Quixote,

                              Till Eulenspeigel's Merry Pranks,

                              Metamorphosis,

                              Don Juan,

                              A Hero's Life,

                              (operas)

                                             Salome (based on Oscar Wilde's tragedy; after being promised a wish for her

                                                            Dance of the Seven Veils, Salome demands on a platter the head of King Herod's

                                                            prisoner Jochanaan [John the Baptist], who had refused her advances),

                                             The Rose-Bearer (Der Rosenkavalier; libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal; Field

                                                            Marshal von Werdenberg's Viennese wife the Marschallin has affair with

                                                            Octavian; her cousin Baron Ochs von Lerchenau comes and loves Sophie von

                                                            Faninal but also shows interest in Octavian, who has disguised himself as

                                                            servant girl Mariandel to escape; Marschallin chooses Octavian to bear silver

                                                            rose to Sophie for Ochs but he falls in love with her),

                                             Elektra (libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal; Orest, with sister Elektra's help,

                                                            kills mom Klytemnestra and her lover Aegisth; Elektra dies),

                                             The Woman without a Shadow,

                                             Ariadne on Naxos (libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal; gentleman requests

                                                            simultaneous performance of opera on Greek myths and commedia dell'arte

                                                            farce to get them over with; noble Ariadne abandoned on island longs for

                                                            death and speaks with comedians, including Zerbinetta; Composer is exasperated)

               Carl Orff - Carmina Burana

               Kurt Weill - (operas) The Threepenny Opera (libretto by Bertolt Brecht; includes Mack the Knife song),

                              The Rise and Fall of the City of Mohogany (libretto by Bertolt Brecht; Cuban mulatto Jenny),

                              Street Scene

 

 

Hungarian Composers

 

Nineteenth Century

               Franz Liszt - A Faust Symphony, Hungarian Rhapsodies (includes Rakoczy March and Carnival in Pest),

                              Mezeppa, The Preludes, Dante Symphony, Mephisto Waltzes

Twentieth Century

               Bela Bartok - (opera) Bluebeard's Castle (bloody torture chamber and other horrors behind five doors,

                              light behind sixth, Judith joins three former wives behind seventh), (ballets) Miraculous Mandarin,

                              Wooden Prince, Mikrokosmos Suites, Kossuth Symphony

               Zoltan Kodaly - (opera) Hary Janos

 

 

Italian Composers and Musicians

 

Seventeenth Century

               Claudio Monteverdi - (operas) Orfeo, The Roman of Ulysses, The Coronation of Poppaea

Eighteenth Century

               Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons

               Stadivari family - (made violins; Antonio Straivarius taught by Nicolo Amati in Cremona)

Nineteenth Century

               Giusepee Verdi - (operas)

                              Romantic Trilogy

                                             Rigoletto (libretto by Francesco Maria Piave based on Victor Hugo's The King

                                                            Amuses Himself; Duke of Mantua seduces Gilda, daughter of his court jester

                                                            Rigoletto; Gilda dies to save the duke as Rigoletto seeks revenge; others include

                                                            assassin's daughter Maddalena),

                                             La Traviata (The Transgressor; libretto by FM Piave based on Alexandre Dumas

                                                            the Younger's La Dame aux Camelias; Parisian cocotte Violeta Valery dies of

                                                            consumption at 23, loved by Alfredo Germont),

                                             Il Trovatore (The Troubadour; libretto by Salvatore Cammarano based on

                                                            Antonio Garda Gutierrez's play; characters include Manrico and his gypsy

                                                            mother Azucena),

                              A Masked Ball,

                              Aide (for Suez Canal),

                              MacBeth,

                              Simon Boccanegra,

                              Falstaff (libretto by Arrigo Boito based on Merry Wives of Windsor; Verdi's last opera;

                                             old soldier Falstaff sends identical love letters to Mistress Ford and Mistress Page;

                                             Mistress Ford's husband tries to marry their daughter to a wealthy man but she loves

                                             someone else),

                              Otello (libretto by Arrigo Boito; Lago falsely persuades Moorish general Otello that his

                                             Venetian wife Desdemona has been unfaithful, and he kills her),

                              Nabucco (based on Biblical book Jeremiah about Chaldean ruler),

                              La Forza del Destino (libretto by Francesco Maria Piave based on Spanish play Don

                                             Alvaro; Don Alvaro accidentally kills his beloved Leonora's father, she goes to a

                                             monastery, and her brother pursues Alvaro for revenge)

                              Don Carlos (libretto by Francois Joseph Mery and Camille du Locle based on drama by

                                             Friedrich Schiller; Don Carlos Infante of Spain competes with his father King Philip for

                                             Elisabeth de Valois; intrigues of Princess Eboli; Carlos is imprisoned but rescued from

                                             Spanish Inquisition by grandfather Emperor Charles V)

               Gaetano Donizetti - (operas) Lucia di Lammermoor (Arturo Bucklaw convinces Lucia her love Edgardo has

                              deserted her; based on novel by Scott), The Elixir of Love (Doctor Dulcamara), Don Pasquale

                              (libretto by Stefano Pavesi; Don Pasquale tries to prevent nephew from marrying a widow, who,

                              with Dr. Malatesta's help, pretends to marry Don Pasquale), Lucrezia Borgia, The Daughter of

                              the Regiment, Anna Bolena

               Gioacchino Rossini - (ballet) The Fantastic Toyshop, (operas) William Tell, The Barber of Seville (libretto

                              by Cesare Sterbini; Rosina's guardian Doctor Bartolo wants to marry her himself but she loves

                              Count Almaviva, who, with barber Figaro's help, tries to gains access to her disguised as a soldier

                              and as her music teacher Don Basilio; they plan to elope but are able to marry), The Thieving Magpie,

                              Cinderella, The Italian Girl in Algiers, Count Ory

               Vincenzo Bellini - (opera) Norma (Druid high priestess Norma in Gaul is burned for having two

                              sons with Roman proconsul Pollione and delaying her people's revolt against Rome),

                              La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker; Elvino loves Amina but dumps her because of her sleepwalking)

               Ruggero Leoncavallo - (opera) I Pagliacci (The Clowns; libretto by the composer; Tonio states

                              verismo creed; during play-within-a-play commedia dell'arte middle-aged actor Canio, portraying

                              clown Pagliaccio, stabs his young wife Nedda and her lover Silvio), La Boheme

               Niccolo Paganini - (famous violinist), 24 Caprices

               Pietro Mascagni - (opera) Cavalleria Rusticana (libretto by Guido Menasci and Giovanni

                              Targioni-Tozzetti based on play by Giovanni Verga; Sicily: Turiddu leaves pregnant lover Santuzza

                              on Easter for Lola, whose husband Alfio kills him in a duel)

Twentieth Century

               Giacomo Puccini - (operas)

                              Tosca (based on Victorien Sardou's play; Napoleon invades Rome in 1800),

                              La Boheme (libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa based on Henri Murger's

                                             novel; Paris Latin Quarter, 1830: poet Rodolfo falls in love with consumptive seamstress

                                             Mimi in stairway on Christmas Eve and go to Cafe Momus; painter Marcello and Musetta

                                             break up; at the end of winter Mimi leaves; later as Marcello and Rodolfo joke with

                                             musician Schaunard and philosopher Colline, Mimi returns to die),

                              Madame Butterfly (libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa; US naval officer

                                             Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton marries Nagasaki Geisha girl Cio-Cio-San [Madam Butterfly]

                                             and then returns to US; Cio and her servant Suzuki await his return; US consul Sharpless

                                             tells her to marry a Japanese man; Pinkerton returns with American wife who requests their

                                             child; she agrees but kills herself),

                              Turandot (libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni based on Carlo Gozzi's drama;

                                             Princess Turandot executes her suitors who can't answer her riddle, but Prince Calaf gets

                                             riddle and asks her to guess his name; she tortures loyal slave girl Li to get Calaf's name

                                             but she kills herself)

                              The Girl of the Golden West (Sheriff Jack Rance searches for the bandit Ramerrez in California)

                              Manon Lescaut

               Ottorino Respighi - The Fountains of Rome, The Pines of Rome

               Arturo Toscanini (conductor)

               Gian-Carlo Menotti (moved to US) - (opera) Amahl and the Night Visitors (libretto by composer;

                              crippled boy Amahl and his mom receive the Magi on the road to Bethelem), The Saint

                              of Bleecker Street, The Consul

 

 

Mexican Composers

 

Twentieth Century

               Carlos Chavez - Sinfonia India, Xochipilli

 

 

Norweigan Composers

 

Nineteenth Century

               Edvard Grieg - Peer Gynt (including In the Hall of the Mountain King), Olav Trygvason, Holberg Suite

 

 

Moldovian Composers

 

Twentieth Century

               Georges Enesco - Romanian Rhapsody

 

 

Polish Composers

 

Nineteenth Century

               Frederic Chopin - Piano Sonata in B-flat Minor (incl. Funeral March), F Minor Fantasy, (Polish

                              mazurkas, polonaises, noctures), Military Polonaise in A, Funeral March

Twentieth Century

               Ignace Jan Paderewski (Polish prime minister) - Manru

 

 

Russian Composers

 

Nineteenth Century

               The Russian (Mighty) Five

                              Aleksandr Borodin - Prince Igor (including Potovesian Dances; Igor and brother Prince

                                             Galitzky rebel against Mongol chief Kontchak), In the Steppes of Central Asia

                              Modest Mussorgsky - Night on Bald Mountain, (opera) Boris Godunov (libretto by the

                                             composer; Friar Grigory vows to avenge Boris Godunov's murder of Dmitry,

                                             and returns pretending to be him; guilty Boris dies in Council Hall), (piano)

                                             Pictures at an Exhibition (based on paintings byVictor Hartmann; includes

                                             Bydlo and The Great Gate of Kiev)

                              Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - The Great Russian Easter, (ballet) Scheherazade; (operas) The

                                             Legend of Tsar Sultan (including Flight of the Bumblebee), The Snow Maiden

                                             (Misgir loves the Snow Maiden, who is rejected by shepherd Lehl), The Golden

                                             Cockerel (titular bird gets revenge on Tsar Dodon, the Astrologer requests the

                                             hand of the Queen of Shemakha), Spanish Caprice

                              Mily Balakirev - Islamey, Tamara, King Lear                                                       

                              Cesar Cui

               Peter Tchaikovsky - (symphonies) Little Russian Symphony #2, Symphony Pathetique #6 (performed

                              nine days before composer's death), 1812 Overture, (ballets) The Nutcracker, The Sleeping

                              Beauty, Swan Lake, (operas) Eugene Onegin, The Queen of Spades

               Mikhail Glinka - Ruslan and Ludmilla, A Life for the Tsar, Summer Night in Madrid

Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

               Alexander Scriabin - Mazurkas, Peom of Ectasy, Prometheus Poem of Fire

Twentieth Century

               Igor Stravinsky - Song of the Nightingale, Card Game, Dumbarton Oaks, (ballets) The Wedding,

                              The Firebird, Carnaval, The Fairy's Kiss, Orpheus, The Rite of Spring (caused a riot at 1913

                              Paris debut), Petrushka (puppet at country fair dies but returns as ghost), Agon, Apollo,

                              Palcinella, (opera) The Rake's Progress (libretto by WH Auden and Chester Kallman based on

                              Hogarth's painting; Tom Rakewell is surrounded by undesirables such as Nick Shadow, the Devil

                              in disguise, and the long-suffering Anne Trulove), (stage work) The Soldier's Tale, Ragtime,

                              Oedipus Rex

               Sergey Prokofiev - Peter and the Wolf, Love for Three Oranges, Classical Symphony #1, Alexander Nevsky

                              (film score), (ballets) Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, Lieutenant Kije

               Sergey Rachmaninov - Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, The Isle of the Dead

               Dmitri Shostakovich - Lady Macbeth of Minsk (Katerina Ismailova and lover Sergey kill her husband),

                              Leningrad Symphony, Babi Yar (Symphony #13: Russian Jews massacred by German troops)

 

 

Spanish Composers and Musicians

 

Nineteenth Centry

               Isaac Albeniz - Iberia

Twentieth Century

               Pablo Casals - (celloist, interpreted Bach's cello suites)

               Manuel de Falla - The Three-Cornered Hat, Love the Sorcerer