Search results
- Verdi – The Force of Destiny. With a main theme made famous by the “Reassuringly expensive” Stella Artois TV campaign of the 1990s, this operatic opener is indeed “Reassuringly Verdi” with the Italian composer’s customary mix of exquisite melody and thundering full-orchestra outbursts.
- Mozart – The Magic Flute. At the age of 28, Mozart joined the Masonic order, a secretive organisation with a rich set of rituals and symbols that many scholars believe are evident in Mozart’s later works, The Magic Flute being one of them.
- Rossini – William Tell. The overture that broke the mould, Rossini’s William Tell Overture escaped the clutches of the classical world and flew into the mainstream.
- Dame Ethel Smyth – The Wreckers. After five years touring Europe trying to persuade theatre impresarios to stage it, Smyth’s best-known opera The Wreckers finally received its premiere in Leipzig in 1906.
Jan 20, 2017 · Aaron Copland: An Outdoor Overture 17. George Gershwin: Cuban Overture 16. Gioacchino Rossini: William Tell: Overture 15. Richard Wagner: Tannhauser: Overture 14. Gioacchino Rossini: La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie): Overture 13. Peter Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture 12. Hector Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture 11.
We asked three top opera conductors to share their favourite overtures. These are their choices of the best opera overtures of all time
- Der Ring Des Nibelungen
- Das Rheingold
- Die Walküre
- Siegfried
- Götterdämmerung
- Der Fliegende Holländer
- Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg
- Parsifal
- Tristan und Isolde
- Siegfried Idyll
Der Ring Des Nibelungen (usually known simply as The Ring Cycle) is essentially four epic operas all linked together by the same story. In sequence, they are: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung. Wagner’s sixteen-hour operatic tetralogy traces a power struggle that sees families ripped apart, hearts broken, heroes slaughtered...
The ‘Prologue’ to Wagner’s four-opera cycle The Ringrevolves around a gold ring, which gives unlimited power to the wearer who renounces love, and by the end of the opera has already changed hands three times. It introduces the characters that will drive this drama to its epic conclusion, and the musical themes that Wagner develops through the cycl...
Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) is the second of the four epic operas in Wagner’s Der Ring Des Nibelungen (usually known simply as The Ring Cycle). The Valkyries of the title are an army of maidens who ride through the air on horseback, led by Brünnhilde, Wotan’s warrior-daughter, who ends the opera surrounded by a circle of flames. Listen out for Wagne...
The third part of Wagner’s massive operatic tetralogy centers upon Siegfried who slays the evil Fafnor (disguised as a dragon), and the wretched dwarf Mime, before rescuing Brünnhilde from the ring of fire. Think of it as a sort of nineteenth-century version of The Lord Of The Ringstrilogy, albeit with a fourth installment.
Götterdämmerung (Twilight Of The Gods) is the fourth and final work of Wagner’s opera cycle Der Ring Des Nibelungen. A series of dramatic deceptions lead to the murder of Siegfried, Brünnhilde’s suicide, the destruction of a world order, and the return of the Ring to the Rhinemaidens. By the opera’s end world order has been restored – but at a deva...
Der Fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) was the first of Wagner’s operas to explore the theme of redemptive love, its tempestuous overture was inspired by the composer’s rough voyage from Riga to London. Condemned by the Devil to sail the world until Judgement Day, a Dutch sea captain has one chance every seven years to escape the curse by wi...
The Mastersingers Of Nuremberg, the only one of Wagner’s mature operas that deal with conventional human beings, is a ravishingly inspired melodic outpouring on an epic scale. It is the only comedy among his mature operas and is also unusual among his works in being set in a historically well-defined time and place rather than in a mythical or lege...
Wagner’s swansong, a masterpiece of sustained drama, is principally concerned with the retrieval by the Knights of the Holy Grail of the spear that pierced Christ’s side at his crucifixion. Listen out for Wagner’s elaborate use of leitmotifs – musical phrases associated with individual characters, places, ideas, or plot elements. He had mastered th...
Wagner’s most audacious score, famous for its overture and the closing ‘Liebestod’, recounts the Celtic legend of the tragic love of Tristan and Isolde. The opera, one of Wagner’s best works, was enormously influential among Western classical composers and provided direct inspiration to composers such as Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoe...
Siegfried Idyll is a symphonic poem for chamber orchestra reflecting a gentle, tender side of the composer. Wagner composed the Siegfried Idyll as a birthday present for his second wife, Cosima, and it was first performed by a small ensemble, on a staircase in their villa, on Christmas Day 1870. Wagner originally intended the Siegfried Idyllto rema...
- Wagner • Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen WWV 49: Ouvertüre • Molto sostenuto e maestoso – Allegro energico – Un poco più vivace – Molto più stretto. Richard Wagner.
- Bernstein • Candide (New York City 1956): Overture • Allegro molto con brio. Leonard Bernstein. Candide (New York City 1956): Overture. Allegro molto con brio.
- Wagner • Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg WWV 96: Prelude to Act I • Sehr mäßig bewegt – Bewegt, doch immer noch etwas breit – Mäßig im Hauptzeitmaß – Sehr gewichtig.
- Weber • Der Freischütz op. 77 J. 277 • Overture • Overture. Carl Maria von Weber. Der Freischütz op. 77 J. 277. Overture • Overture Libretto: Johann Friedrich Kind.
Listen to The 100 Best Classical Masterworks: Famous Overtures and Adagios by Various Artists on Apple Music. 2012. 100 Songs. Duration: 9 hours, 17 minutes. Album · 2012 · 100 Songs
People also ask
What composers have a choral overture?
What composers have a symphony overture?
What makes a good opera overture?
Who wrote the overture in the Opera Tell Galop?
Jul 17, 2018 · Its Overture - a mere 12 minutes - has become one of the most famous pieces of classical music. Decoding the music masterpieces: Rossini’s William Tell, and its famous overture Menu Close
