Iphigénie en Tauride of 1779 was Christoph Willibald Gluck’s fifth and penultimate opera for the French stage. In it he took his ideas concerning reform opera to what might be deemed their logical conclusion, employing récitatif accompagné and largely omitting the dance movements that were a hallmark of French tragédie en musique. Knowing that many of the operas and ballets he had already written in Italian would probably never be performed again, he...

Based on Victorien Sardou’s 1887 French-language play, Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca of 1900, with a libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, not only occurs in a specific time and place, but on a precise date that can be linked to an historical event. All of the action takes place during the afternoon, evening and early morning of 17 and 18 June 1800, following the Battle of Marengo between Napoleon’s army and Austrian forces. The Austrians were initially...

Angel’s Bone, by composer Du Yun and librettist Royce Vavrek, began life in 2011 as a 35-minute chamber opera that had been commissioned by Philadelphia’s Mann Center for Performing Arts. It was then developed into a full length (although still one act) opera, with the premiere of this 80-minute version taking place on 6 January 2016 at the 3LD Art & Technology Center in Lower Manhattan. The story sees two Angels, simply referred to as the Boy Angel and Girl Angel,...

Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, with a libretto by Bertolt Brecht and Elisabeth Hauptmann, describes the establishing and subsequent implosion of a city that is designed to give people fun because, it is asserted, there is nothing else in the world on which to rely. Situated somewhere in America, it is initially founded by three fugitives (Leokadja Begbick, Fatty the Bookkeeper and Trinity Moses) who find themselves unable to flee any further from the pursuing...

Originally set in Naples, Così fan tutte of 1790 sees the philosopher Don Alfonso challenge two soldiers, Ferrando and Guglielmo, to prove that their respective fiancées, the sisters Dorabella and Fiordiligi, are faithful. He is certain that no woman ever is, but the younger men are so convinced of their own lovers’ fidelity that they agree to a wager with him. They will pretend to be called away to war and then return disguised as Albanians to try to win over the...

English National Opera has a long and proud tradition of performing works by Gilbert and Sullivan, although the productions they have presented have differed markedly in style. Jonathan Miller’s 1986 staging of The Mikado, which is still going strong having last been revived in 2019, placed the action in a 1920s hotel and revealed the highest levels of exuberance and professionalism. On the other hand, Mike Leigh’s 2015 version of The Pirates of Penzance, most recently seen...