Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible, and from the Coverdale Psalter, the version of the Psalms included with the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and received its London premiere nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.
Nixon in China is an opera in three acts by John Adams, with a libretto by Alice Goodman. Adams' first opera, it was inspired by U.S. President Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972. The work premiered at the Houston Grand Opera on October 22, 1987, in a production by Peter Sellars with choreography by Mark Morris. When Sellars approached Adams with the idea for the opera in 1983, Adams was initially reluctant, but eventually decided that the work could be a study in how myths come to be, and accepted the project. Goodman's libretto was the result of considerable research into Nixon's visit, though she disregarded most sources published after the 1972 trip.
Einstein on the Beach is an opera in four acts, composed by Philip Glass and directed by theatrical producer Robert Wilson. The opera eschews traditional narrative in favor of a formalist approach based on structured spaces laid out by Wilson in a series of storyboards. The music was written "in the spring, summer and fall of 1975". Glass recounts the collaborative process: "I put [Wilson’s notebook of sketches] on the piano and composed each section like a portrait of the drawing before me. The score was begun in the spring of 1975 and completed by the following November, and those drawings were before me all the time." The premiere took place on July 25, 1976, at the Avignon Festival in France. The opera contains writings by Christopher Knowles, Samuel M. Johnson and Lucinda Childs. It is Glass's first and longest opera score, taking approximately five hours in full performance without intermission; given the length, the audience is permitted to enter and leave as desired.
Ill Niño is an American heavy metal band formed in New Jersey in 1999 by founder/drummer Dave Chavarri. Ill Niño developed their own unique style known to fans of the band as "Latin metal". They have released 7 studio albums, 2 EPs, and 1 greatest hits album, selling over 2 million albums worldwide.
Harmonium is a composition for chorus and orchestra that could be considered a choral symphony in all but name, by the American composer John Adams, written in 1980-1981 for the first season of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, California. The work is based on poetry by John Donne and Emily Dickinson. It is regarded as one of the key compositions of Adams' "minimalist" period. The San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, with conductor Edo de Waart, gave the premiere of the work on 15 April 1981, and subsequently recorded it. The UK premiere was on 13 October 1987 at Birmingham Town Hall, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) conducted by Simon Rattle. Rattle and the CBSO gave the London premiere on 28 July 1990 at The Proms.
The Death of Klinghoffer is an American opera, with music by John Adams to an English-language libretto by Alice Goodman. First produced in Brussels and New York in 1991, the opera is based on the hijacking of the passenger liner Achille Lauro by the Palestine Liberation Front in 1985, and the hijackers' murder of a 69-year-old Jewish-American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, who was wheelchair-bound.
Il Bellerofonte is an 18th-century Italian opera in three acts by the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček. It conforms to the serious type that was typically set in the distant past. The libretto, based on the Greek legend of Bellerophon, was written by Giuseppe Bonecchi. The work was dedicated to King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and was first performed at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples on 20 January 1767, the birthday of his father, King Charles III of Spain. The cast featured two stellar singers of the time, Caterina Gabrielli and Anton Raaff, in the leading roles. The opera was only the composer's second one, and the first that permitted him the opportunity to write music for first-rate vocal artists. The production was highly successful, indeed responsible for a meteoric rise in his reputation as an operatic composer. From the time of the premiere of Bellerofonte until his death in 1781, Mysliveček succeeded in having more new opere serie brought into production than any other composer in Europe. During the same time span, he also had more new operas staged at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples than any other composer.
Doctor Atomic is an opera by the contemporary American composer John Adams, with libretto by Peter Sellars. It premiered at the San Francisco Opera on October 1, 2005. The work focuses on the great stress and anxiety experienced by those at Los Alamos while the test of the first atomic bomb was being prepared. In 2007, a documentary was made about the creation of the opera, titled Wonders Are Many.
Hallelujah Junction is a composition for two pianos written in 1996 by the American composer John Adams. Adams titled his autobiography after this composition. A two-CD retrospective album of works by Adams on the Nonesuch label is also entitled Hallelujah Junction, but does not include the composition.
El Niño is an opera-oratorio by the American composer John Adams. It was premiered on December 15, 2000 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris by soloists Dawn Upshaw, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Willard White, the vocal ensemble Theatre of Voices,, the London Voices, La Maîtrise de Paris, and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, with Kent Nagano conducting. It has been performed on a number of occasions since, and has been broadcast on BBC Television.
An Occasional Oratorio is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel, based upon a libretto by Newburgh Hamilton after the poetry of John Milton and Edmund Spenser. The work was written in the midst of the Jacobite rising of 1745–1746, the attempt to overthrow Handel's patrons the Hanoverian monarchy under George II and replace them with a Stuart restoration under Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie".The Occasional Oratorio is unique among Handel's works which he labelled "oratorio" in that it does not tell a story or contain elements of a drama, but was intended as a defiant and patriotic rallying piece. The Stuart armies, based in Scotland, had invaded England and got as far as Derby when the King's armies under the command of the King's son Prince William, Duke of Cumberland had driven them back to Scotland in December 1745. The fighting was at a hiatus due to winter weather and the Duke of Cumberland was in London in February 1746. Handel composed the Occasional Oratorio hastily in January and February 1746, "borrowing" and re-arranging some movements from previous compositions, and premiered it immediately on 14 February 1746 with Willem de Fesch, Élisabeth Duparc, Elisabetta de Gambarini, John Beard (tenor), and Thomas Reinhold at Covent Garden Theatre. It contains 44 movements split over three parts. Part One, generally speaking, concerns the miseries of war and the vengeance of a wrathful God, Part Two the blessings of peace, and Part Three a thanksgiving for victory. This was felt at the time by some to be premature as the rebels had not yet been defeated, Charles Jennens, Handel's friend and collaborator who wrote the text for Saul and others of Handel's oratorios called the piece "a triumph for a victory not yet gained." The festive four part overture, with trumpets and drums, is sometimes performed outside the context of the entire piece. The famous chorus "Prepare the Hymn" is the 26th movement and appears in the second part. The second minuet from the Music for the Royal Fireworks was reused from this oratorio.
Semiramide is an 18th-century Italian opera in 3 acts by the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček. It was composed to a libretto by the Italian poet Metastasio that was first set to music in 1729. For a performance in the 1760s, it would only be expected that a libretto by Metastasio would be abbreviated and altered to suit contemporary operatic taste. The cuts and changes in the text made for the 1766 performance of Mysliveček's opera are not attributable.
Armida is an opera in three acts by Josef Mysliveček set to a libretto by Giovanni Ambrogio Migliavacca based on an earlier libretto by Philippe Quinault. It is one of many operas set at the time of the Crusades that is based on characters and incidents from Torquato Tasso's epic poem La Gerusalemme liberata. This opera belong to the serious type in Italian language referred to as opera seria. It incorporates many elements from the operatic "reform" movement of the 1770s, including short vocal numbers and short choruses incorporated into the fabric of the drama and lavish use of accompanied recitative.
Romolo ed Ersilia is an 18th-century Italian opera in 3 acts by the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček composed to a libretto by the Italian poet Metastasio first produced in Innsbruck in 1765 with music by Johann Adolf Hasse. The drama was one of Metastasio's last, shortest, and least popular. Mysliveček's setting of 1773 was the only other one known to have been produced during the remainder of the eighteenth cebtury. It includes significant alterations, in particular the introduction of new arias that augment the importance of certain characters and the re-ordering of existing arias. The alterations are not attributable. This opera belong to the serious type in Italian language referred to as opera seria. In Mysliveček's day, the opening aria, "Questa è la bella face," the duet that concludes the first act, and the quartet that concludes the second act were famed for their brilliance.
"Brendan's Death Song" is a song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers from their 2011 album I'm with You and was released as the album's fifth and final single on June 11, 2012 through digital download. A two-track CD single was released in Germany on August 24, 2012.
Messiah, the English-language oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel in 1741, is structured in three parts, listed here in tables for their musical setting and biblical sources.
Messiah, the English-language oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel in 1741, is structured in three parts. This listing covers Part II in a table and comments on individual movements, reflecting the relation of the musical setting to the text. Part I begins with the prophecy of the Messiah and his birth, shows the annunciation to the shepherds and reflects the Messiah's deeds on earth. Part II covers the Passion in nine movements including the oratorio's longest movement, an air for alto He was despised, then mentions death, resurrection, ascension, and reflects the spreading of the Gospel and its rejection. The part is concluded by a scene called "God's Triumph" that culminates in the Hallelujah Chorus. Part III of the oratorio concentrates on Paul's teaching of the resurrection of the dead and Christ's glorification in heaven.
Messiah, the English-language oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel in 1741, is structured in three parts. This listing covers Part III in a table and comments on individual movements, reflecting the relation of the musical setting to the text. Part I begins with the prophecy of the Messiah and his birth, shows the annunciation to the shepherds as a scene from the Gospel of Luke, and reflects the Messiah's deeds on Earth. Part II covers the Passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and the later spreading of the Gospel. Part III concentrates on Paul's teaching of the resurrection of the dead and Christ's glorification in heaven.
The Enchanted Island is a pasticcio (pastiche) of music by various baroque composers, including George Frideric Handel, Antonio Vivaldi, and Jean-Philippe Rameau, devised and written by Jeremy Sams after The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. It was created by Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott and premiered by the Metropolitan Opera on December 31, 2011, starring David Daniels, Joyce DiDonato, Danielle de Niese, Luca Pisaroni, and Lisette Oropesa. The popular 70-year-old Spanish tenor, Plácido Domingo, played the small but important part of the sea god Neptune. The following month a performance of the pasticcio was broadcast live into movie theaters across the world as part of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series. In late 2012, Virgin Classics released this broadcast version on DVD. The Met revived The Enchanted Island two seasons later. Daniels, de Niese, Pisaroni, and Domingo revived their roles from the premiere. Susan Graham assumed the role of Sycorax from DiDonato.
