Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet were a duo of French filmmakers who made two dozen films between 1963 and 2006. Their films are noted for their rigorous, intellectually stimulating style and radical, communist politics. Though both were French, they worked mostly in Germany and Italy. From the Clouds to the Resistance (1979) and Sicilia! (1999) are among the duo's best regarded works.
Michael Andreas Gielen was an Austrian conductor and composer who promoted contemporary music in opera and concert.
Elegy for Young Lovers is an opera in three acts by Hans Werner Henze to an English libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman.
Guntram is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with a German libretto written by the composer. The second act of the opera was composed in Ramacca, Sicily.
Moses und Aron is a three-act opera by Arnold Schoenberg with the third act unfinished. The German libretto is by the composer after the Book of Exodus. Hungarian composer Zoltán Kocsis completed the last act with Schoenberg's heirs' permission in 2010, but as of 2014 Moses und Aron was almost always performed as Schoenberg left it in 1932, with only two of the planned three acts completed.
Moses und Aron, known in English as Moses and Aaron, is a 1975 film by the French filmmaking duo of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet based on the unfinished opera of the same title by Arnold Schoenberg. During its 1975 run at US festivals, it was also known as Aaron and Moses, and was frequently reviewed as such.
Karl V is an opera, described as a Bühnenwerk mit Musik by Ernst Krenek, his opus 73. The German libretto is by the composer.
Zeitoper was a short-lived genre of opera associated with Weimar Germany. It is not known when or by whom the term was coined, but by 1928 Kurt Weill was able to complain that it was more a slogan than a description. Like opera buffa it used contemporary settings and characters, comic or at least satiric plots and aimed at musical accessibility. Two distinguishing characteristics are a tendency to incorporate modern technology and frequent allusions to popular music, especially jazz. This last, more than any social satire, earned the suspicion of the political right and ensured that it would not survive into the Nazi era.
Cristoforo Colombo is an opera in four acts and an epilogue by Alberto Franchetti to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. It was written in 1892 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in America.
Faust is an opera by the German composer Louis Spohr. The libretto, by Joseph Karl Bernard, is based on the legend of Faust; it is not influenced by Goethe's Faust, though Faust, Part One had been published in 1808. Instead, Bernard's libretto draws mainly on Faust plays and poems by Friedrich Maximilian Klinger and Heinrich von Kleist. Spohr's Faust is an important work in the history of German Romantic opera.
Fennimore und Gerda is a German-language opera with four interludes, by the English composer Frederick Delius. It is usually performed and recorded in English, as Fennimore and Gerda in a translation by Philip Heseltine. The German libretto, by the composer himself, is based on the novel Niels Lyhne by the Danish writer Jens Peter Jacobsen. In neither German nor English is the libretto highly regarded; rather, the work is considered an "orchestral opera", limited in its dramatic appeal but voluptuous and engaging in its instrumental texture.
Die Abreise is a comic opera in one act by composer Eugen d'Albert. The libretto was written by Ferdinand Sporck, a friend of the composer, after a play by August Ernst Steigentesch.
Else Gentner-Fischer was a German operatic soprano. Although she appeared in operas internationally, her career was mainly centered at the Oper Frankfurt where she was a resident artist from 1907-1935. She excelled in the dramatic soprano repertoire, drawing particular acclaim for her portrayal of Wagnerian heroines. She was also an exponent of the works of contemporary composers. Her career was cut short in 1935 due to political pressures and prejudice exerted against her for being married to a Jewish man. She made recordings with Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd., His Master's Voice, and Polydor Records.
Günter Reich, also spelled Günther Reich and Gunther Reich, was an Israeli baritone of German birth. He was a member of the Staatsoper Stuttgart for more than 20 years and is known for interpreting the works of Arnold Schoenberg in collaboration with Michael Gielen and Pierre Boulez.
Prinzessin Brambilla, Op. 12b, is an opera in a prologue and five scenes by Walter Braunfels. The German libretto, written by the composer, is based on the novella of the same name by E. T. A. Hoffmann published in 1820.
Gertrud Bertha Schoenberg was the second wife of Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg, whom she married in 1924, and the sister of his pupil, the violinist Rudolf Kolisch.
Bluthochzeit is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Fortner. The libretto, also by Fortner, is based on Enrique Beck's German translation of García Lorca's 1933 play Bodas de sangre. It premiered at the Cologne Opera on 8 June 1957.
The NDR Chor is the choir of the German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), based in Hamburg. It was founded in 1946, with Max Thurn as the first director of then 55 singers. The group has participated in premieres of contemporary music, such as the posthumous concert premiere of Schoenberg's opera Moses und Aron. It is also known for a capella music, introduced by Helmut Franz such as a recording of all such works by Johannes Brahms. The current artistic director is Philipp Ahmann, who has held the position from 2008. NDR Chor, now a group of 28 singers, is one of the leading professional chamber choirs in Germany.
Herbert Schachtschneider was a German operatic tenor and voice teacher.
Benno Ziegler was a German operatic baritone.
