Soon he was playing in the Cologne Municipal Orchestra, and during World War 1,, when musicians were scarce, he joined the opera orchestra as well.

Fing, a lean, chiseled, impeccable gentleman of the old school who was once mistaken on the street for Sir Cedric Hardwicke, is responsible for the rediscovery of Verdi's earliest, most raucous opera, Nabisco, a sumptuous bout-de-souffle with a haunting leitmotiv that struck me as being highly reminiscent of the Mudugno version of `` Volare ''.

It was paired with a Darius Milhaud opera, `` The Poor Sailor '', set to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, a kind of Grand Guignol by the sea, a sailor returns, unrecognized, and gets done in by his wife.

These inwardly dramatic moments showed the kind of `` opera style '' of which Beethoven was genuinely capable, but which did not take so kindly to the mechanics of staging.

But one wishes, when the appetite is whetted, as it was in the case of the all-too-brief excerpt from the Blomdahl opera, that further opportunity would be provided both for hearing the works in their entirety and for a closer analytical look at the sense and nature of the compositions.

Salieri was a pivotal figure in the development of late 18th-century opera.

It was toward the end of this extended period of study that Gassmann was called away on a new opera commission and a gap in the theater's program allowed for Salieri to make his debut as a composer of a completely original opera buffa.

Salieri's first full opera was composed during the winter and carnival season of 1770 ; Le donne letterate and was based on Molière's Les Femmes Savantes ( The Learned Ladies ) with a libretto by Giovanni Gastone Boccherini a dancer in the court ballet, and a brother of the famous composer.

The first a pastoral opera, L ' amore innocente ( Innocent Love ) was a light hearted comedy set in the Austrian mountains, and the second was based on an episode from Cervantes Don Quixote – Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamace ( Don Quixote at the Marriage of Camacho ).

Don Chisciotte was a mix of ballet and opera buffa, and the lead female roles in L ' amore innocente were designed to contrast and highlight the different traditions of operatic writing for soprano, even borrowing stylistic flourishes from opera-seria in the use of coloratura in what was a short pastoral comedy more in keeping with a Roman Intermezzo.

Salieri's first great success was in the realm of serious opera.

Armida was translated into German and widely performed, especially in the northern German states, where it helped to establish Salieri's reputation as an important and innovative modern composer It would also be the first opera to receive a serious preparation in a piano and vocal reduction by Carl Friedrich Cramer in 1783.

Salieri would also write several bravura aria's for a soprano playing the part of a middle class character that would combine coloratura and concertante woodwind solos, another innovation for a comic opera that was to be widely imitated.

During the next three years Salieri was primarily concerned with rehearsing and conducting the Italian opera company in Vienna and teaching.

The Italian opera buffa company was therefore replaced by a German language Singspiel troupe.

However, in 1778 Gluck turned down an offer to compose the inaugural opera for La Scala in Milan ; upon the suggestion of Joseph II and with the approval of Gluck, Salieri was offered the commission, which he gratefully accepted.

Salieri's Italian tour of 1778 – 80 began with the production of Europa riconosciuta ( Europa Recognized ) for La Scala ( which was revived in 2004 for the same opera house's re-opening following extensive renovations ).

In 1783 the Italian opera company was revived with singers partly chosen and vetted by Salieri during his Italian tour, the new season would open with a slightly re-worked version of Salieri's recent success La scuola de ' gelosi.

The opera Les Danaïdes ( The Danaids ) is a five-act tragédie lyrique ; the plot was based on an ancient Greek legend that had been the basis for the first play in a trilogy by Aeschylus, entitled The Suppliants.

Boito immediately set to work revising his opera, greatly reduced its length and making many scenes smaller in scale.

Although a resounding success with the Weimar critics and audience, the opera was not immediately revived in other opera houses.

It was immediately recognised as the most significant opera to appear in France since the death of Lully, but audiences were split over whether this was a good thing or a bad thing.

His first opera seria, Ricimero re di Goti, was such a success in Rome in 1740 that work was immediately commissioned from him by Henry Benedict Stuart, the Cardinal-Duke of York.

Her story was clearly chosen to appeal to the titillation favored in the nascent culture of the Venetian public opera theaters, and its Prologue immediately explains that it is not a drama that promotes the triumph of virtue.

Indeed, Giuseppe Borgatti's triumph in the title part at the first performance immediately propelled him to the front rank of Italian opera singers.

Chance also invites Rory and, as Chance had hoped, Heidi is immediately smitten with him because she watches the soap opera in which he stars.

The dance studio is situated immediately under the curved glass roof of the opera house.

The turning point came in 1972 with the premiere of the raunchy soap opera series Number 96 which immediately lifted TEN's overall profile and helped raise the ailing network to No. 1 position by 1973.

Therefore, north is the most important direction in Peking opera, and performers will immediately move to " center north " upon entering the stage.

Following a devastating fire in 1869, the citizens of Dresden immediately set about rebuilding their opera house.

The opera was a complete success with the public and was a great financial boon for the house ; it is reported that at the time of the première, tickets were sold out almost immediately.

A new show beginning that day on ABC — The Newlywed Game — caused some frustrated Password fans to begin defecting immediately ; NBC also benefited from the CBS programming decision, experiencing success with their recently launched soap opera Days of Our Lives.

Our House was cancelled in 1988, though she did not immediately return to the soap opera.

* Herman Melville's novel Billy Budd, and the opera based on it by Benjamin Britten, are set immediately after the main mutinies.

At the age of nine, Norman heard opera for the first time on the radio and was immediately an opera fan.

The opera was not immediately successful, and was revised and extended in the following four years.

Strauss saw the play in Lachmann's version and immediately set to work on the opera.

Debuting with much fanfare ( Show was on the covers of both TV Guide and People immediately after the series ' debut ), the series ' ratings in its first season were not up to expectations, and the show was revamped in the middle of the first season from an episodic straight-laced drama format to a melodramatic soap opera serial format in the tradition of Dynasty, one of Spelling's earlier hits.

The opera was immediately banned by the Palace, and was not allowed to be staged – the resemblance between the Czar and the foolish King Dodon was too close.

Schoeck, who appears to have taken the offer as a sort of challenge, immediately set aside the orchestration of Don Ranudo, and in three days, produced the new opera.

The opera was immediately hailed as a great success, and became the obligatory season-opener in the Imperial Russian opera theaters.