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.

His last opera was a German language singspiel Die Neger, ( The Negroes ), a melodrama set in colonial Virginia with a text by Georg Friedrich Treitschke ( the author of the libretto for Beethoven's Fidelio ) performed in 1804 and was a complete failure.

The lyrics for the " Alabama Song " and another song, the " Benares Song " are in English ( albeit specifically idiosyncratic English ) and are performed in that language even when the opera is performed in its original ( German ) language.

The opera, which Berg completed in 1922, was first performed on December 14, 1925, when Erich Kleiber directed the first performance in Berlin.

Berg is remembered as one of the most important composers of the 20th century and to date is the most widely performed opera composer among the Second Viennese School.

The work is performed as an operetta in many professional opera companies.

Mozart's opera Don Giovanni was originally intended to be performed in honor of Anton and his wife for a visit to Prague on 14 October 1787, as they traveled between Dresden and Vienna, and librettos were printed with dedication to them.

The choice of The Marriage of Figaro was considered improper for a new bride by many observers, and the couple left the opera theater early without seeing the entire work performed.

The song " Kärlekens Tid "-performed by Helen Sjöholm with BAO !--has also been performed in English by opera baritone Bryn Terfel.

Although female roles were performed by castrati in some of the papal states, this was increasingly rare ; by 1680, they had supplanted " normal " male voices in lead roles, and retained their position as primo uomo for about a hundred years ; an Italian opera not featuring at least one renowned castrato in a lead part would be doomed to fail.

In the Daily Mirror, Victor Lewis-Smith wrote: " Apparently it doesn't matter that this is a first-class soap opera, superbly scripted and flawlessly performed by a seasoned repertory company.

Released in April 1969, was the rock opera Tommy composed by Pete Townshend and performed by The Who.

Verdi rival Errico Petrella's most successful opera, Jone ( 1858 ), was based upon Bulwer-Lytton's The Last Days of Pompeii, and was performed all over the world until the First World War.

Today, the standard version of the opera is the version most often performed around the world.

After his success with Messiah ( 1742 ) he never performed an Italian opera again.

His works are frequently performed in opera houses throughout the world and, transcending the boundaries of the genre, some of his themes have long since taken root in popular culture – such as " La donna è mobile " from Rigoletto, " Va, pensiero " ( The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves ) from Nabucco, " Libiamo ne ' lieti calici " ( The Drinking Song ) from La traviata and the " Grand March " from Aida.

And Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera " Apollo et Hyacinthus " was performed by males only, although the libretto differed from the original text of Ovidius to reduce homosexual relations among Apollon, Hyacinthus, and Zephyrus.

Priest's wife kept a boarding school for young gentlewomen, first in Leicester Fields and afterwards at Chelsea, where the opera was performed.

He wrote both the words and music of his opera Le Devin du Village ( The Village Soothsayer ), which was performed for King Louis XV in 1752.

The success of his comic opera, Il filosofo convinto in amore, performed at Potsdam in 1750, led to an appointment as court composer to Frederick the Great.

Irmin Schmidt, founder of seminal German ' Krautrock ' group Can wrote an opera called Gormenghast, based on the novels ; it was first performed in Wuppertal, Germany, in November 1998.

The honour of being the first opera still to be regularly performed, however, goes to Claudio Monteverdi's L ' Orfeo, composed for the court of Mantua in 1607.

Just as intermedi had once been performed in-between the acts of stage plays, operas in the new comic genre of " intermezzi ", which developed largely in Naples in the 1710s and ' 20s, were initially staged during the intermissions of opera seria.

Sullivan wrote only one grand opera, Ivanhoe ( following the efforts of a number of young English composers beginning about 1876 ), but he claimed that even his light operas constituted part of a school of " English " opera, intended to supplant the French operettas ( usually performed in bad translations ) that had dominated the London stage from the mid-19th century into the 1870s.