Kurt Pahlen

Having composed five operas in the 1850s, Verdi, while looking for a suitable libretto, came across a manuscript of Eugène Scribe which had already been the subject of works by other composers. Althou...

After the composition of his opera 'Aida' and of the Requiem, Verdi withdrew completely to the Villa Sant' Agata and considered this to be the end of his career as a composer. It took a bit of cunning...

Giuseppe Verdi's opera 'Rigoletto', the tragic story of the eponymous hunchbacked court jester, is now published with the complete Italian libretto as well as the translation used by most German opera...

'La Traviata' is 'the woman gone astray', 'the wayward one'. Verdi's opera is based on the story of the novel 'La dame aux camélias' by Alexandre Dumas fils about the life of a consumptive demimondain...

After the extraordinary success of 'Rigoletto', Verdi who was constantly looking for material for an opera came across 'El trobador', a play by the Spaniard Antonio Garcia Gutiérrez. The transformatio...

No less than 37 years, more than half of Wagner's life, passed from the first idea of the opera 'Parsifal' to its world premiere in Bayreuth in 1882, it being Wagner's last stage work before his death...

Giacomo Puccinis Zusammenarbeit mit den Librettisten Giuseppe Giacosa und Luigi Illica markiert zweifellos den Höhepunkt seines Opernschaffens. Nachdem Puccinis Verleger Ricordi die beiden hoch angese...

A tamburo battente, auf einen Streich, und in einem wahren Schaffensrausch in angeblich 40 Tagen schrieb Giuseppe Verdi den 'Rigoletto' nieder, die Premiere wurde ein Triumph. Mit gleichem Schwung mac...

'Twilight of the Gods', the Third Day, brings Wagner's Ring cycle with an evening and three days, all full-length performances lasting for hours, to an end. Everything that has happened in the parts b...

Tristan und Isolde ist in der inneren Dimension schwer zu messen. Kein anderes der Musikdramen Wagners ist so völlig auf ein einziges Thema konzentriert, verzichtet so weitgehend auf theatralische Han...

Based on the subject of the eponymous novella by Prosper Mérimée, 'Carmen' is George Bizet's last work. The composer died a few weeks after the unsuccessful world premiere in Paris on 3 March 1875. To...

Rossini had already composed 15 operas in just five years when he brought 'The Barber of Seville' to public attention. The libretto is based on a play by Caron de Beaumarchais - the very same Beaumarc...

Fidelio ist Beethovens einzige Oper. Die Handlung entspringt einer historischen Begebenheit, die sich - wie der französische Dichter J. N. Bouilly sagt - in Tours ereignet hat. Was Beethoven faszinier...

The first publication of a volume of Engelbert Humperdinck's fairy-tale opera 'Hänsel and Gretel' is a valuable addition to the successful series 'Operas of the World' for this work is the second most...

After the success of his third completed opera 'Rienzi', Wagner turned to putting a topic to music which he had come across in Heinrich Heine's 'Schnabelewopski' fragment a few years before. 'The Flyi...

'Twilight of the Gods', the Third Day, brings Wagner's Ring cycle with an evening and three days, all full-length performances lasting for hours, to an end. Everything that has happened in the parts b...

Wagner's 'Lohengrin' is described as a 'great romantic opera' in which Wagner opens up two completely different worlds for the listener. On the one hand, there is the mystical world of the Knight of t...

This comprehensive introduction to Wagner's opera 'The Mastersingers of Nuremberg' contains the complete libretto with numerous music examples. Kurt Pahlen comments on the work with music-related refe...

Although 'Rhinegold', like any of the following three parts, is a drama on its own, it reveals its entire meaning only as introduction to the complete work. In 'The Nibelung's Ring', Wagner used his o...

'Siegfried' is the Second Day in Wagner's tetralogy 'The Nibelung's Ring'; the world premiere took place in Bayreuth in 1876 as part of the opening ceremony of the festival theatre. In contrast to the...

Completed in 1845, Richard Wagner's romantic opera 'Tannhäuser and the Singing Contest at the Wartburg' pursues the path taken by 'The Flying Dutchman' a few years before: from number opera to through...

Tristan und Isolde ist in der inneren Dimension schwer zu messen. Kein anderes der Musikdramen Wagners ist so völlig auf ein einziges Thema konzentriert, verzichtet so weitgehend auf theatralische Han...

This book, a comprehensive introduction to Richard Wagner's opera 'The Valkyrie', the first evening of the tetralogy 'The Nibelung's Ring', contains the complete libretto with numerous music examples....

'All Women do the Same, or The School for Lovers', this is how Lorenzo da Ponte, the librettist of Mozart's 'Dramma giocoso', entitled his libretto. Ever since the world premiere of 'Così fan tutte' i...