Word: librettos
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...Libretto by Lorenzo de Ponte...
Modern lyrics are inserted into the libretto, most notably in the Lord High Executioner's "They'll none of them be missed." Far from being distracting, these modifications are tremendously funny...
BRITTEN: PAUL BUNYAN (Virgin). Sir Benjamin's tuneful first opera was conceived in 1939 as a Broadway show with a libretto by W.H. Auden. It never played the Great White Way, but it comes to life under Philip Brunelle's baton...
Perfect Wagnerites know that the operas are built from short musical phrases, called leitmotivs, that symbolize characters and ideas. There are themes for Siegfried's sword and Wotan's spear, for renunciation of love and for its redemption. Artfully intertwined, they underpin Wagner's own libretto, based on the sagas of Norse and Germanic legend. In presenting what the composer called a "stage-festival play," Kupfer found physical leitmotivs to complement the musical ones and give his production a visual as well as a musical unity. Characters do not just stand and sing; they stand and deliver, fighting with fury...
...orchestral piece, in New York City. Two seasons ago, his powerful first opera, X (The Life and Times of Malcolm X), caused a sensation at the New York City Opera, and Davis is now at work on a science-fiction opera called Under the Double Moon (with a libretto by his wife Deborah Atherton), scheduled for production in St. Louis next year. A brilliant pianist, Davis tours regularly with Episteme, his crack avant-garde jazz ensemble...