Library: Music by Credo Reference: Opera, Musicals, and Film

Opera Composers

Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875): Topic Page
French composer of operas. His operatic masterpiece Carmen was produced a few months before his death. His Symphony in C, written when he was 17, is now frequently performed.
Edward Britten (1913 - 1976): Topic Page
English composer. Among his many works are the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946); the chamber opera The Rape of Lucretia (1946); Billy Budd (1951); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare; 1960); and Death in Venice (after Thomas Mann; 1973).
Frederick Delius (1862 - 1934): Topic Page
English composer. His haunting, richly harmonious works include the opera A Village Romeo and Juliet (1901); the choral pieces Appalachia (1903), Sea Drift (1904), and A Mass of Life (1905); orchestral works such as In a Summer Garden (1908) and A Song of the High Hills (1911); chamber music; and songs.
Hanns Eisler (1898 - 1962): Topic Page
Composer, born in Leipzig, EC Germany. A committed Marxist, he wrote political songs, choruses, and theatre music, often in collaboration with Brecht.
Zdeněk Fibich (1850 - 1900): Topic Page
Czech composer. His music is personal rather than national, and was considerably advanced and daring for its time.
Bohuslav Martinu (1890 - 1959): Topic Page
Czech composer. He settled in New York after the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939. His music is voluble, richly expressive, and has great vitality.
Jules Massenet (1842 - 1912): Topic Page
French composer of operas. His work is characterized by prominent roles for females, sincerity, and sentimentality.
Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963): Topic Page
French composer and pianist. A self-taught composer of witty and irreverent music, he was a member of the group of French composers known as Les Six.
Gioacchino Rossini (1792 - 1868): Topic Page
Italian composer. He was the most successful opera composer of his time, producing 20 operas in the period 1815-23. He also created (with Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini) the 19th-century Italian operatic style.
Ethel Smyth (1858 - 1944): Topic Page
English composer. Her works include Mass in D (1893) and operas The Wreckers (1906) and The Boatswain's Mate (1916). In 1911 she was imprisoned as an advocate of women's suffrage.
Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901): Topic Page
Italian opera composer of the Romantic period. He took his native operatic style to new heights of dramatic expression.
Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883): Topic Page
German composer. His operas (and he wrote little else) have been seen and discussed as uniquely profound studies of human psychology and existence, treating central themes of love, salvation and society, but they have also had more worrisome supporters.
Hugo Wolf (1860 - 1903): Topic Page
Austrian composer. He wrote more than 250 lieder (songs), including the Mörike-Lieder/Mörike Songs (1888) and the two-volume Italienisches Liederbuch/Italian Songbook (1892, 1896).

Musical Composers

George Gershwin (1898 - 1937): Topic Page
Composer; he produced an astonishing amount of music including (in collaboration with his lyricist brother Ira Gershwin) a celebrated series of musicals.
Jerome Kern (1885 - 1945): Topic Page
Composer, born in New York City, New York, USA. After a start in Broadway theatres as a rehearsal pianist, he began contributing songs to musical shows.
Richard Rodgers (1902 - 1979): Topic Page
Composer, born in New York City, New York, USA. With Hart as lyricist, during the 1920s–30s he broke from the common Tin Pan Alley musical to develop the musical play.
Kurt Weill (1900 - 1950): Topic Page
German composer. He wrote chamber and orchestral music and collaborated with Bertolt Brecht on operas such as Die Dreigroschenoper/The Threepenny Opera (1928) and Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny/The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1929).

Ballet Composers

Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971): Topic Page
Russian composer. He wrote the music for the Diaghilev ballets The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913), which were highly controversial at the time for their use of driving rhythms and bi-tonal harmonies.
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893): Topic Page
Russian composer, b. Kamsko-Votkinsk. He is a towering figure in Russian music and one of the most popular composers in history.

Composers of Film Scores

Henry Mancini (1924 - 1994): Topic Page
Composer, born in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. His Oscar-winning compositions include the songs ‘Moon River’ (1961) and ‘Days of Wine and Roses’ (1962), and the film scores for Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) and Victor/Victoria (1982).
Ennio Morricone (1928 - ): Topic Page
A prolific composer for over 300 movies, Morricone brought a new dimension to film scoring in his work on numerous Italian Westerns of the sixties, most notably those of Sergio Leone.
Ernst Toch (1887 - 1964): Topic Page
Austrian-born US composer and pianist. He is remembered chiefly for his chamber music, symphonies, and film scores.

Terms

Aria: Topic Page
Elaborate and often lengthy solo song with instrumental accompaniment.
Score
From The New Penguin Dictionary of Music
Notation of music for multiple performers with the parts layered in orderly alignment.
Broadway Musicals
From Encyclopedia of American Studies
The American Broadway musical is arguably the most distinctive and original theatrical form to develop in the United States and one of the most prominent forms of American popular entertainment of the twentieth century.
Musical: Topic Page
20th-century form of dramatic musical performance, combining elements of song, dance, and the spoken word, often characterized by lavish staging and large casts.

Venues

Cinema: Topic Page
Form of art and entertainment consisting of moving pictures, in either black and white or colour, projected on a screen.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Topic Page
A nonprofit organization with municipal support, Lincoln Center is dedicated to the encouragement of new artists and to the presentation of internationally acclaimed performers.
Metropolitan Opera Company: Topic Page
Term used in referring collectively to the organizations that have produced opera at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City.