Giuseppe Verdi's romantic opera 'Il Trovatore' lives by its streams of memorable melodies. One of those is the aria 'D'amor sull'ali rosee'. It is sung by Leonora in the fourth act of the Opera: Manri...
Giacomo Puccini's opera 'Tosca' might be described as a thriller with political overtones. Set in Rome in 1800 at a time when the Police Chief Scarpia is conducting a reign of terror, it shows its her...
Along with the opera's 'Andrea Chénier' and 'Siberia', 'Fedora' is one of the most notable works of Italian composer Umberto Giordano. 'Fedora' is an opera in three acts to an Italian libretto by Artu...
Giacomo Puccini's 'Suor Angelica' (Sister Angelica) is one of the three one-act opera's which belong to the triptych 'Il Trittico' which is an example of the verismo-opera, a naturalistic movement in...
Puccini's Opera 'Manon Lescaut' is based on the 1731 novel 'L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut' by the Abbé Prévost. The aria 'In quelle trine morbide is sung in the 2nd act of the...
Sapho" is an opera by Charles Gounod to a libretto by Émile Augier which was premiered in 1851. The story of the opera is based on the legends of the Greek poet Sappho, her love for Phaon and her suic...
Jean-Baptiste Arban (1825 - 1889) was a cornet player, conductor, composer, pedagogue and the first famed virtuoso of the 'cornet à piston' or valved cornet. He was influenced by Niccolò Paganini's vi...
The 'ballata' Questo o quella is sung by Il Duca de Mantua in the first act of Giuseppe Verdi's Opera Rigoletto. Among a group of guests he sings of his love-life: this one or that one, to me it's the...
The plot of Sullivan's Operetta The Mikado tells the story of Nanki-Poo, son of the Mikado of Japan and the young girl Yum-yum. The song ' The sun, whose rays are all ablaze' is sung by Yum-yum at the...
