While Zumaya’s “Partenope” is recognized by music historians as the first opera created by a New World-born composer, Tomas de Torrejon y Velasco’s “La purpura de la rosa” (in English, “The Blood of the Rose”) was the first opera both composed and performed in the western hemisphere. Velasco’s work premiered in Lima, Peru on October 19, 1701. It is the {…}
One of the first composers born in the western hemisphere, Manuel de Zumaya (1678-1744) combined Baroque music with the sounds of colonial Spain. His lost opera, “Partenope,” was the first written in Italian to premiere in the New World. The work was first shown to audiences in Mexico City at the viceroy palace on May 1, 1711, making it the {…}
“X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X,” an opera by Pulitzer Prize-winner Anthony Davis, premiered at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia on October 9, 1985. The work, which tells the story of the life of the minister and human rights activist Malcolm X in collaboration with the composer’s cousin, librettist, and writer Thulani Davis, was built upon {…}
Born in 1858, the life of composer Ethel Smyth coincided with the vastly changing social landscape of Britain. Smyth is best remembered as an active contributor to the suffragette movement and as one of the most notable female composers of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Smyth was born in Sidcup, Kent to a large family on April 22, 1858. She {…}
(Photo: Keith Ian Polakoff) The Pulitzer Prize-winning opera “The Central Park Five” recounts the harrowing story of five teenagers falsely accused and imprisoned for years before their exoneration in 2002. Composer Anthony Davis and librettist Richard Wesley bring the infamous story to life, offering an operatic commentary on racial bias in the United States. The work premiered June 15, 2019 {…}
(Credit: Ken Howard / Santa Fe Opera) “Cold Mountain” is a groundbreaking retelling of the popular 1997 Charles Frazier novel of the same name. American composer Jennifer Higdon wrote the opera to mark the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. It premiered at the Santa Fe Opera on August 1, 2015, with subsequent showings at the Opera Philadelphia and {…}
Terence Blanchard is one of the most versatile musicians in the world. Born on March 13, 1962, in New Orleans, Louisiana as an only child, his father Joseph Oliver Blanchard was a part-time opera singer. The young Terence began playing piano at five and then started on trump at age eight. He was a close friend of Wynton Marsalis from {…}
(Credit: Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera) “The Exterminating Angel,” one of British composer Thomas Adès’ most popular operas, premiered on July 28, 2016, at the Salzburg Festival followed by premieres at the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera a year later. Known for its large ensemble cast and a particularly challenging soprano role, Adès’ third opera is based on {…}
Anthony Davis’ “Amistad” didn’t have the greatest of premieres. The opera, which first appeared at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1997, received middling reviews. The opera, which featured a libretto by Thulani Davis, then underwent a major revision and was then presented at the Spoleto Festival USA in 2008. Of this newer version, Opera Today noted that the work {…}
Thulani Davis is best known as the librettist for two of the most acclaimed operas of the late-twentieth century—“X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X,” and “Amistad.” Both projects were in collaboration with her composer, the composer Anthony Davis. Davis was born July 19, 1949 to parents from Virginia, but moved to New York City to attend Barnard College, {…}
(Credit: Josh Huskin) Tobias Picker is known as one of the most famous American composers still working. His operas, such as “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “Dolores Claiborne,” have become popular at opera houses across the country and the world. Picker was born July 18th, 1954 in New York City and showed an early penchant for composing. His first work was {…}