Cocktail Party Fact: Turandot was not completed when Puccini died in 1926, having been finished up to the end of Liu’s death. Francesco Alfano, a friend of Puccini’s and a composer of some renown, finished the opera based upon sketches that Puccini had left. At the first performance, the conductor, Arturo [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: The great Wagnerian soprano Birgit Nilsson was once asked what was the most important thing a singer needed for the role of Isolde. Her response? “Comfortable shoes.”
Here’s the plot: Tristan is escorting Isolde, an Irish princess, to Cornwall to marry King Mark. Isolde orders her serving-maid Brangane to prepare a death potion [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Tosca is one of the few operas in which we can determine the exact dates and locations where the action takes place: because of historic references in the libretto, we know that the date is June 17, 1800, and the locations of the scenes still exist in Rome.
Here’s the [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Saint-Saens had problems getting Samson and Delilah produced in France that he didn’t have with his other operatic works because of its biblical subject matter. However, with the help of Franz Liszt, well known as a friend of “ill-treated composers,” his opera was successful first in Germany. Today it is often performed [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Based upon a brief biblical reference, Salome is never actually mentioned by name in the New Testament, she is only referred to as Herodias’ daughter.
Here’s the plot: Outside the banquet hall of the palace of the Herod Antipas, Narraboth, the captain of the guard watches Princess Salome in the [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Before the opera’s premiere the stage director asked Britten if he could lengthen one of the interludes by 90 seconds to allow more time to change the scenery. Britten reluctantly agreed, saying “You’re like someone who comes along to an architect when he has just finished building a [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: The most famous melody from the opera, Norma’s prayer to the moon, “Casta Diva,” was altered by Bellini eight times before he molded it into its final form.
Here’s the plot: The action takes place in Gaul during the Roman occupation, around 50 B.C. Norma, the high priestess of the [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: The first performance of Madame Butterfly at La Scala was an absolute fiasco. The audience hated it so much they couldn’t contain themselves through the show, going so far as to make the soprano singing Butterfly start to cry. Puccini wasn’t discouraged: He knew that it was some of [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Lucia is the only one of Donizetti’s non-comic operas to survive the end of the bel canto era. Incidentally, at the end of Walter Scott’s novel, Edgardo doesn’t stab himself, but is engulfed in quicksand.
Here’s the plot: In 17th century Scotland, Lucia and Edgardo pledge their love for one another, in spite [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Skeptics have long scoffed at this legend, but examination of Mozart’s autograph score has proven it: The Marriage of Figaro was composed within six weeks. In fact, the very complex Act II finale was composed during two nights and a day — orchestration and all.
Here’s the plot: Servants Figaro [...]