Cocktail Party Fact: Andrew Lloyd Webber and Trevor Nunn (who had directed Cats) began working on an early version of Aspects of Love in the early 1980s. Lloyd Webber decided at some point that the material was not appropriate for the story, so he stopped and turned his attention to the Phantom of the Opera, [...]

A composition for orchestra intended as an introduction to an opera or other vocal or dramatic work. The overtures are sometimes performed separately , however, as they can serve as brilliant showcases for the orchestra in a purely orchestral concert.

Commitment Factor: About 85 minutes.

Vital Statistics: Romantic Period. A large-scale work for chorus, orchestra and soloists.

What to Listen For: The intense drama and soaring lyricism of the Requiem have led some to call it “Verdi’s greatest opera.” In times past, this implied a certain lack of spirituality — and in fact, Verdi was not [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: In Goethe’s original poem, Faust is saved in the end. Berlioz prefers to save Gretchen (Marguerite), and leave Faust in hell, for which he composed an entire scene in nonsense syllables supposedly representing the Satanic language. It’s a scream.
Commitment Factor: A bit over two hours
Vital Statistics: Romantic Period (1846). No one is [...]

Active Years: 1675-1741
Career Highlights: The Four Seasons.
Career Totals: Over 150 violin concertos, 38 operas, hundreds of chamber music works, several cantatas, and many songs and airs.
Scouting Report: One of the most celebrated virtuosi of the old timers’ league, Vivaldi was the master of the violin concerto. His writing is very colorful and evocative, especially noticeable [...]

Active Years: 1839-1901 (born 1813)
Position: Italian Superstar
Career Highlights: Aida, Othello, Falstaff, La Traviata, Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, Requiem, Quatre Pezzi Sacre
Career Totals: Twenty-eight operas, 10 choral works, approximately 30 songs, one string quartet
Scouting Report: Giuseppe Verdi is primarily an opera composer — the Classical All-Stars list is mostly a hall of fame for composers who wrote [...]

Active Years: 1770-1827
Position: Great German composer
Career Highlights: Fifth Symphony, Ninth Symphony, “Emperor” Concerto.
Career Totals: 9 Symphonies, 9 overtures, 16 quartets, various concertos, 10 sonatas for violin, dozens for piano, 1 opera, 2 masses, various songs and incidental music.
Scouting Report: Not a child prodigy, but a tireless worker, a man of quick temper, did not suffer [...]

Active Years: 1910-1981
Position: American Composer
Career Highlights: Adagio for Strings, Violin Concerto, Piano Concerto, Vanessa.
Career Totals: Three operas; two ballets; two symphonies; one each of string quartet, violin concerto, cello concerto, cello sonata, piano concerto and piano sonata; three “essays” for orchestra; miscellaneous orchestral and chamber pieces; dozens of songs and other vocal works.
Scouting Report: The [...]

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) was founded in 1976 by a small group of St. Louisans committed to establishing a professional opera company. They engaged Richard Gaddes as general director and, with a budget of only $139,000, presented a spring season of ten performances featuring young American singers at Webster University’s Loretto-Hilton Center — [...]

For Seattle Opera’s first season in 1964, founding general director Glynn Ross presented two performances of Carmen and two performances of Tosca. By 1966, the company’s season had grown to include five operas. Soon reports were out that Seattle Opera had earned the highest per-capita opera attendance of any opera company in the nation.
In [...]