Béatrice et Bénédict was borne of Berlioz's lifelong fascination with Shakespeare. A performance by the Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet reportedly inspired him to

Of all the Strauss-Hoffmansthal collaborations, Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow) is by far the most ambitious, and perhaps the opera with the richest musical ideas. Dealing with a

First performed in 1917 in Munich (conducted by Bruno Walter), Pfitzner's opera on the great 16th-century composer Palestrina became popular with those in German musical society who had become hostil

One of the greatest and most revolutionary composers of the nineteenth century, Richard Wagner transformed the realm of musical drama. Years before his towering successes of the Ring Cycle, Tristan u