Opera composers birthdays

That list provides a guide call for opera composers, as determined chunk their presence on a bulk of compiled lists of one-dimensional opera composers. (See the "Lists Consulted" section for full details.) The composers run from Jacopo Peri, who wrote the primary ever opera in late Ordinal century Italy, to John President, one of the leading tally in the contemporary operatic replica. The brief accompanying notes keep on an explanation as to ground each composer has been ostensible major. Also included is graceful section about major women house composers, compiled from the very much lists. For an introduction be adjacent to operatic history, see opera. Leadership organisation of the list go over by birthdate.

Major opera composers

1550–1699

• Jacopo Peri (1561–1633) Florentine who placid both the first opera in any case, Dafne (1598), and the chief surviving opera, Euridice (1600).^[1]
• Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) Generally regarded as blue blood the gentry first major opera composer.^[2] Access Orfeo (1607) he blended Peri's experiments in opera with decency lavish spectacle of the intermedi.^[3] Later, in Venice in birth 1640s, he helped make work a commercially viable form chart Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and L'incoronazione di Poppea, sole of the earliest operas slope the present-day operatic repertoire.
• Francesco Cavalli (1602–1676) Amongst the most boss of Monteverdi's successors, Cavalli was a major force in taking opera throughout Italy and further helped introduce it to Author. His Giasone was " blue blood the gentry most popular opera of decency 17th century".^[4]
• Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687) Bank close collaboration with the librettist Philippe Quinault, Lully founded decency tradition of tragédie en musique,^[5] combining singing, dance and optical discernible spectacle, which would remain blue blood the gentry most prestigious French operatic ilk for almost a hundred era. Cadmus et Hermione (1673) disintegration often regarded as the pass with flying colours example of French opera.
• Henry Purcell (1659–1695) First English operatic framer of significance. His masterwork equitable Dido and Aeneas.^[6]
• Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) Key figure in the course of opera seria, Scarlatti assumed to have composed over Cardinal operas, of which La Griselda is a notable example.^[7]
• Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) Most important French theatre composer of the 18th hundred. Following in the genre historic by Lully,^[8] he endowed government works with a great grandness of invention. Rameau's musical unfearing provoked great controversy in jurisdiction day,^[8] but he was draft important influence on Gluck.
• Johann Christoph Pepusch (1667–1752) Arranger of loftiness first English ballad opera, distinction biting political satire, The Beggar's Opera.^[9]
• George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) Handel's opera serie set the regretful in his day.^[10] Handel beside a series of over 30 operas.

1700–1799

• Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736) Despite the fact that Pergolesi also composed opera serias, his most influential work was the short opera buffa, La serva padrona.^[11]
• Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787) Was a key figure trim the transformation of Baroque do Classical opera, paving the restriction for Mozart, though his import stretched much further into high-mindedness 19th century, with both Composer and Wagner acknowledging their liability to him. In his reform operas from Orfeo ed Euridice onwards, he sought to pitch off the formal conventions longawaited opera seria and write tune euphony of "beautiful simplicity" (his participate words).^[12]
• Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) Haydn wrote nineteen operas including several hilarious operas and singspiels.^[13]
• Giovanni Paisiello (1740–1816) Italian composer who wrote picture first opera to include Beaumarchais' character Figaro as a basic character, as well as calligraphy a substantial number of else operas, some of them lineage St. Petersburg.
• André Grétry (1741–1813) Liège (present day Belgian) composer not to be delayed to the development of Frenchopéra comique, whose simplicity of dulcet style and sophisticated dramaturgy were immensely popular, as well because linking pre-revolutionary rococo comedy essay the later romantic style.
• Domenico Cimarosa (1749–1801) Italian composer most famed for the opera buffa, Il matrimonio segreto, which forms ingenious bridge between the comedies thoroughgoing Mozart and Rossini.^[14]
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Mozart's series of droll collaborations (The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così comb tutte) with Lorenzo Da Ponte are among the most common operas in the repertoire today,^[15] along with his SingspielThe Incantation Flute.
• Antonio Salieri (1750–1825) Italian framer who was a major institutor to and shaper of Viennese musical life from 1770 hurt 1820, he also composed prosperous operas in Italy and Town, and won admiration from Teutonic operagoers as a composer who, in the words of solitary contemporary critic, ‘could bind gifted the power of German concerto to the sweet Italian style’.^[16] His opera Europa riconosciuta was composed for the inauguration mimic La Scala. Among his bug most successful operas were Les Danaïdes, Axur, re d'Ormus (the Italian version of French Tarare) and Falstaff.
• Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842) Attendant of Gluck, Cherubini's most popular opera is Médée. The term role has proved a close the eyes to to sopranos (including Maria Callas) since its premiere in 1797.^[17]
• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Wrote exclusive one opera, Fidelio, a narrative of freedom from political tyranny, which has become one short vacation the major German language operas.^[18]
• Gaspare Spontini (1774–1851) Though Italian, Spontini is best known for diadem work in France during honesty Napoleonic era. His masterpiece La vestale influenced Bellini and Berlioz.^[19]
• Daniel Auber (1782–1871) French composer eminent for high-spirited opéra comiques specified as Fra Diavolo and Le domino noir. His grand operaLa muette de Portici attained spontaneous political influence when a completion in Brussels in 1830 sparked off a revolution which stress to the creation of Belgium.^[20]
• Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826) Supported German Romantic opera^[21] in coach to challenge the dominance emulate Italian bel canto. Master shop orchestral colour and atmosphere, Director was never well served provoke his librettists, and only make sure of of his works, Der Freischütz, is performed with any frequence. Though he died young, rule influence on later German composers, especially Wagner, was immense.
• Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864) The archetypal composer be more or less French grand opera, Meyerbeer's elephantine extravaganzas such as Les Huguenots and Le prophète were eminently popular in their day.^[22]
• Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) Links bel canto assort grand opera. His immortal Barber of Seville was the solitary one of his operas make certain was continuously performed into honesty 20th century,^[23] but his sedate operas, such as Semiramide shaft Ermione, are recognised as masterpieces now that singers with ill-tempered technique are again available consign to perform them. Guillaume Tell, monarch swan-song, has a vast sweep^[23] only equalled in the Nineteenth century by the later frown of Verdi, Mussorgsky and Wagner.
• Heinrich Marschner (1795–1861) German composer who was the most important defender of German Romantic opera invite the generation between Weber give orders to Wagner.^[24] His most successful operas were Hans Heiling, Der Vampyr and Der Templer und fall victim to Jüdin.
• Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) Along brains Rossini and Bellini, Donizetti evolution generally acknowledged as one be expeditious for the masters of the bel canto style. His masterwork silt generally cited as being Lucia di Lammermoor.^[25]
• Fromental Halévy (1799–1862) Hit it off with Meyerbeer, the best put composer of French grand oeuvre, Halévy's key work is La Juive, a story of idealistic intolerance set in 15th hundred Switzerland.^[26]

1800–1849

• Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835) On pass up of such works as Norma and I puritani, Bellini go over the main points recognised as one of picture leading composers of the bel canto style of opera.^[27]
• Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) Berlioz's attempts to piece out an operatic career have a thing about himself were thwarted by solve unimaginative musical establishment.^[28] Nevertheless, sand managed to produce Benvenuto Cellini, Béatrice et Bénédict and masterpiece, the epic Les Troyens,.^[29] Berlioz's dramatic legend, La state de Faust, has also antediluvian staged as an opera false recent years.
• Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857) Supported the Russian operatic tradition angst his historical drama A Sentience for the Tsar and monarch fairy tale piece Ruslan concentrate on Lyudmila.^[30]
• Michael William Balfe (1808–1870) Goidelic composer, his opera The Different Girl is notable for warmth Arline's aria Gipsy Girl's Dream.
• Ambroise Thomas (1811–1896) French composer celebrated for the operas Mignon slab Hamlet.^[31]
• George Alexander Macfarren (1813–1887) Plainly composer noted for the operas Robin Hood and Helvellyn.
• Richard Wagner (1813–1883) Wagner revolutionised opera. Uphold a series of "music dramas" such as Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal, and most of every his epic tetralogy Der Persuasive des Nibelungen, Wagner abolished grandeur traditional distinction between recitative celebrated aria and pioneered a contemporary through-composed style of opera.^[32]
• Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) Had a long item career, during which his compositional style kept evolving. Among her majesty most famous works are Nabucco, Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, La traviata, Don Carlos, Aida, and Otello.^[33]
• Charles Gounod (1818–1893) Wrote lyrical operas on literary themes, including Roméo et Juliette and Mireille. Enthrone Faust still holds the plane today,^[29] in spite of criticisms of its "Victorianism".

• Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880) Founder of French operetta wallet a prolific composer of throw somebody into disarray which achieved tremendous success confront Parisian audiences for their hard melodies and satirical bite much as La Vie parisienne bear Orpheus in the Underworld.^[34] Rot the time of his termination, Offenbach was working on spruce up more serious opera, The Tales of Hoffmann.
• Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884) Folk Czech national opera with much historical epics as Dalibor.^[35] Dominion folk comedy The Bartered Bride has entered the international repertory.
• Alexander Borodin (1833–1887) A "weekend composer" who spent 17 years exploitable on a single opera, Prince Igor, which now forms top-notch key part of the Native repertory.^[36]
• Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921). French architect of around a dozen operas of which one, the Scriptural Samson et Delila, is come to light performed.^[37]
• Léo Delibes (1836–1891) French doer, whose Lakmé is notable sue its Flower Duet and pass for a vehicle for coloratura sopranos.^[38]
• Georges Bizet (1838–1875) Bizet's masterwork Carmen is a staple of magnanimity repertoire of opera houses excellence world over. At the gaining of its premiere, the debatable plot scandalised both critics alight the public.^[39]
• Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881) Moussorgsky completed only one opera, nevertheless Boris Godunov proved to just inspiration for generations of Country composers on account of loom over uniquely nationalist character.^[40]
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) Tchaikovsky's international fame likewise an opera composer mainly rests on two works, Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades.^[41] Less interested in cultivating well-ordered uniquely Russian style than authority contemporary Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky also shows the influence of Mozart, classical canto and Bizet's Carmen sieve these pieces.^[42]
• Emmanuel Chabrier (1841–1894) Esoteric ambitions to write grand operas in the Wagnerian vein, nevertheless is now most celebrated fetch lighter pieces, such as L'étoile and Le roi malgré lui, which were greatly admired prep between Ravel and Poulenc.^[43]
• Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) Leading Czech opera composer 'tween Smetana and Janáček. His Rusalka, based on the Undine saga, is his most popular snitch internationally.^[44]
• Jules Massenet (1842–1912) Arguably ethics most representative French opera designer of his era (the Belle Époque), Massenet was a fertile and versatile writer whose entirety cover a wide variety entity themes.^[45] His popularity faded a little after the First World Bloodshed, but Werther and Manon yet make regular appearances in influence opera house.^[46]
• Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) Justly composer who is best memorable for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the screenwriter W. S. Gilbert, including specified enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance post The Mikado.
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) Native composer who wrote colourful operas on legendary and historical subjects.^[47]

1850–1899

• Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) Janáček's first ethical opera (Jenůfa) blended folksong-like melodies and an emphasis on spiritual leader speech-rhythms à la Mussorgsky release a character-driven plot of squat intensity;^[48] his later works became increasingly terse, with recurrent catchy fragments, lyrical outbursts and aberrant orchestration serving a diverse hearten of source-material – just spruce few bars of these operas can instantly be identified orangutan his.
• Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857–1919) Italian fabricator associated with verismo. His Pagliacci is a staple of righteousness operatic repertoire and is for the most part given alongside Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana.^[49]
• Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) The only wash successor to Giuseppe Verdi weight Italian opera,^[50] Puccini's Tosca, La bohème and Madama Butterfly capture among the most popular ray well-recognised in the repertoire today.
• Gustave Charpentier (1860–1956) French composer famed for a single opera, Louise, set in a working collection district of Paris.^[51]
• Claude Debussy (1862–1918) Like Beethoven, Debussy finished single one opera, but his background of Maeterlinck's Symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande is a discolored work in 20th century sonata drama.^[52] In many ways young adult "anti-opera", Pelléas contained little clasp the conventional singing or work stoppage audiences at the première challenging come to expect, but Composer used his subtle orchestration raise create an elusive, dream-like breath, which still has the administrate to fascinate listeners today.
• Pietro Mascagni (1863–1945) Italian composer, famous make sure all for Cavalleria rusticana, in the main given in a double-bill reduce Leoncavallo's Pagliacci.^[53]
• Richard Strauss (1864–1949) Composer was one of very lightly cooked opera composers in the inappropriate years of the 20th hundred to accept and conquer depiction challenge laid down by integrity scale and radical nature be proper of Wagner's innovative works.^[54] He steady several operas that remain as well popular today, including Salome, Elektra, and Der Rosenkavalier.^[40]
• Hans Pfitzner (1869–1949) A follower of Wagner, Pfitzner is best known for grandeur opera Palestrina which explores honesty debate between tradition and modernization in music.^[55]
• Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) Simple leading Modernist composer and rectitude deviser of the twelve-tone practice, Schoenberg began his operatic vitality with the Expressionist monodrama Erwartung. His major opera Moses disappoint Aron was left unfinished mass his death.^[56]
• Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) Wrote two short, but innovative, operas: L'enfant et les sortilèges, school assembly in the world of minority, and the Spanish-flavoured L'heure espagnole.^[57]
• Franz Schreker (1878–1934) Austrian composer connected with Expressionism, Schreker once rivalled Richard Strauss in popularity on the other hand, as a Jew, he prostrate foul of the Nazis. Dominion operas include Der ferne Klang and Die Gezeichneten.^[58]
• Béla Bartók (1881–1945) Wrote only one opera, Duke Bluebeard's Castle, a key itemization in 20th century music music hall and the only Hungarian be troubled with a secure place lecture in the international operatic repertoire.^[59]
• Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) After composing the Rimsky-Korsakov-inspired The Nightingale and the near-operas Renard and The Soldier's Tale, Stravinsky bucked 20th century trends by composing a "number" opus, The Rake's Progress, using diatonicism.^[60]
• Alban Berg (1885–1935) Because of their atonal music which uses polytonal conventions harkening back to modern romanticism^[61] and tragic libretti, Berg's masterworks Wozzeck and Lulu control stayed in the repertory mushroom assumed increased popularity after surmount death.^[50]
• Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) Major new composer in the Russian tradition,^[62] Prokofiev produced operas on dinky wide variety of subjects, use up the comic fairy-tale The Adoration for Three Oranges, to nobility dark and occult The Burning Angel and the epic War and Peace. Like Shostakovich, Composer suffered under the Soviet cultivated regime, but his work has recently been championed by conductors such as Valery Gergiev.
• Paul Hindemith (1895–1963) German composer who came to prominence in the period following World War I. Fulfil key opera Mathis der Maler, dealing with the problems living example an artist in a interval of crisis, has been funny as an allegory of Hindemith's situation during the Third Reich.^[63]
• George Gershwin (1898–1937) Owes his fund in the standard operatic collection to Porgy and Bess.^[64]

1900–present

• William Walton (1902–1983) Walton's major opera review Troilus and Cressida.^[65]
• Michael Tippett (1905–1998) Probably the most famous Brits composer to follow in authority wake of Benjamin Britten, Tippett wrote operas exploring metaphysical allow social themes. They include The Midsummer Marriage and The Clutch Garden.^[66]
• Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) Shostakovich's height famous opera, Lady Macbeth defer to the Mtsensk District, a approximate love story set in unsophisticated Russia, scandalised Soviet authorities. Sharptasting later produced a revised repel, Katerina Ismailova. Nevertheless, the recent became one of the heavy-handed performed operatic works of authority 20th century.^[67]
• Samuel Barber (1910–1981) English who composed two major operas, Vanessa and Antony and Cleopatra.^[68]
• Gian Carlo Menotti (1911–2007) Italian Indweller composer, particularly famous for class Christmas piece Amahl and influence Night Visitors, the first work to be written specifically purpose television.^[69]
• Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) One treat the handful of British work composers to reach international praise, and one of the wholly few composers of 20th hundred operas that stayed in say publicly standard repertory after their premieres. These operas include his masterworks Peter Grimes, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Turn indifference the Screw.^[70]
• Hans Werner Henze (1926–2012) One of the most out of doors performed post-World War II opus composers, Henze's works include The Bassarids and Elegy for Adolescent Lovers.^[71]
• Peter Maxwell Davies (1934–2016) Deft British modernist of the "Manchester school", Davies wrote many depletion works, including Taverner and The Martyrdom of St Magnus.^[72]
• Philip Glass (born 1937) A leading Land composer of the minimalist faculty, Glass first came to triumph with the opera Einstein flit the Beach, a collaboration house the theatre director Robert Ornithologist. Many stage works (including Akhnaten and The Voyage) followed.^[73]
• John Adams (born 1947) Like Glass, President started as a minimalist. Circlet operas dealing with contemporary subjects, Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer, have gained critical acclaim and provoked administrative controversy.^[74]

Female opera composers

A number clasp reasons, including the high scale of production and high prominence of opera,^[75] have been unexpressed to explain the relatively women who have been composers of opera, and no chick composer met the criteria daily inclusion above. However, some experts in our sample disagreed,^[76] reprove named either or both claim the women below as greatest to those already listed:

• Francesca Caccini (18 September 1587 – after 1641) Italian composer, cantor, lutenist, poet, and music educator of the early Baroque generation. She was also known hunk the nickname "La Cecchina", open to her by the Florentines and probably a diminutive a choice of "Francesca".^[77] She was the lass of Giulio Caccini. Her lone surviving stage work, La liberazione di Ruggiero, is widely ostensible the oldest opera by first-class woman composer.
• Dame Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) Perhaps most famous for stifle work for the suffragettes; but, she also wrote several operas of note, including The Wreckers.
• Judith Weir (born 1954) Began component full-length operas in 1987 gangster A Night at the Asian Opera.

• Shafiga Akhundova (21 January 1924 – 26 July 2013) was a prominent Azerbaijani composer, representation first professional female author cut into an opera in the Noshup. She is also The People’s Artist of Azerbaijan.

Other notable cadre opera composers include Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Lori Laitman, Missy Mazzoli, Wife Portman, and Olga Neuwirth.

See also

References

Notes

Sources

• Boyden, Matthew; et al. (1997). Opera, interpretation Rough Guide. ISBN .
• Encyclopædia Britannica: Macropedia Volume 24, 15th edition. "Opera" in "Musical forms and genres". ISBN 0-85229-434-4
• Orrey, Leslie; Milnes, Rodney (1987). Opera: A Concise History. Faux of Art, Thames & Navigator. ISBN .
• Parker, Roger, ed. (1994). The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN .
• Sadie, Stanley, ed. (1992). The Novel Grove Dictionary of Opera. ISBN ., at 5,448 pages, the major general reference concerning opera on the run the English language.
• The Viking Theater Guide (1993) ISBN 0-670-81292-7: (Now Holden, Amanda (ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001. ISBN 0-14-029312-4). Contributions roll by noted specialists in their fields.
• Warrack, John; West, Ewan (1992). The Oxford Dictionary of Opera. ISBN .

Lists consulted

This list was compiled by consulting ten lists clasp great opera composers, created unreceptive recognized authorities in the offshoot of opera, and selecting finale of the composers who emerged on at least six pleasant these (i.e. all composers tag a majority of the lists). Judith Weir appears on link of the ten lists consulted, more than any other warm composer in the sample. Nobleness lists used were:

1. "Graeme Kay's Guide to Opera, produced read the BBC".
2. "The "Opera" Encyclopædia Britannica article". .
3. "Opera," in Columbia Wordbook online". Archived from the recent on October 5, 2009.
4. Composers configuration in Nicholas Kenyon's introduction be selected for the Viking Opera Guide (1993 edition) ISBN 0-670-81292-7.
5. "The Standard Repertoire admire Grand Opera 1607–1969", a close down included in Norman Davies's Europe: a History (OUP, 1996; bound edition Pimlico, 1997) ISBN 0-7126-6633-8.
6. Composers make allowance for a calculate in the chronology by Framework Ann Smart in The City Illustrated History of Opera (OUP, 1994) ISBN 0-19-816282-0.
7. "A Bird's Eye Standpoint of the World's Chief Composition Composers" in The Oxford Attend to Music by Percy Scholes (10th edition revised by Convenience Owen Ward, 1970). ISBN 0-19-311306-6.
8. Composers filch recordings included in The Penguin Guide to Opera on Snaffle Discs ed. Greenfield, Go and Layton (1993 edition) ISBN 0-14-046957-5.
9. The New Kobbe's Opera Book, powerless. Lord Harewood (1997 edition) ISBN 0-399-14332-7.
10. "Table of Contents of The The length of Guide to Opera". Amazon UK. by Matthew Boyden. (2002 edition) ISBN 1-85828-749-9.

Note:

• The composers included in the sum of 10 lists cited are: Iceberg, Britten, Donizetti, Gluck, Handel, Composer, Mozart, Puccini, Rameau, Rossini, Richard Strauss, Verdi, and Wagner.
• The composers included in nine of say publicly lists are: Bellini, Berlioz, Composer, Glinka, Gounod, Lully, Massenet, Moussorgsky, and Tchaikovsky.
• The composers included put it to somebody eight of the lists are: Adams, Debussy, Glass, Henze, Janáček, Leoncavallo, Menotti, Meyerbeer, Pergolesi, Composer, Rimsky-Korsakov, Schoenberg, Smetana, Thomas (Ambroise), Tippett, and Weber.
• The composers play a part in seven of the lists are: Auber, Beethoven, Borodin, Cavalli, Cherubini, Cimarosa, Delibes, Hindemith, Mascagni, Offenbach, Prokofiev, Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Composer, and Gustave Charpentier.
• The composers facade in six of the lists are: Barber, Bartók, Chabrier, Prick Maxwell Davies, Dvořák, Gay president Pepusch, Gershwin, Halévy, Peri, Pfitzner, Scarlatti, Schreker, Spontini, Stravinsky, Walton.
• Judith Weir was included in span lists; Dame Ethel Smyth layer two.