Hermann Prey

Orfeo ed Euridice (French version: Orphée et Eurydice; English translation: Orpheus and Eurydice; Spanish Translation: Orfeo y Eurídice) is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing...

The Christmas Oratorio (German: Weihnachts-Oratorium) BWV 248, is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. It was written for the Christmas season of 1734 incorporating music from earlier compositions, including three secular cantatas written during 1733 and 1734 and a now lost church cantata, BWV 248a. The date is confirmed in Bach's autograph manuscript. The next performance was not until 17 December 1857 by the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin under Eduard Grell. The Christmas Oratorio is a particularly sophisticated example of parody music. The author of the text is unknown, although a likely collaborator was Christian Friedrich Henrici (Picander).

Albert Lortzing's 'Zar and Zimmermann', written in 1837, is a marvelously constructed comedy of mistaken identities which rises above the usual farcical conventions and provides not only a satisfying plot but some excellent musical characterizations of what otherwise might have been stereotyped roles. In it Czar Peter the Great is working in the shipyards of Saardam (as he actually did in order to learn the shipbuilding trade) under the pseudonym of Peter Michaelov. Another Russian is also working there and also named Peter (Ivanov)… By J Scott Morrison HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE VOICE

Humperdinck's reputation rests chiefly on his opera Hänsel and Gretel, which he began work on in Frankfurt in 1890. He first composed four songs to accompany a puppet show his nieces were giving at home. Then, using a libretto by his sister Adelheid Wette rather loosely based on the version of the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, he composed a Singspiel of 16 songs with piano accompaniment and connecting dialogue. By January 1891 he had begun working on a complete orchestration. The opera premiered in Weimar on 23 December 1893, under the baton of Richard Strauss, who called it: "a masterpiece of the highest quality… all of it original, new, and so authentically German.

The soprano Diana Damrau stars in the operas of Mozart, Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti and Strauss, but Forever is the ‘soundtrack of her life’ in the form of much-loved numbers from operetta, musicals and the movies – including Die Fledermaus, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, The Phantom of the Opera and The Little Mermaid. “This music shows a side of me that many people don’t know yet,” she says. “These tunes are great art, because they are associated with unforgettable moments in everyone’s lives.”