The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini

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Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

• Polarizing German opera composer
• Before him there was no great Germanic opera
  tradition
• Fascination with theatre
• He wrote his own music libretti
• Lead him to develop a new type of opera called
  Music Drama
• No aria-recitative, just constant music (unending
  melody)
• The orchestra is like a member of the cast

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Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

• Letimotif a recurring musical theme associated
  with a particular person, place or idea
• Tristan und Isolde
• Composed 1856-59, but not premiered until 1865
• Shocking drama of eroticism based on a medieval
  poem, focusing on desire and lust
• Unprecedented orchestration begins with a
  famous chord that does not resolve until the end
  of the opera
• Extremely chromatic, later blamed as the downfal
  of tonality

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The Tristan Chord
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The Ring of the Nibelung

• Four operas total, lasting a total of 15 hours
• Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold)
• Die Walküre (The Valkyrie)
• Siegfried
• Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods)
• Composed from 1851-74, premiered as a whole in
  Bayreuth in 1876
• Based on a Norse-Germanic tale of power and love