1. Alfano Franco
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

Composer Alfano Franco Image Life Franco Alfano was born in Posillipo, near Naples, on 8 March, 1875. He studied piano in Naples with Alessandro Longo and later attended the Conservatorio ...

2. Falla, Manuel de
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

... staged in Nice in 1913. The ballet El amor brujo (Love the Magician), with its ghostly story of gypsy jealousy, was first staged in Madrid two years later. The ballet El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered ...

3. Alain, Jehan Ariste
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

Composer Alain, Jehan Ariste Life Jehan Ariste Alain was born into a family of organists on February 3rd, 1911 in St-Germain-en-Laye, a suburb in west Paris. His father Albert, was a composer, ...

4. Arne, Thomas
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

... songs, including "Where the bee sucks" from "The Tempest", "When daisies pied" from "Love's Labour's Lost" and "Blow, blow, thou winter wind" from "As You Like It". The comic opera "Thomas and Sally" ...

5. Barber, Samuel
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

Composer Barber, Samuel Life American composer and musician, born in Pennsylvania, Barber was a graduate of the Curtis Institute, Philadelphia, where he studied piano, conducting, singing and composition. ...

6. Beethoven, Ludwig van
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

... there was precedent in contemporary France, ends with the defeat of the evil prison governor and the rescue of Florestan, testimony to the love and constancy of his wife Leonora. Beethoven contemplated ...

7. Berkeley, Michael
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

Composer Berkeley, Michael (b. 1948) Life English composer, son of Lennox Berkeley. He studied composition, singing and piano at the Royal Academy of Music, but it was not until his late twenties, ...

8. Berlioz, Hector
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

... he fell in love with the Irish actress, Harriet Smithson, who had come to Paris to perform in a season of Shakespeare and they were married a year Works The meadow scene in the Symphonie fantastique ...

9. Charpentier, Gustave
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

... the first of them, the roman musical (musical novel) "Louise", with its seamstress heroine and her Bohemian lover Julien, rejected by her family. One aria from the opera, "Depuis le jour", has remained ...

10. Cilea, Francesco
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

... and Legouvé. The action takes place in Paris and is the tragic story of the actress Adriana Lecouvreur and her lover Maurizio, Count of Saxony. The best known arias from the opera are for the soprano ...

11. Quilter, Roger
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

Composer Quilter, Roger (1877 - 1953) Life English composer, remembered chiefly for his many songs, which enjoyed considerable popularity in their day and were fluently and sensitively written, ...

12. Debussy, Claude
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

... on stories by Edgar Allan Poe. He completed only one, "Pelléas et Mélisande", a version of the medieval play by Maurice Maeterlinck, with its story of idealised love perfectly matched with the composer's ...

13. Delibes, Leo
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

Composer Delibes, Leo (1836 - 1891) Image Life Delibes was trained at the Paris Conservatoire, where he achieved no particular distinction. His first major triumph came with the ballet Coppélia, ...

14. Dittersdorf, Karl Ditters von
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

Composer Dittersdorf, Karl Ditters von (1739-1799) Life Karl von Dittersdorf enjoyed a reputation as a composer that even eclipsed that of Haydn and Mozart. He was born as Karl Ditters, in Vienna, ...

15. Donizetti, Gaetano
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

... with operatic tenors, from Caruso to Pavarotti. The comic opera "Don Pasquale", staged in Paris in 1843, is a well-loved part of standard operatic repertoire, as is "L'elisir d'Amore" ("The Elixir of ...

16. Dowland, John
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

... publishing his first collection of airs in 1597, followed by a second in 1600 and a third in 1603. He left over eighty secular songs and these include Come again: sweet love doth now endite, Fine knacks ...

17. Dussek, Johann
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

Composer Dussek, Johann (1761-1812) Image Life Johann Ludwig Dussek was a Bohemian, born in Caslav, on February 9, 1761. His father was the town organist, and at the age of five he began ...

18. Gershwin, George
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

Composer Gershwin, George (1898 – 1937) Image Life George Gershwin was born Jacob Gershowitz in 1898 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of immigrant parents. His compositions are still used today ...

19. Gesualdo da Venosa
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

Composer Gesualdo da Venosa (c. 1561 - 1613) Image Life In 1590, the nobleman, Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, surprised his wife with her lover and had them both killed by his servants. ...

20. Giordano Umberto
(Type: Composer | Section: Composers Biographies)

... a victim with his beloved Madeleine. Arias from the work are popular in recital, including the tenor arias Un dì all'azzurro spazio, Si, fui soldato and Come un bel dì di maggio and the soprano aria La ...