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Saturday, November 4, 2023 | 7:30 pm | Port TheatreCONCERT IS SOLD OUT!

How many opera and musical theatre favourites can you hear in one night? The best of Carmen, The Magic Flute, The Barber of Seville, Tales of Hoffman, Mamma Mia, Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, Kinky Boots, West Side Story… and more!

CONDUCTOR: Les Dala

GUEST ARTIST: Malaspina Choir ( Fiona Blackburn , Artistic Director)
Emma Parkinson, MEZZO-SOPRANO
Buwa and Ty Koch VOCALS

PROGRAMME

W. A. MOZART:   Die Zauberflöte , K. 620 (The Magic Flute): Overture

W. A. MOZART:  O Isis und Osiris from Die Zauberflöte

Gioachino ROSSINI: Una Voce from The Barber of Seville
Soloist: Emma Parkinson

Georges BIZET:   Carmen Suite No. 1

Prelude from Suite No. 1
Aragonaise from Suite No. 1
Habanera from Carmen
Sequidilla from Carmen
Les Toreadors from Suite No. 1

Jacques OFFENBACH:  Barcarole from The Tales of Hoffman
Soloists: Emma Parkinson, Sharon Sinclair – soloists

Pietro MASCAGNI:  Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana

Giuseppe VERDI:  Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Nabucco

Giuseppe VERDI:   La Forza del Destino: Overture

Intermission

Andrew Lloyd WEBBER arr. Calvin Custer: Selections from The Phantom of the Opera

Alain BOUBLIL arr. Bob Krogstad: I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misérables
Soloist: Emma Parkinson

Alain BOUBLIL arr. Bob Krogstad: Bring Him Home from Les Misérables
Soloist: Ty Koch

Alain BOUBLIL : Do you hear the People Sing? from Les Misérables

ABBA arr. Roy Phillipe: Selections from Mamma Mia!

Cyndi LAUPER : Hold me in your Heart from Kinky Boots
Soloist: BUWA

Leonard BERNSTEIN: : West Side Story Overture

SOLD OUT!

PRE-CONCERT TALKS: 6:30 PM
CONCERT: 7:30 PM

Join us for our free pre-concert talks. One hour prior to the concert in the theatre lobby.

What to wear? Be comfortable. Dress in a way that works for you. If you feel like dressing up, do it and you won’t be the only one, we promise. If you prefer to be more casual you will fit right in as well.

Beverages served prior to concert and during intermission. You can pre-order your beverage before the concert.


Mobile phones are allowed to be on but must be set to silent.


We weclome you to clap when you like what you hear.

Les Dala
The 8th Note Series – Les

Emma Parkinson,
The 8th Note Series – Emma

Buwa
The 8th Note Series – BUWA

Ty Koch
The 8th Note Series – Ty


Fiona Blackburn


Malaspina Choir

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Les Dala
BIOGRAPHY

Conductor and pianist, Leslie Dala enjoys a multifaceted career spanning the genres of opera, symphonic music, choral and contemporary works. On the podium, he is known for his passionate, dynamic, and charismatic approach to music making. Named one of the top ten artistic leaders by the Vancouver Sun, Dala’s national profile has grown steadily with guest conducting appearances with orchestra and opera companies across the country. Internationally, he has conducted in Europe and in Asia and is a member of the music staff at the Santa Fe Opera.

Leslie holds the positions of Music Director of the Vancouver Bach Choir, the Associate Conductor and Chorus Director of Vancouver Opera, and the Music Director Emeritus of the Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra. Recently he conducted Vancouver Opera’s production of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, the Canadian premiere of George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill produced by Astrolabe Musik Theatre, and the world premiere of Frank Horvat’s Memories of Self Isolation with the Vancouver Bach Choir. As a pianist, Leslie recorded the complete Etudes of Philip Glass which is available on the Redshift label and on all of the major streaming platforms. It was named by CBC Radio as one of the top 21 Classical recordings of 2021. His 2022 recording of Nikolai Korndorf’s The Smile of Maud Lewis also made the CBC list for top 22 Classical recordings.

www.lesliedala.com

Malaspina Choir
Fiona Blackburn, Artistic Director

Sopranos & Altos
Pam Atkinson Brown – MC/VIC
Margaret Bowman – MC
Marilyn Cheveldayoff – MC
Elena Collens – MC/VIC
Susan Collett – MC
Carol Fetherston – MC
Allyson Foster – MC
Sara Frisch – MC
Tracy Galavan – MC
Gillian Goerzen – MC
Kathryn Grant – MC/VIC
Roni Harrison – MC
Steph Hart – MC
Elizabeth Herman – MC
Kailey Howell-Spooner – MC
Karen Hunter – MC
Diana Johnstone – MC/VIC
Sheila Joss – MC
Mari Lyn Kelly – MC
Hope Leith – MC
Clarice McCord – MC/IBC
Christine McMahon – MC
Justine Michaux – MC
Carol Oosthuizen – MC
Donna Reynolds – MC
Charlotte Richardson – MC
Susan Robbins – MC
Stella Robinson – MC
Alfonsa Rumming – MC/ISC/SC
Shari Schiefele – MC
Shauna Sedola – MC
Cathy Shonwise – MC
Sharon Sinclair – MC/SS
Bonnie Stebbings – NCA

Tenors & Basses
Steve Annets – TM
Eric Cottrell – MC\
David Douglas – MC
Robin FitzGerald – MC/IC
Bruce Forward – HCS/YPS
Peter Galitzine – MC
Will Geluk – MC
Chris Healey – CAM
Gary Lamoureux – MC/VIC
Peter Lang – MC
Grant Magusin – MC
Kim Morgan – HCS
Dave Myrfield – MC
Reagan Newcomb – SS
Brian Newman – TM
Ross Rowledge – MC/HCS
Hugh Sinnott – MC
Marcus Slotiuk – MC
Max Stocker – MC

Singers participate in the following Nanaimo choirs:

CAM – Camerata Singers • HCS – Harbour City Singers • IBC – Island Bel Canto Singers • IC – Island Consort Chamber Choir • ISC – Island Soul Choir • NCA – no choir affiliation • SC – Soundwave Choir • SS – Sinclair Singers • TM – Tidesmen • VIC – Vancouver Island Choir • YPS – Yellow Point Singers

Fiona Blackburn
Artistic Director, Malaspina Choir

 

Fiona Blackburn earned a Bachelor of Music in voice performance, a Bachelor of Education in secondary music, and a Master of Music in choral conducting from the University of British Columbia. She performed, recorded and toured for 13 seasons with the Vancouver Chamber Choir and sang numerous roles with Vancouver Opera for five seasons. Her solo work includes performances with the Vancouver Symphony, Vancouver CBC Orchestra and Symphony Nova Scotia among others. Fiona has two Celtic CDs to her credit and even performed for five summers on an Alaskan cruise ship.

As an educator and choral director, Fiona has taught music from kindergarten to university, where she was adjunct professor in the Department of Education at UBC.

Fiona recently accepted the title of Artistic Director Emerita of the British Columbia Girls Choir, which she founded two decades ago. During her tenure, she toured internationally with the singers to over 15 countries. In 2018, the choir was awarded the coveted Children’s Choir of the World trophy, the highest honour at the world’s prestigious Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales. She has also directed the Zephyra Women’s Choir and Pacifica Singers, the associate ensemble of the Vancouver Chamber Choir.

Fiona was awarded the BC Choral Federation’s 2016 Healey Willan Award for her work to promote choral singing in our province, and, she was awarded the Most Inspiring Director Award at the Vancouver Kiwanis Choral Festival that same year. Fiona has an international reputation and is known for her passionate support of the art of singing in all its forms, as well as for her engaging and uplifting interaction with singers of all ages.

Fiona is now enjoying life on Vancouver Island. She joined the Malaspina Choir as Artistic Director in 2020 and eagerly looks forward to inspiring its singers for many years to come.

Emma Parkinson
BIOGRAPHY

Chinese-Canadian mezzo-soprano Emma Parkinson has performed across Canada and internationally, she has been hailed as “an outstanding voice” (La Scena Musicale). Emma performed in the world premiere of Chinatown with City Opera Vancouver, and in
the Canadian premiere of Du Yun’s Angel’s Bone with re:Naissance Opera and Sound the Alarm Music Theatre. Past seasons have seen Emma perform with Vancouver Opera as Jade Boucher in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, and with Pacific Opera Victoria in the Canadian premiere of Rattenbury. Emma has appeared with Burnaby Lyric Opera in the title role of Carmen, and, as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly. As an alumnus of the Atelier lyrique of Opéra de Montréal, she performed Orlofsky in Opéra de Montréal’s production of Die Fledermaus. In Europe, Emma debuted with Seefestspiele Berlin as Mercédès in Carmen, and performed a concert with Les Chorégies d’Orange in France. Her concert highlights include soloist appearances with the Alberta Baroque Ensemble, Vancouver Bach Choir, Kingston Symphony Orchestra, Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre Métropolitain, under the baton of Yannick Nézét-Seguin. Emma is excited to be making her debut with the Vancouver Island Symphony Orchestra.

@emmacparkinson

www.emmaparkinson.com

Buwa
BIOGRAPHY

British Columbia based, Nigerian performer Buwa is an artist you want to keep on your radar. Drawing influences from the late Whitney Houston, as well as Jill Scott, India Arie, Billy Porter, and Brenda Fassie – Buwa is an exciting contemporary soul artist, with pop and R&B sensibilities and a penchant for storytelling, for whom, music has always played an important place. Buwa channels his creativity into poetry and performance art appearing in various stage productions on Vancouver Island where he resides. Recognized for his infectious melodies, his versatile voice and captivating song writing, Buwa has released two EP: Olu [2019] and Road Signs [2016], along with handful of captivating singles. He uses his music and talents to change the way the world sees Africa

Ty Koch
BIOGRAPHY

Ty Koch is a young singer based in Vancouver, Canada that performs a variety of musical genres including musical theatre favourites, Classical artsong, crooner tunes, popular ballads, original songs with a blues vibe and vintage rock & roll! He began songwriting at the age 17 performing with his friends. Over the last few years, Ty has been working with several artists performing and recording at theatres, local clubs and festivals including the Nanaimo Big Band Festival and on two Rise Up Reality TV Tours which can be viewed on Roku TV. Ty has recorded and released two songs: Go to War and Waiting to Be Found.

For a decade Ty was a member of the highly acclaimed British Columbia Boys Choir where he had the opportunity to perform and tour to fantastic places around the world. “I did a road trip across Canada, from coast to coast, been to Costa Rica, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Scotland and throughout British Columbia numerous times.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the classical era.

Born in Salzburg, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his early death at the age of 35. The circumstances of his death have been much mythologized.

He composed more than 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and his influence is profound on subsequent Western art music. Ludwig van Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote: “posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years”.

 

Read more on Wikipedia.org…

Die Zauberflöte, The Magic Flute
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The Magic Flute (German: Die Zauberflöte, pronounced [diː ˈtsaʊbɐˌfløːtə] ⓘ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form during the time it was written that included both singing and spoken dialogue.[a] The work premiered on 30 September 1791 at Schikaneder’s theatre, the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, just two months before the composer’s premature death. Still a staple of the opera repertory,[2] its popularity was reflected by two immediate sequels, Peter Winter‘s Das Labyrinth oder Der Kampf mit den Elementen. Der Zauberflöte zweyter Theil (1798) and a fragmentary libretto by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe titled The Magic Flute Part Two.

The allegorical plot was influenced by Schikaneder and Mozart’s interest in Freemasonry and concerns the initiation of Prince Tamino. Enlisted by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Pamina from the high priest Sarastro, Tamino comes to admire the high ideals of the latter and he and Pamina both join Sarastro’s community, while the Queen and her allies are vanquished.

 

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Gioanchino Rossini
February 29, 1792 - November 13, 1868

Gioachino Antonio Rossini, (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from large-scale composition while still in his thirties, at the height of his popularity.

Born in Pesaro to parents who were both musicians (his father a trumpeter, his mother a singer), Rossini began to compose by the age of 12 and was educated at music school in Bologna. His first opera was performed in Venice in 1810 when he was 18 years old. In 1815 he was engaged to write operas and manage theatres in Naples. In the period 1810–1823 he wrote 34 operas for the Italian stage that were performed in Venice, Milan, Ferrara, Naples and elsewhere; this productivity necessitated an almost formulaic approach for some components (such as overtures) and a certain amount of self-borrowing. During this period he produced his most popular works, including the comic operas L’italiana in Algeri, Il barbiere di Siviglia (known in English as The Barber of Seville) and La Cenerentola, which brought to a peak the opera buffa tradition he inherited from masters such as Domenico Cimarosa and Giovanni Paisiello. He also composed opera seria works such as Otello, Tancredi and Semiramide. All of these attracted admiration for their innovation in melody, harmonic and instrumental colour, and dramatic form. In 1824 he was contracted by the Opéra in Paris, for which he produced an opera to celebrate the coronation of Charles X, Il viaggio a Reims (later cannibalised for his first opera in French, Le comte Ory), revisions of two of his Italian operas, Le siège de Corinthe and Moïse, and in 1829 his last opera, Guillaume Tell.

Rossini’s withdrawal from opera for the last 40 years of his life has never been fully explained; contributary factors may have been ill-health, the wealth his success had brought him, and the rise of spectacular grand opera under composers such as Giacomo Meyerbeer. From the early 1830s to 1855, when he left Paris and was based in Bologna, Rossini wrote relatively little. On his return to Paris in 1855 he became renowned for his musical salons on Saturdays, regularly attended by musicians and the artistic and fashionable circles of Paris, for which he wrote the entertaining pieces Péchés de vieillesse. Guests included Franz Liszt, Anton Rubinstein, Giuseppe Verdi, Meyerbeer and Joseph Joachim. Rossini’s last major composition was his Petite messe solennelle (1863). He died in Paris in 1868.

 

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The Barber of Seville
by Gioachino Rossini

The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution (Italian: Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L’inutile precauzione) is an opera buffa in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais‘s French comedy The Barber of Seville (1775). The première of Rossini’s opera (under the title Almaviva, o sia L’inutile precauzione) took place on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina, Rome, with designs by Angelo Toselli.

Rossini’s Barber of Seville is considered to be one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music, and has been described as the opera buffa of all “opere buffe”. After two hundred years, it remains a popular work.

Read more on Wikipedia.org…

Georges Bizet
October 25, 1838 - June 3, 1875

Georges Bizet (né Alexandre César Léopold Bizet; 25 October 1838 – 3 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, which has become one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertoire.

During a brilliant student career at the Conservatoire de Paris, Bizet won many prizes, including the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1857. He was recognised as an outstanding pianist, though he chose not to capitalise on this skill and rarely performed in public. Returning to Paris after almost three years in Italy, he found that the main Parisian opera theatres preferred the established classical repertoire to the works of newcomers. His keyboard and orchestral compositions were likewise largely ignored; as a result, his career stalled, and he earned his living mainly by arranging and transcribing the music of others. Restless for success, he began many theatrical projects during the 1860s, most of which were abandoned. Neither of his two operas that reached the stage in this time—Les pêcheurs de perles and La jolie fille de Perth—were immediately successful.

After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, during which Bizet served in the National Guard, he had little success with his one-act opera Djamileh, though an orchestral suite derived from his incidental music to Alphonse Daudet‘s play L’Arlésienne was instantly popular. The production of his final opera, Carmen, was delayed because of fears that its themes of betrayal and murder would offend audiences. After its premiere on 3 March 1875, Bizet was convinced that the work was a failure; he died of a heart attack three months later, unaware that it would prove a spectacular and enduring success.

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The Carmen Suites
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The Carmen Suites are two suites of orchestral music drawn from the music of Georges Bizet‘s 1875 opera Carmen and compiled posthumously by his friend Ernest Guiraud. They adhere very closely to Bizet’s orchestration. However the order of the musical allusions are in reversed chronological order, and do not adhere to the operatic versions entirely, although the Suite is directly inspired by Bizet’s opera.[1]

Guiraud also wrote the recitatives for Carmen, and compiled the second of the two suites from Bizet’s L’Arlésienne incidental music.

Each of the Carmen Suites contains six numbers. Both suites have been performed and recorded many times.

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Jacques Offenbach
June 20, 1819 - October 5, 1880

Jacques Offenbach (20 June 1819 – 5 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the Romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss Jr. and Arthur Sullivan. His best-known works were continually revived during the 20th century, and many of his operettas continue to be staged in the 21st. The Tales of Hoffmann remains part of the standard opera repertory.

Born in Cologne, Kingdom of Prussia, the son of a synagogue cantor, Offenbach showed early musical talent. At the age of 14, he was accepted as a student at the Paris Conservatoire but found academic study unfulfilling and left after a year. From 1835 to 1855 he earned his living as a cellist, achieving international fame, and as a conductor. His ambition, however, was to compose comic pieces for the musical theatre. Finding the management of Paris’ Opéra-Comique company uninterested in staging his works, in 1855 he leased a small theatre in the Champs-Élysées. There he presented a series of his own small-scale pieces, many of which became popular.

In 1858, Offenbach produced his first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers (“Orpheus in the Underworld”), which was exceptionally well received and has remained one of his most played works. During the 1860s, he produced at least 18 full-length operettas, as well as more one-act pieces. His works from this period included La belle Hélène (1864), La Vie parisienne (1866), La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867) and La Périchole (1868). The risqué humour (often about sexual intrigue) and mostly gentle satiric barbs in these pieces, together with Offenbach’s facility for melody, made them internationally known, and translated versions were successful in Vienna, London and elsewhere in Europe.

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The Tales of Hoffman
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The Tales of Hoffmann (French: Les contes d’Hoffmann) is an opéra fantastique by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbach’s final work; he died in October 1880, four months before the premiere.

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Pietro Mascagni
December 7, 1863 - August 2, 1945

Pietro Mascagni (7 December 1863 – 2 August 1945) was an Italian composer primarily known for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music. While it was often held that Mascagni, like Ruggero Leoncavallo, was a “one-opera man” who could never repeat his first success, L’amico Fritz and Iris have remained in the repertoire in Europe (especially Italy) since their premieres. 

Mascagni wrote fifteen operas, an operetta, several orchestral and vocal works, and also songs and piano music. He enjoyed immense success during his lifetime, both as a composer and conductor of his own and other people’s music and created a variety of styles in his operas.

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Cavalleria rusticana
by Pietro Mascagni

Cavalleria rusticana  (Italian for “rustic chivalry“) is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 short story of the same name [it] and subsequent play by Giovanni Verga. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on 17 May 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Since 1893, it has often been performed in a so-called Cav/Pag double-bill with Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo.

In July 1888 the Milanese music publisher Edoardo Sonzogno announced a competition open to all young Italian composers who had not yet had an opera performed on stage. They were invited to submit a one-act opera which would be judged by a jury of five prominent Italian critics and composers. The best three would be staged in Rome at Sonzogno’s expense.

Mascagni heard about the competition only two months before the closing date and asked his friend Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, a poet and professor of literature at the Italian Royal Naval Academy in Livorno, to provide a libretto. Targioni-Tozzetti chose Cavalleria rusticana, a popular short story (and play) by Giovanni Verga, as the basis for the opera. He and his colleague Guido Menasci set about composing the libretto, sending it to Mascagni in fragments, sometimes only a few verses at a time on the back of a postcard. The opera was finally submitted on the last day that entries would be accepted. In all, 73 operas were submitted, and on 5 March 1890, the judges selected the final three: Niccola Spinelli‘s Labilia, Vincenzo Ferroni [it]‘s Rudello, and Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana.

 

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Guiseppe Verdi
October 1813 - January 1901

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the help of a local patron. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, and Gaetano Donizetti, whose works significantly influenced him.

In his early operas, Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy. He also participated briefly as an elected politician. The chorus “Va, pensiero” from his early opera Nabucco (1842), and similar choruses in later operas, were much in the spirit of the unification movement, and the composer himself became esteemed as a representative of these ideals. An intensely private person, Verdi did not seek to ingratiate himself with popular movements. As he became professionally successful, he was able to reduce his operatic workload and sought to establish himself as a landowner in his native region. He surprised the musical world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida (1871), with three late masterpieces: his Requiem (1874), and the operas Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893).

His operas remain extremely popular, especially the three peaks of his ‘middle period’: Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata. The bicentenary of his birth in 2013 was widely celebrated in broadcasts and performances.

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Nabucco
by Giuseppe Verdi

Nabucco (Italian short for Nabucodonosor; English: “Nebuchadnezzar“) is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera. The libretto is based on the biblical books of 2 Kings, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Daniel, and on the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornu. However, Antonio Cortese’s ballet adaptation of the play (with its necessary simplifications), given at La Scala in 1836, was a more important source for Solera than the play itself.[1] Under its original name of Nabucodonosor, the opera was first performed at La Scala in Milan on 9 March 1842.

Nabucco is the opera that is considered to have permanently established Verdi’s reputation as a composer. He commented that “this is the opera with which my artistic career really begins. And though I had many difficulties to fight against, it is certain that Nabucco was born under a lucky star.”[2]

The opera follows the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian king Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar II). The historical events are used as background for a romantic and political plot. The best-known number from the opera is the “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves” (“Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate” / “Fly, thought, on golden wings”), a chorus that is regularly given an encore in many opera houses when performed today.

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La Forza del Destino
by Giuseppe Verdi

La forza del destino (Italian pronunciation: [la ˈfɔrtsa del deˈstiːno]; The Power of Fate,[1] often translated The Force of Destiny) is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino (1835), by Ángel de Saavedra, 3rd Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller‘s Wallensteins Lager (Wallenstein’s Camp). It was first performed in the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre of Saint Petersburg, Russia, on 29 November 1862 O.S. (N.S. 10 November).

La forza del destino is frequently performed, and there have been a number of complete recordings. In addition, the overture (to the revised version of the opera) is part of the standard repertoire for orchestras, often played as the opening piece at concerts.

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Andrew Lloyd Webber
composer

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and theatrical producer. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. Lloyd Webber has composed 21 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass.

Several of Lloyd Webber’s songs have been widely recorded and widely successful outside of their parent musicals, such as “Memory” from Cats, “The Music of the Night” and “All I Ask of You” from The Phantom of the Opera, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar, “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” from Evita, and “Any Dream Will Do” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In 2001, The New York Times referred to him as “the most commercially successful composer in history”. Ranking fifth in The Daily Telegraph‘s “most powerful people in British culture” in 2008, lyricist Don Black wrote “Andrew more or less single-handedly reinvented the musical.”

Lloyd Webber has received numerous awards, including a knighthood in 1992, followed by a peerage for services to the arts, six Tonys, three Grammys (as well as the Grammy Legend Award), an Academy Award, 14 Ivor Novello Awards, seven Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe, a Brit Award, the 2006 Kennedy Center Honors, and the 2008 Classic Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2018, after Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Live), Lloyd Webber become the thirteenth person in history to win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, is an inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors.

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The Phantom of the Opera
1986 Musical

The Phantom of the Opera is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe and a libretto by Lloyd Webber and Stilgoe. Based on the 1910 French novel of the same name by Gaston Leroux, it tells the story of a beautiful soprano, Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious, masked musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth beneath the Paris Opéra House.

The musical opened in London’s West End in 1986 and on Broadway in New York in 1988, in a production directed by Harold Prince and starring English classical soprano Sarah Brightman (Lloyd Webber’s then-wife) as Christine Daaé, screen and stage star Michael Crawford as the Phantom, and international stage performer Steve Barton as Raoul. It won the 1986 Olivier Award and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical, with Crawford winning the Olivier and Tony for Best Actor in a Musical. A film adaptation, directed by Joel Schumacher, was released in 2004.

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Alain Boubil
composer

Alain Boublil (born 5 March 1941) is a French musical theatre lyricist and librettist, best known for his collaborations with the composer Claude-Michel Schönberg for musicals on Broadway and London’s West End. These include La Révolution Française (1973), Les Misérables (1980), Miss Saigon (1989), Martin Guerre (1996), The Pirate Queen (2006), and Marguerite (2008).

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Les Misérables
1980 Musical

Les Misérables (/leɪ ˌmɪzəˈrɑːb(əl), –blə/ lay MIZ-ə-RAHB(-əl), -⁠RAH-blə, French: [le mizeʁabl]), colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz (/leɪ ˈmɪz/ lay MIZ), is a sung-through musical with music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, and a book by Schönberg and Boublil, based on the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The original French musical premiered in Paris in 1980 with direction by Robert Hossein. Its English-language adaptation by producer Cameron Mackintosh with lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer has been running in London since October 1985, making it the longest-running musical in the West End and the second longest-running musical in the world after the original Off-Broadway run of The Fantasticks.

Set in early 19th-century France, Les Misérables is the story of Jean Valjean, a French peasant, and his desire for redemption, released in 1815 after serving nineteen years in jail, five for stealing a loaf of bread for his sister’s starving child, the other fourteen for numerous escape attempts. Valjean decides to break his parole and start his life anew after a bishop inspires him with a tremendous act of mercy. But a police inspector named Javert refuses to let him escape justice and pursues him for most of the play. Along the way, Valjean and a slew of characters are swept into a revolutionary period in France, where a group of young idealists attempt to overthrow the government at a street barricade in Paris.

A film adaptation was released in 2012.

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ABBA
Swedish Pop Supergroup

ABBA formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish pop supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group’s name is an acronym of the first letters of their first names arranged as a palindrome. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the best-selling music acts in the history of popular music, topping the charts worldwide from 1974 to 1982, and in 2022.

In 1974, ABBA were Sweden‘s first winner of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Waterloo“, which in 2005 was chosen as the best song in the competition’s history as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the contest. During the band’s main active years, it consisted of two married couples: Fältskog and Ulvaeus, and Lyngstad and Andersson. With the increase of their popularity, their personal lives suffered, which eventually resulted in the collapse of both marriages. The relationship changes were reflected in the group’s music, with later compositions featuring darker and more introspective lyrics. After ABBA disbanded in December 1982, Andersson and Ulvaeus continued their success writing music for multiple audiences including stage, musicals and movies, while Fältskog and Lyngstad pursued solo careers.

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Mamma Mia!
Musical

Mamma Mia! (promoted as Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus’ Mamma Mia!) is a jukebox musical written by British playwright Catherine Johnson based on songs recorded by Swedish group ABBA and composed by members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. The title of the musical is taken from the group’s 1975 chart-topper “Mamma Mia“. Ulvaeus and Andersson were involved in the development of the show from the beginning, while singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad was involved financially in the production and also appeared at many of the premieres around the world.

The musical includes such hits as “Super Trouper“, “Lay All Your Love on Me“, “Dancing Queen“, “Knowing Me, Knowing You“, “Take a Chance on Me“, “Thank You for the Music“, “Money, Money, Money“, “The Winner Takes It All“, “Voulez-Vous“, “SOS” and “Mamma Mia“. Over 65 million people have seen the show, which has grossed $4 billion worldwide since its 1999 debut. A film adaptation starring Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski, Stellan Skarsgård and Julie Walters was released in 2008.

As of 2020, the show has productions in London’s West End, where it is the sixth longest-running show in West End history, as well as various foreign productions. Its Broadway incarnation closed on 12 September 2015 after running for nearly 14 years, making it the ninth longest-running show in Broadway history.

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Cindi LAUPER
singer / songwriter / actress /activist

Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper (born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. Her career has spanned over 40 years.[4] Her album She’s So Unusual (1983) was the first debut album by a female artist to achieve four top-five hits on the Billboard Hot 100—”Girls Just Want to Have Fun“, “Time After Time“, “She Bop“, and “All Through the Night“—and earned Lauper the Best New Artist award at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards in 1985. Her success continued with the soundtrack for the motion picture The Goonies (1985) and her second record True Colors (1986). This album included the number-one single “True Colors” and “Change of Heart“, which peaked at number three. In 1989, Lauper saw success with “I Drove All Night” and in 1993, had her first dance club hit with “That’s What I Think“.

Since 1983, Lauper has released eleven studio albums and participated in many other projects. In 2010, Memphis Blues became Billboard‘s most successful blues album of the year, remaining at number one on the Billboard Blues Albums chart for 13 consecutive weeks. In 2013, she won the Tony Award for best original score for composing the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, making her the first woman to win the category by herself.[5] The musical was awarded five other Tonys including Tony Award for Best New Musical. In 2014, Lauper was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for the cast recording. In 2016, the West End production won Best New Musical at the Olivier Awards.]

Lauper has sold over 50 million records worldwide. She has won awards at the Grammys, Emmys, Tonys, the New York’s Outer Critics Circle, MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), Billboard Awards, and American Music Awards (AMAs). An inductee into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Lauper is one of the few singers to win three of the four major American entertainment awards (EGOT). She won the inaugural Best Female Video prize at the 1984 VMAs for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun“. This music video is recognized by MTV, VH1 and Rolling Stone as one of the greatest music videos of the era. She is featured in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame‘s Women Who Rock exhibit. Her debut album is included in Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, while “Time After Time” is included in VH1‘s list of the 100 Best Songs of the Past 25 years. VH1 has ranked Lauper No. 58 of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll.

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Kinky Boots
musical

Kinky Boots is a musical with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and book by Harvey Fierstein.

Based on the 2005 British film Kinky Boots, written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth and mostly inspired by true events, the musical tells the story of Charlie Price. Having inherited a shoe factory from his father, Charlie forms an unlikely partnership with cabaret performer and drag queen Lola to produce a line of high-heeled boots and save the business. In the process, Charlie and Lola discover that they are not so different after all.

Following the show’s conception in 2006, the creative team was assembled by 2010. The original production of Kinky Boots premiered at the Bank of America Theatre in Chicago in October 2012, with both direction and choreography by Jerry Mitchell, and starring Stark Sands and Billy Porter as Charlie and Lola, respectively. It made its Broadway debut at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on April 4, 2013, following previews that began on March 3, 2013. The musical began a US tour in 2014. The Broadway production ended on April 7, 2019.

Having initially been less well received by theatre critics and at the box office than another 2013 Broadway production, Matilda the Musical, Kinky Boots entered the 2013 awards season as an underdog. However, less than a month after opening, Kinky Boots surpassed this rival with audiences in weekly box office gross and later enjoyed a post-Tony boost in advance sales. The production earned a season-high 13 nominations and 6 Tony wins, including Best Musical, Best Actor for Billy Porter and Best Score for Lauper in her first outing as a Broadway songwriter, making her the first woman to win alone in that category. The musical’s cast album premiered at number one on the Billboard Cast Albums Chart and number fifty-one on the Billboard 200 chart. Making its West End debut in 2015, in 2016, it won three Laurence Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical.

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Leonard Bernstein
Conductor / Composer (August 15, 1918 - October 14, 1990)

Leonard Bernstein was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American conductor to receive international acclaim. Bernstein was “one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history” according to music critic Donal Henahan. Bernstein received numerous honors and accolades including seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and 16 Grammy Awards (including the Lifetime Achievement Award) as well as an Academy Award nomination. He received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1981.

As a composer, Bernstein wrote in many genres, including symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music, and pieces for the piano. His best-known work is the Broadway musical West Side Story, which continues to be regularly performed worldwide, and has been adapted into two (1961 and 2021) feature films. Bernstein’s works include three symphonies, Serenade after Plato’s “Symposium” (1954), and Chichester Psalms (1965), the original score for the Elia Kazan drama film On the Waterfront (1954), and theater works including On the Town (1944), Wonderful Town (1953), Candide (1956), and his Mass (1971).

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West Side Story
musical

West Side Story is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents.

Inspired by William Shakespeare‘s play Romeo and Juliet, the story is set in the mid-1950s in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, then a multiracial, blue-collar neighborhood. The musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. The Sharks, who are recent migrants from Puerto Rico, and the Jets, who are white, vie for dominance of the neighborhood, and the police try to keep order. The young protagonist, Tony, a former member of the Jets and best friend of the gang’s leader, Riff, falls in love with Maria, the sister of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks. The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, tragic love story, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in musical theatre.

The original 1957 Broadway production, directed and choreographed by Robbins, marked Sondheim’s Broadway debut. It ran for 732 performances before going on tour. The production was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, in 1958, winning two. The show had an even longer-running West End production, a number of revivals, and international productions. A 1961 musical film adaptation, co-directed by Robert Wise and Robbins, starred Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer. The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won ten, including Best Picture. A 2021 film adaptation, directed by Steven Spielberg, starred Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler. That film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, along with six additional nominations, winning one Oscar.

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