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Christoph Willibald Gluck

Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he gained prominence at the Habsburg court at Vienna. There he brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices for which many intellectuals had been campaigning. With a series of radical new works in the 1760s, among them Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste, he broke the stranglehold that Metastasian opera seria had enjoyed for much of the century. Gluck introduced more drama by using orchestral recitative and cutting the usually long da capo aria. His later operas have half the length of a typical baroque opera.

The strong influence of French opera encouraged Gluck to move to Paris in November 1773. Fusing the traditions of Italian opera and the French (with rich chorus) into a unique synthesis, Gluck wrote eight operas for the Parisian stage. Iphigénie en Tauride (1779) was a great success and is often considered to be his finest work. Though he was extremely popular and widely credited with bringing about a revolution in French opera, Gluck's mastery of the Parisian operatic scene was never absolute, and after the poor reception of his Echo et Narcisse (1779), he left Paris in disgust and returned to Vienna to live out the remainder of his life.

Ancestry and early years

Gluck's earliest known ancestor is his great-grandfather, Simon Gluckh von Rockenzahn, whose name is recorded in the marriage contract (1672) of his son, the forester Johann (Hans) Adam Gluck and grandfather of Christoph. 'Rockenzahn' is believed to be Rokycany, located in the central part of western Bohemia (about 70 km southwest of Prague and 16 km east of Pilsen). The family name Gluck (also spelled Gluckh, Klugh, Kluch, etc.) likely comes from the Czech word for boy (kluk). Around 1675 Hans Adam moved to Neustadt an der Waldnaab in the service of Prince Ferdinand August von Lobkowitz.

Gluck's father, Alexander, was born in Neustadt an der Waldnaab on 28 October 1683, one of four sons of Hans Adam Gluck who became foresters or gamekeepers. Alexander served under Philipp Hyazinth von Lobkowitz, the son of Ferdinand August von Lobkowitz, during the War of Spanish Succession, and, according to Gluck family tradition, rose to the level of gunbearer to the great general of the imperial forces, Eugene of Savoy. In 1711 Alexander settled outside Berching as a forester and hunter in the service of the monastery Seligenporten, Plankstetten Abbey, and the mayors of Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz. He took the vacant position of hunter in Erasbach in 1711 or 1712 (his predecessor had been found shot in the forest).

About Gluck's mother, Maria Walburga, almost nothing is known, including her surname, but she probably grew up in the same area as she was named after Saint Walburga, the sister of Saint Willibald, the first bishop of nearby Eichstätt. The couple probably married around 1711. In 1713 Alexander built a house in Erasbach and by 12 September had taken possession of it.

Although there is no documentary record with Gluck's birthdate at the time of his birth, he himself gave it as 2 July 1714 on an official document requested by Paris that he signed in 1785 in Vienna in the presence of the French ambassador Emmanuel Marie Louis de Noailles. This has long been the commonly accepted date. He was baptized Christophorus Willibaldus on 4 July 1714 in the village of Weidenwang, a parish that at that time also included Erasbach. Gluck himself never used the name Willibald. The church in Weidenwang was consecrated to Saint Willibald (as was the entire Eichstätt diocese to which it belonged), and the name Willibald is frequently found in the baptismal register, often as a second name. No documents contemporary with Gluck's life use the name Willibald. Only in the 19th century did scholars begin using it to distinguish the composer from his father's brother Johann Christoph, born in 1700, whose baptism had earlier been confused with that of the composer.

In the year of Gluck's birth, the Treaty of Rastatt and the Treaty of Baden ended the War of Spanish Succession and brought Erasbach under Bavarian control. Gluck's father had to reapply to retain his position and received no salary until after 1715, when he began receiving 20 gulden. He obtained additional employment in the vicinity of Weidenwang in 1715 as a forester in the service of Seligenporten Monastery, and after 1715, also with Plankstetten Abbey. In 1716 Alexander Gluck was cited for poor performance and warned he might be terminated. He sold his house in August 1717 and voluntarily left Erasbach near the end of September to take up employment as head forester in Reichstadt, serving the Duchess of Tuscany, the wealthy Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg, since 1708 separated from her husband Gian Gastone de' Medici, the last duke of Tuscany.

On 1 April 1722 Alexander Gluck took a position as forest-master under Count Philipp Joseph von Kinsky in Böhmisch Kamnitz, where Kinsky had increased his domains. The family moved to the forester's house in nearby Oberkreibitz.

In 1727 Alexander moved with his family to Eisenberg (Jezeří in Horní Jiřetín) to take his final post, head forester to Prince Philipp Hyazinth von Lobkowitz. It is not sure if Christoph was sent to the Jesuit college in Chomutov, 20 km southwest.

The Alsatian painter Johann Christian von Mannlich relates in his memoirs, published in 1810, that Gluck told him about his early life in 1774. He quotes Gluck as saying:

"My father was forest master at N... in Bohemia and he planned that eventually I should succeed him. In my homeland everyone is musical; music is taught in the schools, and in the tiniest villages the peasants sing and play different instruments during High Mass in their churches. As I was passionate about the art, I made rapid progress. I played several instruments and the schoolmaster, singling me out from the other pupils, gave me lessons at his house when he was off duty. I no longer thought and dreamt of anything but music; the art of forestry was neglected."

In 1727 or 1728, when Gluck was 13 or 14, he went to Prague. A childhood flight from home to Vienna is included in several contemporary accounts of Gluck's life, including Mannlich's, but some scholars have cast doubt on Gluck's picturesque tales of earning food and shelter by his singing as he travelled. Most now feel it is more likely that the object of Gluck's travels was not Vienna but Prague. Gluck's German biographer Hans Joachim Moser claimed in 1940 to have found documents showing Gluck matriculated in logic and mathematics at the University of Prague in 1731. Gerhard and Renate Croll find this astonishing, and other biographers have been unable to find any documents supporting Moser's claim. At the time the University of Prague boasted a flourishing musical scene that included performances of both Italian opera and oratorio. Gluck sang and played violin and cello, and also the organ at Týn Church.

Gluck eventually left Prague without taking a degree, and vanishes from the historical record until 1737. Nevertheless, the memories of his family and indirect references to this period in later documents give good grounds for believing Gluck arrived in Vienna in 1734, where he likely was employed by the Lobkowitz family at their palace in the Minoritenplatz. Philipp Hyazinth Lobkowitz, Gluck's father's employer, died on 21 December 1734, and his successor, his brother Johann Georg Christian Lobkowicz, is thought to have been Gluck's employer in Vienna from 1735 to 1736. Two operas with texts Gluck himself was later to set were performed during this period: Antonio Caldara's La clemenza di Tito (1734) and Le cinesi (1735). It is likely that the Lobkowitz family introduced Gluck to the Milanese nobleman Prince Antonio Maria Melzi, who engaged Gluck to become a player in his orchestra in Milan. The 65-year-old prince married the 16-year-old Maria Renata, Countess of Harrach, on 3 January 1737, and not long after returned with Gluck to Milan.

Question of Gluck's native language
According to the music historian Daniel Heartz, there has been considerable controversy concerning Gluck's native language. Gluck's protégé in Vienna, the Italian-born Antonio Salieri, wrote in his memoirs (translated into German by Ignaz von Mosel), that "Gluck, whose native tongue was Czech, expressed himself in German only with effort, and still more so in French and Italian." Salieri also mentions that Gluck mixed several languages when speaking: German, Italian and French, like Salieri himself. Gluck's first biographer, Anton Franz Schmid, wrote that Gluck grew up in a German-speaking area, and that Gluck learned to speak Czech, but did not need it in Prague and in his later life. Heartz writes: "More devious manoeuvres have been attempted by Gluck's German biographers of this [the 20th] century, while the French ones have, without exception, taken Salieri at his word. His German biographer Max Arend objected that not a single letter written in Czech can be found, to which Jacques-Gabriel Prod'homme countered that "no letters written by Liszt in Hungarian were known either, but does this make him a German?" Hans Joachim Moser wanted a lyric work in Czech as proof. In fact, the music theorist Laurent Garcin, writing in 1770 (published 1772) before Gluck arrived in Paris, included Gluck in a list of several composers of Czech opéras-comiques (although such a work by Gluck has yet to be documented). A presentation by Irene Brandenburg classifying Gluck as a Bohemian composer was considered controversial by her German colleagues.

Italy
In 1737 Gluck arrived in Milan, and was introduced to Giovanni Battista Sammartini, who, according to Giuseppe Carpani, taught Gluck "practical knowledge of all the instruments". Apparently, this relationship lasted for several years. Sammartini was not, primarily, a composer of opera, his main output being of sacred music and symphonies, but Milan boasted a vibrant opera scene, and Gluck soon formed an association with one of the city's up-and-coming opera houses, the Teatro Regio Ducale. There his first opera Artaserse was performed on 26 December 1741, dedicated to Otto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun. Set to a libretto by Metastasio, the opera opened the Milanese Carnival of 1742. According to one anecdote, the public would not accept Gluck's style until he inserted an aria in the lighter Milanese manner for contrast.

Nevertheless, Gluck composed an opera for each of the next four Carnivals at Milan, with renowned castrato Giovanni Carestini appearing in many of the performances, so the reaction to Artaserse was likely to have been reasonably favorable. He also wrote operas for other cities of Northern Italy in between Carnival seasons, including Turin and Venice, where his Ipermestra was given during November 1744 at the Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo. Nearly all of his operas in this period were set to Metastasio's texts, despite the poet's dislike for his style of composition.

Travels: 1745–1752

In 1745 Gluck accepted an invitation from Lord Middlesex to become house composer at London's King's Theatre, probably travelling to England via Frankfurt and in the company of the violinist Ferdinand Philipp Joseph von Lobkowitz, the son of Phillip Hyacinth. The timing was unfortunate, as the Jacobite Rebellion had caused much panic in London, and for most of the year, the King's Theatre was closed. Six trio sonatas were the immediate fruits of his time. Gluck's two London operas (La caduta de' giganti and Artamene), eventually performed in 1746, borrowed much from his earlier works. Gluck performed works by Galuppi and Lampugnani, who both had worked in London. A more long-term benefit was exposure to the music of Handel – whom he later credited as a great influence on his style – and the naturalistic acting style of David Garrick, an English theatrical reformer. On 25 March, shortly after the production of Artamene, Handel and Gluck together gave a concert in the Haymarket Theatre consisting of works by Gluck and an organ concerto by Handel, played by the composer. On 14 April Gluck played on a glassharmonica in Hickford's Rooms, a concert hall in Brewer Street, Soho. Handel's own experience of Gluck pleased that composer less: Charles Burney reports Handel as saying that "he [Gluck] knows no more of contrapunto, as my cook, Waltz".

The years 1747 and 1748 brought Gluck two highly prestigious engagements. First came a commission to produce an opera for Pillnitz, performed by Pietro Mingotti's troupe, to celebrate a royal double wedding that would unite the ruling families of Bavaria and Saxony. Le nozze d'Ercole e d'Ebe, a festa teatrale, borrowed heavily from earlier works, and even from Gluck's teacher Sammartini. The success of this work brought Gluck to the attention of the Viennese court, and, ahead of such a figure as Johann Adolph Hasse, he was selected to set Metastasio's La Semiramide riconosciuta to celebrate Maria Theresa's birthday. Vittoria Tesi took the title role. On this occasion Gluck's music was completely original, but the displeasure of the court poet, Metastasio, who called the opera "archvandalian music", probably explains why Gluck did not remain long in Vienna despite the work's enormous popular success (it was performed 27 times to great acclaim). For the remainder of 1748 and 1749 Gluck travelled with Mingotti's troupe, contracting a venereal disease from the prima donna and composing the opera La contesa de' numi for the court at Copenhagen, where he repeated his concert on the glassharmonica.

In 1750 he abandoned Mingotti's group for another company established by a former member of the Mingotti troupe, Giovanni Battista Locatelli. The main effect of this was that Gluck returned to Prague on a more consistent basis. For the Prague Carnival of 1750 Gluck composed a new opera, Ezio (again set to one of Metastasio's works, with the manuscript located at the Lobkowicz Palace). His Ipermestra was also performed in the same year. The other major event of Gluck's stay in Prague was, on 15 September 1750, his marriage to Maria Anna Bergin, aged 18 years old, the daughter of a rich (but long-dead) Viennese merchant. Gluck seems to have spent most of 1751 commuting between Prague and Vienna.

The year 1752 brought another major commission to Gluck, when he was asked to set Metastasio's La clemenza di Tito (the specific libretto was the composer's choice) for the name day celebrations of King Charles VII of Naples. The opera was performed on 4 November at the Teatro di San Carlo, and the world-famous castrato Caffarelli took the role of Sextus. For Caffarelli Gluck composed the famous, but notoriously difficult, aria "Se mai senti spirarti sul volto", which provoked admiration and vituperation in equally large measures. Gluck later reworked this aria for his Iphigénie en Tauride. According to one account, the Neapolitan composer Francesco Durante claimed that his fellow composers "should have been proud to have conceived and written [the aria]". Durante simultaneously declined to comment whether or not it was within the boundaries of the accepted compositional rules of the time.

Vienna

Gluck finally settled in Vienna, where he became Kapellmeister invited by Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen. He wrote Le cinesi for a festival in 1754 and La danza for the eighth birthday of the future Emperor Leopold II the following year. After his opera Antigono was performed in Rome in February 1756, Gluck was made a Knight of the Golden Spur by Pope Benedict XIV. From that time on, Gluck used the title "Ritter von Gluck" or "Chevalier de Gluck".

Gluck turned his back on Italian opera seria and began to write opéra comiques. In 1761 Gluck produced the groundbreaking ballet-pantomime Don Juan in collaboration with the choreographer Gasparo Angiolini; the more radical Jean-Georges Noverre was involved for the first time? The climax of Gluck's opéra comique writing was La rencontre imprévue (1764). By that time, Gluck created musical drama, based on Greek tragedy, with more compassion, influencing the latest style Sturm und Drang.

Under the teaching of Gluck, Marie Antoinette developed into a good musician. She learned to play the harp, the harpsichord and the flute. She sang during the family's evening gatherings, as she had a beautiful voice. All her brothers and sisters were involved in playing Gluck's music; on 24 January 1765 her brother Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor directed one of Gluck's compositions, Il Parnaso confuso.

In Spring 1774, she took under her patronage her former music teacher and introduced him to the Paris public. For that purpose, she asked him to compose a new opera, Iphigénie en Aulide. "Mindful of the Querelle des Bouffons between adherents of Italian and French opera, she asked the composer to set the libretto in French." To get to her goals she was assisted by the singers Rosalie Levasseur and Sophie Arnould. Gluck had gruff ways, demanding strict adherence from the cast when rehearsing. Gluck told the bass-bariton Henri Larrivée to change his ways. The soprano Arnould was replaced. He insisted that the chorus, too, had to act and become a part of the drama – that they could no longer just stand there posing stiffly and without expression while singing their lines. Gluck was assisted by François-Joseph Gossec, director of the Concert Spirituel. The Chevalier de Saint-Georges attended the first performance on 19 April; Jean-Jacques Rousseau was delighted with Gluck melodic style. Marie Antoinette received a large share of the credit.

Operatic reforms

Gluck had long pondered the fundamental problem of form and content in opera. He thought both of the main Italian operatic genres, opera buffa and opera seria, had strayed too far from what opera should really be and seemed unnatural. Opera buffa had long lost its original freshness. Its jokes were threadbare and the repetition of the same characters made them seem no more than stereotypes. In opera seria, the singing was devoted to superficial effects and the content was uninteresting and fossilised. As in opera buffa, the singers were effectively absolute masters of the stage and the music, decorating the vocal lines so floridly that audiences could no longer recognise the original melody. Gluck wanted to return opera to its origins, focusing on human drama and passions and making words and music of equal importance.

Francesco Algarotti's Essay on the Opera (1755) proved to be an inspiration for Gluck's reforms. He advocated that opera seria had to return to basics and that all the various elements—music (both instrumental and vocal), ballet, and staging—must be subservient to the overriding drama. Several composers of the period, including Niccolò Jommelli and Tommaso Traetta, attempted to put these ideals into practice (and added more ballets).

In Vienna, Gluck met like-minded figures in the operatic world: Count Giacomo Durazzo, the head of the court theatre, and one of the primary instigators of operatic reform in Vienna ; the librettist Ranieri de' Calzabigi, who wanted to attack the dominance of Metastasian opera seria; the innovative choreographer Gasparo Angiolini; and the London-trained castrato Gaetano Guadagni.

The first result of the new thinking was Gluck's reformist ballet Don Juan, but a more important work was soon to follow. On 5 October 1762, Orfeo ed Euridice was given its first performance, on a libretto by Calzabigi, set to music by Gluck. Gluck tried to achieve a noble, Neo-Classical or "beautiful simplicity". The dances were arranged by Angiolini and the title role was taken by Guadagni, a catalytic force in Gluck's reform, renowned for his unorthodox acting and singing style. Orfeo, which has never left the standard repertory, showed the beginnings of Gluck's reforms. His idea was to make the drama of the work more important than the star singers who performed it, and to do away with dry recitative (recitativo secco, accompanied only by continuo) that broke up the action. In 1765, Melchior Grimm published "Poème lyrique", an influential article for the Encyclopédie on lyric and opera librettos. Gluck and Calzabigi followed Orfeo with Alceste (1767) and Paride ed Elena (1770), dedicated to his friend João Carlos de Bragança (Duke de Lafões), an expert on music and mythology, pushing their innovations even further. Calzabigi wrote a preface to Alceste, which Gluck signed, setting out the principles of their reforms:

 * no da capo arias
 * no opportunity for vocal improvisation or virtuosic displays of vocal agility or power
 * no long melismas
 * a more predominantly syllabic setting of the text to make the words more intelligible
 * far less repetition of text within an aria
 * a blurring of the distinction between recitative and aria, declamatory and lyrical passages, with altogether less recitative
 * accompanied rather than secco recitative
 * simpler, more flowing melodic lines
 * an overture that is linked by theme or mood to the ensuing action

Joseph von Sonnenfels praised Gluck's tremendous imagination and the setting after attending a performance of Alceste. In 1769 Gluck performed his operas in Parma.

On 2 September 1771 Charles Burney visited Gluck, living in Sankt Marx. Burney thought Gluck's preface, in which Gluck gives his “reasons for deviating from the beaten track”, important enough to give it almost in its entirety: "It was my intention to confine music to its true dramatic province, of assisting poetical expression, and of augmenting the interest of the fable; without interrupting the action, or chilling it with useless and superfluous ornaments; for the office of music, when joined to poetry, seemed to me, to resemble that of colouring in a correct and well disposed design, where the lights and shades only seem to animate the figures, without altering the out-line." On 11 September Burney went to see Gluck to say goodbye; Gluck was still in bed, as he used to work in the night.

Paris
As his operas were not appreciated by Frederick II of Prussia, Gluck began to focus on France. Under the patronage of Marie Antoinette, who had married the future French King Louis XVI in 1770, Gluck signed a contract for six stage works with the management of the Paris Opéra. He began with Iphigénie en Aulide. The premiere on 19 April 1774 sparked a huge controversy, almost a war, such as had not been seen in the city since the Querelle des Bouffons. Gluck's opponents brought the leading Italian composer Niccolò Piccinni to Paris to demonstrate the superiority of Neapolitan opera, and the "whole town" engaged in an argument between "Gluckists" and "Piccinnists". The composers themselves took no part in the polemics, but when Piccinni was asked to set the libretto to Roland, on which Gluck was also known to be working, Gluck destroyed everything he had written for that opera up to that point.

On 2 August 1774 the French version of Orfeo ed Euridice was performed, more Rameau-like, with the title role transposed from the castrato to the tenor voice. This time Gluck's work was better received by the Parisian public. In the same year, Gluck returned to Vienna, where he was appointed composer to the imperial court (18 October 1774) after 20 years serving as Kapellmeister. Over the next few years, the now internationally famous composer would travel back and forth between Paris and Vienna. He became friends with the poet Klopstock in Karlsruhe. On 23 April 1776, the French version of Alceste was given. During the rehearsals for Echo et Narcisse in September 1779, Gluck became dangerously ill. Since the opera itself was a failure, running for only 12 performances, Gluck decided to return to Vienna within two weeks. In that city Die unvermuthete Zusammenkunft or Die Pilgrime von Mekka (1772), a German version of La rencontre imprévue, had been performed 51 times.

His musical heir in Paris was the composer Antonio Salieri, who had been Gluck's protégé since he arrived in Vienna in 1767, and later had made friends with Gluck. Gluck brought Salieri to Paris with him and bequeathed him the libretto for Les Danaïdes by François-Louis Gand Le Bland Du Roullet and baron de Tschudi. The opera was announced as a collaboration between the two composers; however, after the overwhelming success of its premiere on 26 April 1784, Gluck revealed to the prestigious Journal de Paris that the work was wholly Salieri's.

Last years

In Vienna Gluck wrote a few more minor works, spending the summer with his wife in Perchtoldsdorf, famous for its wine (Heuriger). Gluck suffered from melancholy and high blood pressure. In 1781, he brought out a German version of Iphigénie en Tauride. Gluck dominated the season's proceedings with 32 performances. On 23 March 1783 he seems to have attended a concert by Mozart who played KV 455, variations on La Rencontre imprévue by Gluck (Wq. 32).

On 15 November 1787, lunching with friends, Gluck suffered a heart arrhythmia and died a few hours later, at the age of 73. Usually, it is mentioned Gluck had several strokes and became paralyzed on his right side. Robl, a family doctor, had doubts as Gluck was still able to play his clavicord or piano in 1783. At a formal commemoration on 8 April 1788, his friend, pupil and successor Salieri conducted Gluck's De profundis, and a Requiem by the Italian composer Niccolò Jommelli was given. His death opened the way for Mozart at court, according to H. C. Robbins Landon. Gluck was buried in the Matzleinsdorfer Friedhof. On 29 September 1890, his remains were transferred to the Zentralfriedhof; a tomb was erected containing the original plaque.

Legacy
Although only half of his work survived after a fire in 1809, Gluck's musical legacy includes approximately 35 complete full-length operas plus around a dozen shorter operas and operatic introductions, as well as numerous ballets and instrumental works. His reforms influenced Mozart, particularly his opera Idomeneo (1781). He left behind a flourishing school of disciples in Paris, who would dominate the French stage throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period. As well as Salieri, they included Sacchini, Cherubini, Méhul and Spontini. His greatest French admirer would be Hector Berlioz, whose epic Les Troyens may be seen as the culmination of the Gluckian tradition. Though Gluck wrote no operas in German, his example influenced the German school of opera, particularly Carl Maria von Weber and Richard Wagner, whose concept of music drama was not so far removed from Gluck's own.

title: Christoph Willibald Gluck


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Anna Sewell

Anna Sewell (30 March 1820 – 25 April 1878) was an English novelist who wrote the 1877 novel Black Beauty, her only published work. It is considered one of the top ten best-selling novels for children, although the author intended it for adults. Sewell died only five months after the publication of Black Beauty, but long enough to see her only novel become a success.

Early life
Sewell was born on March 30, 1820, in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, into a devout Quaker family. Her father was Isaac Phillip Sewell (1793–1879), and her mother, Mary Wright Sewell (1798–1884), was a successful author of children's books. She had one sibling, a younger brother named Philip. The children were largely educated at home by their mother due to a lack of money for schooling.

In 1822, Isaac's business, a small shop, failed and the family moved to Dalston, London. Life was difficult for the family, and Isaac and Mary frequently sent Philip and Anna to stay with Mary's parents in Buxton, Norfolk.

In 1832, when she was twelve, the family moved to Stoke Newington and Sewell attended school for the first time. At fourteen, Sewell slipped and severely injured her ankles. For the rest of her life, she could not stand without a crutch or walk for any length of time. For greater mobility, she frequently used horse-drawn carriages, which contributed to her love of horses and concern for the humane treatment of animals.

Adult life
In 1836, Sewell's father took a job in Brighton, in the hope that the climate there would help cure her. At about the same time, both Sewell and her mother left the Society of Friends to join the Church of England, though both remained active in evangelical circles. Her mother expressed her religious faith most noticeably by authoring a series of evangelical children's books, which Sewell helped to edit, though all the Sewells, and Mary Sewell's family, the Wrights, engaged in many other good works. Sewell assisted her mother, for example, to establish a working men's club, and worked with her on temperance and abolitionist campaigns.

In 1845, the family moved to Lancing, and Sewell's health began to deteriorate. She travelled to Europe the following year to seek treatment. On her return, the family continued to relocate – to Abson near Wick in 1858 and to Bath in 1864.

In 1866, Sewell's brother Philip's wife died, leaving him with seven young children to care for, and the following year the Sewells moved to Old Catton, a village outside the city of Norwich in Norfolk, to support him.

Black Beauty
While living in Old Catton, Sewell wrote the manuscript of Black Beauty – in the period between 1871 and 1877. During this time her health was declining; she was often so weak that she was confined to her bed. Writing was a challenge. She dictated the text to her mother and from 1876 began to write on slips of paper which her mother then transcribed.

The book is considered to be one of the first English novels to be written from the perspective of a non-human animal, in this case a horse. Although it is considered a children's classic, Sewell originally wrote it for those who worked with horses. She said "a special aim was to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses". In many respects the book can be read as a guide to horse husbandry, stable management and humane training practices for colts. It is considered to have had an effect on reducing cruelty to horses; for example, the use of bearing reins, which are particularly painful for a horse, was one of the practices highlighted in the novel. In the years after the book's publication, they eventually fell out of favour.

Sewell sold the novel to Norwich publisher Jarrolds on 24 November 1877, when she was 57 years old. She received a single payment of £40 (£3,456 or US$4,630 in 2017) and the book was published the same year.

Death
After the publication of her only novel, Black Beauty, Sewell fell seriously ill. She was in extreme pain, discomfort and completely bedridden for the following months, and she died on April 25, 1878, aged 58 of hepatitis or tuberculosis, only five months after the publication of Black Beauty. She was buried on 30 April 1878 at Quaker burial ground in Lamas near Buxton, Norfolk, not far from Norwich.

Memorials and monuments
Sewell's birthplace in Church Plain, Great Yarmouth has been the home to a museum and a tea shop and is leased by Redwings Horse Sanctuary. The house in Old Catton where she wrote Black Beauty is known as Anna Sewell House.

There is an Anna Sewell memorial fountain and horse trough outside the public library in Ansonia, Connecticut, in the United States of America. It was donated by Caroline Phelps Stokes, a philanthropist known for her work supporting animal welfare, in 1892.

A memorial fountain to Sewell is located at the junction of Constitution Hill and St. Clement's Hill in Norwich, which also marks the entrance to Sewell Park. The fountain was placed in 1917 by Sewell's niece Ada Sewell.

On 1 September 1984, the graveyard at Lamas was bulldozed by contractors under the direction of Mrs Wendy Forsey without prior warning or permission. Tombstones, graves and cypress trees were removed and dumped at the edge of the burial ground. The act was condemned by locals and Council Chairman John Perkins, who said: "I know the land belongs to a private person but I would almost say it was as bad as vandalism. I know Quaker ground is not consecrated, but for anybody to just pull down gravestones of any Quaker, whether it's Anna Sewell or not, well, I think it's despicable". The gravestones of Anna, her parents and maternal grandparents were subsequently placed in a flint-and-brick wall outside the old Lammas Quaker meeting house.

In 2020, a street in Chichester, West Sussex, was named in Sewell's honour on the Keepers Green estate.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Anna Sewell


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Talk:List of major opera composers

Proofreading of data

 * Talk:List of major opera composers/ProofreadingOfData - my list of what I (think) is on the lists currently used, according to my spreadsheet, compared to what was actually on the list. Possibly with errors - we were rather being rushed at the time to make the first step. Note: The Rough Guide to Opera was not added to the spreadsheet - it was added manually to save me some data entry. I'm up for some more work after a break from that three-day data entry, so I'll fix things up soon.

The full bibliographic data for the lists used is here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vanished user (talk • contribs) 20:36, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Welcome new contributors!
Glad to have you with us. So, the problem of women in opera. At themoment, of the ten lists, two contain Ethel Smythe, four contain Weir, and, it should be mention, two cut off earlier than is ideal, and contain neither. It would be NPOV to cut those lists if you have a better, more comprehensive one.

Just give the names on the lists, or from the overview of opera of whatever source here, providing the source (try and include enough information for the bibliography section). It would be useful to try for something academic, peer reviewed, or a reasonably notable book.

If you're interested in the discussion that led to this, it begins in Archive2. However, as many of you will be new, I wanted to greet you at the top.

Thanks for helping us show women are important in opera - and prove it! Vanished user talk 20:35, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

New Contributor
Thank you, Vanished user, for your welcome to new contributors. As a new contributor, as a woman conductor who has conducted operas by men, as a musicologist, and as a Wikipedia fan, I would like to add a few thoughts concerning 'major opera composers' and women.

On your list, great operas by women are conspicuous by their absence, and their absence deserves comment. Under the Section 'Note' (or somewhere else?), one could insert a statement to the following effect:

First, music is a category of art with an extremely long selection and aging process. Even longer than great wines. Due to this, it may take decades for the 'great opera' that is written today to be recognized as such. And like the great wine, it may not start to be pleasing for years.

Second, as in many other areas, women were long denied access to musical institutions, and their entry into the field of music, specifically composition, has been recent and very slow. Even after World War II, rules still existed (e.g., in Germany) baring women from studying composition.

Third, opera is the largest common musical form presented regularly today. As such, it commands substantial financial and institutional resources. Until recently, many institutions have been hesitant to place such means at women's disposition. (When was the last time you saw a woman racing a Formula 1 car? The comparison has a certain validity...)

For all of these reasons, the 'great operas' as well as the musical 'canon' that validates them were formed at a time when women were all but excluded from the creative production process. And, although women are now composing operas, it will take some time for their young works to come of age and for the canon the recognize them.

This lack extends to other creative groups marginalized in the past by the Western art canon. But since the advent of 'new musicology' in the last 15-20 years (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_musicology), a broader view is taken in the search for and evaluation of operas, past and present, that formerly were not recognized by the canon. Moreover, music connoisseurs recognize attributes that might well point to the coming of a 'great opera;' and the serious musical press has generally been in agreement that women will be among future rare vintages, women like:

Kaija Saariaho (born 1952) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaija_Saariaho

Adriana Hölszky (born 1953) http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adriana_H%C3%B6lszky

Olga Neuwirth (born 1968) http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_Neuwirth

losangelino 12:41, 5 October 2006 (UTC).

NB: In future you will find me as user LosAngelino. LosAngelino 06:45, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

 * Hmm. So, basically, a section analysing possible biases? That makes sense. - there actually have been a few attempts to do so already, but they kept failing by perhaps trying to be too short and too early in the article.

 * But, forgive me: I'm due to give an oral report in ten minutes, and must head off. Vanished user talk 14:44, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

Welcome from me too. You make some cogent points. As you know, the landscape of the operatic repertoire is constantly shifting. Not so long ago, most people believed there was little opera before Gluck and Mozart worth performing. Thirty years back, most people in the English-speaking world would probably have raised an eyebrow at the inclusion of Leos Janacek, probably dismissing him as an "obscure composer from a backwater in Moravia". Thankfully, recordings and performances have changed this state of affairs, but it takes time for these things to filter through. In ten, twenty, thirty years' time, this list of major opera composers will undoubtedly contain new names and I have no doubt that some of those names will be women. As you said, women have traditionally had more obstacles than men to contend with getting their operas staged. Looking at the history of the genre, there have been several periods where the chief mission of the opera establishment seems to have been to resist the idea of staging any opera at all, no matter who wrote it. Even some of the famous male names on the list had a nightmare time getting their works performed and some had to wait years after their deaths before gaining the reputation they deserved. Berlioz is a notable example. There's a telling passage in the second volume of David Cairns's Berlioz biography where Berlioz attempts to stage an opera by Louise Bertin. The premiere of "Esmeralda" was, predictably, a disaster, partly because the composer's father ran a leading government newspaper, partly because the critics had it in for anyone associated with Berlioz in any case, but mainly because people found the whole idea that an opera by a woman (and a disabled one at that) might be any good ridiculous. (Berlioz himself would have to wait almost a hundred years for a proper staging of his masterpiece "Les Troyens"...)

This Wikipedia list is simply intended to provide a "snapshot" of expert opinion as it stands in 2006. The only way we could find of creating a reasonably neutral list that wasn't the result of our own personal choices was to take ten lists from widely known reference books and compare them. The big advantage of Wikipedia is that nothing is "set in stone". In five or ten years' time, we can do the whole thing again and come up with a new list. No doubt by then there will be some female names there. --Folantin 15:09, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

 * PS: As for the idea of putting a note on the page explaining the absence of women composers, that sounds fine too. Maybe we could make the comparison to Janacek, say, and explain these things often take a long time to filter through. As I've said, the list is just a "snapshot", it's not even "our" list. Anyhow, I'm sure we can work something out along those lines. Cheers --Folantin 15:09, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
 * We need to be careful here not to step over the line into affirmative action. We also need to be very clear on the reason why this dispute arose: an editor wanted to include a composer whose catalogue he publishes and solicited support both within and outside Wikipedia by mischaracterising the nature of the problem as Wikipedia bias rather than historical bias, in a way which is absolutely unacceptable.  I suspect it would be much better to have an article on women in classical music and link to that, rather than give undue weight to a problem which is only tangentially related to the subject of this article, which is after all a list with well-defined inclusion criteria, not a philosophical discourse.  The fact is, most reliable authorities do not identify any significant women composers of opera.  It really is that simple, and we are really not here to fix that.  Look at the composers on six lists: with the exception of Peri I wold not consider  any of those truly significant composers of opera, despite their evident significance as composers in other genres. And Peri only really gets a mention because he started the ball rolling; neither Euridice nor Dafne was exactly a success. Guy 22:19, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

At the very least, we need to explain what the list is and what the list is not. Explaining exclusionism in opera and how it affects this list, such as that of women, is a sensible way to go about this. The motives of Boisseau's actions aside, I think we agree that the lack of women is, at the least, unfortunate, and has nothing whatsoever to do with lack of talent in women, except, perhaps, so far as women lacked the ability to mature talent.

Giving an idea of the ephemerality of this list, noting the shifting sands, and noting, among other things, the oppression of women's effect on the list as it stands, will only make the article stronger.

Indeed, I'm rather tempted - If it hadn't taken me two days to spreadsheet the last one - to take all the Victorian books I have and make up a comparison list, to illustrate graphically just how much it had changed.

P.S. Have you heard Louise Bertin's opera? Is it good? Vanished user talk 22:58, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

 * Guy's got a point. We have to stick to Wikipedia policy here, otherwise this list will be in trouble again. Some kind of (fully referenced) brief note with links to a separate article on the subject of women opera composers would probably be OK though.--Folantin 13:14, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Welcome all to Wikipedia! Right. I agree that a note explaining the historical bias that means that women are excluded from the list is hardly unreasonable. The model proposed above is not a bad start, and I think the amendments proposed by Folantin are basically what is needed. Currently the following problems are present, but these can all be easily be removed with a little good faith and common sense:
 * It's too long.
 * It's unreferenced.
 * And, (the big problem) it reads like WP:OR - but that can be fixed by referencing it.
 * It must be WP:NPOV, i.e, it can't read like an essay. These are the problems as they currently stand, but I'm sure that they can easily be fixed. Moreschi 13:40, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

 * I think perhaps even an article on the "operatic canon", linked from this article, would be a useful article for Wikipedia. I have read other articles which have had debates, and it's clear that some of the content is coming from the debate, rather than a need for the information in that particular article. In addition, I think focusing solely on the lack of women in the list would also be giving undue weight, since I don't think anyone on the list is African or Asian (and there are more and more Asian composers who are writing Western-style opera). The problem with the Operatic canon is the same as the Western canon as a whole, only magnified by the huge amount of money, time, and people required for a successful enterprise.
 * If we, collectively or individually, decide that we really want to raise the visibility on Wikipedia of Women in Opera, I think we should make a separate list of women opera composers and all of their operas (because there are certainly women composers of opera who are themselves notable, as are their works), and work really hard on including them in all the places they should be included, and make sure all the redlinks turn blue. For instance, Thea Musgrave's Harriet, the Woman called 'Moses' could certainly be a blue link, La liberazione di Ruggiero could be more thorough, and contain more about the feminist themes in the opera, etc. I only suggest a separate list because it makes it easier to focus, and really see progress, redlinks turning blue, how far there is to go, etc. Mak (talk)  16:10, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Female opera composers as the Opera Project's next composer of the month? Groups have been done before. Vanished user talk 16:56, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

 * That could be a good start, although I think there are enough that that won't be sufficient. Mak (talk)  19:09, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

 * Agreed, but it would be better than it is now, which is a good thing. Vanished user talk 19:37, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Louise Bertin
P.S. Have you heard Louise Bertin's opera? Is it good? (Vanished user's question above)

 * I've never heard Louise Bertin's "Esmeralda" (as you might have guessed from the title, it's based on Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"; I think Hugo himself might even have written the libretto). I don't think it's ever been recorded. Since I like a lot of French opera of that period, it sounds intriguing.

 * This is what Berlioz writes in his memoirs (and you have to remember Berlioz was an extremely exacting critic who didn't flatter people he didn't think deserved it): "Mademoiselle Louise Bertin...has been remarkably successful both in literature and music. She is one of the ablest women of our time. Her musical talent, to my mind, is rather rational than emotional; but it is a real talent notwithstanding, and, in spite of a certain want of decision, and of the occasionally childish form of her melodies, her opera of 'Esmeralda', to Victor Hugo's words, is of great interest, and certainly contains very fine passages...Several pieces...were warmly applauded at the general rehearsal. Nevertheless this work, by a woman who never wrote one word of criticism on any human being, good, bad, or indifferent, and whose sole crime consisted of belonging to a family that owned a powerful journal...this work, I say, so far superior to many that succeed daily, or are at any rate accepted, broke down utterly. It was received at the Opéra with unexampled hisses, groans and cries. At the second attempt, indeed, they were obliged to drop the curtain in the middle of an act, and stop the performance." --Folantin 07:31, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Arr, pity there be no recording. I wonder if the score's readily available? Vanished user talk 12:24, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Don't know about the score, but check this out. It's a lengthy review by a Donizetti fan of a performance of "Esmeralda" at Besancon in 2002. The opera was given in the piano reduction by Liszt (I think). The reviewer admits it was difficult to judge properly without hearing the full orchestration, but reckons it sounded most like Offenbach (in his "Tales of Hoffmann" style).He concludes the piece "rewards those that seek it out". (And it appears it is the only opera Victor Hugo ever wrote a libretto for).--Folantin 12:59, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Newest edits
I moved the references to the bottom of the article, which is the way most wiki articles are structured and helps the article by moving up the the description of how the list was compiled. I also made some copy edits to the Women's section and the description of the compilation methods that I think add to clarity and accuracy. -- Ssilvers 13:58, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

is it worth separating the list by century?
Would it be worth separating the list by century or similar chronological unit? The reason why I ask is because the current list is very long, and reads like a long list of names. It is a list, after all. I'm merely thinking in terms of readability, and I thought that some section headers would help in that aspect. Thanks. -- Kyok o  15:32, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

 * Sounds like a good idea. Moreschi 15:36, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

 * However, do we go by year of birth, year of death, or year of first opera? Vanished user talk 15:39, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

 * Just like at List of important operas. Moreschi 15:40, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

The list is already organized by birthdate. Why not just add these headings:
 * 1500 – 1699
 * 1700 - 1799
 * 1800 - 1899
 * 1900 - Present

-- Ssilvers 16:26, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

 * I don't know about this. List of important operas is easy to sort by century, because every opera has a specific date. As Vanished user says, with opera composers do we go by year of birth, year of death, or year of first opera? Or century of the majority of their operas? On the other hand, since this is just a convenience for making the list more user-friendly, maybe we shouldn't agonise too much over the method we choose. Do it by birthdate if that's easiest.--Folantin 16:40, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

 * Per Folantin - do it by birthdate, this isn't a big deal. We're hardly trying to slice up into Baroque, Classical, Rococo, Modern, etc. Moreschi 16:48, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

 * Sorry to be coming late to this (and for being out of Wiki-action during the great NPOV brouhaha and other carryings-on), but I think that if it's going to be done by birthdate, then the headings should be entitled "Composers born nnnn-nnnn". Even then, the arrangement seems rather preposterous, with (for example) Bellini appearing in a later section than Rossini.  I tried rearranging the composers by date of death, and by midpoint of their lives (info available on request - I am emailable), and either produces a better result than the current one.  I favour the midpoint option, but it'd be more difficult to explain to the readers.  I can't help feeling that slicing up as mentioned by Moreschi above would actually produce the best result, if we could agree on broad terms.  Then the composers could be arranged alphabetically within categories. --GuillaumeTell 18:06, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
 * I'd rather not have any alphabetical arrangement at all. If we have an alternative chronological version, maybe by the century in which the bulk of the composer's major operas were written. Someone will have to figure out Scarlatti and Puccini (and possibly others) for this though. On the other hand, this shouldn't be a big deal. The only real point in the section breaks is to make the article more user-friendly. Birthdates were chosen for their "objectivity" rather than informativeness. In other words, we don't want another POV war to break out! --Folantin 18:28, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
 * I think the current arrangement works O.K. Anything to avoid further POV problems - this page has had more than its fair share of that over the past months. Moreschi 19:53, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Musgrave?
Thea Musgrave isn't on any of the lists? She's way better than either Ethel Smyth or Judith Weir. Dybryd 23:43, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
 * For what it's worth that surprised me too. Mak (talk)  23:47, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Hmm. Let me check - Musgrave may not have been a name I'd identify as a woman, without the first name. Vanished user talk 00:16, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Nope. Not on any, unless she's on Folantin's last list... not there either. Did a quick scan of the ones listed at Opera corpus, and am sad to say that there don't appear to be any others. Sorry! Vanished user talk 00:23, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
 * No, she wasn't on any of the lists. That's the thing about this neutral list: there's something to disappoint everybody. Never mind, in ten years' time we'll do it all over again and see what happens. --Folantin 08:32, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Aye, No Sullivan, no women, yes Tippet... at least we can agree that we didn't obey our own biases. Vanished user talk 10:25, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Images
I like the work being done to add images. I was wondering whether it would make sense to add sound files where possible? Also, how do people feel about using all the images possible of the composers vs. cluttering up the page? There are rarely truly iconic images of composers, but we could easily pretty-up the page with tons of images of the older composers, and just make them a bit smaller. I don't tend to have a good eye for these things, just thought perhaps we should think about being representative vs. cluttered. Mak (talk)  21:04, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

 * My plan was for one composer image per section - two at the most is probably enough. That's now done. How about one sound clip per section, if possible? The composer of the sound clip should, IMO, be different from the composer in the image, otherwise we might be viewed as over-promoting one composer. I'll have a hunt around and see what I can find. Cheers, Moreschi 21:09, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

 * We've now got 3 sound clips, but I shouldn't think it'll be easy to find any more. We're probably going to have to upload some stuff under fair use, I'm afraid. Best, Moreschi 16:01, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

 * How about a little Gershwin? For the not-so-modern composers, though: I am considered quite good at making midi files of reasonable quality. Though we'd have to change them to Oggs. Vanished user talk 17:24, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

 * I think it would be a bit difficult to adequately claim fair use for this particular page. In fact, I would not support fair use images or sound clips for this page. Mak (talk)  17:29, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Weel, Gershwin comes out of copyright (in Britain) in another month (or is it a little longer?) in Britain, at least. If there's a problem with fair use mmusic, though, I'll happily midify any out-of-copyright score you care to send. Vanished user talk 18:09, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

 * Looking at it, the first few music bits are perfectly fine. The Wagner is *not*. Janacek, Berg or Debussy are probably the best choice for the 1850-1899 section, having major operas out of copyright both in America and for life + 70 countries. We MIGHT be able to get America-free midis for the 1900- and Women sections. Vanished user talk 18:18, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Major women opera composers
Opera, with its high cost of production and high status, has historically been very difficult for women to break into, and no female composer made the cutoff for inclusion on the main list. However, two women composers who were named by a some authorities as worthy of inclusion among the rest of the great opera composers are:

I don't like this. It's just a random statement, and implies POV selection. Vanished user talk 22:57, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

 * I slashed the POV bits. We don't have to apologise for our sources' choices. Just making a note that only two women composers were on the lists consulted is enough. People can draw what conclusions they like from that.--Folantin 11:41, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

But we weren't opposing our sources, more explaining why few women appear in opera at all. Anyway, the objection was to the part you *didn't* cut, which made that change a bit useless. Vanished user talk 23:41, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Criteria
I added a composer who I knew would probably be removed right away. Sorry if this has all been hashed out already, but am I correct that it is not possible for any composers to get added to this list? The criteria seem mighty restrictive to me... I am totally aware that everyone would just add their favorite composer to the list if there weren't criteria, but limiting it to a set of static resources, only one of which was published in the last 10 years, might not be the answer. If the NY Times published an editorial tomorrow declaring Steven Paulus to be the most important living opera composer, wouldn't it be weird for him not to appear here? --Dmz5 08:07, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

 * No, not necessarily. It depends on the way the list is compliled. Please see the The opera corpus which is an inclusive list. That is the best place to start . . . - Kleinzach 16:18, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

 * For example. I read the thread above that deals with this subject, more or less.  There are other such lists (major X, most important Y) that have criteria such as "every entry must have at least one (or two!) footnotes supporting its inclusion here."  Any footnote, presumably, will do, but also presumably those footnotes are examined pretty intensely.  It occurs to me that that might be a process worth considering rather than saying "isn't it a shame we can't put Thea Musgrave on the list?  I guess we'll have to wait another 10 years until a new Rough Guide comes out."--Dmz5 08:10, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

 * It is actually a bit more complex than that. There are about over 400 opera composers listed in The opera corpus. - Kleinzach 16:18, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

 * (Sorry to drag this out) otherwise why not rename the list "Major opera composers as defined by a certain set of textbooks as of 2006"? Not to be snide about it, but that is very accurately what this list is.--Dmz5 08:11, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

 * Not really. School text books are not being used. Our main resource at the Opera Project is the New Grove Dictionary of Opera. - Kleinzach 16:18, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

It has been so hashed out (read above and archives). As you say, the alternative is for individual Wikipedia editors to use their own personal standards of notability. This approach was brought in to stop a couple longish battles over inclusion/exclusion of particular composers. Dybryd 08:23, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Improving notes section
I'm a bit crap at the code thing, so couldn't find a way to do this myself:

With the notes now in a scrollable box, shouldn't they be in one column with normal sized text, rather than small? Le the  13:18, 7 August 2007 (UTC)
 * You're probably right. I'm responsible for the box but I'm lousy at code too (I just copied it from another page). Ask Jay if he can help - he's our technical expert. --Folantin 13:23, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Kudos
I just wanted to say what a great list this is, and how much more useful it is than the vast majority of lists of artists and the like on wikipedia. Using a variety of reference sources together to create a consensus list of important people in a given field is a great idea, and one that ought to be applied more broadly to other comparable topics. Anyway, well done. john k (talk) 04:23, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

Verdi
I just wanted to let you know that, in my opinion, Nabucco should be added to Verdi's masterpieces. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.25.5.144 (talk) 14:40, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

20th Century
I was thinking of suggesting inclusion of Harrison Birtwistle in this list, but then I found the 20th century section of this article already extremely biased towards English/American composers (8 out of 10 !). This might be a consequence of the sources the list was compiled from, but I find it very hard to believe that only Shostakovich and Henze made significant non-English contributions to the operatic repertoire in the last century.--Francesco Malipiero (talk) 15:01, 7 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, it's actually by birthdate so there are a lot more famous 20th-century composers of opera who happened to be born in the 19th century there - see the section 1850-99 (Janaček, Puccini, Debussy etc.). That section is in fact quite heavily Germanic (Strauss, Pfitzner, Schoenberg, Berg, Schreker, Hindemith) and only contains one "Anglophone" composer (Gerswhin). As I've said before, this list is kind of objective because it's got something for everybody to dislike about it. I think it under-represents the Baroque, for instance. But that and the Anglo bias in the last section are a reflection of the sources. List of important operas is wider ranging and more satisfying, I think, though still not perfect.--Folantin (talk) 18:55, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

21st Century
The problem with this approach of only using a set of 10 books is that there is no way that major breakthrough composers can get on this list no matter how they are heralded. I am thinking of George Benjamin (composer), whose opera, Written on Skin, has been staged 8 times already in the 12 months since its premiere and has been claimed by some critics as the best opera written in the last 10 years. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.49.126.196 (talk) 12:00, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

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title: Talk:List of major opera composers


text:
Caister-on-Sea

Caister-on-Sea, also known colloquially as Caister, is a large village and seaside resort in Norfolk, England. It is north of the town of Great Yarmouth. At the 2001 census it had a population of 8,756 and 3,970 households, the population increasing to 8,901 at the 2011 Census.

The village was served by Caister-on-Sea railway station until it was closed in 1959. The nearest railway station is now Great Yarmouth, 2.5 mi to the south.

The wind farm at Scroby Sands has thirty 2–megawatt wind turbines, 2.5 km off shore.

Caister Castle, a 15th-century tower with an associated car museum, is about 2 km to the west.

History
Caister's history dates back to Roman times. In around AD 200 a fort was built here as a base for a unit of the Roman army and navy. However its role as a fort appears to have been reduced following the construction of the Saxon Shore fort at Burgh Castle on the southern side of the estuary in the latter part of the 3rd century.

The name "Caister" derives from the Anglo-Saxon word "ceaster", meaning "Roman fort".

In the 1950s, a building near the south gate at Caister was excavated in advance of a housing development. These buildings do not appear to be military as they include a hypocaust and painted wall plaster as well as female jewellery, and it has been suggested that this building may have been an officer's house, or possibly a ‘seamen's hostel’ which may be a polite name for a brothel. The site appears to have been abandoned in the 5th century, but 150 Saxon burials have been found to the south of the enclosure. The remains excavated in the 1950s are now managed by English Heritage and are open free of charge to the public as Caister Roman Site.

There has been an offshore lifeboat in the area since 1791. It was used by a beach company to salvage ships wrecked on the sand banks. Between 1856 and 1969 lifeboats were operated by the RNLI. In the 1901 Caister lifeboat disaster, nine crew were lost while attempting a rescue during heavy seas. At the time it was said, "If they had to keep at it 'til now, they would have sailed about until daylight to help her. Going back is against the rules when we see distress signals like that". A monument to the men lost in the disaster bearing the inscription "Caister men never turn back" stands in the village cemetery, unveiled in 1903 and was listed Grade II by Historic England in 2020. A pub called the "Never Turn Back" is named after the incident.

Today, Caister is also host to a National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) Station.

21st century
There is a Haven caravan and holiday park near the coast. The oldest holiday camp in the United Kingdom, it began as the "Caister Socialist Camp" in 1906. In the 1950s and early 1960s, it used to be on both sides of the road. Opposite the beach was a dining room, paper shop, sports facilities and tourist chalets. These facilities were sold to a property developer who turned it into housing in the 1970s. In the 1980s a brand-new holiday camp was opened, under the ownership of Ladbrokes, which was later sold to Warners in the 1990s.

Caister FC is the village football team, who play at the King George V playing field.

title: Caister-on-Sea