AUTHORITATIVE | CURATED | First 500 words Free

• Major Operas
• Modern Era
• Opera

Composed: 1907–09 Premiered: 1911, Paris Libretto by Franc-Nohain, after his own play Ramiro, a muleteer, brings a watch for repair to Torquemada’s workshop in Toledo. Concepcion reminds her husband that it is Thursday, when he has to wind all the municipal clocks. He asks Ramiro to wait until he gets back. Concepcion, however, is ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Modern Era

(Mo-res’ Ra-vel’) 1875–1937 French composer Ravel is often described (like Debussy, but still more misleadingly) as an ‘Impressionist’, but Ravel’s music is in fact precisely and delicately crafted, subtly perfect in its artifice (in the best sense of the word). Influenced by Emmanuel Chabrier (1841–94), Satie and his close friend Stravinsky, attracted to Spain temperamentally (he never visited ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Late Romantic

(A-dwär La-lo’) 1823–92 French composer After studies at the Paris Conservatoire, Lalo joined a string quartet, composing salon music and songs. In 1874, after a fallow period, he first achieved success with the Symphonie espagnole (‘Spanish Symphony’, 1874), a scintillating violin concerto whose five movements exude Spanish rhythmic zest and lyricism (he was of Spanish descent). This was ...

• Personalities
• Modern Era
• Opera

1875–1937, French A meticulous craftsman whose constant reworking and rewriting may have accounted for his relatively small body of work, Ravel composed music that consciously moved away from the influence of Richard Wagner. Along with Claude Debussy, he invented a highly personalized French style. Ravel also imbued his music with his love for Spanish culture (perhaps because his ...