Lyric opera in two acts. Libretto by David Pountney.Commissioned?jointly by the Royal Academy of Music London UK and The Juilliard School New York USA.UK premiere: 18th March 2011 - Royal Academy of MusicOpera and Sinfonia at the Royal Academy of Music London conducted by Jane Glover.US premiere: 16th November 2011 - Students of The Julliard School at Peter Jay Sharp Theatre New York conducted by AnneManson.Overview.The piece consists of three interlocking stories of students involved in political action in three different situations.?Die Weiße Rose? was the name taken by a group of students atthe University of Munich led by Sophie and Hans Scholl. They produced leaflets protesting against the National Socialist government of Germany in 1942-3 until they were arrested and guillotined.?Soar to Heaven? follows twocharacters Wu and Zhou involved on opposite sides of the Cultural Revolution in China.?The Oxford Revolution? tells the story of James Meredith who fought a lonely battle against segregation and racial prejudice to becomethe first black student to enrol at ?Ole Miss? the University of Mississippi in the USA.Librettist's Note.There are inevitably and properly some differences between the original libretto and whatMax ultimately set to music. Most of these are insignificant but all the Latin texts in the opera were added by Max and texts for the alternating black / white choruses (Scene 19) and final chorus (Scene 28) were written by him.

French composer Gustave Charpentier (1860-1956) is best known for his Opera Louise. Having premiered in 1900 the Opera remains performed to this day. Louise depicts Parisian working-class life telling the story between a young seamstress Louise and an artist Julien. Having undertaken composition lessons from Jules Massenet at the Paris Conservatoire Charpentier's career took off immediately. The Opera Louise was successful from the first performance and was made into a film in 1939. For all Opera fans Charpentier's Louise is an essential contribution tothe genre.

Poul Ruders' opera Tycho in 3 Acts was premiered May 15 1987 by Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and Kaare Hansen (conductor) at Helsingør Theater in Aarhus Denmark. Libretto in Danish by Henrik Bjelke. Vocal score: WH31457C Synopsis: In 1597 the famous Danish astronomer and astrologist the nobleman Tycho Brahe flees his castle cum observatory Uraniburg on one of the small islands off the Danish coast. The newly coronated King Christian the Fourth has a grudge against Tycho who in 1572 discovered a new star Stella Nova by using his naked eye only; the telescopewasn’t invented yet. This discovery gained Tycho tremendous fame among his contemporaries within the European scientific circles. The now weakened and embittered old man moves together with his wife Christina whom he raped when she was an adolescent and Jeppe the Dwarf his fool-servant whose life Tycho once saved to the plague-infested city of Prague. There at the Benatky Castle Tycho encounters the main reason for his departure from Denmark: the young German mathematician Johannes Kepler the only scientist among his contemporaries Tycho acknowledges - Tycho is in severe need of intelligent challenge. Which he gets and with a disastrous result for himself. The encouraging encounter with Kepler turns into Tycho's scientific and earthly death verdict. Slowly Tycho realizes that his own conception of the Earth as the indisputable axes of the Universe is shattered by Kepler s theory about Earth encircling the stationary Sun. The ancient picture of the Universe collapses Tycho feels deceived by Kepler who leaves the castle shaken by Tycho's wrath. But they meet again and reunite in a Romanza a Due at Tycho’s death bed. The opera hovers above immense sadness and extreme ridicule - the cast is most peculiar indeed - so in many ways 'TYCHO' may be described at the best as a'Tragic Operetta'