SKU: PR.411411630

ISBN 9781491137635. UPC: 680160691081. English. Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage.

Originally an award-winning play, Lynn Nottage’s INTIMATE APPAREL was inspired by her great-grandmother’s life in New York in the early 20th century. The Pulitzer-laureate also created the libretto for Ricky Ian Gordon’s grand-yet-intimate opera whose complete instrumentation is two pianos. The story follows the life of a young, single seamstress who has recently emigrated from Barbados, the fascinating cast of characters in her life, and her socially-unacceptable feelings of affection for a Jewish fabric salesman. The premiere production of this 2½-hour drama was televised nationally from Lincoln Center on PBS’s “Great Performances.”.
Intimate Apparel began with an old photograph that I found haphazardly wedged between the pages of a Family Circle magazine. I was helping my grandmother, who’d developed debilitating senile dementia, move from her longtime home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. In the midst of a pile of weathered magazines I discovered a black and white passport photograph of my grandmother Waple and her younger sister Eurita sitting on their mother’s lap. It was the first time I’d ever seen an image of my great-grandmother Ethel, a striking woman with high West African cheekbones and a gentle intensity. She had been a seamstress from Barbados, who at the age of 18 arrived alone in New York City at the dawn of the Twentieth Century. The image invited a thousand questions, none that could be answered by the living, and it led me on a journey to piece together the history of my great-grandmother Ethel, a woman who was basically a stranger to me. The only clue that I had about Ethel, was a story that my grandmother had once told me about her mother corresponding with a man laboring on the Panama Canal, who would eventually become her husband. I was fascinated by this story, which served as the inspiration for INTIMATE APPAREL.As I began my research for INTIMATE APPAREL at the New York Public Library, I discovered that lives of Black working women in the early 1900s were woefully absent from the archive. So, I found myself perusing help wanted listings, boarding house and clothing advertisements, looking for any sign of women like my great-grandmother on the printed page. As I was doing so, I began to find the characters that would populate the world of INTIMATE APPAREL; Esther the lonely seamstress, Mrs. Dickson the proprietress of the boardinghouse for Black women, Mr. Marks the Jewish fabric salesman on the Lower Eastside, Mrs. Van Buren the wealthy white socialite on the Upper Eastside, Mayme the sex worker in the tenderloin, and George the laborer toiling on the Panama Canal. As I was conjuring the characters, I realized that I was interested in the unexpected intersections between class, race, and gender at the turn of the Twentieth Century, and what happens when people across cultural and economic divides are thrust into spaces of intimacy.INTIMATE APPAREL began its life as a popular play, but it was the brilliant composer Ricky Ian Gordon who invited me to consider adapting it into an opera. He saw something epic and expansive in the life of Esther that he felt demanded to be sung, and with his loving guidance I was able to write my first libretto. It took me several tries to figure out how to wrestle my play into a form that was new to me. As a playwright, I kept wanting to maintain absolute control of the narrative. But, it was Ricky’s words that freed me creatively to find my way into the libretto. He said, “You’re not trusting my music as a narrative tool; I can say “I love you” without any words, with just music. So, allow me to be your collaborator on the storytelling.” And once he said that, we found INTIMATE APPAREL the opera together.

SKU: HL.48187228

UPC: 888680830588. 7.5x11 inches.

“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 to the genre.&rdquo.

SKU: HL.14013676

Bel Piacere (Countless Pleasures) is a song from the opera Rinaldo. It has been arranged for SATB choir by Stanford Robinson, with the words translated into Enlgish by Geoffrey Dunn. A Piano reduction is provided for rehearsal purposes.

G F Handel (1685-1759) was a German-born British composer and organist who spent his life working in London. He is credited with popularising opera in Britain, both importing Italian works, and composing his own. Rinaldo was composed in 1711, and was the first opera written in Italian for the London stage. The libretto was written by the Italian poet Giacomo Rossi.

SKU: HL.49045653

ISBN 9790001165716. UPC: 841886032118. 9.0x12.0x1.136 inches. Russian. - Shchedrin -.

Bozena Nemtsova is one of the foremost Czech authors of the 19th century and among the greatest storytellers, with her treasure trove of fairy tales. Her stories also enjoy great popularity in Russia: The Twelve Months translated by Nikolai Leskov, provides the basis for Rodion Shchedrin's opera, A Christmas Tale. With traces of familiar fairy tales such as Cinderella and Snow White, the story tells of a beautiful, hardworking but unloved stepdaughter and her search for a violet in the snow. Ultimately she receives help from the months of the year and her kindheartedness is rewarded.

SKU: AP.36-A677002

UPC: 659359999260. English.

Hilding Rosenberg (1892-1985) has been described as the first Swedish modernist composer. Influenced by Sibelius in his early years, he later absorbed the work of Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Hindemith. His teachers included Hermann Scherchen and Wilhelm Stenhammar. Beginning to compose larger works around the age of 30, he wrote eight symphonies, a variety of music for string quartet, and a number of theatrical pieces including opera. Working with producer Per Lindberg in the 1920s, he was asked to compose incidental music to a play by Spanish author Jacinto Benaventes. The Marionettes successfully premiered in 1926. Rosenberg later used material from the work to fashion an opera. He also reconstructed it into a Dance Suite for the concert hall and this Overture in 1937. Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2: 2.2.0.0: Timp: Perc(3): Str (9-8-7-6-5 in set). Reprint edition.

These products are currently being prepared by a new publisher. While many items are ready and will ship on time, some others may see delays of several months.

SKU: HL.49033197

ISBN 9790001134897. UPC: 884088075477. 8.25x11.75x0.071 inches.

Dessau's String Quartet movement was written while he was also working on Brecht's opera Puntila. After Brecht's death in 1956 Dessau found himself looking for a new direction. On the one hand he was still working on music begun in collaboration with the poet, while on the other hand Dessau was trying to work towards a socially oriented musical aesthetic, which led him to compose songs for political purposes. Even this Quartet movement does not owe its inspiration purely to an artistic vision. In spite of its technical demands, the piece is intended to be comprehensible and could even be played by an amateur ensemble in its cleverly reduced form. Only discovered after the composer's death, the Movement for String Quartet is published for the first time in this edition.

SKU: HL.49016802

ISBN 9783795705404. 6.0x8.5x0.62 inches. German.

A novel combination of DVD and book, this volume for the first time presents issues pertaining to vocal techniques and interpretation in word, picture and sound. Film examples provide insights into the working method of the renowned tenor Christoph Pregardien who can be seen in his lessons with students of his master classes. In addition, the singer and teacher Hedwig Fassbender deals with specific problems of the female voice; the pianists Michael Gees and Andreas Staier talk about the accompaniment of lied singers. Professionals, students and lovers of classical singing as well as interested amateur singers are provided with a plethora of important and valuable information. The DVD with more than 240 minutes of film material shows Christoph Pregardien during song, oratorio and opera lessons. An index allows for purposeful selection of the most important topics: exercises of scales, vocalises, phrasings, breathing, tonal work, portamento, conduct of the voice, vocal position, and many more.In the book section, Christoph Pregardien deals with further questions on programming, correct practising and warm-ups, concert preparations and voice problems, among others. This innovative product is complemented by a detailed discography of Christoph Pregardien as well as bibliographical references and recommendations. Schott Master Class Gesang was awarded the Comenius Medal 2006. With the Comenius EduMedia Awards, the Society for Education and Informatics (GPI) fosters didactic multimedia products and educational media which are of particularly great value as regards education, content as well as layout and design. The Master Class series was awarded the special prize digita 2007 for new developments which can change and further learning with new media. The convincing editing of the learning content by renowned experts and the unobtrusive media design of the videos provide the reader - no matter whether students, advanced singers or interested amateurs - with numerous suggestions on a high level. Thanks to the exercises and examples of interpretation filmed in live action and processed digitally, performers are given excellent support.