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Carl Smith Lyrics
Known as Mr. Country Gentleman, Carl Smith was one of the
most popular honky tonkers of the '50s, racking up over 30
Top Ten hits over the course of the decade. Smith was also
able to sustain that popularity into the late '70s, during
which time he had a charting single for every year except
one. Smith had a talent for singing smooth ballads which
polished the rough edges of hardcore country. Nevertheless,
he could sing pure honky tonk with the best of them, and
his hardest country was made tougher by the addition of a
drum kit. More...
most popular honky tonkers of the '50s, racking up over 30
Top Ten hits over the course of the decade. Smith was also
able to sustain that popularity into the late '70s, during
which time he had a charting single for every year except
one. Smith had a talent for singing smooth ballads which
polished the rough edges of hardcore country. Nevertheless,
he could sing pure honky tonk with the best of them, and
his hardest country was made tougher by the addition of a
drum kit. More...
Submit Carl Smith New Lyrics
- Amazing Grace Lyrics
- Anywhere Is Home Lyrics
- Are You Teasing Me Lyrics
- Best Years Of Your Life Lyrics
- Blood That Stained The Old Rugged Cross Lyrics
- Come Back To Me Lyrics
- Don't Just Stand There Lyrics
- Gethsemane Lyrics
- Gloryland Way Lyrics
- Guilty Conscience Lyrics
- Hang Your Head In Shame Lyrics
- Honky Tonk Man Lyrics
- House That Love Built Lyrics
- How About You Lyrics
- I'll Be Listening Lyrics
- I Dreamed Of The Old Rugged Cross Lyrics
- I Feel Like Cryin' Lyrics
- I Love You A Thousand Ways Lyrics
- I Overlooked An Orchid (while Searching For A Rose Lyrics
- If I Could Hold Back The Dawn Lyrics
- If Teardrops Were Pennies Lyrics
- If You Want It I've Got It Lyrics
- It's A Lovely Lovely World Lyrics
- Just Wait Till I Get You Alone Lyrics
- Let's Live A Little Before We Say Goodbye Lyrics
- Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way Lyrics
- Little Girl In My Hometown Lyrics
- Live And Let Live Lyrics
- Look What Thoughts Done To Me Lyrics
- Loose Talk Lyrics
- Lovin' Is Livin' Lyrics
- Me And My Broken Heart Lyrics
- More And More Lyrics
- Mr. Moon Lyrics
- My Lonely Heart's Runnin' Wild Lyrics
- Nail Scarred Hand Lyrics
- Night Train To Memphis Lyrics
- No I Don't Believe I Will Lyrics
- Oh No Lyrics
- Old Camp Meetin' Time Lyrics
- Our Honeymoon Lyrics
- Pass Me Not Lyrics
- San Antonio Rose Lyrics
- Sing Her A Love Song Lyrics
- Slowly Lyrics
- Softly And Tenderly Lyrics
- Standing On The Promises Lyrics
- That's The Kind Of Love I'm Looking For Lyrics
- That's What You Think Lyrics
- There's Nothing As Sweet As My Baby Lyrics
- There She Goes Lyrics
- This World Is Not My Home Lyrics
- Time Changes Everything Lyrics
- Trademark Lyrics
- Wait A Little Longer Please Jesus Lyrics
- Washing My Dreams In Tears Lyrics
- We Shall Meet Someday Lyrics
- When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder Lyrics
- When They Ring Those Golden Bells Lyrics
- Works Of The Lord Lyrics
Review about Carl Smith songs
Writer of this song | Reviewer: Shirley Sheppard------ About the song Wait A Little Longer Please Jesus performed by Carl Smith
Great job on my song. After all of these years, it still hurts that this song was stolen from me when I was just a teenager of sixteen. Nothing was changed in words or music. I have spent thousands of dollars fighting for justice for this song and others. Maybe someday it will all come out and the truth will be known.
Gethsemane | Reviewer: Anonymous------ About the song Gethsemane performed by Carl Smith
On the hillside so lonely knelt Jesus one day
So wounded and worried he went there to pray
My friends there forsaken so lonely he feels
To heaven he's crying in helpless up ap-peals.
But the golden day has broken in old Gethsemane
... The morning all come singing the songs of victory
There's a new highway to glory the road that Jesus trod,
With a halo we're traveling the pathway to God!!!
On the hillside in garden such suffering I see
In humble submission he'll make his plea!!!!
We Shall Meet Someday | Reviewer: Bob Rinehart------ About the song We Shall Meet Someday performed by Carl Smith
'Would like to suggest that you credit Tillit Sidney Teddlie, a Church of Christ Minister in Dallas Texas for writing this song. Also, you might want to compare your version of the lyrics with the original, also available online if you Google the title and/or composer's name. I doubt that Mr. Carl Smith would want to claim credit for a song he didn't write.
Thank you,
I'LL BE LISTENING | Reviewer: Pam Moore------ About the song I'll Be Listening performed by Carl Smith
I AM LOOKING FOR THE SONG i'LL BE LISTENING.
i love this song it reminds me of my grandma | Reviewer: lauren------ About the song Softly And Tenderly performed by Carl Smith
i would like to hear it cause it reminds me of my grandma
i love carl smith | Reviewer: firstname.lastname@example.com------ About the song Best Years Of Your Life performed by Carl Smith
i would love to know if carl smith had a fan club. listen my mom is on up there in age and in bad health and i was wondering if i could get a picture of him for my mom sent to her address it is mary jane brainard 7011 dayton pike lot 9 hixson tennessee 37343 thank you so much and god bless you
You could review Carl Smith in Biography page
You could review Carl Smith album by visiting Album page
You could review Carl Smith song by clicking the song which you like


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Cyprus Island -
Holiday and Touring Guides, Walks and Photos.
Things to do on whilst on holiday on Cyprus including visiting Pafos, the Troodos Mountains, The Akamas Peninsula and Beaches in Cyprus.
Apart from enjoying some time relaxing on Cyprus beaches - of which there are many - there are loads of things to do such as enjoying a driving tour on the Island or maybe some walking in Cyprus. You can go up into the Troodos mountains or out coastal hiking and beach visiting around the Akamas Peninsula - and the island also has some fine Gorges to walk through. The topics cover general things about staying on holiday in Cyprus including eating and transport and so on as well as various locations which are interesting to visit particularly in the Pafos area as well as out in the Troodos Mountains.
For a better summary of specific locations where some nice walks are available on Cyprus (with a bit more description of each walk) please see our Cyprus Walks topic. It's worth noting that all of the topics below about Cyprus also contain many photographs of the areas concerned - so may be useful to look through in order to see various places on the Island (i.e. just sightseeing) which are nice to visit perhaps by car if you do not fancy walking.
Below are our topics about holidays, sightseeing and walks in Cyprus:
Generally about holidays in Cyprus
Akamas Peninsula and Trail Walks
Baths of Aphrodite circular walk in Cyprus
walking the rugged and beautiful Avakas Gorge
Cyprus Cedar Valley circular walk up Tripylos Mountain
Visiting Cyprus Archaeological Sites
Cyprus - Churches, Castles, villages and bridges
Akamas Peninsula and Trail Walks in Cyprus
Cyprus Trails and Paths Walking and Hiking Guides
Cyprus Beaches Guide and Photos
Circular walk going from Miliou in Cyprus
Walk up to Mount Olympus - Cyprus
Troodos Cyprus Mountain Walks
Troodos Cyprus - Platres to Pouziaris Circular Walk
We have several other websites which might be of interest about holiday places, touring and walks:
Far East and Asia -
Cambodia, Laos, China, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and New Zealand
Egypt and Europe -
Egypt, lots of Greek Islands, The Algarve and several Canary Islands
Topics about England -
Wild Flowers, Churches plus quite a few canals, rivers and The Thames Path.
Please visit our
Resources Page
to see the links to these topics.
Also on the "resources" page you can see our privacy policy and also email us if you wish.
Good Websites about Cyprus:-
Sunflower Books
Visit their site - We always take our Sunflower books with us - loads of information inside them.
Walking the Greek Islands
Harald has a section on Cyprus plus lots of links plus stuff about Greece

subset: commoncrawl


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There are few greater thrills for a fan of any art form than discovering a hitherto lost classic, either an entirely new discovery or a long-forgotten favourite. For many fans of music, film, theatre, painting or sculpture; finding works, artists, and composers new to us is what stimulates our appetite for art.
For opera fans, the art form's 400 year-long history offers plenty of opportunity for rediscovering works, attested to by regular news reports of newly-unearthed works or alternative versions, swiftly dusted off and performed for the first time in centuries.
Look a little closer and even works and composers that are now mainstays have been through the process of rediscovery:
Perhaps the most famous example of the change in fortune of an entire section of a composer's oeuvre is that of Gioachino Rossini's forgotten operas. Upon his death, Rossini was one of the most famous composers in history thanks to a string of comic hits including Il barbiere di Siviglia. With his passing, however, his more serious operas including Guillaume Tell and La donna del lago experienced a wane in popularity, only finding favour again in the mid-20th century.
Johann Sebastian Bach, who alongside Rossini is one of today's most popular composers of the modern day, also experienced a decline in popularity. His Baroque style was regarded as old fashioned in the years following his death and it took another composer - Felix Mendelssohn - to bring him back into performing repertory. Mendelssohn's 1829 performance in Berlin of Bach's oratorio St Matthew Passion was a landmark in the composer's reputational rehabilitation.
Bach's decline and rise again is symptomatic of the trend among wider Baroque and early music composers. L'Ormindo, the Francesco Cavalli opera so memorably staged by The Royal Opera at Shakespeare's Globe's Sam Wanamaker Playhouse last Season, was neglected for 323 years until Glyndebourne presented it in 1967. Monteverdi's Orfeo – now widely regarded as the first great opera – suffered a similar fate, neglected from the 1650s until its first public airing two and a half centuries later in 1904.
Though the aforementioned waxings and wanings of fortune have occurred over entire centuries, shorter time-frames also offer scope for flux: Leoš Janáček was well respected during his own lifetime in his native central Europe but his music became better known internationally through the championing of Australian conductor Charles Mackerras; and Weill and Brecht's opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny has proved a stellar example of nominative determinism in action. The opera, first performed in 1930,was not staged in the United States - the country whose ideals it critiques so sharply - until 1970. The anti-capitalist undercurrent of the work no doubt contributed to its stint on the operatic sidelines during the Cold War.
Such changing fortunes aren't only in the past, just take a cursory look at sites like Operabase or the programmes of recent BBC Proms programmes. Early 20th-century British works by composers like Ralph Vaughan-Williams and George Lloyd are currently enjoying a revival, and central-European composers like Król Roger composer Karol Szymanowski are finding new audiences following the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Of course, historic works are only one side of the coin. For any opera company - and indeed for the art form to advance creatively - it's important to commission and programme new works too. This is an approach taken by the Royal Opera House with a commitment to new opera that has included Written on Skin and Through His Teeth. The staging of Søren Nils Eichberg's 'robot opera' Glare, a work that - within the framework of an established artistic tradition - explores current issues through a contemporary sound-world.
It's this fusion of classic and contemporary which has led to The Royal Opera teaming up with publishers Pushkin Press. They will be giving away specially-selected books from their catalogue at performances of Glare, placed on the seats of lucky audience members. Like The Royal Opera, an important part of Pushkin Press's work is rediscovering previously-unknown masterpieces, alongside exciting new works. Among other authors they've been instrumental in championing the work of Stefan Zweig, the writer whose work inspired Wes Anderson's film The Grand Budapest Hotel. So, if you're going to a performance of Glare, make sure to look on your seat before you fix your gaze on the stage; both book and performance will reflect the importance of past as well as present in the artistic experience.
Glare runs from 14-22 November 2014. Tickets are still available.
The production is generously supported by the Friends of Covent Garden.
'American Dream, American Dream', sings Anna Nicole in Mark-Anthony Turnage's opera, 'I'm gonna rape that goddamn American dream, I'm gonna tear it open and lap up the cream'. It's one of many operas that question the American Dream, in which anyone with ambition, talent and a strong work ethic can achieve fame and fortune – and ask how desirable or attainable that dream really is:
Giacomo Puccini's La fanciulla del West examines American ways of life both good and bad. The corrupt sheriff Jack Rance and the homesick miners trapped in California by their desire to make a quick fortune demonstrate the dangers of a society that places great value on money and social status. But Puccini's heroine Minnie has typically 'American' virtues: bravery, honesty and a sense of adventure. Ultimately, Minnie's integrity gives her the courage to reject conventional dreams of financial and social success and leave California for a new life with her lover Dick Johnson.
Benjamin Britten and W.H. Auden created an optimistic vision of American society in Paul Bunyan, which celebrates the same pioneering spirit that makes Puccini's Minnie so likeable. The gentle giant Paul Bunyan brings together a community of lumberjacks to tame the 'virgin forest' of America, and later helps them to find work as farmers, manual labourers and businessmen. In this cheerful operetta, America is seen as a land of exciting opportunities (one or two satirical snipes from Auden aside).
Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht on the other hand, took a far darker view, making America a byword for greed and corruption. In 1931's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, three criminals found a city in the American desert devoted to hedonism and financial profit. The consumerist paradise soon becomes a hotbed of corruption and inhumanity. The hero Jimmy is condemned to death for being unable to pay a bar bill. When he appeals to God the people tell him that God cannot punish them – they are already in Hell.
Other operas show how America's opportunities are not available to everyone. Rose Maurrant, the blue-collar heroine of Weill's Street Scene, knows that her boss's promises to help her 'sing on Broadway' will come to nothing. She and her poet boyfriend Sam Kaplan nourish ambitions to escape their humdrum existence, but even this dream is denied when Rose's father murders her mother. In George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, the African-American community of Catfish Row is condemned to perpetual poverty due to racial prejudice. Love can flourish (like the tender passion between Porgy and Bess), but the only character to profit financially in this ghetto is the drug-dealer Sportin' Life, who eventually lures Bess away with the promise of a glamorous life in New York.
Later in the 20th century, composers questioned whether the American Dream is desirable even if achieved. Leonard Bernstein portrayed the boredom of comfortable American suburbia and the claustrophobia of the prosperous middle-class family in Trouble in Tahiti and A Quiet Place– having explored racial prejudice and gang warfare in his hit Romeo and Juliet-inspired musical West Side Story. Stewart Wallace's Harvey Milk tells the true story of a politician who longs for 'an American Dream without prejudice' but is assassinated for his beliefs. And the title character of Nixon in China and J. Robert Oppenheimer in Doctor Atomic, at one point seen as icons of the American success story, are depicted by John Adams as tormented souls plagued with self-doubt.
Even the ambitious Anna Nicole realizes that the American Dream isn't all it's cracked up to be. Hounded by the press, she finally turns on her country: 'O America, you dirty whore, I gave you everything but you wanted more. I wanted more'. For some, the American Dream can turn out to be more like a nightmare.
Anna Nicole runs from 11–24 September 2014. Tickets are still available. The first performance is open to students only, with tickets priced £1–£25. Find out more about ROH Students. ROH Students is generously made possible by the Bunting Family and Simon Robey.
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny runs 10 March–4 April 2015. Tickets will go on general sale 27 January 2015. The production is given with generous philanthropic support from Richard and Ginny Salter, The Kurt Foundation for Music in New York, NY and The Royal Opera Circle.]]>
Opera has long been a vehicle for decidedly dark comedy, from nasty practical jokes to decidedly ambiguous happy-ever-afters. Here, we take a closer look at five of our favourites:
Così fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1790)
Mozart referred to his third and final collaboration with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte as an 'opera buffa', and it's habitually labeled a comedy – there are plenty of laughs to be found amid the confusion, chaos and mistaken identity of this meticulously crafted masterpiece. But at heart, this opera is about two sisters (Dorabella and Fiordiligi) who are tricked into swapping lovers and falling in love with each other's fiancé, which leaves a decidedly bitter aftertaste to the 'happy-ever-after' final scene, for all Mozart's wonderful music. In the libretto the two women swap back to their original partners, but modern directors have found ingenious ways to deal with the tricky ending, sometimes having the women swap partners yet again.
Il turco in Italia by Gioachino Rossini (1814)
Rossini's light-hearted comedy Il turco in Italia is as bright and breezy as they come, but this operatic candyfloss is still spiced with some of life's darker elements. Shortly after the start of the opera we meet Zaida, who has had to flee her dashing lover Selim and life she led in a Turkish harem because of death threats from jealous rivals. Then there's the unhappy marriage of Geronio and his much younger, fickle wife Fiorilla, whose eyes seem to rove to every many she meets. Even Rossini's famously labyrinthine plot twists don't quite manage to leave everyone happy: it's only right at the last minute, and after Fiorilla has lost much of her joie de vivre, that the couples are (at least temporarily!) happily reunited.
Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi (1893)
Verdi's larger-than-life drunken knight, taken from Shakespeare's Henry IV parts I and II and The Merry Wives of Windsor, is a comic delight – he chases after young women, runs up a huge bill at the Garter Inn and is tipped into the Thames from a laundry basket. But, as in Shakespeare's original, Falstaff is as much an object of ridicule and pity as he is the bringer of laughter. In Verdi's opera, Act III in particular has a vein of darkness running through it, from Falstaff's opening aria bemoaning the wickedness of the world ('Mondo ladro' – 'Thieving world!') to the scene in Windsor Great Park in which the followers of a fake 'Queen of the Fairies' pinch and punch the portly knight before the final fugue concludes 'Tutto nel mondo è burla! ('All the world's a joke!').
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Kurt Weill (1930)
This unique opera is the largest work to spring from the iconic partnership of Weill and dramatist Bertolt Brecht. When the opera opens, Fatty the 'attorney', Trinity Moses and Leokadja Begbick are on the run from the authorities for a clutch of crimes. They decide to found a new city dedicated to pleasure, greed and excess. Weill found inspiration in jazz and cabaret music but also - more unexpectedly - in Mozart's The Magic Flute, with its mix of comedy and tragedy, and speech with singing. The opera is bitingly satirical and uses the darkest of black humour to hammer home its critique of the excesses of capitalism. But, as always with Weill and Brecht, they put on a top-class show while making their political point.
Anna Nicole by Mark-Anthony Turnage (2011)
Mark-Anthony Turnage's controversial opera, a Royal Opera House commission and revived for the first time in September 2014, takes the story of model, ex-stripper and film star Anna Nicole Smith and charts her meteoric rise (and fall) from single mother and supermarket worker to household name and widow of an octogenarian billionaire. Turnage himself has said 'three-quarters of the piece is comic' and throughout the work Richard Thomas's deeply acerbic libretto mines comedy from the bleakest situations – Smith's first job in a fried chicken restaurant, her decision to pay for breast enlargement, the arrival on the scene of her husband-to-be in the strip club where Smith works and his sudden death at one of Anna's wild parties. It's only in the second half of the opera that the comedy gives way to an ever-growing sense of tragedy.
Anna Nicole runs from 11–24 September 2014. Tickets are still available.
The first performance is a student-only production with tickets priced £1–£25. Find out more about ROH Students.
ROH Students is generously made possible by the Bunting Family and Simon Robey.
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny runs 11 March–4 April 2015. Tickets open for general sale on 27 January 2015.
Il turco in Italia runs 11–27 April 2015. Tickets open for general sale on 27 January 2015.
Falstaff runs 6–18 July 2015. Tickets open for general sale on 31 March 2015.
Cabaret's parade of basement burlesque, satire and circus acts has long roots. This art form: alternative, diverse, and – above all – independent, has often intertwined with opera; H.K. Gruber's cabaret opera Gloria – A Pigtale is just the latest in a long line of cabaret-inspired works.
Cabaret's origins lie in late-18th-century Paris, where the fashion emerged for singers to perform in the streets and in cafes. It was more than a passing fad, and within half a century performers were categorizing themselves into different styles: audiences could seek out a gommeur ('gummer'), or a diseur (recitalist), a gambillard (leg-mover) or a fantaisiste. An 1867 change in the law in allowed performers to appear in costume and led to a proliferation of so-called café-concerts, until in 1881 cabaret's golden age dawned with the founding of the Chat Noir.
The dream of the Chat Noir's founders was to foster an environment in which bohemian artists could intermingle with their bourgeois audience. They more or less realized their dream, and their model of small venue and informal atmosphere was widely imitated throughout France and its colonies. In the belle époque era the great artists of the day thrived in such places; for example, Erik Satie (whose many café-concert works included his famous Gymnopédies) seemed to spend his life in one café-concert or the other.
German cabaret began as an imitator, but with the spur of a 1902 tour by the great diseuse Yvette Guilbert it fast coalesced into a distinct form. German poets and musicians were captivated by the potential of using popular songs to serious ends, far removed from the pomp of state-sanctioned works. Berlin became the cabaret centre, with Ernst von Wolzogen's cabaret Überbrettl leading the way. Arnold Schoenberg – whose early exposure to music had been mostly through eavesdropping on cafe performers – had his first music job conducting at Überbrettl 1901–3 and composed a collection of Brettl-Lieder for the in-house performers. The sense of irony of the diseuse and the intimate, ad-hoc music setting of cabaret was an unmistakable influence on his 1912 masterpiece Pierrot lunaire.
German cabaret came into its own in the interwar Weimar Republic, blossoming under the Republic's increased liberality and bolstered by an influx of American jazz musicians. It was in this period that Marlene Dietrich shot to international fame with her portrayal of the cabaret singer Lola-Lola in Josef von Sternberg's 1930 film Der blaue Engel (The Blue Angel). Her subtle, ironical-tragic delivery of Friedrich Hollaender's songs was genre-defining.
Kurt Weill never wrote specifically for cabaret – oddly, given the influence he would have on the genre. His 1928 Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) was both informed by cabaret and immeasurably influential on it: the use of ballads and the emphasis on Bertolt Brecht's text demonstrate Weill's interest in the genre. Subsequent cabaret performers went on to mine its songs for their own acts – 'Mack the Knife' the most famous example. Weill's wife Lotte Lenya, originally an actor, was hugely celebrated for her declamatory performances in the roles Weill wrote for her, including in Dreigroschenoper, Mahagonny and Die sieben Tödsünden.
Songs by Weill and his contemporary Hanns Eisler became famous as the core repertory of cabaret singers, but cabaret music found its way into opera as well. Voguish Zeitopern (operas of the time) sought to speak directly to their audiences through the use of contemporary settings, and often jumped on the cabaret bandwagon. Perhaps the most brilliant examples are Ernst Krenek's 1927 Jonny spielt auf (Jonny plays on), in which the African-American musician Jonny and chanteuse Anita attempt to lure the lofty composer Max from his glacial mountain (literally), and Max Brand's 1929 Maschinist Hopkins (Engineer Hopkins), where in one astonishing scene singer Nell and her lover/husband factory owner Bill enjoy a brief ascent to power to the strains of a Black Bottom routine played by the Brand New Band.
The Nazis' rise to power terminated cabaret's golden age, a twilight expertly captured in Kander and Ebb's Cabaret. Cabaret has never regained the same social prominence, but its legacy lives on, in contemporary cabaret, in musical theatre, alternative comedy, Las Vegas, and the cabaret songs themselves.
Gloria – A Pigtale opens tonight and runs until 19 July 2014. Tickets are still available.
The production is a co-production with Mahogany Opera Group, Bregenz Festival and Buxton Festival.
Luca Francesconi's acclaimed opera Quartett will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Hear and Now programme on 5 July at 10pm.
The work features two challenging, polyphonic vocal roles performed by Leigh Melrose and Kristin Chávez. They appear alongside the London Sinfonietta conducted by Andrew Gourlay and an ambitious electronic sound design, which incorporates electronically-treated recordings from a full-scale orchestra.
Quartett, which had its world premiere at Milan's La Scala in 2011, opened in a new production by John Fulljames in the Linbury Studio Theatre on 18 June. Read audience reactions to the opening night.
Watch an interview with Luca and John about the new work.
Royal Opera House Music Director Antonio Pappano compares Luca's score to that of George Benjamin's Written on Skin.
'We haven't heard much of Luca's music performed in London, but I've worked with him in Italy,' he says.'Written on Skin is a good reference for the beauty and harrowing intensity of Luca's music'. Watch Antonio discuss Quartett.
Leigh Melrose as Vicomte de Valmont and Kirstin Chávez as Marquise de Merteuil in Quartett © ROH/ Stephen Cummiskey2014
Kirstin Chávez as Marquise de Merteuil and Leigh Melrose as Vicomte de Valmont in Quartett © ROH/ Stephen Cummiskey2014
Leigh Melrose as Vicomte de Valmont and Kirstin Chávez as Marquise de Merteuil in Quartett © ROH/ Stephen Cummiskey2014
In the same episode of Hear and Now, Sara Mohr Pietsch meets Harrison Birtwistle for the Composers' Rooms series.
Quartett is staged with generous philanthropic support from Mr Stefan Sten Olsson. It is a co-production between The Royal Opera, Opéra de Rouen and London Sinfonietta.]]>
In one of the most famous scenes in opera, Brünnhilde rides into a funeral pyre and ends the world as she knows it, bringing the curtain down on the age of the gods, on Götterdämmerung and on Wagner's epic Ring cycle.
Opera has long proved to be an eloquent and evocative medium through which to explore the human-scale impact of apocalyptic events – events that are so seismic they change everything that comes afterwards. It's no coincidence that some of the greatest operas are set in historical periods of huge upheaval.
A quick look at operas being performed at the ROH and elsewhere is a snapshot of conflict. Puccini's Tosca takes place against a backdrop of war and revolution, the political turmoil of the historical setting of Rome in 1800 spilling over into the events on stage. Set just a few years earlier in the French Revolution, Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites looks at the human-scale impact of the Reign of Terror. His poignant re-telling of the story of a group of nuns persecuted by the revolutionaries reaches unbearable intensity in the final scene, where one by one the Carmelites are executed at the guillotine.
John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer places an individual story within the context of violent struggles in the Middle East; and Mark-Anthony Turnage's The Silver Tassie (based on a play by Sean O'Casey currently at London's National Theatre) reflects on the horrors of World War I.
But what comes next? What happens in the aftermath of the revolutions and wars that composers so readily depict?
A growing number of composers have looked beyond the catastrophe to explore life in a post-apocalyptic world. Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre and Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny are both set in worlds that have experienced some kind of apocalypse – La Fura dels Baus' English National Opera production of the former sets the opera in the body of a woman who is about to die. This growing repertory of post-apocalyptic operas has led to a parallel trend among directors.
The Royal Opera House's own Ring cycle directed by Keith Warner takes place in a dystopian world on a set littered with bomb-damaged buildings, the ruins of a plane and decomposing bodies. Katharina Thoma's Ariadne auf Naxos for Glyndebourne replaces the Prologue's fireworks with an air raid, and sets the opera in a World War II hospital. David Pountney's take on Berg's Lulu for Welsh National Opera gives the opera a decidedly post-apocalyptic feel, with staging that includes bodies on meat hooks and a set made of bare scaffolding. Hans Neuenfels set Lohengrin for the Bayreuth Festival in a lab overrun by giant rats from a horrific dystopian future.
The stage has always been a place on which to explore dangerous, frightening and threatening ideas, in the knowledge that the 'fourth wall' keeps us safe: it's not really the end of the world, after all.
But in writing the opera Quartett, based on a play by Heiner Müller, composer Luca Francesconi had quite a different aim in mind, as he explained in an interview: 'Quartett is the abyss that opens wide within the four walls of our home. Even as spectators we think we are safe in our seats, watching the peep-show taking place on stage before us. But there could well be someone else watching us at the very same time. The claustrophobic cell we are watching becomes a metaphor for the whole of Western civilization.'
In Francesconi's world, we can't be sure the apocalypse is confined to the stage.
The Royal Opera's new production of Quartett runs 18–28 June 2014. Tickets are still available.
The production is given with generous philanthropic support from Mr Stefan Sten Olsson, and is a co-production between The Royal Opera, Opéra de Rouen and London Sinfonietta.
Tosca runs until 26 June 2014. A small number of tickets are still available.
The production is generously supported by RLM Finsbury.
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny runs 10 March–4 April 2015. Tickets go on general sale 27 January 2015.]]>
#ROHquartett has huge performances from all, some ravishing music, staged with effective morbidity.
— Andrew (@chaconato) June 18, 2014
Hugely impressed, if a little mentally scarred, by the incredible @leigh_melrose in #ROHquartett last night!
— Verity Bramson (@VerityBramson) June 19, 2014
#ROHQuartett Thought-provoking but unevenly matched seduction games. Unlike Merteuil, Valmont failed to inflame my loins.
— Jorge Balça (@jorgebalca) June 18, 2014
Stupendous #ROHQuartett !!!! A must see! @leigh_melrose and #KirstinChávez are extraordinary @Ldn_Sinfonietta stunning! BRAVI tutti !
— Minjaš Žugić (@Minjas_Zugik) June 18, 2014
The Linbury is a perfect space for the work, with electronics amplifying the sense of claustrophobia. Great use of space.
— Katy Wright (@KatyWright1) June 18, 2014
Anyone in or near London who cares about opera as a living art-form, as opposed to a fusty museum-piece, should hasten to see #ROHquartett.
— Mark Berry (@boulezian) June 18, 2014
Press reviews:
The Upcoming ★★★★★
Times ★★★★
The Stage ★★★
Telegraph ★★
Independent ★
What did you think of Quartett?
The Royal Opera's new production of Quartett runs until 28 June 2014. Tickets are still available.
The production is given with generous philanthropic support from Mr Stefan Sten Olsson, and is a co-production between The Royal Opera, Opéra de Rouen and London Sinfonietta.
Luca Francesconi's acclaimed Quartett opens in the Linbury Studio Theatre in a new production by John Fulljames on 18 June.
The opera, described by Antonio Pappano as a highlight of the Summer Season, depicts two characters – both lovers and sworn enemies – trapped in a post-apocalyptic world.
'Luca Francesconi's Quartett is a dramatic and shocking reinterpretation of Les Liaisons dangereuses for the 21st century,' says Antonio. 'We haven't heard much of Luca's music performed in London, but I've worked with him in Italy and this is a chance to see a work by a truly significant composer.'
The opera had its world premiere at Milan's La Scala in 2011. It features two fiendishly difficult vocal roles, supported by a chamber orchestra and an ambitious electronic sound design.
Watch an interview with John Fulljames and Luca Francesconi about the production to find out more.
Quartett runs from 18-28 June 2014. Tickets are still available.
The production is a co-production between The Royal Opera, Opéra de Rouen and London Sinfonietta, and is staged with Generous philanthropic support from Mr Stefan Sten Olsson.]]>
Whether through Dangerous Liaisons (1988) or Cruel Intentions (1999), Laclos' 1782 novel of depravity, desire and decay sunk its talons deep into late-20th-century consciousness. But far away from Hollywood's Glenn Close/John Malkovich's white-wigged sniping and the Ryan Philippe/Sarah Michelle Gellar pout-out, there was another adaptation of Les Liaisons dangereuses that emerged from the last days of the Soviet Union, far darker and more disturbing.
German playwright Heiner Müller lived all but nine years of his life under a dictatorship. Born in 1929, a few years before Hitler's rise to power, most of his years were spent in East Germany, where his plays were frequently censored or banned. He died in 1995, six years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Though his works are – in the UK at least – still overshadowed by those of his compatriot Bertolt Brecht, their uncompromising, uncomfortable insight makes Müller one of the most important playwrights of the 20th century.
Quartett (1981) is Müller's adaptation of Les Liaisons dangereuses. It's often mentioned in the same breath as Christopher Hampton's 1985 play for the Royal Shakespeare Company, that went on to make it big on West End and Broadway and eventually become Dangerous Liaisons. But the two adaptations are poles apart. Hampton smoothly (and superbly) crafted a straightforward historical drama. But Müller saw something further in the insatiable libertinism of Laclos' two central characters. He created a contemporary parable in which the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil become the ultimate nihilists.
Quartett has a single setting: 'Drawing room before the French Revolution. Air raid shelter after World War III'. There is a cast of just two. Valmont and Merteuil complete the quartet through a perverse game of role-play, impersonating the only two other characters – Müller's genius interpretation of the structure of the original novel, written through an exchange of letters. Müller's language is reptilian, bitter, angry. But it is the stripped-bare depiction of a meritless power desperately indulging in pointless cruelty that really shocks.
In his preface to the play Müller describes Quartett as 'a reflection on the problem of terrorism, using material which on the surface has nothing to do with it.' It's characteristic understatement for a work that pursues to its absolute extreme the consequence of power applied without humanity. Müller's is an uncompromising message that continues to resonate violently in today's world.
Italian composer Luca Francesconi was drawn moth-like to Quartett, and in 2011 adapted the play into an award-winning opera of the same title. He explains: 'People in the West are spoiled. We live with our privilege without realizing that it's not sustainable… When you go to the theatre you feel very safe sitting in your seat. You watch something and there is a kind of wall of protection – an apparently normal story with two people, a man and a woman. Then, step by step, you understand that you are a part of what you are watching. You are not safe.'
The Royal Opera's new production of Quartett runs 18–28 June 2014. Tickets are still available.
The production is given with generous philanthropic support from Mr Stefan Sten Olsson, and is a co-production between The Royal Opera, Opéra de Rouen and London Sinfonietta.
'We need new instruments very badly… musicians should take up this question in deep earnest with the help of machinery specialists.' So wrote French composer Edgard Varèse in 1916, a man championed by many as the father of electronic music and dubbed 'the stratospheric colossus of sound' by author and fervent fan Henry Miller.
In the early decades of the 20th century, composers were drawn to the possibilities afforded by new technology. Groups such as the Futurists rejected instrumental and compositional conventions in favour of new sound-worlds, placing new value on 'noise'. This ethos was in part driven from a desire to reflect the industrial age of the 20th century. So fervent was their aim that they produced a manifesto, in which they stated their desire to 'present the musical soul of the masses, of the great factories, of the railways, of the transatlantic liners, of the battleships, of the automobiles and airplanes'.
As technology advanced, new instruments were invented, such as the Ondes Martenot, which attracted the attention of influential composer Olivier Messiaen, who began using it in 1937 (his opera Saint-François d'Assise calls for three of them). But it was arguably the invention of magnetic audio tape and the developments in recording technology that followed World War II, that gave electronic music the push that would eventually lead to it being embraced by the mainstream. This has ultimately culminated in the success of artists as diverse as Daft Punk, Radiohead and Kraftwerk. Though apparently far removed from classical music, these artists employ the same technology and techniques that were pioneered by the likes of Karlheinz Stockhausen in the middle decades of the 20th century.
Away from the rock and pop world of festivals and arena tours, orchestral musicians and composers have relished the possibilities afforded by electronic music, particularly the potential to add extra texture and ambience, at times appropriating what previous generations termed 'noise'. Perhaps most familiar to recent Covent Garden audiences is the work of Max Richter, whose score for the ballet Infra blends mournful Arvo Pärt-influenced minimalist strings with haunting electronic soundscapes and samples. More recently Richter 'recomposed' Vivaldi's Four Seasons, discarding 75% of the original material and replacing it with looped samples of Vivaldi's string phrases and eerie electronic swells.
It's a sound that has gained traction in recent years with Ólafur Arnalds, Nils Frahm and Dustin O'Halloran composing works that fall broadly under the banner of 'contemporary classical' and incorporate electronics. All three have, like Richter, collaborated with The Royal Ballet's Resident Choreographer, Wayne McGregor.
It's not just a case of composers with an orchestral background being seduced by electronic music, however. The pattern of influence flows the other way too, with electronic artists such as Aphex Twin and Venetian Snares having their heads turned by 20th century classical music: the former collaborating with Philip Glass, and the latter melding Stravinsky, Mahler and Bartók samples with high-tempo breakcore for the album Rossz Csillag Alatt Született.
Ethereal electronica artist Björk studied classical music during her formative years and has stated her love of Mahler, Berg and Prokofiev. Their influence has shown itself throughout her recorded output, most notably in her 2001 album Vespertine, which featured chamber orchestras and choirs alongside glitchy electronic beats.
Opera too, has not been immune to classical music's embrace of all things electronic – a striking recent example being Swedish synthpop duo The Knife's collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock on Tomorrow, In a Year, an electronic opera based on Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species staged at the Barbican in 2010. It's an ambient-heavy work, which sees classical mezzo-soprano vocals soaring over droning synths and vocoder phrases.
Luca Francesconi, whose opera Quartett receives its UK premiere next month at the Royal Opera House, studied under Stockhausen and has incorporated electronics into many of his works. Quartett sees him incorporate electronic ambient sounds under frenzied and often dissonant orchestral phrases to create a sense of claustrophobia- perfect for a narrative of the two last people alive on earth, trapped in a concrete bunker after World War III. It's sure to prove an intoxicating cocktail for the ears, and provide yet more proof that almost a century after Varèse urged the advance of music as an art form through the use of machines, composers continue to heed the call.
Quartett runs from 18-28 June 2014. Tickets are still available.]]>
Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, John Tomlinson and George Benjamin's opera Written on Skin have won RPS Music Awards.
The awards, which were set up in 1989 and are judged by a jury of eminent musicians, are the highest accolade for live classical music in the UK.
Joyce won the Singer Award as being 'a supreme exponent of the art of bel canto'. She performed to acclaim in La donna del Lago at Covent Garden, as well as to a global audience of millions during the Last Night of the Proms. She returns to the Royal Opera House this July in Maria Stuarda.
John was awarded the RPS's Gold Medal - one of classical music's highest honours - in honour of a stellar career. He was described by the society as an 'international treasure' whose 'magnificent voice has thrilled audiences around the world in opera and in concert for more than 40 years'. He will return to the Royal Opera House in Welsh National Opera's Moses und Aron in July.
George Benjamin's Written on Skin won in the Large Scale Composition category. The opera had its UK premiere at Covent Garden in March 2013, receiving rave reviews and leading to a forthcoming new commission from Benjamin and writer Martin Crimp in 2018.
ROH-affiliated nominees and winners included Harrison Birtwistle (winner in the Chamber-Scale composition category for Moth Requiem), Barbara Hannigan and Michael Volle (nominated in the Singer category), Andris Nelsons (nominated in the Conductor category), and The Royal Opera's Elektra (nominated for the Opera and Music Theatre award).
View the full list of 2014 winners.]]>
The 2014/15 Live Cinema Season will see a total of 11 Royal Opera House productions relayed to more than 1,500 cinemas in over 40 countries. The screenings include seven Royal Opera and four Royal Ballet productions:
Manon, 16 October at 7.15pm
The Royal Ballet
By Kenneth MacMillan
Music: Jules Massenet, orchestrated by Martin Yates
I due Foscari NEW, 27 October at 7.15pm
The Royal Opera
Giuseppe Verdi
Dir: Thaddeus Strassberger
Cond: Antonio Pappano
Cast includes Plácido Domingo, Francesco Meli and Maria Agresta
L'elisir d'amore, 26 November at 7.15pm
The Royal Opera
Gaetano Donizetti
Dir: Laurent Pelly
Cond: Daniele Rustioni
Cast includes Lucy Crowe, Vittorio Grigolo and Bryn Terfel
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 16 December at 7.15pm
The Royal Ballet
By Christopher Wheeldon
Music: Joby Talbot, orchestrated by Christopher Austin and Joby Talbot
Andrea Chénier NEW, 29 January at 7.15pm
The Royal Opera
Umberto Giordano
Dir: David McVicar
Cond: Antonio Pappano
Cast includes Jonas Kaufmann and Eva-Maria Westbroek
Der fliegende Holländer, 24 February at 7.15pm
The Royal Opera
Richard Wagner
Dir: Tim Albery
Cond: Andris Nelsons
Cast includes Bryn Terfel and Adrianne Pieczonka.
Swan Lake, 17 March at 7.15pm
The Royal Ballet
By Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov
Music: Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny NEW, 1 April at 7.15pm
The Royal Opera
Kurt Weill
Dir: John Fulljames
Cond: Mark Wigglesworth
Cast includes Anne Sofie von Otter, Willard W White and Christine Rice.
La Fille mal gardèe, 5 May at 7.15pm
The Royal Ballet
By Frederick Ashton
Music: Ferdinand Hérold, arranged and orchestrated by John Lanchbery
La bohème, 10 June at 7.15pm
The Royal Opera
Giacomo Puccini
Dir: John Copley
Cond: Dan Ettinger
Cast includes Anna Netrebko and Joseph Calleja
Guillaume Tell NEW, 5 July at 2.45pm
The Royal Opera
Gioachino Rossini
Dir: Damiano Michieletto
Cond: Antonio Pappano
Cast includes Gerald Finley and Malin Byström
All the booking dates below open at 10am.
View the Royal Opera House 2014-15 Spring Season Seating Plan and Ticket Prices (PDF 318 KB)
Purchasing tickets as part of a Package will offer the best seat availability and a saving of up to 33%. Find out more about advance booking packages.
Ballet and Dance
Bayadère – The Ninth Life (Linbury Studio Theatre)
25–28 March
By Shobana Jeyasingh
Music: Gabriel Prokofiev
Shobana Jeyasingh reimagines Marius Petipa's India-set classical ballet in a new commission by Studio Programme, The Royal Ballet.
The Four Temperaments / Hofesh Shechter / Song of the Earth
27 March–14 April
By George Balanchine / NEW Hofesh Shechter / Kenneth MacMillan
Music: Paul Hindemith / tbc / Gustav Mahler
Masterpieces by Balanchine and MacMillan frame a world premiere from Hofesh Shechter in The Royal Ballet's thrilling mixed programme.
La Fille mal gardèe
16 April–5 May; Live cinema relay on 5 May
By Frederick Ashton
Music: Ferdinand Hérold, arranged and orchestrated by John Lanchbery
Frederick Ashton's joyful ballet contains some of his most brilliant choreography.
Opera and Music
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny NEW
10 March–4 April; Live cinema relay on 1 April
Kurt Weill
Dir: John Fulljames
Cond: Mark Wigglesworth
John Fulljames presents a new production of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's furiously impassioned satire on consumerism.
Madama Butterfly
20 March–11 April
Giacomo Puccini
Dir: Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier
Cond: Nicola Luisotti
East meets West with devastating effect in Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier's production of Puccini's poignant opera.
Swanhunter (Linbury Studio Theatre)
4–11 April
Jonathan Dove
Lib: Alasdair Middleton
Dir: Hannah Mulder / Rachael Canning
In a new co-production, Opera North and The Wrong Crowd present Jonathan Dove's family opera, with a beguiling blend of evocative music, stunning puppetry and visual storytelling.
Il turco in Italia
11–25 April
Gioachino Rossini
Dir: Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier
Cond: Evelino Pidò
Rossini's irresistible comedy glows with Fellini-esque glamour in Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier's sun-drenched production.
King Size NEW (Linbury Studio Theatre)
14-18 April
Dir: Christoph Marthaler
A somnolent couple in a huge hotel bedroom sing songs ranging from Purcell to pop, in Christoph Marthaler's acclaimed reimagining of the Liederabend ('evening of song').
Król Roger NEW
1–16 May
Karol Szymanowski
Dir: Kasper Holten
Cond: Antonio Pappano
Kasper Holten presents a new production of Szymanowski's sumptuously scored meditation on identity and desire.
The Virtues of Things NEW
2-6 May
Matt Rogers
Lib: Sally O'Reilly
Rising stars Matt Rogers and Sally O'Reilly present a new opera as part of the annual collaboration between The Royal Opera, Opera North and Aldeburgh Music.
Antonio Pappano Orchestral Concert
4 May
Cond: Antonio Pappano
Soprano: Anna Caterina Antonacci
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Antonio Pappano conducts a captivating programme that celebrates the award-winning Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.
La traviata
18 May–4 July
Giuseppe Verdi
Dir: Richard Eyre
Revival Dir: TBC
Cond: Marc Minkowski
Verdi's tragic tale of a Parisian courtesan who sacrifices all for love is vividly told in Richard Eyre's production.
Quartett, a bitter tale that explores power, deception, love and torment in a post-apocalyptic world, has its UK premiere in the Linbury Studio Theatre on 18 June.
Luca Francesconi's opera, which had its world premiere at Milan's La Scala in 2011, is based on Heiner Müller's vision of Laclos's Les Liaisons dangereuses. His interpretation depicts two characters – former or potential lovers, and sworn enemies – trapped in a post-apocalyptic world. The UK premiere is directed by John Fulljames.
'The last two human beings alive are trapped in a concrete bunker after World War III and in the middle of the French Revolution – the piece happens in both times at once,' explains John. 'We, the audience, are trapped in that bunker with them, voyeurs in their intimate games. This really is immersive opera.'
Quartett features two fiendishly difficult vocal roles, supported by a chamber orchestra and an ambitious electronic sound design.
'The two roles are very difficult because they are polyphonic roles,' says Luca. 'There are only two characters but each character is at least five different people, which we all are. It calls for many different ways of singing.'
Quartett runs from 18-28 June 2014. Tickets are on sale to Friends of Covent Garden from 19 March 2014 and available for general booking from 8 April 2014.]]>
Our next cinema relay is Gloriana live on 24 June. Find your nearest cinema.
The Royal Opera House Cinema Season is sponsored by the Bank of America.]]>
Over the past few years, the trend of experiencing the arts through cinema has exploded. Opera and ballet companies have experienced huge success through live relays, as have the National Theatre and the National Gallery. 'Alternative cinema', as the trend has been dubbed, is now worth £12.5 million in the UK alone. Our own cinema relays have proved popular with audiences around the world with Royal Opera and Royal Ballet productions enjoyed by tens of thousands around the globe each month in over 35 countries. The transmissions compete with Hollywood studio blockbusters too - The Nutcracker came second in the box office charts, beating Skyfall on the day of transmission and coming second only to The Hobbit.
Cinema audiences get a little extra too, with behind the scenes films during intervals giving a glimpse at what it takes to put the works on stage. These are uploaded to our YouTube channel after the event.
We're interested to hear your thoughts about opera and ballet in cinemas.
Are they an invaluable way of experiencing the art forms closer to home, or do you think that they pale in comparison with seeing the works at Covent Garden?
Whatever your views, share them via the comments below.
Here are a few comments from our Twitter following:
The Royal Opera's La donna del lago will be relayed live to cinemas around the world on Monday 27 May. Find your nearest cinema.
The Royal Opera House Cinema Season is supported by the Bank of America.]]>
Music plays a big part in the first impression of any new character in an opera. The clues to Elena, the heroine in the title of Rossini's La donna del lago, are all there in her first song. So what does 'Oh mattutini albori' tell us about this Lady of the Lake?
Rossini's opera La donna del lago is based on Sir Walter Scott's poem The Lady of the Lake. We first encounter Elena (Ellen in the poem) as she rows a small boat across Loch Katrine from the island where she lives to the shore. As she rows she sings a lovely lilting song, 'Oh mattutini albori!' ('Oh morning rays of sunshine'). Each morning she is aware another day has passed in which she has been separated from Malcolm, the man she loves who is away fighting for the Scottish Highlanders against King Giacomo V (James V).
Elena's song is a barcarolle, so called after the easy rocking rhythm and flowing melody that is meant to suggest the gentle undulation of the waves as a boat glides along. Barcarolles are most associated with Venetian gondoliers and what they sang as they worked. You can hear this type of measured pace, rhythm and smooth melody in the well-known folk song 'The Skye Boat Song'. Sharing associations of country and conflict with La donna del lago, 'The Skye Boat Song' recalls Flora MacDonald rowing the escaping Bonnie Prince Charlie over to the Isle of Skye following his defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
For Rossini's audience, 'Oh mattutini albori!' does three things. First it establishes the landscape through the rocking 6/8 rhythm – early audiences would have known the convention that this style of music meant a boat song. The simplicity of the opening bars of the melody also indicates something naive, honest and rural (in this case, the Scottish Highlands).
Second, it gives the singer of the role the chance to make an impact with her first number. There is a long introduction for us to get used to the style of the music and also get some of the melody imprinted on the ear. When Elena begins to sing we can relax to listen – and also notice just how difficult the part becomes for the singer. This is music to let you know how not just who the character is, but also how good the performer is: the straightforward melodic outline is made very elaborate with decorative flourishes that must be performed effortlessly.
The third thing Rossini did was to have Elena sing offstage to begin with, as though she is on the lake and gradually coming towards us - a common device in opera. Before we see Elena, we have already decided how lovely she is from the music alone.
But there is one more thing about this aria. When Elena reaches the shore she meets Uberto, who is really Giacomo V in disguise. He has lost his hunting party, and she offers him shelter with her family in her island home for the night. As she rows them back they both sing the barcarolle tune, taking turns on the lines. In the final act of the opera, Elena has to go to the King, whose armies have now defeated the Highland rebels to which her father and her lover belong. She wants to plead for their lives. Offstage she hears that barcarolle, and thinks it is Uberto. The shared tune identifies the man she rowed across the lake at the start of the opera. But then she realizes that everyone else treats him as Giacomo V – and his true identity is revealed. So, Rossini's simple boat song tells us the setting, introduces the character of Elena, and is an essential part of tying up the loose ends of the plot. Not bad for just one little boat song.
Joyce DiDonato as Elena and Juan Diego Flórez as Uberto in La donna del lago © ROH / Bill Cooper 2013
Daniela Barcellona as Malcom and Joyce DiDonato as Elena in La donna del lago © ROH / Bill Cooper 2013
La donna del lago runs until 11 June. Tickets for the performances at Covent Garden are very limited but the opera will be relayed live into cinemas around the world on Monday 27 May.
The production is sponsored by the Peter Moores Foundation and the Friends of Covent Garden with generous philanthropic support from Celia Blakey, Hélène and Jean Peters, Judith Portrait and Susan and John Singer. The Production Director generously supported by Hamish and Sophie Forsyth.]]>
La donna del lago runs until 11 June. Tickets at Covent Garden are no longer available though the performance on 27 May will be relayed live into cinemas around the world.
The production is sponsored by the Peter Moores Foundation and the Friends of Covent Garden with generous philanthropic support from Celia Blakey, Hélène and Jean Peters, Judith Portrait and Susan and John Singer. The Production Director generously supported by Hamish and Sophie Forsyth.]]>
The Story Begins…
The Highlanders seek to maintain independence from the rule of the King of Scotland. Elena, daughter of the rebel Duglas, is in love with the young warrior Malcom, but her father is determined that she will marry the Highland chief Rodrigo. Will Elena choose love or duty? And who is the handsome stranger Uberto, who seems so interested in Elena?
Homage to History
John Fulljames celebrates Scotland in this production: both Scotland at the time of Sir Walter Scott and Rossini (when fascination with Scots history was at its height) and the historic Scotland in which the opera is set. The production highlights the beauty of Scottish landscape, of which the heroine, Elena, is a symbol, while not forgetting the struggles and battles that feature in all retellings of Scottish history. Read John Fulljames's thoughts on Sir Walter Scott's appeal.
A Musical Feast
La donna del lago is both intensely dramatic and full of lyrical beauty. Highlights of the opera include Elena's opening aria 'O mattutini albori!' – one of Rossini's most beautiful melodies – and her triumphant rondo 'Tanti affetti in tal momento', which closes the opera; Malcom's ardent 'Elena! O tu che chiamo!' in Act I; and several large-scale ensembles and choruses, including a Chorus of Bards at the end of Act I, scored for male voices, harp and pizzicato violas, cellos and double basses.
From Political Drama to Romance
Rossini and his librettist Andrea Leone Tottola based La donna del lago on Sir Walter Scott's hugely popular narrative poem The Lady of the Lake. Scott's poem deals with themes of perpetual fascination for Rossini: romance, politics, nationalism and the conflict between love and duty.
An Exciting Rediscovery
La donna del lago was first performed at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, in 1819. It was enormously popular and was soon being performed around Europe. However, after the early 1850s it all but disappeared from the repertory for a century. Interest in the opera was revived from 1958, the beginning of the 'bel canto revival'. Since then, the opera has increasingly become part of the repertory, with key productions including those at Covent Garden (1985), La Scala (1992 and 2011) and Paris Opéra (2010).
La donna del lago runs until 11 June. Tickets at Covent Garden are no longer available though the performance on 27 May will be relayed live into cinemas around the world.
The production is sponsored by the Peter Moores Foundation and the Friends of Covent Garden with generous philanthropic support from Celia Blakey, Hélène and Jean Peters, Judith Portrait and Susan and John Singer. The Production Director generously supported by Hamish and Sophie Forsyth.]]>
What did you think of La donna del lago?
La donna del lago runs until 11 June. Tickets at Covent Garden are no longer available though the performance on 27 May will be relayed live into cinemas around the world.
The production is sponsored by the Peter Moores Foundation and the Friends of Covent Garden with generous philanthropic support from Celia Blakey, Hélène and Jean Peters, Judith Portrait and Susan and John Singer. The Production Director generously supported by Hamish and Sophie Forsyth.]]>
Update: Read Joyce's answers to this Q&A
On Monday 20 May, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato will be joining us for a live Q&A on Twitter at 5pm BST.
What we'll be asking her is up to you, so send us your questions via the comments area below or on Twitter using the hashtag #AskJoyce. You might want to ask her about her favourite role, the current production of La donna del lago or what it's like performing in front of tens of thousands when an opera is relayed live to cinemas around the world.
Joyce is singing the role of Elena in John Fulljames's Royal Opera production of La donna del lago. She's previously sung at Covent Garden in The Cunning Little Vixen, Don Giovanni, Cendrillon, Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), which she memorably performed in a wheelchair after breaking her leg.
We'll ask Joyce a selection of your questions from 5pm BST on the day, so make sure you follow us on Twitter before then. Recent Q&As include 'twinterviews' with The Royal Opera's John Tomlinson, The Royal Ballet's Marianela Nunez and Thiago Soares, and Gary Avis.
What would you like to ask Joyce DiDonato?
Joyce is currently performing in La donna del lago, which will be relayed live to cinemas around the world on 27 May. Find your nearest cinema.]]>
What poem would you love to turn into an opera?
La donna del lago runs from 17 May – 11 June. Tickets at Covent Garden are no longer available though the performance on 27 May will be relayed live into cinemas around the world.
The production is sponsored by the Peter Moores Foundation and the Friends of Covent Garden with generous philanthropic support from Celia Blakey, Hélène and Jean Peters, Judith Portrait and Susan and John Singer. The Production Director generously supported by Hamish and Sophie Forsyth.]]>
Rossini's La donna del lago is something of an underperformed gem: John Fulljames's new production, which opens on 17 May, is the first time the opera has been performed by The Royal Opera since 1985.
The opera is based on The Lady of the Lake, a poem by Sir Walter Scott, whose work has inspired more than eighty operas.
'I've become fascinated by the world in which Walter Scott was writing,' explains John. 'I hope that, when the curtain rises on La donna del lago, you will enjoy seeing how this giant of Scottish literature has inspired The Royal Opera.'
Set in the atmospheric surroundings of the Scottish highlands, the opera explores themes of landscape, kingship and nationhood.
'Landscape is essential for understanding this piece,' says John. 'The emotional impact of the highlands is central to the story. In the opera, landscape is personified in the character of Elena. She is the landscape, she is Scotland.'
To find out more about La donna del lago, watch the model showing, in which John discusses some of his ideas behind the design of the production. John also recently wrote an article about the appeal of Sir Walter Scott. Read the full article here.
Let us know what you think of the trailer, and if you'll be seeing the production on stage or in cinemas.
La donna del lago opens on 17 May 2013 and runs until 11 June. Tickets are available here. La donna del lago will be relayed live to cinemas around the world on Monday 27 May.
The production is sponsored by the Peter Moores Foundation and the Friends of Covent Garden with generous philanthropic support from Celia Blakey, Hélène and Jean Peters, Judith Portrait and Susan and John Singer. The Production Director generously supported by Hamish and Sophie Forsyth.]]>
Walter Scott's work was the inspiration for more than eighty operas, most written in the first half of the 19th century. The first of these was Rossini's La donna del lago, which I will direct in a new Royal Opera production this spring. Opera was a key medium for the spread of Scott's popularity through Europe and it is interesting to think about why his work was taken up so enthusiastically by operatic composers.
I believe that it's the mix of romanticism and nationalism, often with a heady dose of the supernatural thrown in, which so inspired composers. Opera has always been concerned with building a case for what philosopher Mladen Dolar calls the 'myth of community'; either as court opera in the 18th century or as state opera later in the 19th century. Writing at a time when nations were being born, Scott offers a view of a community that had its roots in customs, value and culture. This is romantic nationalism. Scott tries to help us see who we are, by inventing who we were.
Getting to know La donna del lago, I've found that this particular opera comes to life when we view it as 'national myth making' and read the story in the context of Scott's own life: his stage-management of King George IV's visit to Edinburgh, his claimed discovery of the regalia of Scotland, and his raising of a private militia when he feared that a revolution might be coming from across the Channel all feel like events which are in the same world as opera's story.
For me, Scott's work lives on most vividly through adaptation rather than through the original prose or poetry. His work is at its most engaging and powerful to modern eyes and ears when his ideas, fantasy and invention are revealed through adaptation and biography.
We're very excited then that our stage adaptation coincides with a season of programmes about, and adapted from the work of, the author on BBC Radio 4.
The series will include 'The Man who made Scotland', a documentary about Scott presented by James Naughtie; radio adaptations of his works, beginning with The Fair Maid of Perth; and an Open Book special to be recorded live at the Royal Opera House.
Over one hundred and eighty years on from his birth, Scott continues to inspire and I hope that, when the curtain rises on La donna del lago on 17 May, you will enjoy seeing how this giant of Scottish literature has inspired The Royal Opera.
La donna del lago runs from 17 May – 11 June 2013.
The production is sponsored by the Peter Moores Foundation and the Friends of Covent Garden with generous philanthropic support from Celia Blakey, Hélène and Jean Peters, Judith Portrait and Susan and John Singer. The Production Director generously supported by Hamish and Sophie Forsyth.]]>
As I prepare for the London opening night of David Bruce's The Firework-Maker's Daughter, I've been thinking about how we introduce young people to opera.
Opera is a diverse art form but historically there hasn't been a strong strand of repertoire aimed specifically at engaging young audiences. Of course, there are those who cry that opera is an acquired taste and fundamentally an art form for the mature. However, there is a risk that this translates all too easily into a philosophy that the delight of the first-timer and the child is somehow less important than the response of the initiated.
James Laing as Hamlet and Andrew Slater as Rambashi in The Firework-Maker's Daughter © Robert Workman
Mary Bevan as Lila, Andrew Slater as Rambashi, James Laing, Amar Muchhala and Wyn Pencarreg as pirates in The Firework-Maker's Daughter © Robert Workman
Young people are now rightly seen as equally valid makers and consumers of culture of all kinds. Last month we invited a focus group of young people from Charles Dickens Primary School in Stockwell into our rehearsal room. It was so helpful to have them there, giving us feedback on how the story was told and what they liked and disliked in the production and performances. This is an audience that is able to open its ears and listen without prejudice – an audience that happily listens to all genres without understanding that we impose arcane rules and boundaries between them. It's an audience that we ignore at our peril, as their literacy is key to the future of our art form.
The literature and film worlds are far more developed in this area than the music and theatre worlds and of course much of the best work for young audiences engages all ages – like Shrek, Harry Potter or Hansel and Gretel. The Firework-Maker's Daughter is the first of many operas for young audiences at the Royal Opera House. Julian Philips and Ed Kemp are writing a new work that will have its premiere in December 2013. Their production will be directed by the brilliant Natalie Abrahami, former Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre, and designed by Tom Scutt (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Constellations). Looking further ahead, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Unsuk Chin are both working on new operas, which we hope will delight young audiences.
Read more about new work planned for The Royal Opera.
John Fulljames's new production of The Firework-Maker's Daughter is in the Linbury Studio Theatre 3 - 13 April 2013. It is a co-production with The Opera Group and Opera North, and is generously supported by Mrs Lily Safra and the Paul Hamlyn Education Fund.]]>
Stage director Pedro Ribeiro is now in the final months of his time with the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme. Since joining in 2011, he has directed productions in the Linbury Studio Theatre and assisted some of the world's most renowned opera directors, including Francesca Zambello, Robert Carsen and John Copley. It's a long way from his first experience of opera, which he describes as anything but positive: 'It was awful. I never wanted to go to the theatre again'.
Pedro began studying music when he was five, playing both the piano and harp. He was also involved in theatre at school, and went on to take a BA in Theatre Production and Techniques, a Licenciatura degree in Stage Direction at the University of Oporto and the opera directing course of the Gulbenkian Foundation.
Despite his negative first impressions, Pedro now considers opera the perfect art form for him to work with. 'It was always a fight between music and theatre. I would play in an orchestra or ensemble by day and then go and direct a play in the evening! I knew I needed something to combine them or else I would just go mad', he explained.
Opera enables me to be immersed in theatre, music, arts and dance all at once. It fills me up."
Pedro made his Royal Opera House debut with a staging of Berlioz's Les nuits d'été in the Linbury. Since then, he has directed an evening of opera scenes in the smaller of the ROH's two auditoriums as well as a concert performance on the Main Stage.
This Season, he has worked with Laurent Pelly on Meyerbeer's epic Robert le diable and with Kasper Holten on Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. 'After two years, your ears get used to hearing superstars like Angela Gheorghiu, or Krassimira Stoyanova, who recently sang Tatyana in Eugene Onegin. It's overwhelming. You also have the best orchestra playing and amazing stage management behind you.'
Pedro is currently assisting director Daniele Abbado on his new production of Verdi's Nabucco, which opens at Covent Garden on 30 March following its premiere at Teatro alla Scala in Milan. The opera, which is considered Verdi's breakthrough work, is an historical epic and features an enormous chorus. 'Organizing the schedule for such a large opera - with chorus, actors, children, principals and covers - is an all-consuming task,' he explains.
The Jette Parker Young Artists Programme employs promising young artists as salaried members of the Royal Opera House, offering a tailored programme to help them develop and refine their skills. Pedro has language classes in Russian, Italian, French and German, attends stagecraft workshops and has sessions in the Alexander Technique and Mind Skills. 'Where else can you be working and have all the coaching you want at the same time?' he said. 'It's perfect!'.
Nabucco runs from 30 March - 26 April 2013. Pedro will also be assisting Associate Director of Opera John Fulljames on his new production of La donna del lago, which opens on 17 May. The Jette Parker Young Artists Programme is supported by the Oak Foundation.]]>
If you could turn any book into a ballet or opera, which would you choose?
Those of a literary bent may enjoy Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (16 March - 13 April) The Metamorphosis (16 - 23 March), Kafka Fragments (28 - 30 March), The Firework-Maker's Daughter (3 - 13 April) and Hansel and Gretel (8 - 11 May), and Raven Girl (24 May - 8 June).]]>
A new opera based on the Philip Pullman children's novel of the same name, The Firework-Maker's Daughter has been adapted for the lyric stage by director John Fulljames.
'It feels like the dream book to take as the starting point for an opera,' says John, 'it's got a fantastic story, it's full of magical adventure, and it takes place in a fantasy world which is ideal for setting to music.'
The opera examines at the relationship of the young Lila who desperately wants to be a firework-maker like her father, but he claims it is no job for a girl. She runs away to learn the trade, meeting pirates, tigers and the terrifying Fire-Fiend on the way. 'She goes on a journey to the ends of the world in order to prove to herself, as well as to her father, what she can achieve.'
John's production reflects one of the inspirations behind Pullman's original, Balinese shadow puppetry, while composer David Bruce's music is folk-inspired: 'It's impossible not to smile when you hear it'. The director promises a fun theatrical spectacle for audiences.
The Firework-Maker's Daughter runs from 3 - 13 April 2013 in the Linbury. Tickets are still available.]]>
Composers have often written roles with particular singers in mind. Mozart wrote the stratospherically high part of Die Zauberflöte's Queen of the Night for his sister-in-law Josepha Hofer; Rossini wrote many virtuosic high mezzo-soprano roles such as Elena in La donna del lago for his mistress (later wife) Isabella Colbran; and Britten's great tenor roles were all inspired by the unique voice of his partner Peter Pears.
We thought we'd take a look at some examples of recent Royal Opera commissions with roles written for specific singers:
Harrison Birtwistle - Gawain and The Minotaur
The roles of Green Knight (Gawain) and Minotaur (The Minotaur) were created for John Tomlinson.
Harrison Birtwistle and John Tomlinson first worked together when Tomlinson recorded the role of the Doctor in Birtwistle's Punch and Judy in 1979. When The Royal Opera commissioned Birtwistle to write Gawain, which premiered 12 years later, Birtwistle wrote the role of the majestic Green Knight specifically for Tomlinson. He modelled the character's vocal range on that of Wotan in Wagner's Ring Cycle, the role in which Tomlinson had made his Bayreuth Festival debut to great acclaim in 1988.
When Birtwistle was commissioned to write a second work for The Royal Opera, he chose the Greek myth of the Minotaur. From the start he envisaged the central role of the half-man, half-bull as being sung by Tomlinson, telling his publisher Boosey and Hawkes that "imagining John Tomlinson on stage in the lead role was integral to the whole project". David Harsent, Birtwistle's librettist, agreed, noting that he had Tomlinson's voice in mind when he wrote the libretto. Birtwistle based the vocal range and style of the Minotaur on another great Tomlinson Wagner role, Hagen in Götterdämmerung (which Tomlinson has sung many times for The Royal Opera). John Tomlinson was thrilled with the role of the Minotaur, telling MusicWeb that "the music was superb… it was perfect for me. There was a wonderful use of my bass voice with those haunting monologues and then the dramatic stuff in the public scenes".
Thomas Adès - The Tempest
The role of Prospero was created for Simon Keenlyside, and the role of Ariel for Cyndia Sieden.
Thomas Adès in his first Royal Opera commission created the central role of Prospero for British baritone Simon Keenlyside. Adès envisaged Prospero as a young, vigorous man rather than an elderly magician, and chose Keenlyside not only for his vocal gifts but also for his skill as a physical actor. Adès also wrote the spectacularly high and virtuosic role of the spirit Ariel for the American coloratura soprano Cyndia Sieden. The part is one of the hardest written for soprano: it ranges higher than the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, and the singer has to sing 17 high Es in the first few minutes of her first scene. Not surprisingly, Sieden is one of the few singers who can perform the role of Ariel (her singing at the world premiere of The Tempest was described as 'almost out of this world' by the Guardian. She has sung the part in four different productions of the opera.
Other singers in the world premiere cast of The Tempest may have influenced Adès's writing. For example, Adès's first Caliban was the British lyric tenor Ian Bostridge, whose particular vocal quality suits Adès's concept of the role, more wistful and lyrical than Shakespeare's original.
Mark-Anthony Turnage - Anna Nicole
The role of Anna Nicole was created for Eva-Maria Westbroek, and the role of the Lawyer Stern for Gerald Finley.
Eva-Maria Westbroek was recruited for the role of Playboy model Anna Nicole by the director Richard Jones, who'd worked with her on Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk for The Royal Opera in 2006 and been very impressed by her vocal and dramatic skills. When Jones was booked to direct Anna Nicole, he immediately thought of Westbroek for the title role. As she told Musical Criticism: "I was in a record shop in London… and bumped into Richard! He said, 'we want you for this opera written by Turnage.'" Westbroek went on to work extensively with composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and his librettist Richard Thomas as they created the opera. Westbroek enjoyed the challenges of the role (including some flamboyant coloratura for Anna Nicole's drug-fuelled rage in Act II) and later told the Independent: "this creative experience was one of the most exciting things I've ever been part of." Turnage stressed the importance of both Westbroek and Gerald Finley (who played Anna's lover, Lawyer Stern) in his compositional process, telling Boosey and Hawkes "I had the voices of Eva-Maria Westbroek and Gerald Finley in my head from the start".
The Minotaur returns to The Royal Opera from 17 - 28 January 2013. Tickets are still available.]]>


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Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems (NSF-NCS). NSF announces a solicitation to support transformative and integrative research that will accelerate understanding of neural and cognitive systems. This call for bold proposals that transcend disciplinary perspectives and approaches is a part of NSF's broader investment in cognitive science and neuroscience, a multi-year effort that includes its participation in the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. See the solicitation for more information.
I/UCRCs focused on Understanding the Brain's Structure and Function. NSF welcomes proposals for the establishment of Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers in areas related to brain imaging and identifying structure-behavior relationships. See the Dear Colleague Letter for more information.
International Collaboration Opportunities related to the NSF Investments in Understanding the Brain. NSF is interested in promoting international scientific cooperation that links scientists and engineers from a range of disciplines and organizations across international borders. See the Dear Colleague Letter for more information about this initiative.
I/UCRCS in Areas Relevant to the Forensic Sciences. The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) have partnered as co-sponsors to welcome proposals for the establishment of Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers in areas relevant to the forensic sciences. See the Dear Colleague Letter for more information.
Youth Violence: Opportunity for Breakthroughs in Fundamental Basic Research. SBE announces a special interest in basic research addressing the causes and consequences of violence perpetrated by and against youth. The goal is to stimulate research that addresses theoretical understanding of the contributors to youth violence and to its reduction. More information is available in our Dear Colleague Letter.
Stimulating Research Related to the Science of Broadening Participation. Building on previous investments, the Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences (SBE) and the Directorate for Education & Human Resources (EHR) announce their interest in stimulating research related to the Science of Broadening Participation (SBP). For complete details concerning this endeavor, see its Dear Colleague Letter. Two other SBP-related DCLs that include SBE involvement include: Announcement of Effort to Broaden the Participation of Students in Two-Year Hispanic Serving Institutions in STEM and Stimulating Research on Effective Strategies in Undergraduate STEM Education at Two-Year Hispanic Serving Institutions.
Research on Privacy in Today's Networked World. SBE and the Directorate of Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) invite investigators to submit proposals that address the need to develop new and deeper understandings of privacy in today's networked world. See its Dear Colleague Letter for more information.
Stimulating Integrative Research in Computational Cognition. NSF is currently welcoming proposals in the Computational Cognition field. The aim is to encourage active dialogue across the cognitive and computational communities, facilitate bidirectional cross-fertilization of ideas, and nurture emerging areas of transdisciplinary research. See our Dear Colleague Letter for details on this initiative.
Forensic Science: Opportunity for Breakthroughs in Fundamental and Basic Research and Education. NSF is currently welcoming proposals that meet the agency's basic science mission while also potentially contributing to the advancement of forensic applications. For more information concerning this, see its Dear Colleague Letter.
Assessing the Impacts of Recent and On-going Changes in Federal Science Policy. The Science of Science and Innovation Policy (SciSIP) program's core mission is to advance the scientific basis of science and innovation policies. See this Dear Colleague Letter to learn about the program's funding opportunities associated with the scientific analysis of the implementation and impacts of recent science policy initiatives.
Interdisciplinary Research Across the SBE Sciences, Including a New Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social Sciences (IBSS) Competition. Based on feedback gathered during the SBE 2020 visioning process and presented in Rebuilding the Mosaic, the Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences (SBE) encourages investigators to submit proposals that go beyond the boundaries of traditional disciplines, span across the existing core SBE programs, or extend outside the SBE sciences. A new Dear Colleague Letter outlines a range of options for pursuing support for interdisciplinary research that bridges the social, behavioral, and economic (SBE) sciences. Among these options is a new competition for Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (IBSS). Consult the IBSS website and the IBSS solicitation for more information.
The US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Research Councils UK (RCUK) have a long history of collaboration in supporting research through both bilateral activities and multilateral arrangements. Both organizations agree that - as research becomes increasingly global in nature - it is important for funding agencies to continue to identify and develop flexible mechanisms to foster and support collaborative international research.
The Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences (SBE) of the NSF and the Research Councils UK (RCUK) are pleased to announce the SBE-RCUK Lead Agency Funding Opportunity. The goal of this funding opportunity is to reduce some of the barriers to working internationally that researchers currently encounter. This funding opportunity builds upon an existing Lead Agency Agreement between SBE and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) of the UK that was started in 2009. It expands upon that agreement to include other United Kingdom Research Councils that fund research in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences.
If you are interested in US-UK collaborative research opportunities, please review the special guidelines to learn more about the review process and criteria established under the SBE-RCUK Lead Agency Agreement.
Resource Implementations for Data Intensive Research in the Social Behavioral and Economic Sciences
Posted November 24, 2014
Research on the Science and Technology Enterprise: Statistics and Surveys - R&D, U.S. S&T Competitiveness, STEM Education, S&T Workforce
Posted November 20, 2014
National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure
Posted November 18, 2014
EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Program: Track-2
Posted November 17, 2014
Law & Social Sciences
Posted November 7, 2014
Archaeology and Archaeometry
Full Proposal:
December 1, 2014, Archaeometry
Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies
Full Proposal:
December 1, 2014, Capacity-Building Projects (CAPs)
Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social Science Research
Full Proposal:
December 2, 2014, Full proposal submission deadline
Interdisciplinary Research in Hazards and Disasters
Full Proposal:
December 3, 2014
Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems
Letter of Intent:
December 10, 2014, INTEGRATIVE FOUNDATIONS
Overall FY 2014 SBE funding rate: 19%
December 3, 2014
Introducing NSF's new program: Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems
December 8, 2014
NSF Day in Baltimore, MD


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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A Festivus pole made of beer cans will be on display at the Capitol in response to a nativity scene put on display last week.
Chaz Stevens of Deerfield Beach plans to put up his display on Wednesday. It is a six-foot tall pole made of empty Pabst Blue Ribbon cans and is part of a celebration of a non-secular holiday featured on a 1997 episode of "Seinfeld."
A group called the Florida Nativity Scene Committee put up their depiction of Jesus' birth last week, followed two days later by a banner from the Freedom From Religion Foundation that expresses support for the separation of government and religion.
The Department of Management Services approved Stevens' application to display the pole.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)