Opera
- Benjamin Britten – Billy Budd, with libretto by E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier
- Paul Dessau – The Trial of Lucullus, with libretto by Bertolt Brecht (March 18, Berlin), despite rumours that the work would be forbidden by the East German authorities.
- Marcel Landowski – Le Rire de Nils Halerius
- Gian-Carlo Menotti – Amahl and the Night Visitors
- Igor Stravinsky – The Rake's Progress, with libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman
- Ralph Vaughan Williams – The Pilgrim's Progress
Read more about this topic: 1951 In Music
Famous quotes containing the word opera:
“I have witnessed, and greatly enjoyed, the first act of everything which Wagner created, but the effect on me has always been so powerful that one act was quite sufficient; whenever I have witnessed two acts I have gone away physically exhausted; and whenever I have ventured an entire opera the result has been the next thing to suicide.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Opera once was an important social instrument—especially in Italy. With Rossini and Verdi people were listening to opera together and having the same catharsis with the same story, the same moral dilemmas. They were holding hands in the darkness. That has gone. Now perhaps they are holding hands watching television.”
—Luciano Berio (b. 1925)
“The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one.”
—Jean De La Bruyère (1645–1696)