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:
“The real exertion in the case of an opera singer lies not so much in her singing as in her acting of a role, for nearly every modern opera makes great dramatic and physical demands.”
—Maria Jeritza (1887–1982)
“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)
“I wish the opera was every night. It is, of all entertainments, the sweetest and most delightful. Some of the songs seemed to melt my very soul.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)