Opera
- Malcolm Arnold – The Open Window, Op. 56 (opera in one act, libretto by S. Gilliat, after Saki), premiered on December 14, 1956 on BBC TV
- Leonard Bernstein – Candide (comic operetta in two acts, libretto by Lillian Hellman, R. Wilbur, J. La Touche, D. Parker, and Bernstein, after Voltaire)
- William Bergsma – The Wife of Martin Guerre (opera in three acts, libretto by J. Lewis)
- Wolfgang Fortner – Bluthochzeit (opera in two acts, after Federico García Lorca)
- Arnold Franchetti – The Game of Cards (opera in one act, libretto by the composer)
- Kenneth Gaburo – Blur (opera in one act, libretto by the composer)
- Hans Werner Henze – König Hirsch (opera in three acts, libretto by H. von Cramer, after Carlo Gozzi)
- Ben Johnston – Gertrude, or Would She Be Pleased to Receive It? (chamber opera in two acts, libretto by W. Leach)
- Leonard Kastle – The Swing (thirteen-minute television opera, broadcast at noon on Sunday, June 10, 1956 on NBC television)
- Frank Martin – Der Sturm (opera in three acts, libretto after William Shakespeare, in a German translation by A.W. von Schlege)
- Douglas Moore – The Ballad of Baby Doe
- Gino Negri – Vieni qui, Carla (opera in one act, after Alberto Moravia's Gli indifferenti)
- Elie Siegmeister – Miranda and the Dark Young Man (opera in one act, libretto by Edward Eager)
- Robert Ward – He Who Gets Slapped (libretto by Bernard Stambler), staged under the title Pantaloon
Read more about this topic: 1956 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)
“The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one.”
—Jean De La Bruyère (1645–1696)
“The opera isn’t over till the fat lady sings.”
—Anonymous.
A modern proverb along the lines of “don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.” This form of words has no precise origin, though both Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (16th ed., 1992)