A Village Romeo and Juliet
Music by Frederick Delius
A Village Romeo and Juliet is an opera by Frederick Delius, the fourth of his six operas. The composer, with his wife Jelka, wrote the English-language libretto based on the novellla Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe by Swiss author Gottfried Keller from his collection Seldwyla Folks (Die Leute von Seldwyla). Keller was inspired by a newspaper notice about the suicide of a young couple; he then set the story in a Swiss village torn by a feud between two neighbouring families, similar to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Text from the Wikipedia article "A Village Romeo and Juliet", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Frederick Theodore Albert Delius (born Fritz Theodor Albert Delius; ; 29 January 1862 – 10 June 1934) was an English composer. Born in Bradford in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce. He was sent to Florida in the United States in 1884 to manage an orange plantation. He soon neglected his managerial duties, and in 1886 returned to Europe. Having been influenced by African-American music during his short stay in Florida, he began composing. After a brief period of formal musical study in Germany beginning in 1886, he embarked on a full-time career as a composer in Paris and then in nearby Grez-sur-Loing, where he and his…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Frederick Delius", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Frederick Delius
- Irmelin (1890)
- Fennimore and Gerda (1908)