Christophe Colomb
Music by Darius Milhaud · libretto by Paul Claudel · premiered 1930 · at Berlin State Opera
Christophe Colomb (Christopher Columbus) is an opera in two parts by the French composer Darius Milhaud. The poet Paul Claudel wrote the libretto based on his own play about the life of Christopher Columbus, Le Livre de Christophe Colomb. The opera was first performed at the Staatsoper, Berlin, on 5 May 1930 in a German translation by Rudolph Stephan Hoffmann. Milhaud thoroughly revised the work and produced a second version around 1955. The opera is on a large scale and requires many resources for its staging. As in many of his other works, Milhaud employs polytonality in parts of the score.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Christophe Colomb", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Darius Milhaud (French: [daʁjys mijo]; Provençal: [miˈjawt]; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and Brazilian music and make extensive use of polytonality. Milhaud is considered one of the key modernist composers. He taught many future jazz and classical composers, including Burt Bacharach, Dave Brubeck, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, György Kurtág, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis among others.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Darius Milhaud", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Darius Milhaud
- L'Abandon d'Ariane (1891)
- L'Orestie d'Eschyle (1913)
- La Délivrance de Thésée (1927)
- David (1954)