Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) started with a story about a lecherous magistrate and his desire for the miller’s virtuous wife (El corregidor y la molinera) and revised it into The Three-Cornered Hat (El sombrero de tres picos, 1917). As a

Brixi In Moravian folklore, the “Brixi” is not actually a river. Rather it describes a mythical creature that secretly rises from the Morava River during the summer solstice to take a long bath in the moonlight. According to local lore,

Bilder aus Osten (Pictures from the East), 6 Impromptus for piano 4-hands, written 1848, came at a time in Schumann’s life when he was bothered by a number of problems. He had recurring bouts of tinnitus when all he could

Alessandro Marcello (1673-1747) lived a rather charmed life! As the son of a senator and a member of Venetian nobility he presided—together with his more famous brother Benedetto—on the city high council. He studied law at the Collegio di S.

In looking over Jules Verne’s masterpiece of the science-fiction submarine novel, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, we came upon a passage that we didn’t remember. The Scientist, Professor Aronnax, is being shown around the Nautilus by Captain Nemo and after

Darius Milhaud grew up in a Latin-Mediterranean cultural milieu that particularly valued Italian music. When a young man wrote to him about Wagner’s theories that all art “springs from suffering, unhappiness, and frustration,” he replied. “I am glad you decided

Italy, the veritable land of music and delicious food! Can you tell the difference between great Italian dishes and Italian composers? Cambini Although we might easily imagine Cambini to be a lightly sautéed seafood dish from the Tuscany region, it

In our series of unsung concertos, here comes a composition that is actually sung but the words are not articulated! As we all know, the human voice has long been considered the quintessential musical instrument. Capable of producing an intricate