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:
“If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves.... The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Brünnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“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)
“The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one.”
—Jean De La Bruyère (1645–1696)