Stage Works

Music for the stage comes in a variety of different combinations and hybrids as dictated by the work that it is set for. Stage works have a longer history than opera, stretching back to the mystery plays and masques of medieval Europe and even further to Rome and Ancient Greece. Usually music was used either for the occasional song or dance within the play itself or used during the intervals when stage props were changed. Some examples might suffice: in the 18th century the English composer Henry Purcell wrote a number of 'semi-operas' which inter linked songs, dances and musical interludes with spoken texts. In the 19th century a number of great composers wrote stage works, the most famous of which are Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Grieg's music for Ibsen's Peer Gynt. In the 20th and 21st centuries the successor to incidental music has been the film score.

Key Works: Beethoven: Egmont, Faure: Pelleas et Melisanade, Grieg: Peer Gynt, Kabalevesky: The Comedians, Mendelssohn: A Midsummer NIght's Dream, Purcell: The Fairy Queen, Schubert: Rosamunde