Opera: In Need of a Laugh

Comic opera is an elusive and diffi cult form to bring off successfully, and for most composers the first attempt is the last. Now Hans Werner Henze, a severely modernist composer who con sidered that any music that had a tune was not serious, has taken his first plunge and found himself with a re sounding success. Premiered at West Berlin's Deutsche Oper, The Young Lord has been a solid sellout for each of its seven performances.

Local Shock. The libretto is based on German Novelist Wilhelm Hauff's tale of a wealthy English intellectual who settles in a small...

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