Today we look at an army officer and a teacher of
fortifications, a Russian of French and Lithuanian descent. No,
I haven’t gone crazy, as he has particular significance in the
history of music, being both a composer and music critic, and
one of the members of The Five, or the mighty handful. He is
César Cui, Born on this day in 1835. Continuing on in the Opera
tradition, today we look at an opera buffa or comic opera. One
of the last operas composed by this composer, it returns to the
stock characters of the commedia dell’arte. Donizetti’s Don
Pasquale, premiered on this day in 1843. Today we look at an
opera that shows early attempts of the styles that would
characterise the composers later works. Inspired through a
stormy sea crossing, and a retelling by Heinrich Heine in a
satirical novel "The Memoirs of Mister von Scnabelewopski" this
opera focusses on a ship captain, condemned to sail until
Judgement Day. Der fliegende Holländer, or The Flying Dutchman,
by Richard Wagner, premiered on this day in 1843.