| Wuthering Heights | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Bernard Herrmann | |
&sq=Google&lang=en&file=File:Bernard-Herrmann.jpg) The composer c. 1970 | |
| Librettist | Lucille Fletcher |
| Language | English |
| Based on | Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights |
| Premiere | November 6, 1982 (shortened) |
Wuthering Heights is the sole opera written by Bernard Herrmann. He worked on it from 1943 to 1951. It is cast in a prologue, 4 acts, and an epilogue that repeats the music of the prologue.[1] The opera was recorded in full by the composer in 1966, but it had to wait until April 2011, the centenary of the composer's birth, for a complete theatrical performance[2] (there was an abridged stage production in 1982 and a concert version in 2010).
The libretto was by Herrmann's first wife, Lucille Fletcher, based on the first part of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel of the same name. Fletcher also interpolated some text from the second part of the novel, and from some unrelated poems by Emily Brontë (such as "I have been wandering through the Green Woods").[1] By the time the work was finished, Fletcher and Herrmann had divorced and he had married her cousin Lucy.
Although the work is largely unknown, Lucille Fletcher said it was "perhaps the closest to his talent and heart".[1]
- ^ a b c "Bernard Herrmann". chesternovello.com. Retrieved September 7, 2015.
- ^ "Minnesota Opera offers superb production of Herrmann's remarkable Wuthering Heights". MinnPost. Retrieved September 7, 2015.