- Music based on the works of Oscar Wilde
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This is an incomplete list of music based on the works of Oscar Wilde.
Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet, novelist, short story writer and wit, whose works have been the basis of a considerable number of musical works by noted composers. In classical genres, these include operas, ballets, incidental music, symphonic poems, orchestral suites and single pieces, cantatas, and songs and song cycles. Of more recent times, some have been the subject of musicals and film scores. Some are direct settings of Wilde's words or libretti based on them, and some are wordless settings inspired by his writings.
List of works
The works of Oscar Wilde that have been set to music include:
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Poem
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Gavin Friday, Maurice Seezer Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves song 1989 Jacques Ibert La Ballade de la geôle de Reading ballet 1920 published in a version by Ibert for piano duet in 1924 Donald Swann The Poetic Image: A Victorian Song Cycle song cycle 1991 Swann set certain parts of the Ballad, along with The Harlot's House and other texts by Tennyson, Christina Rossetti, and John Clare Arthur Wills The Sacrifice of God choral 1986 4-part choir and organ; words from Psalm 51 and The Ballad of Reading Gaol; composed on the death of the composer's young niece[1] Henri Zagwijn declamation with music in Dutch Pete Doherty quotes the stanza beginning with "I never saw a man who looked/with such a wistful eye" in Broken Love Song on his solo album Grace/Wastelands.
Les Ballons
Les Ballons (The Balloons) is a short poem, the second of the two Fantaisies Décoratives, the first being Le Panneau (The Panel).
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Charles Griffes Les Ballons song c. 1912 Griffes composed a song to this text in c. 1912, revising it in 1915. It was published in 1986.[2] The Birthday of the Infanta
Short story
Composer Title Genre Date Notes John Alden Carpenter The Birthday of the Infanta ballet 1919 Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco The Birthday of the Infanta, Op. 115 ballet 1942 premiered New Orleans, 1947; an orchestral suite was produced in 1944 Wolfgang Fortner Die weisse Rose (The White Rose) ballet 1949-50 [3] Elisabeth Lutyens The Birthday of the Infanta ballet 1932 Miklós Radnai Az infánsznö születésnapja (The Birthday of the Infanta) ballet 1918 premiered Budapest Opera House, 26 April 1918 Franz Schreker Der Geburtstag der Infantin ballet-pantomime 1908 rev. as Spanisches Fest, 1923 Franz Schreker Spanisches Fest (Spanish Festival) ballet-pantomime 1923 revised version of Der Geburtstag der Infantin, 1908 Bernhard Sekles Der Zwerg und die Infantin (The Dwarf and the Infanta), Op. 22 ballet 1913 Alexander von Zemlinsky Der Zwerg (The Dwarf), Op. 17 opera 1919-21 libretto by George C. Klaren based on Wilde (although he took many liberties); premiered Neues Theater, Cologne, 28 May 1922, conducted by Otto Klemperer; in 1981 a new production by director Adolf Dresen was staged in Hamburg - this did away with Klaren's textual changes and was presented as Der Geburtstag der Infantin Otakar Zítek O růzi (On the Rose) ballet 1941-42 Zítek 1894-1955 [4] The Canterville Ghost
Short story (1887)
Composer Title Genre Date Notes George Bassman The Canterville Ghost film score 1944 [1] Alexander Knaifel The Canterville Ghost opera 1966 Jaroslav Křička Bily pan (The Gentleman in White), Op. 30 opera 1927-29 2 acts, with libretto by Jan Löwenbach-Budin; a 3-act version Spuk im Schloss was produced in 1931 Jaroslav Křička Spuk im Schloss, oder Böse Zeiten fur Gespenster opera 1931 3 acts; a revised version of his 2-act 1929 opera Bily pan Sergei Vasilenko The Garden of Death ("after Oscar Wilde"), Op. 13 symphonic poem 1907-08 Vasilenko's title is sometimes said to have come from one of Wilde's poems, but he wrote no such poem. It comes from a passage in Chapter V of The Canterville Ghost where the character Virginia is speaking with the eponymous ghost and asks it where it sleeps. It talks about a certain garden. She whispers: You mean the Garden of Death, and it answers, Yes, Death.[5] Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, whom he did not meet until 1891, later used The Garden of Death as the title of one his own sonnets[6], published in 1899 in the collection "The City of the Soul".[7] De Profundis
Letter
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Frederic Rzewski De Profundis speaking pianist 1992 The pianist speaks and sings excerpts from Wilde's letter[8] Larry Sitsky De Profundis. Epistola: in Carcere et Vinculus monodrama c. 1982 Wilde's words arranged into a libretto by Gwen Harwood; for baritone, two string quartets and one percussion player[9] Endymion
Poem
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Joseph Horovitz Endymion solo voice and chorus 1985 soprano and chamber choir[1] E Tenebris
Poem. Included in his collection Rosa Mystica.
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Erwin Schulhoff E tenebris, Op. 15, No. 3 song 1914 No. 3 of Rosa Mystica, three songs to Wilde texts for alto voice and piano, Op. 15 (WV 33). The other two songs are Madonna mia (No. 1) and Requiescat (No. 2).[10] A Florentine Tragedy
Blank verse play. Premiered not in England, but at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, 12 January 1906, in a German translation by Max Meyerfeld. The London premiere was on 10 June 1906.
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Sergei Prokofiev Maddalena, Op. 13 opera 1911-13 1 act; his own libretto, after a blank verse play by Baroness Liven (Magda Gustavovna Liven-Orlova), which was based on Wilde's play; composed 1911, partly orchestrated 1912, revised 1913; never performed in Prokofiev's lifetime, despite some attempts; his widow Lina asked Edward Downes to complete it in 1976; concert reading, Manchester, 22 December 1978, under Downes, for a BBC radio broadcast on 25 March 1979; premiere stage performance Graz Opernhouse, 28 November 1981 Alexander von Zemlinsky Eine florentinische Tragödie, Op. 16 opera 1915-16 trans. Max Meyerfeld; premiered Stuttgart 30 January 1917, conducted by Max von Schillings; it was the fifth and most successful of Zemlinsky's seven completed operas and is among the key works of his oeuvre La Fuite de la Lune
La Fuite de la Lune (The Flight of the Moon) is the second of the two poems in Impressions, the first being Les Silhouettes.
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Charles Griffes La Fuite de la Lune song 1912 Griffes wrote a setting of this poem as No. 1 of his Tone-Images, Op. 3 (No. 2 was also a Wilde setting, Symphony in Yellow; and No. 3 was a poem by W. E. Henley).[2] The Happy Prince
Short story
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Renzo Bossi Il Principe felice, Op. 52 radio opera 1950 1 act; broadcast 11 October 1951, RAI; libretto by Bossi after Wilde Henry Hadley The Golden Prince, Op. 69 cantata 1914 Soprano, baritone, SSAA chorus, orchestra; libretto by D. Stevens after Wilde; presented New York 1914[11] Bernard Herrmann The Happy Prince music for a narration 1945 for a recording of the story spoken by Bing Crosby and Orson Welles, with an orchestra conducted by Victor Young Malcolm Williamson The Happy Prince opera c. 1965 1 act; libretto adapted by the composer The Harlot's House
Poem
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Ronald Stevenson The Harlot's House – Dance Poem after Oscar Wilde chamber 1988 Free-bass accordion, timpani and percussion Donald Swann The Poetic Image: A Victorian Song Cycle song cycle 1991 Swann set The Harlot's House, along with extracts from The Ballad of Reading Gaol and other texts by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Christina Rossetti, and John Clare An Ideal Husband
Play
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Arthur Benjamin An Ideal Husband film score 1947 [1] The Importance of Being Earnest
Play
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Erik Chisholm The Importance of Being Earnest opera 1963 Vivian Ellis Half in Ernest musical 1958 [1] Benjamin Frankel The Importance of Being Earnest film score 1952 Lee Pockriss, Anne Croswell Ernest in Love musical 1960 Impression du matin
Poem
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Charles Griffes Impression du matin song 1915 Griffes included this song in his Four Impressions, all settings of Wilde poems (the other three were La Mer, Le Jardin, and Impression: Le Réveillon, which he set as Le Réveillon). Four Impressions was not published until c. 1970.[2] Impression: Le Réveillon
Poem
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Charles Griffes Le Réveillon song 1914 Griffes included this song in his Four Impressions, all settings of Wilde poems (the other three were La Mer, Le Jardin, and Impression du matin). Four Impressions was not published until c. 1970.[2] Le Jardin
Poem
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Charles Griffes Le Jardin song 1915 Griffes included this song in his Four Impressions, all settings of Wilde poems (the other three were La Mer, Impression du matin, and Impression: Le Réveillon, which he set as Le Réveillon). Four Impressions was not published until c. 1970.[2] Lady Windermere's Fan
Play
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Noël Coward After the Ball play with music 1954 play adapted by Coward, who also wrote the music[1] Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
Short story
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Geoffrey Bush Lord Arthur Savile's Crime opera 1972 premiered London, Guildhall School of Music, 5 December 1972 Edwin Carr Lord Arthur Savile's Crime opera 1991 1 act, 8 scenes Alexandre Tansman Flesh and Fantasy film score 1943 only the 2nd part of the 3-part film is based on Wilde's story[1] Madonna mia
Poem. Included in his collection Rosa Mystica.
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Erwin Schulhoff Madonna mia, Op. 15, No. 1 song 1914 No. 1 of Rosa Mystica, three songs to Wilde texts for alto voice and piano, Op. 15 (WV 33). The other two songs are Requiescat (No. 2) and E tenebris (No. 3) [10] La Mer
Poem
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Charles Griffes La Mer song 1916 Griffes first sketched La Mer on 29 October 1912. After its publication was rejected by Schirmers, he wrote an entirely new setting in August 1916. It was included in his Four Impressions, all settings of Wilde poems (the other three were Le Jardin, Impression du matin, and Impression: Le Réveillon, which he set as Le Réveillon). Four Impressions was not published until c. 1970.[2] The Nightingale and the Rose
Story
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Renzo Bossi Rosa rossa (Red Rose), Op. 18 opera 1910 also seen as L'Usinguolo e la rosa (The Nightingale and the Rose); one act; Bossi described it as a "poemetto lirico"; staged Turin 1938 Hooper Brewster-Jones The Nightingale and the Rose opera 1927 only an orchestral suite survives[11] Elena Firsova The Nightingale and the Rose, Op. 46 chamber opera 1990-91 to her own English libretto based partly on Wilde's story, and partly on poetry by Christina Rossetti[11] Harold Fraser-Simson The Nightingale and the Rose ballet 1927 [11] Margaret Garwood The Nightingale and the Rose opera 1973 [11] Henry Hadley The Nightingale and the Rose, Op. 54 cantata 1911 soprano solo, SSAA chorus, orchestra; libretto by E. W. Grant; performed New York 1911[11] Roger Hannay The Nightingale and the Rose stage and mixed media 1986 [11] Janis Kalnins The Nightingale and the Rose ballet 1938 [11] Jan Müller-Wieland The Nightingale and the Rose chamber opera 1996 1 act; 7 singers, percussion (3 gongs, 3 tamtams, marimba, vibraphone), cello or piano, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass; staged Darmstadt 1996[11] Jonathan Rutherford The Nightingale and the Rose opera 1966 [11] Friedrich Voss The Nightingale and the Rose ballet 1961 staged Oberhausen 1962[11] The Picture of Dorian Gray
Novel
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Boris Arapov The Picture of Dorian Gray ballet 1971 Lowell Liebermann The Picture of Dorian Gray opera 1996 12 scenes; libretto by Liebermann based on the novel; commissioned by Opera Monte Carlo; premiered Salle Garnier, Monaco 8 May 1996; dedicated to Princess Caroline of Monaco; U.S. premiere, Florentine Opera, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 5 February 1999 W. Arundel Orchard The Picture of Dorian Gray opera 3 acts; performed at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music 11 September 1919; unpublished Hans Schaeuble Dorian Gray, Op. 32 opera 1947-48 Herbert Stothart The Picture of Dorian Gray film score 1945 The Libertines' song "Narcissist" was inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray. It features the line in the chorus, 'Wouldn't it be nice to be Dorian Gray, just for a day'.
Kill Hannah's song "Scream" references "The Picture of Dorian Gray" with the line 'Enacting Sybil Vane in some tragic play'.Requiescat
Poem (1874), included in his collection Rosa Mystica. Requiescat was written at Avignon seven years after his sister, Isola, died (23 February 1867), less than two months before her 10th birthday. Wilde was 12 at the time of her death.[10]
Composer Title Genre Date Notes George Butterworth Requiescat song 1911 Luigi Dallapiccola Requiescat choral 1957-58 Chorus and orchestra; the text includes Wilde's poem as well as words taken from the Gospel of Matthew and James Joyce[10] Otto Luening Requiscat song 1917 [10] George Frederick McKay Requiescat song 1932 [10] Ned Rorem Requiescat vocal 1997 Set for SATB and piano; Evidence of Things Not Seen is a cycle of 36 songs to texts by 24 authors, and includes solos, duos, trios and quartets; Requiescat is No. 8 of the "Middles" section of the cycle; the other songs include texts by W. H. Auden, Charles Baudelaire, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Colette, Stephen Crane, Paul Goodman, A. E. Housman, Langston Hughes, Rudyard Kipling, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Theodore Roethke, John Waldman, Walt Whitman, William Wordsworth and others; premiered Carnegie Hall, January 1998[12] Erwin Schulhoff Requiescat, Op. 15, No. 2 song 1914 Set to German words (Still, dass sie es nicht hört ..); No. 2 of Rosa Mystica, three songs to Wilde texts for alto voice and piano, Op. 15 (WV 33). The other two songs are Madonna mia (No. 1) and E tenebris (No. 3) [10] David Van Vactor Requiescat song 1932 [13] Raymond Wilding-White Requiescat [12] La Sainte Courtisane
Play (fragment; 1893)
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Rudolf Wagner-Régeny La sainte courtisane musical scene 1930 4 speakers and chamber orchestra; premiered Dessau, 24 October 1930 Salome
Play
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Flor Alpaerts Salome incidental music Granville Bantock Dance of the
Seven Veilsincidental music 1918 staged London, 1918 Leonard Bernstein Salome incidental music 1955 chamber orchestra with 8 players and vocal soloists; withdrawn[14] Peter Maxwell Davies Salome ballet 1978 premiered Copenhagen, 10 November 1978; Danish Radio Concert Orchestra, conducted by János Fürst; scenario and choreography by Flemming Flindt Pete Doherty Salome popular music 2009 appears on his album Grace/Wastelands Alexander Glazunov Introduction and Dance, Op. 90 incidental music Henry Hadley Salome, Op. 55 symphonic poem 1905 this was written after Hadley had seen a production of Oscar Wilde's play, and was a favourite among his own compositions[15] Alexander Krein Salome, Op. 19 symphonic poem 1929 Constant Lambert Salome incidental music 1929 clarinet, cello, trumpet, percussion; written for a performance staged in Cambridge by Terence Gray, with choreography by Ninette de Valois; staged again November 1931; a suite was arranged by Giles Easterbrook in 1998 and recorded in 2000[16] Antoine Mariotte Salomé opera 1905 premiered 1908; he was involved in a debate with Richard Strauss to prove that his music was written earlier than Strauss's version, also written in 1905 Emil Petrovics Salome ballet 1978 flute, trumpet, harp and percussion Richard Strauss Salome, Op. 54 opera 1905 trans. Hedwig Lachmann; premiered Dresden 1905. This opera is by far the best known musical adaptation of a work of Oscar Wilde. Alexander Tcherepnin Salome incidental music The Selfish Giant
Short story
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Eric Coates The Selfish Giant - A Phantasy orchestra 1925 [17] Dan Goeller The Selfish Giant orchestra 2011 Official Website[18] Children's book/CD, with illustrations by Chris Beatrice [19] Jenő Hubay Az önző óriás (Ger. Der selbstsüchtige Riese; Eng. The Selfish Giant), Op. 124 opera 1934 1 act; libretto by László Márkus and Jenő Mohácsi after the story by Wilde Graeme Koehne The Selfish Giant ballet 1983 choreography by Graeme Murphy[20] Jim and Dee Patton The Selfish Giant Rock opera 2008 Official Website[21] Performed by Bongo And the Point [22] Sonnet on hearing the Dies Irae sung in the Sistine Chapel
Poem
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Malcolm Williamson Sonnet: On hearing the Dies Irae sung in the Sistine Chapel chorus a cappella c. 1969 [23] The Sphinx
Poem
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Granville Bantock The Sphinx song cycle 1941 for baritone or contralto with orchestra Alexander Mosolov The Sphinx cantata 1925 set to a Russian translation of Wilde's poem as a graduation exercise Symphony in Yellow
Poem
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Charles Griffes Symphony in Yellow song 1912 Griffes wrote a setting of this in c. 1912, as No. 2 of his Tone-Images, Op. 3 (No. 1 was also a Wilde setting, La Fuite de la Lune; and No. 3 was a poem by W. E. Henley).[2] Unclassified
Composer Title Genre Date Notes Pierre Capdevielle Deux Apologues d'Oscar Wilde
(Two Moral Stories of Oscar Wilde)recitation for voice and orchestra 1930-32 Francis George Scott Idyll song unpublished References
- ^ a b c d e f g Philip Scowcroft, Music inspired by Oscar Wilde
- ^ a b c d e f g Mad, Scarlet Music
- ^ Answers.com
- ^ Opera Composers: Z
- ^ Text of The Canterville Ghost
- ^ Text of Lord Alfred Douglas's poem The Garden of Death
- ^ UCLA Library Internet Archive
- ^ Aworks
- ^ State Library of Queensland
- ^ a b c d e f g The Oscholars: Otto Luening
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oscholars: Henry Hadley
- ^ a b Ray Wilding-White
- ^ The Oscholars: David Van Vactor
- ^ Leonard Bernstein - composer
- ^ Amazon.com
- ^ The Oscholars
- ^ MusicWeb International
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ Sydney Dance Company: Complete Repertoire
- ^ [3]
- ^ [4]
- ^ State Library of Queensland
Sources
- Eric Blom ed., Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed., 1954
Categories:- Oscar Wilde
- Adaptations of works by Oscar Wilde
- Adaptations of works by author
- Classical music lists
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