''Love's Labour's Lost'' is an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

Nicolas Nabokov Nicolas Nabokov (Николай Дмитриевич Набоков; – 6 April 1978) was a Russian-born composer, writer, and cultural figure. He became a U.S. citizen in 1939. Life Nicolas Nabokov, a first cousin of Vladimir Nabokov, and of ...

, written by

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

and

Chester Kallman Chester Simon Kallman (January 7, 1921 – January 18, 1975) was an American poet, librettist, and translator, best known for collaborating with W. H. Auden on opera librettos for Igor Stravinsky and other composers. Life Kallman was born in ...

, based on

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's play of the same name. It was first performed in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

on 7 February 1973.

History

While Nabokov was in New York, preparing a ballet revival, Lincoln Kirstein initiated talks with W. H. Auden who was looking for an opera project and had already contacted

Michael Tippett Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten ...

and

Harrison Birtwistle Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include '' T ...

. The composer read Shakespeare's play '' Love's Labour's Lost'' again, and found similarities to Mozart's '' Così fan tutte'' in its "stylized, deliberately artificial plot". Auden and Nabokov discussed the project in February 1969. Auden won Chester Kallman to participate, as before for Stravinsky's ''

The Rake's Progress ''The Rake's Progress'' is an English-language opera from 1951 in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings '' A Rake's Prog ...

'' and Henze's ''

Elegy for Young Lovers ''Elegy for Young Lovers'' (German: ') is an opera in three acts by Hans Werner Henze to an English libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman. Background The opera was first performed in a German translation by Louis, Prince of Hesse and by ...

''. In his foreword to an edition of Shakespeare's play for the Royal Shakespeare Company,

Jonathan Bate Sir Andrew Jonathan Bate, CBE, FBA, FRSL (born 26 June 1958), is a British academic, biographer, critic, broadcaster, poet, playwright, novelist and scholar. He specialises in Shakespeare, Romanticism and Ecocriticism. He is Foundation Profes ...

muses that they were possibly inspired by Thomas Mann's novel '' Doctor Faustus'', in which the fictional hero composes his single opera based on this same play, intended to be "in a spirit of the most artificial mockery and parody of the artificial, something highly playful and highly precious". The librettists agreed to focus on the scenes around the couples, and Nabokov planned a "tender, lyrical, gay, but fairly small-scale opera". In July that year, the three met in Austria, working on the project, and in September the libretto was completed. It contains also a speech from '' As You Like It'' and an anonymous song from the 17th century. The plot is stretched over four seasons. Nabokov wrote the first act while being composer in residence in

Aspen, Colorado Aspen is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 7,004 at the 2020 United States Census. Aspen is in a remote area of the Rocky Moun ...

, in 1970. He resumed working on the score in February 1971 in Kolbsheim, completing the work there in September. For the orchestration, he was assisted by the German-American conductor Harold Byrns.Central Opera Service Bulletin
/ref> ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volu ...

'' summarizes that "the music is cast in an eclectic parody style the composer called 'persiflage', sending up Tristan and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in Berowne's love aria, Weill and Eisler in the 'Discourse about Love', American crooning in Moth's songs, Glinka and Mussorgsky for the 'Muscovite' masquerade, and catches and madrigals." The opera premiered in

on 7 February 1973. A German version, ''Verlorene Liebesmüh'', was written by Claus H. Henneberg, but performances in Berlin shortly after the premiere were in English, because the singers were reluctant to learn yet another language.

Roles

References

{{authority control Operas English-language operas 1973 operas Operas by Nicolas Nabokov Operas based on works by William Shakespeare Works based on Love's Labour's Lost