# Composers of the quality or style of old composers.



## tonyttonio (Oct 25, 2018)

What Opera composers make music that is in the style of 19th century composers. I'm a new fan of opera and John Adams and Philip Glass aren't for me. What living composers are doing work that Is more traditional (as in Puccini or before). I appreciate any help!


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Probably no-one. If you're so keen on Puccini and earlier, why not explore that era in more depth?


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Generally speaking composers don't go backward in time. They think what came before them is old-fashioned.

There is a question around here by someone who says s/he is a composer. I suggest you ask him/her that question.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

tonyttonio said:


> What Opera composers make music that is in the style of 19th century composers. I'm a new fan of opera and John Adams and Philip Glass aren't for me. What living composers are doing work that Is more traditional (as in Puccini or before). I appreciate any help!


Stephen Sondheim seems the obvious example.

Recently Helmut Lachenmann has started to write some very old fashioned music and I wouldn't be surprised to find he writes some music theatre or operetta soon.


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## Frank Freaking Sinatra (Dec 6, 2018)

Find a point in time on this list - work backwards a bit to solidify your foundation and then just move relentlessly forward through the repertoire. You're embarking upon a journey that will last for decades and you will quickly find that the destination itself is completely irrelevant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_major_opera_composers

Someday you may find John Adams and Philip Glass so pedestrian that nothing less than this will do it for you -






This thread probably should be moved to Opera as I just realized that we're actually in CM.

And if you don't know who Barbara Hannigan is you need to learn who she is - trust me on this one - she's an absolutely superb performer.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

tonyttonio said:


> What Opera composers make music that is in the style of 19th century composers. I'm a new fan of opera and John Adams and Philip Glass aren't for me. What living composers are doing work that Is more traditional (as in Puccini or before). I appreciate any help!


The only Glass I really love is Einstein on the Beach. He hasn't seemed to create anything like that vocally, and the style of music while similar in later works, seems to be at a level much higher in Einstein. Mainly because of it's diversity in that piece. Some of his later things sound nice but don't have the level of greatness that you come across often in Stravinsky, Hindimith, and so on.

Rautavaara just died. William Bolcom is one who comes to mind, but I don't think his output is very large. The only crossover artist that appears to be like a serious composer is Christian Vander, but then he never had pretensions to work within the classical industry.

Check out some of Unavoidable Axiom at www.regenerativemusic.net Skip the first piece.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

You might try Gian Carlo Menotti or Samuel Barber


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Which Glasses have you heard? _Akhnaten_ and _Satyagraha_ are wonderful.

You might like Theodorakis' three Greek tragedy operas _Elektra_, _Antigone_, and _Medea_, which are dedicated to Verdi, Puccini, and Bellini. Here's Medea's aria:


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## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

There aren't really good answers to this, much like if it were 1860 and one did not enjoy modern operas like Le prophète, Lohengrin, Rigoletto, Orphée aux Enfers, Les Troyen, or Faust and asked who was composing like Handel, Rameau, and Pergolesi the answer would be nobody. Or, at least, nobody that wrote any operas that still get performed today.

That being said, though I see Philip Glass and John Adams as stylistically different from each other, they do have a related sort of departure from what may be considered traditional operatic styles (though maybe I'm off; I'm guessing at what operas by each you have heard).

If you explore the operas of Nico Muhly, Mason Bates, and others, you'll find related work (though, again, with important differences).

But there are also somewhat more conventional operas by other contemporary composers. I'm not sure I'd say any of them sound like the 19th-century (same with all of the suggestions above), but they're also not producing more out there work like Birtwistle, Weir, Adès, Mazzoli, Saariaho, Wuorinen, and others. So if you are interested in recent operas, try some of these.

Daniel Catan _Il Postino_
Jennifer Higdon _Cold Mountain_
Tobias Picker _Emmeline_
Rufus Wainwright _Prima Donna_
Jake Heggie _Moby-Dick_


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Here's something that's overlooked and you might like. I don't think you'll find modern composers that do the thing you ask.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

tonyttonio said:


> What Opera composers make music that is in the style of 19th century composers. I'm a new fan of opera and John Adams and Philip Glass aren't for me. What living composers are doing work that Is more traditional (as in Puccini or before). I appreciate any help!


What would be the point of composing music in past styles? As much as I love Beethoven's work, I am not interested in hearing pastiche. Alas, to each his own.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Red Terror said:


> *What would be the point of composing music in past styles?* As much as I love Beethoven's work, I am not interested in hearing pastiche. Alas, to each his own.


Ask Tchaikovsky (Suite #4 - Mozartiana), Stravinsky (Pulcinella, The Fairy's Kiss), Respighi (The Birds), Britten (Matinees Musicales) ...


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

Becca said:


> Ask Tchaikovsky (Suite #4 - Mozartiana), Stravinsky (Pulcinella, The Fairy's Kiss), Respighi (The Birds), Britten (Matinees Musicales) ...


But these composers generally went with their own times.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

...............


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