Opera & Musical Theater Educational Posters & Art Prints
for the music, art, and social studies classrooms, home schoolers, and theme decor for office or home.

“Les Troyens” (The Trojans) is a five act opera by French composer Hector Berlioz based on Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid, the legendary story of the Trojan Aeneas who travelled to Italy, to become the ancestor of the Romans.

“Boris Godunov”, portrait of tenor Feodor Chaliapin, 1916

• composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky portrait
• Feodor Chaliapin photo

La Norma Opera,
Vincenzo Bellini,
Rafal Olbinski

• Vincenzo Bellini poster
• more Rafal Olbinski posters

'Lucia di Lammermoor' (1835) by Gaetano Donizetti, is based on the novel The Bride of Lammermoor by Sir Walter Scott.

Stage Design for Offenbach's “Tales of Hoffman”, 1915

• Jacques Offenbach-Day poster

Faust Opera by Charles Gounod.

“La Gioconda” of 1876 is an example of the Italian genre of Grande opera. It was first performed at Teatro alla Scala, Milan.

There are many recordings as “La Gioconda” is frequently performed and features a principal role for each of the six major voice types (soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone, and bass).

The famous “Mona Lisa” painting of Leonardo da Vinci is also called “La Gioconda”.

Isabeau,
Pietro Mascagni-

• Pietro Mascagni, TIME cover

La Muette de Portici (The Mute of Portici) by Auber is considered the first grand French opera, a grand opera being defined as having five-acts, a ballet sequence, spectacular stage effects, and a story of romantic passions against a background of historical troubles.

• Auber: La Muette de Portici, CD

Sarah Caldwell
b. 3-6-1924; Maryville, MO
d. 3-23-2006; Maine

Sarah Caldwell, impresario and opera conductor, was a child prodigy, giving violin performances at 10 and graduating from high school at 14. The title for the Time cover is Music's Wonder Woman.

• Uncommon Women - Sarah Caldwell
• notable women musicians

In the beginning of the Marx Brothers movie A Night at the Opera, the character Lassparri has just finished performing Pagliacci.

“The Threepenny Opera” stages a socialist view of the capitalist world asking, “Who is the bigger criminal: he who robs a bank or he who founds one?”

The Threepenny Opera is a work by playwright Bertolt Brecht (b. 2-10-1898; Germany - d. 8-14-1956) and composer Kurt Weill (3-2-1900 - 4-3-1950), based on the 1728 play by John Gay (1685-1732), The Beggar's Opera.

Captain Macheath, the Highwayman, is the hero of “The Beggar's Opera”.

• literature / authors posters

The 1935 George Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess is based on a novel by South Carolina author DuBose Heyward, and a play of the same name, cowritten with his wife Dorothy.

Leontyne Price sang the part of Bess, and Maya Angelou performed the part of Ruby, in 1952. Simon Estes sang the part of Porgy in the 1985 Metropolitan staging of the opera. The 1959 film version was edited into a musical rather than an opera.

The most popular song from Porgy and Bess is “Summertime”, which has become a jazz standard - Summertime, and the livin' is easy...

• summertime posters (the season)

In the Box -
Mary Cassatt

• Mary Cassatt posters