''Anna Karenina'' is an opera in three acts by Scottish composer Iain Hamilton. The libretto, based on

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

's 1877 novel, ''

Anna Karenina ''Anna Karenina'' ( rus, «Анна Каренина», p=ˈanːə kɐˈrʲenʲɪnə) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Widely considered to be one of the greatest works of literature ever writt ...

'' was written by the composer. ''Anna Karenina'' was premiered on May 7, 1981, at the

London Coliseum The London Coliseum (also known as the Coliseum Theatre) is a theatre in St Martin's Lane, Westminster, built as one of London's largest and most luxurious "family" variety theatres. Opened on 24 December 1904 as the London Coliseum Theatre ...

by the

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English ...

in a performance conducted by Howard Williams with Lois McDonall in the title role. Dean, Winton (1981)
"Music in London: Anna Karenina"
''

The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom and currently the oldest such journal still being published in the country. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer ...

'' Vol. 122, No. 1661 (July 1981), p. 487. Retrieved 1 December 2010. The director was

Colin Graham Colin Graham OBE (22 September 1931 in Hove, England – 6 April 2007 in St. Louis, Missouri) was a stage director of opera, theatre, and television. Graham was educated at Northaw School (Hertfordshire), Stowe School and RADA. Early in his ...

and the designers were Ralph Koltai and Annena Stubbs. Its running time is approximately two and a quarter hours.

Theodore Presser Company The Theodore Presser Company is an American music publishing and distribution company located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, formerly King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and originally based in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest continuing music pub ...

Iain Hamilton: Works
. Retrieved 1 December 2010.

Background and performance history

''Anna Karenina'' was the fifth of Hamilton's ten operas. Conrad Wilson in his 2000 obituary for the composer wrote that "inside Hamilton there was always a romantic composer struggling to get out ... it finally exploded in ''Anna Karenina'', a poignantly Mahlerian treatment of Tolstoy's novel." Hamilton composed ''Anna Karenina'', a commission from English National Opera, in 1978, and published the score in 1979. It was first staged on May 7, 1981, by ENO in a production directed by

with sets by Ralph Koltai and costumes by Anena Stubbs. ''Anna Karenina'' had its American premiere on March 16, 1983, at the

Wilshire Ebell Theatre The Ebell of Los Angeles is a women-led and women-centered nonprofit housed in an historic campus in the Mid-Wilshire section of Los Angeles, California. It includes numerous performance spaces, meeting rooms, classrooms and the 1,238-seat Wilshir ...

in Los Angeles and ran for three nights under the baton of Chris Nance. It was staged by the now defunct Los Angeles Opera Theatre in a production using screen projections as backdrops rather than traditional sets.''Central Opera Service Bulletin'', Vol. 24, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 1982)
"New Operas and Premieres"
p. 6. Retrieved 1 December 2010. It is not known whether the opera has had any subsequent performances. The American composer

David Carlson David Carlson (born 13 March 1952) is an American composer. Early life Carlson studied theory and composition at the Los Angeles High School of the Arts and with Leonard Stein at the California Institute of the Arts. From 1988 to 1992 he was coo ...

also wrote an opera, premiered in 2007, based on the Tolstoy's novel; the libretto of his ''

'' was written by Colin Graham, the director of the 1981 production of Hamilton's version.

Roles

Orchestration

*Voice: 4 sopranos, 2 mezzo-sopranos, 1 alto, 2

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

s, 3 baritones, 2 basses,

boy soprano A boy soprano (British and especially North American English) or boy treble (only British English) is a young male singer with an unchanged voice in the soprano range, a range that is often still called the treble voice range (in North Americ ...

SATB SATB is an initialism that describes the scoring of compositions for choirs, and also choirs (or consorts) of instruments. The initials are for the voice types: S for soprano, A for alto, T for tenor and B for bass. Choral music Four-part harm ...

Chorus *Instruments: 2

flutes The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

, 2

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

s, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4

horns Horns or The Horns may refer to: * Plural of Horn (instrument), a group of musical instruments all with a horn-shaped bells * The Horns (Colorado), a summit on Cheyenne Mountain * ''Horns'' (novel), a dark fantasy novel written in 2010 by Joe Hill ...

, 3

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

s, 3

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

s, 1

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

, 2

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

ists, harp, strings.

References

External links

Synopsis
from

Record of score and recording
in

Sound and Music Sound and Music is the UK's national agency for new music, established on 1 October 2008 from the merger of four existing bodies working in the contemporary music field: the Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM), the British Music Inform ...

's British Music Collection at the

University of Huddersfield , mottoeng = Thus not for you alone , established = 1825 – Huddersfield Science and Mechanics' Institute1992 – university status , type = Public , endowment = £2.47 million (2015) , chancellor = George W. Buckley , vice_chancell ...

{{Anna Karenina Operas 1981 operas English-language operas Operas set in Russia Operas based on novels Operas based on works by Leo Tolstoy Works based on Anna Karenina