Antony and Cleopatra is an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 in three acts by American composer Samuel Barber

Samuel Barber

Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...

. The libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 was prepared by Franco Zeffirelli

Franco Zeffirelli

Franco Zeffirelli KBE is an Italian director and producer of films and television. He is also a director and designer of operas and a former senator for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party....

 based on the play Antony and Cleopatra

Antony and Cleopatra

Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony...

by Shakespeare. It originally made use of Shakespeare's language exclusively.

It was first performed in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 on September 16, 1966, at the opening of the new Metropolitan Opera House

Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center)

The Metropolitan Opera House is an opera house located on Broadway at Lincoln Square in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the theater opened in 1966. It replaced the former Metropolitan Opera House at Broadway and 39th St...

 in Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:...

. The idea was to have a new opera by an American composer for the gala opening of the new house.

No expense was spared. Franco Zeffirelli

Franco Zeffirelli

Franco Zeffirelli KBE is an Italian director and producer of films and television. He is also a director and designer of operas and a former senator for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party....

 was hired as stage director. Thomas Schippers

Thomas Schippers

Thomas Schippers was an American conductor. He was highly-regarded for his work in opera.-Biography:...

 was the conductor. The stage design and costumes were elaborate; the cast enormous including 22 singers, full chorus, and ballet dancers.

Performance history

The opera was badly received by the press, and not enthusiastically received by the public (Freeman 1997, 15; Heyman 1992b). This was because of the elaborate staging, gaudy costumes, and to a press focused more on the social glitter of the occasion than on the music (Heyman 1992a). The opera was dropped from the Met's repertory after the initial performances of the production.

Barber revised the opera, with text revisions by Gian-Carlo Menotti, Barber's long-time partner and librettist of his first opera, Vanessa

Vanessa (opera)

Vanessa is an opera in three acts by Samuel Barber with an original English libretto by Gian-Carlo Menotti. It was composed in 1956–1957 and was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 15, 1958 under the baton of Dimitri Mitropoulos in a production designed by...

(Heyman 1992a). This version was premièred under Menotti's direction at the Juilliard American Opera Center

Juilliard School

The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...

 on February 6, 1975 (Freeman 1997, 15). There were further productions at the Spoleto Festival USA

Spoleto Festival USA

Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the world's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy...

 and Festival dei Due Mondi

Festival dei Due Mondi

The Festival dei Due Mondi ' is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958...

 in Spoleto

Spoleto

Spoleto is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome.-History:...

, Italy, in 1983, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago

Lyric Opera of Chicago

Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...

 in 1991 (Heyman 1992a).

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, September 16, 1966 (Conductor: Thomas Schippers Thomas Schippers Thomas Schippers was an American conductor. He was highly-regarded for his work in opera.-Biography:... )
Cleopatra	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...	Leontyne Price Leontyne Price Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in the Deep South, she rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was one of the first African Americans to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera.One critic characterized Price's voice as "vibrant",...
Mark Antony Mark Antony Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...	Justino Diaz Justino Díaz Justino Díaz is an internationally renowned bass-baritone opera singer. In 1963, Díaz won an annual contest held at the Metropolitan Opera of New York, becoming the "first" Puerto Rican to obtain such an honor and as a consequence, made his Metropolitan debut on October 1963 in Verdi's Rigoletto...
Octavius Caesar	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...	Jess Thomas Jess Thomas Jess Thomas was an American operatic tenor, best known for his Wagner singing.-Biography:Jess Floyd Thomas was born in Hot Springs, South Dakota. As a child he took part in various musical activities and later studied psychology at the University of Nebraska and Stanford University. He was...
Enobarbus Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (consul 32 BC) Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus was a general and politician of ancient Rome in the 1st century BC.-Life:Ahenobarbus was captured with his father, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, at Corfinium in 49 BC, and was present at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, but did not take any further part in the war...	bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...	Ezio Flagello Ezio Flagello Ezio Flagello was an Italian-American bass, particularly associated with the Italian repertory. He sang at the Metropolitan Opera from 1957 to 1984.- Career :...
Charmian Charmian (servant to Cleopatra) Charmian was a trusted servant and advisor to the historical Cleopatra VII of Egypt.-Plutarch:In Plutarch's Parallel Lives biography of Mark Antony, he noted that Augustus Caesar "had a decree made, declaring war on Cleopatra, and depriving Antony of the authority which he had let a woman exercise... , servant to Cleopatra	mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...	Rosalind Elias Rosalind Elias Rosalind Elias is an American mezzo-soprano, a rich-voiced singer of fine musicianship who enjoyed a long and distinguished career at the Metropolitan Opera.-Life and career:...
Iras	mezzo-soprano	Belén Amparan
Mardian	tenor	Andrea Velis
Messenger	tenor	Paul Franke Paul Franke Paul Walter Franke was an American operatic tenor who specialized in the comprimario repertoire...
Alexas	bass	Raymond Michalski Raymond Michalski Raymond Michalski is an American operatic bass-baritone. He studied voice with Rosalie Miller at the Mannes School of Music in New York City before making his professional stage debut in 1959 as Nourabad in Georges Bizet's Les pecheurs de perles with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company...
Soothsayer		Lorenzo Alvary
Rustic		Clifford Harvuot
Octavia		Mary Ellen Pracht
Maecenas		Russell Christopher Russell Christopher Russell Christopher is an American operatic baritone who specializes in comprimario roles. He studied at the University of Michigan where he was a member of the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club. His voice teachers included Philip Duey and Raymond McDermot...
Agrippa		John Macurdy John Macurdy John Macurdy is an esteemed American operatic bass. Among his teachers was the contralto Elisabeth Wood, who was also the pedagogue of Norman Treigle.- Début in New Orleans :...
Lepidus	tenor	Robert Nagy
Thidias		Robert Goodloe
Soldier of Caesar		Gabor Carelli Gabor Carelli Gabor Carelli was a Hungarian classical tenor who had an important career in operas and concerts in North America during the mid 20th century. He was notably committed to the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1951 to 1974 where he gave a total of 1,079 performances...
Eros		Bruce Scott Bruce Scott Bruce Craig Scott , Australian politician, has been a National Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since March 1990, representing the Division of Maranoa, Queensland. He was born in Roma, Queensland, and was a wool and grain grower before entering politics...
Dolabella		Gene Boucher
Canidius	baritone	Lloyd Strang
Demetrius		Norman Giffin
Scarus		Ron Bottcher Ron Bottcher Ron Bottcher was an American operatic baritone who was actively performing with both the New York City Opera and the Metropolitan Opera during the 1960s. A native of Sandpoint, Idaho, he earned music degrees from the University of Montana and the Curtis Institute of Music...
Decretas		Louis Sgarro
Captain of the Guard		Dan Marek
Guard 1		Robert Schmorr
Guard 2		Edward Ghazal
Guard 3		Norman Scott Norman Scott (bass) Norman Scott was an American operatic bass. He had a long and fruitful association with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1951 up until his death seventeen years later. His repertoire at the Met included well over 50 roles, and he gave a total of 927 performances at the house during his...
Soldier of Antony		John Trehy
Watchman 1		Paul De Paola
Watchman 2		Luis Forero
Sentinel		Peter Sliker Peter Sliker Peter Sliker was an American operatic bass-baritone who had a lengthy career performing at the Metropolitan Opera from 1961 through 1989. He specialized in portraying comprimario roles and was admired for his comic timing...

Recordings

The Spoleto Festival production, directed by Gian-Carlo Menotti, and starring Esther Hinds as Cleopatra and Jeffrey Wells as Mark Antony

Mark Antony

Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...

, is available on CD (New World Records

New World Records

New World Records is a record label based in New York City specialising in American music. The label was established in 1975 through a Rockefeller Foundation grant to produce a 100 disc anthology covering 200 years of American music....

, 1992)