University College Opera The brainchild of the conductor Anthony Addison, (UCL's then Director of Music), University College Opera gave its first performance in 1951 with an all-student production of Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas", followed by Mozart's "Bastien und Bastienne". Even in its earliest years, the company's annual repertoire concentrated on rarely performed operas including: Nicolai's "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (1952), Bizet's "Don Procopio" (1955) and Lortzing's "Der Wildschütz" (1958). In 1961, the company staged its first UK premiere, Moniuszko's "Halka". During its first 17 years, UCOpera's performances took place in the old gymnasium at University College. With the opening of the college's
Zar und Zimmermann State Opera, Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg Dir. Sir Charles Mackerras. 1969 Arthaus Musik. In 1956 it was adapted into a film in East Germany, "The Czar and the Carpenter". Zar und Zimmermann Zar und Zimmermann ("Tsar and Carpenter") is a comic opera in three acts, music by Albert Lortzing, libretto by the composer after Georg Christian Römer's "Der Bürgermeister von Saardam, oder Die zwei Peter", itself based on the French play "Le Bourgmestre de Saardam, ou Les deux Pierre" by Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier de Mélésville, Jean-Toussaint Merle, and Eugène Centiran de Boirie. Ultimately, it goes back to the historical Grand Embassy