Did Die Soldaten or Pelléas et Mélisande premiere in Paris?
Die Soldaten Die Soldaten ("The Soldiers") is a four-act opera in German by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, based on the 1776 play by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz. Written and revised in phases between 1957 and 1964, it was premiered in 1965 and dedicated to Hans Rosbaud. Zimmermann himself faithfully adapted the play into the libretto, the only changes to the text being repeats and small cuts. It is the composer's only completed opera and is considered an important work of the second half of the 20th century.
Joseph Hémard Joseph Hémard, a popular French book illustrator, was born in Les Mureaux, France, a small town on the Seine, northwest of Paris, on 2 August 1880. He died on 9 August 1961 in Paris. He was a prolific artist. During the early years of the 20th century he published cartoons and comics in illustrated newspapers like "Le Pêle-mêle" or "Le Bon Vivant". He also designed costumes and sets for several operas, patterns for printed textiles, bookbindings, posters and even a facade for a bar in the 1925 Paris Exposition of Decorative Art. His lasting fame, however, lies in his book illustrations — always distinctly French in character and often erotic — which he produced for a great number of titles including many classics of French literature such as "Le Malade Imaginaire" (1920), " Gargantua et Pantagruel " (1922), "Jacques Le Fataliste" (1923), "Cyrano de Bergerac" (1927), and "Aucassin et Nicolette" (1936).