Concert Band - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1343777 Composed by Alexander Borodin. Arranged by John Ivor Holland. 19th Century,Broadway,Classical,Contest,Festival,Multicultural,Musical/Show,World. 264 pages. John Ivor Holland #929284. Published by John Ivor Holland (A0.1343777). The Polovtsian Dances form an exotic scene at the end of act 2 of Alexander Borodin's opera 'Prince Igor'. The work remained unfinished when the composer died in 1887, although he had worked on it for more than a decade. A performing version was prepared by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov in 1890. Several other versions, or completions, of the opera have been made. The dances are sometimes performed with chorus and last around 11 minutes. Themes from the Polovtsian Dances have been used widely in popular culture, notably the 1953 musical 'Kismet'; the most prominent example is the popular standard Stranger in Paradise, adapted from the Gliding Dance of the Maidens, which opens this piece. This great piece, a staple of the orchestral repertoire, would form a substantial showpiece in any concert and important solos have been cross-cued for smaller ensembles.

Concert Band - Level 3 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1145793 Composed by Giacomo Puccini. Arranged by Juan José Peláez Vilanova. 20th Century,Classical,Contest,Festival,Opera,Romantic Period. Score and parts. 43 pages. John Joseph #745992. Published by John Joseph (A0.1145793). Giacommo Puccini, represents the union of Italian and German opera traditions, greatly influenced by Verdi, of whom he is considered his successor, and also by Wagner, Bizet, and Debussy. The main feature of his style was the eclecticism, the incorporation and assimilation of various languages and resources in his profession. Many of the musical concepts, as well as the connection between music and the stage, were the harbinger of what would rule in film music a few decades later. Puccini tooks from the French opera, under the influence of Bizet and Massenet, the taste for the exotic and historical location of his operas. In the case of Turandot, set in ancient China, the opera tells the story of the cruel princess Turandot who, in revenge for a sullied ancestor, beheads her suitors if three riddles are not answered. An unknown prince –Calaf– postulates by answering her three enigmas and challenging her to be the one to find out her name. Turandot orders that no one sleep in Peking until the name of the prince is known, Calaf, who has issued the challenge that if his name is not discovered, princess Turandot must marry him. At the beginning of the third act, the prince sings the aria –Nessun Dorma– convinced that the princess's efforts to discover his name will be in vain. Puccini began the composition in January 1921 and in March 1924 he had already completed the opera up to the final duet. However, a few months later he would pass away, leaving unfinished sketches of the end of Turandot. Franco Alfano was commissioned to finish it, premiering it two years later, in 1926. Currently, it is the fourth most performed Puccini opera worldwide, after the well-known trio La Boheme, Tosca and Madama Butterfly.