From comedy to dark tragedy, the extraordinarily prolific Donizetti proved himself to be the master of all operatic forms.

The 12th-century nun’s influential work represents an important development in the history of music.

Celebrating the German composer whose farsighted innovations forever changed our approaches to composing and listening.

French composer Emmanuel Chabrier might be best known for his vivid musical portrait of Spain but Wagner was his true inspiration.

What with love, war and several day jobs, it’s remarkable that the French composer found time to compose.

It was his understanding of human emotions that made the 18th-century composer a true operatic genius.

Hannah French explores the life, music and mysteries of a remarkable Venetian whose exquisite vocal works are without parallel.

The first woman to win the Prix de Rome, the short-lived Lili Boulanger left many questions tantalisingly unanswered.

Best known today for La Serva Padrona and his Stabat Mater, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s career is a prime example of how 18th-century music was closely associated with nobility and power.

Clive Paget recommends rarities by Stravinsky and Strauss, plus Barrie Kosky’s take on Mussorgsky.

Employment within the court of Louis XIV allowed Jean-Baptiste Lully to lavish his talents on creating spectacular works for the stage, as Jan Smaczny explains.

Despite a lack of success in his own lifetime, notably with Carmen, Bizet soon became hailed as an operatic master, as George Hall explains.

Christopher Wiley traces the career of Ethel Smyth, who was the first woman to have an opera performed at the Metropolitan Opera, wrote the suffragette’s anthem, and developed a parallel career as an author.

For opera lovers the world over, Giacomo Puccini epitomises Italian opera. Phillip Sametz examines the life and career of one of opera’s most successful musical dramatists.

Australia’s greatest cultural loss from WWI finally gets to come home with the launch of his complete recording edition. Christopher Latham reports on the late-flowering fruits of a labour of love.

Feted in his own era, the French composer deserves to be remembered for more than the small handful of his works that are familiar today, says Roger Nichols.