Portal:Opera/DYK/7

...that when it was shown at the Metropolitan Opera, Diana von Solange by Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (pictured), was so poorly received that three hundred people signed a petition demanding that it be removed from the repertory?
...that La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina by Francesca Caccini first performed in Warsaw in 1628, was the first opera by a woman composer?
...that in the 1720s and 1730s, at the height of the craze for castrato singers, it has been estimated that up to 4000 boys were castrated annually?

All Did you know?

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