First came 23 years as a professional opera singer (40 leading roles, things like Salome, Pagliacci, a dozen foreign countries, Carnegie Hall, Detmold, La Scala, Pippin's Pocket Opera.) Now I write, compose, arrange, and do opera translations.
"Tossed in the world of a dance divine,
Lost in a dream of romance and wine,
Once in your life, set your fancy free;
Sway to the music and dance with me."
The Fledermaus Waltz
"Quade Winter's new translation is playful, witty, sometimes a bit naughty — such a fresh departure from the stilted, stuffy, slavishly literal opera translations one usually hears." - The Salt Lake Tribune
"Vilya, o Vilya, oh what have I done?
Why must I love you, my pale ghostly one?
Vilya, o Vilya, my sun and my sky,
Why must I love you or die?"
The Merry Widow
One director told me, "I like to drop in on performances just to count the laughs."
THE BARBER OF SEVILLE, Rossini • LA BELLE HÉLÈNE, Offenbach • ELIXIR OF LOVE, Donizetti
PAGLIACCI, Leoncavallo • BOCCACCIO, von Suppé • TOSCA, Puccini • THE GYPSY BARON, J. Strauss
ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD, Offenbach • CARMEN (recit. or dialog versions) Bizet
They come in piano-vocal scores prepared especially for each of them, (Finale software) including the full text. For Boccaccio, Fledermaus, The Merry Widow, and Orpheus in the Underworld, I offer complete, authentic, engraved orchestra materials, full score and parts — both for full or reduced orchestras. I have just completed a reduction of Pagliacci for 17 musicians.
ME THE COMPOSER
THESPIS, my own "completion" of Gilbert and Sullivan's original of 1871 (it was their first collaboration, most of the music is lost) The Ohio Light Opera premiered it in 1996, and other G&S companies have begun doing it.
THE CARP (click to listen to the entire score), a one-acter for three singers, one set, piano or small orchestra. (OLO, 1999.)
In seven years as Composer-in-Residence for The Ohio Light Opera, I restored full orchestra scores from the composers' original manuscripts. Victor Herbert's EILEEN, (Newport Classics CD) THE RED MILL, SWEETHEARTS, and DeKoven's ROBIN HOOD (Albany Records CD)
Wordsmith