Charlotte Salomon (opera)

combined with an attraction to real-life drama inspired him to compose an opera based on Charlotte Salomon.

[1] Since Salomon was aiming for a form of communication that combined various arts, Dalbalvie felt that her story needed music.

"[1] Just as Dalbavie's opera Gesualdo (based on the life of Carlo Gesualdo) incorporates portions of his subject's compositions, so too does Dalbavie incorporate existing music into his opera, such as the "Habañera" from Bizet's Carmen and "Wir winden dir den Jungfernkranz" from Weber's Der Freischütz.

[1] Dalbavie's orchestrations derives from his analysis of the human voice's acoustic frequencies, a technique used in spectral music as well as alluding to a singing teacher's character in the opera.

[1] Dalbavie described the scoring of the opera—for 65 orchestral musicians (the size of the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra)—as one designed not as much for dramatic impact as for "maximum tonal richness.