Tragically, he was able to complete only one full operatic setting of a Shakespeare play: "Beatrice and Benedict," his final work.

As in most operatic settings, there are some cuts and compressions.

A film version was produced in 1958, and there is an operatic setting by Edward Thomas.

The plot is refreshingly fuller than in the more familiar operatic settings of the Orpheus legend, though complicated.

It had its French premiere on Monday in the very operatic setting of the Palais Garnier.

Janacek's operatic setting of it is more sober: a serious reminder that human values are shaped by the inevitability of death.

The singers would have blossomed in a different direction in conventional operatic settings, but here they gave an esthetic polish to the jagged drama.

The original operatic setting, composed in 1750 by Johann Adolf Hasse, was followed by other versions.

However, another composer, Henry Février, had by then received the rights to an operatic setting of the text.

Mozart gained expertise in composition from his older friend and also incorporated some of his musical motives into his own operatic setting.