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Ottone
''Ottone, re di Germania'' ("Otto, King of Germany", HWV 15) is an opera by George Frideric Handel, to an Italian–language libretto adapted by Nicola Francesco Haym from the libretto by Stefano Benedetto Pallavicino for Antonio Lotti's opera ''Teofane''. It was the first new opera written for the Royal Academy of Music (1719)'s fourth season and had its first performance on 12 January 1723 at the King's Theatre, Haymarket in London. Handel had assembled a cast of operatic superstars for this season and the opera became an enormous success. The story of the opera is a fictionalisation of some events in the lives of Adalbert of Italy, his mother Willa of Tuscany (called "Gismonda" in the opera), Otto II, and the Byzantine Princess Theophanu, who became the wife of Otto II in a state marriage intended to form an alliance between the Byzantine and Holy Roman empires. Background The German-born Handel, after spending some of his early career composing operas and other pieces ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Academy Of Music (1719)
The Royal Academy of Music was a company founded in February 1719, during George Frideric Handel's residence at Cannons, by a group of aristocrats to secure themselves a constant supply of opera seria. It is not connected to the London conservatoire with the same name, which was founded in 1822. It commissioned large numbers of new operas from three of the leading composers in Europe: Handel, Attilio Ariosti and Giovanni Bononcini. The Academy took the legal form of a joint-stock corporation under letters patent issued by George I of Great Britain for a term of 21 years with a governor, a deputy governor and at least fifteen directors. The (first) Royal Academy lasted for only nine seasons instead of twenty-one, but both the New or Second Academy and the Opera of the Nobility seem to have operated under its Royal Charter until the expiry of the original term. Handel was appointed as Master of the orchestra responsible not only for engaging soloists but also for adaptin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francesca Cuzzoni
Francesca Cuzzoni (2 April 1696 – 19 June 1778) was an Italian operatic soprano of the Baroque era. Early career Cuzzoni was born in Parma. Her father, Angelo, was a professional violinist, and her singing teacher was Francesco Lanzi. She made her debut in her home city in 1714, singing in ''La virtù coronata, o Il Fernando'' by an unknown composer. In 1716–17 she sang at Bologna in operas by Bassani, Buini, Gasparini and Giuseppe Maria Orlandini. By the 1717–18 season she had been appointed ("chamber soloist") to Violante Beatrice, Grand Princess of Tuscany, performing at Florence, Siena, Genoa, Mantua, and Reggio nell'Emilia in operas by Orlandini and Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, and in Vivaldi's ''Scanderbeg'' . She also made her Venetian debut in 1718, singing the role of Dalinda in Pollarolo's ''Ariodante'', in which, for the first time, she appeared on the same stage as Faustina Bordoni, later her great rival. They also sang together in Venice the following year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theophanu
Theophanu (; also ''Theophania'', ''Theophana'', or ''Theophano''; Medieval Greek ; AD 955 15 June 991) was empress of the Holy Roman Empire by marriage to Emperor Otto II, and regent of the Empire during the minority of their son, Emperor Otto III, from 983 until her death in 991. She was the niece of the Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimiskes. She was known to be a forceful and capable ruler. Her status in the history of the Empire in many ways was exceptional. According to Wilson, "She became the only consort to receive the title 'co-empress' (''coimperatrix augusta''), and it was envisaged she would succeed as sole ruler if Otto II died without a son." Early life According to the marriage certificate issued on 14 April 972 Theophanu is identified as the ''neptis'' (niece or granddaughter) of Emperor John I Tzimiskes (925–976, reigned 969–976) who was of Armenian and Byzantine Greek descent. She was of distinguished noble heritage: the Vita Mahthildis identifies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margherita Durastanti
Margherita Durastanti (active 1700–1734) was an Italian singer of the 18th century. Vocally, she is best described as a soprano, though later in her career her tessitura descended to that of a mezzo-soprano. First heard of professionally in Mantua in 1700–01, she later appeared in Bologna and Reggio Emilia (1710), Milan and Reggio (1713) and Florence (1715). Today she is particularly remembered for her association with the composer George Frideric Handel: indeed she enjoyed a longer personal association with the composer than any other musician. As well as performing many of his early Italian solo cantatas, Durastanti's first roles for Handel included Mary Magdalene in his oratorio '' La resurrezione'' (1708) and the title role in '' Agrippina'' (1709), in her capacity as ''prima donna'' of the S Giovanni Grisostomo Theatre in Venice, where she sang from 1709 to 1712. After singing at Parma, Florence, Naples (where she appeared in operas by Scarlatti), and, in 1719, Dresden, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicola Francesco Haym
Nicola Francesco Haym (6 July 1678 – 31 July 1729) was an Italian opera librettist, composer, theatre manager and performer, literary editor and numismatist. He is best remembered for adapting texts into libretti for the London operas of George Frideric Handel and Giovanni Bononcini. Libretti that he provided for Handel included those for ''Giulio Cesare'', ''Ottone'', ''Flavio'', ''Tamerlano'', '' Rodelinda'', and several others; for Bononcini, he produced two, ''Calfurnia'' and ''Astianatte''. Compositions Haym was born in Rome. His career began as a cellist in Italy, and he arrived in London in 1701: he swiftly became master of the 2nd Duke of Bedford's chamber music. He wrote the libretto for Bononcini's '' Camilla'', a seminal work of enormous success that did much to establish Italian opera in London. Later, when operas in London came to be performed entirely in Italian, rather than in a bilingual blend of English and Italian, Haym spent much time adapting both libret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaetano Berenstadt
Gaetano Berenstadt (7 June 1687 – buried 9 December 1734) was an Italian alto castrato who is best remembered for his association with the composer George Frideric Handel. Berenstadt created roles in three of Handel's operas. Berenstadt's parents were German and his father was timpanist to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. By the end of his 27-year-long career Berenstadt had sung in 55 dramatic works, 33 of which were newly composed.Grove Berenstadt was born in Florence. A pupil of Francesco Pistocchi, after singing at Naples and Bologna, Berenstadt visited London in 1717, where he performed the role of Argante in a revival of Handel's '' Rinaldo''. The original bass part, sung by Giuseppe Maria Boschi, was transposed up for Berenstadt's alto voice and in this revised version the character has three new arias composed for Berenstadt to sing. After returning to Italy to sing at Rome and Milan Berenstadt came back to London in 1722 to sing for the composers of the Royal A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anastasia Robinson
Anastasia Robinson ( – April 1755), later known as Anastasia, Countess of Peterborough, was an English soprano, later contralto, of the Baroque era. She is best remembered for her association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in whose operas she sang. Early life and initial career Robinson was the eldest daughter of Thomas Robinson, a portrait painter who worked for a time in Italy (where she is thought to have been born). Initially her musical talent was privately trained, and her first performances were at private society concerts at Golden Square, where her father owned a property. At these concerts she both sang and accompanied herself on the harpsichord. In the early 1710s her father's eyesight began to fail and Robinson, forced to earn a living for herself and her family, turned professional.Dean, Winton, "Robinson, Anastasia", Grove Music Online', ed L. Macy, accessed 2 October 2009 Professional career Her association with Handel can be dated to 1714, when h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alto
The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian ( Latin: ''altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In 4-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruses by either low women's or high men's voices. In vocal classification these are usually called contralto and male alto or countertenor. Such confusion of "high" and "low" persists in instrumental terminology. Alto flute and alto trombone are respectively lower and higher than the standard instruments of the family (the standard instrument of the trombone family being the tenor trombone), though both play in ranges within the alto clef. Alto recorder, however, is an octave higher, and is defined by its relationship to tenor and soprano recorders; alto clarinet is a fifth lower than B-flat clarinet, already an 'alto' instrument. There is even a contra-alto clarinet, (an octave lower than the alto clarinet), with a range B♭0 – D4. Etym ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambridge Companions To Music
The Cambridge Companions to Music form a book series A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their pu ... published by Cambridge University Press. Each book is a collection of essays on the topic commissioned by the publisher. on Cambridge University Press website, accessed 21 September 2015. Volumes (sortable table) References External links [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Mainwaring
__NOTOC__ John Mainwaring (1724 – 15 April 1807) was an English theologian and the first biographer of the composer Georg Friedrich Händel in any language. He was a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and parish priest, and later a professor of Divinity at Cambridge. Life He was the son of Gilbert Mainwaring of Staffordshire, and attended schools in Marlborough, Wiltshire and Tamworth, Staffordshire. He matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge in 1742, graduating B.A. in 1746, M.A. in 1750, and B.D. in 1758. It has been suggested that his university friendship with Sir Edward Littleton, 4th Baronet, who matriculated in 1744, was significant in the genesis of his Handel biography: Fisher Littleton, Edward's brother, introduced him to John Christopher Smith, Benjamin Stillingfleet and Richard Price (1717–1761) who were enthusiastic for the project. Mainwaring became a Fellow of St John's in 1748, in which year he was ordained, continuing for 40 years until he becam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Frideric Handel By Balthasar Denner
George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States * George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States * George V, King of Great Britain, Ireland, the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 1910-1936 * George VI, King of Great Britain, Ireland, the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 1936-1952 * Prince George of Wales * George Papagheorghe also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Giorgio Moroder * George Harrison, an English musician and singer-songwriter Places South Africa * George, Western Cape ** George Airport United States * George, Iowa * George, Missouri * George, Washington * George County, Mississippi * George Air Force Base, a former U.S. Air Force base located in California Characters * George (Peppa Pig), a 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castrato
A castrato (Italian, plural: ''castrati'') is a type of classical male singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice is produced by castration of the singer before puberty, or it occurs in one who, due to an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity. Castration before puberty (or in its early stages) prevents the larynx from being transformed by the normal physiological events of puberty. As a result, the vocal range of prepubescence (shared by both sexes) is largely retained, and the voice develops into adulthood in a unique way. Prepubescent castration for this purpose diminished greatly in the late 18th century. Methods of castration used to terminate on the onset of puberty varied. Methods involved using opium to medically induce a coma, then submerging the boy into an ice or milk bath where the procedure of either severing the vas deferens (similar to a vasectomy), twisting the testicles until they atrophied, or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
