|
César Vezzani
César Vezzani (8 August 1888 – 11 November 1951) was a French/Corsican operatic tenor who became a leading exponent of French ''grand opera'' through several decades. (Some sources give his date of birth as 1886.) Career César Vezzani was born in Bastia in Corsica; his father died shortly before his birth. Soon after 1900 his family moved to Toulon on the French mainland, but little is known about his early musical training. In 1908 he went to Paris to study singing and was taught by the Corsican soprano Agnès Borgo (1879 - 1958). He then made his operatic début at the Opéra-Comique in 1911 in the title-role of ''Richard Coeur-de-Lion'' by Grétry. He continued singing there in such works as ''Dinorah'' by Meyerbeer and Erlanger's ''La sorcière'', as well as Italian operas such as ''Tosca'' and ''Cavalleria Rusticana''. In 1913 Vezzani and Agnès Borgo were married, and they had one daughter. (They later divorced in 1919, and Vezzani had two subsequent marriages.) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vezzani
Vezzani is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France on the island of Corsica. Population See also *Communes of the Haute-Corse department The following is a list of the 236 communes of the Haute-Corse department of France. The communes cooperate in the following intercommunalities (as of 2020):Communes of Haute-Corse {{HauteCorse-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L'Africaine
''L'Africaine'' (''The African Woman'') is an 1865 French ''grand opéra'' in five acts with music by Giacomo Meyerbeer and a libretto by Eugène Scribe. Meyerbeer and Scribe began working on the opera in 1837, using the title ''L'Africaine'', but around 1852 changed the plot to portray fictitious events in the life of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama and introduced the working title ''Vasco de Gama'', the French version of his name. The copying of the full score was completed the day before Meyerbeer died in 1864. The opera was premiered the following year by the Paris Opéra in a version made by François-Joseph Fétis, who restored the earlier title, ''L'Africaine''. The Fétis version was published and was used for subsequent performances until 2013, when some productions and recordings began using Meyerbeer's preferred title, ''Vasco de Gama'', for performing versions with revisions based on the manuscript score. In 2018 the music publisher Ricordi issued a critical edit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1951 Deaths
Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United Kingdom announces abandonment of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme for the cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory, with the writing off of £36.5M debt. * January 15 – In a court in West Germany, Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment. * January 20 – Winter of Terror: Avalanches in the Alps kill 240 and bury 45,000 for a time, in Switzerland, Austria and Italy. * January 21 – Mount Lamington in Papua New Guinea 1951 eruption of Mount Lamington, erupts catastrophically, killing nearly 3,000 people and causing great devastation in Oro Province. * January 25 – Dutch author Anne de Vries releases the first volume of his children's nove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1880s Births
Year 188 (CLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in the Roman Empire as the Year of the Consulship of Fuscianus and Silanus (or, less frequently, year 941 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 188 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Publius Helvius Pertinax becomes pro-consul of Africa from 188 to 189. Japan * Queen Himiko (or Shingi Waō) begins her reign in Japan (until 248). Births * April 4 – Caracalla (or Antoninus), Roman emperor (d. 217) * Lu Ji (or Gongji), Chinese official and politician (d. 219) * Sun Shao, Chinese general of the Eastern Wu state (d. 241) Deaths * March 17 – Julian, pope and patriarch of Alexandria * Fa Zhen (or Gaoqing), Chinese scholar (b. AD 100) * Lucius Antistius Burrus, Roman politician (executed) * Ma Xiang, Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Blyth
Geoffrey Alan Blyth (27 July 1929 – 14 August 2007) was an English music critic, author, and musicologist who was particularly known for his writings within the field of opera. He was a specialist on singers and singing. Born in London, Blyth's earliest musical experiences were at Rugby School. He attended the music lectures of Professor Jack Westrup. After graduation from Pembroke College, Oxford, where he read history, he returned to London and worked in journalism and publishing. He wrote reviews, interviews and obituaries for ''The Times'' and for ''Gramophone''. He was a long-time contributor to the British magazine ''Opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...''.Baker, Janet, and Max Loppert. "Alan Blyth, 1929–2007", ''Opera Magazine'' (2007): 1168–1171. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franco Corelli
Franco Corelli (8 April 1921 – 29 October 2003) was an Italian tenor who had a major international opera career between 1951 and 1976. Associated in particular with the spinto and dramatic tenor roles of the Italian repertory, he was celebrated universally for his powerhouse voice, electrifying top notes, clear timbre, passionate singing and remarkable performances. Dubbed the "prince of tenors", audiences were enchanted by his handsome features and charismatic stage presence. He had a long and fruitful partnership with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City between 1961 and 1975. He also appeared on the stages of most of the major opera houses in Europe and with opera companies throughout North America. Biography Early life and education: 1921–1950 Corelli was born Dario Franco Corelli in Ancona into a family some say had little or no musical background. While his parents were not particularly musical, his paternal grandfather Augusto had actually quit working at 35 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enrico Caruso
Enrico Caruso (, , ; 25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic first lyrical tenor then dramatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles (74) from the Italian and French repertoires that ranged from the lyric to the dramatic. One of the first major singing talents to be commercially recorded, Caruso made 247 commercially released recordings from 1902 to 1920, which made him an international popular entertainment star. Biography Early life Enrico Caruso came from a poor but not destitute background. Born in Naples in the via Santi Giovanni e Paolo n° 7 on 25 February 1873, he was baptised the next day in the adjacent Church of San Giovanni e Paolo. His parents originally came from Piedimonte d'Alife (now called Piedimonte Matese), in the Province of Caserta in Campania, Southern Italy. Caruso was the third of seven children and one of only three to survive infancy. There is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spinto
Spinto (from Italian, "pushed") is a vocal term used to characterize a soprano or tenor voice of a weight between lyric and dramatic that is capable of handling large musical climaxes in opera at moderate intervals. (Sometimes the terms ' or ' are used to denote this category of voice.) The spinto voice type is recognisable by its tonal "slice" or ''squillo''. This enables the singer to cut through the wall of sound produced by a full Romantic orchestra in a wide variety of roles, excluding only the most taxing ones written by the likes of Richard Wagner (such as ''Brünhilde'', ''Isolde'', ''Tristan'' and ''Siegfried''), Giacomo Meyerbeer (''John of Leyden''), Verdi (''Otello''), Puccini (''Turandot'', ''Calaf'') and Richard Strauss (''Elektra''). * : a fundamentally lyric soprano with a fair amount of extra "pulp" in her tone and a distinct thrust in her vocal attack. As they possess both a lyric and a dramatic quality, spinto sopranos are suitable for a broad spectrum of ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marston Records
Marston Records is an independent American record label. The label specializes in the remastering and reissuing of very early and rare recordings. It was founded in 1997 by Ward Marston and Scott Kessler. Releases on Marston Records Collections of rare recordings of singers include Jane Bathori, Mattia Battistini, Celestina Boninsegna, Max Bouvet, Rosalia Chalia, Feodor Chaliapin, Arthur Endrèze, Emilio de Gogorza, Lotte Lehmann, Félia Litvinne, Fernando De Lucia, John McCormack, Léon Melchissédec, Maurice Renaud, Tito Schipa, Conchita Supervía, Vanni-Marcoux, César Vezzani and Francisco Viñas. Collections of pianists' rare recordings include Josef Hofmann, Raoul von Koczalski, Jorge Bolet and Vladimir de Pachmann Vladimir de Pachmann or Pachman (27 July 18486 January 1933) was a pianist of Russian-German ethnicity, especially noted for performing the works of Chopin and for his eccentric performing style. Biography Pachmann was born in Odessa, Ukraine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Der Ring Des Nibelungen
(''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the '' Nibelungenlied''. The composer termed the cycle a "Bühnenfestspiel" (stage festival play), structured in three days preceded by a ("preliminary evening"). It is often referred to as the ''Ring'' cycle, Wagner's ''Ring'', or simply ''The Ring''. Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The four parts that constitute the ''Ring'' cycle are, in sequence: * ''Das Rheingold'' (''The Rhinegold'') * '' Die Walküre'' (''The Valkyrie'') * '' Siegfried'' * '' Götterdämmerung'' (''Twilight of the Gods'') Individual works of the sequence are often performed separately, and indeed the operas contain dialogues that mention events in the previous operas, so that a viewer could watch any of them wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lohengrin (opera)
''Lohengrin'', WWV 75, is a Romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the '' Parzival'' of Wolfram von Eschenbach, and its sequel '' Lohengrin'', itself inspired by the epic of '' Garin le Loherain''. It is part of the Knight of the Swan legend. The opera has inspired other works of art. King Ludwig II of Bavaria named his castle Neuschwanstein Castle after the Swan Knight. It was King Ludwig's patronage that later gave Wagner the means and opportunity to complete, build a theatre for, and stage his epic cycle '' Der Ring des Nibelungen''. He had discontinued composing it at the end of Act II of ''Siegfried'', the third of the ''Ring'' tetralogy, to create his radical chromatic masterpiece of the late 1850s, '' Tristan und Isolde'', and his lyrical comic opera of the mid-1860s, ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg''. The most popular and recogn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> L'Africaine")
.jpg "Click for more on -> Der Ring Des Nibelungen")
