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Zaïs
''Zaïs'' is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau first performed on 29 February 1748 at the Opéra in Paris. It takes the form of a ''pastorale héroïque'' in four acts and a prologue. The librettist was Louis de Cahusac. The score is particularly remarkable for its overture, which depicts the emergence of the four elements out of chaos. It looks back to Jean-Féry Rebel's ballet ''Les élemens'' and forward to Haydn's overture for his oratorio '' The Creation''. Roles According to the published libretto Synopsis Zaïs, a genie, disguises himself as a shepherd to win the love of a shepherdess, Zélide. After a series of ordeals in which Zaïs shows he is willing to give up his magic powers for his love, Oromases, the king of the genies, grants Zélide immortality so the couple can marry. Recordings * ''Zaïs'', John Elwes (Zaïs), Marjanne Kweksilber (Zélidie), Max van Egmond (Oromazès), David Thomas (Cindor), Mieke van der Sluis (Une Sylphide/ La Grande Prêtresse de l' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau (; – ) was a French composer and music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer of his time for the harpsichord, alongside François Couperin. Little is known about Rameau's early years. It was not until the 1720s that he won fame as a major theorist of music with his ''Treatise on Harmony'' (1722) and also in the following years as a composer of masterpieces for the harpsichord, which circulated throughout Europe. He was almost 50 before he embarked on the operatic career on which his reputation chiefly rests today. His debut, ''Hippolyte et Aricie'' (1733), caused a great stir and was fiercely attacked by the supporters of Lully's style of music for its revolutionary use of harmony. Nevertheless, Rameau's pre-eminence in the field of French opera was soon acknowledged, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Petite Bande
La Petite Bande is a Belgium-based ensemble specialising in music of the Baroque and Classical eras played on period instruments. They are particularly known for their recordings of works by Corelli, Rameau, Handel, Bach, Haydn, and Mozart. History The ensemble was brought together in 1972 by Sigiswald Kuijken, originally for the one-off purpose of recording Lully's comédie-ballet, ''Le Bourgeois gentilhomme'', conducted by Gustav Leonhardt for the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi label. The ensemble was given its name from Lully's '' Petite Bande des Violons du Roi'', an orchestra of 21 string players at the court of Louis XIV. The nucleus of the original group was the Leonhardt Consort along with Sigiswald Kuijken and his brothers Wieland and Barthold. Following the recording, the group continued to give concerts throughout Europe and became a permanent ensemble based in Leuven with Kuijken as director. Their initial repertoire concentrated on French Baroque music, but soon bran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christophe Rousset
Christophe Rousset (; born 12 April 1961) is a French harpsichordist and conductor, who specializes in the performance of Baroque music on period instruments. He is also a musicologist, particularly of opera and European music of the 17th and 18th centuries and is the founder of the French music ensemble Les Talens Lyriques. Biography Rousset was born in Avignon, France on 12 April 1961. He studied harpsichord at La Schola Cantorum de Paris with Huguette Dreyfus, and subsequently at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with Bob van Asperen winning the prestigious First Prize in the 7th Bruges Harpsichord Competition at the age of 22. This was followed by the creation of his own ensemble, Les Talens Lyriques, in 1991. At the heart of the ensemble is Rousset's research and expertise across the music of the Baroque, Classical and early Romantic periods. Having initially attracted the notice of the international press and record companies for his proficiency as a harpsichordis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandrine Piau
Sandrine Piau (born 5 June 1965) is a French soprano. She is particularly renowned in Baroque music although also excels in Romantic and modernist art songs. She has the versatility to perform works from Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart to Schumann, Debussy, and Poulenc. In addition to an active career in concerts and operas, she is prolific in studio recordings, primarily with Harmonia Mundi, Naïve, and Alpha since 2018. Biography Born in Issy-les-Moulineaux, she initially studied harp and turned to singing at the Conservatoire de Paris. After meeting William Christie, she commenced her exposure to Baroque music and their collaboration notably at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. She proceeded further vocal studies with Rachel Yakar and René Jacobs. She collaborated with many of the leading European conductors of the Baroque revival, including Marc Minkowski, Philippe Herreweghe, Paul McCreesh, Alan Curtis, Christophe Rousset, René Jacobs, and Fabio Biondi. Piau also ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pastorale Héroïque
Pastorale héroïque was a type of ballet héroïque, a form of the opéra-ballet genre of French Baroque opera. The first work to bear the name was Jean-Baptiste Lully's final completed opera ''Acis et Galatée'' (1686), although musical works on pastoral themes had already appeared on the French stage. The pastorale héroïque usually drew on classical subject matter associated with pastoral poetry. Like the tragédie en musique, it had an allegorical prologue; however, its structure consisted of three acts, rather than the five of the tragédie en musique. Later examples were written by Jean-Philippe Rameau; these include '' Zaïs'' (1748) and '' Naïs'' (1749), and ''Acante et Céphise'' (1751). Bibliography *Powers, D M ''The 'Pastorale Héroïque': Origins and Development of a Genre of French Opera in the 17th and 18th Centuries'' (dissertation, University of Chicago, 1988) Sources *Sadie, Stanley ed. (1992), 'Pastorale-héroïque' in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis De Cahusac
Louis de Cahusac (6 April 1706 – 22 June 1759) was an 18th-century French playwright and librettist, and Freemason, most famous for his work with the composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. He provided the libretti for several of Rameau's operas, namely '' Les fêtes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour'' (1747), ''Zaïs'' (1748), '' Naïs'' (1749), ''Zoroastre'' (1749; revised 1756), '' La naissance d'Osiris'' (1754), and '' Anacréon'' (the first of Rameau's operas by that name, 1754). He is also credited with writing the libretto of Rameau's final work, ''Les Boréades'' (c. 1763). Cahusac contributed to the Encyclopédie and was the lover of Marie Fel.Maurice Cranston. '' Jean-Jacques: The Early Life and Work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712–1754''. p252 In 1754, he published '' La Danse ancienne et moderne ou Traité historique de la danse'' (The Hague, Jean Neaulme). Among Rameau's librettists, he was the one whose collaboration lasted the longest. Cahusac's one-act comic play ''Zeneïde'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Talens Lyriques
The French musical ensemble Les Talens Lyriques was created in 1991 in Paris, France, by the harpsichordist and orchestral conductor Christophe Rousset. This instrumental and vocal formation derives its name from the subtitle of '' Les fêtes d'Hébé'' (1739) an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Description The repertoire of Les Talens Lyriques extends from Monteverdi (''L'incoronazione di Poppea'', ''Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria ''and ''L'Orfeo''), Francesco Cavalli ('' La Didone'' and '' La Calisto'') to Handel ('' Scipione'', ''Riccardo Primo'', '' Rinaldo'', '' Admeto'', ''Giulio Cesare'', '' Serse'', '' Arianna'', ''Tamerlano'', '' Ariodante'', ''Semele'' and ''Alcina''), taking in on the way Jean-Baptiste Lully ('' Persée'', ''Roland'', ''Bellérophon'', '' Phaéton'', ''Isis'', '' Amadis'' and '' Armide''), Henri Desmarets (''Vénus et Adonis''), Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville ('' Les fêtes de Paphos''), Cimarosa (''Il Mercato di Malmantile'', '' Il matrimonio seg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Van Egmond
Max van Egmond (born 1 February 1936 in Semarang) is a Dutch bass and baritone singer. He has focused on oratorio and Lied and is known for singing works of Johann Sebastian Bach. He was one of the pioneers of historically informed performance of Baroque and Renaissance music. Career Max van Egmond studied voice at Hilversum with Tine van Willingen de Lorme. Max van Egmondat all-music At the age of eighteen he became a member of De Nederlandse Bachvereniging (Netherlands Bach Society).Max van Egmond on the bach-cantatas website Starting in 1965, he became involved in the complete Bach recordings of , |
David Thomas (singer)
David Thomas (born 1943) is an English classical bass singer, performing mostly in concert. He has performed internationally at notable concert halls and festivals. Life Thomas began his musical career as a chorister at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. He attended King's School, Canterbury, and then as a teenager on a choral scholarship at King's College, Cambridge. He focused on Early music, appearing with ensembles such as Consort of Musicke, conducted by Anthony Rooley, and Academy of Ancient Music, conducted by Christopher Hogwood. As a soloist, he performad Bach's ''Christmas Oratorio'' in Leipzig and Berlin, Handel's ''Messiah'' in Italy, Handel's '' Serse'' at the Göttingen Handel Festival, among others. In the U.S., he performed ''Messiah'' in the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Schubert's ''Winterreise'' at Cornell University, and Handel's oratorios '' Judas Maccabaeus'', '' Susanna'' and '' Theodora'', conducted by Nicholas McGegan. He sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
René Jacobs
René Jacobs (born 30 October 1946) is a Belgian musician. He came to fame as a countertenor, but later in his career he became known as a conductor of baroque and classical opera. Biography Countertenor Born in Ghent, Jacobs began his musical career as a boy chorister at the Cathedral. Later he studied classical philology at the University of Ghent while continuing to sing in Brussels and in The Hague. The Kuijken brothers, Gustav Leonhardt and Alfred Deller all encouraged him to pursue a career as a countertenor, and he quickly became known as one of the best of his time. He recorded a large amount of less-known Baroque music by such composers as Antonio Cesti, d'India, Ferrari, Marenzio, Lambert, Guédron, William Lawes and others. He also sang in much-acclaimed recordings of the major works of Bach (such as the ''St Matthew Passion'' led by Gustav Leonhardt and Philippe Herreweghe). Conductor In 1977, he founded the ensemble Concerto Vocale. As a conductor, Jacob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portrait Of Jean-Philippe Rameau - Joseph Aved
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer. History Prehistorical portraiture Plastered human skulls were reconstructed human skulls that were made in the ancient Levant between 9000 and 6000 BC in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. They represent some of the oldest forms of art in the Middle East and demonstrate that the prehistoric population took great care in burying their ancestors below their homes. The skulls denote some of the earliest sculptural examples of portraiture in the history of art. Historical portraitu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gustav Leonhardt
Gustav Maria Leonhardt (30 May 1928 – 16 January 2012) was a Dutch keyboardist, conductor, musicologist, teacher and editor. He was a leading figure in the historically informed performance movement to perform music on period instruments. Leonhardt professionally played many instruments, including the harpsichord, pipe organ, claviorganum (a combination of harpsichord and organ), clavichord, fortepiano and piano. He also conducted orchestras and choruses. Biography Gustav Leonhardt was born in 's-Graveland, near Hilversum, and studied organ and harpsichord from 1947 to 1950 with Eduard Müller at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel. In 1950, he made his debut as a harpsichordist in Vienna, where he studied musicology. He was professor of harpsichord at the Academy of Music from 1952 to 1955 and at the Amsterdam Conservatory from 1954. He was also a church organist. Career Leonhardt performed and conducted a variety of solo, chamber, orchestral, operatic, and choral ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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