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A Wicked Voice
''A Wicked Voice'' by Vernon Lee is a short story about a 19th-century Scandinavian composer named Magnus who, haunted by the ghost of an 18th-century Italian singer named Zaffirino, loses his passion for decadent music and instead comes to realize his true love of classical music. "A Wicked Voice" is fueled by Lee's love for classical music (18th century Italian opera specifically), her disdain for decadent music (Wagner especially), and her troubled yet obsessive relationship with the past (which assumes the character of a ghost in Zaffirino). The short story explores themes such as sexuality and eroticism, ghosts of the past, aestheticism, and "art for sanity's sake." Background In "A Wicked Voice" Lee critiques decadent music by showing classical music to be superior. Her critiques of decadent music especially concern Wagner, as they do elsewhere in her other works such as "Beauty and Sanity" and “The Religious and Moral Status of Wagner”. Her musical stance is well-voi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vernon Lee
Vernon Lee was the pseudonym of the French-born British writer Violet Paget (14 October 1856 – 13 February 1935). She is remembered today primarily for her supernatural fiction and her work on aesthetics. An early follower of Walter Pater, she wrote over a dozen volumes of essays on art, music and travel. Biography Violet Paget was born in France on 14 October 1856, at Château St Leonard, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Boulogne, to British expatriate parents, Henry Ferguson Paget and Matilda Lee-Hamilton (née Adams). Violet Paget was the half-sister of Eugene Lee-Hamilton, Eugene Jacob Lee-Hamilton (1845–1907) by her mother's first marriage, and from whose surname she adapted her own pseudonym. A maternal cousin was British suffragist Alice Abadam. Although she primarily wrote for an English readership and made many visits to London, she spent the majority of her life on the continent in Europe, particularly in Italy. Her longest residence was at Villa Il Palmerino just outside Fl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castrato
A castrato (Italian; : castrati) is a male singer who underwent castration before puberty in order to retain a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice can also occur 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 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 twisting the testicles until they atrophied, or complete removal via surgical cutting was performed (however the comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gioachino Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. He gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces and some Church music, sacred music. He set new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from large-scale composition while still in his thirties, at the height of his popularity. Born in Pesaro to parents who were both musicians (his father a trumpeter, his mother a singer), Rossini began to compose by the age of twelve and was educated at music school in Bologna. His first opera was performed in Venice in 1810 when he was 18 years old. In 1815 he was engaged to write operas and manage theatres in Naples. In the period 1810–1823, he wrote 34 operas for the Italian stage that were performed in Venice, Milan, Ferrara, Naples and elsewhere; this productivity necessitated an alm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann (; ; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic music, Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber music, chamber groups, orchestra, choir and the opera. His works typify the spirit of the Romantic era in German music. Schumann was born in Zwickau, Saxony, to an affluent middle-class family with no musical connections, and was initially unsure whether to pursue a career as a lawyer or to make a living as a pianist-composer. He studied law at the universities of Leipzig University, Leipzig and Heidelberg University, Heidelberg but his main interests were music and Romantic literature. From 1829 he was a student of the piano teacher Friedrich Wieck, but his hopes for a career as a virtuoso pianist were frustrated by a worsening problem with his right hand, and he concentrated on composition. His early works were mainly piano pieces, inclu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaetano Guadagni
Gaetano Guadagni (16 February 1728 – 11 November 1792) was an Italian mezzo-soprano castrato singer, most famous for singing the role of Orpheus at the premiere of Gluck's opera '' Orfeo ed Euridice'' in 1762. Career Born at Lodi, Guadagni joined the ''cappella'' of Sant'Antonio in Padua in 1746, but also made his public operatic debut at Venice that year, which was not met with ecclesiastical approval: he was dismissed from his position in Padua by 1748, and soon after appeared in London as a member of Giovanni Francesco Crosa ("Dr Croza")'s ''buffo'' (comic) company. He does not appear to have had the typical rigorous training that most castrati undertook (see castrato), which may account for his being described by the music historian Charles Burney as a "wild and careless singer" on his arrival in England. He was rapidly taken up in theatrical and musical circles in the capital, and also acquired a reputation for his sexual activities, as did many castrati. This was repor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic music, Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''bel canto'' opera style during the first half of the nineteenth century and a probable influence on other composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. Donizetti was born in Bergamo in Lombardy. At an early age he was taken up by Simon Mayr who enrolled him with a full scholarship in a school which he had set up. There he received detailed musical training. Mayr was instrumental in obtaining a place for Donizetti at the Bologna Academy, where, at the age of 19, he wrote his first one-act opera, the comedy ''Il Pigmalione'', which may never have been performed during his lifetime. An offer in 1822 from Domenico Barbaja, the impresario of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, which followed the composer's ninth opera, led to his move to Naples and his reside ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Girolamo Crescentini
Girolamo Crescentini (2 February 1762 – 24 April 1846) was an Italian soprano castrato, singing teacher, and composer. Biography Crescentini was born in Urbania. He studied in Bologna with the noted teacher Lorenzo Gibelli and made his debut in 1783, quite advanced in years as a castrato. After an unlucky stay in London in 1785, where he did not win much approbation, on his getting back to Italy, he took part in Naples, very successfully, to a revival of Guglielmi’s opera '' Enea e Lavinia'', together with the already famous tenor Giacomo Davide, who shared Crescentini’s artistic inclinations. Thenceforwards, his career made more and more headway, reaching the apex in the nineties, and specially in 1796, when he created two roles which would remain in repertoire for some decades and then famous until present times, in either case by his quasi-pupil Giuseppina Grassini’s side. For him, indeed, Nicola Zingarelli wrote the part of ''Romeo'' in his opera '' Giuliet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marco Bordogni
Giulio Marco Bordogni (23 January 1789 – 31 July 1856), usually called just Marco Bordogni, was an Italian operatic tenor and singing teacher of great popularity and success, whose mature career was based in Paris.Principal source: Joannes Rochut, ''Melodious Etudes for Trombone: Selection from the Vocalises of Marco Bordogni, Transcribed and Progressively Arranged by Joannes Rochut'', in 3 Books (Carl Fischer, New York 1928). Biography Bordogni was born in Gazzaniga, near Bergamo, Italy. He was a late exponent of that formidable generation of tenors that flourished in Bergamo between the two centuries. It originated with Giacomo David, Jesus and , and continued, in the first decades of the 19th century, with such leading figures as Andrea Nozzari, Giovanni David (Giacomo's son and pupil), Eliodoro Bianchi, Domenico Donzelli, Giovanni Battista Rubini and Bordogni himself. Gaetano Crivelli too can be considered an honorary member of the group, having been born in the neigh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ca' Vendramin Calergi
Ca' Loredan Vendramin Calergi is a 15th-century palace on the Grand Canal in the ''sestiere'' (quarter) of Cannaregio in Venice, northern Italy. It was commissioned by the patrician Loredan dynasty, namely Andrea Loredan, and paid for by Doge Leonardo Loredan, with construction starting in 1481. The architecturally distinguished building was the home of many prominent people through history and was the place where composer Richard Wagner died. It houses the Venice Casino (''Casinò di Venezia'') and the Wagner Museum (''Museo Wagner''). History Ca' Vendramin Calergi was designed in the late 15th century by Mauro Codussi, architect of Chiesa di San Zaccaria and other noteworthy churches and private residences in Venice. Construction began in 1481 and was finished after his death by the Lombardo family of architects, who completed it in 1509. The twenty-eight-year period it took to complete construction is considered short based on the technology available at that time. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bologna
Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its Metropolitan City of Bologna, metropolitan province is home to more than 1 million people. Bologna is most famous for being the home to the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest university in continuous operation,Top Universities ''World University Rankings'' Retrieved 6 January 2010Hunt Janin: "The university in medieval life, 1179–1499", McFarland, 2008, , p. 55f.de Ridder-Symoens, Hilde [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divided into 24 books. It follows the heroic king of Ithaca, Odysseus, also known by the Latin variant Ulysses, and his homecoming journey after the ten-year long Trojan War. His journey from Troy to Ithaca lasts an additional ten years, during which time he encounters many perils and all of his crewmates are killed. In Odysseus's long absence, he is presumed dead, leaving his wife Penelope and son Telemachus to contend with a group of unruly suitors competing for Penelope's hand in marriage. The ''Odyssey'' was first written down in Homeric Greek around the 8th or 7th century BC; by the mid-6th century BC, it had become part of the Greek literary canon. In antiquity, Homer's authorship was taken as true, but contemporary sch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 15, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era, Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His ''oeuvre'' documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, Capri, Spain, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida. Born in Florence to American parents, he was trained in Paris before moving to London, living most of his life in Europe. He enjoyed international acclaim as a portrait painter. An early submission to the Paris Salon in the 1880s, his ''Portrait of Madame X'', was intended to consolidate his position as a society painter in Paris but instead resulted in scandal. During the year following the scandal, Sargent departed for England, where he continued a successful career as a portrait artist. From the beginning, S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
