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Adriano In Siria
''Adriano in Siria'' (''Hadrian in Syria'') is a libretto by Italian poet Metastasio first performed, with music by Antonio Caldara, in Vienna in 1732, and turned into an opera by at least 60 other composers during the next century. Metastasio based the background of the story on late Classical works by Cassius Dio (Book 19 of the ''Roman History'') and Elio Sparziano (''Vita Hadriani Caesaris''). The aria ''Che fa il mio bene?'' also known as ''L'amante impaziente'', sung by the character Emirena, was set to music by Ludwig van Beethoven in his Opus 82: 4 Arietten und ein Duett. Performances The libretto was composed for Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and premiered in the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna on 4 November 1732. The scenes were designed by Antonio Galli da Bibiena (1697–1774). A revised version was first performed in 1733, with music by Giacomelli. Some of the later operas based on this libretto were also created for royal festivities: the version by Pergol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metastasio By Batoni
Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio (), was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of ''opera seria'' libretti. Early life Metastasio was born in Rome, where his father, Felice Trapassi, a native of Assisi, had taken service in the Corsican regiment of the papal forces. Felice married a Bolognese woman, Francesca Galasti, and became a grocer in the ''Via dei Cappellari''. The couple had two sons and two daughters; Pietro was the younger son. Pietro, while still a child, is said to have attracted crowds by reciting impromptu verses on a given subject. On one such occasion in 1709, two men of distinction stopped to listen: Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, famous for legal and literary erudition as well as his directorship of the Arcadian Academy, and Lorenzini, a critic of some note. Gravina was attracted by the boy's poetic talent and personal charm, and made Pietro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francesco Maria Veracini
Francesco Maria Veracini (1 February 1690 – 31 October 1768) was an Italian composer and violinist, perhaps best known for his sets of violin sonatas. As a composer, according to Manfred Bukofzer, "His individual, if not subjective, style has no precedent in baroque music and clearly heralds the end of the entire era", while Luigi Torchi maintained that "he rescued the imperiled music of the eighteenth century", His contemporary, Charles Burney, held that "he had certainly a great share of whim and caprice, but he built his freaks on a good foundation, being an excellent contrapuntist". The asteroid 10875 Veracini was named after him. Life Francesco Maria Veracini was born at about 8:00 a.m. on 1 February 1690 in the family house on the via Palazzuolo, parish of San Salvatore, Ognissanti, Florence. The second and only surviving son of Agostino Veracini, a pharmacist and undertaker (and ironically one of the few Veracinis who was not a violinist, even as an amateur) he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick Augustus I Of Saxony
pl, Fryderyk August Józef Maria Antoni Jan Nepomucen Alojzy Ksawery , image = Frederick Augustus I of Saxony by Marcello Bacciarelli (ca 1808-1809).png , caption = Portrait by Marcello Bacciarelli (1809) , succession = King of Saxony , coronation = 20 December 1806 , reign = , successor = Anthony , regent = Maria Antonia of Bavaria , succession1 = Grand Duke of the Duchy of Warsaw , reign1 = 9 June 1807 – 22 May 1815 , succession2 = Elector of Saxony , reign2 = 17 December 1763 – , predecessor2 = Frederick Christian , spouse= Amalie of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld , issue=Princess Maria Augusta of Saxony , house= Wettin , father=Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony , mother= Princess Maria Antonia of Bavaria , birth_date = , birth_place = Dresden, Electorate of Saxony, Holy Roman Empire , death_date = , death_place = Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony, German Confederation , place of burial= Dresden Cathedral, Dresden , religion= Roman Catholicism , signa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amalie Of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld
Amalie of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler (Maria Amalie Auguste; 10 May 1752 – 15 November 1828) was the last Electress and first Queen of Saxony and Duchess of Warsaw. Biography Amalie was born in Mannheim, the daughter of Count Palatine Frederick Michael of Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler and his wife, Countess Palatine Maria Francisca of Palatinate-Sulzbach. She was the sister of Maximilian Joseph, later King of Bavaria. On 29 January 1769 she married the Saxon Elector Frederick Augustus III. In 1806, the Electress and her husband were proclaimed the first King and Queen of Saxony. The following year, Napoleon I made them Duke and Duchess of Warsaw, a newly created principality in Poland. Amalie bore four children, three of whom were stillborn. Only one daughter, Maria Augusta, attained adulthood, but remained unmarried. From 1804, at the death of her sister-in-law Carolina of Parma, she and her other sister-in-law, Maria Theresa of Austria ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ignaz Holzbauer
Ignaz Jakob Holzbauer (18 September 1711 – 7 April 1783) was an Austrian composer of symphonies, concertos, operas, and chamber music, and a member of the Mannheim school. His aesthetic style is in line with that of the '' Sturm und Drang'' "movement" of German art and literature. Biography Holzbauer was born in Vienna. Despite the opposition of his parents, who intended him for the law, he studied music, and in 1745 became kapellmeister to Count Rottal and at the Court Theatre of Vienna. Later he was kapellmeister at Stuttgart, Germany. His operas include ''Il figlio delle selve'', which was the opening performance of the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen in 1753. Its success led to a job offer from the court at Mannheim, Germany, where he stayed for the rest of his life, continuing to compose and to teach, his students including Johann Anton Friedrich Fleischmann (1766–1798), the pianist, and Carl Stamitz. Holzbauer died in Mannheim, having been entirely deaf for some years. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth
Henry Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth (1708 – 30 January 1784) succeeded to the Baronetcy of Ravensworth Castle, and to the family estates and mining interests, at the age of fifteen, on the death of his grandfather in 1723. He was created 1st Baron Ravensworth on 29 June 1747. He went to Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1725, and took the Grand Tour in the early 1730s. He was Member of Parliament for Morpeth 1734–1747. He was a founder member of the Grand Allies partnership created in 1726 by a group of wealthy land and colliery owners to cooperate in the further development of coal mining in Northumberland and County Durham. Their early investments included collieries at Gosforth, Heaton, New Benton, Tanfield, South Causey, North Biddick and Longbenton. His seat was Ravensworth Castle, Lamesley, Co. Durham and his London address from 1735 was 13, St James's Square. Liddell married Anne Delme (daughter of Sir Peter Delme) in 1735 and they had one daughter, Anne, who wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey
John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey, (13 October 16965 August 1743) was an English courtier and political writer. Heir to the Earl of Bristol, he obtained the key patronage of Walpole, and was involved in many court intrigues and literary quarrels, being apparently caricatured by Pope and Fielding. His memoirs of the early reign of George II were too revealing to be published in his time and did not appear for more than a century. Family background Hervey was the eldest son of John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, by his second wife, Elizabeth. He was known as Lord Hervey from 1723, upon the death of his elder half-brother, Carr, the only son of his father's first wife, Isabella, but Lord Hervey never became Earl of Bristol, as he predeceased his father. Life Hervey was educated at Westminster School and at Clare College, Cambridge, where he took his M.A. degree in 1715. His father then sent him to Paris in 1716, and thence to Hanover to pay court to George I. He was a frequent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Jennens
Charles Jennens (1700 – 20 November 1773) was an English landowner and patron of the arts. As a friend of Handel, he helped author the libretti of several of his oratorios, most notably ''Messiah''. Life Jennens was brought up at Gopsall Hall in Leicestershire, the son of Charles Jennens and his second wife, Elizabeth Burdett. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, matriculating in 1716, but did not graduate. He was a devout Christian and a non-juror, upholding the legitimacy of the deposed Stuart line. He became interested in Primitive Apostolic (Sabbatarian) Christianity and John Chrysostom. Jennens has been identified as an anti-Deist. Richard Kidder's book ''A Demonstration of the Messias'' influenced him. After his father's death in 1747, Jennens had Gopsall Hall completely rebuilt in the Palladian style, including within the estate an Ionic temple built in memory of his friend, the poet and classical scholar, Edward Holdsworth. Remaining unmarried, he was co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket (also known as Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre) is a West End theatre on Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use. Samuel Foote acquired the lease in 1747, and in 1766 he gained a royal patent to play legitimate drama (meaning spoken drama, as opposed to opera, concerts or plays with music) in the summer months. The original building was a little further north in the same street. It has been at its current location since 1821, when it was redesigned by John Nash. It is a Grade I listed building, with a seating capacity of 888. The freehold of the theatre is owned by the Crown Estate. The Haymarket has been the site of a significant innovation in theatre. In 1873, it was the venue for the first scheduled matinée performance, establishing a custom soon followed in theatres everywhere. Its managers have included Benjamin Nottingham Webster, John Baldwin Buckst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Frederic Handel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712, where he spent the bulk of his career and became a naturalised British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition and by composers of the Italian Baroque. In turn, Handel's music forms one of the peaks of the "high baroque" style, bringing Italian opera to its highest development, creating the genres of English oratorio and organ concerto, and introducing a new style into English church music. He is consistently recognized as one of the greatest composers of his age. Handel started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera. In 1737, he had a physical break ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antonio Montagnana
Antonio Montagnana (fl. 1730–50, born in Venice) was an Italian bass of the 18th-century who is best remembered for his association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in whose operas Montagnana sang. Montagnana's first known appearance is in 1730 at Rome, and 1731 he sang at Turin in operatic works by Nicola Porpora, thought to be his teacher: Porpora also instructed the famous castrato Farinelli. During that same year he came to London to join Handel's opera company, where he created roles in Handel's '' Ezio'' - with words by the renowned librettist Metastasio - and '' Sosarme'', and sang in revivals of '' Admeto'', ''Giulio Cesare'', ''Flavio'', and ''Poro''. During the following season he created the role of Zoroastro in Handel's ''Orlando'' and sang the roles of Polyphemus in '' Acis and Galatea'' and Haman in ''Esther'' in what was Handel's first season of oratorio: he also took part in revivals of ''Tolomeo'' and '' Alessandro''.Grove The part of Abner in Handel's ... [...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] |
