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Agnes Sorel (opera)
''Agnes Sorel'' is an 1836 opera composed by Mary Anne à Beckett with the libretto by the composer's husband, Gilbert A. à Beckett. Described as "an operatic farce", the work was loosely based on the life of Agnès Sorel, mistress of Charles VII of France Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461), called the Victorious (french: le Victorieux) or the Well-Served (), was King of France from 1422 to his death in 1461. In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII inherited the throne of F .... The piece, with words by the composer's husband, was the first production at John Braham's St James's Theatre in London in 1835. The score was orchestrated by George Stansbury. The anonymous reviewer in '' The Times'' dismissed the libretto as "cold, dull and comfortless", but praised some of the music as "evinc ngno inconsiderable share of taste and skill"."The St James's Theatre", ''The Times'', 15 December 1835, p. 5 The composer turned down the suggestion that she shou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Anne à Beckett
Mary Anne à Beckett (29 April 1815 – 11 December 1863) was an English composer, primarily known for opera. She was the wife of the writer Gilbert à Beckett, who provided the libretti for two of her operas. Their children included the writers Gilbert Arthur à Beckett and Arthur William à Beckett. Her theatrical connections included her brother, the actor and producer impresario Augustus Glossop Harris, and his eldest son, also an impresario, Sir Augustus Harris. Biography Mary Anne à Beckett was born in London, the eldest daughter of Joseph Glossop and his wife, Elizabeth, ''née'' Feron. Among their other children was the future actor and producer Augustus Glossop Harris, whose elder son was the impresario Sir Augustus Harris.Knight, Josep"Harris, Augustus Frederick Glossop (1826–1873)" rev. Nilanjana Banerji, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, retrieved 21 April 2014 Glossop, a man of doubtful financial means, was at various ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilbert Abbott à Beckett
Gilbert Abbott à Beckett (9 January 1811 – 30 August 1856) was an English humorist. Biography He was born in London, the son of a lawyer, and belonged to a family claiming descent from Thomas Becket. He was educated at Westminster School and was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1841. He edited the comic paper ''Figaro in London'' and was one of the original staff of ''Punch'' and a contributor until his death. He was an active journalist on ''The Times'' and '' The Morning Herald'', contributed a series of light articles to the '' Illustrated London News'', conducted in 1846 ''The Almanack of the Month'' and found time to produce some fifty or sixty plays, among them dramatized versions of Charles Dickens's shorter stories, written in collaboration with Mark Lemon. He is perhaps best known as the author of ''The Comic History of England'' (1847–48), ''The Comic History of Rome'' (1852) and a ''Comic Blackstone'' (1846). He wrote the book for two operas with music comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agnès Sorel
Agnès Sorel (; 1422 – 9 February 1450), known by the sobriquet ''Dame de beauté'' (Lady of Beauty), was a favourite and chief mistress of King Charles VII of France, by whom she bore four daughters. She is considered the first officially recognized royal mistress of a French king. She was the subject of several contemporary paintings and works of art, including Jean Fouquet's ''Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels''. Life in the royal court Born in 1422, the daughter of Jean Soreau and Catherine de Maignelais, Sorel was 20 or 21 years old when she was first introduced to King Charles. At that time, she was holding a position in the household of Rene I of Naples, as a maid of honour to his consort Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine. Sorel then went on to serve as the lady-in-waiting for Marie d'Anjou, Charles VII of France's wife and Isabella's sister in law. She would soon become his mistress. The King gave her the Château de Loches (where he had been persuaded by Joan o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles VII Of France
Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461), called the Victorious (french: le Victorieux) or the Well-Served (), was King of France from 1422 to his death in 1461. In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII inherited the throne of France under desperate circumstances. Forces of the Kingdom of England and the duke of Burgundy occupied Guyenne and northern France, including Paris, the most populous city, and Reims, the city in which French kings were traditionally crowned. In addition, his father, Charles VI, had disinherited him in 1420 and recognized Henry V of England and his heirs as the legitimate successors to the French crown. At the same time, a civil war raged in France between the Armagnacs (supporters of the House of Valois) and the Burgundian party (supporters of the House of Valois-Burgundy, which was allied to the English). With his court removed to Bourges, south of the Loire River, Charles was disparagingly called the "King of Bourges", because t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Braham (tenor)
John Braham ( – 17 February 1856) was an English tenor opera singer born in London. His long career led him to become one of Europe's leading opera stars. He also wrote a number of songs, of minor importance, although " The Death of Nelson" is still remembered. His success, and that of his offspring in marrying into the British aristocracy, are also notable examples of Jewish social mobility in the early 19th century. Origins Braham's precise origins are uncertain. The favoured (but specious) present account in contemporary sources of reference is that he was possibly a son of John Abraham or Abrahams, who was possibly an operative at the Drury Lane Theatre who died in 1779 and his wife, who may have been Esther, who may have been a sister of the hazzan at the Great Synagogue of London, Myer Lyon. Braham has also been held to be related to various other London musicians with the surname of Abrahams. There is however no documentary evidence for any of these supposed connections. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St James's Theatre
The St James's Theatre was in King Street, St James's, King Street, St James's, London. It opened in 1835 and was demolished in 1957. The theatre was conceived by and built for a popular singer, John Braham (tenor), John Braham; it lost money and after three seasons he retired. A succession of managements over the next forty years also failed to make it a commercial success, and the St James's acquired a reputation as an unlucky theatre. It was not until 1879–1888, under the management of the actors John Hare (actor), John Hare and Madge Kendal, Madge and William Hunter Kendal, W. H. Kendal that the theatre began to prosper. The Hare-Kendal management was succeeded, after brief and disastrous attempts by other lessees, by that of the actor-manager George Alexander (actor), George Alexander, who was in charge from 1891 until his death in 1918. Under Alexander the house gained a reputation for programming that was adventurous without going too far for the tastes of London so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Stansbury
George Frederick Stansbury (7 June 1800 – 3 June 1845) was a British composer, musical director and arranger and an operatic singer. Although contemporary reviewers described his voice as of "poor quality", he was nevertheless an excellent musician and a ready composer. Early life He was born into a musical family in Bristol in 1800, the youngest son of Irish-born musician Joseph Stansbury (died 1827) and Susannah ''née'' Prout (died 1831). His oldest brother was the violinist and pianist John Adolphus Stansbury (1792–1837) who for many years was the orchestra leader at the Bristol Old Vic, Theatre Royal, Bristol and of the Bristol concerts. His other brother was Joseph Augustus Stansbury (1793–1831), who played the double bass. His surviving and younger sisters (a third died in infancy) were the singers and actresses Emma Stansbury (1803–1862) and Louisa Jane Stansbury (born 1808), the latter marrying Joseph Hall in 1834.Kurt Gänzl, Gänzl, Kurt.Stansbury ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'', which do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1966. In general, the political position of ''The Times'' is considered to be centre-right. ''The Times'' is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, such as '' The Times of India'', ''The New York Times'', and more recently, digital-first publications such as TheTimesBlog.com (Since 2017). In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as , or as , although the newspaper is of na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English-language Operas
English is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots language, Scots, and then closest related to the Low German, Low Saxon and Frisian languages, English is Genetic relationship (linguistics), genealogically West Germanic language, West Germanic. However, its vocabulary is also distinctively influenced by Langues d'oïl, dialects of France (about List of English words of French origin, 29% of Modern English words) and Latin (also about 29%), plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language). Speakers of English are called Anglophones. The earliest forms of English, collectively known as Old English, evolved from a group of West Germanic (Ingvae ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operas
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 librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor. Although musical theatre is closely related to opera, the two are considered to be distinct from one another. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition. Originally understood as an entirely sung piece, in contrast to a play with songs, opera has come to include numerous genres, including some that include spoken dialogue such as '' Singspiel'' and ''Opéra comique''. In traditional number opera, singers employ two style ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1836 Operas
Events January–March * January 1 – Queen Maria II of Portugal marries Prince Ferdinand Augustus Francis Anthony of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. * January 5 – Davy Crockett arrives in Texas. * January 12 ** , with Charles Darwin on board, reaches Sydney. ** Will County, Illinois, is formed. * February 8 – London and Greenwich Railway opens its first section, the first railway in London, England. * February 16 – A fire at the Lahaman Theatre in Saint Petersburg kills 126 people."Fires, Great", in ''The Insurance Cyclopeadia: Being an Historical Treasury of Events and Circumstances Connected with the Origin and Progress of Insurance'', Cornelius Walford, ed. (C. and E. Layton, 1876) p76 * February 23 – Texas Revolution: The Battle of the Alamo begins, with an American settler army surrounded by the Mexican Army, under Santa Anna. * February 25 – Samuel Colt receives a United States patent for the Colt revolver, the first revolving barrel multishot firearm. * March 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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