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Allen Oxenburg
Allen Sven Oxenburg (July 10, 1927 – July 2, 1992) was an American opera director. He notably co-founded the American Opera Society (AOS) in 1950 with conductor Arnold Gamson, serving as the AOS's Artistic Director for two decades. He not only ran the administrative side of the AOS, but also served the company as stage director, program annotator, libretto translator and score editor. His work with the AOS was highly influential in sparking and perpetuating the post World War II bel canto revival, particularly through a number of highly lauded productions of rarely heard works by Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Vincenzo Bellini. Biography Oxenburg was born in New York City on July 10, 1927. He studied music and linguistics at Columbia University, New York University, and at a number of schools in Canada, France and Germany between 1945 and 1951. He also took classes at the Juilliard School alongside his cousin and fellow student Arnold Gamson. The two young men founded t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Opera Society
The American Opera Society (AOS) was a New York City-based musical organization that presented concert and semi-staged performances of operas between 1951 and 1970. The company was highly influential in sparking and perpetuating the post World War II bel canto revival, particularly through a number of highly lauded productions of rarely heard works by Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Vincenzo Bellini Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (; ; 3 November 1801 – 23 September 1835) was an Italian opera composer famed for his long, graceful melodies and evocative musical settings. A central figure of the era, he was admired not only .... The AOS also presented many operas to the American public for the first time, including the United States premieres of Benjamin Britten's ''Billy Budd (opera), Billy Budd'', Giuseppe Verdi's ''Giovanna d'Arco'', George Frideric Handel's ''Hercules (Handel), Hercules'' and Hector Berlioz's ''Les troyens'' to name just a few. His ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giovanna D'Arco
''Giovanna d'Arco'' (''Joan of Arc'') is an operatic ''dramma lirico'' with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, who had prepared the libretti for ''Nabucco'' and ''I Lombardi''. It is Verdi's seventh opera. The work partly reflects the story of Joan of Arc and appears to be loosely based on the 1801 play ''Die Jungfrau von Orleans'' by Friedrich von Schiller. Verdi wrote the music during the autumn and winter of 1844/45 and the opera had its first performance at Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 15 February 1845. This opera is not to be confused with Rossini's cantata of the same name, which was composed in 1832 for contralto and piano, and runs approximately 15 minutes. Libretto By the middle of the 19th century, the story of Joan of Arc had served as the basis for many operas, including those of Nicola Vaccai (1827) and Giovanni Pacini (1830), both of which were strongly reminiscent of Schiller's play. Solera was asked by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s to the 1980s. She possessed a voice combining agility, accurate intonation, pinpoint staccatos,"Icons of Opera – Dame Joan Sutherland" ''Opera Britannia'' (6 July 2009). Retrieved 27 September 2010. a trill (music), trill and a strong upper register, although music critics complained about her poor diction. Sutherland was the first Australian to win a Grammy Award, for the year 1961 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo, Best Classical Performance – Vocal Soloist (with or without orchestra) presented in 4th Annual Grammy Awards, 1962. She was known as and is wid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Dame Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf, (; 9 December 1915 – 3 August 2006) was a German-born Austro-British lyric soprano. She was among the foremost singers of lieder, and is renowned for her performances of Viennese operetta, as well as the operas of Mozart, Wagner and Richard Strauss. After retiring from the stage, she was a voice teacher internationally. She is considered one of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century. Early life Schwarzkopf was born on 9 December 1915 in Jarocin, Jarotschin in the Province of Posen in Prussia, German Empire, Germany (now in Poland), to Friedrich Schwarzkopf and his wife, Elisabeth (). Schwarzkopf performed in her first opera in 1928, as Eurydice in a school production of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Gluck's ''Orfeo ed Euridice'' in Magdeburg, Germany. In 1934, Schwarzkopf began her musical studies at the Berlin University of the Arts, Berlin Hochschule für Musik, where her singing tutor, Lula Mysz-Gmeiner, attempted to train he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leontyne Price
Leontyne Price ( born Mary Violet Leontine Price February 10, 1927) is an American spinto soprano who was the first African-American soprano to receive international acclaim. From 1961 she began a long association with the Metropolitan Opera. She regularly appeared at the world's major opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and La Scala. She was particularly renowned for her performances of the title role in Giuseppe Verdi's ''Aida''. Born in Laurel, Mississippi, Price studied music at Wilberforce University in Ohio where she began her undergraduate education in the fall 1944 semester as a student in the College of Education and Industrial Arts. Internal conflicts within Wilberforce's administration led the College of Education and Industrial Arts to break from Wilberforce University in June 1947 just before Price began her senior year at the school. It became a separate college known as the State College of Education and Ind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Berneice Horne (born January 16, 1934) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages. She is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors, and has won four Grammy Awards. Early life Marilyn Berneice Horne was born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, one of the four children of Bentz and Berneice Horne.Interview with Marilyn Horne nationalreview.com. August 2022. Accessed January 16, 2024. Her parents were both politicians, with her mother serving as city assessor of the Fifth Ward and her father appointed as McKean County assessor. Bentz was also a semi-professional singer and, noticing Mari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maureen Forrester
Maureen Kathleen Stewart Forrester, (July 25, 1930 – June 16, 2010) was a Canadian operatic contralto. Life and career Maureen Forrester was born and grew up in Montreal, Quebec, one of four children of Thomas Forrester, a British cabinetmaker from Scotland, and his Irish-born wife, the former May Arnold. She sang in church and radio choirs. At age 13, she dropped out of school to help support the family, working as a secretary at Bell Telephone. When her brother came home from the war he persuaded her to take singing lessons. She paid for voice lessons with Sally Martin, Frank Rowe, and baritone Bernard Diamant. In the spring of 1951, Forrester appeared on the CBC radio talent competition ''Opportunity Knocks (Canadian radio show), Opportunity Knocks'', singing "Ombra mai fu", and describing herself to the host as a "starving musician" and part-time switchboard operator. She was ultimately named first runner-up, and later competed on the similar shows ''Singing Stars of Tom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (; 28 May 1925 – 18 May 2012) was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music. One of the most famous Lieder (art song) performers of the post-war period, he is best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, particularly ''"Winterreise"'' of which his recordings with accompanists Gerald Moore and Jörg Demus are still critically acclaimed half a century after their release. Because he recorded an array of repertoire (spanning centuries), musicologist Alan Blyth asserted, "No singer in our time, or probably any other has managed the range and versatility of repertory achieved by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Opera, Lieder and oratorio in German, Italian or English came alike to him, yet he brought to each a precision and individuality that bespoke his perceptive insights into the idiom at hand." In addition, he recorded in French, Russian, Hebrew, Latin and Hungarian. He was described as "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eileen Farrell
Eileen Farrell (February 13, 1920 – March 23, 2002) was an American soprano who had a nearly 60-year-long career performing both classical and popular music in concerts, theatres, on radio and television, and on disc. NPR noted, "She possessed one of the largest and most radiant operatic voices of the 20th century." While she was active as an opera singer, her concert engagements far outnumbered her theatrical appearances. Her career was mainly based in the United States, although she did perform internationally. ''The Daily Telegraph'' stated that she "was one of the finest American sopranos of the 20th century; she had a voice of magnificent proportions which she used with both acumen and artistry in a wide variety of roles." And described as having a voice "like some unparalleled phenomenon of nature. She is to singers what Niagara is to waterfalls." Farrell began her career in 1940 as a member of the CBS Chorus on CBS Radio. In 1941 CBS Radio offered Farrell her own program ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montserrat Caballé
María de Montserrat Bibiana Concepción Caballé i Folch or Folc (12 April 1933 – 6 October 2018), also known as Montserrat Caballé (i Folch), was a Spanish operatic soprano from Catalonia. Widely considered to be one of the best sopranos of the 20th century, she won a variety of musical awards thoroughout her six-decade career, including three Grammy Awards. Caballé performed a wide variety of roles, but is best known as an exponent of the works of Verdi and of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Gioachino Rossini, Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, Bellini, and Gaetano Donizetti, Donizetti. She was noticed internationally when she stepped in for a performance of Donizetti's ''Lucrezia Borgia (opera), Lucrezia Borgia'' at Carnegie Hall in 1965, and then appeared at leading opera houses. Her voice was described as pure but powerful, with superb control of vocal shadings and exquisite Dynamics (music), pianissimo. Caballé is also known for her 1987 duet with Freddie M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teresa Berganza
Teresa Berganza Vargas OAXS (16 March 1933 – 13 May 2022) was a Spanish mezzo-soprano. She is most closely associated with roles such as Rossini's Rosina and La Cenerentola, and later Bizet's Carmen, admired for her technical virtuosity, musical intelligence, and beguiling stage presence. Berganza was a key singer in a Rossini renaissance which explored less-performed operas and restored the leading roles to mezzo register. She appeared as Zerlina in Joseph Losey's ''Don Giovanni'' film in 1979. She participated in the opening ceremonies of the Expo '92 in Seville and of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Life and career Teresa Berganza was born in Madrid on 16 March 1933. She studied piano and voice at the Madrid Royal Conservatory, voice with Lola Rodríguez Aragón, where she was awarded first prize for singing in 1954. She made her concert debut in Madrid in 1955. Berganza made her operatic debut as Dorabella in Mozart's ''Così fan tutte'' in 1957 at the A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Troyens
''Les Troyens'' (; in English: ''The Trojans'') is a French grand opera in five acts, running for about five hours, by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself from Virgil's epic poem the ''Aeneid''; the score was composed between 1856 and 1858. ''Les Troyens'' is Berlioz's most ambitious work, the summation of his entire artistic career, but he did not live to see it performed in its entirety. Under the title ''Les Troyens à Carthage'', the last three acts were premièred with many cuts by Léon Carvalho's company, the Théâtre Lyrique, at their theatre (now the Théâtre de la Ville) on the Place du Châtelet in Paris on 4 November 1863, with 21 repeat performances. The reduced versions run for about three hours. After decades of neglect, today the opera is considered by some music critics as one of the finest ever written. Composition history Berlioz began the libretto on 5 May 1856 and completed it toward the end of June 1856. He finished the full score ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
