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Betsy Norden
Betsy Norden (born October 17, 1945) is an American soprano who appeared with the Metropolitan Opera over 500 times. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, she studied at Boston University, and began her career in musical comedy. Norden joined the Met chorus in 1969, and sang her first solo role there on January 27, 1972, as the Peasant Girl in ''Le nozze di Figaro'', opposite Cesare Siepi in the name part, with Karl Böhm conducting. The lyric soprano went on to sing thirty-nine different roles at the Met, including Despina in ''Cosi fan tutte'', Zerlina in ''Don Giovanni'', Oscar in '' Un ballo in maschera'', Musetta in ''La bohème'', Liu in ''Turandot'', Sophie in ''Werther'', Gretel in ''Hänsel und Gretel'', and Constance in ''Dialogues des Carmélites'', as well as numerous secondary roles. On December 27, 1975, she sang four different roles on the same day (possibly a Met record) during the matinee and evening performances of ''Hänsel und Gretel'' and ''Il trittico''. Norden was seen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral music, or to soprano C (C6) or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which often encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura soprano, coloratura, soubrette, lyric soprano, lyric, spinto soprano, spinto, and dramatic soprano, dramatic soprano. Etymology The word "soprano" comes from the Italian word ''wikt:sopra, sopra'' (above, over, on top of),"Soprano" ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' as the soprano is the highest pitch human voice, often given to the leading female roles in operas. "Soprano" refers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Il Trittico
''Il trittico'' (''The Triptych'') is the title of a collection of three one-act operas, '' Il tabarro'', '' Suor Angelica'', and '' Gianni Schicchi'', by Giacomo Puccini. The work received its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on 14 December 1918. Background Around 1904, Puccini first began planning a set of one-act operas, largely because of the success of Pietro Mascagni's ''Cavalleria rusticana''. Originally, he planned to write each opera to reflect one of the parts of Dante's ''Divine Comedy''. However, he eventually based only '' Gianni Schicchi'' on Dante's epic poem. The link in the final work is that each opera deals with the concealment of a death. Puccini also intended that the three should be performed as a set, and wrote to Casa Ricordi to complain about their giving permission in 1920 to The Royal Opera, London, "for ''Tabarro'' and ''Schicchi'' without ''Angelica''". He reluctantly agreed that the two operas could be given in a programme with Serge Diaghi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The orchestra performs primarily at the Bradley Symphony Center in Allen-Bradley Hall. The orchestra also serves as the orchestra for Florentine Opera productions. History The precursor ensemble to the orchestra was the Milwaukee Pops Orchestra, a part-time ensemble which had been founded 10 years earlier. In 1959, the orchestra formally changed its name to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, hiring Harry John Brown as its first music director. During his nine-year tenure, Brown led the orchestra's transition from a semi-professional pops group to a fully professional, full-time symphony orchestra. During the tenure of Kenneth Schermerhorn, the orchestra's second music director, from 1968 to 1980, the orchestra had begun its 'State Tour' programme of concerts around Wisconsin, to such cities as Fish Creek, Fond du Lac, Marinette, Ripon, Rhinelander, Three Lakes, West ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minnesota Orchestra
The Minnesota Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded originally as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1903, the Minnesota Orchestra plays most of its concerts at Minneapolis's Orchestra Hall. History The eighth major orchestra established in the United States, the Minnesota Orchestra was founded by Emil Oberhoffer as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1903. It gave its first performance on November 5, 1903, in Minneapolis's Exposition Building. In 1911, it began a series of children's concerts under the sponsorship of the Young People's Symphony Concert Association (YPSCA), which continues to this day. Early in the 1920s, the orchestra was one of the first to be heard on recordings and on the radio, playing a nationally broadcast concert with guest conductor Bruno Walter in 1923. In 1968, the orchestra changed its name to the Minnesota Orchestra. It makes its home in downtown Minneapolis's Orchestra Hall, which was built for the en ... [...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] |
Teresa Stratas
Teresa Stratas (born May 26, 1938) is a Canadian operatic soprano and actress of Greeks, Greek descent. She is especially well known for her award-winning recording of Alban Berg's ''Lulu (opera), Lulu''. She is formally retired. Early life and career Stratas was born Anastasia Stratakis to a struggling immigrant Cretan family in Oshawa, near Toronto, Ontario. At age 13, she performed Greek pop songs on the radio. She graduated from The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto where she studied singing with Irene Jessner. At age 20, Stratas made her professional opera debut as Mimì in ''La bohème'' at the Toronto Opera Festival. One year later in 1959, she co-won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, appearing later that year with the Metropolitan Opera as Poussette in ''Manon''. She created the title role in Peggy Glanville-Hicks' ''Nausicaa (opera), Nausicaa'' at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Herod Atticus Theatre in Athens in 1961, made her Royal Opera House, Cov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ghosts Of Versailles
''The Ghosts of Versailles'' is an opera in two acts, with music by John Corigliano to an English libretto by William M. Hoffman. The Metropolitan Opera had commissioned the work from Corigliano in 1980 in celebration of its 100th anniversary, with the premiere scheduled for 1983. Corigliano and Hoffman took as the starting point for the opera the 1792 play ''La Mère coupable'' ('' The Guilty Mother'') by Pierre Beaumarchais. They took seven years to complete the opera, past the initial deadline. The opera received its premiere on December 19, 1991, at the Metropolitan Opera, with the production directed by Colin Graham. The premiere run of seven performances was sold out. The original cast included Teresa Stratas, Håkan Hagegård, Renée Fleming, Graham Clark, Gino Quilico, and Marilyn Horne. The Metropolitan Opera revived the opera in the 1994/1995 season. Corigliano considers this work a "grand opera buffa" because it incorporates both elements of the grand opera style ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mirella Freni
Mirella Freni (born Mirella Fregni, 27February 19359February 2020) was an Italian operatic soprano who had a career of 50 years and appeared at major international opera houses. She received international attention at the Glyndebourne Festival, where she appeared as Mozart's Zerlina in Mozart's ''Don Giovanni'' and Susanna in '' Le nozze di Figaro'', and as Adina in Donizetti's '' L'elisir d'amore''. Freni is associated with the role of Mimì in Puccini's ''La bohème'', which featured in her repertoire from 1957 to 1999 and which she sang at La Scala in Milan and the Vienna State Opera in 1963, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. She also performed the role in a film of the production and as her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1965. In the earliest opera DVDs, she portrayed her characters convincingly in both acting and singing. Freni was married to the Bulgarian bass Nicolai Ghiaurov, with whom she performed and recorded. Her obituary from ''The New York ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plácido Domingo
José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, German, Spanish, English and Russian in the most prestigious opera houses in the world. Although primarily a '' lirico-spinto'' tenor for most of his career, especially popular for his Cavaradossi, Hoffmann, Don José and Canio, he quickly moved into more dramatic roles, becoming the most acclaimed Otello of his generation. In the early 2010s, he transitioned from the tenor repertory into exclusively baritone parts, including '' Simon Boccanegra''. As of 2020, he has performed 151 different roles. Domingo has also achieved significant success as a crossover artist, especially in the genres of Latin and popular music. In addition to winning fourteen Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards, several of his records have gone silver, gold, platin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rigoletto
''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had control over northern Italian theatres at the time, the opera had a triumphant premiere at La Fenice in Venice on 11 March 1851. The work, Verdi's sixteenth in the genre, is widely considered to be the first of the operatic masterpieces of Verdi's middle-to-late career. Its tragic story revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunch-backed court jester Rigoletto, and Rigoletto's daughter Gilda. The opera's original title, ''La maledizione'' (The Curse), refers to a curse placed on both the Duke and Rigoletto by the Count Monterone, whose daughter the Duke has seduced with Rigoletto's encouragement. The curse comes to fruition when Gilda falls in love with the Duke and sacrifices her life to save him from the assassin hired by he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto (24 February 1934 – 16 August 2023) was an Italian soprano, opera director, and voice teacher. Recognised for her sense of style, her musicality, and as a remarkable singer-actress, Scotto is considered to have been one of the preeminent opera singers of her generation. For more than 40 years, she performed in some 45 roles, first in Italy, then as a leading soprano of the Metropolitan Opera (Met). She is remembered especially for the title roles of Verdi's ''La traviata'', performed for her stage debut in Milan in 1952, and Puccini's ''Madama Butterfly'', which was her first role at the Met and her last there in 1987, but also for belcanto works such as Donizetti's ''Lucia di Lammermoor''. She appeared in the first telecast from the Met in 1977, as Mimi in Puccini's ''La bohème'', alongside Luciano Pavarotti and conducted by James Levine. She later expanded her repertoire by roles such as the Marschallin in ''Der Rosenkavalier'' by Richard Strauss, Elle in Poule ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Dexter
John Dexter (2 August 1925 – 23 March 1990) was an English theatre, opera and film director. Theatre Born in Derby, Derbyshire, England, Dexter left school at the age of fourteen to serve in the British Army during the Second World War. Following the war, he began working as a stage actor before turning to producing and directing shows for repertory companies. In 1957, he was appointed Associate Director of the English Stage Company based at the Royal Court. Dexter's first great success was his production of ''Roots'', in 1959, which brought Joan Plowright to prominence. He went on to direct '' Toys in the Attic'' (with Wendy Hiller, 1960) and '' Saint Joan'' (1963). In 1964, he was named Associate Director of the National Theatre of Great Britain, and he produced '' The Royal Hunt of the Sun'' (1964). That year, he also directed ''Othello'', with Sir Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith and Frank Finlay. It was considered a tremendous success. RCA recorded an audio version, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
