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Bodo Igesz
Bodo Igesz (February 7, 1935 in Amsterdam – December 25, 2014 in New York City) was a Dutch stage director who had an active career staging operas around the world during the second half of the 20th century. He was particularly known for his work with the Metropolitan Opera where he worked for 25 years on the staging staff. He also staged operas for the Salzburg Festival, and staged numerous operas for the Santa Fe Opera; including the United States premieres of Hindemith's ''Cardillac'' (1967), Schoenberg's ''Die Jakobsleiter'' (1968), Henze's ''The Bassarids'' (1968) and Aribert Reimann's ''Melusine'' (1972). A particular triumph for Igesz at the Met was his staging of Georges Bizet's ''Carmen'' which premiered in 1972 with Marilyn Horne as the title heroine and Leonard Bernstein conducting. The staging remained in the Met repertory for several years, and was notably the staging used for the first Met Carmens of Régine Crespin (1975) and Elena Obraztsova(1978). Another Met caree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the City Region of Amsterdam, urban area and 2,480,394 in the Amsterdam metropolitan area, metropolitan area. Located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, Dutch province of North Holland, Amsterdam is colloquially referred to as the "Venice of the North", for its large number of canals, now designated a World Heritage Site, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Amsterdam was founded at the mouth of the Amstel River that was dammed to control flooding; the city's name derives from the Amstel dam. Originally a small fishing village in the late 12th century, Amsterdam became a major world port during the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, when the Netherlands was an economic powerhouse. Amsterdam is th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marilyn Horne
Marilyn 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, the Kennedy Center Honors, and has won four Grammy Awards. Early life Marilyn Horne was born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, to Berneice and Bentz Horne. 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 Marilyn's talent, sought to move the family to a place where she could have access to professional vocal training and more opportunities to perform. Along with her older brother Richard and sister Gloria, the family moved to Long Beach, California when Marilyn was 11. At age 13, Horne became part of the newly formed Roger Wagner Chorale. She is an alumna of Long Beach Pol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1935 Births
Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude Franco-Italian Agreement of 1935, an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * January 12 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to successfully complete a solo flight from Hawaii to California, a distance of 2,408 miles. * January 13 – A plebiscite in the Saar (League of Nations), Territory of the Saar Basin shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Germany. * January 24 – The first canned beer is sold in Richmond, Virginia, United States, by Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company. February * February 6 – Parker Brothers begins selling the board game Monopoly (game), Monopoly in the United States. * February 13 – Richard Hauptmann is convicted and sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr. in the United States. * February 15 – The discovery and clinical development of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Metropolitan Opera Presents
''Live from the Metropolitan Opera'' (or: ''Live from the Met'') was an American television program that presented performances of complete operas from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network. The program began in 1977 and was telecast live for its first few seasons. The first telecast, ''La Bohème'', featured Luciano Pavarotti as Rodolfo and Renata Scotto as Mimì, with James Levine conducting; all three were interviewed during the intermission. Celebrated singers featured on ''Live from the Met'' included Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Beverly Sills, Samuel Ramey, Renée Fleming, Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, Renata Scotto, Leontyne Price, and Sherrill Milnes. During the intermissions of its live broadcasts, the program offered interviews and other features on opera topics; these segments were often up to a half-hour in length. ''Live from the Met'' functioned as a supplement to the company's regular Saturday Metropol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Dickson
Stephen Dickson (16 February 1951 – 18 October 1991) was an American baritone who had an active career in operas and concerts from 1972 through 1990. He was active with the United States's most important opera companies during the 1980s, sharing the stage with many notable singers like Luciano Pavarotti, Jessye Norman, and Renata Scotto. He was particularly admired for his portrayal of Papageno in ''The Magic Flute'', a role he sang throughout Europe and the United States. At the time of his premature death, Dickson had just reached the pinnacle of his career, having only recently gained a more substantial role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and with major European opera houses like the Royal Opera, London and the Bavarian State Opera among others. Education Born in Oklahoma City, Dickson graduated from Putnam City High School in 1969. He then studied with Inez Lunsford Silberg at Oklahoma City University (OCU) where he graduated in 1973. He then pursued further s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tatiana Troyanos
Tatiana Troyanos (September 12, 1938 – August 21, 1993) was an American mezzo-soprano of Greek and German descent, remembered as "one of the defining singers of her generation" (''Boston Globe''). Her voice, "a paradoxical voice — larger than life yet intensely human, brilliant yet warm, lyric yet dramatic" — "was the kind you recognize after one bar, and never forget", wrote Cori Ellison in ''Opera News''.Ellison, Cori"Tatiana Troyanos: 1938-1993" ''Opera News'', vol. 58, no. 5, November 1993. Troyanos' performances "covered the full range of operatic history" (''New York Times'') in an international career of three decades which also produced a variety of memorable operatic recordings, among them ''Carmen'' (co-starring Plácido Domingo and conducted by Georg Solti), cited by ''Classicalite'' almost four decades later as "the finest of all ''Carmen''s." After ten years based at the Hamburg State Opera, Troyanos became widely known for her work with the Metropolit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James King (tenor)
James King (May 22, 1925November 20, 2005) was an American operatic tenor who had an active international singing career in operas and concerts from the 1950s through 2000. Widely regarded as one of the finest American heldentenors of the post-war period, he excelled in performances of the works of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. King made several recording during his career, most notably singing the role of Siegmund in ''Die Walküre'' for Sir Georg Solti's famous recording of Wagner's ''Ring Cycle''. He was a member of the voice faculties at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University. Biography King was born in Dodge City, Kansas, to an Irish father and a mother of German lineage. In his youth he actively sang in church choirs and studied the violin. He earned a bachelor's degree in music from Louisiana State University in 1949, where he trained to be a baritone with Dallas Draper. He then pursued a master's degree in vocal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kathleen Battle
Kathleen Deanna Battle (born August 13, 1948) is an American operatic soprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone. Born in Portsmouth, Ohio, Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performances with major orchestras during the early and mid-1970s. She made her opera debut in 1975. Battle expanded her repertoire into lyric soprano and coloratura soprano roles during the 1980s and early 1990s, until her eventual dismissal from the Metropolitan Opera in 1994. She later has focused on recording and the concert stage. After a 22-year absence from the Met, Battle performed a concert of spirituals at the Metropolitan Opera House in November 2016. Life and career Early years and musical education Battle was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, US, the youngest of seven children. Her father was a steelworker, and her mother was an active participant in the gospel music of the family's African Methodist Episcopal church. Battle attended Portsmouth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jessye Norman
Jessye Mae Norman (September 15, 1945 – September 30, 2019) was an American opera singer and recitalist. She was able to perform dramatic soprano roles, but refused to be limited to that voice type. A commanding presence on operatic, concert and recital stages, Norman was associated with roles including Beethoven's Leonore, Wagner's Sieglinde and Kundry, Cassandre and Didon by Berlioz and Bartók's Judith. ''The New York Times'' music critic Edward Rothstein described her voice as a "grand mansion of sound", and wrote that "it has enormous dimensions, reaching backward and upward. It opens onto unexpected vistas. It contains sunlit rooms, narrow passageways, cavernous halls." Norman trained at Howard University, the Peabody Institute, and the University of Michigan. Her career began in Europe, where she won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 1968, which led to a contract with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Her operatic début came as Elisabeth in Wagner's ''T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ariadne Auf Naxos
(''Ariadne on Naxos''), Opus number, Op. 60, is a 1912 opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The opera's unusual combination of elements of low commedia dell'arte with those of high opera seria points up one of the work's principal themes: the competition between high and low art for the public's attention. First version (1912) The opera was originally conceived as a 30-minute divertissement to be performed at the end of Hofmannsthal's adaptation of Molière's play ''Le Bourgeois gentilhomme.'' Besides the opera, Strauss provided Le bourgeois gentilhomme (Strauss), incidental music to be performed during the play. In the end, the opera occupied ninety minutes, and the performance of play plus opera occupied over six hours. It was first performed at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, Hoftheater Stuttgart on 25 October 1912, directed by Max Reinhardt. The combination of the play and opera proved to be unsatisfactory to the audience: those who had come ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elena Obraztsova
Elena Vasiliyevna Obraztsova ( rus, Еле́на Васи́льевна Образцо́ва, , ɪ̯ɪˈlʲenə vɐˈsʲilʲɪ̯ɪvnə ɐbrɐˈstsovə; 7 July 1939 – 12 January 2015) was a Soviet and Russian mezzo-soprano. She was awarded the People's Artist of the USSR in 1976 and Hero of Socialist Labour in 1990. Life As a child, Obraztsova lived in Leningrad through the severe long siege (more than 870 days) during World War II. In 1948, at the age of nine, she began singing in the children's chorus of the Pioneers Palace in Leningrad. From 1954 to 1957, she studied in the Tchaikovsky musical college in Taganrog and frequently participated in concerts onstage of Taganrog Theatre. From 1957 to 1958, Obraztsova studied in Rostov on Don's music school. In August 1958, Obraztsova passed the examinations and became a student at the Leningrad Conservatory. In 1963 she was invited to perform in a Bolshoi Theater production of ''Boris Godunov'' in Moscow. Her introduction to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Régine Crespin
Régine Crespin (23 February 1927 – 5 July 2007) was a French singer who had a major international career in opera and on the concert stage between 1950 and 1989. She started her career singing roles in the dramatic soprano and spinto soprano repertoire, drawing particular acclaim singing Richard Wagner, Wagner and Richard Strauss, Strauss heroines. She went on to sing a wider repertoire that embraced Italian, French, German, and Russian opera from a variety of musical periods. In the early 1970s Crespin began experiencing vocal difficulties for the first time and ultimately began performing roles from the mezzo-soprano repertoire. Throughout her career she was widely admired for the elegance, warmth and subtlety of her singing, especially in the French and German operatic repertories. Crespin began her career in France, earning her first critical successes in the French provinces during the early 1950s and then becoming a fixture at the Opéra National de Paris in the mid-1950 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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