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Bohumil Gregor
Bohumil Gregor (Prague, 14 July 1926 – 4 November 2005) was a Czech conductor. Gregor studied double bass at the Prague Conservatory. He made his conducting debut on October 26, 1947, at the Divadlo 5. května (Theatre of the Fifth of May, now the Prague State Opera). He conducted at the State Theatre in Brno (1949–1951), the National Theatre in Prague (1955–1958 and 1962–1966), the State Theatre in Ostrava (1958–1962), the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm (1966–1969), the State Opera in Hamburg (1969–1972), De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam (from 1972), and also in San Francisco, Philadelphia and Washington. In 1999, he returned to the Prague State Opera where he worked as musical director until 2002. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Czechs
The Czechs ( cs, Češi, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, culture, history, and the Czech language. Ethnic Czechs were called Bohemians in English until the early 20th century, referring to the former name of their country, Bohemia, which in turn was adapted from the late Iron Age tribe of Celtic Boii. During the Migration Period, West Slavic tribes settled in the area, "assimilated the remaining Celtic and Germanic populations", and formed a principality in the 9th century, which was initially part of Great Moravia, in form of Duchy of Bohemia and later Kingdom of Bohemia, the predecessors of the modern republic. The Czech diaspora is found in notable numbers in the United States, Canada, Israel, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Ukraine, Switzerland, Italy, the United Kingdom, Australia, Franc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Tell (opera)
''William Tell'' (french: Guillaume Tell, link=no; it, Guglielmo Tell, link=no) is a French-language opera in four acts by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy and L. F. Bis, based on Friedrich Schiller's play '' Wilhelm Tell,'' which, in turn, drew on the William Tell legend. The opera was Rossini's last, although he lived for nearly 40 more years. Fabio Luisi said that Rossini planned for ''Guillaume Tell'' to be his last opera even as he composed it. The often-performed overture in four sections features a depiction of a storm and a vivacious finale, the "March of the Swiss Soldiers". Paris Opéra archivist Charles Malherbe discovered the original orchestral score of the opera at a secondhand book seller's shop, resulting in its being acquired by the Paris Conservatoire. Performance history ''Guillaume Tell'' was first performed by the Paris Opéra at the Salle Le Peletier on 3 August 1829, but within three performanc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Devil And Kate
''The Devil and Kate'', Op. 112, B.201, (''Čert a Káča'' in Czech) is an opera in three acts by Antonín Dvořák to a Czech libretto by Adolf Wenig. It is based on a farce by Josef Kajetán Tyl, and the story also had been treated in the ''Fairy Tales'' of Božena Němcová. The first performance of the opera was at the National Theatre, Prague, on 23 November 1899, under Adolf Čech. ''The Devil and Kate'' is one of the few operas of Dvořák, along with ''Rusalka'', to have remained in the repertory. This can be attributed to the high demand for Italian grand operas in his time and the difficulties of Dvořák's intricate staging. The opera has great appeal because of its combination of fairy tale and folk music; it is very close in feel to a Czech tone poem. At times, it feels like a Czech version of ''Hansel & Gretel''. The overture was written after the opera itself. John Clapham has written critical analysis of the opera and noted the presence of the style of W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Water Music (Handel)
The ''Water Music'' is a collection of orchestral movements, often published as three suites, composed by George Frideric Handel. It premiered on 17 July 1717, in response to King George I's request for a concert on the River Thames. Structure The ''Water Music'' opens with a French overture and includes minuets, bourrées, and hornpipes. It is divided into three suites: Suite in F major (HWV 348) # #Overture ( Largo – Allegro) # Adagio e staccato # Allegro – Andante – Allegro da capo # Passepied # Air # Minuet # Bourrée # Hornpipe # Andante # Allegro # Hornpipe Suite in D major (HWV 349) # Overture (Allegro) # Alla Hornpipe # Lentement # Bourree # Minuet Suite in G major (HWV 350) # Sarabande # Rigaudon # Menuet # Gigue There is evidence for the different arrangement found in Chrysander's Gesellschaft edition of Handel's works (in volume 47, published in 1886), where the movements from the "suites" in D and G were mingled and publishe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque music, Baroque composer well known for his opera#Baroque era, operas, oratorios, anthems, concerto grosso, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training in Halle (Saale), 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 Handel's Naturalisation Act 1727, became a naturalised British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the middle-German polyphony, 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 c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Czech Philharmonic
The Česká filharmonie (Czech Philharmonic) is a symphony orchestra based in Prague. The orchestra's principal concert venue is the Rudolfinum. History The name "Czech Philharmonic Orchestra" appeared for the first time in 1894, as the title of the orchestra of the Prague National Theatre. It played its first concert under its current name on January 4, 1896 when Antonín Dvořák conducted his own compositions, but it did not become fully independent from the opera until 1901. The first representative concert took place on October 15, 1901 conducted by Ludvík Čelanský, the first artistic director of the orchestra. In 1908, Gustav Mahler led the orchestra in the world premiere of his Symphony No. 7. The orchestra first became internationally known during the principal conductorship of Václav Talich, who held the post from 1919 to 1931, and again from 1933 to 1941. In 1941, Talich and the orchestra made a controversial journey to Germany, where they performed Bedřich ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scherzo Capriccioso (Dvořák)
The ''Scherzo capriccioso'' in D major, Op. 66 (B. 131), is an orchestral work by Antonín Dvořák. Composed in 1883, it was premiered the same year at the National Theatre under Adolf Čech. A typical performance takes approximately 14 minutes. As with the third piano trio, the Hussite Overture, the Ballade in D minor, and the seventh symphony, composed in the same period, the work is written in a more dramatic, dark and aggressive style that supersedes the carefree folk style of Dvořák's "Slavonic period". It also bears other notable features, including development occurring in the exposition, counterpoint creating dense structure, and the sound of the orchestra often being punctuated by the distinctive use of the cor anglais and bass clarinet. References External links * * , performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan Herbert von Karajan (; born Heribert Ritter von Karajan; 5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conduct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symphonic Variations (Dvořák)
Antonín Dvořák's ''Symphonic Variations on the Theme “I am a fiddler”'' ( cs, Symfonické variace z písně „Já jsem huslař“) for orchestra, Op. 78, B. 70, were written in 1877. They are played fairly commonly, much like Johannes Brahms's ''Variations on a Theme by Haydn'' and Edward Elgar's ''Enigma Variations''. They are often recorded in conjunction with his nine symphonies. Background Supposedly, the work was a response to a challenge from a friend to write variations on a theme that seemed impossible for that purpose. Dvořák chose the third of his set of three part-songs for unaccompanied male voices (''Sborové písně pro mužské hlasy''), B. 66, titled "''Huslař''", or "''Já jsem huslař''" ("The fiddler", or "I am a fiddler"; text by Adolf Heyduk - the other two songs were from Moravian folk poetry). The three songs were written in mid-January 1877 and first performed on 4 March. The third song is in ternary form (ABA), where the lengths of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
My Home (Dvořák)
''My Home'' ( cs, Můj domov, předehra ke hře F. F. Šamberka), Op. 62, B. 125a, is an overture in C major by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. He wrote this symphonic poem between December 1881 and January 23 of the next year as one of nine numbers comprising incidental music for the play ''Josef Kajetán Tyl'' by František Ferdinand Šamberk, but it is usually performed alone as a concert work of about ten minutes. The score’s sonata form develops two song-themes associated with the drama’s titular protagonist, himself a Czech playwright: ''Kde domov můj'' by František Škroup and the folktune ''Na tom našem dvoře''. Škroup composed ''Kde domov můj (Where my home is)'' in 1834 to a text by Tyl; it soon became popular and eventually became the Czech national anthem. ''Na tom našem dvoře'' was customarily sung in productions of ''Strakonický dudák (The Bagpiper of Strakonice)'', one of Tyl's most popular plays. Partial discography * Karel Ančerl condu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predecessor Bedřich Smetana. Dvořák's style has been described as "the fullest recreation of a national idiom with that of the symphonic tradition, absorbing folk influences and finding effective ways of using them". Dvořák displayed his musical gifts at an early age, being an apt violin student from age six. The first public performances of his works were in Prague in 1872 and, with special success, in 1873, when he was 31 years old. Seeking recognition beyond the Prague area, he submitted a score of his First Symphony to a prize competition in Germany, but did not win, and the unreturned manuscript was lost until it was rediscovered many decades later. In 1874, he made a submission to the Austrian State Prize for Compositi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Příhody Lišky Bystroušky
''The Cunning Little Vixen'' (original title ''Příhody lišky Bystroušky'' or ''Tales of Vixen Sharp-Ears'' in English), is a three-act Czech-language opera by Leoš Janáček completed in 1923 to a libretto the composer himself adapted from a novella by Rudolf Těsnohlídek. Name The opera's libretto was adapted by the composer from a 1920 serialized novella, ''Liška Bystrouška'', by Rudolf Těsnohlídek, which was first published in the newspaper '' Lidové noviny'' (with illustrations by Stanislav Lolek). For the title of the opera, ''Příhody'' means ''tales''; ''lišky'' is the genitive of ''vixen''. ''Bystroušky'', still genitive, is the pun ''sharp'', having the double meaning of ''pointed'', like fox ears, and ''clever''. The opera first became familiar outside Czechoslovakia in a 1927 German adaptation by Max Brod who provided the new name ''Das schlaue Füchslein'', by which Germans still know it and which in English means ''The Cunning Little Vixen''. Compositio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jenůfa
''Její pastorkyňa'' (''Her Stepdaughter''; commonly known as ''Jenůfa'' ) is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the play ''Její pastorkyňa'' by Gabriela Preissová. It was first performed at the National Theatre, Brno on 21 January 1904. Composed between 1896 and 1902, it is among the first operas written in prose. The first of Janáček's operas in which his distinctive voice can clearly be heard, it is a grim story of infanticide and redemption. Like the playwright's original work, it is known for its unsentimental realism. While today it is heard in the composer's original version, ''Jenůfas early popularity was due to a revised version by Karel Kovařovic, altering what was considered its eccentric style and orchestration. Thus altered, it was well-received, first in Prague, and particularly after its Vienna première also worldwide. More than 70 years passed before audiences again heard it in Janáček's origina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
