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Dorothy Dow
Dorothy Dow (8 October 1920 – 26 February 2005) was an American classical dramatic soprano who had an active international career in concerts, operas, and recitals during the 1940s through the 1960s. After retiring from the stage in 1968, she embarked on a second career as an academic. Biography Dow was born in Houston, Texas. She studied at the Juilliard School in New York City, graduating with a bachelor's degree in vocal performance in 1942. She quickly became one of the leading concert sopranos in the United States, singing with orchestras throughout the country and giving a number of highly lauded recitals. She made her first appearance on the opera stage in Buffalo, New York as Santuzza in ''Cavalleria rusticana'' in 1946. Her first major critical success was singing the role of Brünnhilde in a concert version of Richard Wagner's ''Götterdämmerung'' with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy in 1947. As an opera singer, Dow's career was more centered in Euro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bluebeard's Castle
''Duke Bluebeard's Castle'' (, literally ''The Blue-Bearded Duke's Castle'') is a one-act Symbolism (movement), Symbolist opera by composer Béla Bartók to a Hungarian libretto by his friend and poet Béla Balázs. Based on the French folk legend, or ''conte populaire'', as told by Charles Perrault, it lasts about an hour and deploys just two singing characters: Bluebeard () and his newest wife Judith (); the two have just eloped and she is coming home to his castle for the first time. ''Bluebeard's Castle'', András Szőllősy, Sz. 48, was composed in 1911 (with modifications made in 1912 and a new ending added in 1917) and first performed on 24 May 1918 at the Royal Hungarian Opera House in Budapest. Universal Edition published the vocal (1921) and full score (1925). The Boosey & Hawkes full score includes only the German and English singing translations while the Dover edition reproduces the Universal Edition Hungarian/German vocal score (with page numbers beginning at 1 inste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Fenice
Teatro La Fenice (; "The Phoenix Theatre") is a historic opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th century, La Fenice became the site of many famous operatic premieres at which several works by the four major bel canto era composers— Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi—were performed. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of three theatres to fire, the first in 1774 after the city's leading house was destroyed and rebuilt but not opened until 1792; the second fire came in 1836, but rebuilding was completed within a year. The third fire was the result of arson, and destroyed the house in 1996 leaving only the exterior walls; it was rebuilt and re-opened in November 2004. In order to celebrate this event, the tradition of the Venice New Year's Concert started. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fiery Angel (opera)
''The Fiery Angel'' (), Op. 37, is an opera by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. The opera was composed between 1919 and 1927. It was premiered posthumously in 1955 in Venice, in Italian. The work was not presented to Russian audiences until the 1990s, most notably by the Mariinsky Theatre, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Bryusov’s novel Prokofiev's ''The Fiery Angel'' is based on a novel of the same name by Valery Bryusov. Prokofiev was more intrigued by the “orgies” (here, indulgence of passion) presented in the novel rather than the story ideas. The novel was inspired by Bryusov’s own experiences with Nina Petrovskaya, and was considered one of the beginnings of the Russian Symbolist movement known as Vesy, or “The Scales”. Petrovskaya was the mistress of Andrey Bely. In their time together, Petrovskaya also came to know Bryusov in 1904, which sparked concerns for Bely. There was an anticipated brawl on a remote road in Moscow, but a mutual friend o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''. , group=n ( – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who later worked in the Soviet Union. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous music genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. His works include such widely heard pieces as the March from ''The Love for Three Oranges,'' the suite Lieutenant Kijé (Prokofiev), ''Lieutenant Kijé'', the ballet Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev), ''Romeo and Juliet''—from which "Dance of the Knights" is taken—and ''Peter and the Wolf.'' Of the established forms and genres in which he worked, he created—excluding juvenilia—seven completed operas, seven Symphony, symphonies, eight Ballet (music), ballets, five piano concertos, two violin concertos, a Cello Concerto (Prokofiev), cello concerto, a Symphony-Concerto ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teatro Della Pergola
The Teatro della Pergola (), sometimes known as just La Pergola, is a historic opera house in Florence, Italy. It is located in the centre of the city on the Via della Pergola, from which the theatre takes its name. It was built in 1656 under the patronage of Cardinal Giancarlo de' Medici to designs by the architect Ferdinando Tacca, son of the sculptor Pietro Tacca; its inaugural production was the , by Jacopo Melani. The opera house, the first to be built with superposed tiers of boxes rather than raked semi-circular seating in the Roman fashion,As in the Teatro Olimpico of Vicenza, designed by Andrea Palladio in the previous century. is considered to be the oldest in Italy, having occupied the same site for more than 350 years. It has two auditoria, the , with 1,500 seats, and the , a former ballroom located upstairs which has been used as a recital hall since 1804 and which seats 400. Work on completing the interior was finished in 1661, in time for the celebration of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agnes Von Hohenstaufen
''Agnes von Hohenstaufen'' is a German-language opera in three acts by the Italian composer Gaspare Spontini, the last opera he composed. The German libretto is by Ernst Benjamin Salomo Raupach. It was first staged at the Königliches Opernhaus, Berlin, on 12 June 1829. Raupach categorised ''Agnes von Hohenstaufen'' as a ''historical-romantic'' opera and it is one of a number of German works of the time set in the Middle Ages (others include Weber's ''Euryanthe'', Wagner's ''Tannhäuser'' and ''Lohengrin'' and Schumann's ''Genoveva''). ''Agnes'' also contains many of the features that would be characteristic of French Grand Opera. Spontini substantially reworked the piece for a revival in 1837. Roles Synopsis :Place: Germany :Time: The Middle Ages Act 1 The action concerns the struggle between the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI (Heinrich VI) and the leader of the noble Welf faction, Henry the Lion (Heinrich der Löwe). The first act is set in Mainz where the emperor has assembl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spontini
Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini (14 November 177424 January 1851) was an Italian opera composer and conductor from the classical era. During the first two decades of the 19th century, Spontini was an important figure in French ''opera'', and composed over twenty works. Biography Born in Maiolati, Papal State (now Maiolati Spontini, Province of Ancona), he spent most of his career in Paris and Berlin, but returned to his place of birth at the end of his life. During the first two decades of the 19th century, Spontini was an important figure in French ''opera''. In his more than twenty operas, Spontini strove to adapt Gluck's classical ''tragédie lyrique'' to the contemporary taste for melodrama, for grander spectacle (in ''Fernand Cortez'' for example), for enriched orchestral timbre, and for melodic invention allied to idiomatic expressiveness of words. As a youth, Spontini studied at the Conservatorio della Pietà de' Turchini, one of four active music conservatories of Nap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ariadne Auf Naxos
(''Ariadne on Naxos''), 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 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 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 to hear the opera resented having to wait until the play finished. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macbeth (Verdi)
''Macbeth'' () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei, based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name. Written for the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, ''Macbeth'' was Verdi's tenth opera and premiered on 14 March 1847. It was the first Shakespeare play that Verdi adapted for the operatic stage. Almost twenty years later, ''Macbeth'' was revised and expanded into a French version and given in Paris on 21 April 1865. After the success of ''Attila'' in 1846, by which time the composer had become well-established, ''Macbeth'' came before the great successes of 1851 to 1853 (''Rigoletto'', '' Il trovatore'' and '' La traviata'') which propelled him into universal fame. As sources, Shakespeare's plays provided Verdi with lifelong inspiration: some, such as an adaption of ''King Lear'' (as '' Re Lear'') were never realized, but he wrote his two final operas using ''Othello'' as the basis fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi, his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma, to a family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the help of a local patron, Antonio Barezzi. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, and Gaetano Donizetti, whose works significantly influenced him. In his early operas, Verdi demonstrated sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy. He also served briefly as an elected politician. The chorus "Va, pensiero" from his early opera ''Nabucco'' (1842), and similar choruses in later operas, were much in the spirit of the unification movement, and the composer himself became esteemed as a representative of these ideals. An intensely private person, Verdi did not seek to ingratiate hims ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glyndebourne Festival
Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an annual opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England. History Under the supervision of the Christie family, the festival has been held annually since 1934, except in 1941–45 during World War II and 1993 when the theatre was being rebuilt, for a 1994 reopening. Gus Christie, son of Sir George Christie and grandson of festival founder John Christie, became festival chairman in 2000. Since the company's inception, Glyndebourne has been particularly celebrated for its productions of Mozart operas. Recordings of Glyndebourne's past historic Mozart productions have been reissued. Other notable productions included their 1980s production of George Gershwin's ''Porgy and Bess'', directed by Trevor Nunn, and later expanded from the Glyndebourne stage and videotaped in 1993 for television, with Nunn again directing. While Mozart operas have continued to be the mainstay of its repertory, the comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
