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Emma Calvé (1895)
Emma Calvé, born Rosa Emma Calvet (15 August 1858 – 6 January 1942) was a French operatic dramatic soprano. Calvé was probably the most famous French female opera singer of the Belle Époque. Hers was an international career, and she sang regularly at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, and the Royal Opera House, London. Early life Calvé was born on 15 August 1858 in Decazeville, Aveyron. Her birth name was Rosa Emma Calvet. Her father, Justin Calvet, was a civil engineer. She spent her childhood at first in Spain with her parents, then in different convent schools in Roquefort and Tournemire (Aveyron). After her parents separated, she moved with her mother to Paris. There she attempted to enter the Paris Conservatory, while she studied singing under Jules Puget. She started learning music in Paris from Mathilde Marchesi, a retired German mezzo-soprano and Manuel GarcÃa. She made a tour of Italy, where she saw the famous actress Eleonora Duse, whose impersonations m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decazeville
Decazeville () is a commune in the Aveyron department in the Occitanie region in southern France. The commune was created in the 19th century because of the Industrial Revolution and was named after the Duke of Decazes (1780–1860), the founder of the factory that created the town. Viviez-Decazeville station has rail connections to Brive-la-Gaillarde, Figeac and Rodez. History The town is built on coal. La Salle (the former name) produced coal since the 16th century. It was exported in small quantities to Bordeaux. Louis XIV and his successors gave mines to their mistresses. The Duke of Decazes inherited such mines. In 1826 he created, with the help of a technician named Cabrol, the ''"Houillères et Fonderies de l'Aveyron"'' (Mines and Foundries of Aveyron) which developed to make this small village a center of ironworking and industry. Under Napoléon III, the city took the name of Decazeville. A statue of Decazes dressed in a Roman toga was erected. In 1894, the a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (1867) also remains in the international repertory. He composed a large amount of church music, many songs, and popular short pieces including his "Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod), Ave Maria" (an elaboration of a Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach piece) and "Funeral March of a Marionette". Born in Paris into an artistic and musical family, Gounod was a student at the Conservatoire de Paris and won France's most prestigious musical prize, the Prix de Rome. His studies took him to Italy, Austria and then Prussia, where he met Felix Mendelssohn, whose advocacy of the music of Bach was an early influence on him. He was deeply religious, and after his return to Paris, he briefly considered becoming a priest. He composed prolifically, writing church music, songs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cigarette Girl
Cigarette girls in Florida in 1956 Cigarette girl at the Bellmansro restaurant in Sweden, 1940 In Europe and the United States, a cigarette girl was an attractive young woman who sold or provided cigarettes from a tray held by a neck strap, a common casual occupation until supplanted by vending machines in the 1950s, especially at nightclubs, but also at restaurants, bars, casinos, and other social gathering places. The cigar girl would also sell cigars, and either would also peddle other items such as candy, snacks, drinks, and chewing gum from her tray. Her typical charm, wit, and flirtatiousness made her a cultural icon of the time. Uniform The most common uniform is a red and black short saloon-style skirt above the knee dress accompanied with a matching pillbox hat, but different colors and styles are possible. Another title for a cigarette girl is candy girl. Aside from serving cigarettes and other novelties, the attractive girls acted as eye candy and were often ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875, where its breaking of conventions shocked and scandalised its first audiences. Bizet died suddenly after the 33rd performance, unaware that the work would achieve international acclaim within the following ten years. ''Carmen'' has since become one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the classical canon; the " Habanera" and "Seguidilla" from act 1 and the " Toreador Song" from act 2 are among the best known of all operatic arias. The opera is written in the genre of ''opéra comique'' with musical numbers separated by dialogue. It is set in southern Spain and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsy Carmen. Josà ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', which has become one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertoire. During a brilliant student career at the Conservatoire de Paris, Bizet won many prizes, including the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1857. He was recognised as an outstanding pianist, though he chose not to capitalise on this skill and rarely performed in public. Returning to Paris after almost three years in Italy, he found that the main Parisian opera theatres preferred the established classical repertoire to the works of newcomers. His keyboard and orchestral compositions were likewise largely ignored; as a result, his career stalled, and he earned his living mainly by arranging and transcribing the music of others. Restless for success, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emma Calvé (1895)
Emma Calvé, born Rosa Emma Calvet (15 August 1858 – 6 January 1942) was a French operatic dramatic soprano. Calvé was probably the most famous French female opera singer of the Belle Époque. Hers was an international career, and she sang regularly at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, and the Royal Opera House, London. Early life Calvé was born on 15 August 1858 in Decazeville, Aveyron. Her birth name was Rosa Emma Calvet. Her father, Justin Calvet, was a civil engineer. She spent her childhood at first in Spain with her parents, then in different convent schools in Roquefort and Tournemire (Aveyron). After her parents separated, she moved with her mother to Paris. There she attempted to enter the Paris Conservatory, while she studied singing under Jules Puget. She started learning music in Paris from Mathilde Marchesi, a retired German mezzo-soprano and Manuel GarcÃa. She made a tour of Italy, where she saw the famous actress Eleonora Duse, whose impersonations m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sistine Chapel Choir
The Sistine Chapel Choir, as it is generally called in English, or officially the Coro della Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina in Italian, is the Pope's personal choir. It performs at papal functions in the Sistine Chapel and in any other church in Rome where the Pope is officiating, including St. Peter's Basilica. One of the oldest choirs in the world, it was constituted as the Pope's personal choir by Pope Sixtus IV (from whom both the choir and the chapel in which it performs take their names). Although it was established in the late 15th century, its roots go back to the 4th century and the reign of Pope Sylvester I. The choir's composition and numbers have fluctuated over the centuries. However, the modern choir comprises twenty men (tenors and basses) and thirty boys (sopranos and altos). The men's choir (''Cantori'') is composed of professional singers. The members of the boys choir (''Pueri Cantores'') are not paid when performing at papal functions, but receive a free ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castrato
A castrato (Italian; : castrati) is a male singer who underwent castration before puberty in order to retain a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice can also occur in one who, due to an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity. Castration before puberty (or in its early stages) prevents the larynx from being transformed by the normal physiological events of puberty. As a result, the vocal range of prepubescence (shared by both sexes) is largely retained, and the voice develops into adulthood in a unique way. Prepubescent castration for this purpose diminished greatly in the late 18th century. Methods of castration used to terminate the onset of puberty varied. Methods involved using opium to medically induce a coma, then submerging the boy into an ice or milk bath where the procedure of either twisting the testicles until they atrophied, or complete removal via surgical cutting was performed (however the comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Domenico MustafÃ
Domenico Mustafà (16 April 1829 – 17 March 1912) was an Italian castrato singer, composer and choir director. Life Domenico Mustafà was born in the comune of Sellano, , and had been castrated due to a bite from a pig. He became a famous soprano castrato with the Cappella Sistina in the . He was particularly admired for his performances of |
Cavalleria Rusticana
''Cavalleria rusticana'' (; ) is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 Cavalleria rusticana (short story), short story of the same name and subsequent play by Giovanni Verga. Considered one of the classic ''verismo'' operas, it premiered on 17 May 1890 at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Since 1893 in music, 1893, it has often been performed in a so-called ''Cav/Pag'' double-bill with ''Pagliacci'' by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Composition history In July 1888 the Milanese music publisher Edoardo Sonzogno announced a competition open to all young Italian composers who had not yet had an opera performed on stage. They were invited to submit a one-act opera which would be judged by a jury of five prominent Italian critics and composers. The best three would be staged in Rome at Sonzogno's expense. Mascagni heard about the competition only two months before the closing da ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni (7 December 1863 – 2 August 1945) was an Italian composer primarily known for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece '' Cavalleria rusticana'' caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the '' Verismo'' movement in Italian dramatic music. While it was often held that Mascagni, like Ruggero Leoncavallo, was a "one-opera man" who could never repeat his first success, '' L'amico Fritz'' and '' Iris'' have remained in the repertoire in Europe (especially Italy) since their premieres. Mascagni wrote fifteen operas, an operetta, several orchestral and vocal works, and also songs and piano music. He enjoyed immense success during his lifetime, both as a composer and conductor of his own and other people's music and created a variety of styles in his operas. Biography Early life and education Mascagni was born on 7 December 1863 in Livorno, Tuscany, the second son of Domenico and Emilia Mascagni. His father owned and operated a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L'amico Fritz
''L'amico Fritz'' () is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni, premiered in 1891 to a libretto by P. Suardon ( Nicola Daspuro) (with additions by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti), based on the 1864 French novel ' by Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian. While the opera enjoyed some success in its day and is probably Mascagni's most famous work after ''Cavalleria rusticana'', today it is performed far more rarely than ''Cavalleria'', which remains Mascagni's only enduringly popular work outside Italy, where ''L'amico Fritz'' and ''Iris'' are still in the active repertoire. The "Cherry Duet" between Fritz and Suzel in act 2 is the best known piece in the opera and is often performed separately in concert. Performance history The opera was first performed in Rome at the Teatro Costanzi, on 31 October 1891. Other first performances include those in Hamburg on 16 January 1892 with Gustav Mahler conducting; in London on 23 May 1892 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden;Eric Irvi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
