|
Esclarmonde
''Esclarmonde'' () is an opéra () in four acts and eight Tableau vivant, tableaux, with prologue and epilogue, by Jules Massenet, to a French libretto by Alfred Blau and Louis de Gramont, Louis Ferdinand de Gramont. It was first performed at the Exposition Universelle (1889), Exposition Universelle on 15 May 1889 by the Opéra-Comique at the Théâtre de la Ville, Théâtre Lyrique on the Place du Châtelet in Paris. ''Esclarmonde'' is perhaps Massenet's most ambitious work for the stage and is his most ''Richard Wagner, Wagnerian'' in style and scope. In orchestral coloring and structure of melody, however, it follows French traditions. The opera has been revived sporadically in the modern era, most notably during the 1970s with Joan Sutherland, conducted by Massenet champion Richard Bonynge. The role of Esclarmonde is notoriously difficult to sing, with challenging stratospheric coloratura passages. Background The story of the opera is based on the medieval chivalric tale ''P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s to the 1980s. She possessed a voice combining agility, accurate intonation, pinpoint staccatos,"Icons of Opera – Dame Joan Sutherland" ''Opera Britannia'' (6 July 2009). Retrieved 27 September 2010. a trill (music), trill and a strong upper register, although music critics complained about her poor diction. Sutherland was the first Australian to win a Grammy Award, for the year 1961 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo, Best Classical Performance – Vocal Soloist (with or without orchestra) presented in 4th Annual Grammy Awards, 1962. She was known as and is wid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Bonynge
Richard Alan Bonynge ( ) (born 29 September 1930) is an Australian conductor and pianist. He is the widower of Australian dramatic coloratura soprano Dame Joan Sutherland. Bonynge conducted virtually all of Sutherland's operatic performances from 1962 until her retirement in 1990. Biography Bonynge was born in Epping, a suburb of Sydney, and educated at Sydney Boys' High School before studying piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and gaining a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, where his piano teacher was Herbert Fryer. He gave up his music scholarship, continuing his private piano studies, and became a coach for singers. One of these was Joan Sutherland, whom he had accompanied in Australia. They married in 1954 and became a duo, performing operatic recitals until 1962. When the scheduled conductor for a recital of operatic arias became ill and the replacement conductor was involved in a car accident, Bonynge stepped in and, from that time on, h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are ''Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther'' (1892). He also composed oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, incidental music, piano pieces, songs and other music. While still a schoolboy, Massenet was admitted to France's principal music college, the Paris Conservatoire. There he studied under Ambroise Thomas, whom he greatly admired. After winning the country's top musical prize, the , in 1863, he composed prolifically in many genres, but quickly became best known for his operas. Between 1867 and his death forty-five years later he wrote more than forty stage works in a wide variety of styles, from opéra-comique to grand-scale depictions of classical myths, romantic comedies, Drame lyrique, lyric dramas, as well as oratorios, cantatas and ballets. Massenet had a g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sibyl Sanderson
Sibyl Sanderson (December 7, 1864May 16, 1903) was a famous American operatic dramatic coloratura soprano during the Parisian Belle Époque. Biography She was born in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Sibyl's father Silas Sanderson was a California politician and lawyer; after serving as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California, he became a highly paid legal advisor to the Southern Pacific Railroad. After his death in 1886, she and her mother and sisters moved back to Paris and became transplanted socialites. Sanderson proved to be a remarkably gifted singer and began to appear on the stages of the Opéra-Comique, and later Palais Garnier, Opéra, in Paris, most notably in the works of Jules Massenet. She was his favorite soprano and appeared in the premieres of a number of his operas, the roles having been created for her unique talents (her professional debut took place in Paris in the title role in ''Esclarmonde''). She was also a famous interpreter of ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique () is a Paris opera company which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular Théâtre de la foire, theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with – and for a time took the name of – its chief rival, the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne (theatre), Hôtel de Bourgogne. It was also called the Théâtre-Italien up to about 1793, when it again became most commonly known as the Opéra-Comique. Today the company's official name is Théâtre national de l'Opéra-Comique, and its theatre, with a capacity of around 1,248 seats, sometimes referred to as the Salle Favart (the third on this site), is located at Place Boïeldieu in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, not far from the Palais Garnier, one of the theatres of the Paris Opéra. The musicians and others associated with the Opéra-Comique have made important contributions to operatic history and tradition in France and to French opera. Its current mission is to reconnect with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Huon De Bordeaux
Huon of Bordeaux is the title character of a 13th-century French epic poem with romance elements. ''Huon of Bordeaux'' The poem tells of Huon, a knight who unwittingly kills Charlot, the son of Emperor Charlemagne. He is given a reprieve from death on condition that he fulfil a number of seemingly impossible tasks: he must travel to the court of the Emir of Babylon and return with a handful of the Emir's hair and teeth, slay the Emir's mightiest knight, and three times kiss the Emir's daughter, Esclarmonde. Huon eventually accomplishes all these feats with the assistance of the fairy king Oberon. Editions and continuations The ''chanson de geste'' that survives (in three more or less complete manuscripts and two short fragments) comprises 10,553 decasyllable verses grouped in 91 assonanced laisses. Presumed dates for its composition vary, but 1216 and 1268 are generally given as ''terminus post quem'' (earliest possible date) and ''terminus ante quem'' (latest possible da ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vevey
Vevey (; ; ) is a town in Switzerland in the Vaud, canton of Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Leman, near Lausanne. The German name Vivis is no longer commonly used. It was the seat of the Vevey (district), district of the same name until 2006, and is now part of the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut District. It is part of the French-speaking area of Switzerland. Vevey is home to the world headquarters of the international food and beverage company Nestlé, founded here in 1867. Milk chocolate was invented in Vevey by Daniel Peter in 1875, with the aid of Henri Nestlé. The English actor and comedian Charlie Chaplin resided in Vevey from 1952 until his death in 1977. History A piloti settlement existed here as early as the 2nd millennium BC. Under ancient Rome, Rome, it was known as Viviscus or ''Vibiscum''. It was mentioned for the first time by the ancient Greek astronomer and philosopher Ptolemy, who gave it the name Ouikos. In the Middle Ages it was a station on the Via Francigena ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exposition Universelle (1889)
The of 1889 (), better known in English as the 1889 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 6 May to 31 October 1889. It was the fifth of ten major expositions held in the city between 1855 and 1937. It attracted more than thirty-two million visitors. The most famous structure created for the exposition, and still remaining, is the Eiffel Tower. Organization The exposition was held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille, which marked the beginning of French Revolution, and was also seen as a way to stimulate the economy and pull France out of an economic recession. The exposition attracted 61,722 official exhibitors, of whom twenty-five thousand were from outside of France. Admission price Admission to the exposition cost forty centimes, at a time when the price of an "economy" plate of meat and vegetables in a Paris cafe was ten centimes. Visitors paid an additional price for several of the exposition's most popular att ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Théâtre De La Ville
(; "City Theatre") is one of the two theatres built in the 19th century by Baron Haussmann at Place du Châtelet, Paris, the other being the Théâtre du Châtelet. It is located at 2, place du Châtelet in the 4th arrondissement. Included among its many previous names are Théâtre Lyrique, Théâtre des Nations, and Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt. Théâtre Lyrique The theatre, which until the fall of Napoleon III in 1870 was officially known as the Théâtre Lyrique Impérial, was designed by the architect Gabriel Davioud for Baron Haussmann between 1860 and 1862 for the opera company more commonly known simply as the Théâtre Lyrique. That company's earlier theatre, the Théâtre Historique on the Boulevard du Temple, where it had performed since 1851, was slated for demolition as part of Haussmann's renovation of Paris. During the company's initial period on the Place du Châtelet, it was under the direction of Léon Carvalho and gave the premieres of Bizet's ''Les pêcheu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis De Gramont
Louis Ferdinand de Gramont (1854 – 9 December 1912) was a French journalist, dramatist, and librettist. He was a son of Ferdinand de Gramont. Gramont was born in Sèvres and finished his studies at the college there, then entered the School of Law. He pursued journalism and wrote for such periodicals as ''Radical'', ''L'Éclair'', ''La Presse'', ''Petit bleu'', ''L'Aurore'', and ''La Cocarde'', and, in 1890, became a writer for ''L'Intransigent''. He was also critic of drama and music. Gramont died in Paris in 1912. He wrote the following plays or opera libretti: * ''L'orage'', comedy (1874) * ''Othello'', drama after Shakespeare ( Odéon, 15 April 1882) * ''Rolande'', drama ( Théâtre-Libre 5 November 1888) * ''Loulou'' (1888) * ''Esclarmonde'', co-author with Alfred Blau, libretto to the opera by Jules Massenet (Opéra-Comique, 15 May 1889) * ''Lucienne'', drama (Menus-Plaisirs, 2 December 1890) * ''La locataire de Mme Biou'' (1891) * ''Simone'', drama (Théâtre-Libre, 28 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Blau
Alfred Blau (born Blois, 29 May 1827, died Brussels, 23 February 1896) was a French dramatist and opera librettist. He was a cousin of Édouard Blau, another French librettist of the same period.Smith, Christopher. Édouard Blau. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997, p499. Although born in Blois, he became "one of the most Parisians of the Parisians of Paris", although this only extended to the right bank of the city.Théodore Massiac. Mort d'Alfred Blau - Souvenirs d'un vieux librettiste. ''Gil Blas'', Mercredi 26 Février 1896, No.5944, p2. He had trained in law and taken on a few cases but went to Paris aged 22 and soon became a part of the group of Murger, Schanne and Champfleury. In the literary world he was known by the anagrammatic pen-name Baül. In addition to the libretti listed below, in late 1887 he was in discussions with Emmanuel Chabrier for a libretto on the subject of ''The Tempest'' by Shakespeare, but the project came ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denis Pyramus
Denis Pyramus was a Benedictine monk of Bury St. Edmunds Abbey and an Anglo-Norman poet who was active in the second part of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. In 1150, he wrote '' Parthénopéus de Blois'', a chivalric tale (romance) whose motif is drawn from the story of Cupid and Psyche. ''Parthénopéus'' was then adapted in the 13th century into a West Flemish novel in 9000 verses, ''Parthenopeus van Blois'', which tells about the love of King Clovis (Chlodowech). In the 19th century, the original story of ''Parthénopéus de Blois'' served as a broad basis for Alfred Blau's libretto ''Esclarmonde'', later turned into an opera by Jules Massenet. Pyramus also (in the early 13th century) wrote ''La Vie Seint Edmund le Roi''. ReferencesJSTOR notes on Pyramus by |
