|
Joanna Simon (mezzo-soprano)
Joanna Elizabeth Simon (October 20, 1936 – October 19, 2022) was an American mezzo-soprano. The daughter of publisher Richard L. Simon, Joanna was an elder sister of singer and songwriter Carly Simon, singer and musical theatre composer Lucy Simon, and photographer Peter Simon. As a singer, Simon was known for possessing a distinctively "smoky-voiced mezzo-soprano". She performed regularly in operas and concerts internationally from 1962 through 1986, and thereafter made only periodic performances into the late 1990s. In 1962, she won the regional division of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Marian Anderson Award, also making her opera debut that year at the New York City Opera as Mozart's Cherubino. She created the role of Pantasilea in the world premiere of Alberto Ginastera's ''Bomarzo'' in 1967 with the Washington Opera Society (now the Washington National Opera), which brought her international fame, and she recorded the part for CBS Records. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano (, ), or mezzo ( ), is a type of classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above (i.e. A3–A5 in scientific pitch notation, where middle C = C4; 220–880 Hz). In the lower and upper extremes, some mezzo-sopranos may extend down to the F below middle C (F3, 175 Hz) and as high as "high C" (C6, 1047 Hz). The mezzo-soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, lyric, and dramatic. History While mezzo-sopranos typically sing secondary roles in operas, notable exceptions include the title role in Georges Bizet, Bizet's ''Carmen'', Angelina (Cinderella) in Gioachino Rossini, Rossini's ''La Cenerentola'', and Rosina in Rossini's ''The Barber of Seville, Barber of Seville'' (all of which are also sung by sopranos and contraltos). Many 19th-century French- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Marriage Of Figaro
''The Marriage of Figaro'' (, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 1 May 1786. The opera's libretto is based on the 1784 stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, '' La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro'' ("The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro"). It tells how the servants Figaro and Susanna succeed in getting married, foiling the efforts of their philandering employer Count Almaviva to seduce Susanna and teaching him a lesson in fidelity. Considered one of the greatest operas ever written, it is a cornerstone of the repertoire and appears consistently among the top ten in the Operabase list of most frequently performed operas. In 2017, BBC News Magazine asked 172 opera singers to vote for the best operas ever written. ''The Marriage of Figaro'' came in first out of the 20 operas featured, with t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ed Sullivan Show
''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the ''CBS Sunday Movie, CBS Sunday Night Movie''. In 2002, ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' was ranked No. 15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, ''TV Guide''s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2013, the series finished No. 31 in ''TV Guide'' Magazine's 60 Best Series of All Time. History From 1948 until its cancellation in 1971, the show ran on CBS every Sunday night from 8–9 p.m. Eastern Time Zone, Eastern Time, and it is one of the few entertainment shows to have run in the same weekly time slot on the same network for more than two decades (during its first season, it ran from 9 to 10 p.m. ET). Virtually every type of entertainment appeared on the show; classical musicians, opera singers, popular recording artists, songwriters ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is a Centre-left politics, center-left political parties in the United States, political party in the United States. One of the Major party, major parties of the U.S., it was founded in 1828, making it the world's oldest active political party. Its main rival since the 1850s has been the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, and the two have since dominated American politics. The Democratic Party was founded in 1828 from remnants of the Democratic-Republican Party. Senator Martin Van Buren played the central role in building the coalition of state organizations which formed the new party as a vehicle to help elect Andrew Jackson as president that year. It initially supported Jacksonian democracy, agrarianism, and Manifest destiny, geographical expansionism, while opposing Bank War, a national bank and high Tariff, tariffs. Democrats won six of the eight presidential elections from 1828 to 1856, losing twice to the Whig Party (United States) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) is an American orchestra based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The orchestra is resident at Heinz Hall, located in Pittsburgh's Cultural District. Since 2008, the orchestra's music director is Manfred Honeck. The orchestra's current president and CEO is Melia Tourangeau. History 1895–1910: Founding and early history The orchestra was founded by the Pittsburgh Arts Society with conductor Frederic Archer in 1895, who brought with him a number of musicians from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and led the PSO in its first concert the following year. In 1898, Victor Herbert was chosen to lead the orchestra. The orchestra traveled at a more frequent rate under Herbert's tenure, performing in Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Canada. Its personnel included such musicians as Luigi von Kunits (later the first conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra) as concertmaster, first violinist Frederick William Stahlberg, second violinist J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vienna Philharmonic
Vienna Philharmonic (VPO; ) is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and is considered to be one of the finest in the world. The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. Its members are selected from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. Selection involves a lengthy process, with each musician demonstrating their capability for a minimum of three years' performance for the opera and ballet. After this probationary period, the musician may request an application for a position in the orchestra from the Vienna Philharmonic's board. The Vienna Philharmonic hires no musician over 35 years of age, and has a mandatory retirement age of 65; 30 years of service are required for full pension. History Precursors and formation Until the 1830s, orchestral performance in Vienna was done by ''ad hoc'' orchestras, consisting of professional and (often) amateur musicians brought together for specific performances. In 1833, Franz Lachner formed the forerunner of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra'', it is one of the leading American orchestras popularly called the " Big Five". The Philharmonic's home is David Geffen Hall, at New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Founded in 1842, the orchestra is one of the oldest musical institutions in the United States and the oldest of the "Big Five" orchestras. Its 14,000th concert was given in December 2004. History Founding and first concert, 1842 The New York Philharmonic was founded in 1842 by the American conductor Ureli Corelli Hill, with the aid of the Irish composer William Vincent Wallace. The orchestra was then called the Philharmonic Society of New York. It was the third Philharmonic on American soil since 1799, and had as its int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tamerlano
''Tamerlano'' (Tamerlane, HWV 18) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. The Italian libretto was by Nicola Francesco Haym, adapted from Agostino Piovene's ''Tamerlano'' together with another libretto entitled ''Bajazet'' after Nicolas Pradon's ''Tamerlan, ou La Mort de Bajazet''. The opera was staged by the Royal Academy of Music in the King's Theatre at the Haymarket, London. History and context The German-born Handel, after spending some of his early career composing operas and other pieces in Italy, settled in London, where in 1711 he had brought Italian opera for the first time with his opera '' Rinaldo''. A tremendous success, ''Rinaldo'' created a craze in London for Italian opera seria, a form focused overwhelmingly on solo arias for the star virtuoso singers. In 1719, Handel was appointed music director of an organisation called the Royal Academy of Music (unconnected with the present day London conservatoire), a company under royal charter to p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caramoor Summer Music Festival
The Caramoor Summer Music Festival is a music festival founded in 1945 that is held on the estate of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, which includes a Mediterranean-style stucco villa and is located about north of New York City in Katonah, New York. The Caramoor estate became a centre for the arts and music following the World War II death of the son of its owners, Walter and Lucie Rosen. The couple donated the property in their son's memory, and it quickly became an established summer festival. Performances are given in the Spanish Courtyard of the house and in the 1,700-seat Venetian Theater, a tented facility on the grounds. The Music Room in the house is also used for year-round concerts. For the past twenty years, the opera focus has been ''Bel Canto at Caramoor'', with explorations of the ''bel canto'' repertoire under the direction of the conductor, Will Crutchfield. Semi-staged performances of such rarities (for the New York area) as Rossini's ''Otello'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Starer
Robert Starer (8 January 1924 in Vienna – 22 April 2001 in Kingston, New York) was an Austrian-born American composer, pianist and educator. Robert Starer began studying the piano at age 4 and continued his studies at the Vienna State Academy. After the 1938 plebiscite in which Austria voted for annexation by Nazi Germany, Starer left for Palestine and studied at the Jerusalem Conservatory with Josef Tal. In World War II he served in the British Royal Air Force, and in 1947 he settled in the United States. He studied composition at the Juilliard School in New York City with Frederick Jacobi, then with Aaron Copland in 1948 and received a postgraduate degree from Juilliard in 1949. Starer became an American citizen in 1957. Robert Starer taught at the Juilliard School, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York where he became a distinguished professor in 1986. He was married, had one child, Daniel, and resided in Woodstock, New York until ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seattle Opera
Seattle Opera is an American opera company based in Seattle, Washington. The company's season runs from August through late May, comprising five or six operas of eight to ten performances each, often featuring double casts in major roles to allow for successive evening presentations. Since August 2003, Seattle Opera has performed at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall (capacity: 2,967), which was built on the site of the old Seattle Opera House at Seattle Center. The company's current general director is James Robinson. History Glynn Ross founded the company in 1963, and served as its first general director until 1983. From the outset, Ross saw opera as something that had to be sold using similar techniques to those used to sell popular entertainment: To sell opera…you have to get their attention with a little razzle-dazzle. You've got to be simpatico. You have to be able to communicate, and you have to deliver your message with the best possible product you can manage.Quoted in . In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Widow (opera)
''Black Widow'' is an opera in three acts by Thomas Pasatieri with an English libretto also by the composer. The libretto is based on Miguel de Unamuno's ''Dos madres''. The opera premiered on March 2, 1972 with Seattle Opera. Lotfi Mansouri was the director. Other notable productions include Lake George Opera Opera Saratoga (until January 2011, named the Lake George Opera) is a professional opera company based in Saratoga Springs, New York. It performs an annual summer festival of three fully staged operas and operettas. The company and its associated ... in 1972 and the Atlanta Civic Opera Association in 1981. The score was published by Belwin-Mills Publishing Corp. in 1977. Roles Story The work deals with a young widow, Raquel, who is unable to have a child but is so obsessed with the idea that having a child would give her immortality that she forces her lover, Juan, to marry another woman (Berta) so that they can have a child that she can take from them. Juan kills hims ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
