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Louise Grandjean
Louise Grandjean (1870–1934) was a French operatic soprano who was particularly admired for her portrayals of Wagner and Verdi heroines. She began her career in Paris in 1894 where she became a popular and active singer until 1911. She also regularly appeared in Germany during the first decade of the twentieth century with great success. Biography Grandjean studied at the Conservatoire de Paris before making her professional opera debut in 1893 at the Opéra Comique as Isabella in ''Le Pré aux clercs''. She sang numerus roles at that opera house over the next nine years, including Alice Ford in France's first production of Verdi's ''Falstaff'' in 1894. Beginning in 1895 she was also a member of the Opéra National de Paris, making her debut as The Page in Richard Wagner's ''Tannhäuser''. She sang numerous roles with the national opera until 1911, including the world premieres of Xavier Leroux's '' Astarté'' (1901), Jules Massenet's '' Ariane'' (1906), and Fernand Le Borne's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Catalane
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure 8'' (album) * ''L.A.'' (EP), by Teddy Thompson * ''L.A. (Light Album)'', a Beach Boys album * "L.A." (Neil Young song), 1973 * The La's, an English rock band * L.A. Reid, a prominent music producer * Yung L.A., a rapper * Lady A, an American country music trio * "L.A." (Amy Macdonald song), 2007 * "La", a song by Australian-Israeli singer-songwriter Old Man River Other media * l(a, a poem by E. E. Cummings * La (Tarzan), fictional queen of the lost city of Opar (Tarzan) * ''Lá'', later known as Lá Nua, an Irish language newspaper * La7, an Italian television channel * LucasArts, an American video game developer and publisher * Liber Annuus, academic journal Business, organizations, and government agencies * L.A. Screenings, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aida
''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 December 1871, in a performance conducted by Giovanni Bottesini. Today the work holds a central place in the operatic canon, receiving performances every year around the world; at New York's Metropolitan Opera alone, ''Aida'' has been sung more than 1,100 times since 1886. Ghislanzoni's scheme follows a scenario often attributed to the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, but Verdi biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz argues that the source is actually Temistocle Solera. Elements of the opera's genesis and sources Isma'il Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, commissioned Verdi to write an opera to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal, but Verdi declined. However, Auguste Mariette, a French Egyptologist, proposed to Khedive Pasha a plot for a celebrato ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hérodiade
''Hérodiade'' is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Paul Milliet and Henri Grémont, based on the novella ''Hérodias'' (1877) by Gustave Flaubert. It was first performed at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels on 19 December 1881. The libretto is a retelling of the story of John the Baptist, Salome, Herod Antipas and Herodias, but is strikingly less psychological and bloody than Richard Strauss's ''Salome'', which is based on a text by Oscar Wilde. The opera premiered in Brussels because Auguste Vaucorbeil, Manager of the Paris Opera house refused to stage the work; "I do like your music," he had said to Massenet, "but as for the libretto, you badly need an author who knows how to build the skeleton of a play." Performance history The opera reached Paris at the Théâtre des Nations on 1 February 1884, and the final performance of the run on 13 March featured the three De Reszkes; Jean (Jean), Édouard (Phanuel), and Josephine (Salomé). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Le Cid
''Le Cid'' is a five-act French tragicomedy written by Pierre Corneille, first performed in December 1636 at the Théâtre du Marais in Paris and published the same year. It is based on Guillén de Castro's play ''Las Mocedades del Cid''. Castro's play in turn is based on the legend of El Cid. An enormous popular success, Corneille's ''Le Cid'' was the subject of a heated polemic over the norms of dramatic practice known as the '' Querelle du Cid'' (Quarrel of ''The Cid''). Cardinal Richelieu's ''Académie française'' acknowledged the play's success, but determined that it was defective, in part because it did not respect the classical unities. Today, ''Le Cid'' is widely regarded as Corneille's finest work, and is considered one of the greatest plays of the seventeenth century. Background The stories of the Cid are based on the life of the Spanish warrior Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, who lived approximately from 1043 until 1099. The real "Cid" seems to have fought for both Mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Le Prophète
''Le prophète'' (''The Prophet'') is a grand opera in five acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer, which was premiered in Paris on 16 April 1849. The French-language libretto was by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps, after passages from the ''Essay on the Manners and Spirit of Nations'' by Voltaire. The plot is based on the life of John of Leiden, Anabaptist leader and self-proclaimed "King of Münster" in the 16th century. Performance history After the brilliant success of their grand opera ''Les Huguenots'' (1836), Meyerbeer and his librettist Scribe decided to collaborate again on a piece based on a historical religious conflict. Meyerbeer's great personal wealth and his duties as official court composer to King Frederick William IV of Prussia meant that there was no hurry to complete the opera, and it was more than a decade in the composition and planning. ''Le prophète'' was first performed by the Paris Opera at the Salle Le Peletier on 16 April 1849. In the audience at the work's pre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Huguenots
() is an opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer and is one of the most popular and spectacular examples of grand opera. In five acts, to a libretto by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps, it premiered in Paris on 29 February 1836. Composition history ''Les Huguenots'' was some five years in creation. Meyerbeer prepared carefully for this opera after the sensational success of '' Robert le diable'', recognising the need to continue to present lavish staging, a highly dramatic storyline, impressive orchestration and virtuoso parts for the soloists – the essential elements of the new genre of Grand Opera. Meyerbeer and his librettist for ''Robert le Diable'', Eugène Scribe, had agreed to collaborate on an epic work concerning the French Wars of Religion, with a drama partly based on Prosper Mérimée's 1829 novel ''Chronique du règne de Charles IX''. Coming from a wealthy family, Meyerbeer could afford to take his time, dictate his own terms, and to be a perfectionist. The very detail ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legend about a libertine as told by playwright Tirso de Molina in his 1630 play '' El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra''. It is a '' dramma giocoso'' blending comedy, melodrama and supernatural elements (although the composer entered it into his catalogue simply as '' opera buffa''). It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the National Theater (of Bohemia), now called the Estates Theatre, on 29 October 1787. ''Don Giovanni'' is regarded as one of the greatest operas of all time and has proved a fruitful subject for commentary in its own right; critic Fiona Maddocks has described it as one of Mozart's "trio of masterpieces with librettos by Da Ponte". Composition and premiere The opera was commissioned after the succ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naïs Micoulin
''Naïs Micoulin'' is a 1907 drame lyrique by Alfred Bruneau to a libretto after the 1884 novel by Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ....Alban Ramaut, Jean-Christophe Branger Le livret d'opéra au temps de Massenet 2002 2862722588 "En effet, outre la musique d'opéra dont Zola avait fait les livrets, Bruneau élabora lui-même le livret d'un drame lyrique Naïs Micoulin (1907), à partir de la nouvelle homonyme du même Zola. Or, il emprunta au texte original, pas toujours" References Operas 1907 operas French-language operas Operas by Alfred Bruneau Operas set in France Operas based on novels {{French-opera-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Bruneau
Louis Charles Bonaventure Alfred Bruneau (3 March 1857 – 15 June 1934) was a French composer who played a key role in the introduction of realism in French opera. Life Born in Paris, Bruneau studied the cello as a youth at the Paris Conservatory and played in the Pasdeloup orchestra. He soon began to compose, writing a cantata, ''Geneviève de Paris'', while still a young man. In 1884, his ''Ouverture héroïque'' was performed, followed by the choral symphonies '' Léda'' (1884) and '' La Belle au bois dormant'' (1886). In 1887, he produced his first opera, ''Kérim''. The following year, Bruneau met Émile Zola, launching a collaboration between the two men that would last for two decades. Bruneau's 1891 opera '' Le Rêve'' was based on the Zola story of the same name, and in the coming years Zola would provide the subject matter for many of Bruneau's works, including '' L'attaque du moulin'' (1893). Zola himself wrote the libretti for the operas ''Messidor'' (1897) and '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Le Tasse (opera)
Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' (Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the Siege of Jerusalem of 1099. Tasso had mental illness and died a few days before he was to be crowned on the Capitoline Hill as the king of poets by Pope Clement VIII. His work was widely translated and adapted, and until the beginning of the 20th century, he remained one of the most widely read poets in Europe. Biography Early life Born in Sorrento, Torquato was the son of Bernardo Tasso, a nobleman of Bergamo and an epic and lyric poet of considerable fame in his day, and his wife Porzia de Rossi, a noblewoman born in Naples of Tuscan origins. His father had for many years been secretary in the service of Ferrante Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno, and his mother was clos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eugène D'Harcourt
Anne Marie Eugène d'Harcourt, Comte d'Harcourt (May 20, 1859 – March 7, 1918), was a French conductor and composer. Biography He was born on May 20, 1859 in Paris, France to Bruno Jean Marie d'Harcourt and Juliette d'Andigne de la Chasse. He attended the Paris Conservatoire in 1880. He was an organ student of Eugène Gigout. He completed his mandatory military service and on the advice of Charles Lamoureux went to Berlin, Germany where he became a pupil of Woldemar Bargiel. He returned to Paris and founded the "Concerts Eclectiques Populaires" in 1892. He married Armande de Pierre de Bernis on July 23, 1898 in Marseille, France. They had as their son, Bruno, Count of Harcourt. In 1900 he organized a society to perform oratorios in the Église Saint-Eustache, Paris, and he directed "The Messiah" by Handel, Berlioz's Requiem, St Matthew Passion by Bach and for the first time anywhere, Massenet's oratorio La Terre Promise. In 1904 he was sent by the French Government on a musica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
