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Lucrezia Borgia (opera)
''Lucrezia Borgia'' is a melodramatic opera in a prologue and two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after the play ''Lucrezia Borgia'' by Victor Hugo, in its turn after the legend of Lucrezia Borgia. ''Lucrezia Borgia'' was first performed on 26 December 1833 at La Scala, Milan. Performance history 19th century Because of its scandalous subject matter, ''Lucrezia Borgia'' was taken up slowly in Italy and presented in many Italian theatres with altered titles and, in some cases, altered character names.Loewenberg 1978, column754–755. It was given in Florence, beginning on 12 November 1838, as ''Eustorgia da Romano'', in Trieste in the autumn of 1838 as ''Alfonso Duca di Ferrara'', in Ferrara on 14 April 1841 as ''Giovanna I di Napoli'', and in Rome on 26 December 1841 as ''Elisa da Fosco''. The first London production was at Her Majesty's Theatre on 6 June 1839 with Giulia Grisi and Mario.Ashbrook and Hibberd, p. 234 When the opera was st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic music, Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''bel canto'' opera style during the first half of the nineteenth century and a probable influence on other composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. Donizetti was born in Bergamo in Lombardy. At an early age he was taken up by Simon Mayr who enrolled him with a full scholarship in a school which he had set up. There he received detailed musical training. Mayr was instrumental in obtaining a place for Donizetti at the Bologna Academy, where, at the age of 19, he wrote his first one-act opera, the comedy ''Il Pigmalione'', which may never have been performed during his lifetime. An offer in 1822 from Domenico Barbaja, the impresario of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, which followed the composer's ninth opera, led to his move to Naples and his reside ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palmo's Opera House
Palmo's Opera House (later Burton's Theater and the Chambers Street Theatre) was a 19th-century theatre in Manhattan, New York, that was located on Chambers Street between Broadway and Centre Street. It was one of the earliest opera houses in New York before it was converted into one of the earliest Broadway theatres. The theatre was conceived by Ferdinand Palmo, an Italian immigrant and successful restaurateur in New York City. It was located inside the former Stoppani's Arcade Baths building. Modest alteration to the building was done in 1843 to convert the building into a theater. In 1848 opera performances at Palmo's Opera House ceased and the theater was leased to William Evans Burton. It was rechristened the Burton's Theater and became a performance venue for plays and other theatrical entertainments. It operated under that name until 1856 when the theater was leased to Edward Eddy and it was rebranded again as the Chambers Street Theatre. The theatre operated under tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leyla Gencer
Leyla Gencer (, née Çeyrekgil; 10 October 192810 May 2008) also known as La Diva Turca was a Turkish operatic soprano. Gencer was a notable '' bel canto'' soprano who spent most of her career in Italy, from the early 1950s through the mid-1980s, and had a repertoire encompassing more than seventy roles. She made very few commercial recordings; however, numerous bootleg recordings of her performances exist. She was particularly associated with the heroines of Donizetti. Early life Leyla Gencer was born in Polonezköy (near Istanbul) to a Turkish father and a Polish mother. Her father, Hasanzade İbrahim Bey (who took the surname ''Çeyrekgil'' under the Surname Law of 1934), was a wealthy businessman, whose family was from the city of Safranbolu. Her mother, Lexanda Angela Minakovska, was from a Roman Catholic family of the Lithuanian aristocracy (she later converted to Islam and chose the name ''Atiye'' after her husband's death.) [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonel Perlea
Ionel Perlea (13 December 190029 July 1970) was a Romanian Conducting, conductor particularly associated with the Italian and German opera repertories. Biography Born Ionel Perlea to a Romanian father, Victor Perlea, and a German mother, Margarethe Haberlein, in Ograda, Romania, he moved to Germany with his mother and his brothers after his father died. Perlea was five years old, or according to some sources, ten years old. He studied in Munich, then in Leipzig. He made his debut at a concert at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest in 1919, then worked as répétiteur in Leipzig (1922–23) and Rostock (1923–25). His operatic debut as conductor occurred in Cluj-Napoca, Cluj in 1927, when he directed ''Aida''. The following year he made his first appearance at the Romanian National Opera, Bucharest, Bucharest Opera, and was music director of that theatre from 1934 until 1944. He conducted several Romanian premieres of notable foreign masterpieces, such as ''Die Meistersinger von ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ezio Flagello
Ezio Domenico Flagello (January 28, 1931 – March 19, 2009) was an Italian American opera singer who sang at the Metropolitan Opera from 1957 to 1984. He was a bass singer particularly associated with the Italian language repertory. Career Flagello was born in New York City on January 28, 1931. He first studied at the Manhattan School of Musicwhere he was a pupil of Friedrich Schorr and John Brownleeand then at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory, Rome, with Luigi Ricci. Flagello made his professional debut at the Empire State Festival, in Ellenville, New York, in 1955, as Dulcamara in ''L'elisir d'amore''. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut at age 26 on November 9, 1957, as the Jailer in ''Tosca''. Four days later, as a last minute replacement, he sang Leporello in Don Giovanni. He quickly became a favorite with the audience in comic roles, such as Bartolo in ''The Barber of Seville'' and Dulcamara in ''Elisir d'amore'', though he also excelled in more lyrical and dramatic rep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfredo Kraus
Alfredo Kraus Trujillo (; 24 November 192710 September 1999) was a distinguished Spanish tenor from the Canary Islands (known professionally as Alfredo Kraus), particularly known for the artistry he brought to opera's bel canto roles. He was also considered an outstanding interpreter of the title role in Massenet's opera '' Werther'', and especially of its famous aria "Pourquoi me réveiller?" Early years Kraus was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. His father was Austrian and his mother was Spanish. He began his musical career with piano lessons at the age of four, and he sang in the school choir by age eight. His older brother, Francisco Kraus Trujillo, a baritone, studied music and opera alongside him. Career After refining his technique singing Spanish zarzuela on stage in Madrid and Barcelona, Kraus made his professional opera debut in Cairo during 1956 as the Duke in ''Rigoletto'', which became one of his signature roles. In 1958, he sang Alfredo at the Teatro N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shirley Verrett
Shirley Verrett (May 31, 1931 – November 5, 2010) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who successfully transitioned into soprano roles making her a Soprano sfogato. Verrett enjoyed great fame from the late 1960s through the 1990s; she was particularly known for performing works by Giuseppe Verdi and Gaetano Donizetti. Life and career Early life and education Born into an African-American family of devout Catholics in New Orleans, Verrett was raised in Los Angeles. She recalled in her memoir that her mother went from being a strict Catholic to an even stricter Seventh-Day Adventist, and she and her siblings were educated in a Seventh Day Adventist school system. She sang in church and showed early musical abilities, but initially a singing career was frowned upon by her family. Verrett attended Oakwood University, a private historically black Seventh-Day Adventist university in Huntsville, Alabama, for a semester in 1949, but then returned to southern California and co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montserrat Caballé
María de Montserrat Bibiana Concepción Caballé i Folch or Folc (12 April 1933 – 6 October 2018), also known as Montserrat Caballé (i Folch), was a Spanish operatic soprano from Catalonia. Widely considered to be one of the best sopranos of the 20th century, she won a variety of musical awards thoroughout her six-decade career, including three Grammy Awards. Caballé performed a wide variety of roles, but is best known as an exponent of the works of Verdi and of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Gioachino Rossini, Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, Bellini, and Gaetano Donizetti, Donizetti. She was noticed internationally when she stepped in for a performance of Donizetti's ''Lucrezia Borgia (opera), Lucrezia Borgia'' at Carnegie Hall in 1965, and then appeared at leading opera houses. Her voice was described as pure but powerful, with superb control of vocal shadings and exquisite Dynamics (music), pianissimo. Caballé is also known for her 1987 duet with Freddie M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral music, or to soprano C (C6) or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which often encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura soprano, coloratura, soubrette, lyric soprano, lyric, spinto soprano, spinto, and dramatic soprano, dramatic soprano. Etymology The word "soprano" comes from the Italian word ''wikt:sopra, sopra'' (above, over, on top of),"Soprano" ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' as the soprano is the highest pitch human voice, often given to the leading female roles in operas. "Soprano" refers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by its namesake, industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, it is one of the most prestigious venues in the world for both classical music and popular music. Carnegie Hall has its own artistic programming, development, and marketing departments and presents about 250 performances each season. It is also rented out to performing groups. Carnegie Hall has 3,671 seats, divided among three auditoriums. The largest one is the Stern Auditorium, a five-story auditorium with 2,804 seats. Also part of the complex are the 599-seat Zankel Hall on Seventh Avenue, as well as the 268-seat Joan and Sanford I. Weill Recital Hall on 57th Street. Besides the auditoriums, Carnegie Hall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arturo Vigna
Arturo Vigna (1863, Turin - 30 January 1927, Milan) was an Italian opera conductor who was particularly associated with the operas of Giuseppe Verdi. Life and career Born in Turin, Vigna was trained at the Turin Conservatory. He served as music director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo from 1895 to 1903. He then worked as a conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City where he conducted nearly 250 performances from 1903 to 1907. At the Met, he notably conducted the United States premieres of Umberto Giordano's ''Fedora'' and Hector Berlioz's ''La damnation de Faust'' in 1906. He also conducted the Met's first performances of Donizetti's ''L'elisir d'amore'' and ''Lucrezia Borgia'' in 1904, and the Met's first performances of ''Manon Lescaut'' and ''Madama Butterfly'' in 1907, both of them supervised by Puccini. He also led performances of new productions of Verdi's ''Aida'', Donizetti's ''Don Pasquale'', Ponchielli's '' La Gioconda'', Bellini's ''La sonnambula'', Meyerbeer's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enrico Caruso
Enrico Caruso (, , ; 25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic first lyric tenor then dramatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles that ranged from the lyric to the dramatic. Generally recognized as the first international recording star, Caruso made around 250 commercially released recordings from 1902 to 1920. Biography Early life Enrico Caruso came from a poor but not destitute background. Born in Naples in the via Santi Giovanni e Paolo n° 7 on 25 February 1873, he was baptised the next day in the adjacent Church of San Giovanni e Paolo. His parents originally came from Piedimonte d'Alife (now called Piedimonte Matese), in the Province of Caserta in Campania, Southern Italy. Caruso was the third of seven children and one of only three to survive infancy. For decades, there was a story of Caruso's parents having had 21 children, 18 of whom died in infancy. However, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
