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Norma Sharp
Norma Sharp (born July 20, 1943) is an American operatic soprano. She is known for singing Mozart and Richard Strauss, but also sang Wagner roles at the Bayreuth Festival. She worked mostly in Germany, made an international career, and has been a professor of voice at the from 1992. Career Sharp was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and studied voice and musicology at the University of Kansas. She continued her studies on a scholarship at the with Helmut Melchert and at the with Peter Witsch. She was a member of the . Her voice, termed lyric and "" (spinto), led to preferred interpretation of roles in operas by Mozart and Richard Strauss. She appeared in London at Covent Garden, in Glasgow at the Scottish Opera and in 1978 at the Glyndebourne Festival as Donna Anna in Mozart's ''Don Giovanni''. She sang the part of the countess in Mozart's ' at her debut at La Scala in Milan. Sharp performed at the Bayreuth Festival from 1977 to 1981, singing parts in the , the centenary perfor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shawnee, Oklahoma
Shawnee () is a city in and the county seat of Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 29,857 in 2010, a 4.9 percent increase from the figure of 28,692 in 2000. The city is part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, Oklahoma City-Shawnee Combined Statistical Area and the principal city of the Shawnee Micropolitan Statistical Area. With access to Interstate 40 in Oklahoma, Interstate 40, Shawnee is just under 40 miles (64 km) east of downtown Oklahoma City. To the east and northeast, Shawnee is 112 miles (180 km) from the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, which provides shipping barge access to the Gulf of Mexico. History The area surrounding Shawnee was settled after the American Civil War by a number of tribes that the federal government had removed to Indian Territory. The Sac and Fox Nation, Sac and Fox originally were deeded land in the immediate area but were soon followed by the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklah ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Der Ring Des Nibelungen
(''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the . The composer termed the cycle a "" (stage festival play), structured in three days preceded by a ("preliminary evening"). It is often referred to as the ''Ring'' cycle, Wagner's ''Ring'', or simply ''The Ring''. Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The four parts that constitute the ''Ring'' cycle are, in sequence: * '' Das Rheingold'' (''The Rhinegold'') * '' Die Walküre'' (''The Valkyrie'') * '' Siegfried'' * ''Götterdämmerung'' (''Twilight of the Gods'') Individual works of the sequence are often performed separately, and indeed the operas contain dialogues that mention events in the previous operas, so that a viewer could watch any of them without having watched the previous parts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jessye Norman
Jessye Mae Norman (September 15, 1945 – September 30, 2019) was an American opera singer and recitalist. She was able to perform dramatic soprano roles, but did not limit herself to that voice type. A commanding presence on operatic, concert and recital stages, Norman was associated with roles including Beethoven's Leonore, Wagner's Sieglinde and Kundry, Berlioz's Cassandre and Didon, and Bartók's Judith. ''The New York Times'' music critic Edward Rothstein described her voice as a "grand mansion of sound", and wrote that "it has enormous dimensions, reaching backward and upward. It opens onto unexpected vistas. It contains sunlit rooms, narrow passageways, cavernous halls." Norman trained at Howard University, the Peabody Institute, and the University of Michigan. Her career began in Europe, where she won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 1968, which led to a contract with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Her operatic début came as Elisabeth in Wagner's '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theo Adam
Theo Adam (1 August 1926 – 10 January 2019) was a German operatic bass-baritone and bass singer who had an international career in opera, concert and recital from 1949. He was a member of the Staatsoper Dresden for his entire career, and sang at the Bayreuth Festival from 1952 to 1980. He particularly excelled in portraying roles by Richard Wagner, especially Wotan in ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'', which he also performed at the Metropolitan Opera, among others. In concert, he was a much admired Bach singer and also drew acclaim for his interpretation of the title character of Mendelssohn's '' Elijah''. He was a voice teacher at the Musikhochschule Dresden. Career Born in Dresden, Adam sang with the Dresdner Kreuzchor as a boy from 1936 to 1942. He served in the German Army in World War II. He studied singing privately with Rudolf Dietrich between 1946 and 1949. He made his professional debut at the Staatsoper Dresden as Czernikowski in Mussorgsky's '' Boris Godunov'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Staatskapelle Dresden
The Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden (), or Saxon State Orchestra Dresden, is one of the oldest orchestras in the world, created by order of Maurice, Elector of Saxony in 1548. Under communist East Germany and until 1992 it was called Staatskapelle Dresden; an earlier name was Kurfürstlich-Sächsische und Königlich-Polnische Kapelle, or Electoral Saxon and Royal Polish Orchestra. It is a constituent body of the Semper Opera House, along with two choruses and a ballet troupe, where it plays in the pit for opera and on a platform for its own concert series. History Heinrich Schütz was associated with the orchestra early in its existence. In the 19th century, Carl Maria von Weber and Richard Wagner each served as ''Hofkapellmeister''. In the 20th century, Richard Strauss became closely associated with the orchestra as both conductor and composer, which premiered several of his works. Karl Böhm and Hans Vonk were notable among the orchestra's chief conductors in that they se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marek Janowski
Marek Janowski (born 18 February 1939 in Warsaw) is a Polish-born German conductor. Biography Janowski grew up in Wuppertal, near Cologne, after his mother traveled there at the start of World War II to be with her parents. His father disappeared in Poland during the war. Janowski served as music director in Freiburg and at the Dortmund Opera conducting the Dortmunder Philharmoniker, the latter from 1973 to 1979. From 1983 to 1987 he was principal conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. He served as ''Kapellmeister'' of the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne from 1986 to 1990. He developed an important profile in France as well, becoming music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (then called the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique) in Paris in 1984 and retaining that post until 2000. He then was principal conductor of the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra from 2000 to 2009. Janowski was chief conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic from 2001 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolfram Rieger
Wolfram Rieger is a German classical pianist, who is known internationally as accompanist of singers and in chamber music. Training Born in Waldsassen, Rieger received his first piano lessons from his parents and later from Konrad Pfeiffer in Regensburg. He quickly developed a strong affection for song interpretation and therefore continued his studies at the Musikhochschule München with the lieder pianists Erik Werba and Helmut Deutsch. After graduating with distinction in 1987, he took part in the master classes of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Career In 1987, Rieger started teaching at the Musikhochschule München where he became head of his own lieder class for singers and pianists in 1991. In 1993 and 1994, he accompanied the Lieder class at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin. Since 1998, he has been leading his own Lieder class there as well. In addition, Rieger has on several occasions participated as an assistant in master clas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irwin Gage
Irwin Gage (September 4, 1939 – April 12, 2018) was an American pianist, specializing in accompanying Lieder. Biography Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Gage studied piano at the University of Michigan with Eugene Bossart, and later at Yale with Ward Davenny. Other teachers included Erik Werba at the Vienna Music Academy and Hilde Langer-Rühl. He performed as a soloist with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1973, playing the solo piano part for Mozart's concert aria Ch'io mi scordi di te? with soprano Jessye Norman. Above all, he was a collaborator with singers such as Elly Ameling, Arleen Auger, Walter Berry, Brigitte Fassbaender, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gundula Janowitz, Christa Ludwig, Edda Moser, Dagmar Pecková, Lucia Popp, Hermann Prey, Christine Schäfer, Peter Schreier. From his work with such international elite singers numerous award-winning recordings emerged. In 1970, he planned and accompanied an entire series of Lieder recitals at the Vienna Konzerthaus. From 1979 to 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lied
In the Western classical music tradition, ( , ; , ; ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German and Dutch, but among English and French speakers, is often used interchangeably with "art song" to encompass works that the tradition has inspired in other languages as well. The poems that have been made into lieder often center on pastoral themes or themes of romantic love. The earliest ''Lieder'' date from the late fourteenth or early fifteenth centuries, and can even refer to from as early as the 12th and 13th centuries. It later came especially to refer to settings of Romantic poetry during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and into the early twentieth century. Examples include settings by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Hugo Wolf, Gustav Mahler or Richard Strauss. History Terminology For German speakers, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parsifal
''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is freely based on the 13th-century Middle High German chivalric romance ''Parzival'' of the '' Minnesänger'' Wolfram von Eschenbach and the Old French chivalric romance ''Perceval ou le Conte du Graal'' by the 12th-century ''trouvère'' Chrétien de Troyes, recounting different accounts of the story of the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his spiritual quest for the Holy Grail. Wagner conceived the work in April 1857, but did not finish it until 25 years later. In composing it he took advantage of the particular acoustics of his newly built Bayreuth Festspielhaus. ''Parsifal'' was first produced at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882. The Bayreuth Festival maintained a monopoly on ''Parsifal'' productions until 1914, however the opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1903 after a US court ruled ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siegfried (opera)
''Siegfried'' (), Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis, WWV 86C, is the third of the four epic poetry, epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Literary cycle, cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It premiered at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of ''The Ring'' cycle. The autograph manuscript of the work is preserved in the Richard Wagner Foundation. Background and context The libretto of ''Siegfried'' was drafted by Wagner in November–December 1852, based on an earlier version he had prepared in May–June 1851 and originally entitled ''Jung-Siegfried'' (''Young Siegfried''), later changed to ''Der junge Siegfried''. The musical composition was commenced in 1856, but not finally completed until 1871.Millington, (n.d.) The libretto arose from Wagner's gradual reconception of the project he had initiated with his libretto ''Siegfrieds Tod'' (''Siegfried's Death'') which was eventually t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Götterdämmerung
' (; ''Twilight of the Gods''), Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis, WWV 86D, is the last of the four epic poetry, epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Literary cycle, cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It received its premiere at the on 17 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of the whole work. The title is a German calque of the Old Norse phrase ', which in Norse mythology refers to a prophesied war among various beings and gods that ultimately results in the burning, immersion in water, and renewal of the world. As with the rest of the ''Ring'', however, Wagner's account diverges significantly from these Old Norse sources. The autograph manuscript of the work is preserved in the Richard Wagner Foundation. Composition Roles Synopsis Prologue Prelude to the Prologue ''Scene 1'' The three Norns, daughters of Jörð, Erda, the goddess of Nature, gather beside Brunhild, Brünnhilde's rock, weaving the W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
