|
Pia Tassinari
Pia Tassinari (15 September 1903, Modigliana, near Forlì – 15 May 1995, Faenza) was an Italian soprano and later mezzo-soprano, particularly associated with the Italian and French repertories. Life and career Born Domenica Tassinari, she studied in Bologna with Cesare Vezzani and in Milan with Marcantoni. She made her debut in 1927 as Mimi, in Casale Monferrato. She sang widely in Italy before making her debut at La Scala in Milan in 1932 in the première of Veretti’s ''Il favorito del re''. She also appeared in Russia and South America, and made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1947, as ''Tosca''. She appeared in Naples in a notable revival of Saverio Mercadante's ''Il giuramento'' in 1955. She sang a wide range of roles, including: Marguerite, Manon, Elisabeth, Elsa, Fedora, etc. She was also much admired in contemporary works by Zandonai, Wolf-Ferrari, and Respighi. In the 1950s, as her voice darkened, she tackled successfully mezzo-soprano ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fedora (opera)
''Fedora'' is an opera in three acts by Umberto Giordano to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the 1882 play ''Fédora'' by Victorien Sardou. Along with ''Andrea Chénier'' and ''Siberia'', it is one of the most notable works of Giordano. It was first performed at the Teatro Lirico in Milan on 17 November 1898 conducted by the composer; Gemma Bellincioni created the role of Fedora with Enrico Caruso as her lover, Loris Ipanov. Composition history In 1889, Umberto Giordano saw Sardou's play ''Fédora'' at the Teatro Bellini di Napoli, with Sarah Bernhardt (for whom the play was written) in the title role. The play was popular, and the hat "fedora" was named after it. He immediately asked Sardou for permission to base an opera on the play, and Sardou initially refused because, at the time, Giordano was a relatively unknown composer. Following the premiere of his 1894 ''Regina Diaz'', Giordano's publisher, Edoardo Sonzogno, asked Sardou again. However, Sardou dem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1903 Births
Events January * January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India. * January 10 – The Aceh Sultanate was fully annexed by the Dutch East Indies, Dutch forces, deposing the last sultan, marking the end of the Aceh War that have lasted for almost 30 years. * January 19 – The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east–west broadcast having been made in 1901#December, 1901). February * February 13 – Venezuelan crisis of 1902–03, Venezuelan crisis: After agreeing to arbitration in Washington, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy reach a settlement with Venezuela resulting in the Washington Protocols. The naval blockade that began in 1902 ends. * February 23 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity". March * March 2 – In New York City, the Martha Washington Hotel, the first hotel exclusively for women, opens. * March 3 – The British Admir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni (7 December 1863 – 2 August 1945) was an Italian composer primarily known for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece '' Cavalleria rusticana'' caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the '' Verismo'' movement in Italian dramatic music. While it was often held that Mascagni, like Ruggero Leoncavallo, was a "one-opera man" who could never repeat his first success, '' L'amico Fritz'' and '' Iris'' have remained in the repertoire in Europe (especially Italy) since their premieres. Mascagni wrote fifteen operas, an operetta, several orchestral and vocal works, and also songs and piano music. He enjoyed immense success during his lifetime, both as a composer and conductor of his own and other people's music and created a variety of styles in his operas. Biography Early life and education Mascagni was born on 7 December 1863 in Livorno, Tuscany, the second son of Domenico and Emilia Mascagni. His father owned and operated a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L'amico Fritz
''L'amico Fritz'' () is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni, premiered in 1891 to a libretto by P. Suardon ( Nicola Daspuro) (with additions by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti), based on the 1864 French novel ' by Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian. While the opera enjoyed some success in its day and is probably Mascagni's most famous work after ''Cavalleria rusticana'', today it is performed far more rarely than ''Cavalleria'', which remains Mascagni's only enduringly popular work outside Italy, where ''L'amico Fritz'' and ''Iris'' are still in the active repertoire. The "Cherry Duet" between Fritz and Suzel in act 2 is the best known piece in the opera and is often performed separately in concert. Performance history The opera was first performed in Rome at the Teatro Costanzi, on 31 October 1891. Other first performances include those in Hamburg on 16 January 1892 with Gustav Mahler conducting; in London on 23 May 1892 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden;Eric Irvi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L'arlesiana
() is an opera in three acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Leopoldo Marenco. It was originally written in four acts, and was first performed on 27 November 1897 at the Teatro Lirico in Milan. It was revised as a three-act opera in 1898, and a prelude was added in 1937. The opera is based on the play (1872) by Alphonse Daudet, which was itself inspired by a short story from his collection '' Letters From My Windmill'' () and is best known for the incidental music composed by Georges Bizet. Three famous arias from this opera are the "" written for a tenor, "" for a baritone, and for a mezzo-soprano, "". Julian Budden, ''L'arlesiana'', in ''Grove Music Online'', accessed 10 April 2007. Additionally, in 2011, the aria "" from the 4-act version was added to the present score by the publisher. Performance history In 2007, research at the Università degli Studi di Pavia placed the aria "" ("") in the first version of . The aria had been cut from the work after t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martha (opera)
''Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond'' (''Martha, or The Market at Richmond'') is a ''romantic comic'' opera in four acts by Friedrich von Flotow set to a German libretto by and based on a story by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges. Flotow had composed the first act of a ballet, ''Harriette, ou la servante de Greenwiche'', derived from a text by Saint-Georges, for the ballerina Adèle Dumilâtre. This was first performed by the Paris Opera Ballet at the Salle Le Peletier on 21 February 1844. The time available for the composition was short, so the second and third acts were assigned, respectively, to Friedrich Burgmüller and Édouard Deldevez. The opera ''Martha'' was an adaptation of this ballet. Critical appreciation According to Gustav Kobbé, ''Martha'', though written by a native of Mecklenburg and first performed in Vienna, is French in character and elegance. Flotow was French in his musical training, as were the origins of both the plot and the score of this work, effe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferruccio Tagliavini
Ferruccio Tagliavini (; 14 August 191329 January 1995) was an Italian operatic lyric tenor mainly active in the 1940s and 1950s. Tagliavini was hailed as the heir apparent to Tito Schipa and Beniamino Gigli in the lyric-opera repertory due to the exceptional beauty of his voice, but he did not sustain his great early promise across the full span of his career. Early life and education Born in Cavazzoli, Reggio Emilia on 14 August 1913, Tagliavini was the son of Erasmo and Barbara Neviani. His father was a wine merchant, and in his youth he spent much of his time caring for his maternal grandmother. He also displayed an early aptitude for singing, and at the age of 12 appeared in his first professional stage work, a children's opera pastiche, staged in Reggio Emilia on 7 November 1925. In this production, he sang the "Romanza" from ''Pagliacci'' and was cited in reviews as a highlight of the show for the quality of his voice with one reviewer comparing his singing even at this a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aida
''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is a tragic 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 cele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Werther
''Werther'' is an opera (''drame lyrique'') in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann (who used the pseudonym Henri Grémont). It is loosely based on Goethe's epistolary novel ''The Sorrows of Young Werther'', which was based both on fact and on Goethe's own early life. Earlier examples of operas using the story were made by Kreutzer (1792) and Pucitta (1802). Milnes R. Werther. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997. Performance history Massenet started composing ''Werther'' in 1885, completing it in 1887. He submitted it to Léon Carvalho, the director of the Paris Opéra-Comique, that year, but Carvalho declined to accept it on the grounds that the scenario was too serious. With the disruption of the fire at the Opéra-Comique and Massenet's work on other operatic projects (especially ''Esclarmonde''), it was put to one side, until the Vienna Opera, pleased with the success ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875, where its breaking of conventions shocked and scandalised its first audiences. Bizet died suddenly after the 33rd performance, unaware that the work would achieve international acclaim within the following ten years. ''Carmen'' has since become one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the classical canon; the " Habanera" and "Seguidilla" from act 1 and the " Toreador Song" from act 2 are among the best known of all operatic arias. The opera is written in the genre of ''opéra comique'' with musical numbers separated by dialogue. It is set in southern Spain and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsy Carmen. Jos� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
