|
The Human Voice
''The Human Voice'' (french: La voix humaine) is a monodrama first staged at the Comédie-Française in 1930, written two years earlier by Jean Cocteau. It is set in Paris, where a still-quite-young woman is on the phone with her lover of the last five years. He is to marry another woman the next day, which causes her to despair. The monologue triggers the woman's crippling depression. About the play Cocteau's experiments with the human voice peaked with his play ''La voix humaine''. The story involves one woman on stage speaking on the telephone with her (invisible and inaudible) departing lover, who is leaving her to marry another woman. The telephone proved to be the perfect prop for Cocteau to explore his ideas, feelings, and "algebra" concerning human needs and realities in communication. Cocteau acknowledged in the introduction to the script that the play was motivated, in part, by complaints from his actresses that his works were too writer/director-dominated and gave th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the surrealist, avant-garde, and Dadaist movements; and one of the most influential figures in early 20th-century art as a whole. The ''National Observer'' suggested that, “of the artistic generation whose daring gave birth to Twentieth Century Art, Cocteau came closest to being a Renaissance man.” He is best known for his novels ''Le Grand Écart'' (1923), '' Le Livre blanc'' (1928), and '' Les Enfants Terribles'' (1929); the stage plays '' La Voix Humaine'' (1930), '' La Machine Infernale'' (1934), '' Les Parents terribles'' (1938), ''La Machine à écrire'' (1941), and '' L'Aigle à deux têtes'' (1946); and the films '' The Blood of a Poet'' (1930), '' Les Parents Terribles'' (1948), '' Beauty and the Beast'' (1946), ''Orpheus'' (1950 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such as '' Rome, Open City'' (1945), '' Paisan'' (1946), and '' Germany, Year Zero'' (1948). Early life Rossellini was born in Rome. His mother, Elettra (née Bellan), was a housewife born in Rovigo, Veneto, and his father, Angiolo Giuseppe "Peppino" Rossellini, who owned a construction firm, was born in Rome from a family originally from Pisa, Tuscany. His mother was of partial French descent, from immigrants who had arrived in Italy during the Napoleonic Wars. He lived on the Via Ludovisi, where Benito Mussolini had his first Roman hotel in 1922 when Fascism obtained power in Italy. Rossellini's father built the first cinema in Rome, the "Barberini", a theatre where movies could be projected, granting his son an unlimited free pass; the yo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henri Bernstein
Henri-Léon-Gustave-Charles Bernstein (20 June 1876 – 27 November 1953) was a French playwright associated with Boulevard theatre. Biography Bernstein was born in Paris. His earliest plays, including ''La Rafale'' (1905), ''Le Voleur'' (1907), ''Samson'' (1908), ''Israël'' (1908), and ''Le Secret'' (1913), are written in a realistic style and powerfully depict harsh realities of modern life and society. The far-right royalist ''Camelots du Roi'' youth organization of the ''Action française'' organized an anti-Semitic riot against a production of one of his plays in 1911. During the Second World War, he fled to the United States and lived in New York City at the Waldorf Astoria. Jean-Pierre Aumont relates in his work ''Le Soleil et les Ombres'' (Robert Laffont, 1976) the luxury in which he lived, as well as his general lack of interest in the war. He is buried in the Cimetière de Passy in Paris. Works *''Le Marché'' (The Market), 1900 *''Le Détour'', 1902 *''Joujou'', 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Felicity Lott
Dame Felicity Ann Emwhyla Lott, (born 8 May 1947) is an English soprano. Education Lott was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. From her earliest years she was musical, having started studying piano at age 5. She also played violin and began singing lessons at 12. She is an alumna of Royal Holloway, University of London, obtaining a BA in French and Latin in 1969. During her year in France as part of her four-year degree course, from 1967–68 she took singing lessons at the conservatory in Grenoble. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, winning the Principal's Prize. Career She made her debut in 1975 as Pamina in Mozart's ''The Magic Flute'' at the English National Opera. In 1976 she appeared in the premiere of Henze's ''We Come to the River'' at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and began a long relationship with the Glyndebourne Festival. In 1977, she recorded for Emi records Ltd, with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge and the Academy of St. Martin-in-t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anja Silja
Anja Silja Regina Langwagen (, born 17 April 1940) is a German soprano singer. Biography Born in Berlin, Silja began her operatic career at a very early age, with her grandfather, Egon Friedrich Maria Anders van Rijn, as her voice teacher. She sang Rosina in Rossini's ''The Barber of Seville'' in Braunschweig in 1956, followed by Micaëla in Bizet's ''Carmen'' and Zerbinetta in ''Ariadne auf Naxos'' by Richard Strauss. She had a breakthrough in 1959 as the Queen of Night in Mozart's '' Die Zauberflöte'' at the Vienna State Opera, conducted by Karl Böhm, and also at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. ''France-Soir'' dubbed her "a second Callas." Other early roles included Leonora in Verdi's ''Il trovatore'', Santuzza in Mascagni's ''Cavalleria rusticana'', the four heroines of Offenbach's '' Les contes d'Hoffmann'', Konstanze in Mozart's ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'', and Fiordiligi in Mozart's '' Così fan tutte''. She made her debut in 1960 at the Bayreuth Festival, as S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto (born 24 February 1934) is an Italian soprano and opera director. Recognized for her sense of style, her musicality, and as a remarkable singer-actress, Scotto is considered one of the preeminent singers of her generation. Since retiring from the stage as a singer in 2002, she has turned successfully to directing opera as well as teaching in Italy and America, along with academic posts at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Juilliard School in New York. Singing career Renata Scotto was born in Savona, Italy. She made her operatic debut in her home town on Christmas Eve of 1952 at the age of 18 in front of a sold-out house as Violetta in Verdi's ''La traviata''.The next day, she made her 'official' opera debut at the Teatro Nuovo in Milan as Violetta. Shortly after, she performed in her first Puccini opera, '' Madama Butterfly'', in Savona and was paid twenty-five thousand lire. Both roles would later become closely associated with her name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denise Duval
Denise Duval (23 October 192125 January 2016) was a French soprano, best known for her performances in the works of Francis Poulenc on stage and in recital. During an international career, Duval created the roles of Thérèse in '' Les mamelles de Tirésias'', Elle in ''La voix humaine'', and excelled in the role of Blanche de la Force in ''Dialogues of the Carmelites'',Obituary – Denise Duval. ''Opera'', April 2016, Vol 67 No 4, p448-449. leaving recordings of these and several other of her main roles. Life and career Duval was born in Paris, and attended the Collège de Libourne, appearing in the play ''Les Plus beaux yeux du monde'' by Jean Sarment. Her father, a colonel, allowed her to enrol in the theatre classes at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux, where she was spotted by the director, Gaston Poulet, who got her into the vocal classes.Laurent, François. Hommage : Denise Duval. '' Diapason'', No.644, March 2016, p16-17. From there she made her debut in ''Cavalleria rusti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julia Migenes
Julia Migenes (born March 13, 1943) is an American soprano working primarily in musical theatre repertoire. She was born on the Lower East Side of New York (Manhattan) to parents of Irish and Puerto Rican descent. (Her stepfather was of Greek descent.) She is sometimes credited as Julia Migenes-Johnson. She attended The High School of Music & Art in New York City. Julia Migenes played Tevye's second daughter, Hodel, in the original Broadway production of the long-running musical ''Fiddler on the Roof''. She played Ciboletta in the 1973 film ''Eine Nacht in Venedig'' (re-released 2008). She also starred in the 1984 film of ''Carmen''. Early career on Broadway At age seven, Migenes originated the role of ‘Ngana’ in the first national tour of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ''South Pacific;'' she alternated in the role with her sister Maria. Also in the cast was her brother, John, in the role of Jerome, and her half-sister Jeanette as Bloody Mary’s Assistant (and und ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liv Ullmann
Liv Johanne Ullmann (born 16 December 1938) is a Norwegian actress and film director. Recognised as one of the greatest European actresses of all time, Ullmann is known as the muse and frequent partner of filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. She acted in many of his films, including '' Persona'' (1966), '' Cries and Whispers'' (1972), '' Scenes from a Marriage'' (1973), '' The Passion of Anna'' (1969), and '' Autumn Sonata'' (1978). Ullmann won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama in 1972 for the film '' The Emigrants'' (1971) and has been nominated for another four. In 2000, she was nominated for the Palme d'Or for her second directorial feature film, '' Faithless''. She has received two BAFTA Award nominations, and two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for '' The Emigrants'' (1971) and Ingmar Bergman's '' Face to Face'' (1976). On March 25, 2022, Ullmann was presented with an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her "bravery and emotion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary '' Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is often regarded as one of the most influential screen figures in cinematic history. According to the '' St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture'', upon her arrival in the U.S. Bergman quickly became "the ideal of American womanhood" and a contender for Hollywood's greatest leading actress. David O. Selznick once called her "the most completely conscientious actress" he had ever worked with. In 1999, the American Film Institute recognised Bergman as the fourth greatest female screen legend of Classic Hollywood Cinema. She won numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, four Golden Globe Awards, BAFTA Award and a Volpi Cup. She is one of only four actresses to have received at least thr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simone Signoret
Simone Signoret (; born Simone Henriette Charlotte Kaminker; 25 March 1921 – 30 September 1985) was a French actress. She received various accolades, including an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, a César Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, in addition to nominations for two Golden Globe Awards. Early life Signoret was born Simone Henriette Charlotte Kaminker in Wiesbaden, Germany, to Georgette (née Signoret) and André Kaminker, as the eldest of three children, with two younger brothers. Her father, a pioneering interpreter who worked in the League of Nations, was a French-born army officer from a Polish Jewish family, who brought the family to Neuilly-sur-Seine on the outskirts of Paris. Her mother, Georgette, from whom she acquired her stage name, was a French Catholic. Signoret grew up in Paris in an intellectual atmosphere and studied English, German and Latin. After completing secondary school during the Nazi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown
''Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown'' ( es, Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios) is a 1988 Spanish black comedy film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas. The film brought Almodóvar to widespread international attention: it was nominated for the 1988 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and won five Goya Awards including Best Film and Best Actress in a Leading Role for Maura. It debuted at the 45th International Venice Film Festival and was released on 11 November 1988. Title The actual Spanish title refers to an ' (attack of the nerves), which is not actually well translated as "nervous breakdown" ('). ' are culture-bound psychological phenomena during which the individual, most often female, displays dramatic outpouring of negative emotions, bodily gestures, occasional falling to the ground, and fainting, often in response to receiving disturbing news or witnessing or participating in an upsetting event. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Liv Ullmann")
