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Torquato Tasso (opera)
''Torquato Tasso'' is a ''melodramma semiserio'', or "semi-serious" opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti and based on the life of the great poet Torquato Tasso. The Italian libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, who used a number of sources for his text, including works by Giovanni Rosini, Goethe, Goldoni and Lord Byron, as well as Tasso's actual poetry. It premiered on 9 September 1833 at the Teatro Valle, Rome. The work has been criticized for "its odd deployment of vocal types" characteristic of the semiseria genre. Roles Synopsis :Time: 16th century :Place: Ferrara, Northern ItalyOsborne, p. 220 Recordings References Notes Cited sources *Ashbrook, William (1998), "''Torquato Tasso'', in Stanley Sadie (Ed.), ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', Vol. One. London: Macmillan Publishers, Inc. * Osborne, Charles, (1994), ''The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini'', Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. Other sources *Allitt, John Stewart (1991 ... [...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] |
Antonio Poggi
Antonio Poggi (1806 – 15 April 1875) was an Italian operatic tenor who had an active international career from 1827–1848. He is best remembered for creating roles in the world premieres of operas by Gaetano Donizetti and Giuseppe Verdi. He was married to soprano Erminia Frezzolini from 1841–1846. Life and career Born in Castel San Pietro Terme, Poggi studied singing with Andrea Nozzari and the cello with Maestro Coticelli. He made his professional opera debut in 1827 at the Paris Opera as Rodrigo in Gioachino Rossini's ''La donna del lago''; a performance which was not well received. However, on 27 December 1827 he had a major success at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna as Peter I of Russia in Giovanni Pacini's ''Il falegname di Livronia''. This performance launched a major career for Poggi in Italy's most important opera houses. In 1828 Poggi returned to Bologna where he appeared successfully as Emerico in Carlo Coccia's ''Clotilde'' and as Lindoro in Rossini's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amanda Holden (writer)
Amanda Juliet Holden (; 19 January 1948 – 7 September 2021) was a British pianist, librettist, translator, editor and academic teacher. She is known for translating opera librettos to more contemporary English for the English National Opera, and for writing new librettos, especially in collaboration with Brett Dean. She contributed to encyclopedias such as the ''New Penguin Opera Guide''. Life and career Amanda Juliet Warren was born in London, the daughter of Sir Brian Warren and Dame Josephine Barnes. She was educated at Benenden School, and studied at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, with Egon Wellesz where she gained a Master of Arts (MA), at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and a MA at the American University, Washington, DC. She also had degrees from the Royal Academy of Music ( ARCM and LRAM).Holden /Amanda, ''Who's Who'' (UK), 2012 She first worked as a freelance pianist and accompanist, teacher at the Guildhall School, and therapist from 1973 to 1986. Li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Ashbrook
William Ashbrook (January 28, 1922 – March 31, 2009) was an American musicologist, writer, journalist, and academic. He was perhaps best noted as a historian, researcher and popularizer of the works of Italian opera composer Gaetano Donizetti. Biography Ashbrook was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from the University of Pennsylvania in 1946, and a Master's degree in musicology from Harvard University in 1947.Gossett, Philip, "In Memory of William Ashbrook", ''Opera Quarterly'', November 18, 2009 Ashbrook began an academic career by teaching humanities and then, for nearly twenty years, was a member of the English Department at Indiana State University at Terre Haute. He retired in 1974 as Distinguished Professor Emeritus. From 1974 to 1984 he was professor of opera at the Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts (now the University of the Arts). Ashbrook died in Denver, Colorado at the age of 87. Ashbrook as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Osborne (music Writer)
Charles Thomas Osborne (24 November 192723 September 2017) was an Australian journalist, theatre and opera critic, poet and novelist.Campbell, Ian"Obituaries: Charles Osborne" ''Opera'', November 2017, Vol.68 No.11, p4133. He was the assistant editor of ''The London Magazine'' from 1958 until 1966, literature director of the Arts Council of Great Britain from 1971 until 1986, and chief theatre critic of ''Daily Telegraph'' (London) from 1986 to 1991. He is the only author the Agatha Christie Estate has ever allowed to produce adapted works in her name. Life and career Osborne was born in Brisbane, Australia. He taught himself to play the piano and at age 18 he began singing lessons. Osborne's father hailed originally from Devon and his mother was from Vienna, a fact to which he attributes his lifelong love of opera. He went to school locally, then studied at the University of Queensland. Osborne then worked in literary and musical journalism and in repertory theatre in Austral ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New Grove Dictionary Of Opera
''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes. The dictionary was first published in 1992 by Macmillan Reference, London, and edited by Stanley Sadie. Christina Bashford was the managing editor. While some entries were based on their equivalent entry in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', most were specially commissioned. The work contains contributions from over 1,300 scholars, with 11,000 articles in total, covering over 2,900 composers and 1800 operas. The operas discussed range from the earliest operas in 16th century Italy to the 1992 Philip Glass work '' The Voyage''. The final volume includes four appendices: an index of principal role names in 850 notable operas; an index of incipits of arias and ensembles (first line only, no musical examples); a list of contributors; and illustration acknowledgements. In 1997, the diction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Sadie
Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was a British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was published as the first edition of ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. Along with Thurston Dart, Nigel Fortune and Oliver Neighbour he was one of Britain's leading musicologists of the post-World War II generation. Career Born in Wembley, Sadie was educated at St Paul's School, London, and studied music privately for three years with Bernard Stevens. At Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge he read music under Thurston Dart. Sadie earned Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music degrees in 1953, a Master of Arts degree in 1957, and a PhD in 1958. His doctoral dissertation was on mid-eighteenth-century British chamber music. After Cambridge, he taught at Trinity College of Music, London (1957–1965). Sadie then turned to music journalism, beco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernesto Palacio
Ernesto Palacio (born October 19, 1946, Lima) is a Peruvian tenor, particularly associated with Rossini and Mozart roles. Palacio first studied theology before turning to music. He began his vocal studies in Milan, and after winning first prize in the "Voci Nuovi Rossiniane" competition organized by RAI in 1972, he made his debut on radio as Lindoro in ''L'italiana in Algeri''. He quickly sang all over Italy, including at La Scala in Milan and the San Carlo in Naples. He also appeared at the Royal Opera House in London, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, at the Liceo in Barcelona, etc. He also enjoyed a successful career in North and South America, appearing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Houston and Dallas, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and Caracas. One of the finest contemporary tenore di grazia, he possesses a small but well projected voice of considerable range and agility, used with fine musicianship, excelling in the Rossini- Donizetti- Bellini repertory, b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luciana Serra
Luciana Serra (born 4 November 1946, in Genoa) is an Italian coloratura soprano. Career Serra made her international debut in 1966 as Eleonora in Cimarosa's ' at the Hungarian State Opera House in Budapest, but did not achieve general acclaim until the late 1970s, when she took on coloratura roles in Donizetti's ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' and Bellini's ''La sonnambula''. In 1988, Serra debuted at the Vienna State Opera singing the Queen of the Night in a new production of ''Die Zauberflöte'' conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and staged by Otto Schenk. Her fame reached a peak during the break of the 1980s and 1990s, when she performed the Queen of the Night in ''Die Zauberflöte'' at the Royal Opera House in London and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She regularly teaches at Villa Medici in Rome and at the Accademia La Scala in Milan. Her discography includes ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'', ''Il viaggio a Reims'', ''Rigoletto'', ''Don Pasquale'' and ''Die Zauberflöte '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simone Alaimo
Simone Alaimo (born 3 February 1950) is an Italian bass-baritone. He is particularly known for his performances of the '' bel canto'' repertoire. Life A native of Villabate, Alaimo studied at the Palermo Conservatory and then the L'Accademia di La Scala in Milan before making his début in 1977 at the Teatro Fraschini in Pavia as the title hero in Gaetano Donizetti's '' Don Pasquale''. Shortly thereafter he joined the roster of singers at the Teatro Massimo in his home city. In 1980 he made his first appearance at the Piccola Scala in a production of Carlo Evasio Soliva's ''La testa di bronzo'' and performed for the first time at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino as Radamanto in Giulio Caccini's '' Euridice''. That year also marked his debut at the Festival de Ópera de Las Palmas and the Teatro Carlo Felice, two places he has sung with some frequency. In 1982 he performed for the first time at the Teatro di San Carlo, the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, the Liceu, and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Janet Price
Janet Price (born 5 February 1938) is a Welsh soprano particularly associated with the 19th-century Italian bel canto repertory. Born in Pontypool, Wales, she studied piano and singing at Cardiff University with Olive Groves, Isobel Baillie and Hervey Alan. She also studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. She made her debut in 1964 with BBC Wales. In 1971, she appeared at London Town Hall in a concert performance of Haydn's ''La fedeltà premiata''. She then specialized in 19th-century Italian bel canto and French repertoire and began an association with Opera Rara, appearing in concert and staged performances of long neglected works by composers such as Meyerbeer, Mercadante, Donizetti, Auber, etc. She also appeared with the Handel Opera Society, Welsh National Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival, and Kent Opera. She sang Fiordiligi in ''Così fan tutte'' at the Opéra-Comique in 1974, and also appeared at the Festival of Flanders and the San Antonio Grand Opera Festival, Te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Du Plessis
Christian du Plessis (born 2 July 1944) is a South African baritone, largely based in England, and particularly associated with the bel canto repertory. Born in Vryheid, South Africa, he studied in Johannesburg with Teasdale Griffiths and Esme Webb, and made his stage debut there, with the Transvaal Opera, as Yamadori in ''Madama Butterfly'', in 1967. Further studies followed in London with Otokar Kraus, making his debut there in 1970, as Mathieu in ''Andrea Chénier''. He became a member of the English National Opera, where he sang the standard baritone repertory: Faust (opera), Valentin, Il trovatore, Luna, Don Carlo, Posa, La bohème, Marcello, Maria Stuarda, Cecil, also Germont in a recording of ''La traviata'', etc. In the mid-1970s, he began concentrating in the bel canto repertory, making a specialty of lesser-known works by Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini, Bellini, appearing in concert performances for the London Opera Society and stage productions by Opera Rara, notably ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
