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Adrien (opera)
''Adrien'' (''Hadrian'') is an opera by the French composer Étienne Méhul. The libretto, by François-Benoît Hoffman, is closely based on Metastasio's ''Adriano in Siria''. Written in 1791 and intended for performance at the Paris Opéra in 1792, the work was caught up in the turbulent political climate of the French Revolution and banned until 1799. Performance history The opera was originally entitled ''Adrien, empereur de Rome'' and the premiere was scheduled for 13 March 1792. Hoffman had no political message in mind but the first act contained a scene in which the Emperor Hadrian celebrates a triumph. At the time, France felt under threat from Austria, whose Emperor Leopold II had just died. Rumours also spread that the horses to be used in the triumph were from the stables of Marie-Antoinette, the deeply unpopular French queen and Leopold's sister. Many Parisians began to express their displeasure at the forthcoming opera and on 12 March - in spite of the protests of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opéra Comique
''Opéra comique'' (; plural: ''opéras comiques'') is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged from the popular '' opéras comiques en vaudevilles'' of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent (and to a lesser extent the Comédie-Italienne),M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet and Richard Langham Smith"Opéra comique" '' Grove Music Online''. Oxford Music Online. 19 November 2009 which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections. Associated with the Paris theatre of the same name, ''opéra comique'' is not necessarily comical or shallow in nature; '' Carmen'', perhaps the most famous ''opéra comique'', is a tragedy. Use of the term The term ''opéra comique'' is complex in meaning and cannot simply be translated as "comic opera". The genre originated in the early 18th century with humorous and satirical plays performed at the theatres of the Paris fairs which contained songs ('' vaudevilles''), with new words set to already existing music. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucien Bonaparte
Lucien Bonaparte, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano (born Luciano Buonaparte; 21 May 1775 – 29 June 1840), was French politician and diplomat of the French Revolution and the Consulate. He served as Minister of the Interior from 1799 to 1800 and as the final president of the Council of Five Hundred in 1799. The third surviving son of Carlo Bonaparte and his wife Letizia Ramolino, Lucien was the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. As president of the Council of Five Hundred, he was one of the participants of the Coup of 18 Brumaire that brought Napoleon to power in France. Early life Lucien was born in Ajaccio, Corsica on 21 May 1775. He was educated in mainland France, initially studying at the military schools of Autun and Brienne but later, after his father's death, at the seminary of Aix-en-Provence, from which he dropped out in 1789. In 1769, the Corsican Republic had been conquered and annexed by France. Lucien's father Carlo Bonaparte had been a strong supporte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin-Joseph Adrien
Martin-Joseph Adrien (also ''Andrien dit la Neuville''; 26 May 1766 – 19 November 1822) was a French operatic bass. Life He was born at Liège, Belgium on 26 May 1766. He was the premier bass singer at the Paris Opéra The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be k ... from 1785 to 1804 and took alternative operatic roles with another great singer, Auguste-Athanase Chéron (1760-1829); afterwards he became choirmaster at the opera. In March 1822 Martin-Joseph succeeded Lainé as professor of declamation at the École royale de musique. Unfortunately, he did not live long to enjoy his new position. Martin-Joseph died November 1822. Some critics considered Martin-Joseph's voice to be too harsh. However, he was an excellent actor. Martin-Joseph's musical talents did not stop with s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female 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 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880 Hz in choral music, or to "soprano C" (C6, two octaves above middle C) = 1046 Hz 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, soubrette, lyric, spinto, and dramatic soprano. Etymology The word "soprano" comes from the Italian word '' sopra'' (above, over, on top of),"Soprano" '' |
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the title role in ''Der fliegende Holländer'', Wotan/Der Wanderer in the ''Ring Cycle'' and Hans Sachs in '' Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg''. Wagner labelled these roles as ''Hoher Bass'' ("high bass")—see fach for more details. The bass-baritone voice is distinguished by two attributes. First, it must be capable of singing comfortably in a baritonal tessitura. Secondly, however, it needs to have the ripely resonant lower range typically associated with the bass voice. For example, the role of Wotan in ''Die Walküre'' covers the range from F2 (the F at the bottom of the bass clef) to F4 (the F above middle C), but only infrequently descends beyond C3 (the C below middle C). Bass-baritones are typically divide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Étienne Lainez
Étienne Lainez (or Lainé, Laînez) (23 May 1753 – 15 September 1822) was a French operatic tenor, and leading figure at the Paris Opera for over thirty years. In the course of his career there he created many tenor roles including Rodrigue in Sacchini's '' Chimène'', Énée in Piccinni's '' Didon'', Narcisse in Gluck's ''Echo et Narcisse'', and Licinius in Spontini's ''La vestale''. Lainez was born in Vaugirard in Paris, and died in Paris as well. After his retirement from the stage, he taught lyric declamation at the Paris Conservatoire The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue .... References French operatic tenors 1753 births 1822 deaths 18th-century French male opera singers 19th-century French male opera singers Singers from Paris {{France-opera-s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haute-contre
The haute-contre (plural hautes-contre) was the primary French operatic tenor voice, predominant in French Baroque and Classical opera, from the middle of the seventeenth century until the latter part of the eighteenth century. History This voice was predominantly used in male solo roles, typically heroic and amatory ones, but also in comic parts, even ''en travesti'' (see apropos the portrait reproduced below and representing Pierre Jélyotte made up for the female title role of Rameau's ''Platée''). Lully wrote 8 out of 14 leading male roles for the voice; Charpentier, who was an haute-contre himself, composed extensively for the voice-part, as did Rameau and, later, Gluck. The leading ''hautes-contre'' of the ''Académie Royale de Musique'' that created the main roles of Lully's operas, at the end of the seventeenth century, were Bernard Clédière (who started off as a ''taille'', a lower Tenor voice type) and Louis Gaulard Dumesny. Notable ''hautes-contre'' of the eighteent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexandre Dratwicki
Alexandre Dratwicki (born 31 January 1977 in Thionville, Moselle) is a contemporary French musicologist. Biography Scientific director of the Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique romantique française (Venice), holder of a doctorate in musicology from the Paris-Sorbonne University in 2003) and former resident of the Académie de France à Rome (Villa Médicis), Alexandre Dratwicki is a graduate from the Conservatoire de Paris (esthetics). He has taught music history and musical analysis in several French universities (Paris IV - Sorbonne, Lille, Poitiers, Rouen) and was a radio producer for Radio France (''La Querelle des Bouffons'' and ''Sortez les jumelles'' in 2006–2007) with his twin brother . In 2006–2008, he was artistic advisor to the Opéra-Comique (Paris). Alexandre Dratwicki has been trained as a clarinetist and violist at the Metz and Nancy conservatories. He also received various awards in music history, musical analysis, orchestration and chamber mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Toison D'or (opera)
''La toison d'or'' (''The Golden Fleece''), soon revised as ''Médée à Colchos ou La toison d'or'' (''Medea in Colchis or The Golden Fleece''), is a French-language opera in three acts by the composer Johann Christoph Vogel. It was first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opera) on 5 September 1786, "some years after its completion".Rushton. The libretto, by Philippe Desriaux, is based on the legend of Jason and the Golden Fleece. ''La toison d'or'' was the first of Vogel's two operas. The second, '' Démophon'', premiered posthumously in 1789. Performance history The opera premiered on 5 September 1786,Original scoreJacobshagen. though the first printed libretto indicates that it had been intended to open six days earlier, on 29 August 1786.Picot. According to Théodore Lajarte, "the opera rehearsals did not go without a hitch", as singer Adelaïde Gavaudan refused to assume the role of Medea's sister, Calciope. On the premiere day, a "lettre de cachet" for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johann Christoph Vogel
Johann Christoph Vogel (also given as Fogel) (18 March 1756, in Nuremberg – 28 June 1788, in Paris) was a German composer. Life He spent most of his life working in France. He moved to Paris in 1776, and entered the service of the Duke of Montmorency and then of the Count of Valentinois as a horn player. He composed a great number of orchestral and chamber works but is best remembered for his oratorio ''Jephté'', performed at the Concert Spirituel in September 1781, and for his two operas. Although his music was received favourably, his works never became extremely popular because they were deemed as 'too complicated and baroque'. Vogel was an enthusiast for the operas of Gluck, and his first opera, '' La toison d'or'', is dedicated to the composer as 'législateur de la musique'. In places it appears to be a faithful stylistic imitation of Gluck's two Iphigenia operas, ''Iphigénie en Tauride'' and ''Iphigenie auf Tauris '', but with a fuller orchestration and a greater lyr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sturm Und Drang
''Sturm und Drang'' (, ; usually translated as "storm and stress") was a proto- Romantic movement in German literature and music that occurred between the late 1760s and early 1780s. Within the movement, individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free expression in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment and associated aesthetic movements. The period is named after Friedrich Maximilian Klinger's play of the same name, which was first performed by Abel Seyler's famed theatrical company in 1777. The philosopher Johann Georg Hamann is considered to be the ideologue of ''Sturm und Drang''; other significant figures were Johann Anton Leisewitz, Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz, H. L. Wagner, and Friedrich Maximilian Klinger. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller were notable proponents of the movement early in their lives, although they ended their period of association with it by initiating what wou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Recitative
Recitative (, also known by its Italian name "''recitativo''" ()) is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat lines as formally composed songs do. It resembles sung ordinary speech more than a formal musical composition. Recitative can be distinguished on a continuum from more speech-like to more musically sung, with more sustained melodic lines. The mostly syllabic ''recitativo secco'' ("dry", accompanied only by continuo, typically cello and harpsichord) is at one end of the spectrum, through ''recitativo accompagnato'' (using orchestra), the more melismatic arioso, and finally the full-blown aria or ensemble, where the pulse is entirely governed by the music. Secco recitatives can be more improvisatory and free for the singer, since the accompaniment is so sparse; in contrast, when recitative is accompanied by orchestra, the singer must per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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