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Agnese Di Hohenstaufen
''Agnes von Hohenstaufen'' is a German-language opera in three acts by the Italian composer Gaspare Spontini. The German libretto is by Ernst Benjamin Salomo Raupach. It was first staged at the Königliches Opernhaus, Berlin, on 12 June 1829. Raupach categorised ''Agnes von Hohenstaufen'' as a ''historical-romantic'' opera and it is one of a number of German works of the time set in the Middle Ages (others include Weber's ''Euryanthe'', Wagner's ''Tannhäuser'' and ''Lohengrin'' and Schumann's ''Genoveva''). ''Agnes'' also contains many of the features that would be characteristic of French Grand Opera. Spontini substantially reworked the piece for a revival in 1837. Roles Synopsis :Place: Germany :Time: The Middle Ages Act 1 The action concerns the struggle between the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI (Heinrich VI) and the leader of the noble Welf faction, Henry the Lion (Heinrich der Löwe). The first act is set in Mainz where the emperor has assembled his forces to march against ...
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Gaspare Spontini
Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini (14 November 177424 January 1851) was an Italian opera composer and conductor from the classical era. Biography Born in Maiolati, Papal State (now Maiolati Spontini, Province of Ancona), he spent most of his career in Paris and Berlin, but returned to his place of birth at the end of his life. During the first two decades of the 19th century, Spontini was an important figure in French ''opera''. In his more than twenty operas, Spontini strove to adapt Gluck's classical ''tragédie lyrique'' to the contemporary taste for melodrama, for grander spectacle (in ''Fernand Cortez'' for example), for enriched orchestral timbre, and for melodic invention allied to idiomatic expressiveness of words. As a youth, Spontini studied at the Conservatorio della Pietà de' Turchini, one of four active music conservatories of Naples. Working his way from Italian city to city, he got his first break in Rome, with his successful comedy ''Li Puntigli delle Donne'' ...
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Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 until the twelfth century, the Empire was the most powerful monarchy in Europe. Andrew Holt characterizes it as "perhaps the most powerful European state of the Middle Ages". The functioning of government depended on the harmonic cooperation (dubbed ''consensual rulership'' by Bernd Schneidmüller) between monarch and vassals but this harmony was disturbed during the Salian Dynasty, Salian period. The empire reached the apex of territorial expansion and power under the House of Hohenstaufen in the mid-thirteenth century, but overextending led to partial collapse. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the List of Frankish kings, Frankish king Charlemagne as Carolingi ...
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Libretto
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass (liturgy), Mass, requiem and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet. ''Libretto'' (; plural ''libretti'' ), from Italian, is the diminutive of the word ''wiktionary:libro#Italian, libro'' ("book"). Sometimes other-language equivalents are used for libretti in that language, ''livret'' for French works, ''Textbuch'' for German and ''libreto'' for Spanish. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. Some ballet historians also use the word ''libretto'' to refer to the 15 to 40 page books which were on sale to 19th century ballet audiences in Paris and contained a ve ...
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Kingdom Of France
The Kingdom of France ( fro, Reaume de France; frm, Royaulme de France; french: link=yes, Royaume de France) is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe since the High Middle Ages. It was also an early colonial power, with possessions around the world. France originated as West Francia (''Francia Occidentalis''), the western half of the Carolingian Empire, with the Treaty of Verdun (843). A branch of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule until 987, when Hugh Capet was elected king and founded the Capetian dynasty. The territory remained known as ''Francia'' and its ruler as ''rex Francorum'' ("king of the Franks") well into the High Middle Ages. The first king calling himself ''rex Francie'' ("King of France") was Philip II, in 1190, and officially from 1204. From then, France was continuously ruled by the Capetians and their cadet lin ...
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Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperator Germanorum, german: Römisch-deutscher Kaiser, lit, Roman-German emperor), was the ruler and head of state of the Holy Roman Empire. The title was held in conjunction with the title of king of Italy (''Rex Italiae'') from the 8th to the 16th century, and, almost without interruption, with the title of king of Germany (''Rex Teutonicorum'', lit. "King of the Teutons") throughout the 12th to 18th centuries. The Holy Roman Emperor title provided the highest prestige among medieval Roman Catholic monarchs, because the empire was considered by the Roman Catholic Church to be the only successor of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Thus, in theory and diplomacy, the emperors were considered '' primus inter ...
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Philip II Augustus
Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), byname Philip Augustus (french: Philippe Auguste), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French monarch to style himself "King of France" (Latin: ''rex Francie''). The son of King Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne, he was originally nicknamed ''Dieudonné'' (God-given) because he was a first son and born late in his father's life. Philip was given the epithet "Augustus" by the chronicler Rigord for having extended the crown lands of France so remarkably. After decades of conflicts with the House of Plantagenet, Philip succeeded in putting an end to the Angevin Empire by defeating a coalition of his rivals at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. This victory would have a lasting impact on western European politics: the authority of the French king became unchallenged, while the English King John was forced by his barons to a ...
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Troubadour
A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairitz''. The troubadour school or tradition began in the late 11th century in Occitania, but it subsequently spread to the Italian and Iberian Peninsulas. Under the influence of the troubadours, related movements sprang up throughout Europe: the Minnesang in Germany, ''trovadorismo'' in Galicia and Portugal, and that of the trouvères in northern France. Dante Alighieri in his ''De vulgari eloquentia'' defined the troubadour lyric as ''fictio rethorica musicaque poita'': rhetorical, musical, and poetical fiction. After the "classical" period around the turn of the 13th century and a mid-century resurgence, the art of the troubadours declined in the 14th century and around the time of the Black Death (1348) it died out. The texts of troubadou ...
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Henry V, Count Palatine Of The Rhine
Henry V, the Elder of Brunswick (german: Heinrich der Ältere von Braunschweig; – 28 April 1227), a member of the House of Welf, was Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1195 until 1212. Life Henry was the eldest son of Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria and Matilda, the eldest daughter of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. After his father's deposition by the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick Barbarossa, he grew up in England. When the family returned to Germany in 1189, young Henry distinguished himself by defending the Welf residence of Braunschweig against the forces of the emperor's son King Henry VI. Peace was established the next year, provided that Henry and his younger brother Lothar (d. 1190) were held in hostage by the king. He had to join the German forces led by Henry VI, by then emperor, on the 1191 campaign to the Kingdom of Sicily and participated in the siege of Naples. Taking advantage of the Emperor falling ill, Henry finally deserted, ...
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Agnes Of Hohenstaufen
Agnes of Hohenstaufen (1176 – 7 or 9 May 1204) was the daughter and heiress of the Hohenstaufen count palatine Conrad of the Rhine. She was Countess of the Palatinate herself from 1195 until her death, as the wife of the Welf count palatine Henry V. Life Agnes' father Conrad of Hohenstaufen was a younger half-brother of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who had enfeoffed him with the Electoral Palatinate in 1156. A cautious and thoughtful politician, he aimed for peace and reconciliation in the Empire. Even before 1180, he had betrothed his daughter to Henry V, the eldest son of the rebellious Saxon duke Henry the Lion, in order to defuse the re-emerging conflict between the Hohenstaufen and Welf dynasties. In 1193, however, Barbarossa's son and successor, Emperor Henry VI, wanted to create a political alliance with King Philip II of France and planned to marry his cousin Agnes to Philip II. When the young Welf scion Henry V heard of this plan, he contacted Agnes' parents. H ...
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Kingdom Of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)
The Kingdom of Italy ( la, Regnum Italiae or ''Regnum Italicum''; it, Regno d'Italia; german: Königreich Italien), also called Imperial Italy ( it, Italia Imperiale, german: Reichsitalien, links=no), was one of the constituent kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire, along with the kingdoms of Germany, Bohemia, and Burgundy. It originally comprised large parts of northern and central Italy. Its original capital was Pavia until the 11th century. In 773, Charlemagne, the king of the Franks, crossed the Alps to invade the Kingdom of the Lombards, which encompassed all of Italy except the Duchy of Rome, the Venetian Republic and the Byzantine possessions in the south. In June 774, the kingdom collapsed and the Franks became masters of northern Italy. The southern areas remained under Lombard control, as the Duchy of Benevento was changed into the rather independent Principality of Benevento. Charlemagne called himself king of the Lombards and in 800 was crowned emperor in Rome. Members ...
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Reichsadler
The ' ("Imperial Eagle") is the heraldic eagle, derived from the Roman eagle standard, used by the Holy Roman Emperors and in modern coats of arms of Germany, including those of the Second German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). The same design has remained in use by the Federal Republic of Germany since 1945, albeit under the name ' ("Federal Eagle"). History Holy Roman Empire The ''Reichsadler'', i. e. the German Imperial Eagle, originated from a proto-heraldic emblem that was believed to have been used by Charlemagne, the first Frankish ruler whom the Pope crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in AD 800, and derived ultimately from the '' Aquila'', i. e. eagle standard, of the ancient Roman army. An eagle statue was erected on the roof of the Carolingian palace, and an eagle was placed on the orb of Emperor Otto III. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa popularised use of the eagle as the Imperial emblem by using it in all his bann ...
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Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Mainz on the left bank, and Wiesbaden, the capital of the neighbouring state Hesse, on the right bank. Mainz is an independent city with a population of 218,578 (as of 2019) and forms part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Mainz was founded by the Roman Empire, Romans in the 1st century BC as a military fortress on the northernmost frontier of the empire and provincial capital of Germania Superior. Mainz became an important city in the 8th century AD as part of the Holy Roman Empire, capital of the Electorate of Mainz and seat of the Elector of Mainz, Archbishop-Elector of Mainz, the Primate (bishop), Primate of Germany. Mainz is famous as the birthplace of Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of ...
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