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Angelo Lo Forese
Angelo Lo Forese, sometimes written as Loforese (27 March 1920 Milan – 14 May 2020 Milan), was an Italian lyric tenor. Life and career Born on March 27, 1920, in Milan, he began studying music at the age of 18. During World War II, he lived in Switzerland and at the end of the conflict he moved back to Milan, where he studied with Primo Montanari, Emilio Ghirardini, and Aureliano Pertile. He debuted as a baritone in the role of Silvio in Pagliacci in 1948, while his first role as a tenor was in the role of Manrico in Il Trovatore in 1952. During his long career he sang in more than eighty operas, performing in many theaters in Europe, America and Africa, as well as in Japan. After retiring from the stage he worked as a teacher. The writer Domenico Gullo dedicated the book ''Angelo Loforese - The tenor with the suitcase packed under the bed'' to him in 2012. On 16 March 2013 at the Rosetum cultural center in Milan, at the age of 93, he celebrated 60 years since h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city has 3.26 million inhabitants. Its continuously built-up urban area (whose outer suburbs extend well beyond the boundaries of the administrative metropolitan city and even stretch into the nearby country of Switzerland) is the fourth largest in the EU with 5.27 million inhabitants. According to national sources, the population within the wider Milan metropolitan area (also known as Greater Milan), is estimated between 8.2 million and 12.5 million making it by far the largest metropolitan area in Italy and one of the largest in the EU.* * * * Milan is considered a leading alpha global city, with strengths in the fields of art, chemicals, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francesco Molinari Pradelli
Francesco Molinari-Pradelli (born 4 July 1911 Bologna; died 8 August 1996 Bologna) was a prominent Italian opera conductor (music), conductor. He studied piano and composition at Bologna, and graduated from the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome in 1938. He made his debut at La Scala in 1946 and his Royal Opera House, Covent Garden debut in 1955.''Tosca'', 28 June 1955 (Covent Garden Archive) His account of Puccini, Puccini's Turandot with Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli is commonly regarded as one of the greatest recordings of that work. Discography * Giuseppe Verdi: ''Simon Boccanegra'' - (Cetra, 1951) * Friedrich von Flotow: ''Martha (opera), Martha'' - (Cetra, 1953) * Jules Massenet: ''Werther (Massenet), Werther'' - (Cetra, 1953) * Giuseppe Verdi: ''La traviata'' - (Decca, 1954) * Giacomo Puccini: ''Manon Lescaut (Puccini), Manon Lescaut'' - (Decca, 1954) * Gaetano Donizetti: ''L'elisir d'amore'' - (Decca, 1955) * Giuseppe Verdi: ''La forza del destino'' - (Decca, 1955) * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini ( ; ; 8 or 14 SeptemberWillis, in Sadie (Ed.), p. 833 1760 – 15 March 1842) was an Italian Classical and Romantic composer. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries. His operas were heavily praised and interpreted by Rossini. Early years Cherubini was born Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini in Florence in 1760. There is uncertainty about his exact date of birth. Although 14 September is sometimes stated, evidence from baptismal records and Cherubini himself suggests the 8th is correct. Perhaps the strongest evidence is his first name, Maria, which is traditional for a child born on 8 September, the feast-day of the Nativity of the Virgin. His instruction in music began at the age of six with his father, Bartolomeo, '' maestro al cembalo'' ("Master of the harpsichord", in other words, ensemble leader from the harpsichord). Considered a child prodigy, Cherubini st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero (or Ruggiero) Leoncavallo ( , , ; 23 April 18579 August 1919) was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Although he produced numerous operas and other songs throughout his career it is his opera '' Pagliacci'' (1892) that remained his lasting contribution, despite attempts to escape the shadow of his greatest success. Today he remains largely known for ''Pagliacci'', one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the opera repertory. His other compositions include the song "Mattinata", popularized by Enrico Caruso, and the symphonic poem ''La Nuit de mai''. Biography The son of Vincenzo Leoncavallo, a police magistrate and judge, Leoncavallo was born in Naples on 23 April 1857. As a child, Leoncavallo moved with his father to the town of Montalto Uffugo in Calabria, where he lived during his adolescence. He later returned to Naples and was educated at the city's San Pietro a Majella Conservatory and later the University of Bologna studying literature ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giulietta Simionato
Giulietta Simionato (born Giulia Simionato; Forlì, Romagna, 12 May 1910 – Rome, 5 May 2010) was an Italian mezzo-soprano. Her career spanned the period from the 1930s until her retirement in 1966. Life As a girl she studied in a boarding school with nuns who sensed her musical qualities and invited her to study singing, which she did against the opposition of the family, especially her mother. After the latter's death, Giulietta studied first in Rovigo, then in Padua. Her singing debut was in the 1927 musical comedy film, 'Nina, Don't Be Stupid'. The following year she made her operatic debut at Montagnana. In 1933 she won the first "bel canto competition" in Florence against 385 competitors and got an audition at the Teatro alla Scala. The result was positive, but the artistic director Fabbroni found her voice still immature and invited her to return a few years later. Two years later she was put under contract. In 1928, she sang in Verdi's ''Rigoletto''. The first fif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cavalleria Rusticana
''Cavalleria rusticana'' (; Italian for "rustic chivalry") is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 short story of the same name and subsequent play by Giovanni Verga. Considered one of the classic ''verismo'' operas, it premiered on 17 May 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Since 1893, it has often been performed in a so-called ''Cav/Pag'' double-bill with ''Pagliacci'' by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Composition history In July 1888 the Milanese music publisher Edoardo Sonzogno announced a competition open to all young Italian composers who had not yet had an opera performed on stage. They were invited to submit a one-act opera which would be judged by a jury of five prominent Italian critics and composers. The best three would be staged in Rome at Sonzogno's expense. Mascagni heard about the competition only two months before the closing date and asked his friend Giovanni Targioni-Tozze ... [...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 baker ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antonino Votto
Antonino Votto, sometimes spelled Antonio Votto, (30 October 1896 – 9 September 1985) was an Italian operatic conductor and vocal coach. Votto developed an extensive discography with the Teatro alla Scala in Milan during the 1950s, when EMI produced the bulk of its studio recordings featuring Maria Callas. Though Votto was a dependable conductor (and the teacher of Riccardo Muti), critics frequently faulted his recordings for their lack of emotional immediacy. This may have been an occupational hazard of working in the studio, as his live sets with Callas, including a ''Norma'' (December 1955, La Scala) and ''La sonnambula'' (1957, Cologne) are considered to be great performances. Among his pupils was soprano Claudia Pinza Bozzolla. Commercial discography * Ponchielli: ''La Gioconda'' (Callas, Barbieri, Amadini, Poggi, Silveri, Neri; 1952) Cetra * Puccini: ''La bohème'' (Callas, Moffo, di Stefano, Panerai, Zaccaria; 1956) EMI * Verdi: ''Un ballo in maschera'' (Callas, Rat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fedora Barbieri
Fedora Barbieri (4 June 1920 – 4 March 2003) was an Italian mezzo-soprano and actor. Barbieri was born in Trieste. She performed regularly in Florence for fifty years, and performed internationally through the years. She died, aged 82, in Florence. Career After studying singing with Federico Bugamelli and Luigi Toffolo, she won an audition at age twenty to enter the school of the Teatro Comunale in Florence, where she studied with Giulia Tess. She then debuted in November 1940, as Fidalma in Il matrimonio segreto. Her Teatro alla Scala debut, where she was to have her greatest successes, came in 1942, as Meg Page. She was one of the first performers to investigate and perform in early operas by Monteverdi and Pergolesi. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera on 6 November 1950, as Princess Eboli in Verdi's ''Don Carlos''. Altogether, she gave 95 performances there over 9 seasons, in 11 different roles. She also sang Eboli in the famous Luchino Visconti production ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anita Cerquetti
Anita Cerquetti (13 April 193111 October 2014) was an Italian dramatic soprano who had a short but meteoric career in the 1950s. Her voice was very powerful and pleasing to audiences. Career Cerquetti was born in Montecosaro, near Macerata, Italy. She studied violin and trained for eight years with Luigi Mori. After a mere year of vocal study at the Conservatory of Perugia, she made her operatic debut in Spoleto in 1951 as Aida. She sang all over Italy, notably in Florence as Noraime in ''Gli abencerragi'' (the Italian version of ''Les abencérages'') under Carlo Maria Giulini in 1956, and as Elvira in ''Ernani'' under Dimitri Mitropoulos in 1957. Her La Scala debut came in 1958 as Abigaille in ''Nabucco''. She also sang on RAI in a variety of roles, such as Anaide in ''Mosè'', Mathilde in ''Guglielmo Tell'' and Elena in ''I vespri siciliani''. In America she sang a little; her debut there was in 1955 at Lyric Opera of Chicago as Amelia in ''Un ballo in maschera'', opposite Jussi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ettore Bastianini
Ettore Bastianini (24 September 1922 – 25 January 1967) was an Italian operatic baritone who was particularly associated with the operas of the ''bel canto'' tradition. Early training and career as a bass Born in Siena, Bastianini first began performing at fifteen while apprenticed to a pastry chef, Gaetano Vanni, who discovered his vocal talent and encouraged him to join the choir of his hometown's cathedral. Between 1937 and 1938, he sang bass during Masses and religious functions at the church. In 1939 he began singing lessons under Fathima and Anselmo Ammanati, who continued training him as a bass. He sang his first professional concerts in 1940 and 1941 in Asciano and Siena at the Fortezza Medicea and Teatro dei Rozzi. In 1942 he won first prize in the 6th National Singing Contest at the Teatro Comunale, Florence, but was soon drafted into the Italian Air Force which prevented him from immediately enjoying the scholarship accompanying the prize. After serving in the It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cesare Siepi
Cesare Siepi (10 February 19235 July 2010) was an Italian opera singer, generally considered to have been one of the finest basses of the post-war period. His voice was characterised by a deep, warm timbre, a full, resonant, wide-ranging lower register with relaxed vibrato, and a ringing, vibrant upper register. Although renowned as a Verdian bass, his tall, striking presence and the elegance of phrasing made him a natural for the role of Don Giovanni. He can be seen in that role on Paul Czinner's 1954 film of the opera made during an edition of the Salzburg Festival under the baton of Wilhelm Furtwängler. Early career Born in Milan (his year of birth is debated between 1919 and 1923, though 1923 is given as official), he began singing as a member of a madrigal group. He often claimed to have been largely self-taught, having attended the music conservatory in his home city for just a short time. His operatic career was interrupted by World War II. After his debut in 1941 (in S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
