Astrid Schirmer
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Astrid Schirmer
Astrid Schirmer (born 8 November 1942) is a German operatic soprano and an academic teacher. She sang mostly dramatic parts at major German opera houses and appeared at the Bayreuth Festival. Career Schirmer studied voice at the Musikhochschule Berlin with Johanna Rakow and Elisabeth Grümmer. She made her debut at the Landestheater Coburg in 1967 as Senta in Wagner's ''Der fliegende Holländer''. She was a member of the Staatsoper Hannover, the Essen Opera and the Nationaltheater Mannheim. Her roles were mostly leading parts as a dramatic soprano, such as Leonore in Beethoven's ''Fidelio'' and Wagner's Sieglinde in ''Die Walküre'', Brünnhilde in ''Siegfried'', and both Elisabeth and Venus in ''Tannhäuser''. She also appeared in Verdi operas, in the title role of ''Aida'', as Amelia in ''Un ballo in maschera'', and as Leonore in ''La forza del destino''. She performed the title roles of ''Ariadne auf Naxos'' and ''Arabella'' by Richard Strauss, and of Puccini's ''Tosca'' and ...
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Berlin University Of The Arts
The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universities in the city. The university is known for being one of the biggest and most diversified universities of the arts worldwide. It has four colleges specialising in fine arts, architecture, media and design, music and the performing arts with around 3,500 students. Thus the UdK is one of only three universities in Germany to unite the faculties of art and music in one institution. The teaching offered at the four colleges encompasses the full spectrum of the arts and related academic studies in more than 40 courses. Having the right to confer doctorates and post-doctoral qualifications, Berlin University of the Arts is also one of Germany's few art colleges with full university status. Outstanding professors and students at all its colleg ...
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Ariadne Auf Naxos
(''Ariadne on Naxos''), Op. 60, is a 1912 opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The opera's unusual combination of elements of low commedia dell'arte with those of high opera seria points up one of the work's principal themes: the competition between high and low art for the public's attention. First version (1912) The opera was originally conceived as a 30-minute divertissement to be performed at the end of Hofmannsthal's adaptation of Molière's play ''Le Bourgeois gentilhomme.'' Besides the opera, Strauss provided incidental music to be performed during the play. In the end, the opera occupied ninety minutes, and the performance of play plus opera occupied over six hours. It was first performed at the Hoftheater Stuttgart on 25 October 1912, directed by Max Reinhardt. The combination of the play and opera proved to be unsatisfactory to the audience: those who had come to hear the opera resented having to wait until the play finished. ...
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Frankfurt Opera
The Oper Frankfurt (Frankfurt Opera) is a German opera company based in Frankfurt. Opera in Frankfurt am Main has a long tradition, with many world premieres such as Franz Shrek's ''Der ferne Klang'' in 1912, '' Fennimore und Gerda'' by Frederick Delius in 1919, and Carl Orff's ''Carmina Burana'' in 1937. Frankfurt's international recognition began in the Gielen Era, 1977 to 1987, when Michael Gielen and stage directors such as Ruth Berghaus collaborated. A historic opera house from 1880 was destroyed in World War II, and reconstructed as a concert hall, the Alte Oper. The present opera house, built in 1963, is under one roof with the stage for drama. The opera orchestra is called Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester. Today's venue for Baroque and contemporary opera is the Bockenheimer Depot, a former tram depot. Voted best 'Opera house of the year' by ''Opernwelt'' several times since 1996, including 2020, Oper Frankfurt is part of the Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt. H ...
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Deutsche Oper Am Rhein
The Deutsche Oper am Rhein (German Opera on the Rhine) is an opera company based in Düsseldorf and Duisburg. The opera also has an associated classical ballet company. Axel Kober has been its Music Director since 2009. The resident orchestra, the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, play both opera and symphonic repertoire. After the 1875 construction of what became the Düsseldorf ''Opernhaus'', a strong connection between the two cities’ opera houses existed from 1887 to 1920, and was not re-established until 1955 with the creation of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. The company performs in the Opernhaus Düsseldorf, built in 1875. It was partially destroyed during World War II, and reconstructed to officially re-open in 1956. Theater Duisburg, built in 1912, was destroyed, and rebuilt in 1950. For the 25th anniversary of the house, Alexander Goehr was commissioned to compose an opera. He wrote '' Behold the Sun'' with a libretto by John McGrath about the anabaptists in Münster. The ...
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Deutsche Oper Berlin
The Deutsche Oper Berlin is a German opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house (after Munich's) and also home to the Berlin State Ballet. Since 2004, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, like the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Berlin State Opera), the Komische Oper Berlin, the Berlin State Ballet, and the Bühnenservice Berlin (Stage and Costume Design), has been a member of the Berlin Opera Foundation. History The company's history goes back to the ''Deutsches Opernhaus'' built by the then independent city of Charlottenburg—the "richest town of Prussia"—according to plans designed by Heinrich Seeling from 1911. It opened on 7 November 1912 with a performance of Beethoven's ''Fidelio'', conducted by Ignatz Waghalter. In 1925, after the incorporation of Charlottenburg by the 1920 Greater Berlin Act, the name of the resident building was changed to ''Städtische Oper'' (Municipal Opera). With the Na ...
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Albert Herring
''Albert Herring'', Op. 39, is a chamber opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten. Composed in the winter of 1946 and the spring of 1947, this comic opera was a successor to his serious opera ''The Rape of Lucretia''. The libretto, by Eric Crozier, was based on Guy de Maupassant's novella '' Le Rosier de Madame Husson'', with the action transposed to an English setting. Composition history After having composed and staged ''The Rape of Lucretia'', Britten decided he should attempt a comedy, preferably set in England.Nigel Douglas. "Some personal memories of Benjamin Britten, the English Opera Group and ''Albert Herring''". Booklet note to Nimbus NI 5824/6 (2008). Crozier suggested adapting the Maupassant short story ''Le rosier de Madame Husson'' and transplanting it to the Suffolk landscape already familiar to Britten from his home in Snape. Britten composed ''Albert Herring'' at his home, The Old Mill at Snape, in the winter of 1946 and the spring of 1947. He scored the oper ...
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Porgy And Bess
''Porgy and Bess'' () is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play '' Porgy'', itself an adaptation of DuBose Heyward's 1925 novel of the same name. ''Porgy and Bess'' was first performed in Boston on September 30, 1935, before it moved to Broadway in New York City. It featured a cast of classically trained African-American singers—a daring artistic choice at the time. A 1976 Houston Grand Opera production gained it a renewed popularity after languishing in the doldrums of the 1960s and early 1970s, and it is now one of the best known and most frequently performed operas. The libretto of ''Porgy and Bess'' tells the story of Porgy, a disabled black street beggar living in the slums of Charleston. It deals with his attempts to rescue Bess from the clutches of Crown, her violent and possessive lover, and Sportin' Life ...
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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 ...
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Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legend about a libertine as told by playwright Tirso de Molina in his 1630 play '' El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra''. It is a ''dramma giocoso'' blending comedy, melodrama and supernatural elements (although the composer entered it into his catalogue simply as ''opera buffa''). It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the National Theater (of Bohemia), now called the Estates Theatre, on 29 October 1787. ''Don Giovanni'' is regarded as one of the greatest operas of all time and has proved a fruitful subject for commentary in its own right; critic Fiona Maddocks has described it as one of Mozart's "trio of masterpieces with librettos by Da Ponte". Composition and premiere The opera was commissioned after the succes ...
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Gerhard Faulstich
Gerhard Faulstich is a German baritone. After voice studies at the , Gerhard Faulstich was active since 1965 as a concert singer. He made his operatic debut at the in as Leonardo in Wolfgang Fortner's opera ''Bluthochzeit''. In 1981, he joined the Staatsoper Hannover and the faculty of the Musikhochschule Hannover where he is a professor. At the Staatsoper Hannover he performed among others Papageno in Mozart's ''Die Zauberflöte'', Tsar Peter in Lortzing's ''Zar und Zimmermann'', Wolfram in ''Tannhäuser'', and the title role in Wolfgang Rihm's ''Jakob Lenz''. In 1982, he sang Bach's ''St Matthew Passion'', conducted by Erhard Egidi at the Neustädter Kirche, performing the words of Jesus with Lutz Michael Harder as the Evangelist. The same year he recorded the work, conducted by Michel Corboz, alongside Kurt Equiluz as the Evangelist. Reviewer Alan Blyth said that Faulstich "takes an unpretentious, conversational approach to the part of Jesus; he is direct and business-like". ...
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George Alexander Albrecht
George Alexander Albrecht (15 February 1935 – 21 December 2021) was a German conductor and composer, who also worked as a musicologist and academic teacher. A prolific composer at a young age, he was Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the Staatsoper Hannover from 1965 for 30 years, where he led not only the major operas by Mozart and stageworks by Wagner, but contemporary composers, such as Aribert Reimann's ''Troades'' in 1987. He was GMD of the Nationaltheater Weimar from 1996, and taught at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar. Albrecht promoted the works of neglected composers such as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Hans Pfitzner, and Erwin Schulhoff. In retirement, he focused on composing again. His fairy-tale opera '' Die Schneekönigin'', after Andersen's "The Snow Queen", was premiered in Weimar in 2015. His ''Requiem für Syrien'' for soloists, choir and orchestra was first performed in Dresden in 2018 by the Dresdner Philharmonie, and his First Symphony "Sinfonia di due ...
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Owen Wingrave
''Owen Wingrave'', Op. 85, is an opera in two acts with music by Benjamin Britten and libretto by Myfanwy Piper, after a short story by Henry James. It was originally written for televised performance. Britten had been aware of the story since his work with Piper on his previous opera modelled after a James work, ''The Turn of the Screw'' in 1954. BBC television commissioned an opera for television from him in 1966 and, in 1968, he and Piper began work on the libretto. The work was completed by August 1970. The premiere was recorded at Snape Maltings in November 1970 and first broadcast on BBC2 on 16 May 1971. The music is influenced by Britten's interest in twelve-tone serialist techniques. A large tuned percussion section anticipates the musical treatment of his next (and last) opera, ''Death in Venice''. In addition to its being an expression of Britten's own pacifism, he was reported as saying that this opera was partly a response to the Vietnam War. The costumes were d ...
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