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Attila (opera)
''Attila'' is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the 1809 Play (theatre), play ' (''Attila, King of the Huns'') by Zacharias Werner. The opera received its first performance at La Fenice in Venice on 17 March 1846. Ezio's act 2 aria of heroic resolution "" (My lot is cast, I am prepared for any warfare) is a fine example of a characteristic Verdian ''genre'', and it achieved fame in its own time with audiences in the context of the adoption of a liberal constitution by Ferdinand II.Stamatov, Peter, "Interpretive Activism and the Political Uses of Verdi's Operas in the 1840s" (June 2002). ''American Sociological Review'', 67 (3): pp. 345–366. Other contemporary comment praised the work as suitable for the "political education of the people", while, in contrast, others criticised the opera as "Teutonic" in nature. Composition history Verdi had read the ultra-Romantic play in April 1844, probably introduced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the help of a local patron. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Vincenzo Bellini, whose works significantly influenced him. In his early operas, Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy. He also participated briefly as an elected politician. The chorus "Va, pensiero" from his early opera ''Nabucco'' (1842), and similar choruses in later operas, were much in the spirit of the unification movement, and the composer himself became esteemed as a representative of these ideals. An intensely private person, Verdi did not seek to ingratiate himself with popular movements. As he became professionally successful, he was able to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Lombardi
''I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata'' (''The Lombards on the First Crusade'') is an operatic ''dramma lirico'' in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on an epic poem by Tommaso Grossi, which was "very much a child of its age; a grand historical novel with a patriotic slant". Its first performance was given at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 11 February 1843. Verdi dedicated the score to Maria Luigia, the Habsburg Duchess of Parma, who died a few weeks after the premiere. In 1847, the opera was significantly revised to become Verdi's first grand opera for performances in France at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opera under the title of '' Jérusalem''. Composition history Grossi's original epic poem had plot complications that required the librettist to make significant changes; the historical characters portrayed in the original do not appear and the story becomes that of a fictional family and its involvement in the First Crusade. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giangiacomo Guelfi
Giangiacomo Guelfi (21 December 1924 – 8 February 2012) was an Italian operatic baritone, particularly associated with Verdi and Puccini. Born in Rome, Guelfi studied law before turning to vocal studies in Florence with baritone Titta Ruffo and later in Milan with baritone Mario Basiola. He made his stage debut in Spoleto, as Rigoletto in 1950. He made his debut in 1952 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, also appearing in Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, Palermo, Catania, and becoming a regular guest at the Arena di Verona. Outside Italy he appeared in Berlin, Lisbon, London, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, and Cairo. He made his American debut in 1954 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and at the Metropolitan Opera of New York in 1970. He took part in the creation of contemporary works including Lazzaro in Pizzetti's ''La figlia di Jorio'', Naples, 1954. He was mostly known for his Verdi portrayals in operas such as ''Nabucco'', '' I due Foscari'', '' Attila'', '' Macbet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gino Penno
Gino Penno (8 December 1920 – 8 February 1998) was an Italian tenor, who enjoyed a short but brilliant career in opera in the 1950s. Penno was born in Felizzano, Italy, and studied with Ettore Campogalliani. After winning a singing competition, he entered the Scuola di Canto of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. While still a student, he sang a number of comprimario roles, and appeared in his first leading role in 1950, Floreski in Cherubini's '' Lodoiska''. In the early 1950s, he became known throughout Italy, as a highly competent heldentenor, singing Siegfried at the Verona Arena and Lohengrin in Rome. He also partnered the new diva Maria Callas in ''Norma'', '' Macbeth'', ''Il trovatore'' and ''Medea'', in various theatres in Italy. In 1951, his career took an international turn. He appeared at the Paris Opéra, the Liceo in Barcelona, the Monte Carlo Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the Royal Opera House in London. By the end of the 1950s he was gone from t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caterina Mancini
Caterina Mancini (10 November 1924 – 21 January 2011) was an Italian dramatic coloratura soprano, primarily active in Italy in the 1950s. Mancini was born at Genzano di Roma. She made her debut in 1948, as Giselda in ''I Lombardi'', in Florence. In 1950, she appeared in Bologna and Venice, in ''Norma'', and made her debut at La Scala in Milan, in '' Lucrezia Borgia'', in 1951. The same year, she sang in many Verdi operas on radio broadcast (RAI) to commemorate 50th anniversary of Verdi's death. Many of these broadcasts have been released by the record company Cetra, notably, ''Nabucco'', '' Ernani'', '' Attila'', ''La battaglia di Legnano'', ''Il trovatore'', and ''Aïda''. She sang mostly in Italy, notably as Anaide in ''Mosè in Egitto'' in Florence (1955), and as Amelia in '' Il duca d'Alba'', in Verona (1956). She made occasional appearances in France and Spain. Other notable roles included: Amelia, Elisabetta, Gioconda, Santuzza, Tosca. Mancini was a dramatic c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italo Gardoni
Italo Gardoni (12 March 1821 – 26 March 1882) was a leading operatic tenore di grazia singer from Italy who enjoyed a major international career during the middle decades of the 19th century. Along with Giovanni Mario, Gaetano Fraschini, Enrico Tamberlik and Antonio Giuglini, he was one of the most celebrated Italian tenors of his era. His voice was not large but it was exceptionally pure toned and sweet, lacking any disruptive vibrato. He sang legato passages with impressive smoothness but he could also dispatch florid music with flair and considerable agility. Career Born in Parma, Gardoni studied with Antonio De Cesari (1797–1853). He made his debut as ''Roberto Devereux'' ( Donizetti) in Viadana in 1840, and over the following 7 years made his career in France, Italy and Germany. In Paris in December 1844 he was Bothwell in the Paris première of Louis Niedermeyer's opera '' Marie Stuart'' at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique opposite the soprano Rosi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sophie Cruvelli
Sophie Johanne Charlotte Crüwell, vicountess Vigier, stage name Sophie Cruvelli (12 March 1826 – 6 November 1907) was a German opera singer. She was a dramatic soprano who had a brief but stellar public career especially in London and Paris in the middle years of the 19th century. She was admired for her vocal powers and as a tragédienne. Both Verdi and Meyerbeer created operatic roles with the intention that she should first perform them. Origins and training Sophie Crüwell was the daughter of a Protestant Bielefeld family of comfortable means. She showed an early disposition towards music, and she and her sister Marie (later a mezzo-soprano) and her brother (later a baritone) were encouraged and assisted to training by the family. Sophie and Marie commenced their vocal studies with Louis Spohr in Kassel. In 1844 their mother took the girls to Paris to continue their studies, first with Francesco Piermarini, and then with the distinguished tenor Marco Bordogni.Ferris, ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Masnadieri
''I masnadieri'' (''The Bandits'' or ''The Robbers'') is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Andrea Maffei, based on the play ''Die Räuber'' by Friedrich von Schiller. As Verdi became more successful in Italy, he began to receive offers from other opera houses outside the country. The London impresario Benjamin Lumley had presented ''Ernani'' in 1845 and, as a result of its success, commissioned an opera from the composer which became ''I masnadieri''. It was given its first performance at Her Majesty's Theatre on 22 July 1847 with Verdi conducting the first two performances. While reasonably successful there and in Italy up to the mid-1860s, the opera disappeared for about 90 years until revived in 1951. It has been revived from time to time in the 21st century. Composition history In 1842 Lumley took over the management of Her Majesty's Theatre, the traditional home of Italian opera in London. Three years later Verdi's ''Ernani'' received it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre. In the early decades of the 20th century, Tree produced spectacular productions of Shakespeare and other classical works, and the theatre hosted premieres by major playwrights such as George Bernard Shaw, J. M. Synge, Noël Coward and J. B. Priestley. Since the First World War, the wide stage has made the theatre suitable for large-scale musical productions, and the theatre has accordingly specialised in hosting musicals. The theatre has been home to record-setting musical theatre runs, notably the First World War sensation '' Chu Chin Chow''Larkin, Colin (ed). ''Guinness Who's Who of Stage Musicals'' (Guinness Publishing, 1994) and the current (June 2022) production of Andrew Lloyd Web ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benjamin Lumley
Benjamin Lumley (1811 – 17 March 1875 in London) was a Canadian-born British opera manager and solicitor. Born Benjamin Levy, he was the son of a Jewish merchant, Louis Levy. Beginnings at His Majesty's Theatre Lumley's father was a clothes-dealer who had made his original fortune in Canada. The young Benjamin Levy was a pupil at King Edward's School, Birmingham. Lumley trained as a solicitor, and then studied for the Bar under Basil Montagu. In this capacity he gave legal advice to the financially troubled manager of what was then His Majesty's Theatre, Pierre Laporte, who came to rely on him extensively. As Lumley had become familiar with making managerial decisions for the theatre, when Laporte died in 1841 the board of the opera company, consisting mainly of wealthy noblemen, asked him to take over. Lumley had already written a standard handbook on Parliamentary private bills and was launched on a promising legal career. But his memoirs clearly indicate his pleasure in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Le Diable
''Robert le diable'' (''Robert the Devil'') is an opera in five acts composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer between 1827 and 1831, to a libretto written by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne. ''Robert le diable'' is regarded as one of the first grand operas at the Paris Opéra. It has only a superficial connection to the medieval legend of ''Robert the Devil''. The opera was immediately successful from its first night on 21 November 1831 at the Opéra; the dramatic music, harmony and orchestration, its melodramatic plot, its star singers and its sensational stage effects compelled Frédéric Chopin, who was in the audience, to say, "If ever magnificence was seen in the theatre, I doubt that it reached the level of splendour shown in ''Robert''...It is a masterpiece...Meyerbeer has made himself immortal".Brown, ''Robert le diable'', p. 572 ''Robert'' initiated the European fame of its composer, consolidated the fame of its librettist, Scribe, and launched the reputation of the new dire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guillaume Tell
''William Tell'' (french: Guillaume Tell, link=no; it, Guglielmo Tell, link=no) is a French-language opera in four acts by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy and L. F. Bis, based on Friedrich Schiller's play ''Wilhelm Tell,'' which, in turn, drew on the William Tell legend. The opera was Rossini's last, although he lived for nearly 40 more years. Fabio Luisi said that Rossini planned for ''Guillaume Tell'' to be his last opera even as he composed it. The often-performed overture in four sections features a depiction of a storm and a vivacious finale, the "March of the Swiss Soldiers". Paris Opéra archivist Charles Malherbe discovered the original orchestral score of the opera at a secondhand book seller's shop, resulting in its being acquired by the Paris Conservatoire. Performance history ''Guillaume Tell'' was first performed by the Paris Opéra at the Salle Le Peletier on 3 August 1829, but within three performances cuts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
