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Alfred (Dvořák)
''Alfred'' (B. 16) is a heroic opera in three acts by the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. It was Dvořák's first opera and the only one he composed to a German text. The libretto, by Carl Theodor Körner, was set by Friedrich von Flotow (as ''Alfred der Große''), based on the story of the English king Alfred the Great. Composed in 1870, ''Alfred'' was not performed during Dvořák's lifetime. The opera premiered (in Czech translation) at the City Theatre, Olomouc on 10 December 1938. The opera was performed for the first time with the original German libretto on 17 September 2014, in Prague. The overture ( ''Tragic Overture'') is well known and often performed separately. Roles Synopsis The plot of ''Alfred'' takes place during a war between the English and Danes in the Middle Ages. The story follows the hero, Alfred, on his quest to rescue his love Alvina from the Danish leader Harald and lead the English to victory. The opera lasts about 140 minutes. Act 1 – T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theodor Körner (author)
Carl Theodor Körner (23 September 1791 – 26 August 1813) was a German poet and soldier. After some time in Vienna, where he wrote some light comedies and other works for the Burgtheater, he became a soldier and joined the Lützow Free Corps in the German uprising against Napoleon. During these times, he displayed personal courage in many fights, and encouraged his comrades by fiery patriotic lyrics he composed, among these being the "Schwertlied" (Sword Song), composed during a lull in fighting only a few hours before his death, and "Lützows wilde Jagd" (Lützow's Wild Chase, or Hunt), each set to music by both Carl Maria von Weber and Franz Schubert. He was often called the "German Tyrtaeus." Early life He was born at Dresden, capital of the Saxon electorate, the son of the consistorial councillor Christian Gottfried Körner and his wife Minna Stock Körner. He was raised by his parents and by his aunt, the artist Dora Stock, who lived in the home. He attended the Kreuzsc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amanda Holden (writer)
Amanda Juliet Holden (; 19 January 1948 – 7 September 2021) was a British pianist, librettist, translator, editor and academic teacher. She is known for translating opera librettos to more contemporary English for the English National Opera, and for writing new librettos, especially in collaboration with Brett Dean. She contributed to encyclopedias such as the ''New Penguin Opera Guide''. Life and career Amanda Juliet Warren was born in London, the daughter of Sir Brian Warren and Dame Josephine Barnes. She was educated at Benenden School, and studied at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, with Egon Wellesz where she gained a Master of Arts (MA), at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and a MA at the American University, Washington, DC. She also had degrees from the Royal Academy of Music (ARCM and LRAM).Holden /Amanda, ''Who's Who'' (UK), 2012 She first worked as a freelance pianist and accompanist, teacher at the Guildhall School, and therapist from 1973 to 1986. Libret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radio Prague
Radio Prague International ( cs, Český rozhlas 7 – Radio Praha) is the official international broadcasting station of the Czech Republic. Broadcasting first began on August 31, 1936 near the spa town of Poděbrady. Radio Prague broadcasts in six languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Czech and Russian. It broadcasts programmes about the Czech Republic on satellite and on the Internet. In 2021, Rospotrebnadzor blocked the website of Radio Prague International in Russia due to a report about Jan Palach from 2001. Programming The station broadcasts a total of 24 hours' worth of programmes per day, 3 hours of which are new programmes (one new 30-minute programme in each of the six languages); the remaining 21 hours are rebroadcasts. Rebroadcast programmes have fresh news bulletins. All programmes last for 30 minutes and have a standard layout: news, current affairs magazine and a feature. The theme of the feature changes each day and each section tailors programmes to su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opera News
''Opera News'' is an American classical music magazine. It has been published since 1936 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a non-profit organization located at Lincoln Center which was founded to engender the appreciation of opera and also support the Metropolitan Opera of New York City. ''Opera News'' was initially focused primarily on the Met, particularly providing information for listeners of the Saturday afternoon live Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts. Over the years, the magazine has broadened its scope to include the larger American and international opera scenes. Currently published monthly, ''Opera News'' offers opera related feature articles; artist interviews; production profiles; musicological pieces; music-business reportage; reviews of performances in the United States and Europe; reviews of recordings, videos, books and audio equipment; and listings of opera performances in the U.S. The Editor-in-Chief is currently F. Paul Driscoll. Regular contributors to the mag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simply "c" in all words except surnames; this has led to Liszt's given name being rendered in modern Hungarian usage as "Ferenc". From 1859 to 1867 he was officially Franz Ritter von Liszt; he was created a ''Ritter'' (knight) by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, Francis Joseph I in 1859, but never used this title of nobility in public. The title was necessary to marry the Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein without her losing her privileges, but after the marriage fell through, Liszt transferred the title to his uncle Eduard in 1867. Eduard's son was Franz von Liszt., group=n (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz L ... [...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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leitmotif
A leitmotif or leitmotiv () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is an anglicization of the German ''Leitmotiv'' (), literally meaning "leading motif", or "guiding motif". A musical motif has been defined as a "short musical idea ... melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic, or all three", a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition: "the smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity." In particular, such a motif should be "clearly identified so as to retain its identity if modified on subsequent appearances" whether such modification be in terms of rhythm, harmony, orchestration or accompaniment. It may also be "combined with other leitmotifs to suggest a new dramatic condition" or development. The technique is no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Key (music)
In music theory, the key of a piece is the group of pitches, or scale, that forms the basis of a musical composition in classical, Western art, and Western pop music. The group features a '' tonic note'' and its corresponding ''chords'', also called a ''tonic'' or ''tonic chord'', which provides a subjective sense of arrival and rest, and also has a unique relationship to the other pitches of the same group, their corresponding chords, and pitches and chords outside the group. Notes and chords other than the tonic in a piece create varying degrees of tension, resolved when the tonic note or chord returns. The key may be in the major or minor mode, though musicians assume major when this is not specified, e.g., "This piece is in C" implies that the key of the song is C major. Popular songs are usually in a key, and so is classical music during the common practice period, around 1650–1900. Longer pieces in the classical repertoire may have sections in contrasting keys. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transposition (music)
In music, transposition refers to the process or operation of moving a collection of notes ( pitches or pitch classes) up or down in pitch by a constant interval. For example, one might transpose an entire piece of music into another key. Similarly, one might transpose a tone row or an unordered collection of pitches such as a chord so that it begins on another pitch. The transposition of a set ''A'' by ''n'' semitones is designated by ''T''''n''(''A''), representing the addition ( mod 12) of an integer ''n'' to each of the pitch class integers of the set ''A''. Thus the set (''A'') consisting of 0–1–2 transposed by 5 semitones is 5–6–7 (''T''5(''A'')) since , , and . Scalar transpositions In scalar transposition, every pitch in a collection is shifted up or down a fixed number of scale steps within some scale. The pitches remain in the same scale before and after the shift. This term covers both chromatic and diatonic transpositions as follows. Chromatic transpo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vanda (opera)
''Vanda'' is a grand opera in five acts by Antonín Dvořák. The Czech libretto was written by Václav Beneš-Šumavský and after a work by Julian Surzycki. Performance history The opera was first performed at the Provisional Theatre (Prague), Provisional Theatre in Prague on 17 April 1876. The British premiere was performed by student group University College Opera at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London on 22 March 2004. Roles Synopsis The story is about the Polish queen, Princess Wanda, who drowns herself in the Vistula river in order to save her people from the German invaders. Recordings *2004: Olga Romanko (Vanda), Valentin Prolat (Slavoj), Ivan Kusnjer (Roderich), Jolana Fogašová (Božena), Oleg Korotkov (Pagan high priest), (Lumír), Yvona Skvárová (Homena); Gerd Albrecht, conductor; National Theatre (Prague) References Further reading *Smaczny, Jan, "''Vanda''", in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', (ed. Stanley Sadie). London, 1992 External links ''Van ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King And Charcoal Burner
''King and Charcoal Burner'' (; sometimes translated as "King and Collier"), Op. 14 (B. 21, revised under B. 151), is a Czech comic opera in three acts, divided into 23 scenes, with music by Antonín Dvořák. History Dvořák composed the music for the first version of the opera in 1871 to a libretto by Bernard J. Lobeský (pseudonym of Bernard Guldener). In 1871, Dvořák offered the finished opera to the Czech Provisional Theatre (Prague), Provisional Theatre in Prague. Bedřich Smetana, then in charge of the company, returned the work to Dvořák, claiming that it was unperformable. Dvořák subsequently wrote entirely new music to the same libretto, without using any of the original material. He completed this new version in 1874. The Provisional Theatre, under different artistic leadership after the departure of Smetana, gave the première on 24 November 1874. The opera received a good critical and audience reception, but was withdrawn after four performances. Dvoř ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
