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Bartolomeo Merelli
Bartolomeo Merelli (19 May 1794 – 10 April 1879Warrack & West 1997, p. 463.) was an Italian impresario and librettist, best known as the manager of the La Scala Milan opera house between 1829 and 1850, and for his support for the young Giuseppe Verdi. Early life and theatrical agency Merelli was born in Bergamo and studied composition there with Simon Mayr. (Gaetano Donizetti was in the same class as Merelli.) He moved to Milan around 1812 and worked there as a theatrical agent, at the same time writing a number of librettos for Mayr, Donizetti, Nicola Vaccai and other composers.Rosselli 1992, pp. 340–341. He set up his own agency in 1826 and managed seasons in Varese, Como and Cremona between 1830 and 1835, and was joint lessee (with Carlo Balochino) of the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna from 1836 to 1848. La Scala From 1829 to 1850, Merelli managed La Scala, initially in partnership with others, who included Domenico Barbaia, and then by himself from 1835. During ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Impresario
An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer. History The term originated in the social and economic world of Italian opera, in which from the mid-18th century to the 1830s, the impresario was the key figure in the organization of a lyric season. The owners of the theatre, usually amateurs from the nobility, charged the impresario with hiring a composer (until the 1850s operas were expected to be new) and the orchestra, singers, costumes and sets, all while assuming considerable financial risk. In 1786 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart satirized the stress and emotional mayhem in a single-act farce ''Der Schauspieldirektor'' (''The Impresario''). Antonio Vivaldi was unusual in acting as both impresario and composer; in 1714 he managed seasons at Teatro San Angelo in Venice, where his opera ''Orla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (; 3 November 1801 – 23 September 1835) was a Sicilian opera composer, who was known for his long-flowing melodic lines for which he was named "the Swan of Catania". Many years later, in 1898, Giuseppe Verdi "praised the broad curves of Bellini's melody: 'there are extremely long melodies as no-one else had ever made before'." A large amount of what is known about Bellini's life and his activities comes from surviving letters—except for a short period—which were written over his lifetime to his friend Francesco Florimo, whom he had met as a fellow student in Naples and with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship. Other sources of information come from correspondence saved by other friends and business acquaintances. Bellini was the quintessential composer of the Italian '' bel canto'' era of the early 19th century, and his work has been summed up by the London critic Tim Ashley as: ... also hugely influential, as much a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Un Giorno Di Regno
''Un giorno di regno, ossia Il finto Stanislao'' (''A One-Day Reign, or The Pretend Stanislaus'', but often translated into English as ''King for a Day'') is an operatic '' melodramma giocoso'' in two acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto written in 1818 by Felice Romani. Originally written for the Bohemian composer Adalbert GyrowetzGossett, p. 37: Gossett goes on to note that "for many Italian librettists of the time, French operatic texts were a rich vein to be mined." (Although ''Le faux Stanislas'' was a verse drama, not an operatic libretto.)Budden, p. 73 the libretto was based on the play ''Le faux Stanislas'' written by the Frenchman Alexandre-Vincent Pineux Duval in 1808. ''Un giorno'' was given its premiere performance at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan on 5 September 1840. After the success of his first opera, '' Oberto'' in 1839, Verdi received a commission from La Scala impresario Merelli to write three more operas. ''Un giorno'' was first of the three, but he wro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giovanni Ricordi
Giovanni Ricordi (3 March 1785 – 15 March 1853) was an Italian violinist and the founder of the classical music publishing company Casa Ricordi. The musicologist Philip Gossett described him as "a genius and positive force in the history of Italian opera". Ricordi was born in Milan in 1785 to Gianbatista Ricordi, who was a glassmaker, and Angiola de Medici. Ricordi studied the violin from an early age and, for a short time, became the concertmaster and conductor of the small puppet theatre Fiando. In 1803 he created a in Milan where he worked as a music copyist and dealer in printed music and instruments with the Teatro Carcano, which opened in that year, and with the Teatro Lentasio. In 1807 he studied in Leipzig at the Breitkopf & Härtel company to learn the techniques of engraving and printing. When he returned to Milan in early 1808, he founded his publishing company with a partner who dropped out by the middle of the year. As MacNutt notes, during its first decade the com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giorgio Ronconi
Giorgio Ronconi (6 August 1810 – 8 January 1890) was an Italian operatic baritone celebrated for his brilliant acting and compelling stage presence. In 1842, he created the title-role in Giuseppe Verdi's ''Nabucco'' at La Scala, Milan. Personal life Ronconi was born in Milan and had been taught to sing by his father, Domenico Ronconi, who was a leading tenor. He married soprano Elguerra Giannoni on 8 October 1837 in Naples, Naples, Italy. By some accounts Giannoni had sung with some success at the Lyceum Theatre, London, Lyceum Theatre and at the Her Majesty's Theatre, King's Theatre in London. However, Harold Rosenthal has written: "This lady, who failed on virtually every opera stage in Europe, was considered a good concert-room singer only, but so indispensable was her husband to any Italian company that willy-nilly she had to be engaged as well." In his later years, Ronconi founded a school of singing at Granada in Spain and also accepted a professorial post at the Madrid R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giuseppina Strepponi
Clelia Maria Josepha (Giuseppina) Strepponi ( Lodi, 8 September 1815 – Villanova sull'Arda, 14 November 1897) was a nineteenth-century Italian operatic soprano of great renown and the second wife of composer Giuseppe Verdi. She is often credited with having contributed to Verdi's first successes, starring in a number of his early operas, including the role of Abigaille in the world premiere of ''Nabucco'' in 1842. A highly gifted singer, Strepponi excelled in the bel canto repertoire and spent much of her career portraying roles in operas by Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Gioachino Rossini, often sharing the stage with tenor Napoleone Moriani and baritone Giorgio Ronconi. Donizetti wrote the title role of his opera '' Adelia'' specifically for Strepponi. She was described as possessing a "limpid, penetrating, smooth voice, seemly action, a lovely figure; and to Nature's liberal endowments she adds an excellent technique"; her "deep inner feeling" was also l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oberto (opera)
''Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio'' is an opera in two acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on an existing libretto by probably called ''Rocester''.David Kimbell 2001, in Holden, p. 977 It was Verdi's first opera, written over a period of four years, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 17 November 1839. The La Scala production enjoyed "a fair success" and the theatre's impresario, Bartolomeo Merelli, commissioned two further operas from the young composer. Composition history During his student days in Milan, Verdi began the process of making connections to the world of music in that city which were to stand him in good stead. These included an introduction by his teacher Lavigna to an amateur choral group, the Società Filarmonica, where he functioned as rehearsal director and continuo player for Haydn's '' The Creation'' in 1834, as well as conducting Rossini's ''La cenerentola'' himself the following year. 1836 saw hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gianni Di Parigi
''Gianni di Parigi'' is an 1839 ''melodramma comico'' (''opera buffa'') in two acts with music by Gaetano Donizetti to a libretto by Felice Romani, which had previously been set by Francesco Morlacchi in 1818 and by Giovanni Antonio Speranza in 1836.. He calls it an ''opera comica'' and in note 6 on pp. 683–684, says: "The work is structurally an opera buffa; 'opera comica' is presumably Romani's direct translation of 'opéra comique', the designation of Boieldieu's work on which Romani based his libretto." It is derived from '' Jean de Paris'', an 1812 opera by François-Adrien Boieldieu with a libretto by Claude Godard d'Aucourt de Saint-Just, which had been performed in Naples in 1816. Composition history According to Charles Osborne, the research of Swedish musicologist Anders Wiklund suggests that Donizetti may have begun composing the music for the opera between 1828 and 1830 for a projected performance in Naples which did not occur. It is established with certainty t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saverio Mercadante
Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante (baptised 17 September 179517 December 1870) was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. While Mercadante may not have retained the international celebrity of Gaetano Donizetti or Gioachino Rossini beyond his own lifetime, he composed as prolific a number of works as either; and his development of operatic structures, melodic styles and orchestration contributed significantly to the foundations upon which Giuseppe Verdi built his dramatic technique. Biography Early years Mercadante was born illegitimate in Altamura, near Bari in Apulia; his precise date of birth has not been recorded, but he was baptised on 17 September 1795. Mercadante studied flute, violin and composition at the conservatory in Naples, and organized concerts among his compatriots.Michael Rose, "Mercadante: Flute Concertos", booklet accompanying the 2004 RCA CD recording with James Galway and I Solisti Veneti under Claudio Scimone. The opera composer Gioachino Rossini sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gemma Di Vergy
''Gemma di Vergy'' is an 1834 ''tragedia lirica'' (tragic opera) in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti from a libretto by Giovanni Emanuele Bidera. It is based on the tragedy ''Charles VII chez ses grands vassaux'' ''(Charles VII and His Chief Vassals)'' (1831) by Alexandre Dumas, père, Alexandre Dumas ''père'',Ashbrook & Hibberd 2001, p. 236. which was later to become the subject of the opera ''The Saracen (opera), The Saracen'' by the Russian composer César Cui. The heroine is the childless wife of the Count of Vergy, and the plot deals with her jealousy and grief as her husband arranges an annulment of their marriage in preparation for the arrival of his new bride, Ida, and her despair following the murder of her husband by a slave, Tamas, who is secretly in love with her. ''Gemma di Vergy'' was first performed on 26 December 1834 at the La Scala, Milan. The leading role was taken by the Italy, Italian soprano Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis, Donizetti's favourite prima donna at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maria Stuarda
''Maria Stuarda'' (Mary Stuart) is a tragic opera (''tragedia lirica''), in two acts, by Gaetano Donizetti, to a libretto by Giuseppe Bardari, based on Andrea Maffei's translation of Friedrich Schiller's 1800 play '' Maria Stuart''. The opera is one of a number of operas by Donizetti which deal with the Tudor period in English history, including ''Anna Bolena'' (named for Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn), ''Roberto Devereux'' (named for a putative lover of Queen Elizabeth I of England) and ''Il castello di Kenilworth''. The lead female characters of the operas ''Anna Bolena'', ''Maria Stuarda'', and ''Roberto Devereux'' are often referred to as the "Three Donizetti Queens". The story is loosely based on the lives of Mary, Queen of Scots (Mary Stuart) and her cousin Elizabeth I of England, Queen Elizabeth I. Schiller had invented the confrontation of the two Queens, who in fact never met.Ashbrook 1972, pp. 17 to 30. After a series of problems surrounding its presentation in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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