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Chelsea Opera Group
Chelsea Opera Group is an organisation based in London which arranges concert productions of operas and other works. It was founded in 1950 when David Cairns and Stephen Gray invited Colin Davis, who was at the time a 22-year-old clarinetist, to conduct a concert performance of Mozart's ''Don Giovanni'' in the Holywell Music Room, Oxford. The Group has continued this practice since, mainly with the purpose of reviving neglected operas and lesser known versions of more familiar operas. Colin Davis was the president until his death in April 2013. The Group continues to perform operas and other works in London and in Salisbury. Company history and performances Since ''Falstaff'' in 1956, a considerable number of operas by Giuseppe Verdi have appeared on the roster, including many of the lesser-known earlier works such as the 1847 version of ''Macbeth'' (in 2008); the original French version of ''I Vespri Sicilianni'', the 1855 ''Les vêpres siciliennes'' (1977 and 1999); and se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chelsea Opera
Chelsea Opera is an opera company located in New York City, founded in April 2004 by Leonarda Priore and Lynne Hayden-Findlay, both singers, who sought to create more performance opportunities with chamber orchestra within the tri-state areas of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Initially the company's musical direction was provided by conductor Carmine Aufiero. The company's range of performances includes many from the "standard repertoire", but now modern works such as the November 2010 production of Tom Cipullo’s ''Glory Denied'', based on the oral biography of Tom Philpott, which garnered an outstanding review from Allan Kozinn in ''The New York Times'' and ''Opera News'' as well as ''This is the rill speaking'' and vocal chamber piece, ''Bermudas''. Both celebrated the 85th birthday of American composer Lee Hoiby. More recently, in November 2012, the company presented the world premiere of ''The Mark of Cain'' by Matthew Harris and Terry Quinn. The Manhattan premiere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jérusalem
''Jérusalem'' is a grand opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was to be an adaptation and partial translation of the composer's original 1843 Italian opera, ''I Lombardi alla prima crociata''. It was the one opera which he regarded as the most suitable for being translated into French and, taking Eugène Scribe's advice, Verdi agreed that a French libretto was to be prepared by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, who had written the libretto for Donizetti's most successful French opera, ''La favorite''. The opera received its premiere performance at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris on 26 November 1847. The maiden production was designed by Paul Lormier (costumes), Charles Séchan, Jules Diéterle and Édouard Desplechin (sets of Act I, Act II, scene 1, Act III scene 1, and Act IV), and Charles-Antoine Cambon and Joseph Thierry (sets for Act II, scene 2 and Act III, scene 2). Composition history The director of the Paris Opéra, Léon Pillet, had invited Verdi to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH) is a music venue on the South Bank in London, England, that hosts classical, jazz, and avant-garde music, talks and dance performances. It was opened in 1967, with a concert conducted by Benjamin Britten. The QEH was built along with the smaller Purcell Room as part of Southbank Centre arts complex. It stands alongside the Royal Festival Hall, which was built for the Festival of Britain of 1951, and the Hayward Gallery which opened in 1968. History The QEH stands on the site of a former shot tower, built as part of a lead works in 1826 and retained for the Festival of Britain. The QEH and the Purcell Room were built together by Higgs and Hill and opened in March 1967. The venue was closed for two years of renovations in September 2015, and reopened in April 2018. Description The QEH has over 900 seats and the Purcell Room in the same building has 360 seats. The two auditoriums were designed by a team led by Hubert Bennett, head of the arch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Bonynge
Richard Alan Bonynge ( ) (born 29 September 1930) is an Australian conductor and pianist. He is the widower of Australian dramatic coloratura soprano Dame Joan Sutherland. Bonynge conducted virtually all of Sutherland's operatic performances from 1962 until her retirement in 1990. Biography Bonynge was born in Epping, a suburb of Sydney, and educated at Sydney Boys' High School before studying piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and gaining a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, where his piano teacher was Herbert Fryer. He gave up his music scholarship, continuing his private piano studies, and became a coach for singers. One of these was Joan Sutherland, whom he had accompanied in Australia. They married in 1954 and became a duo, performing operatic recitals until 1962. When the scheduled conductor for a recital of operatic arias became ill and the replacement conductor was involved in a car accident, Bonynge stepped in and, from that time on, he c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nelly Miricioiu
Nelly Miricioiu (born 31 March 1952) is a Romanian-born British operatic soprano singing a large repertoire ranging from bel canto to verismo. Biography Born in Adjud, Romania, Miricioiu started singing at 5 and was hailed as a child prodigy. At 9 she started studying piano and at 14 she won her first singing contest, "Young Talents, Great hopes". At 18 she sang in Pergolesi's ''La serva padrona'' and joined the Conservatory of Iași where she continued her studies with Tibi Popovici. In 1972 she was the youngest contestant in the Francisco Vinas Musical Competition in Barcelona and in 1975 she won the first prize at the very first Maria Callas Grand Prix in Athens. More first prizes followed at competitions in Geneva, Paris, Sofia, Oostend. Miricioiu made her operatic debut in Mozart's ''The Magic Flute'', as the Queen of the Night at Iaşi Romanian Opera, and continued to sing at Brasov Opera House between 1975 and 1978 in roles such as Mimì in ''La bohème'', Micaëla in ''C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belisario
''Belisario'' (''Belisarius'') is a ''tragedia lirica'' (tragic opera) in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian libretto after Luigi Marchionni's adaptation of play, ''Belisarius'', first staged in Munich in 1820 and then (in Italian) in Naples in 1826. The plot is loosely based on the life of the famous general Belisarius of the 6th century Byzantine Empire. It premiered to critical and popular success on 4 February 1836 at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice, and was given many additional performances that season,Osborne 1994, pp. 245-248 although Donizetti scholar William Ashbrook notes that there would have been more had the opera not been presented so late in the season. However, in spite of its initial short-term success and critical reaction, as represented by a review in ''La Gazzetta privilegiata'' which stated that "A new masterwork has been added to Italian music.....''Belisario'' not only pleased and delighted, but also conquered, enflamed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style during the first half of the nineteenth century and a probable influence on other composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. Donizetti was born in Bergamo in Lombardy. At an early age he was taken up by Simon Mayr who enrolled him with a full scholarship in a school which he had set up. There he received detailed musical training. Mayr was instrumental in obtaining a place for Donizetti at the Bologna Academy, where, at the age of 19, he wrote his first one-act opera, the comedy ''Il Pigmalione'', which may never have been performed during his lifetime. An offer in 1822 from Domenico Barbaja, the impresario of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, which followed the composer's ninth opera, led to his move to Naples and his residency there until productio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jill Gomez
Jill Carnegy, Countess of Northesk (''née'' Gomez; born 21 September 1942) is a Trinidadian and British soprano who enjoyed an active career on the operatic stage and in the concert hall in a wide repertoire, and has made many recordings. Life and career Gomez was born in New Amsterdam, Guyana,Blyth, A. Jill Gomez. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera.'' Macmillan, London and New York, 1997. to Albert Clyde Gomez, a Spanish Trinidadian and to Denise Price Gomez (née Denham), and brought up in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Her father became managing director and vice-chairman of Angostura, the famous distillers, and her British mother was a well-known actress and broadcaster in Trinidad. After studying at St. Joseph's Convent (Port of Spain) in Trinidad and dominating at the islands' biennial Music Festival, she moved to England at 13, where she studied voice and piano at London's Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where her most importan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sarah Walker (mezzo-soprano)
Sarah Elizabeth Royle Walker (born 11 March 1943) is an English mezzo-soprano. Walker was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. She studied at the Royal College of Music from 1961 to 1965, initially as a violinist and cellist, and went on to study singing with Vera Rózsa. She has appeared in numerous opera performances and is also known as a concert soloist and recitalist. Operatic career Walker's operatic debut was in 1969, as Ottavia in Kent Opera's production of ''L'incoronazione di Poppea''. She has also appeared in Britain with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, The Royal Opera, English National Opera, Scottish Opera, and abroad at The Metropolitan Opera (New York City), Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, La Monnaie (Brussels) and the Vienna State Opera. Notable roles have included the title-roles in ''Gloriana'' and ''Maria Stuarda'', Dido in ''Les Troyens'' and Baba the Turk in ''The Rake's Progress''. She recorded the challenging '' Voices'' under the direction of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Tomlinson (bass)
Sir John Rowland Tomlinson (born 22 September 1946) is an English Bass (voice type), bass. Tomlinson was born in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, England. He trained as a civil engineer at Manchester University before deciding on a career in opera at age 21. He studied with Patrick McGuigan at the Royal Northern College of Music and with Otakar Kraus. He is now President of the RNCM. Whilst studying at the RNCM, he was a member of the Manchester Universities Gilbert and Sullivan Society (MUGSS). He sings regularly with the Royal Opera, London, Royal Opera and English National Opera, and has appeared with all the major British opera companies. He sang at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany every year from 1988 to 2006, as Wotan, the Wanderer, King Marke, Titurel, Gurnemanz, Hagen and the Dutchman. In 2008, he created the title role in Harrison Birtwistle's opera The Minotaur (opera), ''The Minotaur'' at the Royal Opera House. Honours * He was given an Honorary title (academic), Honorary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willard White
Sir Willard Wentworth White, OM, CBE (born 10 October 1946) is a Jamaican-born British operatic bass baritone. Early life White was born into a Jamaican family in Kingston. His father was a dockworker, his mother a housewife. White first began to learn music by listening to the radio and singing Nat King Cole songs. He was also inspired by the American bass baritone singer and civil rights activist Paul Robeson. White was a founding member of The Jamaican Folk Singers, and trained at the Jamaican School of Music. In a visit to Jamaica, Evelyn Rothwell, the oboist and wife of conductor Sir John Barbirolli, heard him sing and suggested that he go to study in London. Instead, his father bought him a one-way ticket to New York City, because "the flight was cheaper". He won a scholarship and continued his studies with bass Giorgio Tozzi at the Juilliard School. While at Juilliard, he was selected by Maria Callas to participate in the master classes she gave there from 1971 to 1972 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kiri Te Kanawa
Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa , (; born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron, 6 March 1944) is a retired New Zealand opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". Te Kanawa had three top 40 albums in Australia in the mid-1980s. Te Kanawa has received accolades in many countries, singing a wide array of works in many languages dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries. She is particularly associated with the works of Mozart, Strauss, Verdi, Handel and Puccini, and found considerable success in portraying princesses, nobility, and other similar characters on stage. Though she rarely sang opera later in her career, Te Kanawa frequently performed in concert and recital, gave masterclasses, and supported young opera singers in launching their careers. Her final performance was in Ballarat, Australia, in October 2016, but she did not reveal her retirement until September 2017. Personal life Te Kanawa was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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