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Das Floß Der Medusa
' (''The Raft of the Medusa'') is a secular oratorio by the German composer Hans Werner Henze. It is regarded as a seminal work in the composer's alignment with left-wing politics. Background Henze wrote it as a Requiem for Che Guevara, and set it to a text by Ernst Schnabel. It tells the story of the French frigate '' Méduse'' which ran aground off the west coast of Africa in 1816, an ignominious episode in French political and maritime history, immortalised by the 1818-19 painting of the same name by Théodore Géricault. The oratorio employs a large orchestra, a speaker, a soprano, a baritone, and choruses. In the course of a performance, the chorus members move from left side of the stage, "the Side of the Living", to the right side, "the Side of the Dead". The text is principally in German, with the addition of passages in Italian drawn from Dante's '' Divina Comedia'' sung by some of the dead. Aside from the dedication, and one possible musical reference to a popular leftis ...
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Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as traditional schools of German composition. In particular, his stage works reflect "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life". Henze was also known for his political convictions. He left Germany for Italy in 1953 because of a perceived intolerance towards his leftist politics and homosexuality. Late in life he lived in the village of Marino in the central Italian region of Lazio, and in his final years still travelled extensively, in particular to Britain and Germany, as part of his work. An avowed Marxist and member of the Italian Communist Party, Henze produced compositions honoring Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara. At the 1968 Hamburg premiere of his requiem for Che Guevara, titled ''Das Floß der Medusa'' (' ...
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Anarchism
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessarily limited to, governments, nation states, and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state with stateless societies or other forms of free associations. As a historically left-wing movement, usually placed on the farthest left of the political spectrum, it is usually described alongside communalism and libertarian Marxism as the libertarian wing (libertarian socialism) of the socialist movement. Humans lived in societies without formal hierarchies long before the establishment of formal states, realms, or empires. With the rise of organised hierarchical bodies, scepticism toward authority also rose. Although traces of anarchist thought are found throughout history, modern anarchism emerged from the Enlightenment. ...
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Berlin Philharmonic
The Berlin Philharmonic (german: Berliner Philharmoniker, links=no, italic=no) is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world. History The Berlin Philharmonic was founded in Berlin in 1882 by 54 musicians under the name Frühere Bilsesche Kapelle (literally, "Former Bilse's Band"); the group broke away from their previous conductor Benjamin Bilse after he announced his intention of taking the band on a fourth-class train to Warsaw for a concert. The orchestra was renamed and reorganized under the financial management of Hermann Wolff in 1882. Their new conductor was Ludwig von Brenner; in 1887 Hans von Bülow, the conductor of the Meiningen Court Orchestra and one of the most famous piano virtuosos of the time, took over the post. This helped to establish the orchestra's international reputation, and guests Hans Richter, Felix von Weingartner, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Johannes Brahms and Edva ...
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Staatstheater Nürnberg
The Staatstheater Nürnberg is a German theatre company in Nuremberg, Bavaria. The theatre is one of four Bavarian state theatres and shows operas, plays, ballets and concerts. History Its main venue, the opera house ("Opernhaus Nürnberg"), is one of the largest theatres in Germany. It was built from 1903 to 1905 in Art Nouveau style by the architect Heinrich Seeling. Until 1 January 2005, it was known as the "Städtische Bühnen Nürnberg". Other venues are the play house (''Schauspielhaus Nürnberg'') including the small stages "Kammerspiele" and "BlueBox", and the Meistersingerhalle where the concerts of the orchestra (the Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg) are held. Since 2018, the company's ''Generalmusikdirektorin'' (General Music Director) is Joana Mallwitz. Her initial contract, announced in October 2017, was for 5 years. She is the first female conductor to be named GMD of the company. In July 2021, the company announced that Mallwitz is to stand down as its GMD at ...
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Sinfonieorchester Des Norddeutschen Rundfunks
The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra (german: NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester) is a German radio orchestra. Affiliated with the ''Norddeutscher Rundfunk'' (NDR; North German Broadcasting), the orchestra is based at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany. Earlier the ensemble was called the NDR Symphony Orchestra (), and was also known in English as the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra. British occupation authorities founded the orchestra after World War II as part of Radio Hamburg (NWDR), which was the only radio station in what would become West Germany not destroyed during the war. The first musicians came mostly from the ranks of the old Nazi-controlled ''Großes Rundfunkorchester des Reichssenders Hamburg''. Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, who was living near Hamburg, was given the task of assembling the members, something he accomplished over a period of six months. Schmidt-Isserstedt conducted the orchestra's first concert in November 1945, with Yehudi Menuhin as soloist. Sc ...
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Charles Régnier
Karl Friedrich Anton Hermann 'Charles' Regnier (Régnier)"Wedekind aus Horst Kreis Neustadt am Rübenberge in Niedersachsen". In: ''Niedersächsisches Geschlechterbuch''. (Genealogical studies). Limburg an der Lahn: Verlag C. A. Starke Volume 187 (1982), pp. 481-634, here p. 532 (22 July 1914 – 13 September 2001) was a German actor, director and translator. He appeared in more than 135 films between 1949 and 2000. In the 1950s and the 1960s, he was one of the busiest German theatre and film actors. Family life and upbringing Born at Freiburg in 1914, Regnier owed his name to his grandfather, a native Frenchman. Regnier was the first child of Anton Karl Regnier and Emile (Milly) Maria Friederike Harrer, born in Freiburg im Breisgau. His father was a general practitioner and Charles initially wanted to become a doctor. Charles Regnier grew up in Strasbourg and Badenweiler where his maternal grandparents owned the Schloss Hausbaden hotel. After his father's suicide i ...
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Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (28 May 1925 – 18 May 2012) was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous Lieder (art song) performers of the post-war period, best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, particularly ''"Winterreise"'' of which his recordings with accompanists Gerald Moore and Jörg Demus are still critically acclaimed half a century after their release. Recording an array of repertoire (spanning centuries) as musicologist Alan Blyth asserted, "No singer in our time, or probably any other has managed the range and versatility of repertory achieved by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Opera, Lieder and oratorio in German, Italian or English came alike to him, yet he brought to each a precision and individuality that bespoke his perceptive insights into the idiom at hand." In addition, he recorded in French, Russian, Hebrew, Latin and Hungarian. He was described as "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th century" and "the most ...
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Edda Moser
Edda Moser (born 27 October 1938) is a German operatic soprano. She was particularly well known for her interpretations of music by Mozart. Her 1973 recital LP ' received the Grand Prix du Disque. Life and career Moser was born in Berlin, the daughter of the musicologist Hans Joachim Moser. She is aunt to cellist Johannes Moser and pianist Benjamin Moser. She studied at the Stern Conservatory with Hermann Weißenborn and Gerty König and made her debut as Kate Pinkerton in '' Madama Butterfly'' at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1962. After singing in the Würzburg Opera Chorus from 1962 until 1963, she sang at the opera houses in Hagen, Bielefeld, Hamburg and Frankfurt, before joining the Vienna State Opera in 1971. She also sang in Salzburg. She made her American debut in November 1968, when she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in the role of Wellgunde in ''Das Rheingold''. She went on to sing various roles there over nine seasons, including the parts of Donna Anna ('' D ...
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Dress Rehearsal
A rehearsal is an activity in the performing arts that occurs as preparation for a performance in music, theatre, dance and related arts, such as opera, musical theatre and film production. It is undertaken as a form of practising, to ensure that all details of the subsequent performance are adequately prepared and coordinated. The term ''rehearsal'' typically refers to ensemble activities undertaken by a group of people. For example, when a musician is preparing a piano concerto in their music studio, this is called ''practising'', but when they practice it with an orchestra, this is called a ''rehearsal''. The music rehearsal takes place in a music rehearsal space. A rehearsal may involve as few as two people, as with a small play for two actors, an art song by a singer and pianist or a folk duo of a singer and guitarist. On the other end of the spectrum, a rehearsal can be held for a very large orchestra with over 100 performers and a choir. A rehearsal can involve on ...
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Der Spiegel
''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner, a British army officer, and Rudolf Augstein, a former Wehrmacht radio operator who was recognized in 2000 by the International Press Institute as one of the fifty World Press Freedom Heroes. Typically, the magazine has a content to advertising ratio of 2:1. ''Der Spiegel'' is known in German-speaking countries mostly for its investigative journalism. It has played a key role in uncovering many political scandals such as the ''Spiegel'' affair in 1962 and the Flick affair in the 1980s. According to ''The Economist'', ''Der Spiegel'' is one of continental Europe's most influential magazines. The news website by the same name was launched in 1994 under the name ''Spiegel Online'' with an independent editorial staff. Today, the content is ...
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Gramophone (magazine)
''Gramophone'' is a magazine published monthly in London, devoted to classical music, particularly to reviews of recordings. It was founded in 1923 by the Scottish author Compton Mackenzie who continued to edit the magazine until 1961. It was acquired by Haymarket in 1999. In 2013 the Mark Allen Group became the publisher. The magazine presents the Gramophone Awards each year to the classical recordings which it considers the finest in a variety of categories. On its website ''Gramophone'' claims to be: "The world's authority on classical music since 1923." This used to appear on the front cover of every issue; recent editions have changed the wording to "The world's best classical music reviews." Its circulation, including digital subscribers, was 24,380 in 2014. Listings and the ''Gramophone'' Hall of Fame Apart from the annual Gramophone Classical Music Awards, each month features a dozen recordings as Gramophone Editor's Choice (now Gramophone Choice). Then, in the annua ...
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Andrew Porter (music Critic)
Andrew Brian Porter (26 August 19283 April 2015) was a British music critic, opera librettist, opera director, scholar, and organist.''Opera''"Opera Magazine Editorial Board"(archived 9 May 2011 at Internet Archive), originally accessed 2 January 2011. Biography Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Porter studied organ at University College, Oxford in the late 1940s. He then began writing music criticism for various London newspapers, including ''The Times'' and ''The Daily Telegraph''. In 1953, he joined ''The Financial Times'', where he served as the lead critic until 1972, where his successor was Ronald Crichton. Stanley Sadie, in the 2001 edition of the ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', wrote that Porter "built up a distinctive tradition of criticism, with longer notices than were customary in British daily papers, based on his elegant, spacious literary style and always informed by a knowledge of music history and the findings of textual scholarship as well as an ex ...
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