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Elvida
''Elvida'' is a ''melodramma'' or opera in one act by Gaetano Donizetti. Giovanni Schmidt wrote the Italian libretto. The opera was written as a ''pièce d'occasion'' for the birthday of María Isabella of Spain, Queen Maria of the Two Sicilies. The choice of subject matter was no doubt intended as an elegant acknowledgement of the Queen's Spanish ancestry. Donizetti received little financial reward for the work and, as a result, put the minimum of effort into its composition. ''Elvida'' was first performed on 6 July 1826 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, but it "made little impression on the audience"Osborne 1994, pp. 162—63 After three performances, the piece lay forgotten until its performances and recordings in 2004. Roles Synopsis :Place: A fortified town in the Emirate of Granada. :Time: The late fifteenth century. Scene 1 During the struggle for control of southern Spain, Elvida, a noble Kingdom of Castile, Castilian lady, has been captured by the Moors. For two mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaetano 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] |
Pièce D'occasion
A pièce d'occasion () like the word ''pièce'' meaning preparing and ''d'occasion'' meaning for special occasion suggests pis a composition, dance or theatrical piece composed, often commissioned, for a festive occasion. Examples * ''The Dying Swan'', ballet by Mikhail Fokine (to Camille Saint-Saëns's cello solo ''Le cygne'') for the ballerina Anna Pavlova (1905) * ''Fanfare for a Prince'', ballet by John Taras (1956) * ''Dance Preludes'', ballet by Miriam Mahdaviani (1991) * ''FOR 4'', dance by Christopher Wheeldon (to Franz Schubert's '' Death and the Maiden'') (2006) * ''Silla'', opera seria by Handel (1713) * ''Elvida'', opera by Gaetano Donizetti (1826) * ''Entrez, messieurs, mesdames'', pièce d'occasion by Offenbach (1855) * ''Les dragées du baptême'', pièce d'occasion by Offenbach (1856) * '' La statue retrouvée'' (1923), an entertainment for a private costume ball in Paris with music by Erik Satie, scenario by Jean Cocteau, designs by Pablo Picasso and choreogra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opera Rara
Opera Rara is a London-based opera company and recording label which specialises in recording and performing forgotten operatic repertoire from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1970 by bel canto enthusiasts Patric Schmid and Don White, Opera Rara's recordings are internationally distributed by Warner Classics. In September 2019, Italian conductor Carlo Rizzi succeeded Sir Mark Elder as Artistic Director. History Opera Rara launched in the 1970s with a series of concerts of 19th-century operatic arias performed at the Southbank Centre, St John’s Smith Square and Wigmore Hall in London. The company presented its first complete opera - Meyerbeer’s '' Il crociato in Egitto'' - in 1972 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, marking the first performance of the opera for more than 100 years. It subsequently performed at the Bath Festival, Camden Festival (where its first staged production was Donizetti’s '' Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali'') and Sadler’s Well ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annick Massis
Annick Massis (born Jacqueline Dubreuil; ; born 31 January 1958) is a French operatic soprano. She sang a wide variety of roles, but is best known for her interpretation of works in the 19th-century Italian and French repertoire. Biography Jacqueline Dubreuil was born in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, to singer parents: mother specialising in operetta, father being a baritone in the Choir of Radio France. After obtaining double degree in history and English, she worked as a school teacher till 28, during which she took masterclasses and met her teacher Isabel Garcisanz. Two years later, Gabriel Dussurget, founder of the Aix-en-Provence Festival, introduced her to conductor Bernard Thomas, who engaged her in ''Great Mass in C minor'' and the entire oratorio repertoire after a simple audition. Her stage career began at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse in 1991, and in the same season she performed in Mozart's ''La finta giardiniera'' as the title role at the Opéra de Nante ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jennifer Larmore
Jennifer Larmore (born June 21, 1958) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer, particularly noted for her performances in coloratura and bel canto roles which she has performed in the world's major opera houses.Slonimsky, Nicolas and Kuhn, Laura (2001"Larmore, Jennifer" ''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians''. Retrieved online via HighBeam Research 17 November 2013 . She has been a professor at the Music College of Seoul National University since March 2021. Life and career Larmore was born in Atlanta, Georgia. She attended Westminster Choir College in New Jersey and trained with Robert McIver, John Bullock and Regina Resnik. In 1982, she attended the Music Academy of the West summer conservatory program. She made her professional debut in 1986, at Opéra de Nice in Mozart's ''La clemenza di Tito''. In 1988, she sang Rosina in Rossini's ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'' (Jérôme Savary production in Strasbourg). She made her Carnegie Hall debut as Romeo ( Bellini's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operas By Gaetano 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 produc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Libretto
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass (liturgy), Mass, requiem and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet. ''Libretto'' (; plural ''libretti'' ), from Italian, is the diminutive of the word ''wiktionary:libro#Italian, libro'' ("book"). Sometimes other-language equivalents are used for libretti in that language, ''livret'' for French works, ''Textbuch'' for German and ''libreto'' for Spanish. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. Some ballet historians also use the word ''libretto'' to refer to the 15 to 40 page books which were on sale to 19th century ballet audiences in Paris and contained a ve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melodramma
''Melodramma'' (plural: ''melodrammi'') is a 17th-century Italian term for a text to be set as an opera, or the opera itself. In the 19th century, it was used in a much narrower sense by English writers to discuss developments in the early Italian libretto, e.g., ''Rigoletto'' and ''Un ballo in maschera''. Characteristic are the influence of French bourgeois drama, female instead of male protagonists, and the practice of opening the action with a chorus. It should not be confused with Melodrama (spelt with a single rather than a double m) in the sense either of Victorian stage melodrama (drama of exaggerated intensity) or of spoken declamation accompanied by background music (in Italian, ''melologo'').Budden, Julian: ''Melodramma'' in 'The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New Grove Dictionary Of Music And Musicians
''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theory of music. Earlier editions were published under the titles ''A Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', and ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians''; the work has gone through several editions since the 19th century and is widely used. In recent years it has been made available as an electronic resource called ''Grove Music Online'', which is now an important part of ''Oxford Music Online''. ''A Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' ''A Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' was first published in London by Macmillan and Co. in four volumes (1879, 1880, 1883, 1889) edited by George Grove with an Appendix edited by J. A. Fuller Maitland in the fourth volume. An Index edited by Mrs. E. Wodehouse was issued as a separate volume in 1890. In ... [...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] |
The New Grove Dictionary Of Opera
''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes. First published in 1992 by Macmillan Reference, London, it was edited by Stanley Sadie with contributions from over 1,300 scholars. There are 11,000 articles in total, covering over 2,900 composers and 1800 operas. Appendices including an index of role names and an index of incipits of arias, ensembles, and opera pieces. The dictionary is available online, together with ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. References *William Salaman, "Review: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera", ''British Journal of Music Education'' (1999), 16: 97-110 Cambridge University Pres*John Simon, "Review: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, 4 vols.", ''National Review'', April 26, 199* * *Charles Rosen, "Review: The New Grove Dictionary of O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Sadie
Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was published as the first edition of ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. Along with Thurston Dart, Nigel Fortune and Oliver Neighbour he was one of Britain's leading musicologists of the post-World War II generation. Career Born in Wembley, Sadie was educated at St Paul's School, London, and studied music privately for three years with Bernard Stevens. At Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge he read music under Thurston Dart. Sadie earned Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music degrees in 1953, a Master of Arts degree in 1957, and a PhD in 1958. His doctoral dissertation was on mid-eighteenth-century British chamber music. After Cambridge, he taught at Trinity College of Music, London (1957–1965). Sadie then turned to musi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
