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Elza Van Den Heever
Elza van den Heever (born 1979) is a South African soprano in opera and concert, who began her career as a mezzo-soprano. She has appeared in leading roles at major houses and concert halls of the world. One of her signature roles is Elisabetta in Donizetti's ''Maria Stuarda'', which she performed for her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 2012 and subsequently recorded live. Career Born in Johannesburg as one of triplets, the daughter of a filmmaker and an actress, van den Heever was first trained as a mezzo-soprano, studying from age 18 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She was part of the Merola Opera Program and the San Francisco Opera's Adler Fellowship, creating the role of Mary Custis Lee in '' Appomattox'' by Philip Glass, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. In a transition process of five years, she learned new vocal technique and new roles. Her first major soprano role was Donna Anna in Mozart's ''Don Giovanni'', stepping in at the San Francisco Opera in 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Francisco Conservatory Of Music
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) is a private music conservatory in San Francisco, California. As of 2021, it had 480 students. History The San Francisco Conservatory of Music was founded in 1917 by Ada Clement and Lillian Hodghead as the Ada Clement Piano School. In 1923, the name was changed to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In 1956 the Conservatory moved from Sacramento Street to 1201 Ortega Street, the home of a former infant shelter. It resided there for fifty years, before moving to its next location at 50 Oak Street in 2006. In 2020, the SFCM added the new Bowes Center at 200 Van Ness Avenue (across from Davies Symphony Hall), a 12-story building that includes dorms (eight floors) with acoustic insulation for 400 of its students, 27 rent-controlled apartments for residents of the older building that was replaced by the construction, and some public performing spaces, including a penthouse concert room with views towards the north and west. The Bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johan Botha (tenor)
Johan Botha (19 August 1965 – 8 September 2016) was a South African operatic tenor. Life and career Born in Rustenburg, South Africa, Botha began his vocal training with Jarmilla Tellenger from the age of 10 through 17. He then served for two years in the South African Air Force before pursuing further studies in Pretoria with Eric Muller. His voice initially was trained as a bass-baritone and his first opera performance was portraying the title role in a student production of Verdi's ''Falstaff''. As his studies progressed under Muller his voice moved towards that of a tenor. In 1990 he moved to Europe and became a longtime pupil of Irmgard Hartmann. Botha made his professional stage debut at the municipal theatre in Roodepoort as Max in ''Der Freischütz'' in 1989. He then became a member of the opera chorus at the Bayreuth Festival in 1990. In 1991 he sang Riccardo in ''Un ballo in maschera'' at the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern. This was followed by performances at opera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claus Guth
Claus Guth (born 1964) is a German theatre director, focused on opera. He has directed operas at major houses and festivals, including world premieres such as works of the Munich Biennale, and Berio's '' Cronaca del luogo'' at the Salzburg Festival in 1999. Guth is particularly known for his opera productions of the works of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. He has received two Faust awards, for ''Daphne'' by Richard Strauss in 2010, and for Debussy's '' Pelléas et Mélisande'', both at the Oper Frankfurt. Life and career Early life Born in Frankfurt, Claus Guth first studied philosophy, German studies and theatre studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and later theatre and opera directing with Cornel Franz at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. Contemporary opera Guth has focused on contemporary opera. He has staged several world premieres, some in the context of the Munich Biennale, such as Hanna Kulenty's ''The Mother of Black Winged Dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Il Trittico
''Il trittico'' (''The Triptych'') is the title of a collection of three one-act operas, ''Il tabarro'', ''Suor Angelica'', and ''Gianni Schicchi'', by Giacomo Puccini. The work received its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on 14 December 1918. Background Around 1904, Puccini first began planning a set of one-act operas, largely because of the success of Pietro Mascagni's ''Cavalleria rusticana''. Originally, he planned to write each opera to reflect one of the parts of Dante's ''Divine Comedy''. However, he eventually based only ''Gianni Schicchi'' on Dante's epic poem. The link in the final work is that each opera deals with the concealment of a death. Puccini also intended that the three should be performed as a set, and wrote to Casa Ricordi to complain about their giving permission in 1920 to The Royal Opera, London, "for ''Tabarro'' and ''Schicchi'' without ''Angelica''". He reluctantly agreed that the two operas could be given in a programme with Serge Diaghilev's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bordeaux Opera
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture of the Gironde department. Its inhabitants are called ''"Bordelais"'' (masculine) or ''"Bordelaises"'' (feminine). The term "Bordelais" may also refer to the city and its surrounding region. The city of Bordeaux proper had a population of 260,958 in 2019 within its small municipal territory of , With its 27 suburban municipalities it forms the Bordeaux Metropolis, in charge of metropolitan issues. With a population of 814,049 at the Jan. 2019 census. it is the fifth most populated in France, after Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Lille and ahead of Toulouse. Together with its suburbs and exurbs, except satellite cities of Arcachon and Libourne, the Bordeaux metropolitan area had a population of 1,363,711 that same year (Jan. 2019 census), ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norma (opera)
''Norma'' () is a ''tragedia lirica'' or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after the play ''Norma, ou L'infanticide'' (''Norma, or The Infanticide'') by Alexandre Soumet. It was first produced at La Scala in Milan on 26 December 1831. The opera is regarded as a leading example of the bel canto genre, and the soprano prayer "Casta diva" in act 1 is a famous piece. Among the well known singers of Norma of the first half of the 20th century was Rosa Ponselle who played the role in New York and London. Notable exponents of the title role in the post-war period have been Maria Callas, Leyla Gencer, Joan Sutherland, and Montserrat Caballé. Composition history Crivelli and Company were managing both La Scala and La Fenice in Venice, and as a result, in April–May 1830 Bellini was able to negotiate a contract with them for two operas, one at each theatre. The opera for December 1831 at La Scala became ''Norma'', while the one for the 1832 Carnival ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurizio Benini
Maurizio Benini (born 1952) is an Italian conductor and composer. He made his debut in 1998 in ''L'elisir d'amore'' at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. ''Gramophone'' notes his "spirit and finesse" at conducting. He has also conducted opera performances at La Scala, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, the Paris Opera, The Royal Opera, the Vienna State Opera, and the Wexford Festival Opera among others. References External linksBiographyon 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 Whi ... Italian male conductors (music) Italian male composers 20th-century Italian conductors (music) 20th-century Italian composers 21st-century Italian conductors (music) 21st-century composers 20th-century Italian male musicians 21st-century Italian male musician ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David McVicar
Sir David McVicar (born 1966) is a Scottish opera and theatre director. Biography McVicar was born in Glasgow in 1966. He studied as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, graduating in 1989. In 2007, ''The Independent'' ranked him among the 100 most influential gay and lesbian people in Britain. He was the guest on the BBC's ''Desert Island Discs'' on 5 October 2008. He was created a Knight Bachelor in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to opera. Selected productions *''Adriana Lecouvreur'': Royal Opera House *''Andrea Chenier'': Royal Opera House *'' Agrippina'': La Monnaie, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, English National Opera *''Aida'': Royal Opera House *''Alcina'': Bilbao, Oviedo, English National Opera telegraph.co.uk; ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matthew Polenzani
Matthew Polenzani (born 1968) is an American lyric tenor. He has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, Royal Opera House, Bayerische Staatsoper, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Vienna State Opera, and San Francisco Opera, among others. He has also sung with numerous symphony orchestras. His younger sister is independent folk musician Rose Polenzani. His grandfather is Lynn Hauldren, known as the "Empire Guy". Early life Born in Evanston, Illinois, Polenzani earned a bachelor's degree from Eastern Illinois University in 1991, and a master's from the Yale School of Music where he studied with Richard Cross and Doris Yarick-Cross (chair of Yale's opera department) in 1994. After graduating from Yale, he began studying with Margaret Harshaw. He then went on to be a member of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, now the Ryan Opera Center, with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. After Ms. Harshaw's death in 1997, he began studying with his current teacher, Laura Brooks Rice, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joyce DiDonato
Joyce DiDonato (née Flaherty; born February 13, 1969) is an American lyric-coloratura mezzo-soprano. She is notable for her interpretations of operas and concert works in the 19th-century romantic era in addition to works by Handel and Mozart. She has performed with many of the world's leading opera companies and orchestras, and won multiple awards including the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo. Early life and education Joyce Flaherty was born in Prairie Village, Kansas in 1969, the sixth of seven children in an Irish-American family. Her father, Donald, was a self-employed architect who designed houses in the area. One of her sisters, Amy Hetherington, was a music teacher at St. Ann Catholic School, which Joyce and her siblings attended. She later went to Bishop Miege High School where she sang in musicals. She entered Wichita State University (WSU) in 1988 to study vocal music education, because she was initially more interested in teaching high ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, his second wife, who was executed when Elizabeth was two years old. Anne's marriage to Henry was annulled, and Elizabeth was for a time declared illegitimate. Her half-brother Edward VI ruled until his death in 1553, bequeathing the crown to Lady Jane Grey and ignoring the claims of his two half-sisters, the Catholic Mary and the younger Elizabeth, in spite of statute law to the contrary. Edward's will was set aside and Mary became queen, deposing Lady Jane Grey. During Mary's reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels. Upon her half-sister's death in 1558, Elizabeth succeeded to the throne and set out to rule by good counsel. She ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lohengrin (opera)
''Lohengrin'', WWV 75, is a Romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the ''Parzival'' of Wolfram von Eschenbach, and its sequel ''Lohengrin'', itself inspired by the epic of ''Garin le Loherain''. It is part of the Knight of the Swan legend. The opera has inspired other works of art. King Ludwig II of Bavaria named his castle Neuschwanstein Castle after the Swan Knight. It was King Ludwig's patronage that later gave Wagner the means and opportunity to complete, build a theatre for, and stage his epic cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen''. He had discontinued composing it at the end of Act II of ''Siegfried'', the third of the ''Ring'' tetralogy, to create his radical chromatic masterpiece of the late 1850s, ''Tristan und Isolde'', and his lyrical comic opera of the mid-1860s, '' Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg''. The most popular and recognizabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
