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Francesca Bertolli
Francesca Bertolli (? Rome – 9 January 1767, in Bologna) was an Italian contralto of the 18th century. She is best remembered for her association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in whose operas she sang. Details of her early career are not known, but by 1728 she was in service to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, singing at Bologna and Livorno. After the initial Royal Academy folded, Handel set up a second company of the same name, based at the King's Theatre, and for this purpose in 1729 he engaged Bertolli. She performed in approximately 15 of his operas, as well as works by Ariosti and a number of pasticcios. In 1733, however, she defected to the rival Opera of the Nobility, along with Senesino and Antonio Montagnana, where she sang in operas by Nicola Porpora (such as '' Polifemo'') and Bononcini, in addition to Handel's ''Ottone''. In 1736, however, she returned to Handel for another year and performed in 4 or 5 of his works. Upon the conclusion of this second e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Contralto
A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typically between the F below middle C (F3 in scientific pitch notation) to the second F above middle C (F5), although, at the extremes, some voices can reach the D below middle C (D3) or the second B above middle C (B5). The contralto voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, lyric, and dramatic contralto. History "Contralto" is primarily meaningful only in reference to classical and operatic singing, as other traditions lack a comparable system of vocal categorization. The term "contralto" is only applied to female singers; men singing in a similar range are called "countertenors". The Italian terms "contralto" and "alto" are not synonymous, "alto" technically denoting a specific vocal range in choral singing without regard to factors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antonio Bernacchi
Antonio Maria Bernacchi (23 June 1685 – 1 March 1756) was an Italian castrato, composer, and teacher of singing. He studied with Francesco Antonio Pistocchi. His pupils included Farinelli, for a brief period during 1727, and the tenor Anton Raaff. Nowadays Bernacchi is best remembered for his association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in six of whose operas he sang. Career Bernacchi was born in Bologna and, having been engaged at the court of Johann Wilhelm, the Elector Palatine in 1701, began his operatic career in Genoa in 1703. His appointment in 1714 as ''virtuoso'' to Prince Antonio Farnese led to widespread recognition throughout Europe, and he performed in operas by various famous composers of the day, including Johann Adolph Hasse, Leonardo Vinci, and Alessandro Scarlatti (Rome 1721). He was an especially frequent visitor to the theatres of Venice, appearing in more than twenty operas in that city between 1712 and 1724. In 1720 the Elector of Bavaria engage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italian Opera Singers
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Grove Music Online
''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] |
Winton Dean
Winton Basil Dean (18 March 1916 – 19 December 2013) was an English musicologist of the 20th century, most famous for his research on the life and works—in particular the operas and oratorios—of George Frideric Handel, as detailed in his book ''Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques'' (1959). Dean was born in Birkenhead in March 1916, the son of the film and theatre producer Basil Dean.Sadie, Stanley. Winton (Basil) Dean. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, London & New York, 1997. He was educated at Harrow and King's College, Cambridge, where he took part in stagings of Handel oratorios in the 1930s. After World War II, he became notable as a writer on music, particularly when he published several articles about the compositions of Bizet, starting with ''La Coupe du roi de Thulé'' in ''Music & Letters'' in 1947. He considerably rewrote his 1948 book on Bizet in 1965 due to new material and music of the composer which had since emerged. Porter, Andrew. O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anna Maria Strada
Anna Maria Strada ( fl. 1719–1741, in Bergamo) was an Italian soprano. She is best remembered for her association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in whose operas Strada sang. Career After an initial career in Italy that included performances at Venice — in Vivaldi's opera '' La verità in cimento'' (1720) — Milan, and Livorno, Strada moved to London in 1729 to sing for Handel after the composer engaged her for his operas. She made her début as Adelaida in '' Lotario'' and was ''prima donna'' in all his operas and oratorios until 1737. She sang in a minimum of 24 of Handel's operas and the opera-ballet ''Terpsicore'', a new prologue to a revision of ''Il pastor fido''. Her roles included Angelica in ''Orlando'', the title role in ''Partenope'', Elmira in ''Sosarme'', Thusnelda in '' Arminio'', and Ariadne in '' Giustino'', and the title role of Atalanta. Strada was the only singer of Handel's company who did not defect to the rival Opera of the Nobility in 173 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Granville
Mary Delany ( Granville; 14 May 1700 – 15 April 1788) was an English artist, letter-writer, and bluestocking, known for her "paper-mosaicks" and botanic drawing, needlework and her lively correspondence. Early life Mary Delany was born at Coulston, Wiltshire, the daughter of Colonel Bernard Granville by his marriage to Mary Westcombe, loyal Tory supporters of the Stuart Crown. She was a niece of George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne, her father's brother. Mary had one older brother, Bernard (1699), known as Bunny; a younger brother Bevil, born between 1702 and 1706; and a sister, Anne (1707) who married John Dewes (D'Ewes). When Mary was young, her parents moved the family to London, and she attended a school taught by a French refugee, Mademoiselle Puelle. Mary came into close contact with the Court when she was sent to live with her aunt, Lady Stanley, who was childless – the intention being that she would eventually become a Maid of Honour.Hayden, 1980. While livi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trouser Role
A breeches role (also pants role or trouser role, or Hosenrolle) is one in which an actress appears in male clothing. Breeches, tight-fitting knee-length pants, were the standard male garment at the time these roles were introduced. The theatrical term ''Travesti (theatre), travesti'' covers both this sort of cross-dressing and also that of male actors dressing as female characters. Both are part of the long history of cross-dressing in music and opera and later cross-dressing in film and television, in film and television. In opera, a breeches role refers to any male character that is sung and acted by a female singer. Most often the character is an adolescent or a very young man, sung by a mezzo-soprano or contralto.Julian Budden, Budden J., "Breeches part" in: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997. The operatic concept assumes that the character is male, and the audience accepts him as such, even knowing that the actor is not. Cross-dressi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berenice (opera)
''Berenice'' ( HWV 38) is an opera in three acts by George Frideric Handel to a 1709 Antonio Salvi libretto, ''Berenice, regina d’Egitto'', or ''Berenice, Queen of Egypt''. Handel began the music in December 1736; the premiere took place at Covent Garden Theatre in London on 18 May 1737 — but was unsuccessful, with just three further performances. Set circa 81 B.C., ''Berenice'' traces the life of Berenice III of Egypt, daughter of Ptolemy IX, the main character in another Handel opera, ''Tolomeo''. Background The German-born Handel, after spending some of his early career composing operas and other pieces in Italy, settled in London, where in 1711 he had brought Italian opera for the first time with his opera ''Rinaldo''. An enormous success, ''Rinaldo'' created a craze in London for Italian ''opera seria'', a form focused overwhelmingly on solo arias for the star virtuoso singers. Handel had presented new operas in London for years with great success. One of the major attra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arminio
''Arminio'' ( HWV 36) is an opera composed by George Frideric Handel. The libretto is based on a libretto of the same name by Antonio Salvi, which had been set to music by Alessandro Scarlatti. It is a fictionalisation of events surrounding the Germanic leader Arminius, who defeated the Romans under Publius Quinctilius Varus at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9, and his wife Thusnelda. The opera was performed for the first time at the Covent Garden Theatre on 12 January 1737. Background The German-born Handel had brought Italian opera to London stages for the first time in 1711 with his opera ''Rinaldo''. An enormous success, ''Rinaldo'' created a craze in London for Italian opera seria, a form focused overwhelmingly on solo arias for the star virtuoso singers. Handel had presented new operas in London for years with great success. One of the major attractions in Handel's operas was the star castrato Senesino whose relationship with the composer was often stormy and who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orlando (opera)
''Orlando'' ( HWV 31) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel written for the King's Theatre in London in 1733. The Italian-language libretto was adapted from Carlo Sigismondo Capece's '' L'Orlando'' after Ludovico Ariosto's '' Orlando Furioso'', which was also the source of Handel's operas ''Alcina'' and ''Ariodante''. More an artistic than a popular success at its first performances, ''Orlando'' is today recognised as a masterpiece. Performance history The opera was first given at the King's Theatre in London on 27 January 1733. There were 10 further performances and it was not revived. The first production since Handel's lifetime was given at Halle, Handel's birthplace, in 1922. A production staged by the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham, England, in 1966, conducted by Anthony Lewis, with Janet Baker in the title role, brought the opera back to London for the first time in over two centuries with performances later the same year at Sadler's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Partenope
''Partenope'' ("Parthenope", HWV 27) is an opera by George Frideric Handel, first performed at the King's Theatre in London on 24 February 1730. Although following the structure and forms of opera seria, the work is humorous in character and light-textured in music, with a plot involving romantic complications and gender confusion. A success with audiences at the time of its original production and then unperformed for many years, ''Partenope'' is now often seen on the world's opera stages. Background The opera, which is in three acts, is composed to an Italian libretto adapted by an unknown hand from a libretto originally written in 1699 by Silvio Stampiglia. Stampiglia's libretto had received many previous settings, including one by Caldara which Handel may have seen in Venice around 1710. It was Handel's first comic (or, rather, unserious) opera since the much earlier '' Agrippina'', breaking away from the more traditional opera seria works for which the composer was known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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