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Franco Alfano
Franco Alfano (8 March 1875 – 27 October 1954) was an Italian composer and pianist, best known today for his opera '' Risurrezione'' (1904) and for having completed Puccini's opera ''Turandot'' in 1926. He had considerable success with several of his own works during his lifetime. Career Alfano was born in Posillipo, Naples. He attended piano lessons given privately by Alessandro Longo, and harmony and composition respectively under Camillo de Nardis (1857–1951) and Paolo Serrao at the Conservatory San Pietro a Majella in Naples. Later, after graduating, in 1895 he pursued further composition studies with Hans Sitt and Salomon Jadassohn in Leipzig. While working there he met his idol, Edvard Grieg, and wrote numerous piano and orchestral pieces. From 1918 he was Director of the Conservatory of Bologna, from 1923 Director of the Turin Conservatory, and from 1947 to 1950 Director of the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro. Alfano died in San Remo. Operas Alfano completed h ...
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Posillipo
Posillipo (; nap, Pusilleco ) is an affluent residential quarter of Naples, southern Italy, located along the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples. From the 1st century BC the Bay of Naples witnessed the rise of villas constructed by elite Romans along the most panoramic points of the coast, who had chosen the area as a favourite vacation spot. The remains of some of these, around the imperial pleasure villa of the Roman emperors, as well as the Tunnel of Sejanus can be seen today in the ''Parco archeologico del Pausilypon'', or Pausilypon Archaeological Park, and elsewhere. Geography Posillipo is a rocky peninsula about 6 km long surrounded by cliffs with a few small coves with breakwaters at the western end of the Bay of Naples. These small harbours are the nuclei for separate, named communities such as Gaiola Island and Marechiaro. History Antiquity Posillipo is mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman sources. As part of Magna Graecia, the Ancient Greeks first named ...
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Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is mainly on the western bank of the Po River, below its Susa Valley, and is surrounded by the western Alpine arch and Superga Hill. The population of the city proper is 847,287 (31 January 2022) while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 1.7 million inhabitants. The Turin metropolitan area is estimated by the OECD to have a population of 2.2 million. The city used to be a major European political centre. From 1563, it was the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, then of the Kingdom of Sardinia ruled by the House of Savoy, and the first capital of the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 to 1865. Turin is sometimes called "the cradle of Italian liberty" for having been the political and intellectual centre of t ...
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Henri Cain
Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry. People with this given name ; French noblemen :'' See the ' List of rulers named Henry' for Kings of France named Henri.'' * Henri I de Montmorency (1534–1614), Marshal and Constable of France * Henri I, Duke of Nemours (1572–1632), the son of Jacques of Savoy and Anna d'Este * Henri II, Duke of Nemours (1625–1659), the seventh Duc de Nemours * Henri, Count of Harcourt (1601–1666), French nobleman * Henri, Dauphin of Viennois (1296–1349), bishop of Metz * Henri de Gondi (other) * Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon (1555–1623), member of the powerful House of La Tour d'Auvergne * Henri Emmanuel Boileau, baron de Castelnau (1857–1923), French mountain climber * Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (born 1955), the head of state of Luxembourg * Henri de Massue, Earl of Galway, French Huguenot soldier and diplomat, one of the principal commanders ...
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Edmond Rostand
Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand (, , ; 1 April 1868 – 2 December 1918) was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is known best for his 1897 play '' Cyrano de Bergerac''. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with the naturalistic theatre popular during the late nineteenth century. Another of Rostand's works, ''Les Romanesques'' (1894), was adapted to the 1960 musical comedy '' The Fantasticks''. Early life Rostand was born in Marseille, France, into a wealthy and cultured Provençal family. His father was an economist, a poet who translated and edited the works of Catullus, and a member of the Marseille Academy and the Institut de France. Rostand studied literature, history, and philosophy at the Collège Stanislas in Paris, France. Career When Rostand was twenty years old, his first play, a one-act comedy, ''Le Gant rouge'', was performed at the Cluny Theatre, 24 August 1888, but it was almost unnoticed.
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Cyrano De Bergerac (play)
''Cyrano de Bergerac'' is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand. There was a real Cyrano de Bergerac, and the play is a fictionalisation following the broad outlines of his life. The entire play is written in verse, in rhyming couplets of twelve syllables per line, very close to the classical alexandrine form, but the verses sometimes lack a caesura. It is also meticulously researched, down to the names of the members of the Académie française and the ''dames précieuses'' glimpsed before the performance in the first scene. The play has been translated and performed many times, and it is responsible for introducing the word '' panache'' into the English language. The character of Cyrano himself makes reference to "my panache" in the play. The most famous English translations are those by Brian Hooker, Anthony Burgess, and Louis Untermeyer. Plot summary Hercule Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac, a cadet (nobleman serving as a soldier) in the French Army, is a brash, str ...
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Cyrano De Bergerac (Alfano)
''Cyrano de Bergerac'' is a four-act opera with music by Franco Alfano, and libretto by Henri Caïn, based on Edmond Rostand's 1897 drama ''Cyrano de Bergerac''. History The opera received its first performance at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma on 22 January 1936, conducted by Tullio Serafin, with Maria Caniglia and José Luccioni. The first performance in Paris was on 29 May 1936 at the Opéra-Comique. Although Alfano originally set the text in French, the premiere was sung in Italian, as were many early Italian productions. In recent years, most productions have returned to the original French text, which was used in the Paris premiere. Contemporary commentary on the opera by Guido M. Gatti criticised the composer as fearing "to seem too melodramatic", and the opera for being "overdecorated and labored" and containing "difficult and tortuous vocal writing". However, the same analysis also mentioned that "the opera has moments of definite effectiveness and exquisite poetry". ...
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Magda Olivero
Magda Olivero (née Maria Maddalena Olivero) (25 March 1910 – 8 September 2014), was an Italian operatic soprano. Her career started in 1932 when she was 22, and spanned five decades, establishing her "as an important link between the era of the verismo composers and the modern opera stage". She has been regarded as "one of the greatest singers of the twentieth century". Life and career Born as Maria Maddalena Olivero in Saluzzo, Italy, she followed complete musical studies (piano, harmony and composition), graduating in piano at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Turin. She later studied singing outside the Conservatory and made her singing debut in 1932 on radio performing Nino Cattozzo's (1886–1961) oratorio, ''I Misteri Dolorosi''. Landini, Giancarlo Olivero, Maria Maddalena, detta Magda', in ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (2017)''. Olivero performed widely and increasingly successfully until 1941, when she married the industrialist Aldo Busch and retired from ...
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Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-reformed Russian. ; ), usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. He received nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902, and 1909; the fact that he never won is a major controversy. Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, Tolstoy's notable works include the novels ''War and Peace'' (1869) and ''Anna Karenina'' (1878), often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction. He first achieved literary acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, ''Childhood'', '' Boyhood'', and ''Youth'' (1852–1856), and '' Sevastopol Sketches'' (1855), based upon his experiences in ...
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Wrocław
Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, roughly from the Baltic Sea to the north and from the Sudeten Mountains to the south. , the official population of Wrocław is 672,929, with a total of 1.25 million residing in the metropolitan area, making it the third largest city in Poland. Wrocław is the historical capital of Silesia and Lower Silesia. Today, it is the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. The history of the city dates back over a thousand years; at various times, it has been part of the Kingdom of Poland, the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Habsburg monarchy of Austria, the Kingdom of Prussia and Germany. Wrocław became part of Poland again in 1945 as part of the Recovered Territories, the result of extensive border changes and expulsions ...
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Casa Ricordi
Casa Ricordi is a publisher of primarily classical music and opera. Its classical repertoire represents one of the important sources in the world through its publishing of the work of the major 19th-century Italian composers such as Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, Giuseppe Verdi, and, later in the century, Giacomo Puccini, composers with whom one or another of the Ricordi family came into close contact.Gossett 2006, p. 97 Founded in Milan in 1808 as G. Ricordi & C. by violinist Giovanni Ricordi (1785–1853), the Ricordi company became a totally family-run organization until 1919, when outside management was appointed. Four generations of Ricordis were at the helm of the company, Giovanni being succeeded in 1853 by his son Tito (1811–1888) (who had worked for his father since 1825). Tito's son was Giulio (1840–1912). He had also worked for his father, beginning full-time in 1863, and then took over from 1888 until his death in 1912. Finally Giulio's s ...
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Luigi Illica
Luigi Illica (9 May 1857 – 16 December 1919) was an Italian librettist who wrote for Giacomo Puccini (usually with Giuseppe Giacosa), Pietro Mascagni, Alfredo Catalani, Umberto Giordano, Baron Alberto Franchetti and other important Italian composers. His most famous opera libretti are those for ''La Bohème'', ''Tosca'', '' Madama Butterfly'' and '' Andrea Chénier''. Illica was born at Castell'Arquato. His personal life sometimes imitated his libretti. The reason he is always photographed with his head slightly turned is because he lost his right ear in a duel over a woman. When silent films based on Illica's operas were made, his name appeared in large letters on advertisements because distributors could only guarantee that his stories would be used, and not that they would be accompanied by the music of the appropriate composer. As a playwright of considerable quality, he is today remembered through one of Italy's oldest awards, the Luigi Illica International Prize foun ...
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Classic Produktion Osnabrück
Classic Produktion Osnabrück (often referred to as cpo, in lowercase) is a record label founded in 1986 by Georg Ortmann and several others. Its declared mission is to fill niches in the recorded classical repertory, with an emphasis on romantic, late romantic and 20th-century music. The label also aims to release complete cycles of recordings, such as complete sets of symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and so forth. It is the house label of online retailer jpc. Recordings Recordings issued by cpo include (see second external link; some of these are no longer available) *Concertos, suites, cantates, chambermusic etc. of Georg Philipp Telemann *The complete orchestral works and string quartets of Paul Hindemith *The complete string quartets of Mieczysław Weinberg *The complete orchestral works of Erich Wolfgang Korngold *The orchestral works of Hans Pfitzner (and a substantial amount of his chamber works as well) *The symphonies and string quartets of Benjamin Frankel *The s ...
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