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Giovacchino Forzano
Giovacchino Forzano (; 19 November 1884 – 28 October 1970) was an Italian playwright, librettist, stage and film director. A resourceful writer, he authored numerous popular plays and produced opera librettos for most of the major Italian composers of the early twentieth century, including the librettos for Giacomo Puccini's ''Suor Angelica'' and ''Gianni Schicchi''.Julian Budden: "Giovacchino Forzano", ''Grove Music Online'' ed. L. Macy (Accessed 4 March 2009)(subscription access)/ref> Biography Forzano was born in Borgo San Lorenzo, in the province of Florence. He studied medicine before embarking on a brief career as an operatic baritone. He then began studying law and, after finishing his diploma, became a freelance journalist, contributing regularly to several of Italy's major newspapers. In 1914 he met and befriended Puccini who asked him to write the librettos for his ''Il trittico'', a collection of three one-act operas. Forzano agreed to write the librettos for two o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Umberto Giordano
Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano (28 August 186712 November 1948) was an Italian composer, mainly of operas. He was born in Foggia in Apulia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples. His first opera, ''Marina'', was written for a competition promoted by the music publishers Casa Sonzogno for the best one-act opera, remembered today because it marked the beginning of Italian ''verismo''. The winner was Mascagni's ''Cavalleria rusticana''. Giordano, the youngest contestant, was placed sixth among seventy-three entries with his ''Marina'', a work which generated enough interest for Sonzogno to commission the staging of an opera based on it in the 1891–92 season. The result was ''Mala vita'', a gritty ''verismo'' opera about a labourer who vows to reform a prostitute if he is cured of his tuberculosis. This work caused something of a scandal when performed at the Teatro Argentina, Rome, in February 1892. It played successfully in Vienna, Pragu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Il Re
''Il re'' (''The king'') is a novella or opera in one act and three scenes by composer Umberto Giordano to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. The opera premiered at La Scala in Milan on 12 January 1929.Julian Budden: "Il re", ''Grove Music Online'' ed. L. Macy (Accessed March 04, 2009)(subscription access)/ref> The opera is a short comedy, only lasting about 1 hour in performance, about a young woman, Rosalina, betrothed to Colombello. One day she sees the King in all his majesty and falls in love with him, breaking the engagement with Colombello. But after meeting the king privately in his chamber, and seeing him with no crown or clothes, she loses her interest in him and returns to Colombello. Performance history Unusual for a 20th-century opera, ''Il re'' was written specifically as a vehicle for Toti Dal Monte, a coloratura soprano of the old school. Dal Monte performed the work a number of times during her career but after her retirement, the opera quickly fell into o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sly (opera)
''Sly, ovvero La leggenda del dormiente risvegliato'' (English: ''Sly, or The Legend of the Sleeper Awoken'') is an opera in three acts by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, based on the Induction (the Prologue) to William Shakespeare's ''The Taming of the Shrew'' (the German version of libretto, ''Sly, oder Die Legende vom wiedererweckten Schläfer'', was translated by ). Unlike most of Wolf-Ferrari's other operas, this is a tragedy. ''Sly'' as verismo Many musicologists regard Wolf-Ferrari as having written only one verismo opera (''I gioielli della Madonna'', Berlin, 1911). There are reasons to disagree, and to consider ''Sly'' (La Scala, 1927) not only as being, in many ways, a verismo opera, but also as being nearly the last of its kind. And, as such, the virtual end of the noble line of Italian opera, starting, perhaps, with Cimarosa, perhaps with Paisiello, perhaps even much earlier, passing through bel canto, continuing with Verdi and hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Primo Riccitelli
Primo Riccitelli (9 August 1875 – 27 March 1941), was an Italian composer. One of six children, he was born in the village of Cognoli, Campli in the Abruzzo region of Italy. His father, Giuseppe, was a small landowner and his mother, Maria Maiaroli, a homemaker. The one-day-old infant was baptized at the local parish hall of Molviano with the first name Pancrazio. He would later perform under the stage name, Primo Riccitelli. Primo Riccitelli began his studies in the town of Teramo and then transferred to the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro where he soon became the protégé of Pietro Mascagni. He is perhaps best remembered for two operas, ''I Compagnacci'' and '' Madonna Oretta''. Lesser known compositions include ''Madonnetta'', ''Francesca da Rimini'', ''Lory'', ''Nena''; ''Heremos'', ''Suora Maddalena'' and ''Maria sul Monte''. The one-act opera 'I Compagnacci,' was performed in Rome and at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, and was performed in concer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Il Piccolo Marat
''Il piccolo Marat'' is a ''dramma lirico'' or opera in three acts by the Italian composer Pietro Mascagni from a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. Performance history The opera was first performed on 2 May 1921 at the Teatro Costanzi, Rome and then many times in Italy and South America, with at least 450 individual performances documented. Though Mascagni was slated to perform the opera in the United States in 1926, logistics proved too difficult for rehearsal, and the North American premiere waited until 13 April 2009, when Teatro Grattacielo performed the opera at Avery Fisher Hall in New York. Roles Synopsis Source: Time of the Reign of Terror in France. Act One Scene: A small town square. On the left a building with a gallery and stairs, door beneath the gallery - The Committee Building. In the distance a bridge spanning a river. On the right a convent converted to a prison. All is deserted save "an American hussar" who stands guard at the prison. An autumn evening ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edipo Re (opera)
''Edipo Re'' is an opera generally attributed to Ruggero Leoncavallo, although there is some dispute about the authorship. The libretto is by Giovacchino Forzano. It had its premiere in Chicago in 1920. The opera was published posthumously in 1920 and was completed and orchestrated by . Leoncavallo biographer Konrad Dryden disputes whether Leoncavallo composed the opera at all, stating that "it is extremely doubtful whether ''Edipo Re'', ''Maschera nuda'' or the short operetta ''Il primo bacio'' had anything to do with the composer at all." Other sources continue to attribute it to Leoncavallo with completion by Pennacchio. ''Edipo Re'' was premiered by the Chicago Opera in 1920. It had its Italian operatic premiere in 1958, although a performance was broadcast on Italian radio in 1939. The plot of ''Edipo Re'' is based on Sophocles' ''Oedipus Rex'', although the libretto excluded most of the choruses. According to music journalist William Schoelle, the opera contains "a dyn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lodoletta
''Lodoletta'' is a ''dramma lirico'' or lyric opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni. The libretto is by Giovacchino Forzano, and is based on the novel ''Two Little Wooden Shoes'' by Ouida (pseudonym of Marie Louise de la Ramée). It was first performed at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 30 April 1917 with Rosina Storchio in the title role. The American premiere was on 12 January 1918 at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, with Geraldine Farrar as Lodoletta and Enrico Caruso Enrico Caruso (, , ; 25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic first lyrical tenor then dramatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles (74) ... as Flammen. Roles The opera is set in 1853 in Holland. References External links *Libretto(in Italian) {{Authority control Italian-language operas Operas by Pietro Mascagni Operas 1917 operas Operas based on novels Operas set in the Netherland ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carro Di Tespi
The Carro di Tespi lirico was a travelling Italian theatrical company that was formerly supported by the Fascist regime. It was started in 1930 to bring opera to the masses. Three companies of Carro di Tespi drammatico, started in 1929 for non-operatic stage works, also existed. The Carro di Tespi lirico brought opera to many Italian cities that did not have regular opera seasons, as well as some that did. It normally toured in July, August and September to about forty locations with two or three operas. Troupes occasionally would perform directly from the back of their traveling trucks or wagons. They also performed throughout Europe. The staging of La Bohème, on an open-air stage in front of the Villa Puccini in the summer of 1930 marked the inauguration of the modern Carro di Tespi. The company returned to Torre del Lago in 1931 with Madama Butterfly and La Bohème. During the remainder of the 1930s, only one season was presented, in 1937, featuring last century's arguably ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vittoriale Degli Italiani
The Vittoriale degli italiani (English translation: ''The shrine of victories of the Italians'') is a hillside estate in the town of Gardone Riviera overlooking Lake Garda in province of Brescia, in Lombardy. It is where the Italian poet and novelist Gabriele d'Annunzio lived after his defenestration in 1922 until his death in 1938. The estate consists of the residence of d'Annunzio called the Prioria (priory), an amphitheatre, the protected cruiser set into a hillside, a boathouse containing the MAS vessel used by D'Annunzio in 1918 and a circular mausoleum. Its grounds are now part of the Grandi Giardini Italiani. References to the Vittoriale range from a “monumental citadel” to a “fascist lunapark”, the site inevitably inheriting the controversy surrounding its creator. History The house, Villa Cargnacco, had belonged to the German art historian of the Italian Renaissance Henry Thode, from whom it was confiscated by the Italian state, including artworks, a collect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 1943, and "Duce" of Italian Fascism from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919 until his execution in 1945 by Italian partisans. As dictator of Italy and principal founder of fascism, Mussolini inspired and supported the international spread of fascist movements during the inter-war period. Mussolini was originally a socialist politician and a journalist at the ''Avanti!'' newspaper. In 1912, he became a member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), but he was expelled from the PSI for advocating military intervention in World War I, in opposition to the party's stance on neutrality. In 1914, Mussolini founded a new journal, ''Il Popolo d'Italia'', and served in the Royal Italian Army durin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
