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Giovanni Emanuele Bidera
Giovanni Emanuele Bidera (or Bideri) (4 October 1784 – 8 April 1858) was an Italian writer. He is primarily known as the librettist of Gaetano Donizetti's operas ''Gemma di Vergy'' and ''Marino Faliero'', but he also wrote many other librettos for lesser known composers as well as plays, essays, books about Naples, and a treatise on acting. Bidera was born in the small Sicilian town of Palazzo Adriano and spent most of his career in Naples. In 1850 he retired to Palermo where he died at the age of 73. Biography Bidera was born in Palazzo Adriano, now a commune of Palermo. According to the ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'', his family were of humble origins. However, according to an 1986 article on Bidera's life and work written by his great-great-grandson, Luciano Villevieille Bideri, the Bideri were a noble Arbëreshë family who later fell on hard times. Bidera was one of the seven children of Baroness Anna Dara and Count Pietro Atanasio Bideri. In his childhood and ado ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palazzo Adriano
Palazzo Adriano ( IPA: , aae, Pallaci, scn, U PalàzzuGasca Queirazza, Giuliano (ed.) (1990). ''Dizionario di toponomastica. Storia e significato dei nomi geografici italiani'', p. 468. UTET. ) is a town and ''comune'' of Arbëresh origin in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. Located in the heart of Sicania on the northern slopes of Monte delle Rose, almost equidistant from Palermo and Agrigento, it is a town of Arbëreshë origin. Although the inhabitants have abandoned the use of the Arbëresh language, the town's inhabitants preserve the Byzantine rite in their liturgy. Palazzo Adriano is best known internationally for being among the filming locations of the Oscar-winning film '' Cinema Paradiso''. The local economy is primarily dedicated to agriculture. History The first mention of a ''casale Adrianum'' (farmstead of Adriano) dates from before 1060 under the reign of the Norman Roger I of Sicily. More reliable is information about the hamlet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giuseppe Balducci
Giuseppe Balducci (2 May 1796 – 1845) was an Italian composer, primarily of operas. Born in Iesi, he spent most of his career in Naples and was one of the originators of the "salon opera" genre, the forerunner of chamber opera. Life and career Balducci was born in Iesi to a once-prosperous family in the city. He was a distant cousin of the composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (their grandfathers were brothers). Balducci's father, a successful businessman, was kidnapped and killed on one of his travels shortly before Balducci was born. A business partner fraudulently took possession of most of his father's wealth leaving Balducci's mother and children in very straitened circumstances. Balducci studied music under the castrato singer Giovanni Ripa in Iesi and the composer in nearby Senigallia.Conti, Carla (2003). ''Nobilissime allieve: della musica a Napoli tra Sette e Ottocento'', p. 131. Guida By the age of 17 Balducci had formed his own opera troupe in which he also sang as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transcription (music)
In music, transcription is the practice of Musical notation, notating a piece or a sound which was previously unnotated and/or unpopular as a written music, for example, a jazz improvisation or a video game soundtrack. When a musician is tasked with creating sheet music from a recording and they write down the notes that make up the piece in music notation, it is said that they created a ''musical transcription'' of that recording. Transcription may also mean rewriting a piece of music, either solo or Musical ensemble, ensemble, for another instrument or other instruments than which it was originally intended. The Beethoven Symphonies (Liszt), Beethoven Symphonies transcribed for solo piano by Franz Liszt are an example. Transcription in this sense is sometimes called ''arrangement'', although strictly speaking transcriptions are faithful adaptations, whereas arrangements change significant aspects of the original piece. Further examples of music transcription include Ethnomusico ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margherita Of Savoy
Margherita of Savoy (''Margherita Maria Teresa Giovanna''; 20 November 1851 – 4 January 1926) was Queen of Italy by marriage to Umberto I. Life Early life Margherita was born to Prince Ferdinand of Savoy, Duke of Genoa and Princess Elisabeth of Saxony. Her father died in 1855, and her mother remarried morganatically to Major Nicholas Bernoud, Marchese di Rapallo. She was educated by countess Clelia Monticelli di Casalrosso and her Austrian governess Rosa Arbesser. Reportedly, she was given a more advanced education than most princesses at the time, and displayed a great deal of intellectual curiosity.Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 70 (2008) As a person, she was described as sensitive, proud and with a strong force of will without being hard, as well as having the ability to be charming when she chose to. As to her appearance, she was described as a tall, stately blonde, but she was not regarded as a beauty. Initially, she was suggested to marry Prince Charles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 strings, although five (10 strings) and six (12 strings) course versions also exist. There are of course different types of strings that can be used, metal strings are the main ones since they are the cheapest and easiest to make. The courses are typically tuned in an interval of perfect fifths, with the same tuning as a violin (G3, D4, A4, E5). Also, like the violin, it is the soprano member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello and mandobass. There are many styles of mandolin, but the three most common types are the ''Neapolitan'' or ''round-backed'' mandolin, the ''archtop'' mandolin and the ''flat-backed'' mandolin. The round-backed version has a deep bottom, constructed of strips of wood, glued togethe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cameo (carving)
Cameo () is a method of carving an object such as an engraved gem, item of jewellery or vessel. It nearly always features a raised (positive) relief image; contrast with intaglio, which has a negative image. Originally, and still in discussing historical work, cameo only referred to works where the relief image was of a contrasting colour to the background; this was achieved by carefully carving a piece of material with a flat plane where two contrasting colours met, removing all the first colour except for the image to leave a contrasting background. A variation of a carved cameo is a cameo incrustation (or sulphide). An artist, usually an engraver, carves a small portrait, then makes a cast from the carving, from which a ceramic type cameo is produced. This is then encased in a glass object, often a paperweight. These are very difficult to make but were popular from the late 18th century through the end of the 19th century. Originating in Bohemia, the finest examples were mad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferdinand II Of The Two Sicilies
Ferdinand II ( it, Ferdinando Carlo; scn, Ferdinannu Carlu; nap, Ferdinando Carlo; 12 January 1810 – 22 May 1859) was King of the Two Sicilies from 1830 until his death in 1859. Family Ferdinand was born in Palermo to King Francis I of the Two Sicilies and his wife Maria Isabella of Spain. His paternal grandparents were King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Queen Maria Carolina of Austria. His maternal grandparents were Charles IV of Spain and Maria Luisa of Parma. Ferdinand I and Charles IV were brothers, both sons of Charles III of Spain and Maria Amalia of Saxony. Among his siblings were: Teresa Cristina, Empress of Brazil, wife of the last Brazilian emperor Pedro II. Early reign In his early years he was fairly popular. Progressives credited him with Liberal ideas and, in addition, his free and easy manners endeared him to the so-called ''lazzaroni'', the lower classes of Neapolitan society. On succeeding to the throne in 1830, he published an edict in which he prom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Timaeus Of Locri
Timaeus of Locri (; grc, Τίμαιος ὁ Λοκρός, Tímaios ho Lokrós; la, Timaeus Locrus) is a character in two of Plato's dialogues, ''Timaeus (dialogue), Timaeus'' and ''Critias (dialogue), Critias''. In both, he appears as a Ancient Greek philosophy, philosopher of the Pythagoreanism, Pythagorean school. If there ever existed a historical Timaeus of Locri, he would have lived in the fifth century Before Christ, BC, but his historicity is dubious since he only appears as a literary figure in Plato's works; all other ancient sources are either based on Plato or are fictional accounts. Historicity In Plato's works, Timaeus appears as a wealthy aristocrat from the Magna Graecia, Greek colony of Lokroi Epizephyrioi (present-day Locri in Calabria), who had served in high offices in his native town before coming to Athens, where the dialogue of ''Timaeus'' is set. Plato does not explicitly label Timaeus a Pythagorean, but leaves enough hints for the reader to infer this. He a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning on the European continent. Along with his teacher, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato is a central figure in the history of Ancient Greek philosophy and the Western and Middle Eastern philosophies descended from it. He has also shaped religion and spirituality. The so-called neoplatonism of his interpreter Plotinus greatly influenced both Christianity (through Church Fathers such as Augustine) and Islamic philosophy (through e.g. Al-Farabi). In modern times, Friedrich Nietzsche diagnosed Western culture as growing in the shadow of Plato (famously calling Christianity "Platonism for the masses"), while Alfred North Whitehead famously said: "the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samos, Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionians, Ionian Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia and influenced the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and, through them, the Western philosophy, West in general. Knowledge of his life is clouded by legend, but he appears to have been the son of Mnesarchus, a gem-engraver on the island of Samos. Modern scholars disagree regarding Pythagoras's education and influences, but they do agree that, around 530 BC, he travelled to Crotone, Croton in southern Italy, where he founded a school in which initiates were sworn to secrecy and lived a communal, asceticism, ascetic lifestyle. This lifestyle entailed a number of dietary prohibitions, traditionally said to have included vegetarianism, although m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Etna
Mount Etna, or simply Etna ( it, Etna or ; scn, Muncibbeḍḍu or ; la, Aetna; grc, Αἴτνα and ), is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, Italy, in the Metropolitan City of Catania, between the cities of Messina and Catania. It lies above the convergent plate margin between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate. It is one of the tallest active volcanoes in Europe, and the tallest peak in Italy south of the Alps with a current height (July 2021) of , though this varies with summit eruptions. Over a six-month period in 2021, Etna erupted so much volcanic material that its height increased by approximately , and the southeastern crater is now the tallest part of the volcano. Etna covers an area of with a basal circumference of . This makes it by far the largest of the three active volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. Only Mount Teide on Tenerife in the Canary Islands surpasses it in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marco Marcelliano Marcello
Marco Marcelliano Marcello (7 March 1818 – 23 July 1865) was an Italian writer and composer. He was particularly known for the opera libretti he wrote for the Italian composers Achille Peri, Carlo Pedrotti, and Antonio Cagnoni as well as his translations of French operas for their first performances in Italy, including Meyerbeer's ''L'Africaine''. Biography Marcello was born in San Giovanni Lupatoto, a small town near Verona. He showed an early talent for music and poetry and at the age of 16 composed his first opera. His family sent him to Novara where he studied music and composition under Saverio Mercadante. He then followed Mercadante to Naples where he continued his studies in singing and composition and joined the circle of young writers around the writer and librettist Giovanni Emanuele Bidera. During that time, he composed two operas which were never performed. He also began working as a translator and librettist. He produced two librettos for operas by Carlo Pedrotti c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
