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Graham Clark (tenor)
Graham Ronald Clark (10 November 1941 – 6 July 2023) was an English operatic tenor, known for roles such as David in Wagner's ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'', and especially the character roles Loge and Mime in ''Der Ring des Nibelungen''. He was a principal with the English National Opera from 1978 to 1985, and performed at leading European and North American opera houses after he was recognised at the Bayreuth Festival in 1981, returning for 15 seasons. Clark appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in 112 performances over 15 seasons, in roles such as Stewa in Janácek's ''Jenůfa'', Herod in ''Salome'' by Richard Strauss, the Captain in Alban Berg's ''Wozzeck'' and Captain Vere in Britten's ''Billy Budd''. He took part in world premieres and recorded for major companies. He is remembered as a "superb, athletic actor with a strong, penetrating voice and exceptionally clear diction". Barry Millington from ''The Guardian'' summarised: "Though he made his career as a comprimario ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Littleborough, Lancashire
Littleborough ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England, in the upper Roch Valley by the foothills of the South Pennines, northeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester; Milnrow and the M62 motorway are to the south, and the rural uplands of Blackstone Edge to the east. In 2001, Littleborough, and its suburbs of Calderbrook, Shore and Smithy Bridge,. had a population of 13,807. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, Littleborough and its surroundings have provided evidence of Neolithic, Celtic, Roman and Anglo-Saxon activity in the area. During the Middle Ages, Littleborough was a hamlet in the manor of Hundersfield, parish of Rochdale and hundred of Salford.. It was focussed upon the junction of two ancient routes over the Pennines — one of which may have been a Roman road — that joined to cross the River Roch. By 1472, Littleborough consisted of a chapel, a cluster of cottages, and an inn, and its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world; it has buildings in every style of English architecture since late Anglo-Saxon. Oxford's industries include motor manufacturing, education, publishing, information technology and science. History The history of Oxford in England dates back to its original settlement in the Saxon period. Originally of strategic significance due to its controlling location on the upper reaches of the River Thames at its junction with the River Cherwell, the town grew in national importance during the early Norman period, and in the late 12th century became home to the fledgling University of Oxford. The city was besieged during The Anarchy in 1142. The university rose to dom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clifford Grant
Clifford Scantlebury Grant (11 September 1930 – 7 October 2021) was an Australian operatic Bass (voice type), bass singer. Life and career Grant was born in September 1930 in Randwick, New South Wales, Randwick, Sydney. In 1966, he joined English National Opera, Sadler's Wells Opera company and on 20 December 1974 he had his debut at the Royal Opera House in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart's ''The Marriage of Figaro'', in the role of Doctor Bartolo. His Metropolitan Opera debut took place two years later when he created the role of Emperor Phorcas in the Met's premiere of Massenet's ''Esclarmonde''. He retired from the stage in 1990. He participated in numerous recordings of operas, such as Bellini's ''Norma (opera), Norma'', ''Esclarmonde'', the collection of all late Italian operas by Mozart, ''Lakmé'' by Delibes, Donizetti's ''Lucia di Lammermoor'', Meyerbeer's ''Les Huguenots'', Puccini's ''Tosca'', Verdi's ''Ernani'', ''I Lombardi alla prima crociata, I Lombardi'' and '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heather Begg
Dame Isoleen Heather Begg (1 December 1932 – 12 May 2009) was a New Zealand-born operatic mezzo-soprano who spent most of her career in the United Kingdom and Australia. She was renowned in roles such as the title role in Bizet's '' Carmen'', Amneris in Verdi's ''Aida'' and in lighter operas such as ''The Gondoliers''. She appeared alongside Dame Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Beverly Sills, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Plácido Domingo, Montserrat Caballé, Dame Janet Baker, José Carreras, Dame Malvina Major, Sir Donald McIntyre and many other prominent singers. Her recording with Glenys Fowles of the "Flower Duet" from Delibes's ''Lakmé'' has become famous. Biography Born in Nelson, New Zealand in 1932, Begg studied in Auckland with Sister Mary Leo and at the New South Wales State Conservatorium, during which time she won the 1955 Sydney Sun Aria contest. She was engaged as a principal mezzo-soprano with the National Opera of Australia from 1954 to 1956. Her prof ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s. She possessed a voice combining agility, accurate intonation, pinpoint staccatos,"Icons of Opera – Dame Joan Sutherland" ''Opera Britannia'' (6 July 2009). Retrieved 27 September 2010. a trill and a strong upper register, although music critics complained about her poor diction. Sutherland was the first Australian to win a , for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. The first theatre on the site, the Theatre Royal (1732), served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later, the first season of operas, by George Frideric Handel, began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there. The current building is the third theatre on the site, following disastrous fires in 1808 and 1856 to previous buildings. The façade, foyer, and auditorium date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive reconstruction in the 1990s. The main auditorium seats 2,256 people, makin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Bonynge
Richard Alan Bonynge ( ) (born 29 September 1930) is an Australian conductor and pianist. He is the widower of Australian dramatic coloratura soprano Dame Joan Sutherland. Bonynge conducted virtually all of Sutherland's operatic performances from 1962 until her retirement in 1990. Biography Bonynge was born in Epping, a suburb of Sydney, and educated at Sydney Boys' High School before studying piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and gaining a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, where his piano teacher was Herbert Fryer. He gave up his music scholarship, continuing his private piano studies, and became a coach for singers. One of these was Joan Sutherland, whom he had accompanied in Australia. They married in 1954 and became a duo, performing operatic recitals until 1962. When the scheduled conductor for a recital of operatic arias became ill and the replacement conductor was involved in a car accident, Bonynge stepped in and, from that time on, h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Life For The Tsar
''A Life for the Tsar'' ( rus, "Жизнь за царя", italic=yes, Zhizn za tsarya ) is a "patriotic-heroic tragic opera" in four acts with an epilogue by Mikhail Glinka. During the Soviet era the opera was known under the name '' Ivan Susanin'' (russian: Иван Сусанин ). The original Russian libretto, based on historical events, was written by Nestor Kukolnik, Egor Fyodorovich (von) Rozen, Vladimir Sollogub and Vasily Zhukovsky. It premiered on 27 November 1836 OS (9 December NS) at the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg. The historical basis of the plot involves Ivan Susanin, a patriotic hero of the early 17th century who died in the expulsion of the invading Polish army for the newly elected Tsar Michael of Russia, the first of the Romanov dynasty, elected in 1613.Osborne (2007) p. 143 History Composition history The plot of ''A Life for the Tsar'' had been used earlier in 1815, when Catterino Cavos, an Italian-Russian composer, had written a two-act s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Gambler (Prokofiev)
''The Gambler'' ( Russian: Игрок — ''Igrok'' in transliteration) is an opera in four acts by Sergei Prokofiev to a Russian libretto by the composer, based on the 1866 story of the same name by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Prokofiev had decided on this story as an operatic subject in 1914, and the conductor Albert Coates, of the Mariinsky Theatre, encouraged Prokofiev to compose this opera and assured him of a production at that theatre. Prokofiev wrote the opera in piano score between November 1915 and April 1916, and completed the orchestration in January 1917. Vsevolod Meyerhold was engaged as stage director. However, in the wake of the 1917 February Revolution, that production never occurred. Performance history The opera did not receive its first performance until 1929, after it had been extensively revised (in 1927), at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels. Prokofiev prepared an orchestral suite based on the opera in 1931 (see below). The Bolshoi Opera perfo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wexford Festival Opera
Wexford Festival Opera () is an opera festival that takes place in the town of Wexford in south-eastern Ireland during the months of October and November. The festival began in 1951 under Tom Walsh and a group of opera lovers who quickly generated considerable interest by programming unusual and rare works, a typical festival staging three operas. This concept has been maintained over the company's history under the direction of seven different artistic directors. From the beginning, the company embraced new and upcoming young singers, many of whom were Irish, but it also included new international names who made first appearances there. By the 1960s Czech and Russian operas entered the repertory, while the 1970s saw an interest in the operas of Jules Massenet under director Thomson Smillie, followed by an emphasis on Italian operas from the end of that decade. However, into the mix there appeared more modern operas by Benjamin Britten and Carlisle Floyd while Elaine Padmore' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belcanto
Bel canto (Italian for "beautiful singing" or "beautiful song", )—with several similar constructions (''bellezze del canto'', ''bell'arte del canto'')—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing. The phrase was not associated with a "school" of singing until the middle of the 19th century, when writers in the early 1860s used it nostalgically to describe a manner of singing that had begun to wane around 1830. Nonetheless, "neither musical nor general dictionaries saw fit to attempt definition f bel cantountil after 1900". The term remains vague and ambiguous in the 21st century and is often used to evoke a lost singing tradition. History of the term and its various definitions As generally understood today, the term ''bel canto'' refers to the Italian-originated vocal style that prevailed throughout most of Europe during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Late 19th- and 20th-century sources "would lead us to believe that ''bel canto'' was restricted to b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bruce Boyce
Bruce Boyce (1910 – 11 May 1996) was a prominent Canadian-born American baritone singer of opera, oratorio and lieder, who made his postwar career in Britain and became a professor at the Royal Academy of Music. Early career Born John Bruce McClaren in London, Ontario, Bruce Boyce was the son of a Canadian veterinary surgeon. His father was not musical, but his mother sang and gave him early encouragement. At a young age his family moved to Superior, Nebraska, in the American Midwest, where his singing came to the attention of a teacher interested in drama. He left school at 17 and went to California to seek his fortune, working in harvesting and other odd jobs. He began to save for study at Cornell University, where he began as a medical student; but after some time, while working at all-night car-washes where he sang to himself for pleasure, he transferred to an arts course to major in languages and music. Aware of his fine baritone voice, he joined the Cornell Glee Club an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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