Haldis Halvorsen
Haldis Halvorsen (September 22, 1889 – August 17, 1936) was a Norwegian mezzo-soprano opera singer. Halvorsen was born Haldis Michelsen in Dale, Norway, the daughter of the parish priest Edvard Johan Michelsen and Helene Sofie Ziesler Smith. From 1907 to 1912 she studied singing under Marie Irgens in Kristiania (now Oslo) and then continued her training in Berlin. She debuted as a singer in Kristiania in 1912. In 1915, she married the violinist Leif Halvorsen. Halvorsen worked for Oslo's Opera Comique from 1918 to 1921, where among other roles she played Delilah in ''Samson and Delilah'', Rachel in ''La Juive'', Elisabeth in ''Tannhäuser'', and Azucena in ''Il trovatore''. She performed in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, and appeared with the Berlin State Opera and at the Kiel Opera House. Halvorsen gave the debut performances of several works by Norwegian composers, including Fartein Valen Olav Fartein Valen (25 August 1887 – 14 December 1952) was a Norwegian ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dale, Sogn Og Fjordane
Dale or Dale i Sunnfjord is the administrative centre of the municipality of Fjaler in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located at the mouth of the river Vassdalselva on the southern shore of the Dalsfjorden in the northern part of Fjaler, about northeast of the village of Flekke and about west of the village of Bygstad (in Sunnfjord municipality). The village has a population (2019) of 1,186 and a population density of . In December 2013, the new Dalsfjord Bridge, connecting Dale with Askvoll Municipality on the northern side of the fjord was opened and replaced the ferry route between Dale and Eikenes. Also located in Dale is the Nordic Artists' Centre Dale, an artist-in-residence centre hosting international visual artists over periods of 2 or 3 months. Notable residents *Jakob Sande Jakob Sande (1 December 1906 – 16 March 1967) was a Norwegian writer, poet and folk singer from Dale in Sunnfjord. His parents were Andreas Sande and Ragna Margrete (born Barsne ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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La Juive
''La Juive'' () (''The Jewess'') is a grand opera in five acts by Fromental Halévy to an original French libretto by Eugène Scribe; it was first performed at the Opéra, Paris, on 23 February 1835. Composition history ''La Juive'' was one of the most popular and admired operas of the 19th century. Its libretto (text) was the work of Eugène Scribe, the prolific dramatic author. Scribe was writing to the tastes of the Opéra de Paris, where the work was first performed – a work in five acts presenting spectacular situations (here the Council of Constance of 1414), which would allow a flamboyant staging in a setting which brought out a dramatic situation which was also underlined by a powerful historical subject. In addition to this, there could be choral interludes, ballet and scenic effects which took advantage of the entire range of possibilities available at the Paris Opera. Because of the story of an impossible love between a Christian man and a Jewish woman, the work ha ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1936 Deaths
Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII. * January 28 – Britain's King George V state funeral takes place in London and Windsor. He is buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle * February 4 – Radium E (bismuth-210) becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically. * February 6 – The IV Olympic Winter Games open in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. * February 10– 19 – Second Italo-Ethiopian War: Battle of Amba Aradam – Italian forces gain a decisive tactical victory, effectively neutralizing the army of the Ethiopian Empire. * February 16 – 1936 Spanish general election: The left-wing Popular Front coalition takes a majority. * February 26 – February 26 Incident (二・二六事件, ''Niniroku Jiken''): The I ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1889 Births
Events January–March * January 1 ** The total solar eclipse of January 1, 1889 is seen over parts of California and Nevada. ** Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka experiences a vision, leading to the start of the Ghost Dance movement in the Dakotas. * January 4 – An Act to Regulate Appointments in the Marine Hospital Service of the United States is signed by President Grover Cleveland. It establishes a Commissioned Corps of officers, as a predecessor to the modern-day U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. * January 5 – Preston North End F.C. is declared the winner of the inaugural Football League in England. * January 8 – Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his electric tabulating machine in the United States. * January 15 – The Coca-Cola Company is originally incorporated as the Pemberton Medicine Company in Atlanta, Georgia. * January 22 – Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, D.C. * January 30 – Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria and his ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fartein Valen
Olav Fartein Valen (25 August 1887 – 14 December 1952) was a Norwegian composer, notable for his work in atonal polyphonic music. He developed a polyphony similar to Bach's counterpoint, but based on motivic working and dissonance rather than harmonic progression. Biography Early life Valen was born in Stavanger, Norway in 1887 into a deeply Christian religious family and maintained his religious beliefs all his life. His parents were missionaries, and he spent five years of his childhood in Madagascar. In addition to his aptitude for music, he was also a polyglot, mastering at least nine languages. He earned his examen artium with the highest grades in all subjects except mathematics. He loved cats, nature and literature, cultivated roses (even developed an award-winning hybrid), and after losing them in a devastating freeze took up growing cacti. Musical career In 1906, Valen moved to Kristiania (today's Oslo) to study Norwegian literature and language but also took clas ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Opernhaus Kiel
Opernhaus Kiel (Kiel Opera House) is the major venue for opera, ballet, and orchestral performances in Kiel, and home to Theater Kiel. It is a Grade II listed building. History After an architectural competition, the Kiel City Council commissioned the architect Heinrich Seeling in 1902 to build the theatre, for both theatre performances and music. The construction of the brick building with a richly arranged sandstone and richly modeled roof zone took place from 1905 to 1907.Hartwig Beseler, Niels Gutschow: ''Kriegsschicksale Deutscher Architektur. Band I: Nord.'' Wachholtz, Neumünster o.J., S. 7f. On October 1, 1907, the theater was inaugurated with a performance of Fidelio. During the Second World War, Allied air raids on 13 December 1943, 22 May 1944 and 24 July 1944 damaged the city theatres heavily. In the course of the destruction, the art nouveau interior decoration was lost. The reconstruction was carried out from 1950 to 1953, under the direction of Heinrich Ha ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Berlin State Opera
The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from 1741 to 1743 according to plans by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff in the Palladian style. Damaged during the Allied bombing in World War II, the former Royal Prussian Opera House was rebuilt from 1951 to 1955 as part of the Forum Fridericianum square. Nicknamed ''Lindenoper'' in Berlin, it is "the first theater anywhere to be, by itself, a prominent, freestanding monumental building in a city." History Names Originally called the ''Königliche Oper'' (Royal Opera) from 1743, it was renamed as the ''Preußische Staatsoper'' (Prussian State Opera) in 1919, then as the ''Deutsche Staatsoper '' in 1955. Until 1990, it housed the state opera of East Germany. Since 1990, it is officially called the ''Staatsoper Unter den Linden'' (State Ope ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Il Trovatore
''Il trovatore'' ('The Troubadour') is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto largely written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play ''El trovador'' (1836) by Antonio García Gutiérrez. It was García Gutiérrez's most successful play, one which Verdi scholar Julian Budden describes as "a high flown, sprawling melodrama flamboyantly defiant of the Aristotelian unities, packed with all manner of fantastic and bizarre incident." The premiere took place at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on 19 January 1853, where it "began a victorious march throughout the operatic world," a success due to Verdi's work over the previous three years. It began with his January 1850 approach to Cammarano with the idea of ''Il trovatore''. There followed, slowly and with interruptions, the preparation of the libretto, first by Cammarano until his death in mid-1852 and then with the young librettist Leone Emanuele Bardare, which gave the composer the opportunity to propose signifi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tannhäuser (opera)
''Tannhäuser'' (; full title , "Tannhäuser and the Minnesängers' Contest at Wartburg") is an 1845 opera in three acts, with music and text by Richard Wagner ( WWV 70 in the catalogue of the composer's works). It is based on two German legends: Tannhäuser, the mythologized medieval German Minnesänger and poet, and the tale of the Wartburg Song Contest. The story centres on the struggle between sacred and profane love, as well as redemption through love, a theme running through most of Wagner's work. The opera remains a staple of major opera house repertoire in the 21st century. Composition history Sources The libretto of ''Tannhäuser'' combines mythological elements characteristic of German ''Romantische Oper'' (Romantic opera) and the medieval setting typical of many French Grand Operas. Wagner brings these two together by constructing a plot involving the 14th-century Minnesingers and the myth of Venus and her subterranean realm of Venusberg. Both the historical and the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Samson And Delilah (opera)
''Samson and Delilah'' (french: Samson et Dalila, links=no), Op. 47, is a grand opera in three acts and four scenes by Camille Saint-Saëns to a French libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire. It was first performed in Weimar at the (Grand Ducal) Theater (now the Staatskapelle Weimar) on 2 December 1877 in a German translation. The opera is based on the Biblical tale of Samson and Delilah found in Chapter 16 of the Book of Judges in the Old Testament. It is the only opera by Saint-Saëns that is regularly performed. The second act love scene in Delilah's tent is one of the set pieces that define French opera. Two of Delilah's arias are particularly well known: "" ("Spring begins") and "" ("My heart opens itself to your voice", also known as "Softly awakes my heart"), the latter of which is one of the most popular recital pieces in the mezzo-soprano/contralto repertoire. Composition history In the middle of the 19th century, a revival of interest in choral music swept France, and Saint ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of Norway. Bouvet Island, located in the Subantarctic, is a dependency of Norway; it also lays claims to the Antarctic territories of Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land. The capital and largest city in Norway is Oslo. Norway has a total area of and had a population of 5,425,270 in January 2022. The country shares a long eastern border with Sweden at a length of . It is bordered by Finland and Russia to the northeast and the Skagerrak strait to the south, on the other side of which are Denmark and the United Kingdom. Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. The maritime influence dominates Norway's climate, with mild lowland temperatures on the se ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Opera Comique (Oslo)
The Opera Comique was Norway's first permanent opera company. The company operated at Stortingsgata ('Parliament Street') no. 16 and existed from 1918 to 1921. Its first major production was ''Tannhäuser'' with tenor Erling Krogh in the starring role. Altogether, the company staged 26 operas, including the Norwegian opera ''Bruderovet'' (The Kidnapped Bride) by Gerhard Schjelderup. Background By 1918, entertainment venues were already operating on and just off of Stortingsgata. These included the Brødrene Hals concert hall at Stortingsgata 22–24 (established in 1880), the Tivoli entertainment center (Stortingsgata 20, 1890), the National Theater (Stortingsgata 15, 1899), the Theater Café (Stortingsgata 24, 1900), the Chat Noir cabaret (Klingenberggata 5, 1912), and cinemas: Kinematograf-Teatret (Stortingsgata 12, 1904), Bio-Kino (Stortingsgata 14, 1911), Kosmorama (Stortingsgata 4, 1910), and Boulevard (Stortingsgata 10). Building Construction on the building at Sto ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |