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Henri Caïn
Henri Cain (11 October 1857 – 21 November 1937) was a French dramatist, opera and ballet librettist. He wrote over forty librettos from 1893 to his death, for many of the most prominent composers of the Parisian Belle Epoque. Cain was born in Paris, the son of the sculptor Auguste Cain and brother of the painter Georges Cain. He studied painting in the studios of Jean-Paul Laurens and Édouard Detaille. He was married to the soprano Julia Guiraudon. Close to Edouard de La Gandara, Jean Dara when he worked with Sarah Bernhardt, Henri Cain was an admirer of several major contemporary painters and sculptors such as Antonio de La Gandara and Jean Carriès. ''Antar'', with music by Gabriel Dupont can be heard on YouTube. Operas (and ballets) to librettos by Henri Cain * Benjamin Godard :''La vivandière'' (1893) * Jules Massenet :''La Navarraise'' (1894) :'' Sapho (1897) :'' Cendrillon'' (1899) :'' Cigale'', ballet (1904) :''Chérubin'' (1905) :''Don Quichotte'' (1910) :' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benjamin Godard
Benjamin Louis Paul Godard (18 August 184910 January 1895) was a French violinist and Romantic-era composer of Jewish extraction, best known for his opera ''Jocelyn''. Godard composed eight operas, five symphonies, two piano and two violin concertos, string quartets, sonatas for violin and piano, piano pieces and etudes, and more than a hundred songs. He died at the age of 45 in Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes) of tuberculosis and was buried in the family tomb in Taverny in the French department of Val-d'Oise. Life and career Godard was born in Paris in 1849. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1863 where he studied under Henri Vieuxtemps (violin) and Napoléon Henri Reber (harmony) and accompanied Vieuxtemps twice to Germany. In 1876, his ''Concerto romantique'' was performed at the Concerts Populaires, and other of his large works were also performed at these concerts. In 1878, Godard was the co-winner of the Prix de la Ville de Paris. His winning composition, a dramatic symphony ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Février
Henry Février (2 October 18756 July 1957) was a French composer. Biography Henry Février was born in Paris, France, on 2 October 1875. He married and had a son, the pianist Jacques Février. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, where his teachers included Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré. He also took private lessons with André Messager. His first compositions were chamber music, but he is chiefly known for his opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...s and operettas, among which are ''Le Roi aveugle'' (1906), ''Monna Vanna'' (1909), ''Carmosine'' (1913), '' Gismonda'' (Chicago 1919), ''La Damnation de Blanchefleur'' (1920), ''L'Ile désenchantée'' (1925), ''Oletta'' (1927), ''La Femme nue'' (1929) and ''Sylvette'' (1932). His works include incidental ... [...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] |
Charles-Marie Widor
Charles-Marie-Jean-Albert Widor (21 February 1844 – 12 March 1937) was a French organist, composer and teacher of the mid-Romantic era, most notable for his ten organ symphonies. His Toccata from the fifth organ symphony has become one of the best known and most often performed works for organ. As of 2022, he is the longest-serving organist of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, a role he held for 63 years (January 1870 – 31 December 1933). He also was organ professor at the Paris Conservatory from 1890 to 1896 (following César Franck) and then he became professor of composition at the same institution, following Théodore Dubois. Widor was a prolific composer, writing music for organ, piano, voice and ensembles. Apart from his ten organ symphonies, he also wrote three symphonies for orchestra and organ, several songs for piano and voice, four operas and a ballet. He was one of the first composers to use the term "symphony" for some of his organ compositions, helped in this by the o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
André Messager
André Charles Prosper Messager (; 30 December 1853 – 24 February 1929) was a French composer, organist, pianist and conductor. His compositions include eight ballets and thirty opéra comique, opéras comiques, opérettes and other stage works, among which his ballet ''Les Deux Pigeons (ballet), Les Deux Pigeons'' (1886) and opéra comique ''Véronique (operetta), Véronique'' (1898) have had lasting success; ''Les p'tites Michu, Les P'tites Michu'' (1897) and ''Monsieur Beaucaire (opera), Monsieur Beaucaire'' (1919) were also popular internationally. Messager took up the piano as a small child and later studied composition with, among others, Camille Saint-Saëns and Gabriel Fauré. He became a major figure in the musical life of Paris and later London, both as a conductor and a composer. Many of his Parisian works were also produced in the West End theatre, West End and some on Broadway theatre, Broadway; the most successful had long runs and numerous international revival ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camille Erlanger
Camille Erlanger (25 May 186324 April 1919) was a French opera composer. He studied at the Paris Conservatory under Léo Delibes (composition), Georges Mathias (piano), as well as Émile Durand and Antoine Taubon (harmony).Jacobshagen, Arnold: "Erlanger, Camille", in: ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'' (MMG), biographical part, vol. 6 (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2001; ), cc. 437. In 1888 he won the Prix de Rome for his cantata ''Velléda''. His most famous opera, '' Le Juif polonais'', was produced at the Opéra-Comique in 1900. Erlanger died in Paris and was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery. A street in Quebec City, Avenue Erlanger, is named after Erlanger. Works * ''Velléda'', scène lyrique (1888), given at the Concerts Colonne in 1889 * ''La Légende de Saint-Julien l'Hospitalier'', légende dramatique in three acts and seven tableaux, after the story by Gustave Flaubert, (1888) * ''Kermaria'', drame lyrique in three acts, libretto by Pierre-Barthélemy Gheusi, Opà ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roma (opera)
''Roma'' is an opera in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Cain based on the play '' Rome vaincue'' by Dominique-Alexandre Parodi. It was first performed at the Opéra de Monte Carlo on 17 February 1912. ''Roma'' was the last opera by Massenet to premiere in his lifetime. Three operas were subsequently premiered posthumously: '' Panurge'' (1913), ''Cléopâtre'' (1914) and '' Amadis'' (1922). The piece has not survived into the modern operatic repertoire, but has been revived recently and recorded by the Teatro la Fenice in Venice. Roles Synopsis The story takes place in Ancient Rome, following the Carthaginian triumph at the Battle of Cannae. Fausta, daughter of Fabius, has allowed the sacred fires to burn out at the Temple of Vesta The Temple of Vesta, or the aedes (Latin ''Aedes Vestae''; Italian: ''Tempio di Vesta''), is an ancient edifice in Rome, Italy. The temple is located in the Roman Forum near the Regia and the House of the Vestal Vi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Quichotte
''Don Quichotte'' (''Don Quixote'') is an opera in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Caïn. It was first performed on 19 February 1910 at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. Massenet's ''comédie-héroïque'', like many dramatized versions of the story of Don Quixote, relates only indirectly to the novel ''Don Quixote'' by Miguel de Cervantes. The immediate inspiration was ''Le chevalier de la longue figure'', a play by the poet first performed in Paris in 1904. In this version of the story, the simple farm girl Aldonza (Dulcinea) of the original novel becomes the more sophisticated Dulcinée, a flirtatious local beauty inspiring the infatuated old man's exploits. Composition history Conceiving originally ''Don Quichotte'' to be a three-act opera, Massenet started to compose it in 1909 at a time when, suffering from acute rheumatic pains, he spent more of his time in bed than out of it, and composition of ''Don Quichotte'' became, in his words, a sort of "soothin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chérubin
''Chérubin'' is an opera (''comédie chantée'') in three acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Francis de Croisset and Henri Cain after de Croisset's play of the same name. It was first performed at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo on 14 February 1905, with Mary Garden in the title role. The story is a light-hearted addition to Beaumarchais' Figaro plays, the action taking place soon after that of ''The Marriage of Figaro'', and imagines festivities in celebration of Chérubin's first military commission and seventeenth birthday. A farcical romp ensues, brought on by Chérubin lusting after each of the female characters and inspiring general confusion. Performance history The piece contains some of Massenet's most shimmering, charming music and has spawned a few contemporary revivals plus several recordings since 1980. The Royal Opera House in London premiered it on 14 February 1994 in a production starring Susan Graham in the title role. The performance was broadcast. Role ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cigale (ballet)
''Cigale'' is a divertissement-ballet in two acts by Jules Massenet to a scenario by Henri Cain. It was composed in Égreville during the summer of 1902, first published by Heugel (music publisher), Heugel in 1903 and first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 4 February 1904. The story is inspired by Jean de la Fontaine's fable ''La cigale et la fourmi'' (a version of The Ant and the Grasshopper), and portrays "Cigale" (Cicada) as a charitable young woman who takes pity on "La Pauvrette" (The Poor Girl) and gives away her meager purse, bonnet and red umbrella. She is then ridiculed and taken advantage of by "Madame Fourmi" (Madam Ant), ticketed by "Le Garçon de Banque" (The Banker), and ravished by "Le Petit Ami" (The Boyfriend). Cigale, whose kindness and carefree nature leads her to lose what little she has, is refused shelter by Madame Fourmi and left to die in the snow at the close of the ballet. She ascends to heaven with the angels while La Pauvrette and Le Petit Ami ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cendrillon
''Cendrillon'' (''Cinderella'') is an opera—described as a "fairy tale"—in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Caïn based on Perrault's 1698 version of the Cinderella fairy tale. It had its premiere performance on 24 May 1899 in Paris. The '' New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' notes that Massenet's sense of humor and wit is more evident in this work, and the use of recurrent motifs is more discreet, while the love music "reminds us how well Massenet knew his Wagner". Albert Carré (director of the Opéra-Comique and producer of the first staging) persuaded the composer to drop a prologue introducing the characters, but a brief epilogue survives. Another writer comments that Massenet's perfectly proportioned score moves from a scene worthy of Jean-Baptiste Lully's '' Armide'' (in Cendrillon's monologue), through Rossinian vocalises and archaic orchestrations to ballet movements on a par with Tchaikovsky. Composition history The scenario was conceived by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
