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Hermann Winkler (tenor)
Hermann Winkler (3 March 1924 – 21 January 2009) was a German operatic tenor. Life Born in Duisburg, Winkler studied at the Musikhochschule Hannover and began his singing career at the Staatsoper Hannover. The following engagements took him to Bielefeld (1954–1958), Zurich and Cologne, where he was a permanent ensemble member between 1959 and 1986. In Cologne, he sang in the Mozart cycle of the director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle as well as the Kaiser in his production of the ''Die Frau ohne Schatten'' by Richard Strauss. This production could also be seen at the Milanese La Scala. Parallel to his Cologne engagements, Winkler had a guest contract at the Oper Frankfurt, where he appeared as Ritter the knight in Barbe-bleue in Offenbach's operetta of the same name directed by Walter Felsenstein, among others. In Frankfurt, he made his debut as Florestan in Beethoven's ''Fidelio'' with Hildegard Behrens under the direction of Christoph von Dohnanyi. In 1964, he sang Tannhäuser for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tenor
A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is widely defined to be B2, though some roles include an A2 (two As below middle C). At the highest extreme, some tenors can sing up to the second F above middle C (F5). The tenor voice type is generally divided into the ''leggero'' tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, heldentenor, and tenor buffo or . History The name "tenor" derives from the Latin word ''wikt:teneo#Latin, tenere'', which means "to hold". As Fallows, Jander, Forbes, Steane, Harris and Waldman note in the "Tenor" article at ''Grove Music Online'': In polyphony between about 1250 and 1500, the [tenor was the] structurally fundamental (or 'holding') voice, vocal or instrumental; by the 15th century it came to signify the male voice that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legend about a libertine as told by playwright Tirso de Molina in his 1630 play '' El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra''. It is a ''dramma giocoso'' blending comedy, melodrama and supernatural elements (although the composer entered it into his catalogue simply as ''opera buffa''). It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the National Theater (of Bohemia), now called the Estates Theatre, on 29 October 1787. ''Don Giovanni'' is regarded as one of the greatest operas of all time and has proved a fruitful subject for commentary in its own right; critic Fiona Maddocks has described it as one of Mozart's "trio of masterpieces with librettos by Da Ponte". Composition and premiere The opera was commissioned after the succes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Großes Sängerlexikon
''Großes Sängerlexikon'' (''Biographical Dictionary of Singers'', literally: Large singers' lexicon) is a single-field dictionary of singers in classical music, edited by Karl-Josef Kutsch and Leo Riemens and first published in 1987. The first edition was in two volumes and contained the biographies of nearly 7000 singers from the 1590s through the 1980s. It grew out of ''Unvergängliche Stimmen. Kleines Sängerlexikon'' (Immortal voices. Small singers' lexicon), published in 1962, which covered only singers who had made recordings. A 1992 review in ''Neue Zeitschrift für Musik'' described the ''Großes Sängerlexikon'' as "indispensable in the search for concise background information about those persons who are undoubtedly the most important to the performance of opera."Arndt, Michael (1992) "Reviewed Work: ''Großes Sängerlexikon Ergänzungsband'' by Karl-Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens" ''Neue Zeitschrift für Musik'', Vol. 153, No. 9, p. 50. Retrieved via JSTOR 26 March 2019 . ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leo Riemens
Leonardus Antony Marinus Riemens (3 December 1910 – 3 April 1985) was a Dutch musicologist and cultural journalist. He wrote a book about Maria Callas, and together with Karl-Josef Kutsch began a reference book about opera singers in 1962, which grew to ''Großes Sängerlexikon'', the standard reference in the field. Background and career Born in Zevenbergen, Riemens grew up in a family of physicians in Amsterdam. He studied musicology in Amsterdam and worked from 1931 as a feature editor for the newspaper '. Later he was a member of the extreme-right NSB. During the Second World War he worked for the nazified ''Nederlandsche Omroep''. From 1954 to 1976 he was an opera and television critic for the newspaper ''De Telegraaf''. Riemens published numerous articles in the professional journals ''Opera'', ', '' Gramophone'' and '' Opera News''. He wrote an opera guide and a biography about Maria Callas. At Radio Hilversum he designed the series ''Uren der Zangkunst''. Riemens ow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karl-Josef Kutsch
Karl-Josef Kutsch, also known as K. J. Kutsch, (born 11 May 1924) is a German physician and co-author with Leo Riemens of the ''Großes Sängerlexikon'', the standard reference for opera singers. Life and work Born in Gangelt, Kutsch studied medicine, was drafted and participated as a soldier in the Russia campaign of the Second World War. He then completed his studies at the Goethe University Frankfurt in 1948. He practised as a physician from 1952 to 1989 in his hometown, together with his wife. From the 1950s, Kutsch built a collection of records and singers' biographies. Together with the Dutch musicologist Leo Riemens, he published a small biographical dictionary of singers in 1962 under the title ''Unvergängliche Stimmen'' (''Immortal Voices'').Jan David SchmitzSängerlexikon CD-ROMhsozkult.de In 1975 the work was revised as ''Unvergängliche Stimmen / Sängerlexikon'', which was again revised in 1985 with his and Riemens' cooperation and became the standard work. Under t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ostfriedhof (Munich)
The Ostfriedhof (''Eastern Cemetery'') in Munich, situated in the district of Obergiesing, was established in 1821 and is still in use. It contains an area of more than 30 hectares and approximately 34,700 burial plots. The buildings were constructed between 1894 and 1900 to plans by Hans Grässel. In 1929 a crematorium was opened. The bodies of thousands of opponents of the National Socialist régime were cremated here in the years between 1933 and 1945, and their ashes mostly disposed of without memorial. These included people executed in Stadelheim Prison, victims of the concentration camps Dachau, Birkenau and Auschwitz, and of the Aktion T4 campaign. In 1946 the bodies of several of those condemned to death at the Nuremberg War Crimes trials including Hermann Göring were cremated here, and the ashes scattered. History The oldest part of the Ostfriedhof was laid out in 1817 as the burial ground of Au on a narrow strip of the Auer Flur (on the present Tegernseer Land ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gauting
Gauting is a municipality in the district of Starnberg, in Bavaria, Germany with a population of approximately 20,000. It is situated on the river Würm, southwest of Munich and is a part of the Munich metropolitan area. Geography Stockdorf, Grubmühl, Buchendorf, Königswiesen, Hausen, Unterbrunn and Oberbrunn are included under the administration of Gauting. The municipality itself is surrounded by the Forstenrieder Park in the east, Mühltal in the south, Kreuzlinger Forst in the west and Grubmühl in the north. History Although the name, Gauting, is first mentioned in 753, settlements in the Gauting area traces back to early Bronze Age and is thus amongst the earliest in upper Bavaria. Cairns in Stockdorf and a large Celtic entrenchment offer evidence of the prehistoric dwellings. Under the Roman Empire the settlement, then called Bratananium, marked a major crossroad of Via Julia, which connected the provincial capital Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg) with Juvavu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palestrina (opera)
''Palestrina'' is an opera by the German composer Hans Pfitzner, first performed in 1917. The composer referred to it as a ''Musikalische Legende'' (musical legend), and wrote the libretto himself, based on a legend about the Renaissance musician Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who saves the art of contrapuntal music (polyphony) for the Church in the sixteenth century through his composition of the ''Missa Papae Marcelli''. The wider context is that of the European Reformation and the role of music in relation to it. The character of Cardinal Borromeo is depicted, and a General Congress of the Council of Trent is the centrepiece of act 2. The conductor of the premiere was Bruno Walter. On 16 February 1962, the day before he died, Walter ended his last letter with: "Despite all the dark experiences of today I am still confident that ''Palestrina'' will remain. The work has all the elements of immortality". Critical appreciation Claire Taylor-Jay has discussed Pfitzner's depict ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Grimes
''Peter Grimes'', Op. 33, is an opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Montagu Slater based on the section "Peter Grimes", in George Crabbe's long narrative poem '' The Borough''. The "borough" of the opera is a fictional small town that bears some resemblance to Crabbe's – and later Britten's – home of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, on England's east coast. The work was conceived while Britten was living in the US in the early years of the Second World War and completed when he returned to Britain in 1943. It was first performed at Sadler's Wells in London on 7 June 1945, conducted by Reginald Goodall, and was a critical and popular success. It is still widely performed, both in Britain and internationally, and has become part of the standard repertoire. Among the tenors who have performed the title role in the opera house, or on record, or both are Britten's partner Peter Pears, who sang the part at the premiere, and Allan Clayton, Ben Heppner, Jonas Kaufmann, P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zürich Opera House
The Zürich Opera House (german: Opernhaus Zürich, links=no) is an opera house in the Swiss city of Zürich. Located at the Sechseläutenplatz, it has been the home of the Zürich Opera since 1891, and also houses the Bernhard-Theater Zürich. It is also home to the Zürich Ballet. History The first permanent theatre in Zürich, the , was built in 1834 and it became the focus of Richard Wagner’s activities during his period of exile from Germany. The burnt down in 1890. The new (municipal theatre) was built by the Viennese architects Fellner & Helmer Fellner & Helmer was an architecture studio founded in 1873 by Austrian architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer. They designed over 200 buildings (mainly opera houses and apartment buildings) across Europe in the late 19th century and ear ..., who changed their previous design for the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, theatre in Wiesbaden only slightly. It was built in only 16 months and was opened in 1891 and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ariadne Auf Naxos
(''Ariadne on Naxos''), Op. 60, is a 1912 opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The opera's unusual combination of elements of low commedia dell'arte with those of high opera seria points up one of the work's principal themes: the competition between high and low art for the public's attention. First version (1912) The opera was originally conceived as a 30-minute divertissement to be performed at the end of Hofmannsthal's adaptation of Molière's play ''Le Bourgeois gentilhomme.'' Besides the opera, Strauss provided incidental music to be performed during the play. In the end, the opera occupied ninety minutes, and the performance of play plus opera occupied over six hours. It was first performed at the Hoftheater Stuttgart on 25 October 1912, directed by Max Reinhardt. The combination of the play and opera proved to be unsatisfactory to the audience: those who had come to hear the opera resented having to wait until the play finished. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Der Freischütz
' ( J. 277, Op. 77 ''The Marksman'' or ''The Freeshooter'') is a German opera with spoken dialogue in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind, based on a story by Johann August Apel and Friedrich Laun from their 1810 collection ''Gespensterbuch''. It premiered on 18 June 1821 at the Schauspielhaus Berlin. It is considered the first German Romantic opera. The opera's plot is mainly based on August Apel's tale "Der Freischütz" from the ''Gespensterbuch'' though the hermit, Kaspar and Ännchen are new to Kind's libretto. That Weber's tunes were just German folk music is a common misconception. Its unearthly portrayal of the supernatural in the famous Wolf's Glen scene has been described as "the most expressive rendering of the gruesome that is to be found in a musical score". Performance history The reception of ''Der Freischütz'' surpassed Weber's own hopes and it quickly became an international success, with productions in Vienna the same year f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
