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Irmelin
''Irmelin'' is an opera in three acts with music by Frederick Delius. Composed between 1890 and 1892, it was the first opera which he finished. But it wasn't premiered until 1953, nearly twenty years after his death. The libretto was by the composer, and weaves together two mythical stories.Anderson, Robert. Irmelin. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan Reference Limited, London & New York, 1997. Philip Heseltine described the opera as a "fairy-tale of quite ordinary kind" and "its form dramatically rather below the level of the conventional operatic text. Though the music was much praised by Grieg and Messager... its performance was never seriously contemplated by the composer". Delius had however assimilated Wagnerian influence in his music, with use of key motifs and a sense of flow through the three acts. Performance history Sir Thomas Beecham directed the British premiere at the New Theatre Oxford on 4 May 1953; the costumes were by Beatrice Dawson and chor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick Delius
Delius, photographed in 1907 Frederick Theodore Albert Delius ( 29 January 1862 – 10 June 1934), originally Fritz Delius, was an English composer. Born in Bradford in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce. He was sent to Florida in the United States in 1884 to manage an orange plantation. He soon neglected his managerial duties and in 1886 returned to Europe. Having been influenced by African-American music during his short stay in Florida, he began composing. After a brief period of formal musical study in Germany beginning in 1886, he embarked on a full-time career as a composer in Paris and then in nearby Grez-sur-Loing, where he and his wife Jelka lived for the rest of their lives, except during the First World War. Delius's first successes came in Germany, where Hans Haym and other conductors promoted his music from the late 1890s. In Delius's native Britain, his music did not make regular appearances ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (29 April 18798 March 1961) was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Liverpool Philharmonic and The Hallé, Hallé orchestras. From the early 20th century until his death, Beecham was a major influence on the musical life of United Kingdom, Britain and, according to the BBC, was Britain's first international conductor. Born to a rich industrial family, Beecham began his career as a conductor in 1899. He used his access to the family fortune to finance opera from the 1910s until the start of the Second World War, staging seasons at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Drury Lane and Her Majesty's Theatre, His Majesty's Theatre with international stars, his own ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florent Schmitt
Florent Schmitt (; 28 September 187017 August 1958) was a French composer. He was part of the group known as Les Apaches. His most famous pieces are ''La tragédie de Salome'' and ''Psaume XLVII'' (Psalm 47). He has been described as "one of the most fascinating of France's lesser-known classical composers". Biography Early life and career Born in Meurthe-et-Moselle, Schmitt took music lessons in Nancy with the local composer Gustave Sandré. At the age of 19 he entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied with Gabriel Fauré, Jules Massenet, Théodore Dubois, and Albert Lavignac. In 1900 he won the Prix de Rome. During the 1890s he became friendly with Frederick Delius, who was living in Paris at the time, and Schmitt prepared vocal scores for four of Delius's operas: ''Irmelin'', ''The Magic Fountain'', ''Koanga'' and ''A Village Romeo and Juliet''. From 1929 to 1939 Schmitt worked as a music critic for ''Le Temps'', where he proved controversial. He was known to shout ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dennis Arundell
Dennis Drew Arundell OBE (22 July 1898 in Finchley, London – 10 December 1988 in Camden, London at the ) was a British actor, , scholar, translator, producer, director, conductor and composer of incidental music. Milnes, Rodney. Obituary – Dennis Arundell. ''Opera'', February 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Round
Thomas Round (18 October 1915 – 2 October 2016) was an English opera singer and actor, best known for his performances in the leading tenor roles of the Savoy Operas and grand opera. Round began working as a joiner and then a police officer. During World War II, he served in the Royal Air Force, training in Texas and later becoming a flight instructor for the United States Army Air Forces, while singing in churches. He sang leading tenor roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1946 to 1949. He next spent six years in the 1950s singing opera and operetta with Sadler's Wells Opera. From 1958 to 1964, Round again performed mostly with the D'Oyly Carte company. In 1963, he co-founded a new ensemble, Gilbert and Sullivan for All, with which he toured extensively over the next two decades, singing and serving as one of the company's directors. He also sang in oratorio and concerts, broadcast on radio and television, and is heard on many rec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Concert Orchestra
The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale symphony orchestra. The BBC Concert Orchestra is the BBC's most populist ensemble, playing a mixture of classical music, light music and popular numbers. Its primary role is to produce music for radio broadcast, and it is the resident orchestra of the world's longest running live music programme, '' Friday Night is Music Night'' on BBC Radio 2. History The parent ensemble of the orchestra was the BBC Theatre Orchestra, which was formed in 1931 and based in Bedford. The orchestra also did opera work and was occasionally billed as the BBC Opera Orchestra. Stanford Robinson was the principal conductor from 1931 until 1946, but others included Walter Goehr, Spike Hughes, Harold Lowe, Mark Lubbock and Lionel Salter. In August 1949, the ensemble w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Del Mar
Norman René Del Mar CBE (31 July 19196 February 1994) was a British conductor, horn player, and biographer. As a conductor, he specialised in the music of late romantic composers; including Edward Elgar, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss. He left a great legacy of recordings of British music, in particular Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frederick Delius, and Benjamin Britten. He notably conducted the premiere recording of Britten's children's opera ''Noye's Fludde''. Life and career Born in Hampstead, London, Del Mar began his career as a horn player. He was one of the original members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO), which was established by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1946. Within the first few months of the RPO's existence, Beecham appointed Del Mar as his assistant conductor. Del Mar made his professional debut as a conductor with the RPO in 1947. In 1949 Del Mar was appointed principal conductor of the English Opera Group, in which post he remained until 1954. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Singers
The BBC Singers are a British chamber choir, and the professional chamber choir of the BBC. One of the six BBC Performing Groups, the BBC Singers are based at the BBC's Maida Vale Studios in London. The only full-time professional British choir, the BBC Singers feature in live concerts, radio transmissions, recordings and education workshops. The choir often performs alongside other BBC Performing Groups, such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and is a regular guest at the BBC Proms. Broadcasts are given from locations around the country, including St Giles-without-Cripplegate and St Paul's Knightsbridge. The BBC Singers regularly perform alongside leading international orchestras and conductors, and makes invitational appearances at national events such as the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in Westminster Abbey. Notable former members of the group include Sir Peter Pears, Sarah Connolly, Judith Bingham and Harry Christophers. History In 1924, the BBC engaged Stanfor ... [...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] |
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts also featuring. The station describes itself as "the world's most significant commissioner of new music", and through its BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme, New Generation Artists scheme promotes young musicians of all nationalities. The station broadcasts the The Proms, BBC Proms concerts, live and in full, each summer in addition to performances by the BBC Orchestras and Singers. There are regular productions of both classic plays and newly commissioned drama. Radio 3 won the Sony Radio Academy UK Station of the Year Gold Award for 2009 and was nominated again in 2011. According to RAJAR, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 1.7 million with a listening share of 1.3% as of September 2022. History Radio 3 is the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Mitchinson (tenor)
John Leslie Mitchinson (31 March 1932 – 17 December 2021) was an English operatic tenor. Mitchinson was born in Blackrod, Lancashire. He made his début singing the role of Jupiter in Handel's ''Semele (Handel), Semele''. From 1972 to 1978, he was associated with the Sadler's Wells Theatre, Sadler's Wells opera company; during that time, he created the role of the Poet in Joseph Tal's opera ''Massada 967'' which premiered in 1972. In 1978 he joined the Welsh National Opera, with whom he worked for four years. Able to sing a variety of roles, he portrayed Peter Grimes and Tristan und Isolde, Tristan during this period, among others. He sang the title role of Wagner's Rienzi in a 1976 BBC broadcast of one of the rare performances in recent history of the complete opera; a recording of this broadcast survives and has circulated. Mitchinson married the mezzo-soprano Maureen Guy in 1958. She died in 2015. He died on 17 December 2021, at the age of 89. He was survived by his two s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ann Howard (singer)
Ann Howard born Ann Pauline Swadling (22 July 1934 – 26 March 2014) was an English mezzo-soprano known particularly for portraying Carmen. Life Howard was born in Streatham, London. Her father, William Alfred Swadling, was an electrical engineer and her mother was Winifred, née Howell. She left school aged 15 and went to work as an assistant in a jewellery shop, later moving to Garrard & Co, jewellers, which had its own operatic group. In her spare time she took singing lessons with Topliss Green and Rodolpha Lhombino. She was able to resign from shop work when she was offered a position touring, appearing in musicals and pantomimes. She reputedly had only seen one opera when she successfully auditioned for the chorus of the Royal Opera in London in 1960, and won a scholarship to study with Dominique Modesti in Paris. After singing minor roles at Covent Garden, she joined Sadler's Wells Opera as a principal, continuing to appear with them after they became the English National ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
