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Jean Cox
Jean Cox (January 16, 1922 – June 24, 2012) was an American tenor. Early years Cox was born in Gadsden, Alabama. He served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II era as a pilot. After obtaining a degree in Music from the University of Alabama, he studied singing with Marie Sundelius at the New England Conservatory. He was subsequently awarded a Fulbright Program, Fulbright Scholarship which enabled him to study in Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Rome for a year.''The 133rd performance at the Royal Opera House of Siegfried, Saturday Evening 11 October 1975.'' In-house theatre programme, The Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Opera career Cox made his Italian debut at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, where he appeared as Rodolfo in ''La bohème''. He then relocated to Germany, singing at Opernhaus Kiel, Kiel, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Braunschweig and National Theatre Mannheim, Mannheim. He made his Bayreuth Festival, Bayreuth debut as the Steersman in ' ... [...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] |
Götterdämmerung
' (; ''Twilight of the Gods''), WWV 86D, is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four music dramas titled (''The Ring of the Nibelung'', or ''The Ring Cycle'' or ''The Ring'' for short). It received its premiere at the on 17 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of the whole work. The title is a translation into German of the Old Norse phrase ', which in Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ... refers to a prophesied war among various beings and gods that ultimately results in the burning, immersion in water, and renewal of the world. As with the rest of the ''Ring'', however, Wagner's account diverges significantly from these Old Norse sources. Composition Roles Synopsis Prologue Prelude to the Prologue Scene 1 T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Keilberth
Joseph Keilberth (19 April 1908 – 20 July 1968) was a German conductor who specialised in opera. Career He started his career in the State Theatre of his native city, Karlsruhe. In 1940 he became director of the German Philharmonic Orchestra of Prague. Near the end of World War II, he was appointed principal conductor of the venerable Saxon State Opera Orchestra in Dresden. In 1949 he became chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony, formed mainly of German musicians expelled from postwar Czechoslovakia under the Beneš decrees. Ring Cycles at Bayreuth and in recording Keilberth was a regular at the Bayreuth Festival in the early 1950s, with complete Wagner Ring Cycles from 1952, 1953 and 1955, as well as a well-regarded recording of ''Die Walküre'' from 1954 (the whereabouts of rest of the cycle are unclear) in which Martha Mödl, perhaps the greatest Wagnerian actress and tragedian of her time, sang her only recorded Sieglinde. He made the first stereo recording of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bayreuth
Bayreuth (, ; bar, Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of Upper Franconia and has a population of 72,148 (2015). It hosts the annual Bayreuth Festival, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. History Middle Ages and Early Modern Period The town is believed to have been founded by the counts of Andechs probably around the mid-12th century,Mayer, Bernd and Rückel, Gert (2009). ''Bayreuth – Tours on Foot'', Heinrichs-Verlag, Bamberg, p.5, . but was first mentioned in 1194 as ''Baierrute'' in a document by Bishop Otto II of Bamberg. The syllable ''-rute'' may mean ''Rodung'' or "clearing", whilst ''Baier-'' indicates immigrants from the Bavarian region. Already documented earlier, were villages later merged into Bayreuth: Seulbitz (in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anna Reynolds (singer)
Anna Reynolds (5 June 193024 February 2014) was an English classical mezzo-soprano and contralto singer in opera and concert. Professional career Ann Reynolds was born in Canterbury. She first studied piano, then voice at the Royal Academy of Music. She continued her voice studies with Debora Fambri and Re Koster in Rome, where she adopted Anna as her stage name. Jean Cox, an American-born tenor best known for his Wagner performances, was her husband. Reynolds made her operatic debut in 1960 in Parma as Suzuki in Puccini's ''Madama Butterfly''. Her debut in England was in 1962 as Geneviève in Debussy's '' Pelléas et Mélisande'' at Glyndebourne, and she also sang there the roles of Ortensia (''La pietra del paragone'', 1964) and Annina (''Der Rosenkavalier'', 1965). In 1963 she performed the part of the Angel in Edward Elgar's ''The Dream of Gerontius'' in London, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli. Her first appearance at Covent Garden in London was in 1967, Adelaide in Richard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above (i.e. A3–A5 in scientific pitch notation, where middle C = C4; 220–880 Hz). In the lower and upper extremes, some mezzo-sopranos may extend down to the F below middle C (F3, 175 Hz) and as high as "high C" (C6, 1047 Hz). The mezzo-soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, lyric, and dramatic mezzo-soprano. History While mezzo-sopranos typically sing secondary roles in operas, notable exceptions include the title role in Bizet's '' Carmen'', Angelina (Cinderella) in Rossini's ''La Cenerentola'', and Rosina in Rossini's ''Barber of Seville'' (all of which are also sung by sopranos and contraltos). Many 19th-century French-language operas give the leading female role to mezzos, includin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Otello
''Otello'' () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play ''Othello''. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887. The composer was reluctant to write anything new after the success of ''Aida'' in 1871, and he retreated into retirement. It took his Milan publisher Giulio Ricordi the next ten years, first to encourage the revision of Verdi's 1857 ''Simon Boccanegra'' by introducing Boito as librettist and then to begin the arduous process of persuading and cajoling Verdi to see Boito's completed libretto for ''Otello'' in July/August 1881. However, the process of writing the first drafts of the libretto and the years of their revision, with Verdi all along not promising anything, dragged on. It wasn't until 1884, five years after the first drafts of the libretto, that composition began, with most of the work finishing in late 1885. When it finally premiere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Lohengrin (opera)
''Lohengrin'', WWV 75, is a Romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the ''Parzival'' of Wolfram von Eschenbach, and its sequel ''Lohengrin'', itself inspired by the epic of ''Garin le Loherain''. It is part of the Knight of the Swan legend. The opera has inspired other works of art. King Ludwig II of Bavaria named his castle Neuschwanstein Castle after the Swan Knight. It was King Ludwig's patronage that later gave Wagner the means and opportunity to complete, build a theatre for, and stage his epic cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen''. He had discontinued composing it at the end of Act II of ''Siegfried'', the third of the ''Ring'' tetralogy, to create his radical chromatic masterpiece of the late 1850s, ''Tristan und Isolde'', and his lyrical comic opera of the mid-1860s, '' Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg''. The most popular and recognizabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tristan Und Isolde
''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered at the Königliches Hoftheater und Nationaltheater in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting. Wagner referred to the work not as an opera, but called it "" (literally ''a drama'', ''a plot'', or ''an action''). Wagner's composition of ''Tristan und Isolde'' was inspired by the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer (particularly ''The World as Will and Representation''), as well as by Wagner's affair with Mathilde Wesendonck. Widely acknowledged as a pinnacle of the operatic repertoire, ''Tristan'' was notable for Wagner's unprecedented use of chromaticism, tonal ambiguity, orchestral colour, and harmonic suspension. The opera was enormously influential among Western classical com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heldentenor
A heldentenor (; English: ''heroic tenor''), earlier called tenorbariton, is an operatic tenor voice, most often associated with Wagnerian repertoire. It is distinct from other tenor ''fächer'' by its endurance, volume, and dark timbre, which may be, in its middle Vocal register, register, like that of a baritone. The voice may also sound clear or metallic. It is one of the rarest voice types in opera. Heldentenor roles, such as the title roles in ''Siegfried (opera), Siegfried'' and ''Lohengrin (opera), Lohengrin'', often require commanding stage presence and strong acting ability. In some cases, due to reasons such as voice misidentification, singers may begin their careers as baritones before later transitioning. The term ''heldentenor'' may be used to refer to both a singer and their voice. The treble counterpart of the heldentenor is the Wagnerian soprano. Roles The following roles are in the standard heldentenor repertoire: Richard Wagner * Lohengrin, ''Lohengrin (o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kammersänger
Kammersänger (male) or Kammersängerin (female), abbreviated Ks. or KS, is a German honorific title for distinguished singers of opera and classical music. It literally means "chamber singer". Historically, the title was bestowed by princes or kings, when it was styled ''Hofkammersänger(in)'', where ''hof'' refers to the royal court. The title is given in Germany and in Austria usually on the recommendation of relevant national and local institutions. In East Germany, some concert halls bestowed this designation. Titles and recipients Austria Österreichischer Kammersänger (male) / Österreichische Kammersängerin (female) The honorary title is awarded by the Federal President of Austria on the proposal of the responsible Federal Minister since 1971. * Germany Kammersänger (male) / Kammersängerin (female) * Elise Kutscherra de Nyss (Coburg, 1894) * Gerhard Unger (1952) * Theo Adam (1955) * Hans-Dieter Bader (Hanover, 1981) * Alfred Vökt (Frankfurt, 1989) * (Frankfurt, 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
