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Jochen Kowalski
Jochen Kowalski (born 30 January 1954) is a German alto or mezzo countertenor, noted for his very rich timbre. Early life Jochen Kowalski was born in Wachow, Nauen District, Bezirk Potsdam, in East Germany (now a small village belonging to the city of Nauen), as the son of a butcher. His parents gave him a musical education. In 1977 he began his studies as a Heldentenor, specializing in Wagner, but when it became clear he was able to sing "Che farò senza Euridice?" as a stand-in Jochen was sent to Theo Adam and switched to countertenor. Kowalski specialized in baroque and classical music. He received his training at the Deutsche Hochschule für Musik in East-Berlin, in particular with the vocal pedagogue Marianne Fischer-Kupfer. Career After completing his studies in 1983, Kowalski was engaged as soloist at the ''Komische Oper'' in Berlin. In 1984 he sang the title role in Georg Frideric Handel’s '' Giustino'', staged by Harry Kupfer. The artist drew international atten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kowalski Portrait ©-Felix-Feistel
Kowalski (; feminine: Kowalska, plural: Kowalscy) is the second most common surname in Poland (140,471 people in 2009). ''Kowalski'' surname is derived from the word ''kowal'', meaning " lackmith". " Jan Kowalski" is a name that is used as a placeholder name in Poland in the meaning of " Average Joe", similar to "John Smith", its rough English-language equivalent, in English-speaking countries. (though a more direct translation would be "John Smithson"). Notable people * Alexander Kowalski (1902–1940), Polish ice hockey player killed in the Katyn massacre * Aleksander Kowalski (1930–2009), Polish Nordic combined skier * Alexander Kowalski (musician) (born 1978), German DJ, electronic music artist * Alfred Kowalski-Wierusz (1849–1915), Polish painter * Aneta Kowalska (born 1982), Polish pair skater * Annette Kowalski (born 1936), American producer, business partner of Bob Ross * Bernard Louis Kowalski (1929–2007), American director * Bronisława Kowalska (1955–202 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georg Frideric Handel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712, where he spent the bulk of his career and became a naturalised British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition and by composers of the Italian Baroque. In turn, Handel's music forms one of the peaks of the "high baroque" style, bringing Italian opera to its highest development, creating the genres of English oratorio and organ concerto, and introducing a new style into English church music. He is consistently recognized as one of the greatest composers of his age. Handel started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera. In 1737, he had a physical break ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager. As of 2018, the company's current music director is Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The Met was founded in 1883 as an alternative to the previously established Academy of Music opera house, and debuted the same year in a new building on 39th and Broadway (now known as the "Old Met"). It moved to the new Lincoln Center location in 1966. The Metropolitan Opera is the largest classical music organization in North America. Until 2019, it presented about 27 different operas each year from late September through May. The operas are presented in a rotating repertory schedule, with up to seven performances of four different works staged each week. Performances are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitridate, Re Di Ponto
''Mitridate, re di Ponto'' ('' Mithridates, King of Pontus''), K. 87 (74a), is an opera seria in three acts by the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto is by , after Giuseppe Parini's Italian translation of Jean Racine's play ''Mithridate''. Mozart wrote ''Mitridate'' while touring Italy in 1770. The musicologist Daniel E. Freeman has demonstrated that it was composed with close reference to the opera ''La Nitteti'' by Josef Mysliveček. The latter was the opera being prepared for production in Bologna when Mozart met Mysliveček for the first time with his father in March 1770. Mysliveček visited the Mozarts frequently in Bologna during the summer of 1770 while Wolfgang was working on ''Mitridate''. Mozart gained expertise in composition from his older friend and also incorporated some of his musical motifs into his own operatic setting. The opera was first performed at the Teatro Regio Ducale, Milan, on 26 December 1770 (at the Milan Carnival). It was a success, perfo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Die Fledermaus
' (, ''The Flittermouse'' or ''The Bat'', sometimes called ''The Revenge of the Bat'') is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée, which premiered in 1874. Background The original literary source for ' was ' (''The Prison''), a farce by German playwright Julius Roderich Benedix that premiered in Berlin in 1851. On 10 September 1872, a three-act French vaudeville play by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, ', loosely based on the Benedix farce, opened at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal. Meilhac and Halévy had provided several successful libretti for Offenbach and ''Le Réveillon'' later formed the basis for the 1926 silent film '' So This Is Paris'', directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Meilhac and Halévy's play was soon translated into German by Karl Haffner (1804–1876), at the instigation of Max Steiner, as a non-musical play for production in Vienna. The French custom of a New Year's Eve ''réveillon'', or supper party ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. The first theatre on the site, the Theatre Royal (1732), served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later, the first season of operas, by George Frideric Handel, began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there. The current building is the third theatre on the site, following disastrous fires in 1808 and 1856 to previous buildings. The façade, foyer, and auditorium date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive reconstruction in the 1990s. The main auditorium seats 2,256 people, mak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera (, ) is an opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll, and designs by Josef Hlávka. The opera house was inaugurated as the "Vienna Court Opera" (''Wiener Hofoper'') in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth of Austria. It became known by its current name after the establishment of the First Austrian Republic in 1921. The Vienna State Opera is the successor of the old Vienna Court Opera (built in 1636 inside the Hofburg). The new site was chosen and the construction paid by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1861. The members of the Vienna Philharmonic are recruited from the Vienna State Opera's orchestra. The building is also the home of the Vienna State Ballet, and it hosts the annual Vienna Opera Ball during the carnival season. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De Nederlandse Opera
The Dutch National Opera (DNO; formerly De Nederlandse Opera, now De Nationale Opera in Dutch) is a Dutch opera company based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its present home base is the Dutch National Opera & Ballet housed in the Stopera building, a modern building designed by Cees Dam and Wilhelm Holzbauer which opened in 1986. History The DNO was established shortly after the end of World War II as a repertory company with a permanent ensemble. In the postwar period, it toured extensively in the Netherlands from its home base in the Stadsschouwburg, a ''fin de siècle'' theatre on the Leidseplein in Amsterdam. In 1964, it was renamed ''De Nederlandse Operastichting''. (''The Dutch Opera Foundation''), and the company adopted a ''stagione'' orientation, inviting different soloists and artistic teams for each new production. In 1986, the company moved to the new Stopera building, which it shares with the Dutch National Ballet, and thereafter became known as De Nederlandse Opera (DNO) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerd Albrecht
Gerd Albrecht (19 July 1935 – 2 February 2014) was a German conductor. Biography Albrecht was born in Essen, the son of the musicologist Hans Albrecht (1902–1961). He studied music in Kiel and in Hamburg, where his teachers included Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg. He was a first-prize winner at the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors at age 22. His first post was as a repetiteur at the Stuttgart State Opera. Later, he became Senior Kapellmeister at the Staatstheater Mainz, and '' Generalmusikdirektor'' in Lübeck. He also held posts at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and the Hamburg State Opera. His work in contemporary opera included conducting Aribert Reimann's ''Lear'' in both its world premiere and its United States premiere, as well as making the first commercial recording of the opera. His other commercial recordings include Robert Schumann's ''Genoveva'' and ''Manfred'', and the first commercial recording of Hans Wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belshazzar (Handel)
''Belshazzar'' ( HWV 61) is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel. The libretto was by Charles Jennens, and Handel abridged it considerably.G.F. Handel, "Belshazzar", ed. Friedrich Chrysander. Leipzig: 1864. Reprint by Kalmus Miniature Scores. Melville, NY: Belwin Mills. Jennens' libretto was based on the Biblical account of the fall of Babylon at the hands of Cyrus the Great and the subsequent freeing of the Jewish nation, as found in the Book of Daniel. Handel composed ''Belshazzar'' in the late Summer of 1744 concurrently with ''Hercules'', during a time that Winton Dean calls "the peak of Handel's creative life". Dean, Winton''Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques'' London: Oxford University Press, 1959. pp. 435 It premiered the following Lenten season on 27 March 1745 at the King's Theatre, London. It fell into neglect after Handel's death, with revivals in the United Kingdom in 1847, 1848 and 1873. With the revival of interest in Baroque music and historically inform ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hamburg State Opera
The Hamburg State Opera (in German: Staatsoper Hamburg) is a German opera company based in Hamburg. Its theatre is near the square of Gänsemarkt. Since 2015, the current ''Intendant'' of the company is Georges Delnon, and the current ''Generalmusikdirektor'' of the company is Kent Nagano. History Opera in Hamburg dates to 2 January 1678 when the Oper am Gänsemarkt was inaugurated with a performance of a biblical Singspiel by Johann Theile. It was not a court theatre but the first public opera house in Germany established by the art-loving citizens of Hamburg, a prosperous member of the Hanseatic League. The Hamburg ''Bürgeroper'' resisted the dominance of the Italianate style and rapidly became the leading musical center of the German Baroque. In 1703, George Friedrich Handel was engaged as violinist and harpsichordist and performances of his operas were not long in appearing. In 1705, Hamburg gave the world première of his opera ''Nero''. In 1721, Georg Philipp Telem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orfeo Ed Euridice
' (; French: '; English: ''Orpheus and Eurydice'') is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on Orpheus, the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the ''azione teatrale'', meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing. The piece was first performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 5 October 1762, in the presence of Empress Maria Theresa. ''Orfeo ed Euridice'' is the first of Gluck's "reform" operas, in which he attempted to replace the abstruse plots and overly complex music of ''opera seria'' with a "noble simplicity" in both the music and the drama. The opera is the most popular of Gluck's works, and was one of the most influential on subsequent Opera in German, German operas. Variations on its plot—the underground rescue mission in which the hero must control, or conceal, his emotions—can be found in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart's ''The Magic Flute'', Ludwig van Beethoven, Beetho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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