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Kay Griffel
Kay Griffel (born December 26, 1940, in Eldora, Iowa) is an American operatic spinto soprano. Early life and education After earning a Bachelor of Music from Northwestern University, she pursued further studies with Lotte Lehmann at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. She received a Fulbright Scholarship and a Rockefeller Foundation Grant. In 1962 she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She also won a competition sponsored by the National Association of Teachers of Singing. In the mid 1960s she pursued graduate studies at the Musikhochschule Berlin. She also received further instruction from Nadia Boulanger at the Fontainebleau School and Pierre Bernac in Paris. Career On November 4, 1960, Griffel made her stage debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago (LOC) as Mercedes in Georges Bizet's ''Carmen'' with Jean Madeira in the title role, Renata Scotto as Micaela, Giuseppe di Stefano as Don Jose, Robert Merrill as Escamillo, and Lovro von Matacic conducting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eldora, Iowa
Eldora is a city in Hardin County, Iowa, United States. The population was 2,663 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Hardin County. History Eldora was platted in 1853. It was incorporated on July 1, 1895. The name Eldora was given to the town by a local mother in honor of her dead infant daughter. It is derived from the Spanish name for "the gilded". Geography Eldora is located at (42.360155, -93.101325). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. Eldora is located on east edge of the Altmont Moraine, the glacial moraine that marks the east border of the Des Moines Lobe of the Wisconsin Glaciation. The town is just west of the gorge of the Iowa River that borders the moraine. The river here has cut through the sandstone bedrock underlying the moraine. Climate Designated as having a humid continental climate, this region typically has a large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fontainebleau School
The School of Fontainbleau (french: École de Fontainebleau) (c. 1530 – c. 1610) refers to two periods of artistic production in France during the late Renaissance centered on the royal Palace of Fontainebleau that were crucial in forming the Northern Mannerism. First School of Fontainebleau (from 1531) In 1531, the Florentine artist Rosso Fiorentino, having lost most of his possessions at the Sack of Rome in 1527, was invited by François I to come to France, where he began an extensive decorative program for the Château de Fontainebleau. In 1532 he was joined by another Italian artist, Francesco Primaticcio (from Bologna). Rosso died in France in 1540. On the advice of Primaticcio, Niccolò dell'Abbate (from Modena) was invited to France in 1552 by François's son Henri II. Although known for their work at Fontainebleau, these artists were also invited to create works of art for other noble families of the period and were much esteemed and well-paid. The works of this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Die Walküre
(; ''The Valkyrie''), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on 26 June 1870, and received its first performance as part of the ''Ring'' cycle at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 14 August 1876. As the ''Ring'' cycle was conceived by Wagner in reverse order of performance, ''Die Walküre'' was the third of the four texts to be written, although Wagner composed the music in performance sequence. The text was completed by July 1852, and the music by March 1856. Wagner largely followed the principles related to the form of musical drama, which he had set out in his 1851 essay ''Opera and Drama'' under which the music would interpret the text emotionally, reflecting the feelings and moods behind the work, using a system of recurring leitmotifs to represent people, ideas, and situations rather than the conv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (''The Ring of the Nibelung''). His compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex textures, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tosca
''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language dramatic play, ''La Tosca'', is a melodramatic piece set in Rome in June 1800, with the Kingdom of Naples's control of Rome threatened by Napoleon's Campaigns of 1800 in the French Revolutionary Wars#Italy, invasion of Italy. It contains depictions of torture, murder, and suicide, as well as some of Puccini's best-known lyrical arias. Puccini saw Sardou's play when it was touring Italy in 1889 and, after some vacillation, obtained the rights to turn the work into an opera in 1895. Turning the wordy French play into a succinct Italian opera took four years, during which the composer repeatedly argued with his librettists and publisher. ''Tosca'' premiered at a time of unrest in Rome, and its first performance was delayed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini (Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, stemming from the late-Baroque era. Though his early work was firmly rooted in traditional late-19th-century Romantic Italian opera, he later developed his work in the realistic ''verismo'' style, of which he became one of the leading exponents. His most renowned works are ''La bohème'' (1896), ''Tosca'' (1900), '' Madama Butterfly'' (1904), and ''Turandot'' (1924), all of which are among the most frequently performed and recorded of all operas. Family and education Puccini was born Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini in Lucca, Italy, in 1858. He was the sixth of nine children of Michele Puccini (1813–1864) and Albina Magi (1830–1884). The Puccini family was established in Lucca as a local musi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lovro Von Matacic
Lovro is a masculine given name. Notable people with the name include: *Lovro Artuković (born 1959), Croatian painter and graphic artist who primarily paints large scale figurative canvases * Lovro Benić (born 1994), Croatian footballer *Lovro Cvek (born 1995), Croatian footballer *Lovro Dobričević (1420–1478), Croatian painter from Kotor *Lovro Iločki or Lawrence of Ilok (1459–1524), Croatian nobleman, very wealthy and powerful in the Kingdom of Hungary-Croatia *Lovro Jotić (born 1994), Croatian handball player *Lovro Karaula (1800–1875), Croatian friar from Bosnia and Herzegovina *Lovro Kuhar, pen name Prežihov Voranc, (1893–1950), Slovene writer and Communist political activist *Lovro Majer (born 1998), Croatian footballer *Lovro von Matačić (1899–1985), Croatian conductor and composer *Lovro Mazalin (born 1997), Croatian professional basketball player * Lovro Medić (born 1990), Croatian professional footballer *Lovro Mihačević (1856–1920), Croatian Cathol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Merrill
Robert Merrill (June 4, 1917 – October 23, 2004) was an American operatic baritone and actor, who was also active in the musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ... circuit. He received the National Medal of Arts in 1993. Early life Merrill was born Moishe Miller, later known as Morris Miller, in the Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. He was the son of tailor Abraham Miller, originally Milstein, and his wife, Lillian (née Balaban), Jewish immigrants from Pultusk, Poland, near Warsaw. His paternal grandparents were Berl Milstein and Chana (née Mlawski), both from Pultusk, Poland. His mother claimed to have had an operatic and concert career in Poland (a fact denied by her son in his biographies) and encouraged her son ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giuseppe Di Stefano
Giuseppe Di Stefano (24 July 19213 March 2008) was an Italian operatic tenor who sang professionally from the mid-1940s until the early 1990s. Called Pippo by both fans and friends, he was known as the "Golden voice" or "The most beautiful voice", as the true successor of Beniamino Gigli. Luciano Pavarotti said he modeled himself after Di Stefano. In an interview Pavarotti said "Di Stefano is my idol. ''There'' is a solar voice...It was the most incredible, open voice you could hear. The musicality of Di Stefano is as natural and beautiful as the voice is phenomenal". Di Stefano was also the tenor who most inspired José Carreras. He died on 3 March 2008 as a result of injuries from an attack by unknown assailants. Early life and musical training Giuseppe Di Stefano was born in Motta Sant'Anastasia, a village near Catania, Sicily, in 1921. He moved to Milan with his parents when he was six. He was the only son of a carabiniere turned cobbler and his dressmaker wife. Di S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Renata Scotto
Renata Scotto (born 24 February 1934) is an Italian soprano and opera director. Recognized for her sense of style, her musicality, and as a remarkable singer-actress, Scotto is considered one of the preeminent singers of her generation. Since retiring from the stage as a singer in 2002, she has turned successfully to directing opera as well as teaching in Italy and America, along with academic posts at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Juilliard School in New York. Singing career Renata Scotto was born in Savona, Italy. She made her operatic debut in her home town on Christmas Eve of 1952 at the age of 18 in front of a sold-out house as Violetta in Verdi's '' La traviata''.The next day, she made her 'official' opera debut at the Teatro Nuovo in Milan as Violetta. Shortly after, she performed in her first Puccini opera, ''Madama Butterfly'', in Savona and was paid twenty-five thousand lire. Both roles would later become closely associated with her name. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Madeira
Jean Madeira, née Jean Browning (born November 14, 1918, in Centralia, Illinois; died on July 10, 1972, in Providence, Rhode Island) was an American contralto, particularly known for her work in late-romantic German repertoire such as the operas of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. When she was a child her family moved to East St. Louis, Illinois, where she attended high school, and she later studied with Florence Kimball at the Juilliard School in New York City. She made her debut in opera in Chatauqua, as Nancy in ''Martha'', by Flotow. In 1955, the singer and actress successfully sang the title role in ''Carmen'' with the Vienna State Opera. She sang approximately 300 times at the Metropolitan Opera in forty-one roles, between 1948 and 1971. Her last appearance there was in ''Elektra'', opposite Birgit Nilsson and Leonie Rysanek.Erik ErikssonBiography: Jean Madeira ''All Music Guide'', © 2009">[3/nowiki>/sup>_Jean_Madeira_was_a_second-cousin_of_the_composer_Amy_Beth_Kirsten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875, where its breaking of conventions shocked and scandalised its first audiences. Bizet died suddenly after the 33rd performance, unaware that the work would achieve international acclaim within the following ten years. ''Carmen'' has since become one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the classical Western canon, canon; the "Habanera (aria), Habanera" from act 1 and the "Toreador Song" from act 2 are among the best known of all operatic arias. The opera is written in the genre of ''opéra comique'' with musical numbers separated by dialogue. It is set in southern Spain and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
