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La Circassienne
''La circassienne'' (The Circassian Woman) is an opera (''opéra comique'') in three acts composed by Daniel Auber to a French-language libretto by Eugène Scribe based on Louvet de Couvrai's 1787 novel ''Une année de la vie du chevalier de Faublas''. It was premiered on 2 February 1861 by the Opéra-Comique at the second Salle Favart in Paris. Set in Russia during the Russian-Circassian War, the opera was also known under the titles ''Morte d'amour'' (Died of Love), ''La révolte au Sérail'' (The Revolt in the Seraglio), ''Alexis'', and ''Faublas''. Background and performance history ''La circassienne'' was one of Auber's last operas, composed when he was nearly 80 years old. His librettist, Eugène Scribe, had been Auber's regular collaborator since 1823 and had written the libretto for his greatest success, ''Fra Diavolo''. The opera was premiered by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 2 February 1861 in a production directed by Ernest Mocker. In his review of the premiere for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opéra Comique
''Opéra comique'' (; plural: ''opéras comiques'') is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged from the popular '' opéras comiques en vaudevilles'' of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent (and to a lesser extent the Comédie-Italienne),M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet and Richard Langham Smith"Opéra comique" '' Grove Music Online''. Oxford Music Online. 19 November 2009 which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections. Associated with the Paris theatre of the same name, ''opéra comique'' is not necessarily comical or shallow in nature; '' Carmen'', perhaps the most famous ''opéra comique'', is a tragedy. Use of the term The term ''opéra comique'' is complex in meaning and cannot simply be translated as "comic opera". The genre originated in the early 18th century with humorous and satirical plays performed at the theatres of the Paris fairs which contained songs ('' vaudevilles''), with new words set to already existing music. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parlour Music
Parlour music is a type of popular music which, as the name suggests, is intended to be performed in the parlours of houses, usually by amateur singers and pianists. Disseminated as sheet music, its heyday came in the 19th century, as a result of a steady increase in the number of households with enough resources to purchase musical instruments and instruction in music, and with the leisure time and cultural motivation to engage in recreational music-making. Its popularity faded in the 20th century as the phonograph record and radio replaced sheet music as the most common means for the spread of popular music. History Many of the earliest parlour songs were transcriptions for voice and keyboard of other music. Thomas Moore's ''Irish Melodies'', for instance, were traditional (or "folk") tunes supplied with new lyrics by Moore, and many arias from Italian operas, particularly those of Bellini and Donizetti, became parlour songs, with texts either translated or replaced by new lyri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achille-Félix Montaubry
Achille-Félix Montaubry (12 November 1826 – 2 October 1898) was a French musician and operatic tenor, active in Paris; later a theatre director. His brother was the conductor and composer Édouard Montaubry (1824–1883).Fétis F.-J.: ''Biographie universelle des musiciens'' (Paris, 1878). Life and career Born in Niort, Deux-Sèvres, Montaubry at first studied cello at the Paris Conservatoire and began to play in orchestras, notably in the orchestra of the Théâtre du Vaudeville where his brother played first violin. Realising that he had an attractive voice, he returned to the Conservatoire as a student of Auguste Panseron and Marie Moreau-Sainti. After completing his studies he went to America and was engaged in New Orleans in both Italian and French opera. After two years he returned to Europe and found success as a light tenor in Lille, Brussels, the Hague, Strasbourg and Bordeaux. In 1858 he was offered a five-year contract at the Opéra-Comique for 40,000 francs per y ... [...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] |
Voice Type
A voice type is a group of voices with similar vocal ranges, capable of singing in a similar tessitura, and with similar vocal transition points ('' passaggi''). Voice classification is most strongly associated with European classical music, though it, and the terms it utilizes, are used in other styles of music as well. A singer will choose a repertoire that suits their voice. Some singers such as Enrico Caruso, Rosa Ponselle, Joan Sutherland, Maria Callas, Jessye Norman, Ewa Podleś, and Plácido Domingo have voices that allow them to sing roles from a wide variety of types; some singers such as Shirley Verrett and Grace Bumbry change type and even voice part over their careers; and some singers such as Leonie Rysanek have voices that lower with age, causing them to cycle through types over their careers. Some roles are hard to classify, having very unusual vocal requirements; Mozart wrote many of his roles for specific singers who often had remarkable voices, and some of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Le Premier Jour De Bonheur
''Le premier jour de bonheur'' is an opera or opéra comique in three acts by Daniel Auber. The French libretto by Adolphe d'Ennery and Eugène Cormon is based on Joseph François Souque's ''Le chevalier de Canolle''. The work's premiere was staged by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Favart theatre on 15 February 1868. The opera is set in Madras at the end of the 18th century, with a mixture of sentimental elegance and precious sensibility amid a picturesque story bearing resemblances to Léo Delibes’s '' Lakmé'': the Indian setting, a military officer – one French, the other English – and a priestess – Djelma, Lakmé.Soubies and Malherbe The scenario was proposed to Auber around 1865 by Victorien Sardou, and was first announced for production in September 1866 under another title. The rôle of Hélène was intended as the debut of a brilliant student of Eugénie Garcia, but a court ruling in January 1868 following a case brought by her parents delayed her debut until ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Letellier
Robert Ignatius Letellier (born 1953, in Durban, South Africa) is a cultural historian and academic, specialising in the history of music, Romantic literature and the Bible. He teaches at the Maryvale Institute and the Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge. Biography Letellier has ten degrees in a range of subjects, including English, history, philosophy, and scripture. He has a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in English Romanticism from the University of Salzburg, and a Doctor of Sacred Theology (STD) degree in Scripture from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He teaches music, literature and cultural history at the Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge. Letellier has published more than one hundred articles and books on subjects including the Bible, eighteenth and nineteenth century novels, especially the works of Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fatinitza
''Fatinitza'' was the first full-length, three-act operetta by Franz von Suppé. The libretto by F. Zell (a pseudonym for Camillo Walzel) and Richard Genée was based on the libretto to ''La circassienne'' by Eugène Scribe (which had been set to music by Daniel Auber in 1861), but with the lead role of Wladimir, a young Russian lieutenant who has to disguise himself as a woman, changed to a Travesti (theatre)#Women in male roles, trousers role; in other words, a woman played the part of the man who pretended to be a woman. It premièred on 5 January 1876, at the Carltheater Vienna, and proved a huge success, running for more than a hundred performances, with the march "Vorwärts mit frischem Muth", proving a particular hit. The operetta as a whole is no longer in the popular repertory, but the overture is performed as a stand-alone piece. Background Viennese operetta sprang out of an attempt by Viennese composers to imitate Jacques Offenbach's works, after the highly successful ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franz Von Suppé
Franz von Suppé (né Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo de Suppe) (18 April 181921 May 1895) was an Austrian composer of light operas and other theatre music. He came from the Kingdom of Dalmatia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now part of Croatia). A composer and conductor of the Romantic period, he is notable for his four dozen operettas. Life and education Franz von Suppé's parents named him Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo when he was born on 18 April 1819 in Spalato, now Split, Dalmatia, Austrian Empire. His father was a civil servant in the service of the Austrian Empire, as was his father before him; Suppé's mother was Viennese by birth. He simplified and Germanized his name when in Vienna, and changed "de" to "von". Outside Germanic circles, his name may appear on programmes as Francesco Suppé-Demelli. He spent his childhood in Zara, now Zadar, where he had his first music lessons and began to compose at an early age. As a boy he had encouragement in music from a local ban ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operetta
Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its shorter length, the operetta is usually of a light and amusing character. It sometimes also includes satirical commentaries. "Operetta" is the Italian diminutive of "opera" and was used originally to describe a shorter, perhaps less ambitious work than an opera. Operetta provides an alternative to operatic performances in an accessible form targeting a different audience. Operetta became a recognizable form in the mid-19th century in France, and its popularity led to the development of many national styles of operetta. Distinctive styles emerged across countries including Austria-Hungary, Germany, England, Spain, the Philippines, Mexico, Cuba, and the United States. Through the transfer of operetta among different countries, cultural cosmop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modern Symphony Orchestra
The Modern Symphony Orchestra (sometimes called the ''Northern Polytechnic Modern Symphony Orchestra'') was a London amateur orchestra that existed from 1931 to 1983. History The Modern Symphony Orchestra was founded by Arthur Dennington, who led several smaller orchestral amateur ensembles in Northern London at that time and combined them in 1931 into a symphony orchestra. The name ''Modern Symphony Orchestra'' derived from the fact that the orchestra wanted to play "modern" music by contemporary and little known composers, and allow young soloists to perform with the orchestra.Article in the Polytechnic of North London University house journal ''Pipeline'', January 1982 (no. 27) The orchestra's first concert hall was Islington Town Hall. But owing to the poor acoustics there the orchestra moved to the Polytechnic Theatre in Holloway Road. In 1938 the Modern Symphony Orchestra was officially adopted by the Polytechnic Music Trades School and so became a part of the Northern Polyte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Dennington
Arthur Dennington (12 August 1904 – 16 May 1988) was a British conductor and composer. Life and career Arthur Dennington was born in London. He studied music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the King's College London.Townend, Peter (1962): Who's Who in Music: and musicians' international directory. London: Burke's Peerage. . After his studies he started to conduct several small orchestral groups in various institutes and schools in Northern London. In 1931 Arthur Dennington combined these different ensembles and formed the Modern Symphony Orchestra. ''The name 'Modern' was agreed on to indicate that this was to be something new in the way of amateur orchestras, to attempt little known works and to encourage young wind players.''article in the Polytechnic of North London University house journal „Pipeline“ from January 1982 (no. 27) An amateur orchestra, the ensemble played music from wide spectrum of styles and musical periods, and the ''Musical Express'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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