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Louis-Henri Obin
Louis-Henri Obin, born in Ascq, near Lille on 4 August 1820, died in Paris on 9 November 1895, was a French operatic bass. He created some of the most notable roles in French grand opera at the Paris Opera, including the part of King Philip II in Verdi's ''Don Carlos''. Education and career Born in Ascq, Louis-Henri Obin studied singing at the Conservatoire de Lille with Antoine Ponchard and then at the Conservatoire de Paris. He made his professional debut in 1844 at the Paris Opera in the role of Elmiro in Rossini's ''Otello'' and continued his career there, playing leading bass roles in many operas, until he retired from the stage in 1869. He came out of retirement to perform in operas once again for a brief time in 1871. At the Paris Opera, Obin created roles in the world premieres of several important operas. These included some of the most important bass parts in French grand opera, including Procida in Verdi's ''Les vêpres siciliennes'' (1855), the King in the same com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis-Henri Obin
Louis-Henri Obin, born in Ascq, near Lille on 4 August 1820, died in Paris on 9 November 1895, was a French operatic bass. He created some of the most notable roles in French grand opera at the Paris Opera, including the part of King Philip II in Verdi's ''Don Carlos''. Education and career Born in Ascq, Louis-Henri Obin studied singing at the Conservatoire de Lille with Antoine Ponchard and then at the Conservatoire de Paris. He made his professional debut in 1844 at the Paris Opera in the role of Elmiro in Rossini's ''Otello'' and continued his career there, playing leading bass roles in many operas, until he retired from the stage in 1869. He came out of retirement to perform in operas once again for a brief time in 1871. At the Paris Opera, Obin created roles in the world premieres of several important operas. These included some of the most important bass parts in French grand opera, including Procida in Verdi's ''Les vêpres siciliennes'' (1855), the King in the same com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Niedermeyer
Abraham Louis Niedermeyer (27 April 180214 March 1861) was a Swiss and naturalized French composer. He chiefly wrote church music and a few operas. He also taught music and took over the École Choron, renamed École Niedermeyer de Paris, a school for the study and practice of church music, with students that include several eminent French musicians such as Gabriel Fauré and André Messager. Life and career Niedermeyer was born in Nyon in 1802. His father was a music teacher from Würzburg, Germany, who had settled in Switzerland after his marriage. When Louis reached the age of 15, his father sent him to Vienna to learn music. There, he studied piano with Ignaz Moscheles and composition with Emanuel Aloys Förster. He then studied in Rome with Vincenzo Fioravanti, the choirmaster of the papal Chapel (1819) and in Naples with Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli. While in Rome, he met Gioachino Rossini, who befriended him and encouraged him to write operas. His first opera, ''Il reo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legion Of Honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte, it has been retained (with occasional slight alterations) by all later French governments and regimes. The order's motto is ' ("Honour and Fatherland"); its Seat (legal entity), seat is the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur next to the Musée d'Orsay, on the left bank of the Seine in Paris. The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction: ' (Knight), ' (Officer), ' (Commander (order), Commander), ' (Grand Officer) and ' (Grand Cross). History Consulate During the French Revolution, all of the French Order of chivalry, orders of chivalry were abolished and replaced with Weapons of Honour. It was the wish of Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Consulate, First Consul, to create a reward to commend c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mosè In Egitto
''Mosè in Egitto'' (; "''Moses in Egypt''") is a three-act opera written by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola, which was based on a 1760 play by Francesco Ringhieri, ''L'Osiride''. It premièred on 5 March 1818 at the recently reconstructed Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Italy. In 1827 Rossini revised and greatly enlarged the work to a four-act French libretto: ''Moïse et Pharaon, ou Le passage de la Mer Rouge'' (; "''Moses and Pharaoh, or The Crossing of the Red Sea''"). This was written by Luigi Balocchi and Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy. The première took place in the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opera on 26 March that year. Riccardo Muti and many scholars consider ''Moïse et Pharaon'', along with ''Guillaume Tell'', to be among Rossini's greatest achievements: :I prefer it because Rossini himself preferred it. Don't get me wrong. ''Mosè in Egitto'' is a wonderful opera, but it remains very much a mere sketch for ''Moïse et Pharaon''. An ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legend about a libertine as told by playwright Tirso de Molina in his 1630 play '' El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra''. It is a ''dramma giocoso'' blending comedy, melodrama and supernatural elements (although the composer entered it into his catalogue simply as ''opera buffa''). It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the National Theater (of Bohemia), now called the Estates Theatre, on 29 October 1787. ''Don Giovanni'' is regarded as one of the greatest operas of all time and has proved a fruitful subject for commentary in its own right; critic Fiona Maddocks has described it as one of Mozart's "trio of masterpieces with librettos by Da Ponte". Composition and premiere The opera was commissioned after the succes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Barber Of Seville
''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an ''opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's French comedy ''The Barber of Seville'' (1775). The première of Rossini's opera (under the title ''Almaviva, o sia L'inutile precauzione'') took place on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina, Rome, with designs by Angelo Toselli. Rossini's ''Barber of Seville'' has proven to be one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music, and has been described as the opera buffa of all "opere buffe". After two hundred years, it remains a popular work. Composition history Rossini's opera recounts the events of the first of the three plays by French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais that revolve around the clever and enterprising character named Figaro, the barber of the title. Mozart's opera ''The Marriage of Fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Le Diable
''Robert le diable'' (''Robert the Devil'') is an opera in five acts composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer between 1827 and 1831, to a libretto written by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne. ''Robert le diable'' is regarded as one of the first grand operas at the Paris Opéra. It has only a superficial connection to the medieval legend of ''Robert the Devil''. The opera was immediately successful from its first night on 21 November 1831 at the Opéra; the dramatic music, harmony and orchestration, its melodramatic plot, its star singers and its sensational stage effects compelled Frédéric Chopin, who was in the audience, to say, "If ever magnificence was seen in the theatre, I doubt that it reached the level of splendour shown in ''Robert''...It is a masterpiece...Meyerbeer has made himself immortal".Brown, ''Robert le diable'', p. 572 ''Robert'' initiated the European fame of its composer, consolidated the fame of its librettist, Scribe, and launched the reputation of the new dire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Favorite
''La favorite'' (''The Favourite'', sometimes referred to by its Italian title: ''La favorita'') is a grand opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play ''Le comte de Comminges'' by Baculard d'Arnaud with additions by Eugène Scribe based on the story of Leonora de Guzman. The opera concerns the romantic struggles of the King of Castile, Alfonso XI, and his mistress, the "favourite" Leonora, against the backdrop of the political wiles of receding Moorish Spain and the life of the Catholic Church. It premiered on 2 December 1840 at the Académie Royale de Musique (Salle Le Peletier) in Paris. Background Originally, Donizetti had been composing an opera by the name of ''Le Duc d'Albe'' as his second work for the Opéra in Paris. However, the director, Léon Pillet, objected to an opera without a prominent role for his mistress, mezzo-soprano Rosine Stoltz. Donizetti therefore abandoned ''Le Duc d ... [...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] |
Herculanum (opera)
''Herculanum'' is a grand opera with music by Félicien David and a French text by Joseph Méry and Térence Hadot. It had its first performance in Paris at the Théâtre Impérial de l'Opéra on 4 March 1859. Lavish and detailed sets, celebrated stars of the opera and ballet, elaborate choruses and dancing, and spectacular stage effects combined with the music and text to make the work a success. Roles Synopsis Scene: Herculaneum, 79 AD Act 1 ''The palace and gardens of Olympia at the right; to the left, sphinxes mark the Egyptian quarters of the city, where cargo arrives from the port of Alexandria. In the background, temples, villas, and palaces'' Olympia is receiving tribute from visiting monarchs and dignitaries in her palace. Hélios and Lilia, two Christians, are dragged in by a mob demanding they be put to death. The proconsul Nicanor, Olympia's brother, thinks this is a good idea, but Olympia, much struck by Hélios' good looks, declines to do so and sends everyone el ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Félicien David
Félicien-César David (13 April 1810 – 29 August 1876) was a French composer. Biography Félicien David was born in Cadenet, and began to study music at the age of five under his father, whose death when the boy was six left him an impoverished orphan. His good voice enabled him to study as a choirboy at the Church of Saint-Sauveur in Aix-en-Provence, which he left at the age of 15 with a sound knowledge of music, and a scholarship which enabled him to study literature at a Jesuit college. However, after three years, he abandoned these studies to pursue a musical career. He first obtained a position in the orchestra of the theatre at Aix. In 1829, he became '' maître de chapelle'' at Saint-Sauveur, but realised that to complete his musical education he needed to study at Paris. An allowance of 50 francs per month from a rich uncle made this possible. In Paris in 1830 he convinced Luigi Cherubini, the director of the Conservatoire, to enroll him as a pupil: despite his res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armand Limnander
Baron Armand-Marie Ghislain Limnander van Nieuwenhove (born 22 May 1814 in Ghent, Belgium – d. 15 August 1892 at the Château de Moignanville, a village in the department of Seine-et-Oise, France) was a Belgian composer of choral and orchestral works and church music. Knight of the Order of Leopold, he was the founder and conductor of the choral chamber ensembles ''Société Symphonique'' and ''Réunion Lyrique'' in Belgium. Biography Born to a family who formerly belonged to the bar of the late Council of Flanders, ennobled in 1683, Armand Limnander van Nieuwenhoven was raised in the village of Malines. Thys, Augustin (1855), Historique des sociétés chorales de Belgique'' p. 173, De Busscher, He studied in Freiburg with Louis Lambillotte and in Paris with François-Joseph Fétis, director of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.Rice, Albert R. (2009), From the Clarinet D'Amour to the Contra Bass: A History of Large Size Clarinets, 1740-1860'' p. 373, Oxford University Pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
