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La Esmeralda (opera)
''La Esmeralda'' is a grand opera in four acts composed by Louise Bertin. The libretto was written by Victor Hugo, who had adapted it from his 1831 novel ''Notre-Dame de Paris'' (''The Hunchback of Notre Dame''). The opera premiered at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris on 14 November 1836 with Cornélie Falcon in the title role. Despite the lavish production, the premiere was a failure, and ''La Esmeralda'' proved to be the last opera composed by Bertin, although she lived for another 40 years. Background Partially paralyzed from birth, and basically chair-bound, Louise Bertin had been somewhat of a child prodigy. She painted, wrote poetry, and when she was only 19 composed her first opera, ''Guy Mannering'' for which she also wrote the libretto based on Sir Walter Scott's novel, '' Guy Mannering or The Astrologer''. Two of her later operas were produced at the Opéra-Comique, ''Le loup-garou'' (''The Werewolf'') in 1827 and ''Fausto'' in 1831 (again with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Opera
Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and orchestras, and (in their original productions) lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on or around dramatic historic events. The term is particularly applied (sometimes specifically used in its French language equivalent grand opéra, ) to certain productions of the Paris Opéra from the late 1820s to around 1850; 'grand opéra' has sometimes been used to denote the Paris Opéra itself. The term 'grand opera' is also used in a broader application in respect of contemporary or later works of similar monumental proportions from France, Germany, Italy, and other countries. It may also be used colloquially in an imprecise sense to refer to 'serious opera without spoken dialogue'. Origins Paris at the turn of the 19th century drew in many composers, both French and foreign, and especially those of opera. Several Italians working d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hernani (drama)
''Hernani'' (full title: ''Hernani, ou l'Honneur Castillan'') is a drama in rhyming alexandrines by the French romantic author Victor Hugo. The title originates from Hernani, a Spanish town in the Southern Basque Country, where Hugo's mother and her three children stopped on their way to General Hugo's place of residence. The play was given its premiere on 25 February 1830 by the Comédie-Française in Paris. Today, it is more remembered for the demonstrations which accompanied the first performance and for being the inspiration for Giuseppe Verdi's opera ''Ernani'' than it is for its own merits. Hugo had enlisted the support of fellow Romanticists such as Hector Berlioz and Théophile Gautier to combat the opposition of Classicists who recognised the play as a direct attack on their values. ''Hernani'' is used to describe the magnitude and elegance of Prince Prospero's masquerade in Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Masque of the Red Death". Gillenormand in ''Les Misérables ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Esméralda (The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame)
Esmeralda (), born Agnès, is a fictional character in Victor Hugo's 1831 novel ''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (French: ''Notre Dame de Paris''). She is a French Roma girl (near the end of the book, it is revealed that her biological mother was a French woman). She constantly attracts men with her seductive dances, and is rarely seen without her clever goat Djali. She is around 16 years old and has a kind and generous heart. Character history Esmeralda's birth-name was Agnès. She is the love child of Paquette Guybertaut, nicknamed 'la Chantefleurie', an orphaned minstrel's daughter who lives in Rheims. Paquette has become a prostitute after being seduced by a young nobleman, and lives a miserable life in poverty and loneliness. Agnes's birth makes Paquette happy once more, and she lavishes attention and care upon her adored child: even the neighbours begin to forgive Paquette for her past behaviour when they watch the pair. Tragedy strikes, however, when Romani (in the novel c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quasimodo
Quasimodo (from Quasimodo Sunday) is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the novel ''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (1831) by Victor Hugo. Quasimodo was born with a hunchback and feared by the townspeople as a sort of monster, but he finds sanctuary in an unlikely love that is fulfilled only in death. The role of Quasimodo has been played by many actors in film and stage adaptations, including Lon Chaney (1923), Charles Laughton (1939), Anthony Quinn (1956), and Anthony Hopkins (1982) as well as Tom Hulce in the 1996 Disney animated adaptation, and most recently Angelo Del Vecchio in the Notre Dame de Paris revival. In 2010, a British researcher found evidence suggesting there was a real-life hunchbacked stone carver who worked at Notre Dame during the same period Victor Hugo was writing the novel and they may have even known each other. In the novel The deformed Quasimodo is described as "hideous" and a "creation of the devil". He was born with a severe hunchba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claude Frollo
''Monseigneur'' Claude Frollo () is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Victor Hugo's 1831 novel ''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (known in French as ''Notre-Dame de Paris''). He is the Archdeacon of Notre Dame, as well as an Alchemist and Intellectual. In the novel Dom Claude Frollo is a pious and highly knowledgeable man who was orphaned along with his younger brother Jehan when their parents died of the plague. His studies led him to become the Archdeacon of Josas, which is his position during the events of the novel. He also has a small fief that provides him with a minor source income, most of which goes to fund his brother's alcoholism. During a holiday at Notre Dame called Quasimodo Sunday, he rescues a deformed hunchback child whom he finds abandoned on the cathedral's foundlings bed. He adopts the boy, names him "Quasimodo" after the holiday, raises him like a son, and teaches him a sort of sign language when Quasimodo is deafened by the cathedral's bells. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Le Roi S'amuse
''Le roi s'amuse'' (; literally, ''The King Amuses Himself'' or ''The King Has Fun'') is a French play in five acts written by Victor Hugo. First performed on 22 November 1832 but banned by the government after one evening, the play was used for Giuseppe Verdi's 1851 opera ''Rigoletto''. Cast of characters * Francis I, ''king of France'' * Triboulet, ''his jester'' * Blanche, ''daughter of Triboulet'' * Monsieur de Saint-Vallier, ''father of Diane de Poitiers'' * Saltabadil, ''a hired assassin'' * Maguelonne, ''a street player'' * Clément Marot, ''royal poet'' * Monsieur de Pienne * Monsieur de Gordes * Monsieur de Pardaillan * Monsieur de Brion * Monsieur de Montchenu * Monsieur de Montmorency * Monsieur de Cossé * Monsieur de La Tour-Landry * Madame de Cossé * Dame Bérarde * A Gentleman of the Queen * A Valet of the King * Doctor * Seigneurs, Pages * Common folk Synopsis The action takes place in Paris in an unspecified year in the 1520s. The first act is set during a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis-François Bertin
Louis-François Bertin, also known as Bertin l'Aîné (''Bertin the Elder''; 14 December 176613 September 1841), was a French journalist. He had a younger brother, Louis-François Bertin de Vaux; two sons, Edouard François and Louis-Marie François; and a daughter, Louise Bertin. Life Early career Born in Paris (his father was a former secretary of Étienne François, duc de Choiseul), and considered in retrospect the most important member of the Bertin family, he began his journalistic career by writing for the ''Journal Français'' and other papers during the French Revolution. After Napoleon Bonaparte's 18 Brumaire Coup he acquired the paper with his family name has chiefly been connected, the ''Journal des débats''. Guided by the contributions of figures such as Joseph Fiévée, Julien Louis Geoffroy, Jean François Joseph Dussault, François-René de Chateaubriand, Charles-Marie-Dorimond de Féletz, Jean François Boissonade de Fontarabie, Conrad Malte-Brun, F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hector Berlioz
In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense of Troy, killing countless Greek warriors. He was ultimately killed in single combat by Achilles, who later dragged his dead body around the city of Troy behind his chariot. Etymology In Greek, is a derivative of the verb ἔχειν ''ékhein'', archaic form * grc, ἕχειν, hékhein, label=none ('to have' or 'to hold'), from Proto-Indo-European *'' seɡ́ʰ-'' ('to hold'). , or as found in Aeolic poetry, is also an epithet of Zeus in his capacity as 'he who holds verything together. Hector's name could thus be taken to mean 'holding fast'. Description Hector was described by the chronicler Malalas in his account of the ''Chronography'' as "dark-skinned, tall, very stoutly built, strong, good nose, wooly-haired, good beard, sq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Robert le diable'' and its successors, he gave the genre of grand opera 'decisive character'. Meyerbeer's grand opera style was achieved by his merging of German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. These were employed in the context of sensational and melodramatic libretti created by Eugène Scribe and were enhanced by the up-to-date theatre technology of the Paris Opéra. They set a standard which helped to maintain Paris as the opera capital of the nineteenth century. Born to a rich Jewish family, Meyerbeer began his musical career as a pianist but soon decided to devote himself to opera, spending several years in Italy studying and composing. His 1824 opera '' Il crociato in Egitto'' was the first to bring him Europe-wide reputation, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (french: Notre-Dame de Paris, translation=''Our Lady of Paris'', originally titled ''Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482'') is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. It focuses on the unfortunate story of Quasimodo, the Gypsy street dancer Esmeralda and Quasimodo's guardian the Archdeacon Claude Frollo in 15th-century Paris. All its elements—Renaissance setting, impossible love affairs, marginalized characters—make the work a model of the literary themes of Romanticism. The novel has been described as a key text in French literature and has been adapted for film over a dozen times, in addition to numerous television and stage adaptations, such as a 1923 silent film with Lon Chaney, a 1939 sound film with Charles Laughton, and a 1996 Disney animated film with Tom Hulce. The novel sought to preserve values of French culture in a time period of great change, which resulted in the destruction of many French Gothic structures. The nov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucrèce Borgia
''Lucrèce Borgia'' (also known as ''Lucretia Borgia'' or ''Sins of the Borgias'') is a 1953 French drama film starring Martine Carol and Pedro Armendáriz. The film was directed by Christian-Jaque, who co-wrote screenplay with Cécil Saint-Laurent and Jacques Sigurd, based on a novel by Alfred Schirokauer. The film tells the story of the Borgia family of Italy during the Renaissance. It was released on DVD in the US on May 26, 2009. Cast *Martine Carol – Lucrece Borgia *Pedro Armendáriz – Cesar Borgia *Massimo Serato – Duke of Aragon *Valentine Tessier – Julie Farmesa *Louis Seigner – Mage, Soothsayer *Arnoldo Foà – Micheletto *Christian Marquand – Paolo *Tania Fédor – Vanna *Georges Lannes – Ambassador *Maurice Ronet Maurice Ronet (13 April 1927 – 14 March 1983) was a French film actor, director, and writer. Early life Maurice Ronet was born Maurice Julien Marie Robinet in Nice, Alpes Maritimes. He was the only child of professional stage actors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marie Tudor
''Marie Tudor'' is an 1833 play by the French writer Victor Hugo. It is a historical work portraying the rise, fall and execution of Fabiano Fabiani, a fictional favourite of Mary I of England (1516–1558). Mary has Fabiani thrown in the Tower of London and despite later wishing to spare his life, is unable to do so. This was an influence on Oscar Wilde's later '' The Duchess of Padua''. Adaptations The play was adapted into an opera at least twice. J. V. Bridgeman adapted it in English for Balfe's ''The Armourer of Nantes'' (1863). Emilio Praga adapted it in Italian for ''Maria Tudor'' (1879) composed by Antônio Carlos Gomes. The play has also been made into films. In 1912 Albert Capellani directed ''Marie Tudor'', a silent film version of the play. A 1966 French television film ''Marie Tudor'' was also made, directed by Abel Gance Abel Gance (; born Abel Eugène Alexandre Péréthon; 25 October 188910 November 1981) was a French film director and producer, writer and acto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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