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La Journée Aux Aventures
''La journée aux aventures'' (''The Day of Adventures'') is an opera by the French composer Étienne Méhul. It takes the form of an ''opéra comique'' in three acts. It was first performed at the Opéra-Comique, Paris on 16 November 1816. The libretto is by Pierre-David-Augustin Chapelle and Louis Mezières-Miot. This was the last of the composer's works to be premiered in his lifetime and was a great success; it enjoyed 66 performances before the end of 1817 and helped remedy the financial problems of the Opéra-Comique. It was revived to acclaim in a German translation in Berlin in December 1839.Adélaïde de Place, pp.147–148 Roles References Sources *Printed score: ''La Journée aux Aventures//Opéra Comique en trois Actes et en Prose, Paroles de MM. Capelle et Mézières, Musique de Mr. Méhul...'', Paris, Petit, s.d. (accessible for free online at thInternet Archive *Adélaïde de Place ''Étienne Nicolas Méhul'' (Bleu Nuit Éditeur, 2005) *Arthur Pougin ''Méh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the title role in ''Der fliegende Holländer'', Wotan/Der Wanderer in the ''Ring Cycle'' and Hans Sachs in '' Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg''. Wagner labelled these roles as ''Hoher Bass'' ("high bass")—see fach for more details. The bass-baritone voice is distinguished by two attributes. First, it must be capable of singing comfortably in a baritonal tessitura. Secondly, however, it needs to have the ripely resonant lower range typically associated with the bass voice. For example, the role of Wotan in ''Die Walküre'' covers the range from F2 (the F at the bottom of the bass clef) to F4 (the F above middle C), but only infrequently descends beyond C3 (the C below middle C). Bass-baritones are typically divide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French-language Operas
French opera is one of Europe's most important operatic traditions, containing works by composers of the stature of Rameau, Berlioz, Gounod, Bizet, Massenet, Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc and Messiaen. Many foreign-born composers have played a part in the French tradition as well, including Lully, Gluck, Salieri, Cherubini, Spontini, Meyerbeer, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi and Offenbach. French opera began at the court of Louis XIV of France with Jean-Baptiste Lully's ''Cadmus et Hermione'' (1673), although there had been various experiments with the form before that, most notably '' Pomone'' by Robert Cambert. Lully and his librettist Quinault created ''tragédie en musique'', a form in which dance music and choral writing were particularly prominent. Lully's most important successor was Rameau. After Rameau's death, the German Gluck was persuaded to produce six operas for the Paris, Parisian stage in the 1770s. They show the influence of Rameau, but simplified and with greater foc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1816 Operas
This year was known as the ''Year Without a Summer'', because of low temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere, possibly the result of the Mount Tambora volcanic eruption in Indonesia in 1815, causing severe global cooling, catastrophic in some locations. Events January–March * December 25 1815–January 6 – Tsar Alexander I of Russia signs an order, expelling the Jesuits from St. Petersburg and Moscow. * January 9 – Sir Humphry Davy's Davy lamp is first tested underground as a coal mining safety lamp, at Hebburn Colliery in northeast England. * January 17 – Fire nearly destroys the city of St. John's, Newfoundland. * February 10 – Friedrich Karl Ludwig, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck, dies and is succeeded by Friedrich Wilhelm, his son and founder of the House of Glücksburg. * February 20 – Gioachino Rossini's opera buffa ''The Barber of Seville'' premières at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. * March 1 – The Gorkha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operas By Étienne Méhul
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor. Although musical theatre is closely related to opera, the two are considered to be distinct from one another. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition. Originally understood as an entirely sung piece, in contrast to a play with songs, opera has come to include numerous genres, including some that include spoken dialogue such as '' Singspiel'' and '' Opéra comique''. In traditional number opera, singers employ two styles of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stratonice (opera)
''Stratonice'' is a one-act '' opéra comique'' by Étienne Méhul to a libretto by François-Benoît Hoffman, first performed at the Théâtre Favart in Paris, on 3 May 1792. The plot is taken from ''De Dea Syria'' ("On the Syrian Goddess", attributed to Lucian) concerning an incident from the history of the Seleucid dynasty which ruled much of the Middle East during the Hellenistic era of the ancient world. Performance history ''Stratonice'' was a popular opera, receiving over 200 performances during Méhul's lifetime. On 6 June 1792 a parody, ''Nice'', by Jean-Baptiste Desprez and Alexandre de Ségur, appeared at the Théâtre du Vaudeville. In 1821 Méhul's nephew Joseph Daussoigne-Méhul wrote new recitatives for the opera's revival in Paris at the Académie Royale de Musique. Roles Synopsis Antiochus, the son of King Seleucus, is pining away yet he would rather die than name the cause of his disease to his father. The doctor, Erasistratus, suspects love is behind Ant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marie Desbrosses
Marie-Françoise Desbrosses (8 March 1764 – 3 March 1856), was a French operatic mezzo-soprano. She made her stage debut at the Comédie-Italienne in 1776, at age 13, and remained with the company for almost five decades, creating several roles. Life Desbrosses was born in Paris, the daughter of the actor and composer Robert Desbrosses and Marie-Françoise Petitjean, and the elder sister of . At the age of six she performed couplets in front of Louis XV, accompanied by Madame Dugazon's brother, Joseph Lefebvre, a violinist. In 1776, Desbrosses began her dramatic career, at age 13, at the Comédie-Italienne, , in the role of Justine in ''Le Sorcier'' and Colinette in the operetta ''Clochette''. She successively appeared in roles of girls, trousers roles, lovers, mothers and old women. Desbrosses asked for her retirement in 1796, played for a while in the provinces, returned to Paris in 1798, and joined the Théâtre Feydeau. When the two theatres were reunited in 1801, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marie-Julie Halligner
Marie-Julie Boulanger, née Marie-Julie Halligner (29 January 1786 – 23 July 1850), was a French mezzo-soprano. She performed her entire career under the stage name Mme Boulanger, appearing in the world premieres of '' Le maître de chapelle'', '' L'ambassadrice'', ''Le domino noir'', and ''La fille du régiment''. Biography Born in Paris, her parents were middle-class shopkeepers. She was the older sister of Sophie Halligner, an actress at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe and the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique who had married the actor Frédérick Lemaître in 1826. Halligner entered the Paris Conservatory in 1806 to study ''solfeggio''; she was a pupil of Charles-Henri Plantade and Pierre-Jean Garat. Halligner's debut at the Opéra-Comique in 1811 was considered "an immense success". A notable soubrette at the Opéra-Comique between 1811 and 1835, she continued performing until 1845, though her voice had started to fail her in the later years. She performed in the wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880 Hz in choral music, or to "soprano C" (C6, two octaves above middle C) = 1046 Hz or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which often encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, soubrette, lyric, spinto, and dramatic soprano. Etymology The word "soprano" comes from the Italian word '' sopra'' (above, over, on top of),"Soprano" '' |
Antoine Ponchard
Louis Antoine Ponchard (31 August 1787 – 6 June 1866) was a 19th-century French operatic tenor and teacher. He made his debut in 1812 in ''L'Ami de la maison'', opera by Grétry. In 1825, he sang the leading role − George Brown − at the première of ''La dame blanche'' by Boïeldieu. He also participated in the premières of Boïeldieu's operas ''Petit Chaperon Rouge'' and ''Deux Nuits'', ''Joconde ou Les coureurs d'aventures,'' by Nicolas Isouard, ''La muette de Portici'' by Michele Carafa, ''Zémire et Azor'' by Grétry as well as many operas by Auber such as ''Le maçon'' in 1825 and also '' La journée aux aventures'' by Étienne Méhul in 1816. Ponchard taught singing at the Lille Conservatory where Henri-Bernard Dabadie, Jean-Baptiste Faure, Giovanni Mario, Louis-Henri Obin, Anaïs Fargueil, Rosine Stoltz, Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin, Gustave-Hippolyte Roger and Charles-Marie Ponchard were among his students. Antoine Ponchard is buried at Père Lachaise cemetery ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Definition The term is descended from Latin, ''compōnō''; literally "one who puts together". The earliest use of the term in a musical context given by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is from Thomas Morley's 1597 ''A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music'', where he says "Some wil be good descanters ..and yet wil be but bad composers". 'Composer' is a loose term that generally refers to any person who writes music. More specifically, it is often used to denote people who are composers by occupation, or those who in the tradition of Western classical music. Writers of exclusively or primarily songs may be called composers, but since the 20th century the terms 'songwriter' or ' singer-songwriter' are more often used, particularl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
