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Les Abencérages
(English: ''The Abencerrages, or The standard of Granada'') is an opera in three acts by Luigi Cherubini with a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy, based on the novel ''Gonzalve de Cordoue'' by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian. It was first performed on 6 April 1813 by the Académie Impériale de Musique ( Paris Opera) at the Salle Montansier, with Napoleon and his wife, the Empress Marie-Louise, in the audience. The opera was initially a success but its popularity waned after the fall of Napoleon. Because of its use of large choruses, spectacle and extensive dance music as well as its story line of a love affair played out against the background of major historical events, ''Les Abencérages'' is considered an important precursor of French grand opera. Almanzor's tenor aria, ''Suspendez de ses murs'', was admired by composers such as Berlioz and has been recorded by singers including Georges Thill and Roberto Alagna. The ballet music in the first act contains variations on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini ( ; ; 8 or 14 SeptemberWillis, in Sadie (Ed.), p. 833 1760 – 15 March 1842) was an Italian Classical and Romantic composer. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries. His operas were heavily praised and interpreted by Rossini. Early years Cherubini was born Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini in Florence in 1760. There is uncertainty about his exact date of birth. Although 14 September is sometimes stated, evidence from baptismal records and Cherubini himself suggests the 8th is correct. Perhaps the strongest evidence is his first name, Maria, which is traditional for a child born on 8 September, the feast-day of the Nativity of the Virgin. His instruction in music began at the age of six with his father, Bartolomeo, '' maestro al cembalo'' ("Master of the harpsichord", in other words, ensemble leader from the harpsichord). Considered a child prodigy, Cherubini st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Nourrit
Louis Nourrit (4 August 1780, Montpellier – 23 September 1831, Brunoy) was an early 19th-century French tenor. Throughout his operatic career, Nourrit also operated as a diamond merchant. Biography After he left Montpellier, he was admitted at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1802 where he received lessons from Pierre-Jean Garat. In 1805 he made his debut at the Paris Opéra as Renaud in Gluck's '' Armide''. After serving as the understudy to Étienne Lainez for a few years, he was promoted to the Opéra's leading tenor in 1812. He took part in the premieres of ''Les Abencérages'' by Luigi Cherubini (1813) and ''Olimpie'' by Gaspare Spontini (1819). Other roles included those of Orphée in ''Aladin ou La lampe merveilleuse'', an opéra féerie of 1822 by Nicolò), Harem in '' La caravane du Caire'' by Grétry, and Colin in ''Le devin du village''. In 1821 he saluted his son Adolphe's tenor debut in Gluck's '' Iphigénie en Tauride'', by appearing in the minor role of a Scy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Maag
Ernst Peter Johannes Maag (10 May 1919 – 16 April 2001) was a Swiss conductor. Early life Peter Maag was born on 10 May 1919 in St. Gallen, Switzerland and died on 16 April 2001 in Verona, Italy. His father, Otto, was a Lutheran minister, and his mother, Nelly, a violinist who performed in the Capet Quartet as second violinist. His great uncles were conductors Emil and Fritz Steinbach. Peter attended the universities of Zürich, Basel, and Geneva. He was mentored by Karl Barth and Emil Brunner in theology, and Karl Jaspers in philosophy. He studied piano and theory with Czesław Marek in Zürich and received further training on piano with Alfred Cortot in Paris. His conducting mentors were Ernest Ansermet, Wilhelm Furtwängler, and Franz von Hoesslin. Career Association with Furtwängler Maag described his association with Wilhelm Furtwängler to be the most important in his life. He performed as pianist in a Furtwängler concert with Beethoven's Piano Concerto N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margherita Rinaldi
Margherita Rinaldi (born 12 January 1935) is an Italian lyric soprano, primarily active in the 1960s and 1970s. Rinaldi was born in Turin, Italy, and completed her music studies in Rovigo. She won a voice competition in Spoleto and made her debut there in 1958 in the title role of ''Lucia di Lammermoor''. Her debut at La Scala in Milan came the following year as Sinaide in Rossini's ''Mosè in Egitto''. Rinaldi sang at most of the major opera houses in Italy, in roles such as Amina in ''La sonnambula'', Adina in ''L'elisir d'amore'', Norina in ''Don Pasquale'' and especially Gilda in ''Rigoletto''. She also excelled in operas by Mozart and Cimarosa. Rinaldi won acclaim as Giulietta in Claudio Abbado's version of Bellini's ''I Capuleti e i Montecchi'', opposite Giacomo Aragall and Luciano Pavarotti, at La Scala in 1966, and also as Linda in a revival of ''Linda di Chamounix'' again at La Scala, in 1972, opposite Alfredo Kraus. She sang a wide variety of roles for RAI between 196 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlo Maria Giulini
Carlo Maria Giulini (; 9 May 1914 – 14 June 2005) was an Italian conductor. From the age of five, when he began to play the violin, Giulini's musical education was expanded when he began to study at Italy's foremost conservatory, the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome at the age of 16. Initially, he studied the viola and conducting; then, following an audition, he won a place in the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Although he won a conducting competition two years later, he was unable to take advantage of the prize, which was the opportunity to conduct, because of being forced to join the army during World War II despite being a pacifist. As the war was ending, he hid until the liberation to avoid continuing to fight alongside the Germans. While in hiding, he married his girlfriend, Marcella, and they remained together until her death in 1995. Together, they had three children. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anita Cerquetti
Anita Cerquetti (13 April 193111 October 2014) was an Italian dramatic soprano who had a short but meteoric career in the 1950s. Her voice was very powerful and pleasing to audiences. Career Cerquetti was born in Montecosaro, near Macerata, Italy. She studied violin and trained for eight years with Luigi Mori. After a mere year of vocal study at the Conservatory of Perugia, she made her operatic debut in Spoleto in 1951 as Aida. She sang all over Italy, notably in Florence as Noraime in ''Gli abencerragi'' (the Italian version of ''Les abencérages'') under Carlo Maria Giulini in 1956, and as Elvira in ''Ernani'' under Dimitri Mitropoulos in 1957. Her La Scala debut came in 1958 as Abigaille in ''Nabucco''. She also sang on RAI in a variety of roles, such as Anaide in ''Mosè'', Mathilde in ''Guglielmo Tell'' and Elena in ''I vespri siciliani''. In America she sang a little; her debut there was in 1955 at Lyric Opera of Chicago as Amelia in ''Un ballo in maschera'', opposite Jussi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alhambra
The Alhambra (, ; ar, الْحَمْرَاء, Al-Ḥamrāʾ, , ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic Islamic world, in addition to containing notable examples of Spanish Renaissance architecture. The complex was begun in 1238 by Muhammad I Ibn al-Ahmar, the first Nasrid emir and founder of the Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim state of Al-Andalus. It was built on the Sabika hill, an outcrop of the Sierra Nevada which had been the site of earlier fortresses and of the 11th-century palace of Samuel ibn Naghrillah. Later Nasrid rulers continuously modified the site. The most significant construction campaigns, which gave the royal palaces much of their definitive character, took place in the 14th century during the reigns of Yusuf I and Muhammad V. After the conclusion of the Christian Reconquista in 1492, the site became th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abencerrages
The Abencerrages or Abencerrajes (from the Arabic for "Saddler's Son")Chambers Biographical Dictionary, , page 3 were a family or faction that is said to have held a prominent position in the Kingdom of Granada in the 15th century. The name appears to have been derived from Yussuf ben-Serragh, the head of the tribe in the time of Muhammed VII, Sultan of Granada (1370–1408), who did that sovereign good service in his struggles to retain the crown of which he was three times deprived. Little is known of the family with certainty. The Chambers Biographical Dictionary records that they arrived in Spain in the 8th century but the name is familiar from the romance by Ginés Pérez de Hita, ''Guerras civiles de Granada'', which celebrates the feuds of the Abencerrages and the rival family of the Benedin (Arabic banu Edin), and the cruel treatment to which the former were subjected. J. P. de Florian's ''Gonsalve de Cordoue'' and Chateaubriand's ''Le dernier des Abencerrages'' are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moorish Spain
Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The term is used by modern historians for the former Islamic states in modern Spain and Portugal. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most of the peninsula and a part of present-day southern France, Septimania (8th century). For nearly a hundred years, from the 9th century to the 10th, al-Andalus extended its presence from Fraxinetum into the Alps with a series of organized raids and chronic banditry. The name describes the different Arab and Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. These boundaries changed constantly as the Christian Reconquista progressed,"Para los autores árabes medievales, el término Al-Andalus designa la totalidad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of Granada
) , common_languages = Official language:Classical ArabicOther languages: Andalusi Arabic, Mozarabic, Berber, Ladino , capital = Granada , religion = Majority religion:Sunni IslamMinority religions:Roman CatholicismJudaism , leader1 = Muhammad I , leader2 = Muhammad XII , year_leader1 = 1238–1273 , year_leader2 = 1487–1492 , title_leader = Sultan , today = , stat_year1 = 1314 , stat_pop1 = 200,000 , ref_pop1 = The Emirate of Granada ( ar, إمارة غرﻧﺎﻃﺔ, Imārat Ġarnāṭah), also known as the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada ( es, Reino Nazarí de Granada), was an Islamic realm in southern Iberia during the Late Middle Ages. It was the last independent Muslim state in Western Europe. Muslims had been present in the Iberian Peninsula, which they called ''Al-Andalus'', since the early eighth century. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henri-Étienne Dérivis
Henri-Étienne Dérivis (2 August 1780 – 1 February 1856) was a French operatic bass. For 25 years he was a leading singer at the Paris Opéra where he made his debut in 1803. He was born in Albi and died in Livry-Gargan at the age of 75. Life and career Dérivis was born in Albi, a town in southern France and entered the Paris Conservatory in December 1799. He made his debut at the Paris Opéra on 11 February 1803 as Sarastro in ''Les Mystères d'lsis'' (the French version of Mozart's ''The Magic Flute''). The same year he was also appointed a singer at Napoleon's court. During the course of his 25-year career at the Opéra, he performed all the leading bass roles and sang in many world premieres, including Spontini's ''La vestale'' and Rossini's ''Le siège de Corinthe''. His last appearance there was on 5 May 1828 as Œdipe in Sacchini's '' Œdipe à Colone'', a role he had sung to great success many times in his career. After retiring from the company, he continued to perfo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
