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Liselotte Hammes
Liselotte Hammes (born 1933) is a German operatic soprano and academic voice teacher. While based at the Cologne Opera, she performed internationally. One of her signature roles is Sophie in ''Der Rosenkavalier'' by Richard Strauss, which she performed at the Glyndebourne Festival, among other European opera houses. Career Hammes was born in Siegburg, probably in 1933. She studied at the Musikhochschule Köln, first piano, then voice. In 1957, she made her debut at the Cologne Opera, as Amor in Gluck's ''Orfeo ed Euridice''. She remained a member of the opera house until 1968 when she married, but still appeared there as a guest until the mid-1970s. She appeared as a guest in Germany and internationally, at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, the Hamburgische Staatsoper, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Teatro Verdi di Trieste and the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1962, at La Fenice and the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon in 1964 and 1967, at La Scala in Milan and the Rome Opera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siegburg
Siegburg (i.e. ''fort on the Sieg river''; Ripuarian: ''Sieburch'') is a city in the district of Rhein-Sieg-Kreis in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the banks of the rivers Sieg and Agger, 10 kilometres from the former seat of West German government Bonn and 26 kilometres from Cologne. The population of the city was 39,192 in the 2013 census. Geography Siegburg is located approximately 8 kilometres east of the river Rhine, at the confluence where the Agger joins the Sieg, in the southeast corner of the Cologne Lowland. Neighbouring towns include Troisdorf, Lohmar, Sankt Augustin and Hennef. The nearby cities of Cologne and Bonn are easily accessible through good transport links. The highest point of the urban area is 220m above sea level ( NHN) in the Braschoß area and the lowest point is just under 54m above sea level at the mouth of the Agger. History Archbishop-Elector Anno II of Cologne founded a Benedictine monastery in 1064, known as Michaelsberg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opernhaus Dortmund
Opernhaus Dortmund is the opera house of Dortmund, Germany, operated by the Theater Dortmund organisation. A new opera house opened in 1966, replacing an earlier facility which opened in 1904 and was destroyed during World War I. It was built on the former site of the Old Synagogue, which was demolished by the Nazi local government in the 1930s. Architects and Edgar Tritthart designed the modernist structure. The design separates the functions of the stage and technical areas in the Bühnenhaus (stage house), which is dominated by straight lines, from the auditorium under a concrete shell roof. Opening season The new house opened on 3 March 1966, to serve as a venue for operas, ballets, concerts, and for plays which require a large stage. The inaugural performance was Richard Strauss's ''Der Rosenkavalier'', an opera first performed in 1911, shortly after its premiere; Wilhelm Schüchter conducted the Dortmunder Philharmoniker. Teresa Żylis-Gara appeared as Octavian, along ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pagliacci
''Pagliacci'' (; literal translation, "Clowns") is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The opera tells the tale of Canio, actor and leader of a commedia dell'arte theatrical company, who murders his wife Nedda and her lover Silvio on stage during a performance. ''Pagliacci'' premiered at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on 21 May 1892, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, with Adelina Stehle as Nedda, Fiorello Giraud as Canio, Victor Maurel as Tonio, and Mario Ancona as Silvio. Soon after its Italian premiere, the opera played in London (with Nellie Melba as Nedda) and in New York (on 15 June 1893, with Agostino Montegriffo as Canio). ''Pagliacci'' is the composer's only opera that is still widely performed. ''Pagliacci'' is often staged with ''Cavalleria rusticana'' by Pietro Mascagni, a double bill known colloquially as "Cav and Pag". Origin and disputes Leoncavallo was a little-known composer when Pietro Mascagni's ''Cavalleria ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manon Lescaut
''The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut'' ( ) is a novel by Antoine François Prévost. Published in 1731, it is the seventh and final volume of ''Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité'' (''Memoirs and Adventures of a Man of Quality''). The story, set in France and Louisiana in the early 18th century, follows the hero, the Chevalier des Grieux, and his lover, Manon Lescaut. Controversial in its time, the work was banned in France upon publication. Despite this, it became very popular and pirated editions were widely distributed. In a subsequent 1753 edition, the Abbé Prévost toned down some scandalous details and injected more moralizing disclaimers. The work was to become the most reprinted book in French Literature, with over 250 editions published between 1731 and 1981. Plot summary Seventeen-year-old Des Grieux, studying philosophy at Amiens, comes from a noble and landed family, but forfeits his hereditary wealth and incurs the disappointment of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Bohème
''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions ''quadri'', ''tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on ''Scènes de la vie de bohème'' (1851) by Henri Murger. The story is set in Paris around 1830 and shows the Bohemian lifestyle (known in French as "") of a poor seamstress and her artist friends. The world premiere of ''La bohème'' was in Turin on 1 February 1896 at the Teatro Regio, conducted by the 28-year-old Arturo Toscanini. Since then, ''La bohème'' has become part of the standard Italian opera repertory and is one of the most frequently performed operas worldwide. In 1946, fifty years after the opera's premiere, Toscanini conducted a commemorative performance of it on radio with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. A recording of the performance was later released by RCA Victor on vinyl record, tape and compact disc. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fidelio
''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Op. 72, is Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, with the work premiering at Vienna's Theater an der Wien on 20 November 1805. The following year, Stephan von Breuning helped shorten the work from three acts to two. After further work on the libretto by Georg Friedrich Treitschke, a final version was performed at the Kärntnertortheater on 23 May 1814. By convention, both of the first two versions are referred to as ''Leonore''. The libretto, with some spoken dialogue, tells how Leonore, disguised as a prison guard named "Fidelio", rescues her husband Florestan from death in a political prison. Bouilly's scenario fits Beethoven's aesthetic and political outlook: a story of personal sacrifice, heroism, and eventual triumph. With its underlying struggle for liberty and justice mirroring con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Die Zauberflöte
''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on 30 September 1791 at Schikaneder's theatre, the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, just two months before the composer's premature death. Still a staple of the opera repertory, its popularity was reflected by two immediate sequels, Peter Winter's ''Das Labyrinth oder Der Kampf mit den Elementen. Der Zauberflöte zweyter Theil'' (1798) and a fragmentary libretto by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe titled ''The Magic Flute Part Two''. The allegorical plot was influenced by Schikaneder and Mozart's interest in Freemasonry and concerns the initiation of Prince Tamino. Enlisted by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Pamina from the high priest Sarastro, Tamino comes to a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Le Nozze Di Figaro
''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 1 May 1786. The opera's libretto is based on the 1784 stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, '' La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro'' ("The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro"). It tells how the servants Figaro and Susanna succeed in getting married, foiling the efforts of their philandering employer Count Almaviva to seduce Susanna and teaching him a lesson in fidelity. Considered one of the greatest operas ever written, it is a cornerstone of the repertoire and appears consistently among the top ten in the Operabase list of most frequently performed operas. In 2017, BBC News Magazine asked 172 opera singers to vote for the best operas ever written. ''The Marriage of Figaro'' came in first out of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Otto Edelmann
Otto Edelmann (5 February 1917 – 14 May 2003) was an Austrian operatic bass. Life Edelmann was born in Vienna and studied singing with Gunnar Graarud. His debut was at Gera as Figaro in Mozart's '' The Marriage of Figaro''. He later sang the Vienna State Opera, the Edinburgh International Festival and the Metropolitan Opera. He sang at the Bayreuth Festival immediately after its reopening in 1951 after World War II, performing the role of Hans Sachs in Wagner's '' Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg''. (He also recorded as Veit Pogner the goldsmith in the same work in one of Hans Knappertsbusch's early recorded performances.) He also sang Ochs in Richard Strauss's ''Der Rosenkavalier'' at the first performances in the new Salzburg Festspielhaus in 1960. In 1957, he recorded the role of Wotan opposite Kirsten Flagstad in Georg Solti's recording of Act III of Wagner's ''Die Walküre'' (an album made prior to the later famous complete set of ''Der Ring des Nibelungen''). In 198 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montserrat Caballé
Montserrat Caballé i Folch or Folc (full name: María de Montserrat Bibiana Concepción Caballé i Folch (, , ; (12 April 1933 – 6 October 2018), known simply as Montserrat Caballé, was a Catalan Spanish operatic soprano. She sang a wide variety of roles, but is best known as an exponent of the works of Verdi and of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. She was noticed internationally when she stepped in for a performance of Donizetti's ''Lucrezia Borgia'' at Carnegie Hall in 1965, and then appeared at leading opera houses. Her voice was described as pure but powerful, with superb control of vocal shadings and exquisite pianissimo. Caballé became popular to non-classical music audiences in 1987, when she recorded, at the request of the International Olympic Committee, "Barcelona", a duet with Freddie Mercury, which became an official theme song for the 1992 Olympic Games. She received several international awards and also Grammy A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Pritchard (conductor)
Sir John Michael Pritchard, (born Stanley Frederick Pritchard, 5 February 1918 – 5 December 1989) was an English conductor. He was known for his interpretations of Mozart operas and for his support of contemporary music. Life and career Pritchard was born in Walthamstow, Essex, to a musical family. His father, Albert Edward Pritchard, was a violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra. The young Pritchard was educated at the Monoux School and studied violin, piano, and conducting in Italy.Ponsonby, Robert"Pritchard, Sir John Michael (1918–1989)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 4 November 2007 Pritchard, as a conscientious objector, refused to serve in the Second World War, but was in any case unfit on medical grounds. In 1943 he took over the semi-professional Derby String Orchestra and was its principal conductor until 1951. He joined the music staff of Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1947 and was appointed chorus mas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilhelm Schüchter
Wilhelm Schüchter (15 December 1911 – 27 May 1974) was a German conductor. He was Generalmusikdirektor in Dortmund and left a legacy of opera recordings. Career Born in Bonn, Schüchter studied piano at the Hochschule für Musik Köln, composition with Philipp Jarnach, and orchestral conducting with Hermann Abendroth. His debut was at the Landestheater Coburg Mascagni's ''Cavalleria rusticana'' and Leoncavallo's ''Pagliacci''. In 1940, he was at the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg, a year later he worked at the Stadttheater Aachen under Herbert von Karajan. In 1943, he was first Kapellmeister of the Theater am Nollendorfplatz in Berlin. From 1945 to 1957, he was second conductor under Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt of the Sinfonieorchester von Radio Hamburg, in 1956 named NDR Sinfonieorchester. From 1953 to 1955, he was also principal conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford. Since 1959 he conducted the NHK Symphony Orchestra. His last position was in 1962 Generalmu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
