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Maralin
Maralin Niska (November 16, 1926 – July 9, 2016) was an American operatic soprano. Well known as a singing-actress, she was a mainstay of the New York City Opera during the 1960s and 1970s. She was also a regular performer at the Metropolitan Opera from 1970 to 1977. Early life, education, and early career Born in San Pedro, California, Niska earned a Bachelor of English Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles and began her professional life as a second grade public school teacher for seven years. She then returned to school to study voice at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California and U.C.L.A. She studied under Louise Mansfield, Lotte Lehmann, Vladimir Rosing, and Ernest St. John Metz. She performed extensively in southern California during the 1950s, including performances with the USC Opera, UCLA Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Redlands Bowl and other regional companies. Her extensive national and international career began at the open ...
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Metropolitan Opera National Company
The Metropolitan Opera National Company (MONC) was a short lived American opera company that operated from 1965 to 1967 as a second touring company of the Metropolitan Opera that featured American and Canadian artists in their early stages of career development. While operationally part of the Metropolitan Opera's budget, it was co-sponsored by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Led by mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens, the company's roster of artists included many prominent opera singers of the second half of the 20th century in the early part of their careers. History Envisioned by Anthony Bliss, a prominent New York lawyer and president of the Metropolitan Opera Association, support of the MONC's formation was spearheaded by President John F. Kennedy who announced the project in 1963. Responding to the president's call for support of the company, philanthropist and publisher Lila Acheson Wallace donated the bulk of the company's finances during it operational history. W ...
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Susannah
''Susannah'' is an opera in two acts by the American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susanna (Book of Daniel), Susannah and the Elders, though the latter story has a more positive ending. The story focuses on 18-year-old Susannah Polk, an innocent girl who is targeted as a sinner in the small mountain town of New Hope Valley, in the Southern American state of Tennessee. The opera was awarded the New York Music Critics Circle Award for Best New Opera in 1956 and was chosen to represent Music of the United States, American music and culture at the World's Fair at Brussels in 1958, with a production (by Frank Corsaro) that featured Phyllis Curtin and Norman Treigle. It received its Metropolitan Opera premiere in 1999, with Renée Fleming singing the title role, Jerry Hadley singing Sam and Samuel Ramey singing Blitch. Ramey also recorded the c ...
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Frank Corsaro
Frank Corsaro (December 22, 1924, New York City, New York – November 11, 2017, Suwanee, GeorgiaRobert ViagasNight of the Iguana Director Frank Corsaro Is Dead at 92/ref>) was one of America's foremost stage directors of opera and theatre. His Broadway productions include ''The Night of the Iguana'' (1961). Career A graduate of De Witt Clinton High School, he made his operatic directing debut at the New York City Opera in 1958 with a staging of Carlisle Floyd's ''Susannah''. It was this production that the company took to the Brussels World's Fair that year, starring Phyllis Curtin, Norman Treigle and Richard Cassilly. He became one of the City Opera's leading directors, creating such important productions as Prokofiev's '' The Fiery Angel'', Verdi's ''La traviata'' (with Patricia Brooks and Plácido Domingo), Puccini's ''Madama Butterfly'', Robert Ward's ''The Crucible'' (featuring Chester Ludgin), Gounod's ''Faust'' (with Beverly Sills and Treigle), Borodin's ''Prince Igor'', ...
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New York City Opera
The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through 2013 (when it filed for bankruptcy), and again since 2016 when it was revived. The opera company, dubbed "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943. The company's stated purpose was to make opera accessible to a wide audience at a reasonable ticket price. It also sought to produce an innovative choice of repertory, and provide a home for American singers and composers. The company was originally housed at the New York City Center theater on West 55th Street in Manhattan. It later became part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts at the New York State Theater from 1966 to 2010. During this time it produced autumn and spring seasons of opera in repertory, and maintained extensive education and outreach programs, offering arts-in-education programs to 4,000 students in over 30 schools. In 2011, th ...
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Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager. As of 2018, the company's current music director is Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The Met was founded in 1883 as an alternative to the previously established Academy of Music opera house, and debuted the same year in a new building on 39th and Broadway (now known as the "Old Met"). It moved to the new Lincoln Center location in 1966. The Metropolitan Opera is the largest classical music organization in North America. Until 2019, it presented about 27 different operas each year from late September through May. The operas are presented in a rotating repertory schedule, with up to seven performances of four different works staged each week. Performances are ...
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José Carreras
Josep Maria Carreras Coll (; born 5 December 1946), better known as José Carreras (, ), is a Spanish operatic tenor who is particularly known for his performances in the operas of Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini. Born in Barcelona, he made his debut on the operatic stage at 11 as Trujamán in Manuel de Falla's ''El retablo de Maese Pedro'', and went on to a career that encompassed over 60 roles, performing in the world's leading opera houses and on numerous recordings. He gained fame with a wider audience as one of the Three Tenors, with Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, in a series of large concerts from 1990 to 2003. He is also known for his humanitarian work as president of the José Carreras International Leukaemia Foundation (La Fundació Internacional Josep Carreras per a la Lluita contra la Leucèmia), which he established following his own recovery from the disease in 1988. Life and career Early years Carreras was born in Sants, a working-class district in Barcelon ...
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The Makropoulos Case
''The Makropulos Affair'' (or ''The Makropoulos Case'', ''The Makropulos Secret'', or, literally, ''The Makropulos Thing''; Czech ''Věc Makropulos'') is a Czech opera in 3 acts, with music and libretto by Leoš Janáček. Janáček based his opera on the play ''Věc Makropulos'' by Karel Čapek. Composed between 1923 and 1925, ''The Makropulos Affair'' was his penultimate opera and, like much of his later work, was inspired by his infatuation with Kamila Stösslová, a married woman much younger than himself. The opera received its world premiere at the National Theatre in Brno on 18 December 1926, conducted by František Neumann. Composition history Janáček had seen the play early in its run in Prague on 10 December 1922, and immediately saw its potential as an opera. He entered into a correspondence with Čapek, who was accommodating towards the idea, although legal problems in securing the rights to the play delayed work. When these problems were cleared on 10 September ...
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Harry Theyard
Harry Theyard (né Harry L. Theard, Jr, on 28 September 1929, in New Orleans) is an American operatic tenor. Theyard is a 1957 graduate of Loyola University of the South, where he studied under Dorothy Hulse, who was also the teacher of Audrey Schuh and Charles Anthony (tenor), Charles Anthony. He began his career with the New Orleans Opera Association in secondary parts, including appearances in ''Salome'' (1949), ''Le nozze di Figaro'' (1956), ''Il trovatore'' (opposite Herva Nelli, 1958) and ''The Beggar's Opera'' (directed by Lillian Gish, 1958). Later, in New York, he studied under Armen Boyajian, also the pedagogue of Marisa Galvany, Paul Plishka, and Samuel Ramey. New York City Opera The ''spinto'' tenor debuted with the New York City Opera in 1959, in ''The Devil and Daniel Webster'', directed by John Houseman. He went on to sing in the world premieres of Ward's ''The Crucible (opera), The Crucible'' (starring Chester Ludgin), Floyd's ''The Passion of Jonathan Wade'' (wi ...
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Chester Ludgin
Chester Ludgin (May 20, 1925 – August 9, 2003) was an American operatic baritone. Biography Chester Ludgin was a native of Brooklyn, New York. He made his professional debut in 1956 with The Experimental Opera Theatre of America (affiliated with the New Orleans Opera Association), as Baron Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's ''Tosca'', conducted by Renato Cellini and directed by Armando Agnini. The very next year, he first appeared with the New York City Opera, as Dr Falke in Johann Strauss II's ''Die Fledermaus'', opposite Phyllis Curtin. With the City Opera, Ludgin was heard in many roles, including what was perhaps his greatest success, John Proctor in the world premiere of Robert Ward's ''The Crucible'' (1961, with Norman Treigle as the Reverend John Hale). He was also in the premieres of Robert Kurka's ''The Good Soldier Schweik'' (1958), Norman Dello Joio's '' The Triumph of St. Joan'' (1959), and Abraham Ellstein's ''The Golem'' (1962) for that company. He also portrayed Br ...
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Opera
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 ...
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Bruno Maderna
Bruno Maderna (21 April 1920 – 13 November 1973) was an Italian conductor and composer. Life Maderna was born Bruno Grossato in Venice but later decided to take the name of his mother, Caterina Carolina Maderna.Interview with Maderna‘s three children Caterina, Claudia and Andreas Maderna, Heidelberg 2019 At the age of four he began studying the violin with his grandfather. "My grandfather thought that if you could play the violin you could then do anything, even become the biggest gangster. If you play the violin you are always sure of a place in heaven." As a child he played several instruments (violin, drums and accordion) in his father's small variety band. A child prodigy, in the early thirties he was not only performing violin concertos, he was already conducting orchestral concerts: first with the orchestra of La Scala in Milan, then in Trieste, Venice, Padua and Verona. He was originally Jewish. Orphaned at the age of four,. Maderna was adopted by a wealthy woman fro ...
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Carol Neblett
Carol Lee Neblett (February 1, 1946 – November 23, 2017) was an American operatic soprano. Life and career Neblett was born in Modesto, California and raised in Redondo Beach. She studied at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1969 she made her operatic debut with the New York City Opera, playing the part of Musetta in Puccini's ''La bohème''. With that company, she continued to sing many leading roles, in ''Mefistofele'' (with Norman Treigle), ''Prince Igor'' (conducted by Julius Rudel), ''Faust'', ''Manon'', ''Louise'' (opposite John Alexander, later Harry Theyard), '' La traviata'', ''Le coq d'or'', ''Carmen'' (as Micaëla, with Joy Davidson, staged by Tito Capobianco), '' The Marriage of Figaro'' (as the Contessa Almaviva, with Michael Devlin and Susanne Marsee), '' Don Giovanni'' (as Donna Elvira), ''L'incoronazione di Poppea'' (with Alan Titus as Nerone), ''Ariadne auf Naxos'' (directed by Sarah Caldwell), and Erich Wolfgang Korngold's ''Die tote Stadt'' ...
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