Mario Basiola
Mario Basiola (12 July 1892 – 3 January 1965) was an Italian operatic baritone. Early years and education Mario Basiola was born in Annicco in the province of Cremona to Alessandro, an artisan basketweaver, and Marta Milanesi. He spent his youth mostly working in the fields, never receiving a proper school education. He began singing in church, but military service took him to Rome, where he remained as a soldier during World War I. There he participated in a contest to enter the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and out of sixty competitors, he was one of five chosen. He was placed with baritone Antonio Cotogni, one of the greatest representatives of the mid-to-late-19th century Italian vocal school. He studied with Cotogni from June 1915 to the latter's death in 1918, becoming one of his favorite students. His study with Cotogni was crucial for his acquiring a technique and style that allowed him to portray the situations in the verismo literature without compromising his ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Baritone
A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C (i.e. F2–F4) in choral music, and from the second A below middle C to the A above middle C (A2 to A4) in operatic music, but the range can extend at either end. Subtypes of baritone include the baryton-Martin baritone (light baritone), lyric baritone, ''Kavalierbariton'', Verdi baritone, dramatic baritone, ''baryton-noble'' baritone, and the bass-baritone. History The first use of the term "baritone" emerged as ''baritonans'', late in the 15th century, usually in French sacred polyphonic music. At this early stage it was frequently used as the lowest of the voices (including the bass), but in 17th-century Italy the term was all-encompassing and used to describe the averag ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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La Favorite
''La favorite'' (''The Favourite'', sometimes referred to by its Italian title: ''La favorita'') is a grand opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play ''Le comte de Comminges'' by Baculard d'Arnaud with additions by Eugène Scribe based on the story of Leonora de Guzman. The opera concerns the romantic struggles of the King of Castile, Alfonso XI, and his mistress, the "favourite" Leonora, against the backdrop of the political wiles of receding Moorish Spain and the life of the Catholic Church. It premiered on 2 December 1840 at the Académie Royale de Musique (Salle Le Peletier) in Paris. Background Originally, Donizetti had been composing an opera by the name of ''Le Duc d'Albe'' as his second work for the Opéra in Paris. However, the director, Léon Pillet, objected to an opera without a prominent role for his mistress, mezzo-soprano Rosine Stoltz. Donizetti therefore abandoned ''Le Duc d ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Port Said
Port Said ( ar, بورسعيد, Būrsaʿīd, ; grc, Πηλούσιον, Pēlousion) is a city that lies in northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal. With an approximate population of 603,787 (2010), it is the List of cities and towns in Egypt, fifth-largest city in Egypt. The city was established in 1859 during the building of the Suez Canal. There are numerous old houses with grand balconies on all floors, giving the city a distinctive look. Port Said's twin city is Port Fuad, which lies on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal. The two cities coexist, to the extent that there is hardly any town centre in Port Fuad. The cities are connected by free Ferry, ferries running all through the day, and together they form a metropolitan area with over a million residents that extends both on the African and the Asian sides of the Suez Canal. The only other metropolitan area in the world that also spans two continents is Istanbul. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Toti Dal Monte
Antonietta Meneghel (27 June 189326 January 1975), better known by her stage name Toti Dal Monte, was a celebrated Italian operatic lyric soprano . She may be best remembered today for her performance as Cio-cio-san in Puccini's ''Madama Butterfly'', having recorded this role complete in 1939 with Beniamino Gigli as Pinkerton. Career Born in Mogliano Veneto, in the Province of Treviso, Dal Monte studied singing at the Naples Conservatory under Barbara Marchisio. She made her debut at La Scala at the age of 23 as Biancofiore in Zandonai's '' Francesca da Rimini''. She was an immediate success, and her clear "nightingale-like" voice came to be highly appreciated throughout the world. Her best-known roles included the bel canto parts of Amina (in Bellini's ''La sonnambula''), Lucia (in Donizetti's ''Lucia di Lammermoor'') and Gilda (in Verdi's ''Rigoletto''). In 1922 she performed several parts opposite the tenor Carlo Broccardi at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo; including Cio-ci ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Elvira De Hidalgo
Elvira Juana Rodríguez Roglán (December 28, 1891 – January 21, 1980), known professionally as Elvira de Hidalgo, was a prominent Spanish coloratura soprano, who later became a teacher and vocal coach. Her most famous pupil was Maria Callas. Biography She was born in Valderrobres, Aragon, in the northeast of Spain to Pedro Rodríguez Hidalgo and Miguela Roglán Bel. She was a pupil of Concepció Bordalba in Barcelona and later studied in Milan under Melchiorre Vidal, who also taught Maria Barrientos, Graziella Pareto, Julián Gayarre, Fernando Valero, Francesc Viñas, and Rosina Storchio. She made her debut at the age of sixteen, at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, as Rosina in ''The Barber of Seville'', which would become her best-known role. Following her debut, de Hidalgo was quickly engaged for Paris, where she sang Rosina opposite Feodor Chaliapin as Don Basilio. Appearances in Monte Carlo, Prague, and Cairo followed. Her debut with the New York Metropolitan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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La Wally
''La Wally'' is an opera in four acts by composer Alfredo Catalani, to a libretto by Luigi Illica, first performed at La Scala, Milan, on 20 January 1892. The libretto is based on a hugely successful ' by Wilhelmine von Hillern (1836–1916), ' (''The Vulture Wally: A Story from the Tyrolean Alps''). Wally, short for Walburga, is a girl with some heroic attributes. The story is based on an episode in the life of Tyrolean painter Anna Stainer-Knittel, whom von Hillern met. She gets her epithet "Geier" (vulture) from once stealing a vulture's hatchling from her nest. Von Hillern's piece was originally serialized in ''Deutsche Rundschau'' and was reproduced in English as "A German Peasant Romance" [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fedora (opera)
''Fedora'' is an opera in three acts by Umberto Giordano to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the 1882 play ''Fédora'' by Victorien Sardou. Along with ''Andrea Chénier'' and ''Siberia'', it is one of the most notable works of Giordano. It was first performed at the Teatro Lirico in Milan on 17 November 1898 conducted by the composer; Gemma Bellincioni created the role of Fedora with Enrico Caruso as her lover, Loris Ipanov. Composition history In 1889, Umberto Giordano saw Sardou's play ''Fédora'' at the Teatro Bellini di Napoli, with Sarah Bernhardt (for whom the play was written) in the title role. He immediately asked Sardou for permission to base an opera on the play, and Sardou initially refused because, at the time, Giordano was a relatively unknown composer. Following the premiere of his 1894 ''Regina Diaz'', Giordano's publisher, Edoardo Sonzogno, asked Sardou again. However, Sardou demanded what Sozogno considered an exorbitant fee. It was only on the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ernani
''Ernani'' is an operatic ''dramma lirico'' in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the 1830 play ''Hernani (drama), Hernani'' by Victor Hugo. Verdi was commissioned by the Teatro La Fenice in Venice to write an opera, but finding the right subject took some time, and the composer worked with the inexperienced Piave in shaping first one and then another drama by Hugo into an acceptable libretto. As musicologist Roger Parker notes, the composer "intervened on several important points, insisting for example that the role of Ernani be sung by a tenor (rather than by a contralto as had originally been planned).Parker, p. 71 ''Ernani'' was first performed on 9 March 1844 and it was "immensely popular, and was revived countless times during its early years". It became Verdi's most popular opera until it was superseded by ''Il trovatore'' after 1853. In 1904 it became the first opera to be recorded completely. Composition history Fol ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Teatro Verdi (Florence)
Teatro Verdi is a theatre in Florence, Italy. Established in 1854, it is located on Via Giuseppe Verdi on the block between Via Ghibellina and Via dei Lavatoi. The Teatro Verdi was originally called Teatro Pagliano, but was renamed in 1901 to honour Giuseppe Verdi. The theatre is located on the spot where there once sesso stood the 14th-century Stinche Prison The Stinche Prison (Italian: ''carcere delle Stinche'') was a prison on Via Ghibellina in the city of Florence, Italy. It stood more or less on the site now occupied by the Teatro Verdi. History The earliest mention of a prison in Florence refers .... The theatre seats an audience of 806, including 6 reserved for wheelchairs. The stage is 14 metres deep and 18 metres wide, with a slope of 5%. The orchestra pit measures adesso sesso 16 metres by 4 metres. The adesso sesso adesso sesso adesso sessoproscenium is 12 metres wide and 17 metres high and 2 metres deep, and the stage is raised from the floor by 1.5 metres. The ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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I 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]   |
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Emma Carelli
Emma Carelli (12 May 1877 in Naples – 17 August 1928 near Rome) was an Italian operatic soprano who was particularly associated with the dramatic soprano roles of the verismo repertoire and the works of Richard Wagner. After a singing career which lasted almost two decades, she managed the Teatro Costanzi in Rome for almost fifteen years. After studying with her father, Beniamino Carelli, at the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella, she made her professional debut in 1895 in the title role of Mercadante's ''La vestale'' during the centenary celebrations at Altamura and went on to appear in the opera houses of many Italian cities. In 1898 she married the left-wing politician, self-made millionaire, and later impresario, Walter Mocchi.Steane, ''Grove Music Online'' She sang in several world premieres including: Pietro Floridia's '' La Colonia libera'' (1899); Meryem in Cesare Galeotti's ''Anton'' (1900) and Rosaura in Mascagni's ''Le maschere'' at La Scala in 1901. For severa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Teatro Del Giglio
The Teatro del Giglio (Theater of the Giglio) is the historic city theater and opera house located in Piazza del Giglio #13 and #15 in the center of Lucca, region of Tuscany, Italy. History The prior Teatro Pubblico (Public Theater), inaugurated in 1675, which had been destroyed by a fire and rebuilt. After the Napoleonic upheavals, the site had fallen to ruin. A new theater, represented by this Neoclassical-style structure, was built at the site in 1818 by Giovanni Lazzarini. The rusticated portico is surmounted by a balustrade upholding pilasters, that lead to a tympanum with the coat of arms of the city. The frieze reads ''Teatro Comunale del Giglio''. The name ''giglio'' or lily derives from the fleur-de-lis emblem, that was part of the Bourbon heraldic shield of the reigning duchess, Maria Luisa of the House of Bourbon. In the early 19th century, the interiors were painted by Luigi Gatani, while the theater curtain was painted by Federico Tarquini. During the 19th century ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |