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Marga Höffgen
Marga Anna Johanna Höffgen (26 April 1921 – 7 July 1995) was a German contralto, known for singing oratorios, especially the Passions by Johann Sebastian Bach, and operatic parts such as Erda in Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'', performed at the Bayreuth Festival and Covent Garden Opera in London between 1960 and 1975. Career Born into a merchant family to parents Friedrich Höffgen (1899–1944) and her mother Maria, née von Eicken (1898–1944) in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Höffgen was 17 when she started studying at the Folkwangschule in Essen with Anna Erler-Schnaudt. Two years later, in 1939, she continued at the Musikhochschule Berlin with Hermann Weißenborn until 1942. In 1943, she was contracted by the Staatsoper Dresden, but did not start because she was pregnant with her second child. She made her concert debut in Berlin in 1952. She was noticed internationally when she performed the alto part in Bach's '' St Matthew Passion'' in Vienna in 1955, conducted b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mülheim
Mülheim, officially Mülheim an der Ruhr () and also described as ''"City on the River"'', is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is located in the Ruhr Area between Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and Ratingen. It is home to many companies, especially in the food industry, such as the Aldi Süd Company, the Harke Group and the Tengelmann Group. Mülheim received its town charter in 1808, and 100 years later the population exceeded 100,000, making Mülheim officially a city. At the time of the city's 200th anniversary with approximately 170,000 residents, it was counted among the smaller cities of Germany. Geography Geographical location Mülheim an der Ruhr is located to the southwest of Essen in the Ruhr valley. Geology The northern foothills of the Rhenish Massif are characterised by the distinctive rock formation of the bare mountain slopes through which run coal-bearing layers which formed during the carboniferous period. Here the Ruhr cuts more than 50 meter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbert Von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan (; born Heribert Ritter von Karajan; 5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, and during the Second World War he conducted at the Berlin State Opera. Generally regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, he was a controversial but dominant figure in European classical music from the mid-1950s until his death. Part of the reason for this was the large number of recordings he made and their prominence during his lifetime. By one estimate, he was the top-selling classical music recording artist of all time, having sold an estimated 200 million records. Biography Early life Genealogy The Karajans were of Greek ancestry. Herbert's great-great-grandfather, Georg Karajan (Geórgios Karajánnis, el, Γεώργιος Καραγιάννης, lin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (28 May 1925 – 18 May 2012) was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous Lieder (art song) performers of the post-war period, best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, particularly ''"Winterreise"'' of which his recordings with accompanists Gerald Moore and Jörg Demus are still critically acclaimed half a century after their release. Recording an array of repertoire (spanning centuries) as musicologist Alan Blyth asserted, "No singer in our time, or probably any other has managed the range and versatility of repertory achieved by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Opera, Lieder and oratorio in German, Italian or English came alike to him, yet he brought to each a precision and individuality that bespoke his perceptive insights into the idiom at hand." In addition, he recorded in French, Russian, Hebrew, Latin and Hungarian. He was described as "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th century" and "the most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evangelist (Bach)
The Evangelist in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach is the tenor part in his oratorios and Passions who narrates the exact words of the Bible, translated by Martin Luther, in recitative secco. The part appears in the works ''St John Passion'', ''St Matthew Passion'', and the ''Christmas Oratorio'', as well as the '' St Mark Passion'' and the ''Ascension Oratorio Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen, BWV 11''. Some cantatas also contain recitatives of Bible quotations, assigned to the tenor voice. Bach followed a tradition using the tenor for the narrator of a gospel. It exists (and is also often called ''the Evangelist'') in earlier works setting biblical narration, for example by Heinrich Schütz ('' Weinachtshistorie'', ''Matthäuspassion'', ''Lukaspassion'', ''Johannespassion''). In contrast, the vox Christi, voice of Christ, is always the bass in Bach's works, including several cantatas. Music and sources The Evangelist reports in secco recitatives accompanied by basso continuo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anton Dermota
Kammersänger Anton Dermota (June 4, 1910 – June 22, 1989) was a Slovene lyric tenor. Early life He was born in a poor family in the Upper Carniolan village of Kropa in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire (and is now in Slovenia). He went to the Ljubljana Conservatory with the intention of studying composition and organ, but in 1934 he received a scholarship which sent him to Vienna. There, he devoted himself exclusively to vocal study with Marie Radó. Career Dermota made his debut at the opera in Cluj in 1934, and was promptly invited by Bruno Walter to perform at the Vienna State Opera. Here he made his début as "First Man in Armor" in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's ''The Magic Flute'' in 1936 and got a contract immediately. His first leading role was Alfredo in Giuseppe Verdi's ''La traviata'', which he sang in 1937. In the same year Dermota made his début at the Salzburg Festival in a production of Wagner's ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'', conducted by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler ( , , ; 25 January 188630 November 1954) was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. He was a major influence for many later conductors, and his name is often mentioned when discussing their interpretative styles. Furtwängler was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic between 1922 and 1945, and from 1952 until 1954. He was also principal conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra (1922–26), and was a guest conductor of other major orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic. Although not an adherent of Nazism, he was the leading conductor to remain in Germany during the Nazi regime. Despite his open opposition to antisemitism and the ubiquity of Nazi symbolism, the regime did not seek to suppress him, at Joseph Goebbels' insistence, for propaganda reasons. This situation caused lasting controversy, and the extent to which his pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heinz Rehfuss
Heinz Julius Rehfuss (25 May 1917 – 27 June 1988) was a Swiss operatic bass-baritone, who later became an American citizen. He was particularly associated with the title roles in '' Don Giovanni'' and '' Boris Godunov'', and Golaud in '' Pelléas et Mélisande''. Life Born in Frankfurt, he was the son of Carl Rehfuss (1885-1946), a baritone, concertist and teacher, and his wife, alto Florentine Rehfuss-Peichert. He spent his youth in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, where his father was teaching at the Conservatory, and was entirely trained by him. He made his debut in 1938 at the Städtebundtheater in Biel-Solothurn, as a choral singer and stage designer, and sang as a soloist in Lucerne during the 1938-39 season. He appeared at the Zurich Opera from 1940 until 1952, where he undertook some 80 roles. From 1952, he made frequent guest appearances in opera houses all over Europe, including La Scala in Milan, Italy, the Opéra National de Paris, the Vienna State Opera, the Liceo in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicolai Gedda
Harry Gustaf Nikolai Gädda, known professionally as Nicolai Gedda (11 July 1925 – 8 January 2017), was a Swedish operatic tenor. Debuting in 1951, Gedda had a long and successful career in opera until the age of 77 in June 2003, when he made his final operatic recording. Skilled at languages, he performed operas in French, Russian, German, Italian, English, Czech and Swedish, as well as one in Latin. In January 1958, he created the part of Anatol in the world premiere of the American opera ''Vanessa'' at the Metropolitan Opera. Having made some two hundred recordings, Gedda is one of the most widely recorded opera singers in history. His singing is best known for its beauty of tone, vocal control, and musical perception. Early years Harry Gustaf Nikolai Gädda, who later changed the spelling of his surname to Gedda, was born out of wedlock in Stockholm to a Swedish mother and a half-Russian father. He was raised by his aunt Olga Gädda and his adoptive father Michail Ustinov (a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Dame Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf, (9 December 19153 August 2006) was a German-born Austro-British soprano. She was among the foremost singers of lieder, and is renowned for her performances of Viennese operetta, as well as the operas of Mozart, Wagner and Richard Strauss. After retiring from the stage, she was a voice teacher internationally. She is considered one of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century. Early life Schwarzkopf was born on 9 December 1915 in Jarocin, Jarotschin in the Province of Posen in Prussia, German Empire, Germany (now Poland) to Friedrich Schwarzkopf and his wife, Elisabeth (). Schwarzkopf performed in her first opera in 1928, as Eurydice in a school production of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Gluck's ''Orfeo ed Euridice'' in Magdeburg, Germany. In 1934, Schwarzkopf began her musical studies at the Berlin University of the Arts, Berlin Hochschule für Musik, where her singing tutor, Lula Mysz-Gmeiner, attempted to train her to be a mezzo-s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mass In B Minor
The Mass in B minor (), BWV 232, is an extended setting of the Mass ordinary by Johann Sebastian Bach. The composition was completed in 1749, the year before the composer's death, and was to a large extent based on earlier work, such as a Sanctus Bach had composed in 1724. Sections that were specifically composed to complete the Mass in the late 1740s include the "Et incarnatus est" part of the Credo. As usual for its time, the composition is formatted as a Neapolitan mass, consisting of a succession of choral movements with a broad orchestral accompaniment, and sections in which a more limited group of instrumentalists accompanies one or more vocal soloists. Among the more unusual characteristics of the composition is its scale: a total performance time of around two hours, [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Götterdämmerung
' (; ''Twilight of the Gods''), WWV 86D, is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four music dramas titled (''The Ring of the Nibelung'', or ''The Ring Cycle'' or ''The Ring'' for short). It received its premiere at the on 17 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of the whole work. The title is a translation into German of the Old Norse phrase ', which in Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ... refers to a prophesied war among various beings and gods that ultimately results in the burning, immersion in water, and renewal of the world. As with the rest of the ''Ring'', however, Wagner's account diverges significantly from these Old Norse sources. Composition Roles Synopsis Prologue Prelude to the Prologue Scene 1 T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teatro Colón
The Teatro Colón (Spanish: ''Columbus Theatre'') is the main opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic. According to a survey carried out by the acoustics expert Leo Beranek among leading international opera and orchestra directors, the Teatro Colón has the room with the best acoustics for opera and the second best for concerts in the world. The present Colón replaced an original theatre which opened in 1857. Towards the end of the century it became clear that a new theatre was needed and, after a 20-year process, the present theatre opened on 25 May 1908, with Giuseppe Verdi's ''Aïda''. The Teatro Colón was visited by the foremost singers and opera companies of the time, who would sometimes go on to other cities including Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. After this period of huge international success, the theatre's decline became clear and plans were made for massive ren ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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