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Maria Ivogün
Maria Ivogün (18 November 1891 in Budapest – 3 October 1987 in Beatenberg, Switzerland) was a distinguished soprano singer of Hungarian origin. She was an especially outstanding interpreter of the works of Mozart: her recording of the aria of the Queen of the Night ('' Die Zauberflöte'') became legendary. Biography and artistic career Maria Ivogün was born Ilse Kempner. Her father was the Austro-Hungarian Colonel Pál Kempner. She created her professional name by contracting the maiden name of her mother, an Austrian operetta singer named Ida von Günther. She spent the greater part of her childhood and youth in Zürich. From 1909 (other sources say after 1907) she began to study singing and theatre in Vienna. When the young soprano sang in 1913 at the Vienna Hofoper, she was overlooked. However, the house conductor there, Bruno Walter, recognized her outstanding talent and engaged her for his new workplace at the Hofoper in Munich. She gave her debut in Munich in the rol ... [...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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city has 3.26 million inhabitants. Its continuously built-up urban area (whose outer suburbs extend well beyond the boundaries of the administrative metropolitan city and even stretch into the nearby country of Switzerland) is the fourth largest in the EU with 5.27 million inhabitants. According to national sources, the population within the wider Milan metropolitan area (also known as Greater Milan), is estimated between 8.2 million and 12.5 million making it by far the largest metropolitan area in Italy and one of the largest in the EU.* * * * Milan is considered a leading alpha global city, with strengths in the fields of art, chemicals, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Scala
La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performance was Antonio Salieri's '' Europa riconosciuta''. Most of Italy's greatest operatic artists, and many of the finest singers from around the world, have appeared at La Scala. The theatre is regarded as one of the leading opera and ballet theatres globally. It is home to the La Scala Theatre Chorus, La Scala Theatre Ballet, La Scala Theatre Orchestra, and the Filarmonica della Scala orchestra. The theatre also has an associate school, known as the La Scala Theatre Academy ( it, Accademia Teatro alla Scala, links=no), which offers professional training in music, dance, stagecraft, and stage management. Overview La Scala's season opens on 7 December, Saint Ambrose's Day, the feast day of Milan's patron saint. All performances must end bef ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Raucheisen
Michael Raucheisen (10 February 1889, Rain, Swabia - 27 May 1984, Beatenberg) was a German pianist and song accompanist. Life and career Music was inherited, for the young Michael. His father, by vocation a master-glazier, was organist, church choir leader and musical pedagogue. The musical development of his only son was so important to the family that they left the small town in which they lived. From 1902 Raucheisen lived in Munich, and from 1920 until the end of his pianistic activity in 1958, in Berlin. He studied at the Munich High School for Music. Around 1906 he played first violin at the Prinzregententheater and was organist in St. Michael. In 1912 he founded the musical Matinees which have become famous. From the beginning of the 1920s until the end of the Second World War he was song accompanist for many singers, including Frida Leider, Erna Berger, Hans Hotter, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Karl Schmitt-Walter, Karl Erb, Heinrich Schlusnus and Helge Rosvaenge, to mention only ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Die Vögel (opera)
''Die Vögel'' (''The Birds''), Op. 30, is an opera in a prologue and two acts by Walter Braunfels. The libretto, written by the composer, is a free adaptation of Aristophanes' comedy '' The Birds'' which was performed at the Dionysos Theatre in Athens in 414 BC. Composition history Composition of the opera started in 1913 and was finished in 1919. The score was published by Universal Edition Vienna in 1920. Performance history The opera was first performed on 30 November 1920 at the National Theatre Munich, with Bruno Walter conducting and Maria Ivogün (the Nightingale) and Karl Erb (Good Hope) in the principal roles. This was followed by more than 50 performances in Munich alone the following two years, and by further performances in Berlin, Vienna and Cologne (where Otto Klemperer conducted). The first post-war staging of the opera took place in Karlsruhe in 1971. Another production was staged in Bremen in 1991, followed by a concert performance in Berlin in December 1994. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Braunfels
Walter Braunfels (; 19 December 1882 – 19 March 1954) was a German composer, pianist, and music educator. Life Walter Braunfels was born in Frankfurt. His first music teacher was his mother, the great-niece of the composer Louis Spohr. He continued his piano studies in Frankfurt at the Hoch Conservatory with James Kwast. Braunfels studied law and economics at the university in Munich until after a performance of Richard Wagner's ''Tristan und Isolde'' he decided on music. He went to Vienna in 1902 to study with the pianist and teacher Theodor Leschetizky. He then returned to Munich to study composition with Felix Mottl and Ludwig Thuille. In February 1918 he was wounded at the front and in June 1918 on his return to Frankfurt converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, composing his ''Te Deum'' of 1920–21 "not as music for musicians but as a personal expression of faith".Braunfels, cited in He achieved early success with the melodious opera '' Die Vögel'' (''The Bir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (May 29, 1897November 29, 1957) was an Austrian-born American composer and conductor. A child prodigy, he became one of the most important and influential composers in Hollywood history. He was a noted pianist and composer of classical music, along with music for Hollywood films, and the first composer of international stature to write Hollywood scores., video, 9 min. When he was 11, his ballet ''Der Schneemann'' (The Snowman), became a sensation in Vienna, followed by his Second Piano Sonata, which he wrote at age 13, played throughout Europe by Artur Schnabel. His one-act operas '' Violanta'' and ''Der Ring des Polykrates'' were premiered in Munich in 1916, conducted by Bruno Walter. At 23, his opera '' Die tote Stadt'' (The Dead City) premiered in Hamburg and Cologne. In 1921 he conducted the Hamburg Opera. Kennedy, Michael. ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', Oxford Univ. Press (2013) p. 464 During the 1920s he re-orchestrated, re-arranged and nea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Der Ring Des Polykrates (opera)
''Der Ring des Polykrates'' (''The Ring of Polykrates''), Op. 7, is a one-act opera by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The libretto, written by Leo Feld and reworked (unattributed) by the composer's father Julius Korngold, is based on a drama by . Performance history Korngold composed the opera (his first) in 1914, when he was only seventeen years old. The one-act domestic comedy was contrasted by his second opera ''Violanta'', a one-act tragedy. Both were successfully premiered together on 28 March 1916 at the National Theatre Munich. Bruno Walter conducted and the cast included Karl Erb and Maria Ivogün. The operas were repeated in Vienna, with Selma Kurz and Alfred Piccaver in Polykrates and Maria Jeritza as Violanta. In November 1916, it was given at the Dresden Hofoper, with Richard Tauber and Elisabeth Rethberg in the leading roles. Roles Synopsis The librettist Leo Feld placed the story in the 18th century, when Friedrich Schiller's ballade of the same title was new. The m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karl Erb
Karl Erb (13 July 1877 – 13 July 1958) was a German tenor who made his career first in opera and then in oratorio and lieder recital. He excelled in all these genres, and before 1920 gave classic performances of key roles in modern works, and created lead roles in those of Hans Pfitzner. He was the first husband of Maria Ivogün and was considered by many the ideal Evangelist in Bach's ''St Matthew Passion''. Origins and early training Erb was born in Ravensburg. As a child, he was enrolled in the local Liebfrauenkirche charity choir and music class. His mother taught him to love poetry and he excelled at school. His voice did not break abruptly, but deepened and intensified to a beautiful and spiritual timbre. He was sought out for private musical events and performed in amateur theatre at the Ravensburg Konzerthaus. He later worked at Wolfegg and at Rot as cashier for the State Gas and Waterworks. In 1902, the Königliches Hoftheater in Stuttgart burnt down, and the comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palestrina (opera)
''Palestrina'' is an opera by the German composer Hans Pfitzner, first performed in 1917. The composer referred to it as a ''Musikalische Legende'' (musical legend), and wrote the libretto himself, based on a legend about the Renaissance musician Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who saves the art of contrapuntal music (polyphony) for the Church in the sixteenth century through his composition of the '' Missa Papae Marcelli''. The wider context is that of the European Reformation and the role of music in relation to it. The character of Cardinal Borromeo is depicted, and a General Congress of the Council of Trent is the centrepiece of act 2. The conductor of the premiere was Bruno Walter. On 16 February 1962, the day before he died, Walter ended his last letter with: "Despite all the dark experiences of today I am still confident that ''Palestrina'' will remain. The work has all the elements of immortality". Critical appreciation Claire Taylor-Jay has discussed Pfitzner's de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hans Pfitzner
Hans Erich Pfitzner (5 May 1869 – 22 May 1949) was a German composer, conductor and polemicist who was a self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera ''Palestrina'' (1917), loosely based on the life of the sixteenth-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and his '' Missa Papae Marcelli''. Life Pfitzner was born in Moscow where his father played cello in a theater orchestra. The family returned to his father's native town Frankfurt in 1872, when Pfitzner was two years old, he always considered Frankfurt his home town. He received early instruction in violin from his father, and his earliest compositions were composed at age 11. In 1884 he wrote his first songs. From 1886 to 1890 he studied composition with Iwan Knorr and piano with James Kwast at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. (He later married Kwast's daughter Mimi Kwast, a granddaughter of Ferdinand Hiller, after she had rejected the advances of Percy Grainger.) He tau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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