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Maria Padilla
''Maria Padilla'' is a ''melodramma'', or opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Gaetano Rossi and the composer wrote the Italian libretto after François Ancelot's play. It premiered on 26 December 1841 at La Scala, Milan. The plot is loosely based on the historical figure María de Padilla, the mistress of Pedro the Cruel, King of Castile. Performance history The American premiere took place in 1990 when the young Renée Fleming made her major debut with Opera Omaha. Among other performances, the opera was presented by the Buxton Festival in 2003 and by the Minnesota Opera in 2005. Roles Synopsis :Place: Castile :Time: 14th century Maria tells her sister Ines that she hopes to marry Don Pedro, the ruler of Castile. When he sneaks into her room disguised as Mendez, Maria tells him that she knows his true identity and demands marriage to save her honour. Don Pedro acquiesces, although the marriage must be kept secret. After their elopement, a faction of the Don Ped ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style during the first half of the nineteenth century and a probable influence on other composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. Donizetti was born in Bergamo in Lombardy. At an early age he was taken up by Simon Mayr who enrolled him with a full scholarship in a school which he had set up. There he received detailed musical training. Mayr was instrumental in obtaining a place for Donizetti at the Bologna Academy, where, at the age of 19, he wrote his first one-act opera, the comedy ''Il Pigmalione'', which may never have been performed during his lifetime. An offer in 1822 from Domenico Barbaja, the impresario of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, which followed the composer's ninth opera, led to his move to Naples and his residency there until productio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eugenio Cavallini
Eugenio Cavallini (16 June 1806 — 11 April 1881) was an Italian conductor, composer, violinist, and Viola, violist. In 1833 he became first violinist of the orchestra at La Scala, a post he held through 1855. He also served as a conductor at La Scala, notably leading the world premieres of Gaetano Donizetti's ''Lucrezia Borgia (opera), Lucrezia Borgia'' (1833), Donizetti's ''Gemma di Vergy'' (1834), Donizetti's ''Maria Stuarda'' (1835), Saverio Mercadante's ''Il giuramento'' (1837), Mercadante's ''Il bravo'' (1839), Giuseppe Verdi's ''Oberto (opera), Oberto'' (1839), Verdi's ''Un giorno di regno'' (1840), Donizetti's ''Maria Padilla'' (1841), Verdi's ''Nabucco'' (1842), Verdi's ''I Lombardi alla prima crociata'' (1843), Verdi's ''Giovanna d'Arco'' (1845), Federico Ricci's ''Estella di Murcia'' (1846), and Domenico Ronzani's ''Salvator Rosa'' (1854). At La Scala Cavallini also conducted performances of Vincenzo Bellini's ''La sonnambula'' (1834), Donizetti's ''L'elisir d'amore'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Du Plessis
Christian du Plessis (born 2 July 1944) is a South African baritone, largely based in England, and particularly associated with the bel canto repertory. Born in Vryheid, South Africa, he studied in Johannesburg with Teasdale Griffiths and Esme Webb, and made his stage debut there, with the Transvaal Opera, as Yamadori in ''Madama Butterfly'', in 1967. Further studies followed in London with Otokar Kraus, making his debut there in 1970, as Mathieu in '' Andrea Chénier''. He became a member of the English National Opera, where he sang the standard baritone repertory: Valentin, Luna, Posa, Marcello, Cecil, also Germont in a recording of ''La traviata'', etc. In the mid-1970s, he began concentrating in the bel canto repertory, making a specialty of lesser-known works by Donizetti and Bellini, appearing in concert performances for the London Opera Society and stage productions by Opera Rara, notably the title role in ''Torquato Tasso'', Corrado in ''Maria de Rudenz'', Ernesto in ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a European dynasty of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Spanish Bourbon dynasty held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma. Spain and Luxembourg have monarchs of the House of Bourbon. The royal Bourbons originated in 1272, when the youngest son of King Louis IX married the heiress of the lordship of Bourbon. Anselme, Père. ‘'Histoire de la Maison Royale de France'’, tome 4. Editions du Palais-Royal, 1967, Paris. pp. 144–146, 151–153, 175, 178, 180, 185, 187–189, 191, 295–298, 318–319, 322–329. (French). The house continued for three centuries as a cadet branch, serving as nobles under the Direct Capetian and Valois kings. The senior line of the House of Bourbon became extinct in the male line in 1527 with the death of Charles III, Duke of Bourbon. This made the junior Bour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castile (historical Region)
Castile or Castille (; ) is a territory of imprecise limits located in Spain. The invention of the concept of Castile relies on the assimilation (via a metonymy) of a 19th-century determinist geographical notion, that of Castile as Spain's ("tableland core", connected to the Meseta Central) with a long-gone historical entity of diachronically variable territorial extension (the Kingdom of Castile). The proposals advocating for a particular semantic codification/closure of the concept (a '' dialogical'' construct) are connected to essentialist arguments relying on the reification of something that does not exist beyond the social action of those building Castile not only by identifiying with it as a homeland of any kind, but also ''in opposition'' to it. A hot topic concerning the concept of Castile is its relation with Spain, insofar intellectuals, politicians, writers, or historians have either endorsed, nuanced or rejected the idea of the ''maternity'' of Spain by Castile, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teresa Ruggeri
Teresa Ruggeri (sometimes spelled ''Ruggieri'') was an Italian operatic soprano who had an active career from the 1820s through the 1840s. In 1827 she portrayed the role of Zarele in the world premiere of Giovanni Pacini's ''Gli arabi nelle Gallie'' at La Scala in Milan. She performed in several more world premieres at that house, including Francisca in Gaetano Donizetti's ''Maria Padilla'' (1841), Anna in Giuseppe Verdi's ''Nabucco'' (1842), and Viclinda in Verdi's ''I Lombardi alla prima crociata'' (1843). Other roles she performed at La Scala included Baroness Aspasia in Gioachino Rossini's ''La pietra del paragone'' (1829), Giannetta in Donizetti's ''L'elisir d'amore'' (1835), Alisa in Donizetti's ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' (1839), The Marquise of Birkenfeld in ''La fille du régiment'' (1840), and Giovanna in Verdi's ''Ernani'' (1844) among others. From 1830–1832 Ruggeri was committed to the Teatro Regio di Torino. While there she performed roles in the world premieres of L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bass (voice Type)
A bass is a type of classical male singing voice and has the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', a bass is typically classified as having a vocal range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C (i.e., E2–E4).; ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'' gives E2–E4/F4 Its tessitura, or comfortable range, is normally defined by the outermost lines of the bass clef. Categories of bass voices vary according to national style and classification system. Italians favour subdividing basses into the ''basso cantante'' (singing bass), ''basso buffo'' ("funny" bass), or the dramatic ''basso profondo'' (low bass). The American system identifies the bass-baritone, comic bass, lyric bass, and dramatic bass. The German ''Fach'' system offers further distinctions: Spielbass (Bassbuffo), Schwerer Spielbass (Schwerer Bassbuffo), Charakterbass (Bassbariton), and Seriöser Bass. These classification systems can ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Domenico Donzelli
Domenico Donzelli (2 February 1790 – 31 March 1873) was an Italian tenor with a robust voice who enjoyed an important career in Paris, London and his native country during the 1808-1841 period. Biography Donzelli can be regarded as an offshoot of the so-called Bergamo tenor school which had originated with Giacomo David and Gaetano Crivelli, and which also included Giovanni David, Andrea Nozzari, Marco Bordogni, and Giovanni Battista Rubini. Donzelli made his debut in his home town, in 1808, as a second tenor in an opera by Johann Simon Mayr. He soon moved to Naples and performed many roles there, including that of Cinna in a revival of Gaspare Spontini's ''La Vestale''. He became well known in 1815 when Rossini wrote for him the role of Torvaldo in ''Torvaldo e Dorliska'', and when, the following year, he made his first appearance at the ''Teatro alla Scala'' as the protagonist of Ferdinando Paër's '' Achille''. His career made subsequent headway in major Italian t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tenor
A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is widely defined to be B2, though some roles include an A2 (two As below middle C). At the highest extreme, some tenors can sing up to the second F above middle C (F5). The tenor voice type is generally divided into the ''leggero'' tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, heldentenor, and tenor buffo or . History The name "tenor" derives from the Latin word ''wikt:teneo#Latin, tenere'', which means "to hold". As Fallows, Jander, Forbes, Steane, Harris and Waldman note in the "Tenor" article at ''Grove Music Online'': In polyphony between about 1250 and 1500, the [tenor was the] structurally fundamental (or 'holding') voice, vocal or instrumental; by the 15th century it came to signify the male voice that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giorgio Ronconi
Giorgio Ronconi (6 August 1810 – 8 January 1890) was an Italian operatic baritone celebrated for his brilliant acting and compelling stage presence. In 1842, he created the title-role in Giuseppe Verdi's ''Nabucco'' at La Scala, Milan. Personal life Ronconi was born in Milan and had been taught to sing by his father, Domenico Ronconi, who was a leading tenor. He married soprano Elguerra Giannoni on 8 October 1837 in Naples, Naples, Italy. By some accounts Giannoni had sung with some success at the Lyceum Theatre, London, Lyceum Theatre and at the Her Majesty's Theatre, King's Theatre in London. However, Harold Rosenthal has written: "This lady, who failed on virtually every opera stage in Europe, was considered a good concert-room singer only, but so indispensable was her husband to any Italian company that willy-nilly she had to be engaged as well." In his later years, Ronconi founded a school of singing at Granada in Spain and also accepted a professorial post at the Madrid R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Peter Of Castile
Peter ( es, Pedro; 30 August 133423 March 1369), called the Cruel () or the Just (), was King of Castile and León from 1350 to 1369. Peter was the last ruler of the main branch of the House of Ivrea. He was excommunicated by Pope Urban V for his persecutions and cruelties committed against the clergy. Early life Peter was born in the defensive tower of the Monasterio de Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in Burgos, Spain. His parents were Alfonso XI of Castile and Maria of Portugal. According to chancellor and chronicler Pero López de Ayala, he had a pale complexion, blue eyes and very light blonde hair; he was tall and muscular. He was accustomed to long, strenuous hours of work, lisped a little and "loved women greatly". He was well read and a patron of the arts, and in his formative years he enjoyed entertainment, music and poetry. He was to be married to his contemporary Joan of England (died 1348), Joan, the second and favourite daughterEstow 1995, p. 11. of King ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
