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Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Robert le diable'' and its successors, he gave the genre of grand opera 'decisive character'. Meyerbeer's grand opera style was achieved by his merging of German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. These were employed in the context of sensational and melodramatic libretti created by Eugène Scribe and were enhanced by the up-to-date theatre technology of the Paris Opéra. They set a standard which helped to maintain Paris as the opera capital of the nineteenth century. Born to a rich Jewish family, Meyerbeer began his musical career as a pianist but soon decided to devote himself to opera, spending several years in Italy studying and composing. His 1824 opera '' Il crociato in Egitto'' was the first to bring him Europe-wide reputation, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meyerbeer D'après P
Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera '' Robert le diable'' and its successors, he gave the genre of grand opera 'decisive character'. Meyerbeer's grand opera style was achieved by his merging of German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. These were employed in the context of sensational and melodramatic libretti created by Eugène Scribe and were enhanced by the up-to-date theatre technology of the Paris Opéra. They set a standard which helped to maintain Paris as the opera capital of the nineteenth century. Born to a rich Jewish family, Meyerbeer began his musical career as a pianist but soon decided to devote himself to opera, spending several years in Italy studying and composing. His 1824 opera '' Il crociato in Egitto'' was the first to bring him Europe-wide reputation, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Le Diable
''Robert le diable'' (''Robert the Devil'') is an opera in five acts composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer between 1827 and 1831, to a libretto written by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne. ''Robert le diable'' is regarded as one of the first grand operas at the Paris Opéra. It has only a superficial connection to the medieval legend of ''Robert the Devil''. The opera was immediately successful from its first night on 21 November 1831 at the Opéra; the dramatic music, harmony and orchestration, its melodramatic plot, its star singers and its sensational stage effects compelled Frédéric Chopin, who was in the audience, to say, "If ever magnificence was seen in the theatre, I doubt that it reached the level of splendour shown in ''Robert''...It is a masterpiece...Meyerbeer has made himself immortal".Brown, ''Robert le diable'', p. 572 ''Robert'' initiated the European fame of its composer, consolidated the fame of its librettist, Scribe, and launched the reputation of the new dire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L'Africaine
''L'Africaine'' (''The African Woman'') is an 1865 French ''grand opéra'' in five acts with music by Giacomo Meyerbeer and a libretto by Eugène Scribe. Meyerbeer and Scribe began working on the opera in 1837, using the title ''L'Africaine'', but around 1852 changed the plot to portray fictitious events in the life of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama and introduced the working title ''Vasco de Gama'', the French version of his name. The copying of the full score was completed the day before Meyerbeer died in 1864. The opera was premiered the following year by the Paris Opéra in a version made by François-Joseph Fétis, who restored the earlier title, ''L'Africaine''. The Fétis version was published and was used for subsequent performances until 2013, when some productions and recordings began using Meyerbeer's preferred title, ''Vasco de Gama'', for performing versions with revisions based on the manuscript score. In 2018 the music publisher Ricordi issued a critical edit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Huguenots
() is an opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer and is one of the most popular and spectacular examples of grand opera. In five acts, to a libretto by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps, it premiered in Paris on 29 February 1836. Composition history ''Les Huguenots'' was some five years in creation. Meyerbeer prepared carefully for this opera after the sensational success of ''Robert le diable'', recognising the need to continue to present lavish staging, a highly dramatic storyline, impressive orchestration and virtuoso parts for the soloists – the essential elements of the new genre of Grand Opera. Meyerbeer and his librettist for ''Robert le Diable'', Eugène Scribe, had agreed to collaborate on an epic work concerning the French Wars of Religion, with a drama partly based on Prosper Mérimée's 1829 novel ''Chronique du règne de Charles IX''. Coming from a wealthy family, Meyerbeer could afford to take his time, dictate his own terms, and to be a perfectionist. The very detailed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Le Prophète (opera)
''Le prophète'' (''The Prophet'') is a grand opera in five acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer, which was premiered in Paris on 16 April 1849. The French-language libretto was by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps, after passages from the ''Essay on the Manners and Spirit of Nations'' by Voltaire. The plot is based on the life of John of Leiden, Anabaptist leader and self-proclaimed "King of Münster" in the 16th century. Performance history After the brilliant success of their grand opera ''Les Huguenots'' (1836), Meyerbeer and his librettist Scribe decided to collaborate again on a piece based on a historical religious conflict. Meyerbeer's great personal wealth and his duties as official court composer to King Frederick William IV of Prussia meant that there was no hurry to complete the opera, and it was more than a decade in the composition and planning. ''Le prophète'' was first performed by the Paris Opera at the Salle Le Peletier on 16 April 1849. In the audience at the work's p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Opera
Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and orchestras, and (in their original productions) lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on or around dramatic historic events. The term is particularly applied (sometimes specifically used in its French language equivalent grand opéra, ) to certain productions of the Paris Opéra from the late 1820s to around 1850; 'grand opéra' has sometimes been used to denote the Paris Opéra itself. The term 'grand opera' is also used in a broader application in respect of contemporary or later works of similar monumental proportions from France, Germany, Italy, and other countries. It may also be used colloquially in an imprecise sense to refer to 'serious opera without spoken dialogue'. Origins Paris at the turn of the 19th century drew in many composers, both French and foreign, and especially those of opera. Several Italians working ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ein Feldlager In Schlesien
''Ein Feldlager in Schlesien'' (''A Camp in Silesia'') is a Singspiel in three acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer with a German-language libretto by Ludwig Rellstab after Eugène Scribe's ''Le camp de Silésie''. It was first performed at the Hofoper, Berlin, on 7 December 1844; a version with a revised libretto by Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer, titled ''Vielka'', opened in Vienna on 18 February 1847. Much material from the opera was later reused for Meyerbeer's opéra comique ''L'étoile du nord'' (1854). Background Shortly after Meyerbeer arrived in Berlin in 1842 the opera house was destroyed by a fire. Meyerbeer was invited to compose a brand new work for the festive occasion of the reopening of the opera house. The reigning Prussian king at the time was Frederick William IV, of the house of Hohenzollern. What better theme for this opera than a work celebrating the king's famous ancestor, Frederick the Great? But there was one problem; members of the ruling Hohenzollern family could not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rienzi
' (''Rienzi, the last of the tribunes''; WWV 49) is an early opera by Richard Wagner in five acts, with the libretto written by the composer after Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel of the same name (1835). The title is commonly shortened to ''Rienzi''. Written between July 1838 and November 1840, it was first performed at the Königliches Hoftheater Dresden, on 20 October 1842, and was the composer's first success. The opera's format is the Grand Opera in Meyerbeer style. Wagner had been fascinated by this genre of opera at an early age, and with Rienzi and its enormous dimensions wanted to surpass anything else that had previously been composed in this style. It is thus a rare study in pomp and splendor, both scenically and musically, and partly represents a great contrast to his later works. Rienzi is in full version Wagner's longest opera. It includes a ballet that lasts alone for 40 minutes. During the premiere in Dresden, Wagner noted to his dismay that the performance laste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eugène Scribe
Augustin Eugène Scribe (; 24 December 179120 February 1861) was a French dramatist and librettist. He is known for writing "well-made plays" ("pièces bien faites"), a mainstay of popular theatre for over 100 years, and as the librettist of many of the most successful grand operas and opéras-comiques. Born to a middle-class Parisian family, Scribe was intended for a legal career, but was drawn to the theatre, and began writing plays while still in his teens. His early years as a playwright were unsuccessful, but from 1815 onwards he prospered. Writing, usually with one or more collaborators, he produced several hundred stage works. He wrote to entertain the public rather than educate it. Many of his plays were written in a formulaic manner which aimed at neatness of plot and focus on dramatic incident rather than naturalism, depth of characterisation or intellectual substance. For this he was much criticised by intellectuals, but the "well-made play" remained established in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heinz Becker (musicologist)
Heinz Becker (26 June 1922 – 20 September 2006) was a German composer and musicologist. Career Born in Berlin, Becker began his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin-Charlottenburg in 1945, majoring in conducting, music composition, piano and clarinet, graduating in 1949. He was also a private student of the composer and music theorist Hermann Grabner. Further studies included musicology, art history and philosophy at the Humboldt University of Berlin. (1948–1951). In 1951 he received his doctorate on the subject ''On the problems and technique of musical final composition''. He then worked as a lecturer at the Volkshochschule in West Berlin and from 1952 to 1955 he directed the private music teacher seminar at the John Petersen Conservatory in Berlin-Zehlendorf. In 1956 he took over a position as a research assistant at the Institute for Musicology at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover. There he habilitated in 1961 with his thesis ''Studien zur Entw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (''The Ring of the Nibelung''). His compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex texture (mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Beer (poet)
Michael Beer (19 August 1800, Berlin – 22 March 1833, Munich) was a German Jewish poet, author and playwright. Early life Beer was born to a wealthy Jewish family, the son of salonnière Amalie Beer. His elder brother was the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer; another brother was the astronomer Wilhelm Beer. In the period 1817–1823 he frequently travelled with family members in Italy, where his brother Meyerbeer was studying. In 1819 Beer was a founder member of the movement '' Verein für Cultur und Wissenschaft der Juden (Association for Culture and Science of the Jews)'', which attempted to provide an intellectual framework for considering the Jews as a people in their own right, and to validate their secular cultural traditions as being on an equal footing with those of the German people. Beer's co-founders included Eduard Gans, Moses Moser, Heinrich Heine and Leopold Zunz. Works The first of Beer's works to be performed was ''Klytemnestra (Clytemnestra)'', (1819), influenced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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