|
Nicola Moscona
Nicola Moscona (September 23, 1907 – September 17, 1975) was a Greek-born operatic bass. Born in Athens, he made his stage debut in '' Il barbiere di Siviglia'' at the Greek National Opera in 1931, and went on to sing leading basso cantante roles both in Europe (including the Teatro alla Scala) and the United States. Metropolitan Opera Moscona made his New York debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Ramfis in ''Aïda'' on December 13, 1937, and sang there until 1961, in a total of 719 performances. Among his roles with the company were indeed Ramfis (opposite Gina Cigna, then Maria Caniglia, Regina Resnik, Herva Nelli, and Renata Tebaldi), Lodovico in ''Otello'' (with Giovanni Martinelli, then Ramón Vinay and Mario del Monaco), Sparafucile in ''Rigoletto'' (with Lawrence Tibbett, then Robert Weede, Leonard Warren, and Ettore Bastianini), ''Manon'' (opposite Bidu Sayão, then Grace Moore), Pimenn in ''Boris Godunov'' (with Ezio Pinza in the title role), Lothario in ''Mign ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the Geography of Greece, mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Sea of Crete and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin, featuring List of islands of Greece, thousands of islands. The country consists of nine Geographic regions of Greece, traditional geographic regions, and has a population of approximately 10.4 million. Athens is the nation's capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city, followed by Thessaloniki and Patras. Greece is considered the cradle of Western culture, Western civilization, being the birthplace of Athenian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lawrence Tibbett
Lawrence Mervil Tibbett (November 16, 1896 – July 15, 1960) was an American opera singer and recording artist who also performed as a film actor and radio personality. A baritone, he sang leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City more than 600 times from 1923 to 1950. He performed diverse musical theatre roles, including Captain Hook in ''Peter Pan'' in a touring show. Biography Lawrence Tibbett was born Lawrence Mervil Tibbet (with a single final "t") on November 16, 1896, in Bakersfield, California. His father was a part-time deputy sheriff, killed in a shootout with outlaw Jim McKinney in 1903. Tibbett grew up in Los Angeles, earning money by singing in church choirs and at funerals. He graduated from Manual Arts High School in 1915. A year later, he met his future wife, Grace Mackay Smith, who rented a room in his mother's house.Mobile ''Times Register''. During World War I, he served in the Merchant Marine, after which he found employment singing as prol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf (born Erich Landauer; February 4, 1912 – September 11, 1993) was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality. He also published books and essays on musical matters. Biography Leinsdorf was born to a Jewish family in Vienna, and was studying music at a local school by the age of 5. He played the cello and studied composition. In his teens, Leinsdorf worked as a piano accompanist for singers. He studied conducting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and later at the University of Vienna and the Vienna Academy of Music. From 1934 to 1937 he worked as an assistant to the noted conductors Bruno Walter and Arturo Toscanini at the Salzburg Festival. In November 1937, Leinsdorf travelled to the United States to take up a position as assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New Yor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kirsten Flagstad
Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad (12 July 1895 – 7 December 1962) was a Norwegian opera singer, who was the outstanding Wagnerian soprano of her era. Her triumphant debut in New York on 2 February 1935 is one of the legends of opera. Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the longstanding General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera said, “I have given America two great gifts — Caruso and Flagstad.” Called "the voice of the century", she ranks among the greatest singers of the 20th century. Desmond Shawe-Taylor wrote of her in the '' New Grove Dictionary of Opera'': "No one within living memory surpassed her in sheer beauty and consistency of line and tone." Early life and career Flagstad was born in Hamar, Norway, in her grandparents' home, now the Kirsten Flagstad Museum. Though she never actually lived in Hamar, she always considered it her home town. She was raised in Oslo within a musical family; her father Michael Flagstad was a conductor and her mother Maja Flagstad a pianist. Their othe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Lorenz (tenor)
Max Lorenz (born Max Sülzenfuß; 10 May 1901 – 11 January 1975) was a German heldentenor famous for Wagnerian roles. Career Lorenz was born in Düsseldorf, and studied with Ernst Grenzebach in Berlin in the 1920s. He later was a pupil of Estelle Liebling in New York City. He made his debut at the Semperoper in Dresden in 1927, becoming a principal tenor. From 1929 to 1944 he was a member of the ensemble at the Berlin State Opera, appearing also at the New York Metropolitan Opera (1931–1934), the Bayreuth Festspielhaus (1933–1939, 1952, 1954) and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (1934 and 1937). He sang, too, at the Vienna State Opera (1929–1933, 1936–1944, 1954). Audiences at the Salzburg Festival also heard him, and he created roles in such post-World War II works as Gottfried von Einem’s '' Der Prozess'' (Josef K, 1953), Rolf Liebermann’s ''Penelope'' (1954) and Rudolf Wagner-Régeny’s ''Das Bergwerk zu Falun'' (1961). Lorenz's operatic and recital career ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior (20 March 1890 – 18 March 1973) was a Danish-American opera singer. He was the preeminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s and has come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type. Late in his career, Melchior appeared in movie musicals and on radio and television. He also made numerous recordings. Biography Early years Born Lauritz Lebrecht Hommel Melchior in Copenhagen, Denmark, the young Melchior was a treble and amateur singer before starting his first operatic vocal studies under Paul Bang at the Royal Opera School in Copenhagen at the age of 18 in 1908. His sister, Agnes Melchior (1883–1945), was a blind Danish Esperantist. In 1913, Melchior made his debut in the baritone role of Silvio in Ruggero Leoncavallo's ''Pagliacci'' at the Royal Theatre (Det Kongelige Teater) in Copenhagen. He sang mostly secondary baritone and bass roles for the Royal Danish Opera and provincial Scandinavian opera companies for the next few years. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zinka Milanov
Zinka Milanov (; May 17, 1906 – May 30, 1989) was a Croatian operatic dramatic soprano who had a major career centered on the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. After finishing her education in Zagreb, Milanov made her debut in 1927 in Ljubljana as Leonora in Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore. From 1928 to 1936, she was the leading soprano of the Croatian National Theatre. In 1937, Milanov performed at the Metropolitan Opera for the first time, where she continued to sing until 1966. She also performed as a concert singer and was a noted vocal coach and teacher. Milanov is the sister of the composer and pianist Božidar Kunc. Biography Born in Zagreb, Croatia as Zinka Kunc (), she studied with the Wagnerian soprano Milka Ternina and her assistant Marija Kostrenčić. She also studied in Milan with Carpi and in Berlin with Stückgolt. On October 29, 1927, she made her operatic debut as Leonora in Giuseppe Verdi's ''Il Trovatore'' in Ljubljana, Slovenia, at age 21. Her debut in he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jennie Tourel
Jennie Tourel (November 23, 1973) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano, known for her work in both opera and recital performances. Early years Tourel was born in Vitebsk in the Russian Empire (now in Belarus), with the surname Davidovich. As a young girl she played the flute, then studied piano. After the Russian Revolution, her Jewish family left Russia and settled temporarily near Danzig. They later moved to Paris, where she continued to study piano and contemplated a concert career. She then began to take voice lessons with Reynaldo Hahn and Anna El-Tour, and decided to devote herself to professional singing. She was said to have changed her last name to Tourel by transposing the syllables of El-Tour's name, but she denied this. Singing career Jennie Tourel made her European operatic debut at the Opéra Russe in Paris in 1931, and subsequently sang at the Opéra-Comique in Paris as Carmen, (April 9, 1933) also singing Mignon, Jacqueline (''Le médecin malgré lui'') ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Risë Stevens
Risë Stevens (; June 11, 1913 – March 20, 2013) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano and actress. Beginning in 1938, she sang for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for more than two decades during the 1940s and 1950s. She was most noted for her portrayals of the central character in ''Carmen'' by Georges Bizet. From 1963 to 1968 she was director of the Metropolitan Opera National Company. Early life and education Stevens was born Risë Gus Steenberg in New York City, the daughter of Sarah "Sadie" (née Mechanic) and Christian Carl Steenberg, an advertising salesman. Her father was of Norwegian descent and her mother was Jewish (of Polish and Russian descent). She had a younger brother, Lewis "Bud" Steenberg, who died in World War II. She studied at New York's Juilliard School for three years, and with Anna Eugenie Schoen-René (1864–1942). She went to Vienna, where she was trained by Marie Gutheil-Schoder and Herbert Graf. She made her début as Mignon in Prague ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ezio Pinza
Ezio Fortunato Pinza (May 18, 1892May 9, 1957) was an Italian opera singer. Pinza possessed a rich, smooth and sonorous voice, with a flexibility unusual for a bass. He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 performances of 50 operas. At the San Francisco Opera, Pinza sang 26 roles during 20 seasons from 1927 to 1948. Pinza also sang to great acclaim at La Scala, Milan and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. After retiring from the Met in 1948, Pinza enjoyed a fresh career on Broadway in musical theatre, most notably in ''South Pacific'', in which he created the role of Emile de Becque. He also appeared in several Hollywood films. Biography Early years Ezio Fortunato Pinza was born in modest circumstances in Rome in 1892 and grew up on Italy's east coast, in the ancient city of Ravenna. He studied singing at Bologna's Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini, making his operatic debut at age 22 in 1914, as Oroveso in '' Norma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grace Moore
Mary Willie Grace Moore (December 5, 1898January 26, 1947) was an American operatic soprano and actress in musical theatre and film.Obituary ''Variety'', January 29, 1947, page 48. She was nicknamed the "Tennessee Nightingale." Her films helped to popularize opera by bringing it to a larger audience. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in ''One Night of Love''. In 1947, Moore died in a plane crash at the age of 48. She published an autobiography in 1944 titled ''You're Only Human Once''. In 1953, a film about her life was released titled '' So This Is Love'' starring Kathryn Grayson. Early life Moore was born Mary Willie Grace Moore, the daughter of Tessa Jane (née Stokely) and Richard Lawson Moore. She was born in the community of Slabtown (now considered part of Del Rio) in Cocke County, Tennessee. By the time she was two years old, her family had relocated to Knoxville, a move Moore later described as traumatic, as she found urban ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bidu Sayão
Balduína "Bidú" de Oliveira Sayão (11 May 1902 – 12 March 1999) was a Brazilian opera soprano. One of Brazil's most famous musicians, Sayão was a leading artist of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1937 to 1952. Life and career Bidu Sayão was born on 11 May 1902 to a family of Portuguese, French and Swiss heritage, in Itaguaí, Rio de Janeiro. Her father died when she was five years old and her mother struggled to support her daughter's pursuit of a singing career. At just eighteen, the Bidu Sayão made her major opera debut in Rio de Janeiro. Her performance led to an opportunity to study with the famous Elena Teodorini, first in Brazil, then in Romania; and then to study with Polish tenor Jean de Reszke, in Nice. During the mid-1920s and early 1930s, she performed in Rome, Buenos Aires, Paris, as well as in her native Brazil. While at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, she met impresario Walter Mocchi (1870–1955). After his wife, soprano Emma Carelli, died in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Max Lorenz (tenor)")
