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]   |
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France Musique
France Musique is a French national public radio channel owned and operated by Radio France. It is devoted to the broadcasting of music, both live and recorded, with particular emphasis on European classical music, classical music and jazz. History The channel was launched by Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF) in 1954 as ''La Chaîne Haute-Fidélité'', then renamed in 1958 as ''France IV Haute Fidélité'', as ''RTF Haute Fidélité'' in 1963, and finally as ''France Musique'' later in the same year. It was known between 1999 and 2005 as ''France Musiques''. The conductor André Jouve was coordinator of programming and music services at France Musique during the 1980s. Obituary for André Jouve o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Heinrich Sutermeister
Heinrich Sutermeister (12 August 1910 – 16 March 1995) was a Swiss composer, most famous for his opera ''Romeo und Julia''. Life and career Sutermeister was born in Feuerthalen. During the early 1930s he was a student at the Akademie der Tonkunst in Munich, where Carl Orff was his teacher. Orff thereafter remained a powerful influence on his music. Returning to Switzerland in the mid-1930s, Sutermeister devoted his life to composition. He wrote some works for the radio, starting with '' Die schwarze Spinne'' in 1936, before turning later to television opera. His most successful stage work was ''Romeo und Julia'', premiered in Dresden in 1940 under Karl Böhm. Sutermeister's penultimate stage work, ''Madame Bovary'', first given in Zurich in 1967, is loosely based on Flaubert's novel. With many characters cut, it consists largely of monologues for Emma Bovary, who was sung by Anneliese Rothenberger. For his final opera, he adapted Eugène Ionesco's play ''Exit the King'' (' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Das Land Des Lächelns
''The Land of Smiles'' (German: ') is a 1929 romantic operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár. The German language libretto was by and Fritz Löhner-Beda. The performance duration is about 100 minutes. This was one of Lehár's later works, and has a bittersweet ending which the Viennese loved. The title refers to the supposed Chinese custom of smiling, whatever happens in life. (The leading character, Prince Sou-Chong has a song early in the show, "" ("Always smiling") which describes this.) The ''Tauberlied'' Lavishly produced, the show was built largely around the performance of the tenor Richard Tauber, a close friend of Lehár, for whom he customarily wrote a ' – a signature tune exploiting the exceptional qualities of his voice – in each of his later operettas. On this occasion it was "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz" ("You are my heart's delight"), probably the most famous of all the '. Tauber also appeared in the show in London, singing many encores of his song. Performan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Die Lustige Witwe
''The Merry Widow'' (german: Die lustige Witwe, links=no ) is an operetta by the Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play, (''The Embassy Attaché'') by Henri Meilhac. The operetta has enjoyed extraordinary international success since its 1905 premiere in Vienna and continues to be frequently revived and recorded. Film and other adaptations have also been made. Well-known music from the score includes the " Vilja Song", "" ("You'll Find Me at Maxim's"), and the "Merry Widow Waltz". Background In 1861, Henri Meilhac premiered a comic play in Paris, (''The Embassy Attaché''), in which the Parisian ambassador of a poor German grand duchy, Baron Scharpf, schemes to arrange a marriage between his country's richest widow (a French woman) and a Count to keep her mon ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and social science. The company publishes approximately 1,800 journals and 5,000 new books each year and their backlist encompasses over 70,000 titles. Routledge is claimed to be the largest global academic publisher within humanities and social sciences. In 1998, Routledge became a subdivision and imprint of its former rival, Taylor & Francis Group (T&F), as a result of a £90-million acquisition deal from Cinven, a venture capital group which had purchased it two years previously for £25 million. Following the merger of Informa and T&F in 2004, Routledge became a publishing unit and major imprint within the Informa "academic publishing" division. Routledge is headquartered in the main T&F office in Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Issay Dobrowen
Issay Alexandrovich Dobrowen (russian: Исай Александрович Добровейн; in Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Empire9 December 1953, Oslo, Norway), born Itschok Zorachovitch Barabeitchik, was a Russian/Soviet-Norwegian pianist, composer and conductor. He left the Soviet Union in 1922 and became a Norwegian citizen in 1929. Biography He studied at the Moscow Conservatory, his teachers including Konstantin Igumnov and Sergei Taneyev, graduating with a gold medal. He taught from 1917–1921 at the Moscow Philharmonic Conservatory. He once played Beethoven's '' Sonata Appassionata'' for Vladimir Lenin, this sonata being the revolutionary's favorite piece of music. Dobrowen directed the first German performance of Mussorgsky's ''Boris Godunov'' (Dresden, 1922). Dobrowen went on to conduct the Oslo Philharmonic orchestra (1928–31), at the Sofia Opera (1927–28), and the San Francisco Symphony (1931–34) and the Gothenburg Symphony (1941–53) orchestras. Dobrowe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875, where its breaking of conventions shocked and scandalised its first audiences. Bizet died suddenly after the 33rd performance, unaware that the work would achieve international acclaim within the following ten years. ''Carmen'' has since become one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the classical Western canon, canon; the "Habanera (aria), Habanera" from act 1 and the "Toreador Song" from act 2 are among the best known of all operatic arias. The opera is written in the genre of ''opéra comique'' with musical numbers separated by dialogue. It is set in southern Spain and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Boris Godunov (opera)
''Boris Godunov'' ( rus, Борис Годунов, links=no, Borís Godunóv ) is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881). The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar (1598 to 1605) during the Time of Troubles, and his nemesis, the False Dmitriy (reigned 1605 to 1606). The Russian-language libretto was written by the composer, and is based on the 1825 drama '' Boris Godunov'' by Aleksandr Pushkin, and, in the Revised Version of 1872, on Nikolay Karamzin's ''History of the Russian State''. Among major operas, ''Boris Godunov'' shares with Giuseppe Verdi's ''Don Carlos'' (1867) the distinction of having an extremely complex creative history, as well as a great wealth of alternative material. The composer created two versions—the Original Version of 1869, which was rejected for production by the Imper ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Walter Legge
Harry Walter Legge (1 June 1906 – 22 March 1979) was an English classical music record producer, most especially associated with EMI. His recordings include many sets later regarded as classics and reissued by EMI as "Great Recordings of the Century". He worked in the recording industry from 1927, combining this with the post of junior music critic of ''The Manchester Guardian''. He was assistant to Sir Thomas Beecham at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and in World War II played a role in bringing music to the armed forces and civilians. After the war, Legge founded the Philharmonia Orchestra and worked for EMI as a recording producer. In the 1960s, he quarrelled with EMI and resigned. He attempted to disband the Philharmonia in 1964, but it continued as an independent body without him. After this he had no permanent job, and confined himself to giving masterclasses with, and supervising the recordings of, his second wife, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Life Early years Legge ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mes Amis, écoutez L'histoire
"Mes amis, écoutez l'histoire", is a tenor aria in Adolphe Adam's 1836 opera ''Le postillon de Lonjumeau''. The D5 in the final verse is the highest commonly sung note for tenors in opera. Donizetti wrote an E5 for Edgardo in the first act of his opera ''Lucia di Lammermoor'', though it is very seldom sung. Higher notes are occasionally sung in interpolations and ornaments in other bel canto operas, and exceptionally the written F5 at the end of "Credeasi, misera" in Bellini's ''I puritani''. Famous performers of this aria are Nicolai Gedda, Helge Rosvaenge and Joseph Schmidt Joseph Schmidt (4 March 1904 – 16 November 1942) was an Austro-Hungarian and Romanian Jewish tenor and actor. Life and career Schmidt was born in Davideny (Ukrainian: '' Davydivka'') village in the Storozhynets district of the Bukovina ..., often performing the German version, "Freunde, vernehmet die Geschichte". Lyrics References External links * * *, third verse * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mes ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hjördis Schymberg
Hjördis Gunborg Schymberg (April 24, 1909 – September 8, 2008) was a Swedish coloratura and lyric soprano active on the opera stage and in concert halls between 1934 and 1968. One of the leading singers of the Royal Swedish Opera, she was awarded the title of '' Hovsångerska'' (Court Singer) in 1943, and in her later years became a distinguished voice teacher. Biography Hjördis Schymberg was born on the island of Alnön on April 24, 1909, the fourth of five musically talented sisters. Her father worked in the local lumber mill and her mother was a seamstress. As a child, she played both the violin and piano and sang with the Gustavsberg children's orchestra. She and her sisters also sang in cafes and performed music to accompany silent films.Östlund (2009) At the age of 16, she had her own radio program, ''Tant Hjördis sjunger med barnen'' (Aunt Hjördis sings with children), but it was not until 1929 that she began formal vocal training with Brita von Vegesack. Three year ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Le Postillon De Lonjumeau
''Le postillon de Lonjumeau'' (''The Postillion of Lonjumeau'') is an opéra-comique in three acts by Adolphe Adam to a French libretto by Adolphe de Leuven and Léon Lévy Brunswick. The opera has become the most successful of Adam's works, and the one by which (apart from his ballet ''Giselle'' and his Christmas carol ''Cantique de Noël'') he is best known outside his native France. The opera is known for the difficult aria "Mes amis, écoutez l'histoire" which has been called a test for tenors because of the demanding high D, or D5, at the end of the aria. Performance history The opera was premiered by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle de la Bourse in Paris on 13 October 1836. Performances followed at the St James's Theatre, London on 13 March 1837, and in New Orleans at the Théâtre d'Orléans on 19 April 1838. Recent productions have been mounted in the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden (from 4 August 2000) and at the Grand Théâtre, Dijon, (from 30 March 2004 under ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |