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Opera Comique
The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street, Holywell Street and the Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway. The theatre was built cheaply as a speculative venture, and was known as one of the "rickety twins" along with the adjacent Globe Theatre. Numerous managements presented plays in English, French and German, and the house was also used for extravaganzas and English versions of French opéras bouffes. It is best remembered as the theatre where several early Gilbert and Sullivan operas had their first runs, between 1877 and 1881. History Background and early years In the 16th century Lyon's Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery attached to London's Inner Temple, stood on the site. By the 1860s the area had deteriorated greatly, and the old inn had been converted into what the historians Mander and Mitchenson describe as "dwellings of a dubio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strand, London
Strand (or the Strand) is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster, Central London. It runs just over from Trafalgar Square eastwards to Temple Bar, London, Temple Bar, where the road becomes Fleet Street in the City of London, and is part of the A4 road (England), A4, a main road running west from inner London. The road's name comes from the Old English ''strond'', meaning the edge of a river, as it historically ran alongside the north bank of the River Thames. The street was much identified with the British upper classes between the 12th and 17th centuries, with many historically important mansions being built between the Strand and the river. These included Essex House (London), Essex House, Arundel House, Somerset House, Savoy Palace, Durham House (London), Durham House and Cecil House. The aristocracy moved to the West End, London, West End during the 17th century, and the Strand became known for its coffee shops, restaurants and taverns. The street was a centre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Théâtre Déjazet
The Théâtre Déjazet is a theatre on the boulevard du Temple (popularly known as the ' boulevard du crime’) in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, France. It was founded in 1770 by Comte d'Artois who later was crowned Charles X. It was then closed down and not reopened until 1851. At that time it became a café-concert called the Folies-Mayer, on the site of a former ''jeu de paume'' (tennis court). It was converted into the Folies-Concertantes in 1853, and reopened as the Folies-Nouvelles on 21 October 1854.Lecomte 1905p. 28 Under the direction of the operetta composer Hervé from 1854 to 1856, it became a theatre for one-act ''spectacles-concerts'' with premieres of Hervé's ''La Perle de l'Alsace'' (1854), ''Un Compositeur toqué'' (1854), ''La Fine fleur de l'Andalousie'' (1854), ''Agamemnon, ou Le Chameau à deux bosses'' (1856), and ''Vadé au cabaret'' (1856). Several of Auguste Pilati's works received their first performance at the Théâtre des Folies-Nouvelles, inclu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emily Soldene
Emily Soldene (30 September 1838 – 8 April 1912) was an English singer, actress, director, theatre manager, novelist and journalist of the late Victorian era and the Edwardian period. She was one of the most famous singers of comic opera in the late nineteenth century, as well as an important director of theatre companies and later a celebrated gossip columnist. Life and career Soldene was born in Clerkenwell, London. Her mother was Priscilla Swain Fuller (1812–1900), and although she was apparently the product of a bigamous marriage, she was raised as the daughter of Edward Fuller Solden (1805–1873).Gänzl, Kurt"Soldene, Emily (1838?–1912)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 12 September 2008. In 1859 she married law clerk John Powell (1834?–1881) and gave birth to her first child before she began to study singing in 1861 with William Howard Glover. Early career and peak years Soldene made her first public appeara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adelaide Ristori
Adelaide Ristori (29 January 18229 October 1906) was a distinguished Italian tragedienne, who was often referred to as the Marquise. Biography She was born in Cividale del Friuli, the daughter of strolling players and appeared as a child on the stage. At fourteen she made her first success as Francesca da Rimini in Silvio Pellico's tragedy of the same name. At eighteen she was playing '' Mary Stuart'' in an Italian version of Friedrich Schiller's play of the same name. She had been a member of the Sardinian company and also of the Ducal company at Parma for some years before her marriage to the ''marchese'' Giuliano Capranica del Grillo in 1846. After a short retirement from her career, she returned to the stage and played regularly in Turin and the provinces. It was not until 1855 that she paid her first professional visit to Paris, where the part of ''Francesca'' was chosen for her début. In this she was rather coldly received, but she took Paris by storm in the title role ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Lecocq
Alexandre Charles Lecocq (3 June 183224 October 1918) was a French composer, known for his opérettes and opéras comiques. He became the most prominent successor to Jacques Offenbach in this sphere, and enjoyed considerable success in the 1870s and early 1880s, before the changing musical fashions of the late 19th century made his style of composition less popular. His few serious works include the opera ''Plutus'' (1886), which was not a success, and the ballet ''Le cygne'' (1899). His only piece to survive in the regular modern operatic repertory is his 1872 opéra comique ''La fille de Madame Angot'' (Mme Angot's Daughter). Others of his more than forty stage works receive occasional revivals. After study at the Paris Conservatoire, Lecocq shared the first prize with Georges Bizet in an operetta-writing contest organised in 1856 by Offenbach. Lecocq's next successful composition was an opéra-bouffe, '' Fleur-de-Thé'' (Tea-flower), twelve years later. His comic operas ''L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach (, also , , ; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the Romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera '' The Tales of Hoffmann''. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss Jr. and Arthur Sullivan. His best-known works were continually revived during the 20th century, and many of his operettas continue to be staged in the 21st. ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' remains part of the standard opera repertory. Born in Cologne, the son of a synagogue cantor, Offenbach showed early musical talent. At the age of 14, he was accepted as a student at the Paris Conservatoire but found academic study unfulfilling and left after a year. From 1835 to 1855 he earned his living as a cellist, achieving international fame, and as a conductor. His ambition, however, was to compose comic pieces for the musica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hervé (composer)
Louis-Auguste Florimond Ronger (30 June 1825 – 4 November 1892), who used the pseudonym Hervé (), was a French singer, composer, librettist, conductor and scene painter, whom Ernest Newman, following Reynaldo Hahn, credited with inventing the genre of operetta in Paris. Life Hervé was born in Houdain near Arras. Part Spanish by birth, he became a choirboy at the Church of Saint-Roch, Paris. His musical promise was noted, and he was enrolled in the Conservatoire and studied with Daniel Auber, and by the age of fifteen was serving as organist at Bicêtre Hospital and a stage vocalist in provincial theatres, where he trained his fine tenor voice. He won a competition in 1845 for the prestigious Paris post of organist at the Church of Saint-Eustache, while he doubled with his theatrical music career, a situation that he turned to advantage years later, in his most famous work, '' Mam'zelle Nitouche''. Before he became musical director of the Théâtre du Palais Royal i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opéra Bouffe
Opéra bouffe (, plural: ''opéras bouffes'') is a genre of late 19th-century French operetta, closely associated with Jacques Offenbach, who produced many of them at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, inspiring the genre's name. Opéras bouffes are known for elements of comedy, satire, parody and farce. The most famous examples are ''La belle Hélène'', '' Barbe-bleue'' (''Bluebeard''), '' La Vie parisienne'', ''La Périchole'' and '' La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein''. Sources * Bartlet, M. Elizabeth C.: "Opéra bouffe" Stanley Sadie (ed.), ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volu ...'' (London, 1992). {{DEFAULTSORT:Opera Bouffe Opera genres Opera terminology ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Le Médecin Malgré Lui
''Le Médecin malgré lui'' (; "The doctor/physician in spite of himself") is a farce by Molière first presented in 1666 (published as a manuscript in early 1667) at le théâtre du Palais-Royal by la Troupe du Roi. The play is one of several plays by Molière to center on Sganarelle, a character that Molière himself portrayed, and is a comedic satire of 17th century French medicine. The music composed by Marc-Antoine Charpentier is lost. Characters *Sganarelle, ''an alcoholic, gluttonous woodcutter'' (The title character) *Martine, ''Sganarelle's wife'' *Lucinde, ''Sganarelle's patient; daughter of Geronte'' *Léandre, ''Lucinde's lover'' *Geronte, ''a wealthy bourgeois; father of Lucinde'' *Valère, ''Geronte's educated servant'' *Lucas, ''Geronte's non-educated servant'' *Jacqueline, ''Lucas's wife and Geronte's non-educated feeder'' *Monsieur Robert, ''Sganarelle's neighbor'' *Thibaut, ''a country person'' *Perrin, ''a country person; son of Thibaut'' Synopsis Sganare ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world literature. His extant works include comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed at the Comédie-Française more often than those of any other playwright today. His influence is such that the French language is often referred to as the "language of Molière". Born into a prosperous family and having studied at the Collège de Clermont (now Lycée Louis-le-Grand), Molière was well suited to begin a life in the theatre. Thirteen years as an itinerant actor helped him polish his comedic abilities while he began writing, combining Commedia dell'arte elements with the more refined French comedy. Through the patronage of aristocrats includi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte (; 3 May 1844 – 3 April 1901) was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer, and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era. He built two of London's theatres and a hotel empire, while also establishing an opera company that ran continuously for over a hundred years and a management agency representing some of the most important artists of the day. Carte started his career working for his father, Richard Carte, in the music publishing and musical instrument manufacturing business. As a young man he conducted and composed music, but he soon turned to promoting the entertainment careers of others through his management agency. Carte believed that a school of wholesome, well-crafted, family-friendly, English comic opera could be as popular as the risqué French works dominating the London musical stage in the 1870s. To that end he brought together the dramatist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan and nurtured their collaboration ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comédie-Française
The Comédie-Française () or Théâtre-Français () is one of the few state theatres in France. Founded in 1680, it is the oldest active theatre company in the world. Established as a French state-controlled entity in 1995, it is the only state theatre in France to have its own permanent troupe of actors. The company's primary venue is the Salle Richelieu, which is a part of the Palais-Royal complex and located at 2, Rue de Richelieu on Place André-Malraux in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The theatre has also been known as the Théâtre de la République and popularly as "La Maison de Molière" (The House of Molière). It acquired the latter name from the troupe of the best-known playwright associated with the Comédie-Française, Molière. He was considered the patron of French actors. He died seven years before his troupe became known as the Comédie-Française, but the company continued to be known as "La Maison de Molière" even after the official change of name. Histo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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