O Soave Fanciulla
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O Soave Fanciulla
"O soave fanciulla" (O gentle maiden) is a romantic duet from the first act of Giacomo Puccini's 1896 opera ''La bohème'' It is sung as the closing number in act 1 by Rodolfo (tenor) and Mimì ( soprano) where they realise they have fallen for each other. Music The duet, between 5 and 6 minutes in length, is written in the common time time signature, the key of A major, but ending in C major. The last bar in the orchestra is characterized by descending harp harmonics through the final C major chord. When Mimì and Rodolfo realize they are in love (unison "A! tu sol comandi, amor!"/"Fremon già nell'anima"), the music returns to the opera's love leitmotif from Rodolfo's aria "Che gelida manina" ("talor dal mio forziere"). They leave the stage together singing "Amor!". Mimì's last note is a high C, marked '' perdendosi'' (fading away), and while an E below is written for Rodolfo, many tenors also sing the high C, making the last note unison. Following Rodolfo's "Che gelida ...
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Enrico Caruso
Enrico Caruso (, , ; 25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic first lyrical tenor then dramatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles (74) from the Italian and French repertoires that ranged from the lyric to the dramatic. One of the first major singing talents to be commercially recorded, Caruso made 247 commercially released recordings from 1902 to 1920, which made him an international popular entertainment star. Biography Early life Enrico Caruso came from a poor but not destitute background. Born in Naples in the via Santi Giovanni e Paolo n° 7 on 25 February 1873, he was baptised the next day in the adjacent Church of San Giovanni e Paolo. His parents originally came from Piedimonte d'Alife (now called Piedimonte Matese), in the Province of Caserta in Campania, Southern Italy. Caruso was the third of seven children and one of only three to survive infancy. There is ...
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Unison
In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or perfect unison (also called a prime, or perfect prime)Benward & Saker (2003), p. 53. may refer to the (pseudo-) interval formed by a tone and its duplication (in German, ''Unisono'', ''Einklang'', or ''Prime''), for example C–C, as differentiated from the second, C–D, etc. In the unison the two pitches have the ratio of 1:1 or 0 half steps and zero cents. Although two tones in unison are considered to be the same pitch, they are still perceivable as coming from separate sources, whether played on instruments of a different type: ; or of the same type: . This is because a pair of tones in unison come from different locations or can have different "colors" ( timbres), i.e. come from different musical instruments or human voices. Voices wi ...
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Jussi Björling
Johan Jonatan "Jussi" Björling ( , ; 5 February 19119 September 1960) was a Swedish tenor. One of the leading operatic singers of the 20th century, Björling appeared for many years at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and less frequently at the major European opera houses, including the Royal Opera House in London and La Scala in Milan. He sang the Italian, French and Russian opera repertory with taste. Early life Björling (surname also spelled as "Bjoerling" and "Bjorling" in English-language sources) was born in Stora Tuna, Borlänge, Dalarna, Sweden, in February 1911. The midwife's register shows he was born on 5 February, but the church baptism records erroneously show 2 February, and that was the day on which he celebrated his birthday throughout his whole life. He was known throughout his life by the name Jussi, which he received as a child from his Finnish-born grandmother (Henrika Matilda Björling née Lönnqvist, b. 1844 Pori, d. 1918 Borlänge). His father, ...
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Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi ( , ; 1 February 1922 – 19 December 2004) was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post- war period, and especially prominent as one of the stars of La Scala, San Carlo and, especially, the Metropolitan Opera. Often considered among the great opera singers of the 20th century, she focused primarily on the verismo roles of the lyric and dramatic repertoires. Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini called her voice "" ("the voice of an angel"), and La Scala music director Riccardo Muti called her "one of the greatest performers with one of the most extraordinary voices in the field of opera." Early years and education Born in Pesaro, Tebaldi was the daughter of cellist Teobaldo Tebaldi and Giuseppina Barbieri, a nurse. Her parents separated before her birth and Tebaldi grew up with her mother in her maternal grandparents' home in Langhirano. Stricken with polio at the age of three, Tebaldi became interested in music and sang with the church choir ...
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Indiana University School Of Music
The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, is a music conservatory established in 1921. Until 2005, it was known as the Indiana University School of Music. It has more than 1,500 students, approximately half of whom are undergraduates, with the second largest enrollment of all music schools accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music.''HEADS Data – Special Report, 2010–11'', National Association of Schools of Music Note: For more than 20 years, University of North Texas College of Music enrollment has tracked closely to that of Indiana. Institutions that include Berklee, Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music are not among the 627 NASM members. One non-NASM music school has a student enrolment larger than North Texas – Berklee. History In 1907, Charles Campbell arranged for a recital of the Schellschmidt Quartet of Indianapolis, the proceeds of which established a music fund, "to lead ultimately to the equipment of a school ...
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William And Gayle Cook Music Library
The William and Gayle Cook Music Library, recognized as one of the largest academic music libraries in the world, serves the Jacobs School of Music and the Bloomington Campus of Indiana University. It occupies a four-floor, 55,000 square-foot facility in a wing of the Simon Music Center. The collection comprises over 700,000 cataloged items, in addition to thousands more items that have yet to be cataloged. The library holds many special collections, including audio and print collections. One notable collection contains items from Leonard Bernstein's composition studio, including items such as clothing, furniture, recordings, books, and awards. Many such collections are housed within the library's climate-controlled vault and are only accessible upon request. The origins of the William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the ...
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Garret
A garret is a habitable attic, a living space at the top of a house or larger residential building, traditionally, small, dismal, and cramped, with sloping ceilings. In the days before elevators this was the least prestigious position in a building, at the very top of the stairs. Etymology The word entered Middle English through Old French with a military connotation of watchtower, garrison or billet a place for guards or soldiers to be quartered in a house. Like garrison, it comes from an Old French word of ultimately Germanic origin meaning "to provide" or "defend". History In the later 1800s, garrets became one of the defining features of Second Empire architecture in Paris, France, where large buildings were stratified socially between different floors. As the number of stairs to climb increased, the social status decreased. Garrets were often internal elements of the mansard roof, with skylights or dormer windows. A "bow garret" is a two-story "outhouse" situated ...
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Baby, It's Cold Outside
"Baby, It's Cold Outside" is a popular song written by Frank Loesser in 1944 and popularized in the 1949 film '' Neptune's Daughter''. While the lyrics make no mention of a holiday, it is commonly regarded as a Christmas song owing to its winter theme. The song was released in eight recordings in 1949 and has been covered numerous times since. History During the 1940s, whenever Hollywood celebrities with vocal talents attended parties, they were expected to perform songs. In 1944, Loesser wrote "Baby, It's Cold Outside" to sing with his wife, Lynn Garland, at their housewarming party in New York City at the Navarro Hotel. They sang the song to indicate to guests that it was time to leave. Garland has written that after the first performance, "We became instant parlor room stars. We got invited to all the best parties for years on the basis of 'Baby.' It was our ticket to caviar and truffles. Parties were built around our being the closing act." In 1948, after years of performin ...
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Giuseppe Giacosa
Giuseppe Giacosa (21 October 1847 – 1 September 1906) was an Italian poet, playwright and librettist. Life He was born in Colleretto Parella, now Colleretto Giacosa, near Turin. His father was a magistrate. Giuseppe went to the University of Turin, studying in the University of Turin, Faculty of Law. Though he gained a degree in law, he did not pursue a legal career. He gained initial fame for his play ''Una Partita a Scacchi'' ("A Game of Chess") in 1871. His main field was playwriting, which he accomplished with both insight and simplicity, using subjects set in Piedmont and themes addressing contemporary bourgeois values. He wrote ''La signora di Challant'' (La Dame de Challant, The Lady of Challand), based on a novella by Matteo Bandello, for noted French actress Sarah Bernhardt, produced in New York in 1891. Giacosa wrote the final polished version of the libretto for Giacomo Puccini's '' Manon Lescaut'', which had been begun by Ruggero Leoncavallo, Marco Praga, Dome ...
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Luigi Illica
Luigi Illica (9 May 1857 – 16 December 1919) was an Italian librettist who wrote for Giacomo Puccini (usually with Giuseppe Giacosa), Pietro Mascagni, Alfredo Catalani, Umberto Giordano, Baron Alberto Franchetti and other important Italian composers. His most famous opera libretti are those for ''La Bohème'', ''Tosca'', '' Madama Butterfly'' and '' Andrea Chénier''. Illica was born at Castell'Arquato. His personal life sometimes imitated his libretti. The reason he is always photographed with his head slightly turned is because he lost his right ear in a duel over a woman. When silent films based on Illica's operas were made, his name appeared in large letters on advertisements because distributors could only guarantee that his stories would be used, and not that they would be accompanied by the music of the appropriate composer. As a playwright of considerable quality, he is today remembered through one of Italy's oldest awards, the Luigi Illica International Prize foun ...
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Libretto
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass, requiem and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet. ''Libretto'' (; plural ''libretti'' ), from Italian, is the diminutive of the word '' libro'' ("book"). Sometimes other-language equivalents are used for libretti in that language, ''livret'' for French works, ''Textbuch'' for German and ''libreto'' for Spanish. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. Some ballet historians also use the word ''libretto'' to refer to the 15 to 40 page books which were on sale to 19th century ballet audiences in Paris and contained a very detailed description of the ballet's story, scene by ...
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Lyric Opera Of Kansas City
Lyric Opera of Kansas City is an American opera company located in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1958 by conductor Russell Patterson, the company presents an annual season of four operas at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Productions in the first season were of Puccini's ''La bohème'', Leonavallo's '' Pagliacci'', Mozart's ''The Abduction from the Seraglio ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...'', and Verdi's '' Otello'', all sung in English. Since then the company has presented performances of more than 100 different operas. References External linksOfficial Website of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City American opera companies Musical groups established in 1958 Culture of Kansas City, Missouri 1958 establishments in Missouri {{Opera-compa ...
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