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Přemysl Kočí
Přemysl Kočí (1 June 1917 – 15 January 2003) was a Czech operatic baritone, actor, music educator, stage director, theatre manager and official of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Biography Born in Rychvald, Kočí attended high school in Bohumín. After graduating, he initially wanted to become a teacher and pursued studies at the teacher training college in Ostrava. He became interested in music and in 1937 began studying voice privately, first with J. Soupal and then Rudolf Vašek. In 1939 he made his professional opera debut as Escamillo in Georges Bizet's ''Carmen'' at the Antonín Dvořák Theatre in Ostrava. In 1940 Kočí joined the roster of principal singers at the National Theatre (Prague), National Theatre in Prague. He sang there in major roles for over the next two years, collaborating often with conductor Vaclav Talich. He returned to the opera house in Ostrava in 1943 where he remained committed through 1949. At the behest of the then Minister of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Brandenburgers In Bohemia
''The Brandenburgers in Bohemia'' () is a three-act opera, the first by Bedřich Smetana. The Czech libretto was written by Karel Sabina, and is based on events from Czech history. The work was composed in the years 1862–1863. Smetana and Sabina wrote the opera at a time of great Czech patriotism, with the pending opening of a new theatre for production of Czech operas in Prague. The opera received its first performance at the Provisional Theatre (or the "Interim Theatre"), Prague, on 5 January 1866, and the first performance was a success. The first UK performances were in April 1978 by Hammersmith Municipal Opera. The first professional production in the UK, conducted by Vilém Tauský, was not until 1994. Roles Synopsis :Place: Prague :Time: the 13th century, during the occupation of Bohemia by forces of the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Upon the death of King Ottokar II in the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld, his widow Kunigunda had called in the Brandenburgian troops ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holland Festival
The Holland Festival () is the oldest and largest performing arts festival in the Netherlands. It takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theatre, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and architecture were added to the festival roster. Performances take place in Amsterdam venues such as the city theatre, the opera, the Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw concert halls and the Westergas factory site. Each edition is loosely themed, and the programme features both contemporary work and classical pieces presented with a modern edge. History The festival was founded in 1947 and features some of the world's top artists and performers, as well as lesser-known performers. Notable world premieres included Karlheinz Stockhausen's '' Helicopter String Quartet''. The festival introduced Maria Callas in the Netherlands, and was also the first to successfully set up a large symphonic tribute to Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden ( State Opera under the Lime Trees), also known as the Berlin State Opera (), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from 1741 to 1743 according to plans by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff in the Palladian style. Damaged during the Allied bombing in World War II, the former Royal Prussian Opera House was rebuilt from 1951 to 1955 as part of the Forum Fridericianum square. Nicknamed ''Lindenoper'' in Berlin, it is "the world´s oldest state opera" and "the first theater anywhere to be, by itself, a prominent, freestanding monumental building in a city." History Names Originally called the ('Royal Opera'), the company was renamed the ('Prussian State Opera') in 1919. After World War II it began operating as the national opera company for Communist East Germany, taking the name ('German State Opera') in 1955. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supraphon
Supraphon Music Publishing is a Czech record label, oriented mainly towards publishing classical music and popular music, with an emphasis on Czech and Slovak composers. History The Supraphon name was first registered as a trademark in 1932. The name was used for the label of domestic albums produced for export by Ultraphon company. After World War II, Ultraphon was nationalized and its name changed to ''Gramofonové závody''. In 1961, the name was changed to ''Gramofonové závody – Supraphon'' and later simplified to ''Supraphon'' in 1969. In Czechoslovakia, Supraphon was one of the three major state-owned labels, the other two being Panton and Opus. By January 2013, Supraphon was the official Czech distributor for the Warner Music Group. The Czech branch of Warner Music revived after the company acquired EMI Czech Republic. Panton is currently a division of Supraphon. Opus, operating in Slovakia, became independent after the break-up of Czechoslovakia and was acquire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boris Godunov (opera)
''Boris Godunov'' ( ) 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 List of Russian rulers, Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar (1598 to 1605) during the Time of Troubles, and his nemesis (mythology), nemesis, the False Dmitriy I, False Dmitriy (reigned 1605 to 1606). The Russian-language libretto was written by the composer, and is based on the 1825 drama ''Boris Godunov (play), Boris Godunov'' by Alexander Pushkin, 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (; ; ; – ) was a Russian composer, one of the group known as "The Five (composers), The Five." He was an innovator of Music of Russia, Russian music in the Romantic music, Romantic period and strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music. Many of List of compositions by Modest Mussorgsky, Mussorgsky's works were inspired by Russian history, Russian folklore, and other national themes. Such works include the opera ''Boris Godunov (opera), Boris Godunov'', the orchestral tone poem ''Night on Bald Mountain'' and the piano suite ''Pictures at an Exhibition''. For many years, Mussorgsky's works were mainly known in versions revised or completed by other composers. Many of his most important compositions have posthumously come into their own in their original forms, and some of the original scores are now also available. Name The spelling and pronunciation of the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eugene Onegin (opera)
''Eugene Onegin'' (, ), Op. 24, is an opera (designated as "lyrical scenes") in 3 acts (7 scenes), composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto, organised by the composer himself, very closely follows certain passages in Alexander Pushkin's 1825–1832 novel in verse, retaining much of his poetry. Tchaikovsky's friend Konstantin Shilovsky contributed M. Triquet's verses in Act 2, Scene 1, while Tchaikovsky himself arranged the text for Lensky's arioso in Act 1, Scene 1, and almost all of Prince Gremin's aria in Act 3, Scene 1. ''Eugene Onegin'' is a well-known example of lyric opera, to which Tchaikovsky added music of a dramatic nature. The story concerns a selfish hero who lives to regret his blasé rejection of a young woman's love and his careless incitement of a fatal duel with his best friend. The opera was first performed in Moscow in 1879. There are several recordings of it, and it is regularly performed. The work's title refers to the protagonist. Composition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the classical repertoire, including the ballets '' Swan Lake'' and ''The Nutcracker'', the '' 1812 Overture'', his First Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, the ''Romeo and Juliet'' Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies, and the opera ''Eugene Onegin''. Although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant as there was little opportunity for a musical career in Russia at the time and no public music education system. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching Tchaikovsky received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tosca
''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language dramatic play, ''La Tosca'', is a melodramatic piece set in Rome in June 1800, with the Kingdom of Naples's control of Rome threatened by Napoleon's Campaigns of 1800 in the French Revolutionary Wars#Italy, invasion of Italy. It contains depictions of torture, murder, and suicide, as well as some of Puccini's best-known lyrical arias. Puccini saw Sardou's play when it was touring Italy in 1889 and, after some vacillation, obtained the rights to turn the work into an opera in 1895. Turning the wordy French play into a succinct Italian opera took four years, during which the composer repeatedly argued with his librettists and publisher. ''Tosca'' premiered at a time of unrest in Rome, and its first performance was delayed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for List of compositions by Giacomo Puccini#Operas, his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, stemming from the late Baroque music, Baroque era. Though his early work was firmly rooted in traditional late-nineteenth-century Romantic Italian opera, it later developed in the realistic ''verismo'' style, of which he became one of the leading exponents. His most renowned works are ''La bohème'' (1896), ''Tosca'' (1900), ''Madama Butterfly'' (1904), and the unfinished ''Turandot'' (posthumously completed by Franco Alfano), all of which are among the most List of important operas, frequently performed and recorded in the entirety of the operatic repertoire. Family and education Born in Lucca in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, in 1858; he was the sixth of nine children of Michele Puccini (1813 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Svätopluk (opera)
''Svätopluk'' is a Slovak opera by Eugen Suchoň with the subtitle ''Musical drama in three acts''. The libretto is by Eugen Suchoň, Ivan Stodola and Jela Krčméry-Vrteľová and is loosely based on Stodola's play Kráľ Svätopluk, which was in turn based on events in the life of King Svätopluk I. Suchoň composed ''Svätopluk'' between 1952 and 1959. It was premiered on 10 March 1960 in the Slovak National Theatre, directed by Miloš Wasserbauer and conducted by Tibor Frešo. Roles Synopsis The action takes place in the year 894 in Great Moravia. King Svätopluk I, believing that he is going to die, hands over his reign to his two sons. The fictional story is partially based on historical events and real persons. Act 1 ''The palace of Svätopluk at Veligrad, Greater Moravia.'' The minstrel Záboj loves the Pannonian princess Ľutomíra who schemes to make her father king of Greater Moravia. Záboj reveals that Svätopluk is secretly concentrating his army along ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
