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Polixène
''Polixène'' (''Polyxena'') is an opera by the French composer Antoine Dauvergne, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opera, Paris Opéra) on 11 January 1763. It takes the form of a ''tragédie en musique, tragédie lyrique'' in five acts. The libretto, by Nicolas-René Joliveau, is based on Euripides and tells the story of the Troy, Trojan princess Polyxena. The opera was dedicated to Emmanuel-Félicité de Durfort de Duras. Roles Synopsis The action takes place in the aftermath of the Trojan War. Pyrrhus (son of Achilles) wants to marry Polyxena, but the goddess Juno and Queen Hecuba of Troy, (Polyxena's mother) oppose him. Juno hates the Trojans and would not wish to see a marriage uniting the son of Achilles with the daughter of Hecuba. Hecuba hates Pyrrhus for slaughtering her family. Pyrrhus' friend Telephus is also a rival for Polyxena’s love and he has Hecuba's blessing. Hecuba urges him to kill Pyrrhus. However, Thetis, Pyrrhus' grandmother, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antoine Dauvergne
Antoine Dauvergne (3 October 1713 – 11 February 1797) was a French composer and violinist. Dauvergne was born in Moulins, Allier. He served as master of the ''Chambre du roi'', director of the Concert Spirituel from 1762 to 1771, and director of the ''Opéra'' three times between 1769 and 1790. Dauvergne contributed both as a performer and composer to the classical music at the court at Versailles. He is most famous as the composer of '' Les troqueurs'', a work which had a major influence on the development of French ''opéra comique''. He died, aged 83, in Lyon. In addition to operas and opera-ballets, Dauvergne composed a number of other works including violin sonatas (1739), trio sonatas, motets, and what he called ''Concerts de Simphonies'' (1751). The name Dauvergne is sometimes written D'Auvergne. It means "from Auvergne," the region in the center of France covered by the volcanic Massif Central mountain range. List of works Operas and ballets *''Les amours de Te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tragédie En Musique
Tragédie en musique (, ''musical tragedy''), also known as tragédie lyrique (, ''lyric tragedy''), is a genre of French opera introduced by Jean-Baptiste Lully and used by his followers until the second half of the eighteenth century. Operas in this genre are usually based on stories from Classical mythology or the Italian romantic epics of Tasso and Ariosto. The stories may not necessarily have a tragic ending – in fact, most do not – but the works' atmospheres are suffused throughout with an affect of nobility and stateliness. The standard ''tragédie en musique'' has five acts. Earlier works in the genre were preceded by an allegorical prologue and, during the lifetime of Louis XIV, these generally celebrated the king's noble qualities and his prowess in war. Each of the five acts usually follows a basic pattern, opening with an aria in which one of the main characters expresses their feelings, followed by dialogue in recitative interspersed with short arias (''petits airs'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyxena
In Greek mythology, Polyxena (; Greek: ) was the youngest daughter of King Priam of Troy and his queen, Hecuba. She does not appear in Homer, but in several other classical authors, though the details of her story vary considerably. After the fall of Troy, she dies when sacrificed by the Greeks on the tomb of Achilles, to whom she had been betrothed and in whose death she was complicit in many versions. Description Polyxene was described by the chronicler Malalas in his account of the ''Chronography'' as "tall, pure, very white, large-eyed, black-haired, with her hair worn long behind, a good nose and cheeks, blooming-lipped, small-footed, virgin, charming, very beautiful, 18 years old when they killed her". Meanwhile, in the account of Dares the Phrygian, she was illustrated as ". . .fair, tall, and beautiful. Her neck was slender, her eyes lovely her hair blond and long, her body well-proportioned, her fingers tapering, her legs straight, and her feet the best. Surpassing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henri Larrivée
Henri Larrivée (9 January 1737 – 7 August 1802) was a French opera singer. He was born in Lyon. His voice range was ''basse-taille'' (equivalent to baritone).Dratwicki, p. 85 According to Fétis, Larrivée was working as an apprentice to a wigmaker when the head of the Paris Opéra, Rebel, noticed his talent for singing and hired him as a chorus member. He made his first solo appearance as a high priest in a 1755 revival of Rameau's ''Castor et Pollux''. He was particularly associated with the works of Christoph Willibald Gluck, helping Gluck establish his "reform operas" in France. He found Gluck's rival, Niccolò Piccinni, less congenial but still worked with him on the premieres of operas including '' Roland'' (1778).Rushton p. 269 After already getting a pension in 1779, he retired from the ''Académie Royale de Musique'' in 1786 and devoted most of the time he had left to live to tour around with his two daughters, Camille (later known as Mme Delaval) and Henriette, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juno (mythology)
Juno ( ; Latin ) was an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counsellor of the state. She was equated to Hera, queen of the gods in Greek mythology. A daughter of Saturn, she was the sister and wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Vulcan, Bellona and Juventas. Like Hera, her sacred animal was the peacock.''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. Her Etruscan counterpart was Uni, and she was said to also watch over the women of Rome. As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, Juno was called ("Queen") and was a member of the Capitoline Triad (''Juno Capitolina''), centered on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, and also including Jupiter, and Minerva, goddess of wisdom. Juno's own warlike aspect among the Romans is apparent in her attire. She was often shown armed and wearing a goatskin cloak. The traditional depiction of this warlike aspect was assimilated from the Greek goddess Athena, who bore a goatskin, or a goatsk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French-language Operas
French opera is one of Europe's most important operatic traditions, containing works by composers of the stature of Rameau, Berlioz, Gounod, Bizet, Massenet, Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc and Messiaen. Many foreign-born composers have played a part in the French tradition as well, including Lully, Gluck, Salieri, Cherubini, Spontini, Meyerbeer, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi and Offenbach. French opera began at the court of Louis XIV of France with Jean-Baptiste Lully's ''Cadmus et Hermione'' (1673), although there had been various experiments with the form before that, most notably '' Pomone'' by Robert Cambert. Lully and his librettist Quinault created ''tragédie en musique'', a form in which dance music and choral writing were particularly prominent. Lully's most important successor was Rameau. After Rameau's death, the German Gluck was persuaded to produce six operas for the Paris, Parisian stage in the 1770s. They show the influence of Rameau, but simplified and with greater foc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operas
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor. Although musical theatre is closely related to opera, the two are considered to be distinct from one another. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition. Originally understood as an entirely sung piece, in contrast to a play with songs, opera has come to include numerous genres, including some that include spoken dialogue such as ''Singspiel'' and ''Opéra comique''. In traditional number opera, singers employ two styles of singing: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bibliothèque Nationale De France
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including books and manuscripts but also precious objects and artworks, are on display at the BnF Museum (formerly known as the ) on the Richelieu site. The National Library of France is a public establishment under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture. Its mission is to constitute collections, especially the copies of works published in France that must, by law, be deposited there, conserve them, and make them available to the public. It produces a reference catalogue, cooperates with other national and international establishments, and participates in research programs. History The National Library of France traces its origin to the royal library founded at t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably Homer's ''Iliad''. The core of the ''Iliad'' (Books II – XXIII) describes a period of four days and two nights in the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy; the ''Odyssey'' describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid. The ancient Greeks believed that Troy was located near the Dardanelles and that the Trojan War was a historical event of the 13th or 12th century BC, but by the mid-19th century AD, both the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thessaly
Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia (, ), and appears thus in Homer's ''Odyssey''. Thessaly became part of the modern Greek state in 1881, after four and a half centuries of Ottoman rule. Since 1987 it has formed one of the country's 13 regions and is further (since the Kallikratis reform of 2011) sub-divided into five regional units and 25 municipalities. The capital of the region is Larissa. Thessaly lies in northern Greece and borders the regions of Macedonia on the north, Epirus on the west, Central Greece on the south, and the Aegean Sea on the east. The Thessaly region also includes the Sporades islands. Name and etymology Thessaly is named after the ''Thessaloi'', an ancient Greek tribe. The meaning of the name of this tribe is unknow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thetis
Thetis (; grc-gre, Θέτις ), is a figure from Greek mythology with varying mythological roles. She mainly appears as a sea nymph, a goddess of water, or one of the 50 Nereids, daughters of the ancient sea god Nereus. When described as a Nereid in Classical myths, Thetis was the daughter of Nereus and Doris, and a granddaughter of Tethys with whom she sometimes shares characteristics. Often she seems to lead the Nereids as they attend to her tasks. Sometimes she also is identified with Metis. Some sources argue that she was one of the earliest of deities worshipped in Archaic Greece, the oral traditions and records of which are lost. Only one written record, a fragment, exists attesting to her worship and an early Alcman hymn exists that identifies Thetis as the creator of the universe. Worship of Thetis as the goddess is documented to have persisted in some regions by historical writers such as Pausanias. In the Trojan War cycle of myth, the wedding of Thetis and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
