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Re Lear
' (; Italian for ''King Lear'') is an Italian operatic libretto in four acts written by Antonio Somma for the Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi. It was based on ''King Lear'', "the Shakespeare play with which Verdi struggled for so many years, but without success". The ''Re Lear'' project is widely considered illustrative of Verdi's complex and enduring fascination with Shakespeare. Verdi commissioned the libretto first from Salvadore Cammarano, who died in June 1852 before he could complete it. Then, three years later, while working with Antonio Somma on what was eventually to become ''Un ballo in maschera'', he proposed that Somma read ''King Lear'' and he re-read the play himself, then sought Somma's reactions. Their extensive correspondence has been preserved; it thoroughly documents Verdi's oversight and detailed supervision, the result being two completed and still extant versions of the libretto prepared by Somma in 1853 and 1855. However, while the idea of ''Re Lea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regan (King Lear)
Regan is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's tragic play ''King Lear'', named after a king of the Britons recorded by the medieval scribe Geoffrey of Monmouth. Shakespeare based the character on Regan, a personage described by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudo-historical chronicle ''Historia regum Britanniae'' ("History of the Kings of Britain", ) as one of the British king Lear's three daughters, alongside Goneril and Cordelia (the source for Cordelia), and the mother of Cunedagius. Role in play She is the middle child of King Lear's daughters and is married to the Duke of Cornwall. Similarly to her older sister Goneril, Regan is attracted to Edmund. Both sisters are eager for power and convince their father with false flattery to hand over his kingdom. "Sir, I am made Of the self same metal that my sister is, And prize me at her worth. In my true heart, I find she names my very deed of love; Only she comes too short, that I profess Myself an enemy to all other ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opera Libretti
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Stefan
Paul Stefan, born Paul Stefan Grünfeld (25 November 1879, in Brno – 12 November 1943, in New York City) was an Austrian music historian and critic. Born into an assimilated Jewish family, Paul Stefan came to live in Vienna in 1898. He attended courses in law, philosophy and art history at the University of Vienna, before studying music theory with Hermann Graedener and possibly composition under Arnold Schoenberg. From 1922 to 1937 he edited the Austrian music journal ''Musikblätter des Anbruch'' (entitled simply ''Anbruch'' from 1929). Works * ''Gustav Mahler; eine studie über persönlichkeit und werk'', Münich: R. Piper & Co., 1910. Translated to English as ''Gustav Mahler: a study of his personality and work'', 1913. * ''Arturo Toscanini'', 1927 * ''AntonÃn Dvořák, Anton Dvořà ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franz Werfel
Franz Viktor Werfel (; 10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and Poetry, poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of ''The Forty Days of Musa Dagh'' (1933, English tr. 1934, 2012), a novel based on events that took place during the Armenian genocide of 1915, and ''The Song of Bernadette (novel), The Song of Bernadette'' (1941), a novel about the life and visions of the French Catholic saint Bernadette Soubirous, which was made into a Hollywood film of the same The Song of Bernadette (film), name. Life and career Born in Prague (then part of the Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire), Werfel was the first of three children of a wealthy manufacturer of gloves and leather goods, Rudolf Werfel. His mother, Albine Kussi, was the daughter of a mill owner. His two sisters were Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, Hanna (born 1896) and Marianne Amalie (born 1899). His family ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni (7 December 1863 – 2 August 1945) was an Italian composer primarily known for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece ''Cavalleria rusticana'' caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the ''Verismo'' movement in Italian dramatic music. While it was often held that Mascagni, like Ruggero Leoncavallo, was a "one-opera man" who could never repeat his first success, ''L'amico Fritz'' and ''Iris'' have remained in the repertoire in Europe (especially Italy) since their premieres. Mascagni wrote fifteen operas, an operetta, several orchestral and vocal works, and also songs and piano music. He enjoyed immense success during his lifetime, both as a composer and conductor of his own and other people's music and created a variety of styles in his operas. Biography Early life and education Mascagni was born on 7 December 1863 in Livorno, Tuscany, the second son of Domenico and Emilia Mascagni. His father owned and operated a baker ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Endowment For The Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is housed at 400 7th St SW, Washington, D.C. From 1979 to 2014, NEH was at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. in the Nancy Hanks Center at the Old Post Office. History and purpose The NEH provides grants for high-quality humanities projects to cultural institutions such as museums, archives, libraries, colleges, universities, public television, and radio stations, and to individual scholars. According to its mission statement: "Because democracy demands wisdom, NEH serves and strengthens our republic by promoting excellence in the humanities and conveying the lessons of history to all Americans." The NEH was created in 1965 as a sub-agency of the National Foundation on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Villa Verdi
Villa Verdi is the estate house that composer Giuseppe Verdi ordered built in 1848 on farmland he had owned for four years and where he lived from that year until the end of his life. It is in the village of Sant'Agata 3.5 km north of the town of Busseto, which itself lies 4.5 km west-north-west of the tiny village of Le Roncole, where Verdi was born. The two villages and the town are today part of the comune of Villanova sull'Arda in the Province of Piacenza. History Verdi bought the farmland in 1844 before commissioning the house, which his parents occupied starting in 1848 and which was completed, after various stops and starts, in 1880. After the death of Verdi's mother his father moved into town, i.e. Busseto. Verdi and Giuseppina Strepponi, the opera singer with whom he lived prior to their 1859 marriage, moved into the Villa in 1851. There had been a farmhouse on the property when Verdi bought it, and the composer's building work began as extended wings onto it. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gustavo III (Verdi)
''Gustavo III'' is an opera by Giuseppe Verdi to a libretto begun in early 1857 by the Italian playwright Antonio Somma. Never performed as written, the libretto was later revised (or proposed to be revised) several times under two additional names – ''Una vendetta in dominò'' and ''Adelia degli Adimari'' – during which the setting was changed to vastly different locations. Eventually, it was agreed that it could be called ''Un ballo in maschera'', the one by which it is known today, but Verdi was forced to accept that the location of the story would have to be Colonial Boston. This setting became the "standard" one until the mid-20th Century. Most productions today locate the action in Sweden. However, a "hypothetical reconstruction" Parker, p. 179 of ''Gustavo III'' under its original name was performed by the Gothenburg Opera in Sweden during the 2002/03 season. Composition history In early 1856 Vincenzo Torelli, secretary to the Teatro San Carlo's management approached V ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antonio Somma-librettist
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male baby names in the United States since the late 19th century and has been among the top 200 since the mid 20th century. In the English language it is translated as Anthony, and has some female derivatives: Antonia, Antónia, Antonieta, Antonietta, and Antonella'. It also has some male derivatives, such as Anthonio, Antón, Antò, Antonis, Antoñito, Antonino, Antonello, Tonio, Tono, Toño, ToñÃn, Tonino, Nantonio, Ninni, Totò, Tó, Tonini, Tony, Toni, Toninho, Toñito, and Tõnis. The Portuguese equivalent is António (Portuguese orthography) or Antônio (Brazilian Portuguese). In old Portuguese the form Antão was also used, not just to differentiate between older and younger but also between more and less important. In Galician t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Lombardi
''I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata'' (''The Lombards on the First Crusade'') is an operatic ''dramma lirico'' in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on an epic poem by Tommaso Grossi, which was "very much a child of its age; a grand historical novel with a patriotic slant". Its first performance was given at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 11 February 1843. Verdi dedicated the score to Maria Luigia, the Habsburg Duchess of Parma, who died a few weeks after the premiere. In 1847, the opera was significantly revised to become Verdi's first grand opera for performances in France at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opera under the title of ''Jérusalem''. Composition history Grossi's original epic poem had plot complications that required the librettist to make significant changes; the historical characters portrayed in the original do not appear and the story becomes that of a fictional family and its involvement in the First Crusade. J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goneril
Goneril is a character in William Shakespeare's tragic play ''King Lear'' (1605). She is the eldest of King Lear's three daughters. Along with her sister Regan, Goneril is considered a villain, obsessed with power and overthrowing her elderly father as ruler of the kingdom of Britain. Shakespeare based the character on Gonorilla, a personage described by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudo-historical chronicle ''Historia regum Britanniae'' ("History of the Kings of Britain", ) as the eldest of the British king Lear's three daughters, alongside Regan and Cordeilla (the source for Cordelia) and the mother of Marganus. Role in play Goneril is the oldest daughter of King Lear. She is married to the Duke of Albany. She is also one of the play's principal villains. In the first scene, her father asks each of his daughters to profess their love for him to receive their portion of the kingdom. Goneril's speech, while flattering, is not genuine as she only wishes to accrue power. Afte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_©_Wilhelm_Willinger_(1879–1943)_~1925.jpg "Click for more on -> Paul Stefan")
