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Richard Angas
Richard George Angas (18 April 1942 – 20 August 2013) was a British bass singer, particularly associated with the English National Opera, but who also sang with other UK opera companies and in Europe.Obituary: Richard Angas. ''Opera'', October 2013 (Vol 64 No 10), . Life and career The Angas family were keen amateur musicians, and Richard, who was born in Esher in Greater London, became a chorister at the Royal School of Church Music as well as joining a local choral group.Richard Angas obituary by George Hall; ''The Guardian'', 25 August 2013 accessed 16 February 2014 From 1960 until 1964 he studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and in 196 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bass (voice Type)
A bass is a type of classical male singing voice and has the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', a bass is typically classified as having a vocal range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C (i.e., E2–E4).; ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'' gives E2–E4/F4 Its tessitura, or comfortable range, is normally defined by the outermost lines of the bass clef. Categories of bass voices vary according to national style and classification system. Italians favour subdividing basses into the ''basso cantante'' (singing bass), ''basso buffo'' ("funny" bass), or the dramatic ''basso profondo'' (low bass). The American system identifies the bass-baritone, comic bass, lyric bass, and dramatic bass. The German ''Fach'' system offers further distinctions: Spielbass (Bassbuffo), Schwerer Spielbass (Schwerer Bassbuffo), Charakterbass (Bassbariton), and Seriöser Bass. These classification systems can ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lear (opera)
''Lear'' is an opera in two parts with music by the German composer Aribert Reimann, and a libretto by Claus H. Henneberg, based on Shakespeare's tragedy ''King Lear''. Background and performance history Reimann wrote the title role specifically for the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who had suggested the subject to the composer as early as 1968. Reimann then received a commission from the Bavarian State Opera in 1975. The world premiere, in a production by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle with Fischer-Dieskau in the title role, occurred at the National Theatre Munich on 9 July 1978, with Gerd Albrecht conducting. The production was revived in Munich in 1980. The US premiere, in English translation, was presented by the San Francisco Opera in June 1981, with Thomas Stewart as Lear, under Gerd Albrecht. The Paris premiere took place in November 1982, in a French translation by Antoinette Becker. The UK premiere was presented by English National Opera in 1989; the Swedish premiere took pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
André Tchaikowsky
André Tchaikowsky (also Andrzej Czajkowski; born Robert Andrzej Krauthammer; November 1, 1935June 26, 1982) was a Polish composer and pianist. Life and career Robert Andrzej Krauthammer was born in Warsaw in 1935 into a Jewish family. He had shown musical talent from an early age, and his mother, an amateur pianist, taught him the piano from the age of four. When the Second World War broke out, they were moved into the Warsaw Ghetto. Krauthammer remained there until 1942, when he was smuggled out and provided with forged identity papers that renamed him Andrzej Czajkowski. He then went into hiding with his grandmother, Celina. The pair remained hidden until 1944, when they were caught up in the Warsaw Uprising, and they were then sent to Pruszków transit camp as ordinary Polish citizens, from which they were released in 1945. Tchaikowsky's father, Karl Krauthammer, also survived the war, and remarried, producing a daughter, Katherine, later Krauthammer-Vogt. Tchaikowsky's moth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Harvey (composer)
Jonathan Dean Harvey (3 May 1939 – 4 December 2012)"Jonathan Harvey" was a British composer. He held teaching positions at universities and music conservatories in Europe and the USA. Life Harvey was born in , and studied at , eventually obtaining a PhD ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wagner Dream
''Wagner Dream'' is an opera by Jonathan Harvey, premiered in 2007, to a libretto by Jean-Claude Carrière, which intertwines events on the last day of the life of Richard Wagner with elements from a fragmentary opera sketch by Wagner himself, '' Die Sieger'' (''The Victors''). Background ''Die Sieger'' was drafted between 1856 and 1858, at a period when Wagner had become greatly interested in Buddhism. It is based on legends which Wagner discovered in Eugène Burnouf's 1844 ''Introduction to the History of Buddhism''. Wagner planned a production of this work for 1870 in his programme for King Ludwig II of Bavaria but never progressed it – (however elements of the story persist in his opera ''Parsifal''). Harvey described some of the processes he used in creating ''Wagner Dream''. These include the use of a French horn and a sampled trombone playing deep notes at the opera's commencement, representing boat sirens on the Grand Canal. The composer also visited Chamonix to samp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
York Höller
York Höller (; born 11 January 1944) is a German composer and professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik Köln. Biography Höller was born in Leverkusen. Between 1963 and 1970 he studied at the Cologne Musikhochschule: composition with Joachim Blume and Bernd Alois Zimmermann, piano with and Alfons Kontarsky, and orchestral conducting with Wolfgang von der Nahmer. Parallel to this, he studied musicology and philosophy at the University of Cologne. He did further musical studies at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt with Pierre Boulez, and in 1967 sat his examination in music education. Höller was active for a short time as a répétiteur at the Staatstheater Bonn. At the Electronic Music Studio of WDR in 1971–72, he "continued his studies with Karlheinz Stockhausen" or, alternatively, "was given the chance, at Stockhausen's invitation, to realize works of his own". In any case, the technique he developed at this time—a form of extended ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harrison Birtwistle
Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include ''The Triumph of Time'' (1972) and the operas ''The Mask of Orpheus'' (1986), ''Gawain'' (1991), and '' The Minotaur'' (2008). The last of these was ranked by music critics at ''The Guardian'' in 2019 as the third-best piece of the 21st-century. Even his compositions that were not written for the stage often showed a theatrical approach. A performance of his saxophone concerto ''Panic'' during the BBC's Last Night of the Proms caused "national notoriety". He received many international awards and honorary degrees. Life and career Early life Harrison Birtwistle was born in Accrington, a mill town in Lancashire around 20 miles north of Manchester. His parents, Fred and Madge Birtwistle, ran a bakery, and his interest in music was encouraged by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Mask Of Orpheus
''The Mask of Orpheus'' is an opera with music by Harrison Birtwistle, electronic music realised by Barry Anderson (composer), Barry Anderson and a libretto by Peter Zinovieff. It was premiered in London at the English National Opera on 21 May 1986 to great critical acclaim. The work has only been fully staged twice, both at the English National Opera. A recorded version conducted by Andrew Davis (conductor), Andrew Davis and Martyn Brabbins has also received good reviews. The work is around three hours long. Synopsis The structure of the opera's plot is complex. Rather than telling a story by starting at A and going through B to C, ''The Mask of Orpheus'' explores the Orpheus myth in a number of directions at once, examining the various contradictions which are in the various versions of the myth. This is done by a very elaborate stage design, whereby the stage is divided into a number of different areas, each containing its own part of the action. In addition, each of the majo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as traditional schools of German composition. In particular, his stage works reflect "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life". Henze was also known for his political convictions. He left Germany for Italy in 1953 because of a perceived intolerance towards his leftist politics and homosexuality. Late in life he lived in the village of Marino in the central Italian region of Lazio, and in his final years still travelled extensively, in particular to Britain and Germany, as part of his work. An avowed Marxist and member of the Italian Communist Party, Henze produced compositions honoring Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara. At the 1968 Hamburg premiere of his requiem for Che Guevara, titled ''Das Floß der Medusa'' (' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
We Come To The River
''We Come to the River – '' is an opera by Hans Werner Henze to an English-language libretto by Edward Bond. Henze and Bond described this work as "Actions for music", rather than an opera. It was Henze's 7th opera, originally written for The Royal Opera in London, and takes as its focus the horrors of war. The opera was first performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 12 July 1976, with the composer as producer, Jürgen Henze as director, and David Atherton conducting. It was subsequently staged at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and received its first American performance at Santa Fe Opera in 1984, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. The opera is notable for its complex staging, including a large cast of 111 roles covered by over 50 singers, with doubling of roles and three separate instrumental ensembles, including a percussionist who actually performs among the singers on stage. The scholar Robert Hatten has noted the mix of musical styles that Henze has employed, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iain Hamilton (composer)
Iain Ellis Hamilton (6 June 1922 – 21 July 2000) was a Scottish composer. Hamilton was born in Glasgow, but was educated in London, where he became an apprentice engineer. He remained in that profession for the next seven years. He undertook the study of music in his spare time. After winning a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music, which he entered in 1947,. Houghton Mifflin Company Reference Books, page 674; . (One or the other source had Royal Academy of Music or Royal College of Music wrong?) he decided to devote himself to a musical career. He earned the Bachelor of Music degree from the University of London and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Glasgow. Hamilton moved to the United States in 1962, but died in London, aged 78. Works Chamber and solo instrument *Antigone for Wind Octet (1991) *Aria for Horn and Piano *Brass Quintet (by 1991) *Capriccio for Trumpet and Piano *Five Scenes for Trumpet and Piano (1966) *Hyperio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center)
The Metropolitan Opera House (also known as The Met) is an opera house located on Broadway at Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Part of Lincoln Center, the theater was designed by Wallace K. Harrison. It opened in 1966, replacing the original 1883 Metropolitan Opera House at Broadway and 39th Street. With a seating capacity of approximately 3,850, the house is the largest repertory opera house in the world. Home to the Metropolitan Opera Company, the facility also hosts the American Ballet Theatre in the summer months. History Planning and construction Planning for a new home for the Metropolitan Opera began as early as the mid-1920s, when the backstage facilities of the former house were becoming vastly inadequate for growing repertory and advancing stagecraft. As part of the development of the present-day Rockefeller Center site, there was to be a development with a new 4,000-seat opera house at its center. Financial problems and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
