|
Roberta Alexander
Roberta Alexander (born March 3, 1949) is an American operatic soprano. She began her career as a lyric soprano in 1975 and spent the next three decades performing principal roles with opera houses internationally. Particularly celebrated for her performances of Mozart heroines, she was a leading soprano at the Metropolitan Opera from 1983 to 1991. In addition to principal Mozart roles like Countess Almaviva, Elettra, Fiordiligi, and Donna Elvira, she had particular success with the parts of Mimì in Puccini's ''La bohème'' and the title role in Janáček's ''Jenůfa''. More recently she has performed secondary character roles on stage, including performances at the Grand Théâtre de Provence in 2013, La Scala in 2014, and La Monnaie in 2015. She performed the Fifth Maid in Strauss's '' Elektra'' at the Met in 2016 and Curra in Verdi's '' La forza del destino'' at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 2019. Life and career Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, Alexander's parent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roberta Alexander (1976)
Roberta Alexander (born March 3, 1949) is an American operatic soprano. She began her career as a lyric soprano in 1975 and spent the next three decades performing principal roles with opera houses internationally. Particularly celebrated for her performances of Mozart heroines, she was a leading soprano at the Metropolitan Opera from 1983 to 1991. In addition to principal Mozart roles like Countess Almaviva, Elettra, Fiordiligi, and Donna Elvira, she had particular success with the parts of Mimì in Puccini's ''La bohème'' and the title role in Janáček's ''Jenůfa''. More recently she has performed secondary character roles on stage, including performances at the Grand Théâtre de Provence in 2013, La Scala in 2014, and La Monnaie in 2015. She performed the Fifth Maid in Strauss's ''Elektra (opera), Elektra'' at the Met in 2016 and Curra in Verdi's ''La forza del destino'' at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 2019. Life and career Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, Alexand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilberforce University
Wilberforce University is a private historically black university in Wilberforce, Ohio. Affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), it was the first college to be owned and operated by African Americans. It participates in the United Negro College Fund. Central State University, also in Wilberforce, Ohio, began as a department of Wilberforce University where Ohio state legislators could sponsor scholarship students. The college was founded in 1856 by a unique collaboration between the Cincinnati, Ohio, Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) to provide classical education and teacher training for black youth. It was named after William Wilberforce. The first board members were leaders both black and white. The outbreak of the American Civil War (1861–65) resulted in a decline in students from the South, who were the majority, and the college closed in 1862 because of financial losses. The AME Church pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Così Fan Tutte
(''All Women Do It, or The School for Lovers''), K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte who also wrote ''Le nozze di Figaro'' and ''Don Giovanni''. Although it is commonly held that was written and composed at the suggestion of the Emperor Joseph II, recent research does not support this idea. There is evidence that Mozart's contemporary Antonio Salieri tried to set the libretto but left it unfinished. In 1994, John Rice uncovered two terzetti by Salieri in the Austrian National Library. The short title, ''Così fan tutte'', literally means "So do they all", using the feminine plural (''tutte'') to indicate women. It is usually translated into English as "Women are like that". The words are sung by the three men in act 2, scene 3, just before the finale; this melodic phrase is also quoted in the overture to the opera. Da P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zürich Opera
Zürich Opera (Oper Zürich) is a Swiss opera company based in Zürich. The company gives performances in the Zürich Opera House. History The first performance at the current theatre occurred on 30 September 1891, with a production of Wagner's ''Lohengrin''. Wilhelm Furtwängler began his career there, and in 1913 Richard Wagner’s ''Parsifal'' was given its first performance outside Bayreuth. Ferruccio Busoni, Paul Hindemith, Richard Strauss, Othmar Schoeck, Arthur Honegger, Frank Martin and other famous composers all left their mark on the development of Zürich's musical theatre. Zürich Opera House has been the setting for numerous world premières, such as Alban Berg’s ''Lulu,'' Paul Hindemith’s ''Mathis der Maler'', Arnold Schönberg’s ''Moses und Aron'', and Rudolf Kelterborn's ''Der Kirschgarten''. Works by Heinrich Sutermeister and Giselher Klebe were also performed there for the first time. From 1975 to 1986, Claus Helmut Drese was artistic director of the compan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berlin State Opera
The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), 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 first theater anywhere to be, by itself, a prominent, freestanding monumental building in a city." History Names Originally called the ''Königliche Oper'' (Royal Opera) from 1743, it was renamed as the ''Preußische Staatsoper'' (Prussian State Opera) in 1919, then as the ''Deutsche Staatsoper '' in 1955. Until 1990, it housed the state opera of East Germany. Since 1990, it is officially called the ''Staatsoper Unter den Linden'' (State Ope ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rusalka (opera)
''Rusalka'' (), Op. 114, is an opera ('lyric fairy tale') by Antonín Dvořák. The Czech libretto was written by the poet Jaroslav Kvapil (1868–1950) based on the fairy tales of Karel Jaromír Erben and Božena Němcová. A rusalka is a water sprite from Slavic mythology, usually inhabiting a lake or river. ''Rusalka'' was the ninth opera Dvořák composed. It is one of the most successful Czech operas, and represents a cornerstone of the repertoire of Czech opera houses. Dvořák had played viola for pit orchestras in Prague (the Estates Theatre from 1857 until 1859 while a student, then from 1862 until 1871 at the Provisional Theatre). He thus had direct experience of a wide range of operas by Mozart, Weber, Rossini, Lortzing, Wagner, Verdi and Smetana. For many years unfamiliarity with Dvořák's operas outside the Czech lands helped reinforce a perception that composition of operas was a marginal activity, and that despite the beauty of its melodies and orchestra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Love For Three Oranges
''The Love for Three Oranges'', Op. 33, also known by its French language title ' (russian: Любовь к трём апельсинам, links=no, ''Lyubov' k tryom apel'sinam''), is a satirical opera by Sergei Prokofiev. Its French libretto was based on the Italian play '' L'amore delle tre melarance'' by Carlo Gozzi. The opera premiered at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, on 30 December 1921. Composition history The opera was the result of a commission during Prokofiev's successful first visit to the United States in 1918. After well-received concerts of his works in Chicago (including his First Symphony), Prokofiev was approached by the director of the Chicago Opera Association, Cleofonte Campanini, to write an opera. Conveniently, Prokofiev had drafted a libretto during his trip to the US; he had based it on Carlo Gozzi's play in the '' Commedia dell'arte'' tradition, (which was itself based on Giambattista Basile's fairy tale "The Love for Three Oranges"). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Der Kaiser Von Atlantis
' (''The Emperor of Atlantis or The Disobedience of Death'') is a one-act opera by Viktor Ullmann with a libretto by Peter Kien. They collaborated on the work while interned in the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt (Terezín) around 1943. The Nazis did not allow it to be performed there. The world premiere, presented by the De Nederlandse Opera, Netherlands Opera at the Bellevue Centre, Amsterdam, took place on 16 December 1975. It was conducted by Kerry Woodward using the first performing edition, which he had been actively involved in preparing. The title is sometimes given as ', that is, ''The Emperor of Atlantis, or Death Abdicates'', and described as a "legend in four scenes" rather than an opera. Composition history About 1943, Ullmann and Kien were inmates at the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viktor Ullmann
Viktor Ullmann (1 January 1898, in Český Těšín, Teschen – 18 October 1944, in KZ Auschwitz-Birkenau) was a Silesia-born Austrians, Austrian composer, conductor and pianist. Biography Viktor Ullmann was born on 1 January 1898 in Český Těšín, Těšín (Teschen), which belonged then to Silesia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is now divided between Cieszyn in Poland and Český Těšín in the Czech Republic. Both his parents were from families of Jewish descent, but had converted to Roman Catholicism before Viktor's birth. As an assimilated Jew, his father, Maximilian, was able to pursue a career as a professional officer in the army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In World War I he was promoted to colonel and ennobled. One writer has described Ullmann's milieu in these terms: "Like such other assimilated German-speaking Czech Jews as Franz Kafka, Kafka and Gustav Mahler, Mahler, Ullmann lived a life of multiple estrangements, cut off from Czech nationalism, German ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Kennedy (music Critic)
George Michael Sinclair Kennedy CBE (19 February 1926 – 31 December 2014) was an English music critic and author who specialized in classical music. For nearly two decades he was the chief classical music critic for both ''The Daily Telegraph'' (1986–2005) and ''The Sunday Telegraph'' (1989–2005). A prolific writer, he was the biographer of many composers and musicians, including Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Barbirolli, Mahler, Strauss, Britten, Boult and Walton. Other notable publications include writings on various musical institutions, the editing of music dictionaries as well as numerous articles for ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' and the subsequent ''Grove Music Online''. Life and career On 19 February 1926 Kennedy was born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, and attended Berkhamsted School. On 17 November 1941, he joined the Manchester office of ''Daily Telegraph'' at age 15, as a tea boy. In his youth, Kennedy auditioned for a role in the mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Cambiale Di Matrimonio
''La cambiale di matrimonio'' (; English language, English: ''The Bill of Marriage'' or ''The Marriage Contract'') is a one-act operatic farsa, farsa comica by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Gaetano Rossi. The libretto was based on the play by Camillo Federici (1791) and a previous libretto by Giuseppe Checcherini for Carlo Coccia's 1807 opera, ''Il matrimonio per lettera di cambio''. The opera debuted on 3 November 1810 at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice.Osborne, Richard in Grove It had a run of thirteen performances at Teatro San Moisè. Composed in a few days when he was 18 years old, ''La cambiale di matrimonio'' was Rossini's first professional opera. The overture, written when he was a student at the Philharmonic Academy of Bologna, Liceo Musicale in Bologna, is an important part of the modern concert repertoire. As was to become typical of his later career, the duet "Dunque io son" was later reused, to greater effect, in act 1 of ''The Barber of Seville''. Roles Syn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Netherlands Opera
The Dutch National Opera (DNO; formerly De Nederlandse Opera, now De Nationale Opera in Dutch) is a Dutch opera company based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its present home base is the Dutch National Opera & Ballet housed in the Stopera building, a modern building designed by Cees Dam and Wilhelm Holzbauer which opened in 1986. History The DNO was established shortly after the end of World War II as a repertory company with a permanent ensemble. In the postwar period, it toured extensively in the Netherlands from its home base in the Stadsschouwburg, a ''fin de siècle'' theatre on the Leidseplein in Amsterdam. In 1964, it was renamed ''De Nederlandse Operastichting''. (''The Dutch Opera Foundation''), and the company adopted a ''stagione'' orientation, inviting different soloists and artistic teams for each new production. In 1986, the company moved to the new Stopera building, which it shares with the Dutch National Ballet, and thereafter became known as De Nederlandse Opera (DNO) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Roberta Alexander")
