|
Rosa Raïsa
Rosa Raisa (30 May 189328 September 1963) was a Polish-born and Italian-trained Russian-Jewish dramatic operatic soprano who became a naturalized American. She possessed a voice of remarkable power and was the creator of the title role of Puccini's last opera, ''Turandot'', at La Scala, Milan. Life and career Early life and operatic beginnings She was born as Raitza Burchstein, the daughter of Herschel and Frieda Leah Burchstein, in Białystok (Tsarist Russia, now Poland) in 1893. Some of family fled Russia when she was 14 due to the pogroms, emigrating to Italy. There Raitza met Dario Ascarelli, who recognized her talent and potential and sponsored her at the Naples Conservatory ( San Pietro a Majella). Her teacher at the conservatory, the contralto Barbara Marchisio (1833–1919), had been one of the most prominent Italian singers of the mid-19th century. Marchisio brought Raisa in 1912 to Cleofonte Campanini, a leading operatic conductor and impresario. After the audition, h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rosa Raisa (1917) - Archivio Storico Ricordi FOTO002701 - Restoration
Rosa Raisa (30 May 189328 September 1963) was a Polish-born and Italian-trained Russian-Jewish dramatic operatic soprano who became a naturalized American. She possessed a voice of remarkable power and was the creator of the title role of Puccini's last opera, ''Turandot'', at La Scala, Milan. Life and career Early life and operatic beginnings She was born as Raitza Burchstein, the daughter of Herschel and Frieda Leah Burchstein, in Białystok (Tsarist Russia, now Poland) in 1893. Some of family fled Russia when she was 14 due to the pogroms, emigrating to Italy. There Raitza met Dario Ascarelli, who recognized her talent and potential and sponsored her at the Naples Conservatory (San Pietro a Majella). Her teacher at the conservatory, the contralto Barbara Marchisio (1833–1919), had been one of the most prominent Italian singers of the mid-19th century. Marchisio brought Raisa in 1912 to Cleofonte Campanini, a leading operatic conductor and impresario. After the audition, he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cavalleria Rusticana
''Cavalleria rusticana'' (; Italian for "rustic chivalry") is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 short story of the same name and subsequent play by Giovanni Verga. Considered one of the classic ''verismo'' operas, it premiered on 17 May 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Since 1893, it has often been performed in a so-called ''Cav/Pag'' double-bill with ''Pagliacci'' by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Composition history In July 1888 the Milanese music publisher Edoardo Sonzogno announced a competition open to all young Italian composers who had not yet had an opera performed on stage. They were invited to submit a one-act opera which would be judged by a jury of five prominent Italian critics and composers. The best three would be staged in Rome at Sonzogno's expense. Mascagni heard about the competition only two months before the closing date and asked his friend Giovanni Targioni-Tozze ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amelita Galli-Curci
Amelita Galli-Curci (18 November 1882 – 26 November 1963) was an Italian coloratura soprano. She was one of the most popular operatic singers of the 20th century, with her recordings selling in large numbers. Early life She was born as Amelita Galli into an upper-middle-class Italian family of Spanish heritage in Milan, where she studied piano at the Milan Conservatory, winning a gold medal for piano performance, and at the age of 16 was offered a professorship. She was inspired to sing by her grandmother. Operatic composer Pietro Mascagni also encouraged Galli-Curci's singing ambitions. By her own choice, Galli-Curci's voice was largely self-trained at the beginning of her career. She honed her technique by listening to other sopranos, reading old singing-method books, and doing piano exercises with her voice instead of using a keyboard. She later studied regularly with Estelle Liebling for more than a decade in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. Career Galli-Curci mad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilda Dalla Rizza
Gilda Dalla Rizza (12 October 18925 July 1975) was an important Italian soprano. Born in Verona, she made her operatic debut in Bologna (the Teatro Verdi) in 1912, as Charlotte in ''Werther''. Especially acclaimed in the verismo repertory, she was regarded as being Giacomo Puccini's favorite soprano, creating Magda in his '' La rondine'' (1917). Although he composed the part of Minnie in ''La fanciulla del West'' for another soprano, when Puccini saw Dalla Rizza in the part, he said, "Behold, at last I have seen ''my'' Fanciulla".Colin Kendell, 'The Complete Puccini' Amberley Publishing 2012. She also gave the first European performances of his ''Suor Angelica'' and ''Gianni Schicchi'', at Rome in 1919, in the presence of Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy. He also had her in mind for Liù in ''Turandot'', though her voice proved too heavy for the part of the young slave-girl by the time of the premiere. Dalla Rizza appeared at the major theatres in Rome, Florence, Turin, São ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Der Rosenkavalier
(''The Knight of the Rose'' or ''The Rose-Bearer''), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel ''Les amours du chevalier de Faublas'' by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière's comedy ''Monsieur de Pourceaugnac''. It was first performed at the Königliches Opernhaus in Dresden on 26 January 1911 under the direction of Max Reinhardt, Ernst von Schuch conducting. Until the premiere, the working title was ''Ochs auf Lerchenau''. (The choice of the name Ochs is not accidental, for in German "Ochs" means "ox", which describes the character of the Baron throughout the opera.) The opera has four main characters: the aristocratic Marschallin; her very young lover, Count Octavian Rofrano; her brutish cousin Baron Ochs; and Ochs' prospective fiancée, Sophie von Faninal, the daughter of a rich bourgeois. At the Marschallin's suggestion, Octavian acts as Ochs' ''Rosenkavalier'' by pre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Titta Ruffo
Titta Ruffo (9 June 1877 – 5 July 1953), born as Ruffo Cafiero (double forename) Titta, was an Italian operatic baritone who had a major international singing career. Known as the "Voce del leone" ("voice of the lion"), he was greatly admired, even by rival baritones, such as Giuseppe De Luca, who said of Ruffo: "His was not a voice, it was a miracle" (although not often published is the second part of De Luca's conclusion "which he uffobawled away..."), and Victor Maurel, the creator of Verdi's Iago and Falstaff. Maurel said that the notes of Ruffo's upper register were the most glorious baritone sounds he had ever heard (see Pleasants, cited below). Indeed Walter Legge, the prominent classical record producer, went so far as to call Ruffo "a genius". Biography Born Ruffo Titta in Pisa (he reversed his forename and surname for the stage), Ruffo was the son of an engineer. He studied voice with several teachers. In Musical America, December 27, 1913, Ruffo wrote the foll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L'Africaine
''L'Africaine'' (''The African Woman'') is an 1865 French ''grand opéra'' in five acts with music by Giacomo Meyerbeer and a libretto by Eugène Scribe. Meyerbeer and Scribe began working on the opera in 1837, using the title ''L'Africaine'', but around 1852 changed the plot to portray fictitious events in the life of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama and introduced the working title ''Vasco de Gama'', the French version of his name. The copying of the full score was completed the day before Meyerbeer died in 1864. The opera was premiered the following year by the Paris Opéra in a version made by François-Joseph Fétis, who restored the earlier title, ''L'Africaine''. The Fétis version was published and was used for subsequent performances until 2013, when some productions and recordings began using Meyerbeer's preferred title, ''Vasco de Gama'', for performing versions with revisions based on the manuscript score. In 2018 the music publisher Casa Ricordi, Ricordi issued a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teatro Colón
The Teatro Colón (Spanish: ''Columbus Theatre'') is the main opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic. According to a survey carried out by the acoustics expert Leo Beranek among leading international opera and orchestra directors, the Teatro Colón has the room with the best acoustics for opera and the second best for concerts in the world. The present Colón replaced an original theatre which opened in 1857. Towards the end of the century it became clear that a new theatre was needed and, after a 20-year process, the present theatre opened on 25 May 1908, with Giuseppe Verdi's ''Aïda''. The Teatro Colón was visited by the foremost singers and opera companies of the time, who would sometimes go on to other cities including Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. After this period of huge international success, the theatre's decline became clear and plans were made for massive ren ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emma Carelli
Emma Carelli (12 May 1877 in Naples – 17 August 1928 near Rome) was an Italian operatic soprano who was particularly associated with the dramatic soprano roles of the verismo repertoire and the works of Richard Wagner. After a singing career which lasted almost two decades, she managed the Teatro Costanzi in Rome for almost fifteen years. After studying with her father, Beniamino Carelli, at the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella, she made her professional debut in 1895 in the title role of Mercadante's ''La vestale'' during the centenary celebrations at Altamura and went on to appear in the opera houses of many Italian cities. In 1898 she married the left-wing politician, self-made millionaire, and later impresario, Walter Mocchi.Steane, ''Grove Music Online'' She sang in several world premieres including: Pietro Floridia's '' La Colonia libera'' (1899); Meryem in Cesare Galeotti's ''Anton'' (1900) and Rosaura in Mascagni's ''Le maschere'' at La Scala in 1901. For severa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francesca Da Rimini (Zandonai)
''Francesca da Rimini'', Op. 4, is an opera in four acts, composed by Riccardo Zandonai, with a libretto by , after D'Annunzio's play ''Francesca da Rimini''. It was premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin on 19 February 1914 and is still staged occasionally. This opera is Zandonai's best-known work. In the ''New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', Renato Chiesa calls it "one of the most original and polished Italian melodramas of the 20th century, hichcombines a powerful gift for Italian melody ... with an exceptional command of orchestration." Celebrated performers of the title role have included Gilda dalla Rizza, Magda Olivero (who recorded excerpts from the opera in 1969, for Decca Records), Raina Kabaivanska and Renata Scotto. Roles Synopsis The story takes place in Ravenna and Rimini. Francesca, daughter of Guido I da Polenta, for state reasons, is to be married to Giovanni, known as Gianciotto, the malformed son of Malatesta da Verucchio. But as Francesca would certainly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riccardo Zandonai
Riccardo Zandonai (28 May 1883 – 5 June 1944) was an Italian composer. Biography Zandonai was born in Borgo Sacco, Rovereto, then part of Austria-Hungary. As a young man, he showed such an aptitude for music that he entered the Pesaro Conservatorio in 1899 and completed his studies in 1902; he completed the nine-year curriculum in only three years. Among his teachers was Pietro Mascagni, who regarded him highly. During this period he composed the ''Inno degli studenti trentini'', that is, the anthem of the organised irredentist youth of his native province. His essay for graduation was an opera named ''Il ritorno di Odisseo'' (''The Return of Ulysses''), based on a poem by Giovanni Pascoli, for singers, choir and orchestra. The same year 1902 he put to music another Pascoli poem, ''Il sogno di Rosetta''. At a soirée in Milan in 1908, he was heard by Arrigo Boito, who introduced him to Giulio Ricordi, one of the dominating figures in Italian musical publishing at the time. Hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arrigo Boito
Arrigo Boito (; 24 February 1842 10 June 1918) (whose original name was Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito and who wrote essays under the anagrammatic pseudonym of Tobia Gorrio) was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist, librettist and composer, best known today for his libretti, especially those for Giuseppe Verdi's last two monumental operas '' Otello'' and ''Falstaff'' (not to mention Amilcare Ponchielli's operatic masterpiece '' La Gioconda'') and his own opera ''Mefistofele''. Along with Emilio Praga and his own brother Camillo Boito, he is regarded as one of the prominent representatives of the Scapigliatura artistic movement. Biography Birthplace in Padua Born in Padua, the son of Silvestro Boito (1802–1856), an Italian painter of miniatures, who was not of noble birth but passed himself off as a nobleman, and his wife, a Polish countess, Józefina Radolińska, Boito studied music at the Milan Conservatory with Alberto Mazzucato until 1861, where a friend, Albert Visetti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> L'Africaine")
.jpg "Click for more on -> Teatro Colón")
_-_Archivio_Storico_Ricordi_FOTO003142.jpg "Click for more on -> Riccardo Zandonai")
