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Serse Coppi
''Serse'' (; English title: ''Xerxes''; HWV 40) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. It was first performed in London on 15 April 1738. The Italian libretto was adapted by an unknown hand from that by Silvio Stampiglia (1664–1725) for an earlier opera of the same name by Giovanni Bononcini in 1694. Stampiglia's libretto was itself based on one by Nicolò Minato (ca.1627–1698) that was set by Francesco Cavalli in 1654. The opera is set in Persia (modern-day Iran) about 470 BC and is very loosely based upon Xerxes I of Persia. Serse, originally sung by a mezzo-soprano castrato, is now usually performed by a female mezzo-soprano or countertenor. The opening aria, "Ombra mai fu", sung by Xerxes to a plane tree (''Platanus orientalis''), is set to one of Handel's best-known melodies, and is often known as Handel's "Largo" (despite being marked "larghetto" in the score). Composition history In late 1737 the King's Theatre, London, commissioned Handel to w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georg Friedrich Händel - Serse - Title Page Of The Libretto - London 1738
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Georg may refer to: * ''Georg'' (film), 1997 *Georg (musical), Estonian musical * Georg (given name) * Georg (surname) * , a Kriegsmarine coastal tanker See also * George (other) George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd President ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Faramondo
''Faramondo'', HWV 39, is an opera in three acts by George Frideric Handel to an Italian libretto adapted from Apostolo Zeno's ''Faramondo''. The story is loosely based upon the legend of Pharamond, a mythological King of the Franks, circa 420 AD, and the early history of France. The opera had its first performance at the King's Theatre, London, on 3 January 1738. Background The German-born Handel, after spending some of his early career composing operas and other pieces in Italy, settled in London, where in 1711 he had brought Italian opera for the first time with his opera ''Rinaldo''. An enormous success, ''Rinaldo'' created a craze in London for Italian ''opera seria'', a form focused overwhelmingly on solo arias for the star virtuoso singers. Handel had presented new operas in London for years with great success. One of the major attractions in Handel's operas was the star ''castrato'' Senesino, whose relationship with the composer was often stormy and who eventually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Kings Theatre Haymarket
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as '' Londinium'' and retains its medieval boundaries.See also: Independent city § National capitals The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national government and parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which largely comprises Greater London, governed by the Greater London Authority.The Greater London Authority consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The London Mayor is distinguished from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Frederick Lampe
John Frederick Lampe (born Johann Friedrich Lampe; probably 1703 – 25 July 1751) was a musician and composer. Life Lampe was born in Saxony, Germany but came to England in 1724 and played the bassoon in opera houses. In 1730, he was hired by John Rich to be the composer for Covent Garden Theatre. During his time as a bassoonist in London opera houses, in 1727, he played at the coronation of King George II. Like Arne, Lampe wrote operatic works in English in defiance of the vogue for Italian opera popularized by George Frideric Handel and Nicola Porpora. Lampe, along with Henry Carey and J. S. Smith, founded the short-lived English Opera Project. He became a friend of Charles Wesley, and wrote several tunes to accompany Wesley's hymns. His works for the stage include the mock operas ''Pyramus and Thisbe'' (1745) and '' The Dragon of Wantley'' (1734), which ran for 69 nights, a record for the time, surpassing ''The Beggar's Opera''. From November, 1750 until his death, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Beggar's Opera
''The Beggar's Opera'' is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today. Ballad operas were satiric musical plays that used some of the conventions of opera, but without recitative. The lyrics of the airs in the piece are set to popular broadsheet ballads, opera arias, church hymns and folk tunes of the time. ''The Beggar's Opera'' premiered at the Lisle's Tennis Court, Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre on 29 January 1728 and ran for 62 consecutive performances, the second-longest run in theatre history up to that time (after 146 performances of Robert Cambert's ''Pomone (opera), Pomone'' in Paris in 1671). The work became Gay's greatest success and has been played ever since; it has been called "the most popular play of the eighteenth century". In 1920, ''The Beggar's Opera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballad Operas
The ballad opera is a genre of English stage entertainment that originated in the early 18th century, and continued to develop over the following century and later. Like the earlier '' comédie en vaudeville'' and the later '' Singspiel'', its distinguishing characteristic is the use of tunes in a popular style (either pre-existing or newly composed) with spoken dialogue. These English plays were 'operas' mainly insofar as they satirized the conventions of the imported '' opera seria''. Music critic Peter Gammond describes the ballad opera as "an important step in the emancipation of both the musical stage and the popular song." Earliest ballad operas Ballad opera has been called an "eighteenth-century protest against the Italian conquest of the London operatic scene."M. Lubbock, ''The Complete Book of Light Opera'' (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1962), pp. 467–68 It consists of racy and often satirical spoken (English) dialogue, interspersed with songs that are deliberate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Recitative
Recitative (, also known by its Italian name "''recitativo''" ()) is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat lines as formally composed songs do. It resembles sung ordinary speech more than a formal musical composition. Recitative can be distinguished on a continuum from more speech-like to more musically sung, with more sustained melodic lines. The mostly syllabic ''recitativo secco'' ("dry", accompanied only by continuo, typically cello and harpsichord) is at one end of the spectrum, through ''recitativo accompagnato'' (using orchestra), the more melismatic arioso, and finally the full-blown aria or ensemble, where the pulse is entirely governed by the music. Secco recitatives can be more improvisatory and free for the singer, since the accompaniment is so sparse; in contrast, when recitative is accompanied by orchestra, the singer must per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 4th Earl Of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 4th Earl of Shaftesbury Bt PC FRS (9 February 1711 – 27 May 1771) was a British peer and philanthropist, who served as one of the leading figures in the foundation of the colony of Georgia and as Lord Lieutenant of Dorset from 1734 until his death. Family legacy Shaftesbury's father, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, died in February 1713, leaving him fatherless in infancy, as well as heir to the family titles and estates. He grew up learning about the achievements of his father and great-grandfather and revering his family history. In 1732, he published a new edition of his father's influential work, ''Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times''. The book was among the most influential of the British Enlightenment; historian Benjamin Rand described the 3rd Earl as the “greatest Stoic of modern times.” Shaftesbury also commissioned a biography of his great-grandfather and retained Benjamin Martyn for the project. He had become ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Da Capo Aria
The da capo aria () is a musical form for arias that was prevalent in the Baroque era. It is sung by a soloist with the accompaniment of instruments, often a small orchestra. The da capo aria is very common in the musical genres of opera and oratorio. According to Randel, a number of Baroque composers (he lists Scarlatti, Hasse, Handel, Porpora, Leo, and Vinci) composed more than a thousand da capo arias during their careers.Randel (2003:54) Form A da capo aria is in ternary form, meaning it is composed of three sections. The first section is a complete song with accompaniment, ending in the tonic key, and could in principle be sung by itself. The second section contrasts with the first in its musical key, texture, mood, and sometimes also tempo. The third section was usually not written out by the composer, who would instead simply note the instruction "da capo" (Italian for "from the head") - meaning from the beginning, i.e., the first section is to be repeated. The text for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aria
In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompaniment, normally part of a larger work. The typical context for arias is opera, but vocal arias also feature in oratorios and cantatas, or they can be stand-alone concert arias. The term was originally used to refer to any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. Etymology The Italian term ''aria'', which derives from the Greek ἀήρ and Latin ''aer'' (air), first appeared in relation to music in the 14th century when it simply signified a manner or style of singing or playing. By the end of the 16th century, the term 'aria' refers to an instrumental form (cf. Santino Garsi da Parma lute works, 'Aria del Gran Duca'). By the early 16th century it was in common use as meaning a simple setting of strophic poetry; me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metastasio
Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio (), was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of ''opera seria'' libretti. Early life Metastasio was born in Rome, where his father, Felice Trapassi, a native of Assisi, had taken service in the Corsican regiment of the papal forces. Felice married a Bolognese woman, Francesca Galasti, and became a grocer in the ''Via dei Cappellari''. The couple had two sons and two daughters; Pietro was the younger son. Pietro, while still a child, is said to have attracted crowds by reciting impromptu verses on a given subject. On one such occasion in 1709, two men of distinction stopped to listen: Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, famous for legal and literary erudition as well as his directorship of the Arcadian Academy, and Lorenzini, a critic of some note. Gravina was attracted by the boy's poetic talent and personal charm, and made Pietro h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apostolo Zeno
Apostolo Zeno (11 December 1668 in Venice – 11 November 1750 in Venice) was a Venetian poet, librettist, journalist, and man of letters. Early life Apostolo Zeno was born in Venice to a colonial branch of the Zeno family, an ancient Venetian patrician family. His family had been transplanted from Venice to the Kingdom of Candia in the 13th century in order to maintain Venetian order and suppress any rebellious subjects. Following the assault on the island by the Ottoman Empire, the remaining members of his family returned to Venice. Upon return they were not readmitted to the patrician class, but were only able to obtain status as ordinary citizens. His father was Pietro Zeno, a doctor of medicine, and his mother, Caterina Sevasto, belonged to an illustrious and powerful family from Candia, Crete. Having lost his father at an early age, he was left to the care of his mother, who remarried to Venetian senator Pier Antonio Cornaro. His education was entrusted to the Somasc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
