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Second Movement Opera
Second Movement Opera is an opera company in the United Kingdom. About the Company Second Movement was founded in 2004 as a chamber opera ensemble performing unorthodox opera productions in unusual spaces. It is a registered charity with a mission to provide opportunities for talented composers, singers and other professionals starting their careers in opera, in non-standard repertoire, and to bring opera to new audiences, those with limited access to the performing arts and marginalised groups. Some of its productions have been UK stage premieres, including Emily Howard’s ''Zatopek!'' commissioned as part of the UK Cultural Olympiad in 2012. Second Movement has performed in venues ranging from the former music halls Hoxton Hall in London and Epstein (formerly Neptune) Theatre in Liverpool, to the Reduta palace in Brno, Czech Republic. In 2011 Second Movement launched its ongoing programme Rough for Opera to provide opportunities for composers and performers new to opera, to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oliver Mears
Oliver Mears is an English opera director. Education Mears read English and History at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he was awarded a Double First Class Honours Degree in English and History. He began assisting the playwright and director Howard Barker while still at university, before becoming a Trainee Assistant Director at the King's Head Theatre, London. Second Movement Mears founded Second Movement as joint Artistic Director with the conductor Nicholas Chalmers. His productions for them included the UK stage premiere of Veniamin Fleishman's opera ''Rothschild's Violin'', '' Mozart and Salieri'', ''Trouble in Tahiti'', ''A Hand of Bridge'' and ''The Knife's Tears''. The latter production toured to Prague and Brno in the Czech Republic in October 2010. Northern Ireland Opera In 2010 Mears was appointed as the Artistic Director of the newly created Northern Ireland Opera. His productions for them have included ''The Medium'', ''Tosca'', which won the Irish Times Theatre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stefan Weisman
Stefan Weisman (born 1970) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He composes opera, chamber music, orchestral music, as well as music for the theater, video and dance. Raised in East Brunswick, New Jersey, Weisman credits his passion for music starting with his participation in the orchestra at East Brunswick High School. His opera ''Darkling'', with a libretto by Anna Rabinowitz was commissioned, developed and produced in 2006 by American Opera Projects. Elements of composer Lee Hoiby’s song “The Darkling Thrush” were used as source material for the opera's music. ''Darkling'' was included in the Guggenheim Museum's "Works & Process" series, and premiered at the East 13th Street Theater. In a New York Times review, Anthony Tommasini described Weisman's music as "personal, moody and skillfully wrought." ''Darkling'' was released internationally by Albany Records in 2011. Of the CD, Gramophone Magazine wrote: “Weisman unfolds his emotional tapestry with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mozart And Salieri (opera)
''Mozart and Salieri'' ( rus, Моцарт и Сальери, Motsart i Salyeri ) is a one-act opera in two scenes by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, written in 1897 to a Russian libretto taken almost verbatim from Alexander Pushkin's 1830 verse drama of the same name. The story follows the apocryphal legend that Antonio Salieri poisoned Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart out of jealousy over the latter's music. Rimsky-Korsakov incorporated quotations from Mozart's ''Requiem'' and ''Don Giovanni'' into the score. Richard Taruskin has placed this opera in the historical context of the development of the realistic tradition in Russian opera. Performance history The first performance took place at the Solodovnikov Theater in Moscow, presented by the Moscow Private Russian Opera, Moscow on 7 December 1898 ( O.S. 25 November). The conductor was Iosif Truffi and scenic designer was Mikhail Vrubel. Feodor Chaliapin, who originated the role of Salieri, claimed to have often sung the piece as a monodrama ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American conductor to receive international acclaim. According to music critic Donal Henahan, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history". Bernstein was the recipient of many honors, including seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, sixteen Grammy Awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors, Kennedy Center Honor. As a composer he wrote in many genres, including symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music and works for the piano. His best-known work is the Broadway theatre, Broadway musical ''West Side Story'', which continues to be regularly performed worldwide, and has been adapted into two (West Side Story (1961 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Medium
''The Medium'' is a short (one-hour-long) two-act dramatic opera with words and music by Gian Carlo Menotti. Commissioned by the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University, its first performance was there on 8 May 1946. The opera's first professional production was presented on a double bill with Menotti's '' The Telephone'' at the Heckscher Theater, New York City, February 18–20, 1947 by the Ballet Society. The Broadway production took place on May 1, 1947, at the Ethel Barrymore Theater with the same cast. In 1951, Menotti directed, with the help of filmmaker Alexander Hammid, a film version made to resemble film noir, and starring Marie Powers as Madame Flora and Anna Maria Alberghetti as Monica. A live television production starring Marie Powers took place on 12 December 1948 on the TV series '' Studio One'' and on 14 February, 1959 on '' Omnibus'', starring Claramae Turner. It was also filmed for Australian TV in 1960. Roles Synopsis Act 1 ''The medium's parlor'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition resulted in more than List of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 800 works of virtually every genre of his time. Many of these compositions are acknowledged as pinnacles of the symphony, symphonic, concerto, concertante, chamber music, chamber, operatic, and choir, choral repertoire. Mozart is widely regarded as among the greatest composers in the history of Western music, with his music admired for its "melodic beauty, its formal elegance and its richness of harmony and texture". Born in Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg, Salzburg, in the Holy Roman Empire, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on Keyboard instrument, keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Impresario
' (''The Impresario''), K. 486, is a comic '' singspiel'' by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, set to a German libretto by Gottlieb Stephanie, an Austrian ''Schauspieldirektor''. Originally, it was written because of "the imperial command" of the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II who had invited 80 guests to a private luncheon. It is regarded as "a parody on the vanity of singers", who argue over status and pay. Mozart, who describes it as "comedy with music" wrote it as his entry in a musical competition which was given a private performance hosted on 7 February 1786 by Joseph II at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna.Opera Glass on opera.stanford.edu This competition pitted a German ''singspiel'', presented at one end of the room, against a competing Italian opera, the Italian entry being |
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach (, also , , ; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the Romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera ''The Tales of Hoffmann''. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss Jr. and Arthur Sullivan. His best-known works were continually revived during the 20th century, and many of his operettas continue to be staged in the 21st. ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' remains part of the standard opera repertory. Born in Cologne, the son of a synagogue cantor, Offenbach showed early musical talent. At the age of 14, he was accepted as a student at the Paris Conservatoire but found academic study unfulfilling and left after a year. From 1835 to 1855 he earned his living as a cellist, achieving international fame, and as a conductor. His ambition, however, was to compose comic pieces for the musical the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Deux Aveugles
''Les deux aveugles'' (, ''The Two Blind Men'' or ''The Blind Beggars'') is an 1855 one-act French ''bouffonerie musicale'' (operetta) by Jacques Offenbach.Lamb 1992, p. 1143. The libretto was written by Jules Moinaux and was a condensation of his 3-act ''Les musiciens ambulants''. The half-hour long piece is a comic sketch about two (supposedly) blind beggars, consisting of an overture and four numbers. Offenbach was bold in making light of the disabled poor, but he believed that his patrons would see the humour of the piece. Most Parisians had been pestered by beggars on Parisian street corners, and Offenbach's blind beggars were con men, rather than deserving outcasts of society. The little piece was an instant hit, praised for its catchy dance tunes, and it soon spread Offenbach's name and music around the world. Performance history ''Les deux aveugles'' premiered on the opening night of the Bouffes-Parisiens on 5 July 1855 at the company's first theatre, the tiny Salle L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major composer. Shostakovich achieved early fame in the Soviet Union, but had a complex relationship with its government. His 1934 opera '' Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk'' was initially a success, but eventually was condemned by the Soviet government, putting his career at risk. In 1948 his work was denounced under the Zhdanov Doctrine, with professional consequences lasting several years. Even after his censure was rescinded in 1956, performances of his music were occasionally subject to state interventions, as with his Thirteenth Symphony (1962). Shostakovich was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (1947) and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (from 1962 until his death), as well as chairman of the RSFSR Union of Composers (1960–1968 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Veniamin Fleishman
Veniamin Iosifovich Fleishman, (russian: Вениами́н Ио́сифович Фле́йшман, July 20, 1913 in Bezhetsk, Tver Governorate – September 14, 1941 in Krasnoye Selo, Leningrad Oblast) was a Soviet composer. ''Rothschild's Violin'' While studying under Dmitri Shostakovich at the Leningrad Conservatory (1939–1941), he began a one-act opera ''Rothschild's Violin'' based on Anton Chekhov's short story of the same name about Bronza, a Russian country coffin-maker and violinist, and his combative relationship with the Jewish musicians in his village. At the outbreak of World War II, Fleishman volunteered for the front and was killed before he could complete the work. In memory of his talented student, Shostakovich rescued the manuscript from besieged Leningrad, finished it and orchestrated it in 1943–1944. Shostakovich dated his completion of the score February 5, 1944. Later, he exerted influence so that the opera should be published and performed. The oper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rothschild's Violin
"Rothschild's Violin" (russian: Скрипка Ротшильда, translit=Skripka Rotshilda – also translated as "Rothschild's Fiddle") is a short story by Anton Chekhov. Publication "Rothschild's Violin" was first published in ''Russkiye Vedomosti'' Number 37, in February 1894. In the same year it was published in the collection ''Novellas and Stories'' (Повести и рассказы). After the idea was proposed to him by Dmitri Shostakovich, "Rothschild's Violin" was made into an opera by Veniamin Fleishman. Synopsis Yakov Ivanov (nicknamed "Bronze") is a seventy-year-old coffin maker in a small village, where there are not enough deaths for his business to flourish. To make ends meet, he plays the violin for a Jewish klezmer orchestra when called upon by its director Moisey Shahkes. Yakov is anti-semitic and dislikes Jews, especially the flutist in the orchestra named Rothschild. Yakov's wife Marfa becomes ill. Her illness makes him regret his flippant conduct, h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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