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Songs And Dances Of Death
''Songs and Dances of Death'' (russian: Песни и пляски смерти, ''Pesni i plyaski smerti'') is a song cycle for voice (usually Bass (vocal range), bass or bass-baritone) and piano by Modest Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, written in the mid-1870s, to poems by Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov, a relative of the composer. Each song deals with death in a poetic manner although the depictions are realism (art), realistic in that they reflect experiences not uncommon in 19th century Russia: child death, death in youth, drunken poverty, misadventure and war. The song cycle is considered Mussorgsky's masterpiece in the genre. Songs ''Songs and Dances of Death'' consists of four individual songs, as follows: 1. ''Lullaby'' (''Колыбельная'') (14 April 1875) (in F-sharp minor–A minor) :A mother cradles her sick infant, who grows more feverish. Death (personification), Death appears, disguised as a babysitter, and rocks the infant to eternal sleep. 2. ''S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musorgsky 1874 B
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky ( rus, link=no, Модест Петрович Мусоргский, Modest Petrovich Musorgsky , mɐˈdɛst pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈmusərkskʲɪj, Ru-Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky version.ogg; – ) was a Russian composer, one of the group known as "The Five (composers), The Five". He was an innovator of Music of Russia, Russian music in the Romantic music, Romantic period. He strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music. Many of List of compositions by Modest Mussorgsky, his works were inspired by Russian history, Russian folklore, and other national themes. Such works include the opera ''Boris Godunov (opera), Boris Godunov'', the orchestral tone poem ''Night on Bald Mountain'' and the piano suite ''Pictures at an Exhibition''. For many years, Mussorgsky's works were mainly known in versions revised or completed by other composers. Many of his most important compos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
D Minor
D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major. The D natural minor scale is: Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with accidentals as necessary. The D harmonic minor and melodic minor scales are: Music in D minor Of Domenico Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas, 151 are in minor keys, and with 32 sonatas, D minor is the most often chosen minor key. ''The Art of Fugue'' by Johann Sebastian Bach is in D minor. Michael Haydn's only minor-key symphony, No. 29, is in D minor. According to Alfred Einstein, the history of tuning has led D minor to be associated with counterpoint and chromaticism (for example, the chromatic fourth), and cites Bach's ''Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue'' in D minor. Mozart's Requiem is written primarily in D minor, as are the famous Queen of the Night Aria, "Der ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paata Burchuladze
Paata Burchuladze ( ka, პაატა ბურჭულაძე) (born 12 February 1955) is a Georgian operatic bass and civil activist. After his debut in his native Tbilisi in 1976, he embarked on a 35-year-long musical career during which he made appearances at leading opera houses across Europe and the United States. Through his foundation, he became involved in children charity in Georgia in 2004. From May to December 2016, Burchuladze briefly entered politics of Georgia, founding the political party State for the People to challenge the incumbent Georgian Dream coalition government in the scheduled October 2016 parliamentary election, in which the party failed to win any seat in the legislature. Since July 2017, Burchuladze has been leading the opera division of Moscow's Mikhailovsky Theatre, one of Russia's oldest opera and ballet houses. Musical career Born in Tbilisi, the capital of then-Soviet Georgia, he graduated from the Tbilisi State Conservatoire and continued ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anatoly Kotcherga
Anatoli Kotcherga (Ukrainian: Анатолій Іванович Кочерга ; Born July 9, 1947 in Samhorodok, the Winnyzja district, Ukraine), PAU, is a Ukrainian operatic bass. He studied music at the Kiev Conservatory. In 1971 he won a prize in the Glinka Competition, and in 1974 he won the Tchaikovsky Competition. Shortly thereafter he was hired by the Kiev Opera. His international career was launched in 1989, when he sang Shaklovity in the Vienna Staatsoper's '' Khovanshchina'', conducted by Claudio Abbado. He performed as Boris Godunov at the 1994 Salzburg Easter and Summer festivals, and he has been particularly associated with the part, singing it in Venice, Turin, Montpellier and with the Vienna Staatsoper in Japan. He also sang Dosifey. Other roles include the Commendatore, Sparafucile, Pistola, Banquo, and the Grand Inquisitor. Non-operatic work includes Mussorgsky's ''Songs and Dances of Death'', Shostakovich's 13th Symphony and Janáček's ''Glagolitic Mas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matti Salminen
Matti Kalervo Salminen (born 7 July 1945) is a Finnish operatic bass, now retired, who has sung at the most important opera houses of the world, including the Metropolitan and Bayreuth Festival. He is distinguished by an imposing figure and height (6' 5"), a cavernous, heavy, dark voice with an expansive upper register, and an expressive face. According to one reviewer, in his prime Salminen was "... simply the largest bass voice in captivity. It is not just its roar in powering over Wagner's maximum orchestra, but the way he carves the sonority and forms the color." Salminen has a special gift for playing menacing, threatening characters. He performed as Fafner and Hagen in the PBS video broadcast ''Ring Cycle'' from the Metropolitan Opera, for the largest viewing-audience of the ''Ring'' in history. Biography Salminen was born in Turku. In his youth he earned money for voice lessons by singing Finnish tangos in night clubs. He has published an anthology of Finnish tangos. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martti Talvela
Martti Olavi Talvela (4 February 1935 – 22 July 1989) was a Finnish operatic bass. Born in Hiitola, Finland (now in the Republic of Karelia), the eighth of ten childrenMartti Talvela, 54, Imposing Bass Regarded as Peerless in 'Godunov' nytimes.com, 24 June 1989; accessed 7 June 2014. he studied in and , and made his operatic debut in in 1960 as [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kim Borg
Kim Borg (August 7, 1919April 28, 2000) was a Finnish bass, teacher and composer. He had a wide-ranging, resonant, warm voice. Biography Kim Borg was born in Helsinki. He studied voice with Heikki Teittinen at the Sibelius Academy (1936–1941 and 1945–1947), where he also received training in theory and composition with Leo Funtek and Aarre Merikanto, and then pursued vocal studies with Andrejewa de Skilondz in Stockholm (1950–1959). He also studied biochemistry at the Helsinki University of Technology, and received a diploma in 1946. In 1947 he made his formal concert debut in Helsinki, and in 1951 his formal operatic debut in Århus as Colline in ''La bohème''. In addition to his concert appearances, he sang regularly in opera in Helsinki and Copenhagen (1952–1970), Stockholm (1963–1975), and Hamburg (1964–1970). In October 1959 he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in New York City as Count Almaviva, remaining on its roster until 1962. In 1961 he appeared as Boris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boris Christoff
Boris Christoff ( bg, Борис Кирилов Христов, Boris Kirilov Hristov, ; 18 May 1914 – 28 June 1993) was a Bulgarian opera singer, widely considered one of the greatest basses of the 20th century. Early life He was born in Plovdiv on 18 May 1914 to parents Kyryl Christov and Rayna Teodorova. Boris Christoff demonstrated early his singing talent and sang as a boy at the choir of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia. His father had been a very popular cantor at Resen, attracting the faithful to the Bulgarian Exarchist church where he was chanting. In the late 1930s he graduated in law and started a career as a magistrate. He continued singing in his spare time in the Gusla Chorus in Sofia, achieving an enormous success as the chorus soloist in 1940. Thanks to a government grant, Christoff left in May 1942 for Italy where he was tutored for two years in the core Italian bass repertoire by the great baritone of an earlier generation, Riccardo Stracciari. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicolai Ghiaurov
Nicolai Ghiaurov (or ''Nikolai Gjaurov'', ''Nikolay Gyaurov'', bg, Николай Гяуров) (September 13, 1929 – June 2, 2004) was a Bulgarian opera singer and one of the most famous basses of the postwar period. He was admired for his powerful, sumptuous voice, and was particularly associated with roles of Mussorgsky and Verdi. Ghiaurov married the Bulgarian pianist Zlatina Mishakova in 1956 and Italian soprano Mirella Freni in 1978, and the two singers frequently performed together. They lived in Modena until Ghiaurov's death in 2004 of a heart attack. Biography Ghiaurov was born in the small mountain town of Velingrad in southern Bulgaria. As a child, he learned to play the violin, piano and clarinet. He began his musical studies at the Bulgarian State Conservatory in 1949 where he studied under Prof. Cristo Brambarov. Ghiaurov was awarded a state scholarship and from 1950 until 1955 he studied at the Moscow Conservatory. Ghiaurov's career was launched in 1955 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferruccio Furlanetto
Ferruccio Furlanetto (born 16 May 1949 in Sacile, Italy) is an Italian bass. His professional debut was in 1974 in Lonigo, he debuted at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1979, in a production of Verdi's ''Macbeth'', conducted by Claudio Abbado. He has gone on to sing numerous roles, including both Don Giovanni and Leporello in Mozart's ''Don Giovanni'', Philip II in Verdi's ''Don Carlos'', Figaro in Mozart's ''Le nozze di Figaro'', Gremin in Tchaikovsky's ''Eugene Onegin'', Zaccaria in Verdi's ''Nabucco'', Méphistophélès in Gounod's ''Faust'', Orestes in Strauss' '' Elektra'', Fiesco in Verdi's ''Simon Boccanegra'', the title role of Mussorgsky's ''Boris Godunov'', as well as many other roles. He has sung in the world's major opera houses. He debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in the 1980/81 season, and has performed at the Opéra de Paris (Bastille), the Salzburg Easter Festival and the regular Salzburg Festival, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Vienna Staatsoper, the T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George London (bass-baritone)
George London (born George Burnstein; May 30, 1920 – March 24, 1985) was an American concert and operatic bass-baritone. Biography George Burnstein was born to U.S. naturalized parents of Russian origin in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and grew up in Los Angeles, California. His operatic debut was in 1941 as George Burnson, singing Dr Grenvil in ''La traviata'' at the Hollywood Bowl. In the summer of 1945 Antal Doráti invited his longtime friend, the Hungarian bass Mihály Székely, to sing at the first concert of the newly reorganized Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Due to travel difficulties, Székely was unable to arrive in time, so Doráti called upon young George London as a substitute. After performing widely with tenor Mario Lanza and soprano Frances Yeend as part of the Bel Canto Trio in 1947–48, London was engaged by the Vienna State Opera, where he scored his first major success in 1949. In 1950, he sang the role of Pater Profundis in Mahler's Eighth Symphony, conducted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vladimir Rosing
Vladimir Sergeyevich Rosing (russian: Владимир Серге́евич Розинг) (November 24, 1963), also known as Val Rosing, was a Russian-born operatic tenor and stage director who spent most of his professional career in the United Kingdom and the United States. In his formative years he experienced the last years of the "golden age" of opera, and he dedicated himself through his singing and directing into breathing new life into opera's outworn mannerisms and methods. Rosing was considered by many to rank as a singer and performer of the quality of Feodor Chaliapin. In ''The Perfect Wagnerite'', George Bernard Shaw called Chaliapin and Vladimir Rosing "the two most extraordinary singers of the 20th century". Vladimir Rosing's best known recordings are his performances of Russian art songs by composers such as Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Gretchaninov, Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov. He was the first singer to record a song by Igor Stravinsky: ''Akahito'' fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
