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The Barber Of Seville
''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an ''opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's French comedy ''The Barber of Seville'' (1775). The première of Rossini's opera (under the title ''Almaviva, o sia L'inutile precauzione'') took place on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina, Rome, with designs by Angelo Toselli. Rossini's ''Barber of Seville'' has proven to be one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music, and has been described as the opera buffa of all "opere buffe". After two hundred years, it remains a popular work. Composition history Rossini's opera recounts the events of the first of the three plays by French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais that revolve around the clever and enterprising character named Figaro, the barber of the title. Mozart's opera ''The Marriage of Fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opera Buffa
''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramma bernesco'', ''dramma comico'', ''divertimento giocoso''. Especially associated with developments in Naples in the first half of the 18th century, whence its popularity spread to Rome and northern Italy, ''buffa'' was at first characterized by everyday settings, local dialects, and simple vocal writing (the basso buffo is the associated voice type), the main requirement being clear diction and facility with patter. ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' considers ''La Cilla'' (music by Michelangelo Faggioli, text by , 1706) and Luigi and Federico Ricci's'' Crispino e la comare'' (1850) to be the first and last appearances of the genre, although the term is still occasionally applied to newer work (for example Ernst Krenek's ''Zeitoper'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Barber Of Seville (Paisiello)
''Il barbiere di Siviglia, ovvero La precauzione inutile'' (''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'') is a comic opera by Giovanni Paisiello to a libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, even though his name is not identified on the score's title page. The opera was first performed on at the Imperial Court, Saint Petersburg. It was adapted from the 1775 play ''Le Barbier de Séville'' of Pierre Beaumarchais. The full title for the opera reads: ''Il barbiere di Siviglia, ovvero La Precauzione inutile, dramma giocoso per musica tradotto liberamente dal francese, da rappresentarsi nel Teatro Imperiale del corte, l'anno 1782'', "Paisiello's and Rossini's ''Barbiere di Siviglia''" (April 1939). ''Music & Letters'', 20 (2): pp. 157–167. (Trans: "The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution, comical drama with music freely translated from the French, presented at the Imperial Court Theater, the year 1782"). The story essentially follows the original Beaumarchais play, and i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mob Mentality
Herd mentality, mob mentality or pack mentality describes how people can be influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors on a largely emotional, rather than rational, basis. When individuals are affected by mob mentality, they may make different decisions than they would have individually. Social psychologists study the related topics of group intelligence, crowd wisdom, groupthink, and deindividuation. History The idea of a " group mind" or "mob behavior" was first put forward by 19th-century social psychologists Gabriel Tarde and Gustave Le Bon. Herd behavior in human societies has also been studied by Sigmund Freud and Wilfred Trotter, whose book ''Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War'' is a classic in the field of social psychology. Sociologist and economist Thorstein Veblen's ''The Theory of the Leisure Class'' illustrates how individuals imitate other group members of higher social status in their consumer behavior. More recently, Malcolm Gladwell in ''The Tip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geltrude Righetti
Geltrude Righetti (December 26, 1789 – April 24, 1862) was an Italian contralto closely associated with the operas of Gioachino Rossini. (Her name is also sometimes given as Giorgi-Righetti or Righetti-Giorgi, Giorgi being the name of her husband.) Life and career Born in Bologna, she also studied and made her debut there in 1814. The following year she created the important role of Rosina in ''The Barber of Seville'' and in 1817 she was the first heroine of ''La Cenerentola'', both in Rome. Her career was short and she retired from the stage in 1822. She died in Bologna in 1862. Response to Stendhal In 1823, in response to an article by Stendhal Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, ; ), was a 19th-century French writer. Best known for the novels ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' (''The Red and the Black'', 1830) and ''La Chartreuse de P ..., she wrote her memoir entitled ''Cenni di una donna già cantante sopra il Maestr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elisabetta Gafforini
Elisabetta Gafforini (1777 – 10 November 1847) was an Italian opera singer who performed leading contralto and mezzo-soprano roles, primarily in the theatres of Venice and at La Scala in Milan but also in Spain, Portugal, and other Italian cities. During the course of her 25-year career she appeared in numerous world premieres. She possessed a limpid, flexible, and resonant voice with an exceptionally wide range, and according to Stendhal was a consummate and enchanting comic actress. Gafforini was born in Milan and lived there after her definitive retirement from the stage in 1818 until her death at the age of 70. Biography Early years Gafforini was born in Milan in 1777, the daughter of Margherita ''née'' Fenaroli and Giuseppe Gafforini. Despite her considerable celebrity, there is little biographical data available about her early life. Her first documented performances date from 1793 when she was active in the opera houses of Venice. Her early appearances in Venice includ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luigi Zamboni
Luigi Zamboni (1767 – 28 February 1837) was an Italian operatic buffo bass-baritone. He was born in Bologna, where he began his singing career in 1791 in a production of Cimarosa's '' Il fanatico burlato''. Engagements followed in Naples, Parma, Venice and Rome, where he sang in operas by Valentino Fioravanti, Paisiello and others. He retired from the stage in 1825 and died in Florence. Zamboni's wife, the contralto Marianna Gafforini, was the sister of Elisabetta Gafforini, a prominent singer at La Scala. ''The Barber of Seville'' The part of Figaro in ''The Barber of Seville'' was written for Zamboni by Gioachino Rossini, who was also a family friend. Zamboni created the role at the Teatro Argentina in Rome on 20 February 1816. He had urged Rossini and Francesco Sforza-Cesarini, the cash-strapped impresario of the Teatro Argentina, to engage his sister-in-law, Elisabetta Gafforini, as Rosina for the premiere. However, her fee was too high and in the end they settled o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large national audience. Daily broadsheet editions are printed for D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The ''Post'' was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. Financier Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy in 1933 and revived its health and reputation, work continued by his successors Katharine and Phil Graham (Meyer's daughter and son-in-law), who bought out several rival publications. The ''Post'' 1971 printing of the Pentagon Papers helped spur opposition to the Vietnam War. Subsequently, in the best-known episode in the newspaper's history, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the American press's investigation into what became known as the Watergate scandal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tim Page (music Critic)
Tim Page (born Ellis Batten Page Jr., 11 October 1954) is an American writer, music critic, editor, producer and professor who won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for his music criticism for ''The Washington Post''. Anthony Tommasini, the chief music critic for ''The New York Times'', has praised Page's criticism for its "extensive knowledge of cultural history, especially literature; the instincts and news sense of a sharp beat reporter; the skills of a good storyteller; infectious inquisitiveness; immunity to dogma; and an always-running pomposity detector." Other notable writings by Page include his biography of the novelist Dawn Powell, which is credited for helping to spark the revival of Powell's work, and a memoir that chronicles growing up with undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder. Biography Early life and education Page was born in San Diego, California to Elizabeth Latimer Thaxton Page, a homemaker and former journalist, and Ellis Batten Page, a professor of educational psyc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elisabetta, Regina D'Inghilterra
''Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra'' (; ''Elizabeth, Queen of England'') is a ''dramma per musica'' or opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Giovanni Schmidt, from the play ''Il paggio di Leicester'' (''Leicester's Page'') by Carlo Federici, which itself "was derived from a novel ''The Recess'' (1785) by Sophia Lee." It was premiered at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples on 4 October 1815 and was the first of nine operas which Rossini wrote for the San Carlo. Altogether, this was one of eighteen operas which he wrote during the time he spent in Naples. Rossini took melodies from other operas to compose ''Elisabetta'', including the overture, first written for ''Aureliano in Palmira'', which is famous as the overture to ''The Barber of Seville''. As Holden notes, with the re-uses of earlier music, "it is as if Rossini wished to present himself to the Neapolitan public by offering a selection of the best music from operas unlikely to have been revived in Naples."H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aureliano In Palmira
''Aureliano in Palmira'' is an operatic ''dramma serio'' in two acts written by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto in which the librettist was credited only by the initials "G. F. R." The libretto has generally been attributed to Felice Romani, but sometimes to the otherwise unknown Gian Francesco Romanelli. It has been suggested that the latter name may have resulted from a confusion of Romani with Luigi Romanelli, La Scala's house poet prior to Romani's appointment to the post. The story was based on the libretto by Gaetano Sertor for Pasquale Anfossi's 1789 opera '' Zenobia in Palmira'' and it centers on the rivalry between the Roman Emperor Aurelian and Prince Arsace of Persia over the beautiful Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra. The act 1 duet between Zenobia and Arsace, "Se tu m'ami, o mia regina" (If you love me, oh my queen), was greatly admired by Stendhal. Although he had never seen a complete performance of ''Aureliano in Palmira'', he heard the duet in a c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Overture
Overture (from French ''ouverture'', "opening") in music was originally the instrumental introduction to a ballet, opera, or oratorio in the 17th century. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn composed overtures which were independent, self-existing instrumental, programmatic works that foreshadowed genres such as the symphonic poem. These were "at first undoubtedly intended to be played at the head of a programme". History 17th century The idea of an instrumental opening to opera existed during the 17th century. Peri's '' Euridice'' opens with a brief instrumental ritornello, and Monteverdi's ''L'Orfeo'' (1607) opens with a toccata, in this case a fanfare for muted trumpets. More important, however, was the prologue, which comprised sung dialogue between allegorical characters which introduced the overarching themes of the stories depicted. French overture As a musical form, however, the French overture first appears in the court balle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his eidetic memory. He was at various times the music director of La Scala in Milan and the New York Philharmonic. Later in his career he was appointed the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937–54), and this led to his becoming a household name (especially in the United States) through his radio and television broadcasts and many recordings of the operatic and symphonic repertoire. Biography Early years Toscanini was born in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, and won a scholarship to the local music conservatory, where he studied the cello. Living conditions at the conservatory were harsh and strict. For example, the menu at the conservatory consisted almost entirely of fish; in his later years, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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