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The Canterbury Pilgrims (De Koven)
''The Canterbury Pilgrims'' is an opera by the American composer Reginald De Koven. It premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House on March 8, 1917 just as the US was on the verge of declaring war on Germany. The unfolding world events caused its cancellation after just five performances. The libretto, written by Percy MacKaye, is loosely based on Geoffrey Chaucer's '' The Canterbury Tales''. Roles Synopsis Place: England. Time: April, 1387.The synopsis is taken from Leo Melitz, The Opera Goer's Complete Guide, 1921 version. The story has to do with the merry schemes of the Wife of Bath, who has fallen in love with Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ... who in his turn loves the Prioress, and of her winning of a bet to gain possession of a certain brooch wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reginald De Koven
Henry Louis Reginald De Koven (April 3, 1859January 16, 1920) was an American music critic and prolific composer, particularly of comic operas. Biography De Koven was born in Middletown, Connecticut, and moved to Europe in 1870, where he received the majority of his education. He graduated B.A. from St John's College, Oxford in England in 1880. He undertook piano studies at Stuttgart Conservatory with Wilhelm Speidel, Sigmund Lebert, and Dionys Pruckner. He studied composition at Frankfurt with Johann Christian Hauff, and after staying there for six months moved on to Florence, Italy, where he studied singing with Luigi Vanuccini. Study in operatic composition followed, first with Richard Genée in Vienna and then with Léo Delibes in Paris. De Koven returned to the U.S. in 1882 to live in Chicago, Illinois, and later lived in New York City. He was able to find scope for his wide musical knowledge as a critic with Chicago's ''Evening Post'', ''Harper's Weekly'' and ''New York W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Althouse
Paul Shearer Althouse (December 2, 1889 – February 6, 1954) was an American opera singer. He began his career as a lyric tenor with a robust Italianate sound, in roles including Cavaradossi in ''Tosca'', Pinkerton in ''Madama Butterfly'', and Turiddu in ''Cavalleria rusticana''. He later branched out into the dramatic tenor repertoire, finding success in portraying Wagnerian heroes. He sang with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for 30 years. Biography He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on December 2, 1889 to Harry Jacob Althouse (1871-1937) and Laura May Shearer (1873-1942). Althouse sang as a boy soprano in the choir of his hometown's Episcopal Church. He received his first voice lessons at the church from Evelyn Essick. He studied music at Bucknell University and then singing privately with Perley Dunn Aldrich in Philadelphia and Oscar Saenger and Percy Rector Stevens in New York City. He made his professional opera debut with the Philadelphia-Chicago Grand Opera Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English-language Operas
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots, and then closest related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages, English is genealogically West Germanic. However, its vocabulary is also distinctively influenced by dialects of France (about 29% of Modern English words) and Latin (also about 29%), plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language). Speakers of English are called Anglophones. The earliest forms of English, collectively known as Old English, evolved from a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century and further mutated by Norse-speaking Viking settlers starting in the 8th and 9th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1917 Operas
Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's Desert Column. * January 10 – Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: Seven survivors of the Ross Sea party were rescued after being stranded for several months. * January 11 – Unknown saboteurs set off the Kingsland Explosion at Kingsland (modern-day Lyndhurst, New Jersey), one of the events leading to United States involvement in WWI. * January 16 – The Virgin Islands, Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million. * January 22 – WWI: United States President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Germany. * January 25 ** WWI: British armed merchantman is sunk by mines off Lough Swilly (Ireland), with the loss of 354 of the 475 aboard. ** An anti-prostitution drive in Prostitution in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operas
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor. Although musical theatre is closely related to opera, the two are considered to be distinct from one another. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition. Originally understood as an entirely sung piece, in contrast to a play with songs, opera has come to include numerous genres, including some that include spoken dialogue such as ''Singspiel'' and ''Opéra comique''. In traditional number opera, singers employ two styles of singing: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard II
Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father died in 1376, leaving Richard as heir apparent to his grandfather, King Edward III; upon the latter's death, the 10-year-old Richard succeeded to the throne. During Richard's first years as king, government was in the hands of a series of regency councils, influenced by Richard's uncles John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock. England then faced various problems, most notably the Hundred Years' War. A major challenge of the reign was the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, and the young king played a central part in the successful suppression of this crisis. Less warlike than either his father or grandfather, he sought to bring an end to the Hundred Years' War. A firm believer in the royal prerogative, Richard restrained the power of the aristocracy and r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific ''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament. Among Chaucer's many other works are ''The Book of the Duchess'', ''The House of Fame'', ''The Legend of Good Women'', and ''Troilus and Criseyde''. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fyndere of ou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minnie Egener
Minnie Egener (1881–1938) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano. Biography She made her professional opera debut in 1904 at the Metropolitan Opera as one of the flower maidens in Richard Wagner's ''Parsifal''. In 1906 she moved to Italy and spent the next several years performing in operas with various theaters throughout that nation. In 1910 she performed the role of Alissa in Donizetti's ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' with Luisa Tetrazzini at the Teatro Regio di Parma; she also appeared in small roles at Covent Garden and at the Manhattan Center. Over the next four years she performed in several operas with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company and the Chicago Grand Opera Company. In 1914 she returned to the Metropolitan Opera, where she performed mostly comprimario roles for the next eighteen years. Most notably, Egener performed in the original productions of Frederick Delius's ''A Village Romeo and Juliet'' in 1907, Reginald De Koven's ''The Canterbury Pilgrims'' in 1917, Pucci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marie Tiffany
Marie Berg Tiffany (July 8, 1881 - April 12, 1948) was an American operatic soprano. She was a member of the Metropolitan Opera in Manhattan, New York City from 1916 to 1928; making a total of 208 appearances at the Met during her career. She created roles in several world premieres at the Met and was notably the only performer to appear in all three one act operas at the premiere of Giacomo Puccini's ''Il Trittico'' in 1918. Biography She was born Marie Berg on July 8, 1881 in Chicago, Illinois. Tiffany married court reporter Willis N. Tiffany in 1900 and resided with him for 16 years in California where she was a soloist at the First Presbyterian Church of Pasadena. In 1916 she moved to New York City, where she soon became a member of the Metropolitan Opera. She made her Met debut on November 17, 1916 as the Milliner in Richard Strauss' ''Der Rosenkavalier'' under conductor Artur Bodanzky. She remained at the Met for the next 12 years, singing mainly comprimario roles. She perf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basil Ruysdael
Basil Spaulding Millspaugh (July 24, 1878 – October 10, 1960), known as Basil Ruysdael, was an American actor and opera singer. Early life Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, as Basil Spaulding Millspaugh, Ruysdael was the son of Dr and Mrs Charles Millspaugh. He graduated from Waverly High School and attended Cornell University from 1898–99 as a special student in mechanical engineering and sang with the Cornell University Glee Club. He sang secondary roles in the German repertoire at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as a bass-baritone from 1910 to 1918, appearing with such popular opera stars as Leo Slezak and Geraldine Farrar. Stage career Early in his career, Ruysdael appeared on the New York stage. His Broadway credits include ''Enchanted Isle'' (1927), ''The Cocoanuts'' (1925), ''Topsy and Eva'' (1924), and ''Robin Hood'' (1912). Film career Ruysdael was also a prolific character actor in films. He is probably best known to modern audiences as Detective Hennessy in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bass (vocal Range)
A bass is a type of classical male singing voice and has the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', a bass is typically classified as having a vocal range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C (i.e., E2–E4).; ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'' gives E2–E4/F4 Its tessitura, or comfortable range, is normally defined by the outermost lines of the bass clef. Categories of bass voices vary according to national style and classification system. Italians favour subdividing basses into the ''basso cantante'' (singing bass), ''basso buffo'' ("funny" bass), or the dramatic ''basso profondo'' (low bass). The American system identifies the bass-baritone, comic bass, lyric bass, and dramatic bass. The German ''Fach'' system offers further distinctions: Spielbass (Bassbuffo), Schwerer Spielbass (Schwerer Bassbuffo), Charakterbass (Bassbariton), and Seriöser Bass. These classification systems can ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Leonhardt
Robert Leonhardt (December 27, 1872 – February 2, 1923) was an Austrian operatic baritone who sang several notable roles with the New York Metropolitan Opera between 1913 and 1922. He made numerous recordings for major record labels, both in Europe and in the United States. Biography Leonhardt was born in 1872 in Linz. His operatic debut was in 1898, in Linz. For four years he found permanent employment at the German Theatre in Prague starting in 1905. Specializing in Wagnerian roles, he sang in Brno from 1909 to 1911, and from 1911 until 1913 with the Vienna Volksoper while also guesting with the Vienna Imperial Opera in 1909 and the Berlin Gura Summer Opera in 1910. In October 1913 it was announced that Leonhardt had joined the New York Metropolitan opera. Sailing from Bremen, he endured a difficult voyage before arriving in the U.S. on November 6. He first appeared on stage for his new employer in December in the role of Peter in Engelbert Humperdinck's opera '' Hänsel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
