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The Devil And Daniel Webster (opera)
''The Devil and Daniel Webster'' is a folk opera in one act by American composer Douglas Moore. The opera's English-language libretto was written by Stephen Vincent Benét who also penned the 1936 short story of the same name upon which the work is based. Composed from 1937 through 1939, it premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on 18 May 1939. The first opera by Moore to achieve wide success, it has remained a part of the opera repertory. Containing spoken words as well as sung material, Martin Bookspan stated that "the opera is really a 20th-century American singspiel, with extensive stretches of dialogue alternating with the musical numbers." The opera is set in 1840s New Hampshire within the fictional town of Cross Corners. Described as an "American Faust" for its similarities to the German tale with an American milieu, the opera tells the story of the farmer Jabez Stone who sells his soul to the devil. When the devil comes to collect his soul he is thwarted by t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Folk Music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, music that is played on traditional instruments, music about cultural or national identity, music that changes between generations (folk process), music associated with a people's folklore, or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. The term originated in the 19th century, but folk music extends beyond that. Starting in the mid-20th century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the (second) folk revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. This form of music is sometimes called contemporary folk music or folk rev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States. The publication has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes. It is owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by the Times Mirror Company. The newspaper’s coverage emphasizes California and especially Southern California stories. In the 19th century, the paper developed a reputation for civic boosterism and opposition to labor unions, the latter of which led to the bombing of its headquarters in 1910. The paper's profile grew substantially in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. In recent decades the paper's readership has declined, and it has been beset by a series of ownership changes, staff reductions, and other controversies. In January 2018, the paper's staff voted to unionize and final ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hathorne
John Hathorne (August 1641 – May 10, 1717) was a merchant and magistrate of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Salem, Massachusetts. He is best known for his early and vocal role as one of the leading judges in the Salem witch trials. Hathorne was absent from the list of men appointed to the Court of Oyer & Terminer in June 1692. That court relied heavily on the spectral evidence, examinations, interrogations, and affidavits previously conducted by Hathorne, co-signed by Jonathan Corwin, and recorded by Rev. Samuel Parris and/or Ezekiel Cheever Jr. On September 22, 1692, the date of the final eight executions, Hathorne was present at a meetingSewall Diary with Stoughton and Cotton Mather to discuss using court records in a new publication designed to promote the trials. Unlike Samuel Sewall, Hathorne is not known to have repented for his actions. He was a Patrilineality, patrilineal ancestor of writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Life Hathorne's father, Major William Hathorne, was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Stewart (actor)
Fred Stewart (December 7, 1906 – December 5, 1970) was an American actor and director who appeared on stage, film, and television. Stewart was born in Atlanta, Georgia and attended Oglethorpe University. As a young man, he operated the Playmakers Theatre in Atlanta from 1924 to 1927, and then made his stage debut with a company playing Huntington, West Virginia. He made his Broadway debut in 1931 in ''Ladies of Creation'' at the Cort Theatre, the start of a lengthy Broadway career including plays such as ''Brigadoon'' (1950 production) ''The Crucible'' (1953, original cast) and '' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' (1955, original cast), and through ''More Stately Mansions'' (1967–68), a play by Eugene O'Neill.(7 December 1970)Fred Stewart, 63, of Actors Studio ''The New York Times'', p. 48 Stewart also debuted in movies in 1931, with film appearances including in ''Splendor in the Grass'' (1961) and '' In the Heat of the Night'' (1967). He also debuted on television in 1939. He was p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Rasely
George Rasely (October 27, 1890, St. Louis, Missouri – 3 January 1965, Lawrence, Kansas) was an American tenor who had an active career in operas, concerts, and musicals during the first half of the 20th century. He was also a frequent performer on American radio during the 1920s through the 1940s. He won the National Music League singing competition in 1927 and the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation vocal competition in 1928. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Rasely made his Broadway theatre, Broadway debut in 1917 as Nur-Al-Huda in Frederic Norton's ''Chu Chin Chow''. He was a part of The Greenwich Village Follies between 1922 and 1924. He returned to Broadway again in 1939 to portray Mr. Scratch in ''The Devil and Daniel Webster (opera), The Devil and Daniel Webster''. His other Broadway credits include ''La Vie parisienne (operetta), La Vie parisienne'' (1941), ''Helen Goes to Troy'' (1944), and ''Hollywood Pinafore'' (1945). In 1928, he was committed to the Philadelphia Civic Ope ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tenor
A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is widely defined to be B2, though some roles include an A2 (two As below middle C). At the highest extreme, some tenors can sing up to the second F above middle C (F5). The tenor voice type is generally divided into the ''leggero'' tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, heldentenor, and tenor buffo or . History The name "tenor" derives from the Latin word ''wikt:teneo#Latin, tenere'', which means "to hold". As Fallows, Jander, Forbes, Steane, Harris and Waldman note in the "Tenor" article at ''Grove Music Online'': In polyphony between about 1250 and 1500, the [tenor was the] structurally fundamental (or 'holding') voice, vocal or instrumental; by the 15th century it came to signify the male voice that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lansing Hatfield
Lansing Hatfield (February 4, 1910, Franklin, Virginia - August 22, 1954, Asheville, North Carolina) was an American bass-baritone and radio personality who had an active performance career in operas, operettas, musicals, and concerts from mid 1930s until the late 1940s. He is best remembered for his frequent performances on American radio during the late 1930s and early 1940s, and two roles he created on Broadway: Daniel Webster in Douglas Moore's 1939 opera ''The Devil and Daniel Webster'' at the Martin Beck Theatre, and Reverend Alfred Davidson in Vernon Duke and Howard Dietz's 1944 musical '' Sadie Thompson'' at the Alvin Theatre. In 1941 he won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air, and was a resident artist at the Met from 1941 to 1944. Early life, education, and initial career Born in Franklin, Virginia, Hatfield graduated from Lenoir–Rhyne University and then worked as a public school teacher before his career as a singer. While a student at Lenoir-Rhyne he sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baritone
A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C (i.e. F2–F4) in choral music, and from the second A below middle C to the A above middle C (A2 to A4) in operatic music, but the range can extend at either end. Subtypes of baritone include the baryton-Martin baritone (light baritone), lyric baritone, ''Kavalierbariton'', Verdi baritone, dramatic baritone, ''baryton-noble'' baritone, and the bass-baritone. History The first use of the term "baritone" emerged as ''baritonans'', late in the 15th century, usually in French sacred polyphonic music. At this early stage it was frequently used as the lowest of the voices (including the bass), but in 17th-century Italy the term was all-encompassing and used to describe the averag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nancy McCord
Nancy McCord (died July 8, 1974, Arcadia, California) was an American soprano and actress who had an active career in opera, musical theatre, and vaudeville during the 1920s, 1930s and early 1940s. She appeared in operettas and musicals on Broadway and in operas with several American companies, including the St. Louis Municipal Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. Her repertoire consisted mainly of roles from light opera and operettas. She is best remembered for creating the roles of Marie-Baroness von Schlewitz in the original production of Oscar Hammerstein II and Sigmund Romberg's ''May Wine'' (1935); and Mary Stone in the world premiere of Douglas Moore's ''The Devil and Daniel Webster'' (1939). She also performed leading roles in the United States premieres of two operettas: Franz Lehár's ''The Land of Smiles'' (1933, Boston) and Robert Stolz's ''Venus in Seide'' (1935, Saint Louis). Career A native of Long Island, New York, McCord studied singing with Marcella Sembrich a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880 Hz in choral music, or to "soprano C" (C6, two octaves above middle C) = 1046 Hz or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which often encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, soubrette, lyric, spinto, and dramatic soprano. Etymology The word "soprano" comes from the Italian word '' sopra'' (above, over, on top of),"Soprano" '' |
John Gurney (bass-baritone)
John R. Gurney (June 13, 1902 — August 6, 1997) was an American bass-baritone who had an active career as an opera, concert, vaudeville, and musical theatre performer from the 1920s through the 1940s. He was a principal artist at the Metropolitan Opera from 1936 through 1945 where he performed a total of 331 times. On the international stage he performed in operas at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro. He is best remembered for creating roles in the world premieres of Walter Damrosch's ''The Man Without a Country'' (1937, Colonel Morgan) and Douglas Moore's ''The Devil and Daniel Webster'' (1939, Jabez Stone). He recorded the role of Don Basilio in Rossini's ''The Barber of Seville'' which was release by RCA Camden in 1957. Gurney's son is racecar driver Dan Gurney. Education and performance career Born in Jamestown, New York, Gurney was the son of F. W. Gurney; the founder and industrialist of the Gurney Elevator Company. He graduated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bass (voice Type)
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] |
