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The Seven Deadly Sins (ballet Chanté)
''The Seven Deadly Sins'' (german: Die sieben Todsünden, link=no, french: Les sept péchés capitaux, link=no) is a satirical ''ballet chanté'' ("sung ballet") in seven scenes (nine movements, including a Prologue and Epilogue) composed by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht in 1933 under a commission from Boris Kochno and Edward James. It was translated into English by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman and more recently by Michael Feingold. It was the last major collaboration between Weill and Brecht. Origins With the Nazi seizure of power following the Reichstag fire of 27 February 1933, Brecht and Weill–especially Weill as a Jew–recognized that Berlin could no longer serve as their artistic home. Brecht left Berlin and traveled to Paris, stayed briefly in Prague, and then in Vienna. Less than a month later he was in Zurich and then moved to less expensive lodgings in Lugano, Switzerland. There a patron offered him living quarters in his summer home in Carona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of dance with its own vocabulary. Ballet has been influential globally and has defined the foundational techniques which are used in many other dance genres and cultures. Various schools around the world have incorporated their own cultures. As a result, ballet has evolved in distinct ways. A ''ballet'' as a unified work comprises the choreography and music for a ballet production. Ballets are choreographed and performed by trained ballet dancers. Traditional classical ballets are usually performed with classical music accompaniment and use elaborate costumes and staging, whereas modern ballets are often performed in simple costumes and without elaborate sets or scenery. Etymology Ballet is a French word which had its origin in Italian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Irving (conductor)
Robert Augustine Irving, DFC*, (28 August 191313 September 1991) was a British conductor whose reputation was mainly as a ballet conductor. Born in Winchester, England, the son of mountaineer and author R. L. G. Irving, he was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, graduating with a degree in music. He studied with Malcolm Sargent and Constant Lambert at the Royal College of Music from 1934 to 1936. During World War II, he served with the Royal Air Force, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and bar. He then became assistant conductor with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and was conductor and musical director of Sadler's Wells Ballet from 1949 to 1958, working closely with Sir Frederick Ashton on several ballets. Having assisted Ashton in choosing music for his ''Picnic at Tintagel'' for New York City Ballet in 1952, Irving helped the choreographer to surmount musical problems in the last act of his '' Sylvia'' in September the same y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's first music director. City Ballet grew out of earlier troupes: the Producing Company of the School of American Ballet, 1934; the American Ballet, 1935, and Ballet Caravan, 1936, which merged into American Ballet Caravan, 1941; and directly from the Ballet Society, 1946. History In a 1946 letter, Kirstein stated, "The only justification I have is to enable Balanchine to do exactly what he wants to do in the way he wants to do it."Alastair Macaulay, "A Paragon of the Arts, as Both Man and Titan" (review of Martin Du ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City Center
New York City Center (previously known as the Mecca Temple, City Center of Music and Drama,. The name "City Center for Music and Drama Inc." is the organizational parent of the New York City Ballet and, until 2011, the New York City Opera. and the New York City Center 55th Street Theater) is a 2,257-seat Moorish Revival theater at 131 West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, one block south of Carnegie Hall. City Center is a performing home for several major dance companies as well as the Encores! musical theater series and the Fall for Dance Festival. The center is currently headed by Arlene Shuler, a former ballet dancer who has been president since 2003. The facility houses the 2,257 seat main stage, two smaller theaters, four studios and a 12-story office tower.New York Times, March 17, 2010, pg C1, "City Center Is to Start Renovations", by Robin Pogrebin Architecture The building's design is Neo-Moorish and features elaborate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Abravanel
Maurice Abravanel (January 6, 1903 – September 22, 1993) was an American classical music conductor. He is remembered as the conductor of the Utah Symphony Orchestra for over 30 years. Life Abravanel was born in Salonika, Rumelia Eyalet, Ottoman Empire (modern Thessaloniki, Greece). He came from an illustrious Sephardic Jewish family, which was expelled from Spain in 1492 (see Isaac Abrabanel). Abravanel's ancestors settled in Salonika in 1517, and his parents were both born there. In 1909, the Abravanel family moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, where his father, Edouard de Abravanel, was a successful pharmacist. For several years, the Abravanels lived in the same house as Ernest Ansermet, the conductor of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. The young Abravanel played four-hand piano arrangements with Ansermet, began to compose, and met composers such as Darius Milhaud and Igor Stravinsky. He was passionate about music and knew he wanted a career as a musician. He became the piani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anja Silja
Anja Silja Regina Langwagen (, born 17 April 1940) is a German soprano singer. Biography Born in Berlin, Silja began her operatic career at a very early age, with her grandfather, Egon Friedrich Maria Anders van Rijn, as her voice teacher. She sang Rosina in Rossini's ''The Barber of Seville'' in Braunschweig in 1956, followed by Micaëla in Bizet's ''Carmen'' and Zerbinetta in ''Ariadne auf Naxos'' by Richard Strauss. She had a breakthrough in 1959 as the Queen of Night in Mozart's ''Die Zauberflöte'' at the Vienna State Opera, conducted by Karl Böhm, and also at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. ''France-Soir'' dubbed her "a second Callas." Other early roles included Leonora in Verdi's ''Il trovatore'', Santuzza in Mascagni's ''Cavalleria rusticana'', the four heroines of Offenbach's ''Les contes d'Hoffmann'', Konstanze in Mozart's ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'', and Fiordiligi in Mozart's ''Così fan tutte''. She made her debut in 1960 at the Bayreuth Festival, as Senta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teresa Stratas
Teresa Stratas (born May 26, 1938) is a retired operatic soprano from Canada of Greek descent. She is especially well known for her award-winning recording of Alban Berg's ''Lulu''. Early life and career Stratas was born Anastasia Stratakis to a struggling immigrant Cretan family in Oshawa, near Toronto, Ontario. At age 13, she performed Greek pop songs on the radio. She graduated from The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. At age 20, Stratas made her professional opera debut as Mimì in ''La bohème'' at the Toronto Opera Festival. One year later in 1959, she co-won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, appearing later that year with the Metropolitan Opera as Poussette in ''Manon''. She created the title role in Peggy Glanville-Hicks' ''Nausicaa'' at the Herod Atticus Theatre in Athens in 1961, made her Covent Garden debut as Mimì that same year and in 1962, she made her La Scala debut as Isabella in Manuel de Falla's ''L'Atlántida''. She continued her car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anne Sofie Von Otter
Anne Sofie von Otter (born 9 May 1955) is a Swedish mezzo-soprano. Her repertoire encompasses lieder, operas, oratorios and also rock and pop songs. Early life Von Otter was born in Stockholm, Sweden. Her father was Göran von Otter, a Swedish diplomat in Berlin during World War II. She grew up in Bonn, London and Stockholm. She studied in Stockholm and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where her teachers included Vera Rózsa. In 1982, she won second prize in the ARD International Music Competition. From 1983 to 1985, she was an ensemble member of the Basel Opera, where she made her professional operatic début as Alcina in Haydn's ''Orlando paladino''. She made her Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, début in 1985 and her La Scala debut in 1987. Her Metropolitan Opera début was in December 1988 as Cherubino in '' The Marriage of Figaro''. Career Her recording of Grieg songs won the 1993 '' Gramophone'' Record of the Year, the first time in the awar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Seven Deadly Sins (album)
''The Seven Deadly Sins'' is a studio recording of the Kurt Weill opera of the same name by British singer Marianne Faithfull, released in 1998. Background and recording Marianne Faithfull had already performed ''The Seven Deadly Sins'' live at St. Anne's Cathedral in Brooklyn, but it was only after working with Dennis Russell Davies on ''20th Century Blues'' that the idea of recording the opera came to her. Davies agreed to collaborate again with her, and the album was recorded in June 1997 at the Vienna Konzerthaus with Davies conducting the Vienna Radio Symphony orchestra."Memories, Dreams & Reflections", Marianne Faithfull, Chapter: ''My Weimar Period'' (July 7, 2008), Harper Perennial The recording also includes other songs by Weill & Brecht like the "Alabama Song" and songs from ''The Threepenny Opera'', which Marianne Faithfull also performed live in 1992 at the Dublin Gate Theater, playing the role of the prostitute Jenny and interpreting the famous Pirate Jenny song. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (born 29 December 1946) is an English singer and actress. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single " As Tears Go By" and became one of the lead female artists during the British Invasion in the United States. Born in Hampstead, London, Faithfull began her career in 1964 after attending a Rolling Stones party, where she was discovered by Andrew Loog Oldham. Her debut album ''Marianne Faithfull'' (1965) (released simultaneously with her album '' Come My Way'') was a commercial success followed by a number of albums on Decca Records. From 1966 to 1970, she had a highly publicised romantic relationship with Mick Jagger. Her popularity was further enhanced by her film roles, such as those in '' I'll Never Forget What's'isname'' (1967), '' The Girl on a Motorcycle'' (1968), and ''Hamlet'' (1969). However, her popularity was overshadowed by personal problems in the 1970s. During that time she was anorexic, homeless, and a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
