The Violins Of Saint-Jacques
   HOME
*





The Violins Of Saint-Jacques
''The Violins of Saint-Jacques'' is an opera in three acts by Malcolm Williamson to an English libretto by William Chappell after the 1953 novel by Patrick Leigh Fermor.Covell, R. The Violins of Saint-Jacques. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, London & New York, 1997. It was first performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London on 29 November 1966 by Sadler's Wells Opera in a production by Chappell and was revived there and at the London Coliseum in the years immediately following.Webber, C. Guilty Pleasures? Christopher Webber makes the case for Malcolm Williamson. ''Opera'', August 2013, 988-991. Although the opera depicts spectacular scenes on the ocean, a creole carnival and an exploding volcano, the plot is essentially "an intimate romantic drama about young people in love, all the more poignant because of its pointlessness". Musical highlights include the Quartet 'I have another world to show you' and Berthe's aria 'Each afternoon when the swooning breezes ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson, (21 November 19312 March 2003) was an Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death. Biography Williamson was born in Sydney in 1931; his father was an Anglican priest, Rev. George Williamson. He studied composition and horn at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. His teachers included Eugene Goossens. In 1950 he moved to London where he worked as an organist, a proofreader, and a nightclub pianist. In 1952 he converted to Roman Catholicism. From 1953 he studied with Elisabeth Lutyens and Erwin Stein. His first major success was with his Piano Concerto No. 1, premiered by Clive Lythgoe at the 1958 Cheltenham Festival to a standing ovation. Williamson was a prolific composer at this time, receiving many commissions and often performing his own works, both on organ and piano. In 1975, the death of Arthur Bliss left the title of Master of the Queen's Music vacant. The selection of Williamson ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owned body that is politically independent and fully accountable, with its charter enshrined in legislation, the ''Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983''. ABC Commercial, a profit-making division of the corporation, also helps to generate funding for content provision. The ABC was established as the Australian Broadcasting Commission on 1 July 1932 by an act of federal parliament. It effectively replaced the Australian Broadcasting Company, a private company established in 1924 to provide programming for A-class radio stations. The ABC was given statutory powers that reinforced its independence from the government and enhanced its news-gathering role. Modelled after the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which is funded by a tel ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


David Hillman (tenor)
David Hillman (21 November 1934 – 8 August 2009) was an English operatic tenor who sang with all the leading opera companies in the United Kingdom. Early career David Hillman was born in London, England. From 1957 to 1962, he worked as a quantity surveyor. From 1960 to 1963, he studied at the National Opera School with Joan Cross, and he also studied privately with Antony Benskin and Otakar Kraus. His professional opera debut was as Arvino in ''I Lombardi'' with Welsh National Opera in 1962, and early engagements with that company and with Sadler's Wells Opera included the principal tenor roles in '' The Queen of Spades'', ''La traviata'', ''The Magic Flute'', ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'', ''La bohème'' and ''Gloriana'', as well as those in ''The Mikado'', ''Ruddigore'', and ''La belle Hélène''. Major debuts and premières Hillman debuted at the Netherlands Opera in 1972 as Tom Rakewell in ''The Rake's Progress'', at Santa Fe Opera in 1974 as Fritz in ''La G ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

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]  


Patricia Kern
Patricia Kern (14 July 192719 October 2015) was a British mezzo-soprano and voice teacher. Early years Patricia Kern was born in Swansea, Wales, the only daughter of a master shipwright, Clifford James Kern, and Doris Hilday (née Boyle). Patricia started her music career as a child star in cabarets and concerts at the age of five, wearing top hats and tails. During the Great Depression, Patricia became the family's chief breadwinner when her father lost his job. Singing career From 1949 to 1952, Kern studied with Gwynn Parry Jones at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. She began her career with Opera for All (1952–1955). In 1959, Kern joined Sadler's Wells, making her début in ''Rusalka'', and remained as a member of the company for ten seasons. She was noted for interpretations of ''La Cenerentola'', Rosina (''The Barber of Seville''), Isolier (''Le comte Ory'') and Isabella (''L'italiana in Algeri''). Her other roles included ''Iolanthe'', Hänsel, Cherubino ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above (i.e. A3–A5 in scientific pitch notation, where middle C = C4; 220–880 Hz). In the lower and upper extremes, some mezzo-sopranos may extend down to the F below middle C (F3, 175 Hz) and as high as "high C" (C6, 1047 Hz). The mezzo-soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, lyric, and dramatic mezzo-soprano. History While mezzo-sopranos typically sing secondary roles in operas, notable exceptions include the title role in Bizet's '' Carmen'', Angelina (Cinderella) in Rossini's ''La Cenerentola'', and Rosina in Rossini's ''Barber of Seville'' (all of which are also sung by sopranos and contraltos). Many 19th-century French-language operas give the leading female role to mezzos, includin ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Jennifer Vyvyan
Jennifer Vyvyan (13 March 1925 – 5 April 1974) was a British classical soprano who had an active international career in operas, concerts, and recitals from 1948 up until her death in 1974. She possessed a beautifully clear, steady voice with considerable flexibility in florid music. She was praised for her subtle phrasing and her dramatic gifts enabled her to create vivid individual portrayals. Although she sang a broad repertoire, she is particularly remembered for her association with the works of Benjamin Britten; notably singing roles created for her in the world premieres of several of his operas with the English Opera Group. On the concert stage, Vyvyan was highly active as an oratorio singer. The warmth and flexibility of her voice made her an outstanding exponent of the music of Purcell, Handel and other baroque composers. She frequently collaborated with the Royal Choral Society, often under conductor Malcolm Sargent, and sang countless performances of Messiah through ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Owen Brannigan
Owen Brannigan OBE (10 March 19089 May 1973) was an English bass, known in opera for buffo roles and in concert for a wide range of solo parts in music ranging from Henry Purcell to Michael Tippett. He is best remembered for his roles in Mozart and Britten operas and for his recordings of roles in Britten, Offenbach and Gilbert and Sullivan operas, as well as recordings of English folk songs. Brannigan began as an amateur singer and attended music college part-time, while working as a joiner, until his quality was recognised and he was awarded a scholarship during World War II. Although he had an international opera career, he performed most frequently with English opera companies, particularly Sadler's Wells opera, and later at Glyndebourne and Covent Garden. Highlights of his broad repertory included creating three roles in Benjamin Britten's early operas, and two more in later Britten operas that were written specifically for him. On record and in concert at the Proms h ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

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]  


April Cantelo
April Rosemary Cantelo (born 2 April 1928) is an English soprano. Life and career Cantelo was born in Purbrook, Hampshire in 1928. She attended Chelmsford County High School for Girls. She studied in London under Vilém Tauský, Joan Cross, Imogen Holst and others. She sang in the Glyndebourne Chorus and then made her debut in Edinburgh in 1950 as Barbarina and Echo. Blyth, A. April Cantelo. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997. She played Rosetta in '' Love in a Village'', the pasticcio by Arne, at Aldeburgh in June 1952. In the first half of the 1950s she sang Barbarina, Countess Ceprano and Poussette at Covent Garden. Cantelo sang in the British premieres of Hans Werner Henze's ''Boulevard Solitude'' (Manon Lescaut) and Kurt Weill's ''Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny'' (Jenny). She appeared in the world premiere of Malcolm Williamson's '' English Eccentrics''. Among the roles she created are: * Lady in ''The Grace of Todd'' ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

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"
''

Vilém Tauský
Vilém Tauský CBE (20 July 1910, Přerov, Moravia – 16 March 2004, London) was a Czech conductor and composer who, from the advent of the Second World War, lived and worked in the UK, one of a significant group of émigré composers and musicians who settled there. Life Vilém Tauský was from a musical family: his Viennese mother had sung Mozart at the Vienna State Opera under Gustav Mahler, and her cousin was the operetta composer Leo Fall.'Tauský, Vilém'
by , ''Grove Music Online'' (2001)
Tauský studied with and later became a repetiteur at t ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]