|
Taverner (opera)
''Taverner'' is an opera with music and libretto by Peter Maxwell Davies. It is based on the life of the 16th-century English composer John Taverner, but in what Davies himself acknowledged was a non-realistic treatment. The gestation for the opera dated as far back as 1956 during Davies's years in Manchester, and continued when he went to Princeton University in 1962. Davies produced several instrumental works related to the opera during this gestation period, including the ''Points and Dances from 'Taverner and the ''Second Fantasia on John Taverner's "In Nomine"''. Davies had completed the opera in 1968, but lost parts of the score in a fire at his Dorset cottage in 1969, which necessitated recomposition. Davies employs a theme from the 'Benedictus' of Taverner's Mass ''Gloria Tibi Trinitas'' as a recurring motif throughout the work. This theme, taken from the section beginning 'in nomine omini, gained popularity among later composers of the English renaissance in the form of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (8 September 1934 – 14 March 2016) was an English composer and conductor, who in 2004 was made Master of the Queen's Music. As a student at both the University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Music, Davies formed a group dedicated to contemporary music called the New Music Manchester with fellow students Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Elgar Howarth and John Ogdon. Davies’s compositions include eight works for the stage—from the monodrama ''Eight Songs for a Mad King'', which shocked the audience in 1969, to ''Kommilitonen!'', first performed in 2011—and ten symphonies, written between 1973 and 2013. As a conductor, Davies was artistic director of the Dartington International Summer School from 1979 to 1984 and associate conductor/composer with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 1992 to 2002, holding the latter position with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra as well. Early life and education Davies was born in Holly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sarah Caldwell
Sarah Caldwell (March 6, 1924March 23, 2006) was an American opera conducting, conductor, impresario, and stage director. Early life Caldwell was born in Maryville, Missouri, and grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She was a child prodigy and gave public performances on the violin by the time she was ten years old. She graduated from Fayetteville High School (Arkansas), Fayetteville High School at the age of 14. Caldwell graduated from Hendrix College in 1944 and attended the University of Arkansas as well as the New England Conservatory of Music. She won a scholarship as a viola player at the Berkshire Music Center in 1946. In 1947, she staged Ralph Vaughan Williams, Vaughan Williams's ''Riders to the Sea''. For 11 years she served as the chief assistant to Boris Goldovsky. Career Caldwell moved to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1952 and became head of the Boston University opera workshop. In 1957 she started the Boston Opera Group with $5,000. This became the Opera Company of B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Lanigan (tenor)
John Lanigan (7 January 1921 – 1 August 1996) was an operatic tenor. Born in Australia, he studied singing in Italy and made a 30-year career at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London from 1951 to 1981. He sang more than 80 roles for the Covent Garden company. In his early years he played leading lyric tenor roles, and later became known for his performances in character parts. He created roles in new operas by, among others, Britten, Tippett, Davies and Henze. Life and career Lanigan was born in Seddon, Victoria, Australia. His father was a keen amateur tenor and his mother was a professional singer, a member of J. C. Williamson's Gilbert and Sullivan company under the name Lucy Colahan.Forbes, Elizabeth"Obituary: John Lanigan" ''The Independent'', 22 August 1996 Lanigan studied with Horace Stevens at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. He served in the Royal Australian Corps of Signals during the Second World War, and while still in the armed forces he competed in the Me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Wolsey
Thomas Wolsey ( – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figure in virtually all matters of state. He also held important ecclesiastical appointments. These included the Archbishopric of York—the second most important role in the English church—and that of papal legate. His appointment as a cardinal by Pope Leo X in 1515 gave him precedence over all other English clergy. The highest political position Wolsey attained was Lord Chancellor, the king's chief adviser (formally, as his successor and disciple Thomas Cromwell was not). In that position, he enjoyed great freedom and was often depicted as an ''alter rex'' ("other king"). After failing to negotiate an annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Wolsey fell out of favour and was stripped of his government titles. He retreated to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagreement with Pope Clement VII about such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated by the pope. Henry is also known as "the father of the Royal Navy" as he invested heavily in the navy and increased its size from a few to more than 50 ships, and established the Navy Board. Domestically, Henry is known for his radical changes to the English Constitution, ushering in the theory of the divine right of kings in opposition to papal supremacy. He also greatly expanded royal power during his reign. He frequently used charges of treason and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raimund Herincx
Raimund Frederick Herincx (23 August 1927 in LondonGrove, ''Herincx, Raimund'' – 10 February 2018), was a British operatic bass-baritone. Through a varied international career, Herincx performed in most of the world's great opera houses and with many of the world's leading symphony orchestras, having been in demand in international opera and in the choral and orchestral field. He is also featured in many recordings, some of which are creator's recordings and others, first recordings. Career During the first ten years of his career he sang, as principal baritone, with both the Welsh National Opera and Sadler's Wells Opera companies, singing in over 400 performances and 40 major roles with the latter. A parallel international career developed as he was engaged for guest appearances in the opera houses of Paris, Brussels, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Stuttgart. Concert appearances in Rome, Madrid, Athens, Lisbon and Stockholm were also part of his itinerary. His BBC Promenade Concert de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the title role in ''Der fliegende Holländer'', Wotan/Der Wanderer in the ''Ring Cycle'' and Hans Sachs in '' Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg''. Wagner labelled these roles as ''Hoher Bass'' ("high bass")—see fach for more details. The bass-baritone voice is distinguished by two attributes. First, it must be capable of singing comfortably in a baritonal tessitura. Secondly, however, it needs to have the ripely resonant lower range typically associated with the bass voice. For example, the role of Wotan in ''Die Walküre'' covers the range from F2 (the F at the bottom of the bass clef) to F4 (the F above middle C), but only infrequently descends beyond C3 (the C below middle C). Bass-baritones are typically divide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benjamin Luxon
Benjamin Matthew Luxon (born 24 March 1937, Redruth, Cornwall) is a retired British baritone. Biography He studied with Walther Gruner at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (while working part-time as a PE teacher in the East End) and established an international reputation as a singer at the age of 21 when he won the third prize at the 1961 ARD International Music Competition in Munich. Soon afterward he joined composer Benjamin Britten's English Opera Group. On their tour of the Soviet Union in 1963, he sang the roles of Sid and Tarquinius in Britten's operas ''Albert Herring'' and ''The Rape of Lucretia'', respectively. In 1971, Britten composed the title role of his television opera ''Owen Wingrave'' specifically for Luxon's voice; Luxon created the role later that year with the English Opera Group. The following year, 1972, Luxon made his début at both the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden – creating the role of the Jester in Peter Maxwell Davies' opera '' Tav ... [...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] |
Gillian Knight
Gillian Knight (born 1 November 1934) is an English opera singer and actress, known for her performances in the contralto roles of the Savoy operas. After six years from 1959 to 1965 starring in these roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Knight began a grand opera career. Knight joined Sadler's Wells Opera (now known as English National Opera) in 1968 and, in 1970, went on to Royal Opera House, the Royal Opera, where she performed numerous roles over a period of more than three decades. Knight has performed with many other opera companies in Britain, Europe and America and at houses internationally and has recorded many of her Gilbert and Sullivan and grand opera roles. Beginnings and D'Oyly Carte years Knight was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, England, and educated in Birmingham. She won a five-year scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied with May Blythe and Roy Henderson (baritone), Roy Henderson. She sang in concerts, oratorio and on televisi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Contralto
A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typically between the F below middle C (F3 in scientific pitch notation) to the second F above middle C (F5), although, at the extremes, some voices can reach the D below middle C (D3) or the second B above middle C (B5). The contralto voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, lyric, and dramatic contralto. History "Contralto" is primarily meaningful only in reference to classical and operatic singing, as other traditions lack a comparable system of vocal categorization. The term "contralto" is only applied to female singers; men singing in a similar range are called "countertenors". The Italian terms "contralto" and "alto" are not synonymous, "alto" technically denoting a specific vocal range in choral singing without regard to factors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ragnar Ulfung
Ragnar Sigurd Ulfung (born 28 February 1927) is a Norwegian operatic tenor. Described in the ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' as "a brilliant actor with an incisive voice", he was particularly known for his portrayals of Herod (''Salome'') and Mime (''Der Ring des Nibelungen'').Blyth (2001) p. 60 He is also an opera director. Amongst the productions he has directed was a complete ''Ring'' cycle for the Seattle Opera. Ulfung was born in Oslo and studied there and in Milan before making his debut in ''Let's Make an Opera'' (Oslo, 1950). He made a successful debut at the Royal Swedish Opera in 1958 as Canio in ''Pagliacci'' and remained a member of the company until 1984. However, he also made guest appearances abroad. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera on 12 December 1972 as Mime in ''Siegfried'' and went on to sing 93 performances there between 1972 and 1993. In 1975 he appeared in Ingmar Bergman's celebrated film of Mozart's ''The Magic Flute'' in the role of Mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
