The Bassarids
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The Bassarids
''The Bassarids'' (in German: ') is an opera in one act and an intermezzo, with music by Hans Werner Henze to an English libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, after Euripides's ''The Bacchae''. The conflict in the opera is between human rationality and emotional control, represented by the King of Thebes, Pentheus, and unbridled human passion, represented by the god Dionysus. Background The opera is constructed like a classical symphony in four 'movements': * Movement I = sonata form * Movement II = scherzo and trio * Movement III = adagio and fugue * Movement IV = passacaglia Henze has noted that he quotes from Johann Sebastian Bach's ''St Matthew Passion'' and the '' English Suite'' No. 6 in D minor. Auden and Kallman wrote of changes that they made to the Euripides original for the purposes of this opera. Performance history It was first performed in a German translation by Maria Basse-Sporleder in Salzburg on 6 August 1966 conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi. The f ...
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Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as traditional schools of German composition. In particular, his stage works reflect "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life". Henze was also known for his political convictions. He left Germany for Italy in 1953 because of a perceived intolerance towards his leftist politics and homosexuality. Late in life he lived in the village of Marino in the central Italian region of Lazio, and in his final years still travelled extensively, in particular to Britain and Germany, as part of his work. An avowed Marxist and member of the Italian Communist Party, Henze produced compositions honoring Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara. At the 1968 Hamburg premiere of his requiem for Che Guevara, titled ''Das Floß der Medusa'' (' ...
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English Suites (Bach)
The ''English Suites'', BWV 806–811, are a set of six suites written by the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach for harpsichord (or clavichord) and generally thought to be the earliest of his 19 suites for keyboard (discounting several less well-known earlier suites), the others being the six French Suites (BWV 812–817), the six Partitas (BWV 825-830) and the Overture in the French style (BWV 831). They probably date from around 1713 or 1714. History These six suites for keyboard are thought to be the earliest set that Bach composed aside from several miscellaneous suites written when he was much younger. Bach's English Suites display less affinity with Baroque English keyboard style than do the French Suites to French Baroque keyboard style. It has also been suggested that the name is a tribute to Charles Dieupart, whose fame was greatest in England, and on whose ''Six Suittes de clavessin'' Bach's English Suites were in part based.Grove's Dictionary of Music and Music ...
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Vienna Philharmonic
The Vienna Philharmonic (VPO; german: Wiener Philharmoniker, links=no) is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and is considered to be one of the finest in the world. The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. Its members are selected from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. Selection involves a lengthy process, with each musician demonstrating their capability for a minimum of three years' performance for the opera and ballet. After this probationary period, the musician may request an application for a position in the orchestra from the Vienna Philharmonic's board. History Precursors and formation Until the 1830s, orchestral performance in Vienna was done by ''ad hoc'' orchestras, consisting of professional and (often) amateur musicians brought together for specific performances. In 1833, Franz Lachner formed the forerunner of the Vienna Philharmonic, the – an orchestra of professional musicians from the Vienna Court Opera (''Wiener Hof ...
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Kent Nagano
Kent George Nagano GOQ, MSM (born November 22, 1951) is an American conductor and opera administrator. Since 2015, he has been Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and was Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2020. Early life and education Nagano was born in Berkeley, California, while his parents were in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a ''sansei'' (third-generation) Japanese-American. He grew up in Morro Bay, a city located on the Central Coast of California in San Luis Obispo County. He studied sociology and music at the University of California, Santa Cruz. After graduation, he moved to San Francisco State University to study music. While there, he took composition courses from Grosvenor Cooper and Roger Nixon. He also studied at the École Normale de Musique de Paris. Career Nagano's first conducting job was with the Opera Company of Boston, where he was assistant conductor to Sarah Caldwell. In 1978, he ...
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Nino Sanzogno
Nino Sanzogno (13 April 1911 – 4 May 1983) was an Italian conductor and composer. Life Sanzogno was born in Venice, where he studied the violin with Hermann Scherchen and composition with Gian Francesco Malipiero at the Liceo Musicale. He later studied conducting in Vienna with Scherchen. He conducted the Gruppo Strumentale in concerts in Italy and abroad before becoming resident conductor at La Fenice in Venice in 1937, and the RAI Milan Symphony Orchestra soon afterwards. He first conducted at La Scala in Milan in 1939. A specialist of contemporary works, he conducted at La Scala the premieres of Milhaud's ''David'', Poulenc's ''Dialogues des Carmélites'', Walton's ''Troilus and Cressida'', Shostakovich's '' Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk'', Berg's ''Lulu'', Britten's '' A Midsummer Night's Dream'', Prokofiev's '' The Fiery Angel'', while abroad, notably in Britain, he introduced several works by Italian composers such as Malipiero, Dallapiccola and Pizzetti. He conducted the ...
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Teatro Alla Scala
La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performance was Antonio Salieri's ''Europa riconosciuta''. Most of Italy's greatest operatic artists, and many of the finest singers from around the world, have appeared at La Scala. The theatre is regarded as one of the leading opera and ballet theatres globally. It is home to the La Scala Theatre Chorus, La Scala Theatre Ballet, La Scala Theatre Orchestra, and the Filarmonica della Scala orchestra. The theatre also has an associate school, known as the La Scala Theatre Academy ( it, Accademia Teatro alla Scala, links=no), which offers professional training in music, dance, stagecraft, and stage management. Overview La Scala's season opens on 7 December, Saint Ambrose's Day, the feast day of Milan's patron saint. All performances must end befor ...
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The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as '' The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national " newspaper of record". For print it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 1896, through a dual-class share structure after its shares became publicly traded. A. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher and the company's chairman, is the fifth generation of the family to head the pa ...
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Winton Dean
Winton Basil Dean (18 March 1916 – 19 December 2013) was an English musicologist of the 20th century, most famous for his research on the life and works—in particular the operas and oratorios—of George Frideric Handel, as detailed in his book ''Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques'' (1959). Dean was born in Birkenhead in March 1916, the son of the film and theatre producer Basil Dean.Sadie, Stanley. Winton (Basil) Dean. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, London & New York, 1997. He was educated at Harrow and King's College, Cambridge, where he took part in stagings of Handel oratorios in the 1930s. After World War II, he became notable as a writer on music, particularly when he published several articles about the compositions of Bizet, starting with ''La Coupe du roi de Thulé'' in ''Music & Letters'' in 1947. He considerably rewrote his 1948 book on Bizet in 1965 due to new material and music of the composer which had since emerged. Porter, Andrew. O ...
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English National Opera
English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English. The company's origins were in the late 19th century, when the philanthropist Emma Cons, later assisted by her niece Lilian Baylis, presented theatrical and operatic performances at the Old Vic, for the benefit of local people. Baylis subsequently built up both the opera and the theatre companies, and later added a ballet company; these evolved into the ENO, the Royal National Theatre and The Royal Ballet, respectively. Baylis acquired and rebuilt the Sadler's Wells theatre in north London, a larger house, better suited to opera than the Old Vic. The opera company grew there into a permanent ensemble in the 1930s. During the Second World War, the theatre was closed and the company toured British towns and cities. After the war, the comp ...
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Time (magazine)
''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published Weekly newspaper, weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on March 3, 1923, and for many years it was run by its influential co-founder, Henry Luce. A European edition (''Time Europe'', formerly known as ''Time Atlantic'') is published in London and also covers the Middle East, Africa, and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition (''Time Asia'') is based in Hong Kong. The South Pacific edition, which covers Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, is based in Sydney. Since 2018, ''Time'' has been published by Time USA, LLC, owned by Marc Benioff, who acquired it from Meredith Corporation. History ''Time'' has been based in New York City since its first issue published on March 3, 1923, by Briton Hadden and Henry Luce. It was the first weekly news magazine in the United St ...
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Bodo Igesz
Bodo Igesz (February 7, 1935 in Amsterdam – December 25, 2014 in New York City) was a Dutch stage director who had an active career staging operas around the world during the second half of the 20th century. He was particularly known for his work with the Metropolitan Opera where he worked for 25 years on the staging staff. He also staged operas for the Salzburg Festival, and staged numerous operas for the Santa Fe Opera; including the United States premieres of Hindemith's ''Cardillac'' (1967), Schoenberg's ''Die Jakobsleiter'' (1968), Henze's ''The Bassarids'' (1968) and Aribert Reimann's ''Melusine'' (1972). A particular triumph for Igesz at the Met was his staging of Georges Bizet's '' Carmen'' which premiered in 1972 with Marilyn Horne as the title heroine and Leonard Bernstein conducting. The staging remained in the Met repertory for several years, and was notably the staging used for the first Met Carmens of Régine Crespin (1975) and Elena Obraztsova(1978). Another Met ...
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Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. After creating the ''Opera Association of New Mexico'' in 1956, its founding director, John Crosby (conductor), John Crosby, oversaw the building of the first opera house on a newly acquired former guest ranch of . The company has presented operas each summer festival season since July 1957, and is internationally known for introducing new operas as well as for its productions of the List of important operas, standard operatic repertoire. Since its inception, Santa Fe Opera has staged 43 American premieres and 15 world premieres, as of 2017. General history John Crosby, who was a New York-based conductor, founded the company in 1956, initially with the financial support of his parents, who helped in the acquisition of the land and the building of the first opera house. One goal was to give American singers the opportunity to learn and perform new roles while having ample time for rehearsa ...
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