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The Minotaur (opera)
''The Minotaur'' is an opera in two acts, with 13 scenes by English composer Harrison Birtwistle to a libretto by poet David Harsent, commissioned by the Royal Opera House in London. The work, a retelling of the Greek myth of the Minotaur, premiered at the Royal Opera House on 15 April 2008 under the stage direction of Stephen Langridge. The score is modernistic, and the scenes fall into three types: bullfights; scenes between Ariadne and Theseus; and dream sequences for the Minotaur, in which the creature has the gift of speech. The opera lasts about 140 minutes. The opera was revived at the Royal Opera House for five performances in early 2013, featuring most of the original cast, most notably Christine Rice, John Tomlinson, Andrew Watts and Johan Reuter. Roles Birtwistle wrote the title role for John Tomlinson's voice. Tomlinson also created the role of the Green Knight in Birtwistle's 1990 opera ''Gawain''. Premiere production staff Theme From the programme notes:The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harrison Birtwistle
Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include '' The Triumph of Time'' (1972) and the operas '' The Mask of Orpheus'' (1986), ''Gawain'' (1991), and '' The Minotaur'' (2008). The last of these was ranked by music critics at ''The Guardian'' in 2019 as the third-best piece of the 21st-century. Even his compositions that were not written for the stage often showed a theatrical approach. A performance of his saxophone concerto ''Panic'' during the BBC's Last Night of the Proms caused "national notoriety". He received many international awards and honorary degrees. Life and career Early life Harrison Birtwistle was born in Accrington, a mill town in Lancashire around 20 miles north of Manchester. His parents, Fred and Madge Birtwistle, ran a bakery, and his interest in music was encouraged ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christine Rice
Christine Imogen Rice is an English operatic mezzo-soprano. She has performed across Europe at venues including the Royal Opera House, the Bavarian State Opera, the Frankurt Opera, the Teatro Real and the English National Opera. From 2004 to 2006 she was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. Education Rice comes from Manchester, England. Her father was a chemistry lecturer and she intended to pursue a career in science. She attended Withington Girls' School and went on to study physics at Balliol College, Oxford before beginning a DPhil which she did not finish. Rice spent a gap year at the Royal Northern College of Music, after which she decided to embark upon a career as a singer. Musical career Her first singing job was as part of the chorus of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Soon after, she signed a four-year contract with the English National Opera, also singing at other opera houses such as La Monnaie, where she was spotted by Antonio Pappano. When he became the music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Pyant
Paul Pyant (born 22 July 1953) is a British lighting designer, whose designs have been featured in the West End, on Broadway and in opera houses around the world. He has been nominated for several Olivier Awards and Tony Awards, winning the Olivier in 2014 for his design for ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory''. Life and career Pyant's parents are Leonard Vincent Pyant, a business executive, and Jean Phoebe née Frampton, a medical secretary. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London in 1973 and is an associate of the Academy. Musical theatre His credits in Britain include numerous West End productions and many productions with Royal National Theatre (RNT) in London. He was nominated for Olivier Awards for his designs for ''The Wind in the Willows'' (RNT 1991), ''Hamlet'' (2001), ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' (2003), '' All's Well that Ends Well'' (2005) and the musicals ''The Lord of the Rings'' (2008) and ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' (2014). H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alison Chitty
Alison Chitty (born 16 October 1948) is an Olivier Award winning production designer and set and costume designer, known for her collaborations with Mike Leigh, Francesca Zambello, Peter Gill and Sir Peter Hall. She is also the Director of the Motley Theatre Design Course, a successor to Motley Theatre Design Group. Both organisations included Margaret Harris as one of their founders. She studied at Saint Martin's School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design,National Life Stories: An Oral History of British Theatre Design: Sound Archive catalogue reference number: C1173 British Library. Accessed September 2013. and subsequently was resident at the [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amanda Echalaz
Amanda is a Latin feminine gerundive (i.e. verbal adjective) name meaning, literally, “she who must (or is fit to) be loved”. Other translations, with similar meaning, could be "deserving to be loved," "worthy of love," or "loved very much by everyone." Its diminutive form includes Mandy, Manda and Amy. It is common in countries where Germanic and Romance languages are spoken. "Amanda" comes from ''ama-'' (the stem of the Latin verb ''amare'', "to love") plus the feminine nominative singular gerundive ending (''-nda''). Other names, especially female names, were derived from this verb form, such as “Miranda”. The name "Amanda" occasionally appears in Late Antiquity, such as the Amanda who was the 'wife of the ex-advocate and ex-provincial governor Aper (q.v.); she cared for his estates and raised their children after he adopted the monastic life: "curat illa saeculi curas, ne tu cures”' aul. Nol. Epist. 44.4 In England the name "Amanda" first appears in 1212 on a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keres (mythology)
In Greek mythology, the Keres (; Ancient Greek: Κῆρες), singular Ker (; Κήρ), were female death-spirits. They were the goddesses who personified violent death and who were drawn to bloody deaths on battlefields. Although they were present during death and dying, they did not have the power to kill. All they could do was wait and then feast on the dead. The Keres were daughters of Nyx, and as such the sisters of beings such as Moirai, who controlled the fate of souls, and Thanatos, the god of peaceful death. Some later authorities, such as Cicero, called them by a Latin name, ''Tenebrae'' ("the Darknesses"), and named them daughters of Erebus and Nyx. Etymology The Greek word κήρ means "death" or "doom" and appears as a proper noun in the singular and plural as Κήρ and Κῆρες to refer to divinities. Homer uses ''Κῆρες'' in the phrase ''κήρες θανάτοιο'', "Keres of death". By extension the word may mean "plague, disease" and in prose "b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Langridge
Philip Gordon Langridge (16 December 1939 – 5 March 2010)Millington (7 March 2010) was an English tenor, considered to be among the foremost exponents of English opera and oratorio. Early life Langridge was born in Hawkhurst, Kent, educated at Maidstone Grammar School and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He started his career as an orchestral violinist, which exposed him to a great variety of music. Career Langridge was admired for his fine singing technique coupled with keen dramatic instincts. His repertoire was broad, ranging from the operas of Claudio Monteverdi and Mozart to more modern works by Ravel, Stravinsky, Janáček and Schoenberg. At the end of his life, he was adding some Wagner roles, including Loge from ''Das Rheingold''. Langridge was also a fine concert singer and regularly performed the sacred music of Bach and Handel. He also won great acclaim for his portrayal of the title role in Elgar's ''The Dream of Gerontius''. In recent years, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tenor
A tenor is a type of classical male singing 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 '' 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 enor was thestructurally fundamental (or 'holding') voice, vocal or instrumental; by the 15th century it came to signify the male voice that sang such parts. All other voices were normal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities. Their office or position is the 'priesthood', a term which also may apply to such persons collectively. A priest may have the duty to hear confessions periodically, give marriage counseling, provide prenuptial counseling, give spiritual direction, teach catechism, or visit those confined indoors, such as the sick in hospitals and nursing homes. Description According to the trifunctional hypothesis of prehistoric Proto-Indo-European society, priests have existed since the earliest of times and in the simplest societies, most likely as a result of agricultural surplus and consequent social stratification. The necessity to read sacred texts and keep temple or church r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tim Mead
Tim Mead (born 1981) is an English countertenor. Life and career Tim Mead was born in Chelmsford, Essex and began singing as a treble in the choir of Chelmsford Cathedral. He was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford and the Junior Department of Trinity College of Music where he studied cello and piano. He was an undergraduate at King's College, Cambridge, where he was a choral scholar studying musicology. After graduating, he won a number of scholarships for post-graduate studies at the Royal College of Music where he studied with Robin Blaze. Mead has performed with many leading interpreters including conductors Howard Arman, Harry Bicket, Ivor Bolton, William Christie, Stephen Cleobury, Marcus Creed, Laurence Cummings, Christian Curnyn, Alan Curtis, Ottavio Dantone, Paul Goodwin, Emmanuelle Haïm, Thomas Hengelbrock, Vladimir Jurowski, Raymond Leppard, Nicholas Kraemer, Alessandro de Marchi, Nicholas McGegan, Marc Minkowski, James O'Donnell, Antoni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pumeza Matshikiza
Pumeza Matshikiza (born 27 February 1979) is a South-African operatic soprano. A graduate of the Royal College of Music and a member of the Royal Opera's Jette Parker Young Artists Programme from 2007 to 2009, she made her début as a flower maiden in ''Parsifal'' and has gone on to sing leading soprano roles with Stuttgart Opera. Matshikiza has released two solo albums on the Decca Classics label. Career Matshikiza was born in Lady Frere, South Africa. She studied at the University of Cape Town College of Music, graduated cum laude under Professor Virginia Davids, then at the Royal College of Music, London, with a full three-year scholarship and in the Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where she made her début as a flower maiden in ''Parsifal''. Winner of the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition in Dublin in 2010, Pumeza later joined the Stuttgart Opera, where she has been part of the full-time ensemble since 2011, performing Pami ... [...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" '' |
