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The Passion Of Jonathan Wade
''The Passion of Jonathan Wade'' is a musical drama, or opera, in three acts by the American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote both libretto and music. Commissioned by the Ford Foundation, it was Floyd's most epic opera, set in South Carolina during the Reconstruction era. It was premiered at the New York City Opera on October 11, 1962, directed by Allen Fletcher and conducted by Julius Rudel. Floyd revised it in 1989 for performances at four major opera houses in the U.S., beginning at the Houston Grand Opera. History Carlisle Floyd composed ''The Passion of Jonathan Wade'' on a commission by the Ford Foundation. The opera's plot was invented by Floyd, based on an idea suggested by his wife, set in South Carolina during the Reconstruction era. It became Floyd's most epic opera. The music embraced tonality and traditional musical idioms such as the spiritual. ''The Passion of Jonathan Wade'' was premiered at the New York City Opera on October 11, 1962, directed by Allen Fletch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlisle Floyd
Carlisle Sessions Floyd (June 11, 1926September 30, 2021) was an American composer primarily known for his operas. These stage works, for which he wrote the librettos, typically engage with themes from the American South, particularly the Post-civil war South, the Great Depression and rural life. His best known opera, '' Susannah'', is based on a story from the Biblical Apocrypha, transferred to contemporary rural Tennessee, and written for a Southern dialect. It was premiered at Florida State University in 1955, with Phyllis Curtin in the title role. When it was staged at the New York City Opera the following year, the reception was initially mixed; some considered it a masterpiece, while others degraded it as a 'folk opera'. Subsequent performances led to an increase in ''Susannah'''s reputation and the opera quickly became among the most performed of American operas. In 1976, he became M. D. Anderson professor at the University of Houston. He co-founded the Houston Opera Stu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of Houston
The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas with over 47,000 students. Its campus, which is primarily in southeast Houston, spans , with the inclusion of its Sugar Land and Katy sites. The university is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classified as an "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity." The university offers more than 276 degree programs through its 16 academic colleges and schools and an interdisciplinary Honors College - including programs leading to professional degrees in architecture, law, optometry, medicine and pharmacy. The institution spends $203 million annually in research, and operates more than 35 research centers and institutes on campus. Interdisciplinary research includes superconductivity, space commercializatio ... [...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" '' |
Dale Duesing
Dale Duesing (born September 26, 1947) is an American baritone. As an opera singer, he has had an international career spanning five decades. Duesing grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He studied piano throughout childhood, and enrolled at Lawrence University, majoring in piano performance. He switched to vocal performance while in college, and won the Metropolitan Opera Competition in his final year of study. After traveling to Europe with a Fulbright Scholarship, Duesing made a name for himself there. Duesing has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, La Scala (as Arlecchino in ''Ariadne auf Naxos'', 1984), Vienna State Opera, Paris Opéra, and Covent Garden, among others. He appeared at the Metropolitan from 1979 to 1989 in ''Ariadne auf Naxos'' (with Johanna Meier and René Kollo), ''Die Zauberflöte'' (opposite Rita Shane, then Zdzisława Donat, as the Queen of Night), ''Pagliacci'' (as Silvio, with Carlo Bergonzi and Cornell MacNeil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baritone
A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C (i.e. F2–F4) in choral music, and from the second A below middle C to the A above middle C (A2 to A4) in operatic music, but the range can extend at either end. Subtypes of baritone include the baryton-Martin baritone (light baritone), lyric baritone, ''Kavalierbariton'', Verdi baritone, dramatic baritone, ''baryton-noble'' baritone, and the bass-baritone. History The first use of the term "baritone" emerged as ''baritonans'', late in the 15th century, usually in French sacred polyphonic music. At this early stage it was frequently used as the lowest of the voices (including the bass), but in 17th-century Italy the term was all-encompassing and used to describe the averag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voice Type
A voice type is a group of voices with similar vocal ranges, capable of singing in a similar tessitura, and with similar vocal transition points ('' passaggi''). Voice classification is most strongly associated with European classical music, though it, and the terms it utilizes, are used in other styles of music as well. A singer will choose a repertoire that suits their voice. Some singers such as Enrico Caruso, Rosa Ponselle, Joan Sutherland, Maria Callas, Jessye Norman, Ewa Podleś, and Plácido Domingo have voices that allow them to sing roles from a wide variety of types; some singers such as Shirley Verrett and Grace Bumbry change type and even voice part over their careers; and some singers such as Leonie Rysanek have voices that lower with age, causing them to cycle through types over their careers. Some roles are hard to classify, having very unusual vocal requirements; Mozart wrote many of his roles for specific singers who often had remarkable voices, and some of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Ross Griffel
Margaret Ross Griffel (born 9 July 1943) is an American musicologist and author. Biography Griffel graduated from High School of Music & Art, in Manhattan, New York in 1961. She earned a B.A. from Barnard College in 1965, M.A. in European and American History from Boston University in 1966, and a Ph.D. in musicology from Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ... in 1975. She has served as the senior editor at Columbia University's Office of Publications and has done editorial work for various publishers. Her January 2018 revised edition of ''Operas in German: A Dictionary'' contains more than 4,500 entries and her December 2012 revised edition of ''Operas in English: A Dictionary'' contains 4,400. Awards The December 2012 revised edition of ''Operas in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seattle Opera
Seattle Opera is an opera company based in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1963 by Glynn Ross, who served as its first general director until 1983. The company's season runs from August through late May, comprising five or six operas of eight to ten performances each, often featuring double casts in major roles to allow for successive evening presentations. Since August 2003, Seattle Opera has performed at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall (capacity: 2,967), which was built on the site of the old Seattle Opera House at Seattle Center. The company's current general director is Christina Scheppelmann, who assumed the role in August 2019. Seattle Opera does not have a full-time music director; in October 2007, it announced the appointment of Asher Fisch as its principal guest conductor. The Ross years From the outset, Ross saw opera as something that had to be sold using similar techniques to those used to sell popular entertainment. "To sell opera…you have to get their attention ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Diego Opera
The San Diego Opera Association (SDO) is a professional opera company located in the city of San Diego, California. It incorporated in 1965, presenting operas under the name of the San Diego Opera."Company History" on sdopera.com. Retrieved 2 June 2014 It is a member of the professional association OPERA America, which ranked it among the top ten opera companies in the United States. David Ng (2014) "San Diego Opera will close, in 'a sign of the times'" ''Los Angeles Times'', March 20, 2014 The company was founded in 1950 as the San Diego Opera Guild, originally to prese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Günther Schneider-Siemssen
Günther Schneider-Siemssen (7 June 1926 – 2 June 2015) was a German-born Austrian scenic designer, working as the chief designer for all Austrian State Theatres and the Salzburg Festival, where he created 28 productions for Herbert von Karajan and 60 for Otto Schenk. He was a pioneer in using lighting and projections on stage. He designed sets for major international opera houses. Career Born Günther Schneider in Augsburg, he later adopted his second name, Siemssen, from his maternal grandfather. He spent his childhood and youth in Munich, originally wanting to become a conductor. In a job interview with Clemens Krauss he was advised against this and was instead recommended to train in set designing. He studied set design at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München. From 1951 to 1954, Schneider-Siemssen was the head stage designer of the Salzburger Landestheater, and was simultaneously also in charge of the Salzburger Marionettentheater. From 1954, he was the head stage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bitonality
Polytonality (also polyharmony) is the musical use of more than one key simultaneously. Bitonality is the use of only two different keys at the same time. Polyvalence or polyvalency is the use of more than one harmonic function, from the same key, at the same time. Some examples of bitonality superimpose fully harmonized sections of music in different keys. History In traditional music Lithuanian traditional singing style sutartines is based on polytonality. A typical sutartines song is based on a six-bar melody, where the first three bars contains melody based on the notes of the triad of a major key (for example, in G major), and the next three bars is based on another key, always a major second higher or lower (for example, in A major). This six-bar melody is performed as a canon, and repetition starts from the fourth bar. As a result, parts are constantly singing in different tonality (key) simultaneously (in G and in A). As a traditional style, sutartines disappeared in Li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dissonance (music)
In music, consonance and dissonance are categorizations of simultaneous or successive sounds. Within the Western tradition, some listeners associate consonance with sweetness, pleasantness, and acceptability, and dissonance with harshness, unpleasantness, or unacceptability, although there is broad acknowledgement that this depends also on familiarity and musical expertise. The terms form a structural dichotomy in which they define each other by mutual exclusion: a consonance is what is not dissonant, and a dissonance is what is not consonant. However, a finer consideration shows that the distinction forms a gradation, from the most consonant to the most dissonant. In casual discourse, as German composer and music theorist Paul Hindemith stressed, "The two concepts have never been completely explained, and for a thousand years the definitions have varied". The term ''sonance'' has been proposed to encompass or refer indistinctly to the terms ''consonance'' and ''dissonance''. Def ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
