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The Rape Of Lucretia
''The Rape of Lucretia'' (Op. 37) is an opera in two acts by Benjamin Britten, written for Kathleen Ferrier, who performed the title role. Ronald Duncan based his English libretto on André Obey's play '. Performance history The opera was first performed at Glyndebourne in England on 12 July 1946. It is the first work to which Britten applied his term "chamber opera." The opera debuted in the United States on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre in a production staged by Agnes de Mille which opened on 29 December 1948 and closed on 15 January 1949 after 23 performances. The cast notably included Giorgio Tozzi as Tarquinius, Kitty Carlisle as Lucretia, Lidija Franklin as Bianca, Brenda Lewis as the Female Chorus, and Adelaide Bishop as Lucia. In 1996 the opera was presented at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis directed by Britten expert and friend, Colin Graham. It also appeared in the Opera Company of Philadelphia's 2009 season. In 2013, the opera was performed for the first tim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chamber Opera
Chamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra. Early 20th-century operas of this type include Paul Hindemith's '' Cardillac'' (1926). Earlier small-scale operas such as Pergolesi's '' La serva padrona'' (1733) are sometimes known as chamber operas. Other 20th-century examples include Gustav Holst's '' Savitri'' (1916). Benjamin Britten wrote works in this category in the 1940s when the English Opera Group needed works that could easily be taken on tour and performed in a variety of small performance spaces. '' The Rape of Lucretia'' (1946) was his first example in the genre, and Britten followed it with '' Albert Herring'' (1947), '' The Turn of the Screw'' (1954) and ''Curlew River'' (1964). Other composers, including Hans Werner Henze, Harrison Birtwistle, Thomas Adès, George Benjamin, William Walton, and Philip Glass have written in this genre. Instrumentation for chamber operas vary: Britten scored ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brenda Lewis
Brenda Lewis (March 2, 1921 – September 16, 2017) was an American operatic soprano, musical theatre actress, opera director, and music educator. She enjoyed a 20-year-long collaboration with the New York City Opera (NYCO) with whom she notably created roles in several world premieres by American composers; including the title role in Jack Beeson's ''Lizzie Borden'' in 1965. She also performed with frequency at the Metropolitan Opera from 1952 to 1965, and was active as a guest artist with notable opera companies both nationally and internationally. Although she is mainly remembered as an exponent of American operas and musicals, she performed a broad repertoire of works and was particularly celebrated for her portrayals of Marie in ''Wozzeck'', Rosalinde in ''Die Fledermaus'', and the title roles of '' Carmen'' and '' Salome''; the latter of which she performed for the inauguration of the Houston Grand Opera in 1956. Lewis was also a familiar face to Broadway audiences in ope ... [...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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bass (vocal Range)
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus
Lucius Tarquinius Ar. f. Ar. n. Collatinus was one of the first two consuls of the Roman Republic in 509 BC, together with Lucius Junius Brutus. The two men had led the revolution which overthrew the Roman monarchy. He was forced to resign his office and go into exile as a result of the hatred he had helped engender in the people against the former ruling house. Background According to Roman tradition, Collatinus was the son of Arruns Tarquinius, better known as ''Egerius'', a nephew of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth King of Rome. Through an accident, Arruns had been born into poverty, but when his uncle subdued the Latin town of Collatia, he was placed in command of the Roman garrison there. The surname ''Collatinus'' was derived from this town. Collatinus married Lucretia, daughter of Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus. According to legend, while Collatinus was away from home, his cousin, Sextus Tarquinius, son of the king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, came to his h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Cross
Joan Cross (7 September 1900 – 12 December 1993) was an English soprano, closely associated with the operas of Benjamin Britten. She also sang in the Italian and German operatic repertoires. She later became a musical administrator, taking on the direction of the Sadler's Wells Opera Company. Career Cross was born in London. She attended St Paul's Girls' School, where her music teacher was the composer Gustav Holst, and studied singing at the Trinity College of Music. In 1923, she joined the chorus of the Vic-Wells opera company at the Old Vic, later taking on a wide range of solo soprano roles for the Sadler's Wells company and a few at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Her Covent Garden performances included Mimi in ''La Bohème'' and Desdemona (to Lauritz Melchior's Otello) in 1934. During this period she also became a noted Marschallin, Sieglinde and Brünnhilde, Elisabeth, Elsa, Madame Butterfly, Aida, Donna Anna and Tatiana. Cross undertook the direction of S ... [...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" '' |
Peter Pears
Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears ( ; 22 June 19103 April 1986) was an English tenor. His career was closely associated with the composer Benjamin Britten, his personal and professional partner for nearly forty years. Pears' musical career started slowly. He was at first unsure whether to concentrate on playing piano and organ, or singing; it was not until he met Britten in 1937 that he threw himself wholeheartedly into singing. Once he and Britten were established as a partnership, the composer wrote many concert and operatic works with Pears's voice in mind, and the singer played roles in more than ten operas by Britten. In the concert hall, Pears and Britten were celebrated recitalists, known in particular for their performances of lieder by Schubert and Schumann. Together they recorded most of the works written for Pears by Britten, as well as a wide range of music by other composers. Working with other musicians, Pears sang an extensive repertoire of music from four centuri ... [...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] |
Ernest Ansermet
Ernest Alexandre Ansermet (; 11 November 1883 – 20 February 1969)"Ansermet, Ernest" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 435. was a Swiss conductor. Biography Ansermet was born in Vevey, Switzerland. Originally he was a mathematics professor, teaching at the University of Lausanne. He began conducting at the Casino in Montreux in 1912, and from 1915 to 1923 was the conductor for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Travelling in France for this, he met both Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and consulted them on the performance of their works. During World War I, he met Igor Stravinsky, who was exiled in Switzerland, and from this meeting began the conductor's lifelong association with Russian music. In 1918 Ansermet founded his own orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (OSR). He toured widely in Europe and America and became famous for accurate performances of difficult modern music, making first record ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fiona Shaw
Fiona Shaw (born Fiona Mary Wilson; 10 July 1958) is an Irish film and theatre actress. She is known for her roles as Petunia Dursley in the ''Harry Potter'' film series (2001–2010), Marnie Stonebrook in the fourth season of the HBO series '' True Blood'' (2011), and Carolyn Martens in the BBC series '' Killing Eve'' (2018–22). For her performance in ''Killing Eve'', Shaw won the 2019 BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress. For her performances in the second seasons of ''Killing Eve'' and '' Fleabag'', she received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series respectively. For the third season of ''Killing Eve'', she was again nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. Shaw has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. She won the 1990 Olivier Award for Best Actress for various roles, including '' Electra'', th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opera Company Of Philadelphia
Opera Philadelphia (prior to 2013 Opera Company of Philadelphia (OCP)) is an American opera company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is the city's only company producing grand opera. The organization produces one festival in September (Festival O) and additional operas in the spring season, encompassing works from the 17th through the 21st century. The famed Academy of Music, the oldest opera house to be continuously in use for its original purpose within the United States, is currently the venue for three of the company's performances. The company is led by David Devan, who was appointed general director in 2011. History The Opera Company of Philadelphia was established in 1975 with the merger of the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company (PLOC) and the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company (PGOC); two organizations which had competed with one another for many years. Adele W. Paxson, who headed the PLOC, was appointed the first president of the company's board, a position she held for ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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