Ulisse
''Ulisse'' is an opera in a prologue and two acts composed by Luigi Dallapiccola to his own libretto based on the legend of Ulysses. It premiered at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (in German translation by Karl-Heinrich Kreith as ''Odysseus'') on 29 September 1968 conducted by Lorin Maazel with Erik Saedén in the title role. ''Ulisse'' was Dallapiccola's last opera and took eight years to compose. As in his previous operas, ''Volo di notte'' and ''Il prigioniero'', his declared theme was "the struggle of man against some force much stronger than he".Warrack and West (1996) Roles *Ulisse – baritone (Erik Saedén) * Calypso – soprano (Annabelle Bernard) *Nausicaa – soprano (Catherine Gayer) * Re Alcinoo – bass (Victor von Halem) * Demodoco – tenor (Helmuth Melchert) *Circe – mezzo-soprano (Jean Madeira) *La madre di Anticlea ("mother of Anticlea") – soprano ( Hildegard Hillebrecht) *Tiresia – tenor (Helmuth Melchert) *Pisandro (a suitor) – baritone (José van Dam) * A ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Luigi Dallapiccola
Luigi Dallapiccola (February 3, 1904 – February 19, 1975) was an Italian composer known for his lyrical twelve-tone compositions. Biography Dallapiccola was born in Pisino d'Istria (at the time part of Austria-Hungary, current Pazin, Croatia), to Italian parents. Unlike many composers born into highly musical environments, his early musical career was irregular at best. Political disputes over his birthplace of Istria, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, led to instability and frequent moves. His father was headmaster of an Italian-language school – the only one in the city – which was shut down at the start of World War I. The family, considered politically subversive, was placed in internment at Graz, Austria, where the budding composer did not even have access to a piano, though he did attend performances at the local opera house, which cemented his desire to pursue composition as a career. Once back in his hometown Pisino after the war, he travelled f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Odysseus
Odysseus ( ; grc-gre, Ὀδυσσεύς, Ὀδυσεύς, OdysseúsOdyseús, ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses ( , ; lat, UlyssesUlixes), is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the ''Odyssey''. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's ''Iliad'' and other works in that same epic cycle. Son of Laërtes and Anticlea, husband of Penelope, and father of Telemachus and Acusilaus, Odysseus is renowned for his intellectual brilliance, guile, and versatility (''polytropos''), and is thus known by the epithet Odysseus the Cunning ( grc-gre, μῆτις, mêtis, cunning intelligence). He is most famous for his ''nostos'', or "homecoming", which took him ten eventful years after the decade-long Trojan War. Name, etymology, and epithets The form ''Odys(s)eus'' is used starting in the epic period and through the classical period, but various other forms are also found. In vase inscriptions, we find the variants ''Oliseus'' (), ''Olyseus'' (), ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ulysses (mythology)
Odysseus ( ; grc-gre, Ὀδυσσεύς, Ὀδυσεύς, OdysseúsOdyseús, ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses ( , ; lat, UlyssesUlixes), is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the ''Odyssey''. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's ''Iliad'' and other works in that same epic cycle. Son of Laërtes and Anticlea, husband of Penelope, and father of Telemachus and Acusilaus, Odysseus is renowned for his intellectual brilliance, guile, and versatility (''polytropos''), and is thus known by the epithet Odysseus the Cunning ( grc-gre, μῆτις, mêtis, cunning intelligence). He is most famous for his ''nostos'', or "homecoming", which took him ten eventful years after the decade-long Trojan War. Name, etymology, and epithets The form ''Odys(s)eus'' is used starting in the epic period and through the classical period, but various other forms are also found. In vase inscriptions, we find the variants ''Oliseus'' (), ''Olyseus'' (), ' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Erik Saedén
Carl Erik Sædén (3 September 1924, in Vänersborg – 3 November 2009), was a Swedish bass-baritone whose career was principally centred on Stockholm, both on the operatic stage as well as the concert platform. He made a few recordings and appeared in the 1975 Bergman film of ''The magic flute''.Forbes E. Erik Sædén. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera.'' Macmillan, London and New York, 1997.Swedish radio archive http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/stockholm/nyheter/artikel.asp?artikel=3213451 3 November 2009. Career Sædén studied at the Kungliga Musikhögskolan in Stockholm from 1943–52, his teachers there including Arne Sunnegårdh, Martin Öhman and Wilhelm Freund. He received degrees in higher cantor and organist degree from the Royal College of Music in 1946, and a degree in vocal teaching 1952. Having joined the choir of Engelbrekt Church in 1944 (where he later sang in the St Matthew Passion), Saedén studied in Rome in 1952 and at the Salzburg Mozarteum in 1952, 1954 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Catherine Gayer
Catherine Gayer (born 11 February 1937) is an American coloratura soprano, violinist, musicologist, and academic voice teacher. She made a career in Germany. A member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin for more than four decades, she is known for her performance in premieres of contemporary operas, such as Luigi Nono's ''Intolleranza 1960'' at La Fenice in Venice, the title role in Aribert Reimann's ''Melusine'' at the Schwetzingen Festival, and Josef Tal's ''Die Versuchung'' at the Bavarian State Opera. Career Born in Los Angeles, Gayer is of Finno-Ugric and Indian ancestry. She studied voice, violin, and musicology in Los Angeles and moved to Germany on a Fulbright scholarship in the 1950s, studying at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin with Irma Beilke. She is also a trained ballet dancer. On 13 April 1961, she performed the female lead role (''Die Gefährtin'') in the premiere of Luigi Nono's ''Intolleranza 1960'' at La Fenice in Venice, and was afterwards engaged by Rudolf S ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Deutsche Oper Berlin
The Deutsche Oper Berlin is a German opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house (after Munich's) and also home to the Berlin State Ballet. Since 2004, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, like the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Berlin State Opera), the Komische Oper Berlin, the Berlin State Ballet, and the Bühnenservice Berlin (Stage and Costume Design), has been a member of the Berlin Opera Foundation. History The company's history goes back to the ''Deutsches Opernhaus'' built by the then independent city of Charlottenburg—the "richest town of Prussia"—according to plans designed by Heinrich Seeling from 1911. It opened on 7 November 1912 with a performance of Beethoven's ''Fidelio'', conducted by Ignatz Waghalter. In 1925, after the incorporation of Charlottenburg by the 1920 Greater Berlin Act, the name of the resident building was changed to ''Städtische Oper'' (Municipal Opera). With the Na ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Circe
Circe (; grc, , ) is an Magician (paranormal), enchantress and a minor goddess in ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion. She is either a daughter of the Titans, Titan Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse (mythology), Perse or the goddess Hecate and Aeëtes. Circe was renowned for her vast knowledge of potions and herbs. Through the use of these and a magic wand or staff, she would Shapeshifting, transform her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals. The best known of her legends is told in Homer's ''Odyssey'' when Odysseus visits her island of Aeaea on the way back from the Trojan War and she changes most of his crew into swine. He manages to persuade her to return them to human shape, lives with her for a year and has sons by her, including Latinus and Telegonus (son of Odysseus), Telegonus. Her ability to change others into animals is further highlighted by the story of Picus, an Italian king whom she turns into a woodpecker for resisting her adv ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Melantho (Odyssey)
In Greek mythology, Melantho (; Ancient Greek: Μελανθώ) is one of the minor characters in the ''Odyssey''. Family Melantho was the sister to Melanthios, a goatherd in Ithaca, and the daughter of Dolios. Mythology Described as having a "sharp tongue", Melantho was among the favorite female slaves of Penelope, treated like a daughter by her, having been given trinkets and other small gifts. Despite having been much cared for by Penelope, Melantho was disloyal and ungrateful to Odysseus and his household. She was one of the female slaves who often sleep with the suitors of Penelope, a characteristic which is evident by her relationship with Eurymachus. Upon Odysseus's arrival in his own house, disguised as a beggar, Melantho treated him harshly and rudely asked why he has not gone to sleep in the smithy, the location where chance visitors in Ithaca tended to go. After Odysseus kills all of the suitors, it's not clear if Melantho is among the other slave girls that ar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Eurymachus (Odyssey)
In Greek mythology, Eurymachus ( /jʊˈrɪməkəs/; Ancient Greek: Εὐρύμαχος ''Eurúmakhos'') was an Ithacan nobleman and one of the two leading suitors of Penelope, the other being Antinous. Family Eurymachus was the son of Polybus, also a suitor of Penelope. Mythology In Homer’s ''Odyssey'', Eurymachus, along with the majority of his fellow suitors, shows no regard for the Greek custom of ''xenia'' or guest-friend hospitality; he is arrogant, disrespectful, and consumes food and drink without the slightest reciprocation. Eurymachus is noteworthy for being manipulative and deceitful, at one point even fooling Penelope into thinking him without ill-intent. Although he arranges for the death of Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, his plan fails and he is later killed by Odysseus. He claims in his childhood Odysseus befriended him often, and tells Penelope that makes Telemachus 'my dearest friend on Earth' and he will protect him, though 'death for Telemachus was in his ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Antinous Of Ithaca
In the Epic Cycle, Antinous (also ''Antinoüs''; ) or Antinoös ( grc, Ἀντίνοος, translit=Antínoös means "opposite in character, resisting"), was the Ithacan son of Eupeithes, is most known for his role in Homer's ''Odyssey''. Mythology One of two prominent suitors of Penelope vying for her hand in marriage, the other being Eurymachus, Antinous was presented as a violent, mean-spirited, and over-confident character who wilfully defiles Odysseus' home while the hero is lost at sea. In an attempt to kill Telemachus, the son of Odysseus and Penelope, Antinous sends out a small band of suitors in the strait between Ithaca and rugged Same where there is a rocky isle called ''Asteris'', to intercept the young prince on his journey back to Ithaca from the hall of Menelaus. The plan, however, fails, as Telemachus avoids the trap with help from the goddess Athena. Antinous is a prime example of disregard for the custom of '' ''xenia'''' (guest-friend hospitality); rather th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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José Van Dam
Joseph, Baron Van Damme (born 27 August 1940 in Brussels), known as José van Dam, is a Belgian bass-baritone. At the age of 17, he entered the Brussels Royal Conservatory and studied with Frederic Anspach. A year later, he graduated with diplomas and first prizes in voice and opera performance. He made his opera début as the music teacher Don Basilio in Gioacchino Rossini’s ''Il Barbiere di Siviglia'' at the Paris Opera in 1961, and remained in the company until 1965, when he sang his first major role, Escamillo from Bizet's ''Carmen''. He then sang for two seasons at Geneva, La Scala, Covent Garden, and in Paris. At Geneva, Van Dam sang in the première of Milhaud's ''La mère coupable'' in 1966. Lorin Maazel heard van Dam and invited him to record Ravel’s ''L’heure espagnole'' with him for Deutsche Grammophon. In 1967, Maazel asked him to join the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. Van Dam has performed at L’Opéra de Paris, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Suitors Of Penelope
In Greek mythology, the suitors of Penelope (also known as the Proci) are one of the main subjects of Homer's ''Odyssey''. Role in the ''Odyssey'' In the ''Odyssey'' Homer describes Odysseus' journey home from Troy. Prior to the Trojan War, Odysseus was King of Homer's Ithaca, Ithaca, a Greek island known for its isolation and rugged terrain. When he departs from Ithaca to fight for the Greeks in the war, he leaves behind a newborn child, Telemachus, and his wife, Penelope. Although most surviving Greek soldiers return shortly after the end of the fighting, Odysseus does not return to Ithaca until ten years after the end of the Trojan War. During Odysseus' long absence, unmarried young men start to suspect that Odysseus died in Troy or on the journey home. Under the pretense of courting Penelope, these youths, called "the suitors", take up residence in Odysseus' home and vie for her hand in marriage. Rather than simply rejecting the suitors, Penelope devises a plan to delay their ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |