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Ursula Brömme
Ursula Brömme (9 August 1931 – 8 March 2001)Werner Wolf: ''Ursula Brömme gestorben: Sopranistin mit bezwingender gestischer Kraft''. In ''Leipziger Volkszeitung'', 10 March 2001, . was a German singer (first an alto, then a soprano) and music educator. Life Born in Halle an der Saale, Brömme came from a family of craftsmen in which house concert was cultivated.Werner Wolf: ''Ursula Brömme''. In Ernst Krause (musicologist), Ernst Krause (ed.): ''Opera singers. 48 Porträts aus der Welt des Musiktheaters'', 3rd, amended edition, Henschel, Berlin 1965, , here . In her childhood she received piano lessons, from 1947 she was one of the first students of the piano department at the . encouraged her interest in singing. She received private singing lessons and observed in the singing department of the college. In 1948 she joined the class for concert and oratorio singing. The singing teacher Kurt Wichmann recognised her talent and promoted her in the best possible way. After the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Werner Wolf
Werner Wolf (15 March 1925 – 23 December 2019) was a German musicologist and music critic. The acknowledged Wagner researcher was co-editor of ''Sämtlicher Briefe'' of the composer from 1967 to 1979. He also presented several opera performances. In 1981 he was appointed professor at the Leipzig University. Life Born in , Wolf was born in 1925 as the son of a metalworker, stocking maker or master craftsman and a seamstress. After attending elementary school, he first completed a merchant training course in iron wholesale and attended the Wirtschaftsoberschule in Chemnitz. From 1941 to 1945 he worked as a commercial clerk, auxiliary storekeeper and transport worker in the iron wholesale trade in the Chemnitz. During this time he was supported by the composer Paul Kurzbach and his wife (a piano teacher). He was also influenced by the Wagner tradition of the Theater Chemnitz. In December 1944 he was called up for military service; until June 1946 he spent time in British war cap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berlin State Opera
The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from 1741 to 1743 according to plans by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff in the Palladian style. Damaged during the Allied bombing in World War II, the former Royal Prussian Opera House was rebuilt from 1951 to 1955 as part of the Forum Fridericianum square. Nicknamed ''Lindenoper'' in Berlin, it is "the first theater anywhere to be, by itself, a prominent, freestanding monumental building in a city." History Names Originally called the ''Königliche Oper'' (Royal Opera) from 1743, it was renamed as the ''Preußische Staatsoper'' (Prussian State Opera) in 1919, then as the ''Deutsche Staatsoper '' in 1955. Until 1990, it housed the state opera of East Germany. Since 1990, it is officially called the ''Staatsoper Unter den Linden'' (State Ope ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Die Frau Ohne Schatten
' (''The Woman without a Shadow''), Op. 65, is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with a libretto by his long-time collaborator, the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It was written between 1911 and either 1915 or 1917. When it premiered at the Vienna State Opera on 10 October 1919, critics and audiences were unenthusiastic. Many cited problems with Hofmannsthal's complicated and heavily symbolic libretto. However, it is now a standard part of the operatic repertoire. Composition history Work on the opera began in 1911. Hofmannsthal's earliest sketches for the libretto are based on a piece by Goethe, ' (1795). Hofmannsthal handles Goethe's material freely, adding the idea of two couples, the emperor and empress who come from another realm, and the dyer and his wife who belong to the ordinary world. Hofmannsthal also drew on portions of ''The Arabian Nights'', ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', and even quotes Goethe's ''Faust''. The opera is conceived as a fairy tale on the theme of lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Maid Of Orleans (opera)
''The Maid of Orleans'' (russian: Орлеанская дева, Orleanskaja deva, link=no, Virgin of Orleans ) is an opera in 4 acts, 6 scenes, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It was composed during 1878–1879 to a Russian libretto by the composer, based on several sources: Friedrich Schiller's ''The Maid of Orleans (play), The Maid of Orleans'' as translated by Vasily Zhukovsky; Jules Barbier's ''Jeanne d'Arc''; Auguste Mermet's libretto for his own 1876 opera; and Henri-Alexandre Wallon, Henri Wallon's biography of Joan of Arc. Dedicated to conductor Eduard Nápravník, this work represents the composer's closest approach to French grand opera, albeit in the Russian language, notably with its inclusion of a ballet in act 2. Performance history The world premiere was given on 25 February 1881 (13 February Old style and new style dates, O.S.) at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, conducted by Eduard Nápravník. Notable subsequent performances were given on 28 July 1882 in Pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rienzi
' (''Rienzi, the last of the tribunes''; WWV 49) is an early opera by Richard Wagner in five acts, with the libretto written by the composer after Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel of the same name (1835). The title is commonly shortened to ''Rienzi''. Written between July 1838 and November 1840, it was first performed at the Königliches Hoftheater Dresden, on 20 October 1842, and was the composer's first success. The opera's format is the Grand Opera in Meyerbeer style. Wagner had been fascinated by this genre of opera at an early age, and with Rienzi and its enormous dimensions wanted to surpass anything else that had previously been composed in this style. It is thus a rare study in pomp and splendor, both scenically and musically, and partly represents a great contrast to his later works. Rienzi is in full version Wagner's longest opera. It includes a ballet that lasts alone for 40 minutes. During the premiere in Dresden, Wagner noted to his dismay that the performance lasted be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg
(; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg"), WWV 96, is a music drama, or opera, in three acts, by Richard Wagner. It is the longest opera commonly performed, taking nearly four and a half hours, not counting two breaks between acts, and is traditionally not cut. With Hans von Bülow conducting, it was first performed on 21 June 1868 at the National Theatre Munich, National Theater in Munich, today home of Bavarian State Opera. The story is set in Nuremberg in the mid-16th century. At the time, Nuremberg was a free imperial city and one of the centers of the Renaissance in Northern Europe. The story revolves around the city's guild of ''Meistersinger'' (Master Singers), an association of amateur poets and musicians who were primarily Master craftsman, master craftsmen of various trades. The master singers had developed a craftsmanlike approach to music-making, with an intricate system of rules for composing and performing songs. The work draws much of its atmosphere from its depictio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Der Fliegende Holländer
' (''The Flying Dutchman''), WWV 63, is a German-language opera, with libretto and music by Richard Wagner. The central theme is redemption through love. Wagner conducted the premiere at the Königliches Hoftheater Dresden in 1843. Wagner claimed in his 1870 autobiography '' Mein Leben'' that he had been inspired to write the opera following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in July and August 1839. In his 1843 '' Autobiographic Sketch'', Wagner acknowledged he had taken the story from Heinrich Heine's retelling of the legend in his 1833 satirical novel ''The Memoirs of Mister von Schnabelewopski'' (''Aus den Memoiren des Herrn von Schnabelewopski''). This work shows early attempts at operatic styles that would characterise his later music dramas. In ''Der fliegende Holländer'' Wagner uses a number of leitmotifs (literally, "leading motifs") associated with the characters and themes. The leitmotifs are all introduced in the overture, which begins with a well- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aida
''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 December 1871, in a performance conducted by Giovanni Bottesini. Today the work holds a central place in the operatic canon, receiving performances every year around the world; at New York's Metropolitan Opera alone, ''Aida'' has been sung more than 1,100 times since 1886. Ghislanzoni's scheme follows a scenario often attributed to the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, but Verdi biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz argues that the source is actually Temistocle Solera. Elements of the opera's genesis and sources Isma'il Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, commissioned Verdi to write an opera to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal, but Verdi declined. However, Auguste Mariette, a French Egyptologist, proposed to Khedive Pasha a plot for a celebratory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Un Ballo In Maschera
''Un ballo in maschera'' ''(A Masked Ball)'' is an 1859 opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The text, by Antonio Somma, was based on Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's 1833 five act opera, '' Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué''. The plot concerns the assassination in 1792 of King Gustav III of Sweden who was shot, as the result of a political conspiracy, while attending a masked ball, dying of his wounds thirteen days later. It was to take over two years between the commission from Naples, planned for a production there, and its premiere performance at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on 17 February 1859. In becoming the ''Un ballo in maschera'' which we know today, Verdi's opera (and his libretto) underwent a significant series of transformations and title changes, caused by a combination of censorship regulations in both Naples and Rome, as well as by the political situation in France in January 1858. Based on the Scribe libretto and begun as ''Gustavo III'' set in Stockho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875, where its breaking of conventions shocked and scandalised its first audiences. Bizet died suddenly after the 33rd performance, unaware that the work would achieve international acclaim within the following ten years. ''Carmen'' has since become one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the classical Western canon, canon; the "Habanera (aria), Habanera" from act 1 and the "Toreador Song" from act 2 are among the best known of all operatic arias. The opera is written in the genre of ''opéra comique'' with musical numbers separated by dialogue. It is set in southern Spain and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fidelio
''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Op. 72, is Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, with the work premiering at Vienna's Theater an der Wien on 20 November 1805. The following year, Stephan von Breuning helped shorten the work from three acts to two. After further work on the libretto by Georg Friedrich Treitschke, a final version was performed at the Kärntnertortheater on 23 May 1814. By convention, both of the first two versions are referred to as ''Leonore''. The libretto, with some spoken dialogue, tells how Leonore, disguised as a prison guard named "Fidelio", rescues her husband Florestan from death in a political prison. Bouilly's scenario fits Beethoven's aesthetic and political outlook: a story of personal sacrifice, heroism, and eventual triumph. With its underlying struggle for liberty and justice mirroring con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leipzig Opera
The Leipzig Opera (in German: ) is an opera house and opera company located at the Augustusplatz and the Inner City Ring Road at its east side in Leipzig's district Mitte, Germany. History Performances of opera in Leipzig trace back to Singspiel performances beginning in the year 1693. The composer of many early operas at the first opera house, the Oper am Brühl, was Telemann. He was director of the house from 1703 to 1705. The Leipzig Opera does not have its own opera orchestra – the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra performs as its orchestra. This relationship began in 1766 with performances of the Singspiel ' by Johann Adam Hiller. Opera House, 1868 The previous theater (the "") was inaugurated on 28 January 1868 with ''Jubilee Overture'' by Carl Maria von Weber and the overture for ''Iphigénie en Aulide'' by Gluck and Goethe's play ''Iphigenia in Tauris''. From 1886 to 1888, Gustav Mahler was the second conductor; Arthur Nikisch was his superior. During an air raid in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
