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Walter Widdop
Walter Widdop (19 April 1892 – 6 September 1949) was a British operatic tenor who is best remembered for his Richard Wagner, Wagnerian performances. His repertoire also encompassed works by Giuseppe Verdi, Verdi, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Leoncavallo, George Frideric Handel, Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach. Career Widdop was born at Norland, West Yorkshire, Norland, near Halifax, West Yorkshire, Halifax, Yorkshire, England."Mr. Walter Widdop – A Fine English Tenor", ''The Times'', 7 September 1949, p. 7 As a teenager, he worked in a woollen mill and sang in a church choir. He also won a number of singing prizes in his native county, earning praise for his "God-given" voice, which was honed by a local teacher, Arthur Hinchcliffe. He served with the British Army during World War One and married in 1917. In 1923, Widdop made the first of many broadcasts for the BBC. In the same year, he made his professional operatic debut as Radames in Giuseppe Verdi, Verdi's ''Aida'' wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the title role in '' Der fliegende Holländer'', Wotan/Der Wanderer in the '' Ring Cycle'' and Hans Sachs in '' Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg''. Wagner labelled these roles as ''Hoher Bass'' ("high bass")—see fach for more details. The bass-baritone voice is distinguished by two attributes. First, it must be capable of singing comfortably in a baritonal tessitura. Secondly, however, it needs to have the ripely resonant lower range typically associated with the bass voice. For example, the role of Wotan in ''Die Walküre'' covers the range from F2 (the F at the bottom of the bass clef) to F4 (the F above middle C), but only infrequently descends beyond C3 (the C below middle C). Bass-baritones are typically divided ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oedipus Rex (opera)
''Oedipus rex'' is an opera- oratorio by Igor Stravinsky, scored for orchestra, speaker, soloists, and male chorus. The libretto, based on Sophocles's tragedy, was written by Jean Cocteau in French and then translated by Abbé Jean Daniélou into Latin; the narration, however, is performed in the language of the audience. ''Oedipus rex'' was written towards the beginning of Stravinsky's neoclassical period, and is considered one of the finest works from this phase of the composer's career. He had considered setting the work in Ancient Greek, but decided ultimately on Latin: in his words "a medium not dead but turned to stone." Performance history ''Oedipus rex'' is sometimes performed in the concert hall as an oratorio, similarly to its original performance in the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt in Paris on 30 May 1927, and at its American premiere the following year, given by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Harvard Glee Club. It has also been presented on stage as an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century classical music, composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernism (music), modernist music. Stravinsky's compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and first performed in Paris by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes: ''The Firebird'' (1910), ''Petrushka (ballet), Petrushka'' (1911), and ''The Rite of Spring'' (1913). The last transformed the way in which subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure and was largely responsible for Stravinsky's enduring reputation as a revolutionary who pushed the boundaries of musical design. His "Russian phase", which continued with works such as ''Renard (Stravinsky), Renar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rodelinda (opera)
''Rodelinda, regina de' Longobardi'' ( HWV 19) is an opera seria in three acts composed for the first Royal Academy of Music by George Frideric Handel. The libretto is by Nicola Francesco Haym, based on an earlier libretto by Antonio Salvi. ''Rodelinda'' has long been regarded as one of Handel's greatest works. Performance history ''Rodelinda'' was first performed at the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket, London, on 13 February 1725. It was produced with the same singers as '' Tamerlano''. There were 14 performances; it was repeated on 18 December 1725, and again on 4 May 1731, a further 16 performances in all, each revival including changes and fresh material. In 1735 and 1736 it was also performed, with only modest success, in Hamburg at the Oper am Gänsemarkt. The first modern production – in heavily altered form – was in Göttingen on 26 June 1920 where it was the first of a series of modern Handel opera revivals produced by the Handel enthusiast Oskar Hagen. The oper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lilian Stiles-Allen
Lilian Stiles-Allen (28 July 189015 July 1982) was a British soprano of the mid 20th century. Early life She was born Lilian Elizabeth Allen in Devonshire Street, Marylebone in 1890, and later added her mother's maiden name.''The Times'', 17 July 1982 Her musical education was at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she won the Sheriff's Prize for contraltos in 1909, and in Vienna undertaking an extensive study of Lieder. Career Her career was primarily on the concert stage, her physique being unsuited to operatic performance, but an early theatrical appearance was in the comedy '' Eastward Ho!'' in 1919. By the 1920s she was established as a leading concert soprano. Her appearances included the Handel Festival at the Crystal Palace; a revival of Sullivan's ''The Golden Legend''; ''Messiah'' with Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent; Verdi's Requiem (Sargent); Beethoven's Choral Symphony ( Sir Henry J. Wood); Handel's '' Solomon'' (Beecham); Samuel Coleridge-Ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armide (Gluck)
''Armide'' is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck, set to a libretto by Philippe Quinault. Gluck's fifth production for the Parisian stage and the composer's own favourite among his works, it was first performed on 23 September 1777 by the Académie Royale de Musique in the second Salle du Palais-Royal in Paris. Background and performance history Gluck set the same libretto Philippe Quinault had written for Lully in 1686, based on Torquato Tasso's ''Gerusalemme liberata'' (''Jerusalem Delivered''). Gluck seemed at ease in facing French traditions head-on when he composed ''Armide''. Lully and Quinault were the very founders of serious opera in France and ''Armide'' was generally recognized as their masterpiece, so it was a bold move on Gluck's part to write new music to Quinault's words. A similar attempt to write a new opera to the libretto of ''Thésée'' by Jean-Joseph de Mondonville in 1765 had ended in disaster, with audiences demanding it be replaced by Lully's original. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he gained prominence at the Habsburg court at Vienna. There he brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices for which many intellectuals had been campaigning. With a series of radical new works in the 1760s, among them '' Orfeo ed Euridice'' and '' Alceste'', he broke the stranglehold that Metastasian ''opera seria'' had enjoyed for much of the century. Gluck introduced more drama by using orchestral recitative and cutting the usually long da capo aria. His later operas have half the length of a typical baroque opera. Future composers like Mozart, Schubert, Berlioz and Wagner revered Gluck very highly. The strong influence of French opera encouraged Gluck to move to Paris in November 1773. Fusing the traditions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heldentenor
A heldentenor (; English: ''heroic tenor''), earlier called tenorbariton, is an operatic tenor voice, most often associated with Wagnerian repertoire. It is distinct from other tenor '' fächer'' by its endurance, volume, and dark timbre, which may be, in its middle register, like that of a baritone. The voice may also sound clear or metallic. It is one of the rarest voice types in opera. Heldentenor roles, such as the title roles in '' Siegfried'' and ''Lohengrin'', often require commanding stage presence and strong acting ability. In some cases, due to reasons such as voice misidentification, singers may begin their careers as baritones before later transitioning. The term ''heldentenor'' may be used to refer to both a singer and their voice. The treble counterpart of the heldentenor is the Wagnerian soprano. Roles The following roles are in the standard heldentenor repertoire: Richard Wagner * Lohengrin, ''Lohengrin'' * Parsifal, ''Parsifal'' * Rienzi, ''Rienzi'' * Sie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gota Ljungberg
Gota or Gøta or Göta may refer to: People * Gotabaya Rajapaksa (born 1949), 8th President of Sri Lanka *, Japanese freestyle skier *Gota Yashiki (born 1962), both an independent acid jazz artist and drum/bass player, as a member of the band Simply Red * Gota Yamashita (born 1989), Japanese mixed martial artist Places * Gota, Gujarat, a city in India *Göta älv, a river in Sweden * Gota, Guinea, a town in the Nzérékoré Prefecture, Guinea * Gotha, Ethiopia, also known as Gota, a settlement in east-central Ethiopia *Göta Canal, a waterway in Sweden * Gota (Dârjov), a tributary of the river Dârjov in Olt County, Romania *Göta, Sweden, locality situated in Västra Götaland County *Norðragøta, also just referred to as Gøta, village on Eysturoy, Faroe Islands Names * Göta, Swedish female name *Gota Cola, a three piece band from Brisbane *Göta Lejon, a theatre in Stockholm, Sweden, located in Södermalm *Göta Ljungberg (1898–1955), major Swedish Wagnerian sopra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frida Leider
Frida Leider (18 April 1888 – 4 June 1975) was a German operatic soprano. Leider was a dramatic soprano. Her most famous roles were Wagner's Isolde and Brünnhilde, Beethoven's Fidelio, Mozart's Donna Anna, and Verdi's Aida and Leonora. She made over 80 recordings, mainly for Polydor and HMV. Life Leider was born in Berlin, where she studied singing while working in a bank. Her first engagements led her to opera houses in Halle, Königsberg, and Rostock. After an engagement with the Hamburg State Opera in 1923, she was hired by the Berlin State Opera as first dramatic soprano. After her retirement from the stage in 1946, she remained there as the director and manager of a studio for the rising singers of the Berlin State Opera. Leider made regular guest appearances for over 15 years at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, at La Scala in Milan, and at the State Operas of Vienna and Munich. She also made appearances at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eva Turner
Dame Eva Turner, (10 March 1892 – 16 June 1990) was an English dramatic soprano with an international reputation. Her strong, steady and well-trained voice was renowned for its clarion power in Italian and German operatic roles. Career Eva Turner was born in Werneth, Oldham. Her first formal singing lessons were with Dan Rootham, who taught voice to contralto (later Dame) Clara Butt. From 1911-14, Turner studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She was later made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (FRAM) in 1928. She began her career as a chorister with the Carl Rosa Opera Company and steadily took on larger roles such as Kate Pinkerton and the lead role of Cio Cio San in '' Madama Butterfly'', Micaela in '' Carmen'', Musetta in Puccini's ''La bohème'', Santuzza in ''Cavalleria rusticana'', Donna Anna in '' Don Giovanni'', Elisabeth in ''Tannhäuser,'' Freia in ''Das Rheingold'', Elsa in ''Lohengrin,'' Brünnhilde in ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'', Leonora in '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
