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Xavier Leroux
Xavier Henry Napoleón Leroux (11 October 1863 – 2 February 1919) was a French composer and a teacher at the Paris Conservatory. He was married to the famous soprano Meyrianne Héglon (1867–1942). Life Born in Italy at Velletri, 30 km south-east of Rome, Leroux was the son of a French military bandleader. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris under Jules Massenet and Théodore Dubois, and won the Prix de Rome in 1885 with the cantata ''Endymion''. From 1896 he taught harmony there. Notable students include Eugène Bigot, Georges Dandelot, Marc Delmas, Roger Désormière, Louis Fourestier, Henri Mulet, Paul Paray, Louis Vuillemin, and Albert Wolff. Leroux composed various orchestral and choral works, songs, and piano pieces, but he became known above all as a representative of naturalistic French opera. His masterpiece is the opera ''Le Chemineau'', which was staged six times at the Opéra-Comique between 1907 and 1945. Alfredo Casella dedicated his Symphony ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Vuillemin
Louis Vuillemin (19 December 1879 – 2 April 1929) was a French composer and music critic who strongly identified with his Breton heritage in his music. Life Vuillemin was born in Nantes, his grandfather was the piano manufacturer M. Didion. He studied cello and composition at the conservatory of Nantes and continued at the Conservatoire de Paris, 1899–1904, with Gabriel Fauré (composition) and Xavier Leroux (harmony). He married young; his wife Lucy was a renowned singer at the time, and he collaborated with her in writing his vocal music. In 1912, he was one of the founding members of the Paris-based Association de Compositeurs Bretons. Drafted to World War I, he was severely wounded in a gas attack which is said to have cut short his life.De Bellaing (1992), p. 250. As a music critic, Vuillemin wrote numerous reviews for ''Comœdia'', ''Musica'', ''Le Courrier musical'', ''Paris-Soir'', ''La Lanterne'', etc. He also wrote biographies of Gabriel Fauré (1914), Louis Aubert ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Randel
Don Michael Randel (born December 9, 1940) is an American musicologist, specializing in the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Spain and France. He is currently the Chair of the Board of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a trustee of the Carnegie Corporation, and a member of the Encyclopædia Britannica editorial board, and has previously served as the fifth president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, twelfth president of the University of Chicago, Provost of Cornell University, and Dean of Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences. He has served as editor of the third and fourth editions of the ''Harvard Dictionary of Music'', the ''Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music'', and the ''Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2002. Randel is a triple alumnus of Princeton University, where he earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in musicology. After completing his PhD at Princeton, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Cadeaux De Noël
''Les cadeaux de Noël'' (''The Christmas Gifts'') is an opera in one act composed by Xavier Leroux to a French-language libretto by Émile Fabre. Described as a (heroic tale), it was premiered by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Favart Theatre in Paris on Christmas Day 1915. Its story of four children, whose parents had been killed by German soldiers but who nevertheless found hope in a seemingly bleak Christmas, had a particular resonance with French audiences in the midst of World War I. The opera was a great success in Paris, and subsequently performed in Italy, Monte Carlo and Latin America. Background and performance history The Opéra-Comique, one of France's most prosperous opera companies, was hard hit by the outbreak of World War I in the summer of 1914. By October, 127 of its musicians, singers, and staff had been mobilized to the Western Front. The threat to Paris by the advancing German army had also led to the closure of the city's theatres until December 1914, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lieder'' (art songs) by composers such as Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. Heine's later verse and prose are distinguished by their satirical wit and irony. He is considered a member of the Young Germany movement. His radical political views led to many of his works being banned by German authorities—which, however, only added to his fame. He spent the last 25 years of his life as an expatriate in Paris. Early life Childhood and youth Heine was born on 13 December 1797, in Düsseldorf, in what was then the Duchy of Berg, into a Jewish family. He was called "Harry" in childhood but became known as "Heinrich" after his conversion to Lutheranism in 1825. Heine's father, Samson Heine (1764–1828), was a textile merchant. His mother Peira ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Reine Fiammette
''La reine Fiammette'' is an opera in four acts by composer Xavier Leroux. The opera uses a French language libretto by Catulle Mendès which is based on Mendès's 1898 work of the same name, a ''conte dramatique'' in six acts set in Renaissance Italy. The opera's premiere was given by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Favart theatre in Paris on 23 December 1903. The production was directed by Albert Carré and conducted by André Messager. The United States premiere of the work was given at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on 24 January 1919. That production was directed by Richard Ordynski, conducted by Pierre Monteux, and starred Geraldine Farrar as Orlanda, Hipolito Lazaro as Danièlo, Adamo Didur as Giorgio, Léon Rothier as César, and Flora Perini Flora Perini (20 November 1887 – 23 September 1975) was an Italian operatic mezzo-soprano who had a prominent opera career in Europe, South America, and the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astarté (opera)
''Astarté'' is an opera in four acts and five scenes by Xavier Leroux to a libretto by Louis de Gramont. It was premiered at the Opéra de Paris on 15 February 1901, directed by Pedro Gailhard. The protagonist is the hero Heracles, who falls under the control of the Lydian queen Omphale. Omphale is depicted as a cultist of Astarte. Roles Synopsis Act 1 Heracles, Duke of Argos, plans to undertake a new campaign to destroy the infamous cult of the goddess Astarte. He will go to Lydia, in order to exterminate the queen Omphale, a cruel and indecent sectarian of this goddess. Nothing can hold him back, not even the love of his wife Deianira. She wants to use a talisman to warn him against Omphale's seductions, which she fears. This talisman is the famous tunic of the centaur Nessos that the latter gave her, telling her that when Hercules put it on, he would never look at another woman again. She therefore instructs Iole, her ward, to follow in her husband's footsteps and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis De Gramont
Louis Ferdinand de Gramont (1854 – 9 December 1912) was a French journalist, dramatist, and librettist. He was a son of Ferdinand de Gramont. Gramont was born in Sèvres and finished his studies at the college there, then entered the School of Law. He pursued journalism and wrote for such periodicals as ''Radical'', ''L'Éclair'', ''La Presse'', ''Petit bleu'', ''L'Aurore'', and ''La Cocarde'', and, in 1890, became a writer for ''L'Intransigent''. He was also critic of drama and music. Gramont died in Paris in 1912. He wrote the following plays or opera libretti: * ''L'orage'', comedy (1874) * ''Othello'', drama after Shakespeare ( Odéon, 15 April 1882) * ''Rolande'', drama ( Théâtre-Libre 5 November 1888) * ''Loulou'' (1888) * ''Esclarmonde'', co-author with Alfred Blau, libretto to the opera by Jules Massenet (Opéra-Comique, 15 May 1889) * ''Lucienne'', drama (Menus-Plaisirs, 2 December 1890) * ''La locataire de Mme Biou'' (1891) * ''Simone'', drama (Théâtre-Libre, 28 A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aristophanes
Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and ear ... Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comedy, comic playwright or comedy-writer of Classical Athens, ancient Athens and a poet of Ancient Greek comedy, Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. These provide the most valuable examples of a genre of comic drama known as Ancient Greek comedy, Old Comedy and are used to define it, along with fragments from dozens of lost plays by Aristophanes and his contemporaries. Also known as "The Father of Comedy" and "the Prince of Ancient Comedy", Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His pow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plutus (play)
''Plutus'' ( grc, Πλοῦτος, ''Ploutos'', "Wealth") is an Ancient Greek comedy by the playwright Aristophanes, which was first produced in 388 BCE. A political satire on contemporary Athens, it features the personified god of wealth Plutus. Reflecting the development of Old Comedy towards New Comedy, it uses such familiar character types as the stupid master and the insubordinate slave to attack the morals of the time. Plot The play features an elderly Athenian citizen, Chremylos, and his slave Cario or Carion. Chremylos presents himself and his family as virtuous but poor, and has accordingly gone to seek advice from an oracle. The play begins as he returns to Athens from Delphi, having been instructed by Apollo to follow the first man he meets and persuade him to come home with him. That man turns out to be the god Plutus — who is, contrary to all expectations, a blind beggar. After much argument, Plutus is convinced to enter Chremylos's house, where he will have his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aeschylus
Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is largely based on inferences made from reading his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in the theatre and allowed conflict among them. Formerly, characters interacted only with the chorus.The remnant of a commemorative inscription, dated to the 3rd century BC, lists four, possibly eight, dramatic poets (probably including Choerilus, Phrynichus, and Pratinas) who had won tragic victories at the Dionysia before Aeschylus had. Thespis was traditionally regarded the inventor of tragedy. According to another tradition, tragedy was established in Athens in the late 530s BC, but that may simply reflect an absence of records. Major innovations in dramatic form, credited to Aeschylus by Aristotle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Persians
''The Persians'' ( grc, Πέρσαι, ''Persai'', Latinised as ''Persae'') is an ancient Greek tragedy written during the Classical period of Ancient Greece by the Greek tragedian Aeschylus. It is the second and only surviving part of a now otherwise lost trilogy that won the first prize at the dramatic competitions in Athens' City Dionysia festival in 472 BC, with Pericles serving as ''choregos''. Place in Aeschylus' work The first play in the trilogy, called ''Phineus'', presumably dealt with Jason and the Argonauts' rescue of King Phineus from the torture that the monstrous harpies inflicted at the behest of Zeus. The subject of the third play, ''Glaucus'', was either a mythical Corinthian king who was devoured by his horses because he angered the goddess Aphrodite (see Glaucus (son of Sisyphus)) or else a Boeotian farmer who ate a magical herb that transformed him into a sea deity with the gift of prophecy (see Glaucus). In ''The Persians'', Xerxes invites the gods' enmity ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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