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Anita Välkki
Anita Välkki (25 October 1926 – 27 April 2011) was a Finnish dramatic soprano who had an international career in major roles at leading opera houses. Training and career Välkki was born in Sääksmäki. She trained in Helsinki and began her career as an actress and a singer in operettas in 1952. In 1954 she gave a concert in Helsinki which led to her being invited to join the Finnish National Opera. In 1960 her international career began when she appeared as Brünnhilde in Richard Wagner, Wagner's ''Die Walküre'' at the Royal Swedish Opera. She made her debut at the Royal Opera House London in the same role in 1961 and at the Metropolitan Opera New York in 1962, where she was praised as "completely in her element". She also appeared at the Met as Giacomo Puccini, Puccini's ''Turandot'', her most performed opera role on the stage, and in leading roles in Wagner's operas ''Der fliegende Holländer'', ''Tannhäuser (opera), Tannhäuser'' and ''Parsifal''. Välkki appeared at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi, his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma, to a family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the help of a local patron, Antonio Barezzi. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, and Gaetano Donizetti, whose works significantly influenced him. In his early operas, Verdi demonstrated sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy. He also served briefly as an elected politician. The chorus "Va, pensiero" from his early opera ''Nabucco'' (1842), and similar choruses in later operas, were much in the spirit of the unification movement, and the composer himself became esteemed as a representative of these ideals. An intensely private person, Verdi did not seek to ingratiate hims ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2011 Deaths
This is a list of lists of deaths of notable people, organized by year. New deaths articles are added to their respective month (e.g., Deaths in ) and then linked below. 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 Earlier years ''Deaths in years earlier than this can usually be found in the main articles of the years.'' See also * Lists of deaths by day * Deaths by year (category) {{DEFAULTSORT:deaths by year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1926 Births
In Turkey, the year technically contained only 352 days. As Friday, December 18, 1926 ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Saturday, January 1, 1927 '' (Gregorian Calendar)''. 13 days were dropped to make the switch. Turkey thus became the last country to officially adopt the Gregorian Calendar, which ended the 344-year calendrical switch around the world that took place in October, 1582 by virtue of the Papal Bull made by Pope Gregory XIII. Events January * January 3 – Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece. * January 8 **Ibn Saud is crowned ruler of the Kingdom of Hejaz. ** Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuy ascends the throne as Bảo Đại, the last monarch of the Nguyễn dynasty of the Kingdom of Vietnam. * January 16 – A British Broadcasting Company radio play by Ronald Knox about workers' revolution in London causes a panic among those who have not heard the preliminary announcement that it is a satire on broadcasting. * January 21 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helsinki
Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipality, with million in the Helsinki capital region, capital region and million in the Helsinki metropolitan area, metropolitan area. As the most populous List of urban areas in Finland by population, urban area in Finland, it is the country's most significant centre for politics, education, finance, culture, and research. Helsinki is north of Tallinn, Estonia, east of Stockholm, Sweden, and west of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Helsinki has significant History of Helsinki, historical connections with these three cities. Together with the cities of Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen—and surrounding commuter towns, including the neighbouring municipality of Sipoo to the east—Helsinki forms a Helsinki metropolitan area, metropolitan are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opera Magazine
''Opera'' is a monthly British magazine devoted to covering all things related to opera. It contains reviews and articles about current opera productions internationally, as well as articles on opera recordings, opera singers, opera companies, opera directors, and opera books. The magazine also contains major features and analysis on individual operas and people associated with opera. The magazine employs a network of international correspondents around the world who write for the magazine. Contributors to the magazine, past and present, include William Ashbrook, Martin Bernheimer, Julian Budden, Rodolfo Celletti, Alan Blyth, Elizabeth Forbes, and J.B. Steane among many others. Format ''Opera'' is printed in A5 size, with colour photos, and consists of around 130 pages. Page numbering is consecutive for a complete year (e.g. September 2009 covers pages 1033–1168). All issues since February 1950 are available online to current subscribers (through Exact Editions). History ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juha (Merikanto)
''Juha'' is a three-act opera by Aarre Merikanto, with a Finland, Finnish libretto by Aino Ackté based on the 1911 Juha (novel), novel of the same name by Juhani Aho. Although completed by 1922, it was only finally staged at the music college in Lahti on 28 October 1963.Arni E. Juha. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997. The story is a drama of a love triangle: the older husband Juha, his young wife Marja, and her seducer the merchant Shemeikka. Set in the 1880s in Kainuu in northern Finland, the human tragedy is based around the harsh realities of a farming community and the clash of their lifestyle with the more worldly nomadic Karelians, represented by Shemeikka. Background Ackté first offered the libretto to Sibelius, who, after two years, declined to set it, explaining in a letter to Ackté that he believed the text should be subservient to the “absolute music” of the score, and he felt unable to achieve that with what he call ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aarre Merikanto
Aarre Merikanto (29 June 1893 – 28 September 1958) was a Finnish composer. He was born in Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland, the son of Elise "Liisa" Häyrynen (1869–1949) and the famous romantic composer, professor Oskar Merikanto (1868–1924). His childhood he spent in Vilppula, Finland. He married Meri Grönmark in 1919. They had two daughters, Anna Marjatta Peltonen (née Merikanto) and Arma Kyllikki Tukia (née Merikanto). He later married Evi Sylvia Mähönen (1910–1968). They had two sons, Ukri Uolevi Merikanto (1950–2010), a sculptor and Pan Ylermi Merikanto (1951–2012). He is considered a key figure in early Finnish modernism (together with Väinö Raitio and Ernest Pingoud) and several of his works, most notably the opera Juha, have obtained posthumous attention. As professor of composition in the Sibelius Academy (1951–1958) Merikanto taught several Finnish composers of the next generation, including Einojuhani Rautavaara, Usko Meriläinen, Aulis S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Savonlinna Opera Festival
Savonlinna Opera Festival () is held annually in the city of Savonlinna in Finland. The Festival takes place at the medieval Olavinlinna (St. Olaf's Castle), built in 1475. The castle is located amid spectacular lake scenery. Origin The birth of the Savonlinna Opera Festival ties in closely with the emerging Finland, Finnish identity and striving for independence at the beginning of the 20th century. Attending a nationalist meeting in Olavinlinna Castle in 1907, the Finnish soprano Aino Ackté, already famous at opera houses the world over and an ardent patriot, immediately spotted the potential of the castle as the venue for an opera festival. The first opera festival was held in 1912. Aino Ackté directed the festival for five summers, staging four Finland, Finnish operas. The only opera by a non-Finnish composer was Charles Gounod’s ''Faust (opera), Faust'', with Ackté herself in the leading female role of Marguerite. In 1917 the festival ran into difficulties because of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aulis Sallinen
Aulis Heikki Sallinen (born 9 April 1935) is a Finnish contemporary classical music composer. His music has been variously described as "remorselessly harsh", a "beautifully crafted amalgam of several 20th-century styles", and "neo-romantic". Sallinen studied at the Sibelius Academy, where his teachers included Joonas Kokkonen. He has had works commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, and has also written seven operas, eight symphonies, concertos for violin, cello, flute, horn, and English horn, as well as several chamber works. He won the Nordic Council Music Prize in 1978 for his opera ''Ratsumies'' ('' The Horseman''). Childhood and studies Sallinen was born in Salmi. During his childhood the family moved several times for his father's work, and during the Evacuation of Finnish Karelia in 1944 the family relocated to Uusikaupunki, where he went to school. His first instruments were the violin and the piano. He learned to play both jazz and classical music. He spent much ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Horseman (opera)
''The Horseman'' (, ) is an opera in three acts by Aulis Sallinen, based on a libretto by Paavo Haavikko. It was premiered by the Savonlinna Opera Festival on 17 June 1975 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Olavinlinna Castle, and is the first of Sallinen's operas, and is replete with heavy symbolism and historical allegories.Erkki, Arni. Report from premiere of ''The Horseman''. ''Opera Festival Issue'', 1975, pp. 65–68. According to George Loomis, writing in ''The New York Times'', the work "is widely credited for helping to precipitate a wave of Finnish operas". A critic at the premiere described the work as a "timeless parable of a country and nation ground between, and harried by two mighty neighbours" (Sweden and Russia), depicting "the sufferings of individuals speak for the sufferings of a long downtrodden nation". Sallinen's music is described as "immediately and excitingly accessible... with powerful dramatic feeling." The work won the composer's prize of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cavalleria Rusticana
''Cavalleria rusticana'' (; ) is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 Cavalleria rusticana (short story), short story of the same name and subsequent play by Giovanni Verga. Considered one of the classic ''verismo'' operas, it premiered on 17 May 1890 at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Since 1893 in music, 1893, it has often been performed in a so-called ''Cav/Pag'' double-bill with ''Pagliacci'' by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Composition history In July 1888 the Milanese music publisher Edoardo Sonzogno announced a competition open to all young Italian composers who had not yet had an opera performed on stage. They were invited to submit a one-act opera which would be judged by a jury of five prominent Italian critics and composers. The best three would be staged in Rome at Sonzogno's expense. Mascagni heard about the competition only two months before the closing da ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
