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Denise Duval
Denise Duval (23 October 192125 January 2016) was a French soprano, best known for her performances in the works of Francis Poulenc on stage and in recital. During an international career, Duval created the roles of Thérèse in '' Les mamelles de Tirésias'', Elle in '' La voix humaine'', and excelled in the role of Blanche de la Force in ''Dialogues of the Carmelites'',Obituary – Denise Duval. ''Opera'', April 2016, Vol 67 No 4, p448-449. leaving recordings of these and several other of her main roles. Life and career Duval was born in Paris, and attended the Collège de Libourne, appearing in the play ''Les Plus beaux yeux du monde'' by Jean Sarment. Her father, a colonel, allowed her to enrol in the theatre classes at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux, where she was spotted by the director, Gaston Poulet, who got her into the vocal classes.Laurent, François. Hommage : Denise Duval. '' Diapason'', No.644, March 2016, p16-17. From there she made her debut in ''Cavalleria rustican ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880 Hz in choral music, or to "soprano C" (C6, two octaves above middle C) = 1046 Hz or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which often encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, soubrette, lyric, spinto, and dramatic soprano. Etymology The word "soprano" comes from the Italian word '' sopra'' (above, over, on top of),"Soprano" '' |
L'Aiglon (opera)
''L'Aiglon'' is an opera (''drame musical'') in five acts composed by Arthur Honegger and Jacques Ibert. Honegger composed acts 2, 3, and 4, with Ibert composing acts 1 and 5. A 2016 reviewer described it as "a singular piece of work" with its "blend of operetta, divertissement, conversation piece, historical pageant and, in the disturbingly powerful fourth act set on the Napoleonic battlefield at Wagram, phantasmagoria peopled with living figures onstage and dead voices off". Background The libretto by Henri Cain was based on Edmond Rostand's 1900 play, '' L'Aiglon'' ("The Eaglet"), about the life of Napoleon II, who was the son of Emperor Napoleon I and his second wife, Empress Marie Louise. It premiered at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo on 11 March 1937 in a production by Pierre Chéreau. The principal roles were sung by Fanny Heldy and Vanni Marcoux. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Mamelles De Tirésias
''Les Mamelles de Tirésias'' (''The Breasts of Tiresias'') is an ''opéra bouffe'' by Francis Poulenc, in a prologue and two acts based on the eponymous play by Guillaume Apollinaire. The opera was written in 1945 and first performed in 1947. Apollinaire's play, written in 1903, was revised with a sombre prologue by the time it premiered during World War I in France. For the opera, Poulenc incorporated both the farcical and the serious aspects of the original play, which according to one critic displays a "high-spirited topsy-turveydom" that conceals "a deeper and sadder theme – the need to repopulate and rediscover a France ravaged by war." Background Guillaume Apollinaire was one a group of poets whom Poulenc had met as a teenager. Adrienne Monnier's bookshop, the ''Maison des Amis des Livres'', was a meeting place for ''avant-garde'' writers including Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Paul Éluard and Louis Aragon. Apollinaire, the illegitimate son of a Polish noblewoman, was describe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pelléas Et Mélisande (opera)
''Pelléas et Mélisande'' (''Pelléas and Mélisande'') is an opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's symbolist play of the same name. It premiered at the Salle Favart in Paris by the Opéra-Comique on 30 April 1902; Jean Périer was Pelléas and Mary Garden was Mélisande, conducted by André Messager, who was instrumental in getting the Opéra-Comique to stage the work. The only opera Debussy ever completed, it is considered a landmark in 20th-century music. The plot concerns a love triangle. Prince Golaud finds Mélisande, a mysterious young woman, lost in a forest. He marries her and brings her back to the castle of his grandfather, King Arkel of Allemonde. Here Mélisande becomes increasingly attached to Golaud's younger half-brother Pelléas, arousing Golaud's jealousy. Golaud goes to excessive lengths to find out the truth about Pelléas and Mélisande's relationship, even forcing his own child, Yniold, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manon
''Manon'' () is an ''opéra comique'' in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel '' L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut'' by the Abbé Prévost. It was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 19 January 1884, with sets designed by Eugène Carpezat (act 1), Auguste Alfred Rubé and Philippe Chaperon (acts 2 and 3), and Jean-Baptiste Lavastre (act 4). Prior to Massenet's work, Halévy (''Manon Lescaut'', ballet, 1830) and Auber (''Manon Lescaut'', opéra comique, 1856) had used the subject for musical stage works. Massenet also wrote a one-act sequel to ''Manon'', ''Le portrait de Manon'' (1894), involving the Chevalier des Grieux as an older man. The composer worked at the score of ''Manon'' at his country home outside Paris and also at a house at The Hague once occupied by Prévost himself. ''Manon'' is Massenet's most popular and enduring opera and, having "quickly conquered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madame Bovary (opera)
''Madame Bovary'' is an opera by Emmanuel Bondeville premiered at the Opéra-Comique on 1 June 1951 in a production by Louis Musy, conducted by Albert Wolff, with Jacqueline Brumaire in the title roleWolff S. ''Un demi-siècle d'Opéra-Comique (1900–1950).'' André Bonne, Paris, 1953. The opera is based upon the novel ''Madame Bovary'' by Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber .... Recordings *Andree Esposito, Julien Haas, Yves Bisson, Nadine Denize, Orchestre de la Radio Lyrique de Paris, Pierre-Michel Le Conte 1962 References External linksOpera chicJohn Adams on ''Madame Bovary'' Operas based on works by Gustave Flaubert Operas Operas based on novels French-language operas Opera world premieres at the Opéra-Comique 1951 operas { ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Bohème
''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '' quadri'', '' tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on ''Scènes de la vie de bohème'' (1851) by Henri Murger. The story is set in Paris around 1830 and shows the Bohemian lifestyle (known in French as "") of a poor seamstress and her artist friends. The world premiere of ''La bohème'' was in Turin on 1 February 1896 at the Teatro Regio, conducted by the 28-year-old Arturo Toscanini. Since then, ''La bohème'' has become part of the standard Italian opera repertory and is one of the most frequently performed operas worldwide. In 1946, fifty years after the opera's premiere, Toscanini conducted a commemorative performance of it on radio with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. A recording of the performance was later released by RCA Victor on vinyl record, tape and compact d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tosca
''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language dramatic play, ''La Tosca'', is a melodramatic piece set in Rome in June 1800, with the Kingdom of Naples's control of Rome threatened by Napoleon's invasion of Italy. It contains depictions of torture, murder, and suicide, as well as some of Puccini's best-known lyrical arias. Puccini saw Sardou's play when it was touring Italy in 1889 and, after some vacillation, obtained the rights to turn the work into an opera in 1895. Turning the wordy French play into a succinct Italian opera took four years, during which the composer repeatedly argued with his librettists and publisher. ''Tosca'' premiered at a time of unrest in Rome, and its first performance was delayed for a day for fear of disturbances. Despite indifferent reviews from the critics, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Le Roi Malgré Lui
''Le roi malgré lui'' (''King in Spite of Himself'' or ''The reluctant king'') is an opéra-comique in three acts by Emmanuel Chabrier of 1887 with an original libretto by Emile de Najac and Paul Burani. The opera is revived occasionally, but has not yet found a place in repertory. Eric Blom wrote that the tragic fate of the opera was to be written a quarter of a century too soon.Blom, Eric. ''Stepchildren of Music''. G T Foulis & Company Ltd, London, 1923. XVI. The Tragedy of a Comic Opera, p173-179. However, the music has been greatly admired by composers including d'Indy, Ravel and Stravinsky. Composition history Around May 1883 Chabrier wrote to his publishers that for his next stage work he was hoping to create something like Offenbach's successful 'grand fantaisie' ''Le roi Carotte''. According to Victorin de Joncières, Chabrier had confided to him that he was looking for an amusing book to set. Joncières had been sent ''Le roi malgré lui'', an old vaudeville of 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L'Heure Espagnole
''L'heure espagnole'' is a French one-act opera from 1911, described as a ''comédie musicale'', with music by Maurice Ravel to a French libretto by Franc-Nohain, based on Franc-Nohain's 1904 play ('comédie-bouffe') of the same nameStoullig E. '' Les Annales du Théâtre et de la Musique, 30eme edition, 1904.'' Librairie Paul Ollendorff, Paris, 1905.Roland-Manuel, p. 52: When Franc-Nohain heard Ravel play the work through to him for the first time, he apparently looked at his watch and said to Ravel "56 minutes". The opera, set in Spain in the 18th century, is about a clockmaker whose unfaithful wife attempts to make love to several different men while he is away, leading to them hiding in, and eventually getting stuck in, her husband's clocks. The title can be translated literally as "The Spanish Hour", but the word "heure" more importantly means "time" – "Spanish Time", with the connotation "How They Keep Time in Spain". The original play had first been performed at the Thé� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Contes D'Hoffmann
''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (French: ) is an by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbach's final work; he died in October 1880, four months before the premiere. Composition history and sources Offenbach saw a play, , written by Barbier and Michel Carré and produced at the Odéon Theatre in Paris in 1851. After returning from America in 1876, Offenbach learned that Barbier had adapted the play, which had now set to music at the Opéra. Salomon handed the project to Offenbach. Work proceeded slowly, interrupted by the composition of profitable lighter works. Offenbach had a premonition, like Antonia, the heroine of Act 2, that he would die prior to its completion. Offenbach continued working on the opera throughout 1880, attending some rehearsals. On 5 October 1880, he died with the manuscript in his hand, just four months before the opening. Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angélique (opera)
''Angélique'' is a 1927 French opera by Jacques Ibert Jacques François Antoine Marie Ibert (15 August 1890 – 5 February 1962) was a French composer of classical music. Having studied music from an early age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his firs ... to a libretto by "Nino", a pseudonym of Michel Veber, Ibert's brother-in-law.Michael Raeburn - 2007 ''The Chronicle of Opera'' 0500286671 p.185 "28 January Premiere of Angelique (Ibert/Nino) at the Theatre Beriza, Paris. The work ... By far the most popular 'new' opera of the period (it was translated into eighteen languages), the work presents the interaction of an intellectual composer, ...The work, based on the old legend of the man who puts his shrewish wife up for sale" A 1996 recording conducted by Yoram David was released on Fonit. References {{reflist Operas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
