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Devriès Family
The Devriès family were operatic singers over three generations, of Dutch descent. They were mainly active in France, Belgium and the USA in the second half of the 19th and the early 20th centuries.Forbes E. Devriès e Vries In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera.'' Macmillan, London and New York, 1997. Rosa de Vries-van Os A soprano (12 April 1828, The Hague - 30 March 1889, Rome), who made her debut in The Hague, and sang at the Théâtre d'Orléans in New Orleans, as well as Canada and Italy. She was the mother of Jeanne, Fidès, Maurice and Hermann. Jeanne Devriès A soprano, born in New Orleans before 1850, died in 1924, Jeanne Devriès made her debut at the age of 17 at the Paris Théâtre Lyrique in June 1867 as Amina in ''La sonnambula'' (in French), when she was praised by one critic, who nonetheless felt that she was not a new Malibran. Walsh T J. ''Second Empire Opera: The Théâtre Lyrique Paris 1851–1870.'' John Calder (Publishers Ltd), London, 1981. She took ov ... [...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" '' |
Le Val D'Andorre
''Le val d'Andorre'' (The Valley of Andorra) is an opéra comique by Fromental Halévy with a libretto by Saint-Georges. Although today almost completely forgotten, it was one of Halévy's greatest successes, running for 165 performances and restoring the then precarious financial situation of the Opéra-Comique in Paris where it was given its premiere on 11 November 1848. Production history After the premiere, the reviewer of the Parisian ''Revue et gazette musicale'' wrote 'This is the most brilliant total success ever recorded at the Opéra-Comique.' The opera was translated into German and produced in 1849 in Leipzig, where it was praised by Ignaz Moscheles - 'Music of a genuine dramatic character, which has more flow of melody than his other operas. The subject is cleverly worked out and very impressive.' In 1850 it opened in London, to mediocre reviews, but was graced by a visit from Queen Victoria (for which the French cast had to be hurriedly coached to sing ''God Save th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Maurel
Victor Maurel (17 June 184822 October 1923) was a French operatic baritone who enjoyed an international reputation as a great singing actor. Biography Maurel was born in Marseille. Educated in music and stagecraft at the Paris Conservatory, he made his debut in opera in 1867, in the city of his birth. The following year, he performed on stage in Paris for the first time. New York first heard him in 1873, when he performed at the Academy of Music. Later, he would sing at New York's Metropolitan Opera (in 1894-96 and 1898–99). Other famous venues at which he appeared included London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden — in 1873–79, 1891–95 and 1904 — and the Paris Opera, where he was on the roster of singers from 1879 to 1894. Maurel was renowned in Europe and the United States for his vivid stage presence and exceptional acting and make-up skills; but his voice, while well trained and of good quality, was not considered to be as impressive as that of his chief Frenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paris Conservatoire Orchestra
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, gastronomy, and science. For its leading role in the arts and sciences, as well as its very early system of street lighting, in the 19th century it became known as "the City of Light". Like London, prior to the Second World War, it was also sometimes called the capital of the world. The City of Paris is the centre of the Île-de-France region, or Paris Region, with an estimated population of 12,262,544 in 2019, or about 19% of the population of France, making the region France's primate city. The Paris Region had a GDP of €739 billion ($743 billion) in 2019, which is the highest in Europe. According to the Economist Intelli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symphony No
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning common today: a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four, with the first movement in sonata form. Symphonies are almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section (violin, viola, cello, and double bass), brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30 to 100 musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the notated music for their own instrument. Some symphonies also contain vocal parts (e.g., Beethoven's Ninth Symphony). Etymology and origins The word ''symphony'' is derived from the Greek word (), meaning "agreement or concord of sound", "concert of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Juive
''La Juive'' () (''The Jewess'') is a grand opera in five acts by Fromental Halévy to an original French libretto by Eugène Scribe; it was first performed at the Opéra, Paris, on 23 February 1835. Composition history ''La Juive'' was one of the most popular and admired operas of the 19th century. Its libretto (text) was the work of Eugène Scribe, the prolific dramatic author. Scribe was writing to the tastes of the Opéra de Paris, where the work was first performed – a work in five acts presenting spectacular situations (here the Council of Constance of 1414), which would allow a flamboyant staging in a setting which brought out a dramatic situation which was also underlined by a powerful historical subject. In addition to this, there could be choral interludes, ballet and scenic effects which took advantage of the entire range of possibilities available at the Paris Opera. Because of the story of an impossible love between a Christian man and a Jewish woman, the work ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guillaume Tell
''William Tell'' (french: Guillaume Tell, link=no; it, Guglielmo Tell, link=no) is a French-language opera in four acts by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy and L. F. Bis, based on Friedrich Schiller's play ''Wilhelm Tell,'' which, in turn, drew on the William Tell legend. The opera was Rossini's last, although he lived for nearly 40 more years. Fabio Luisi said that Rossini planned for ''Guillaume Tell'' to be his last opera even as he composed it. The often-performed overture in four sections features a depiction of a storm and a vivacious finale, the "March of the Swiss Soldiers". Paris Opéra archivist Charles Malherbe discovered the original orchestral score of the opera at a secondhand book seller's shop, resulting in its being acquired by the Paris Conservatoire. Performance history ''Guillaume Tell'' was first performed by the Paris Opéra at the Salle Le Peletier on 3 August 1829, but within three performances cuts we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legend about a libertine as told by playwright Tirso de Molina in his 1630 play '' El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra''. It is a ''dramma giocoso'' blending comedy, melodrama and supernatural elements (although the composer entered it into his catalogue simply as ''opera buffa''). It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the National Theater (of Bohemia), now called the Estates Theatre, on 29 October 1787. ''Don Giovanni'' is regarded as one of the greatest operas of all time and has proved a fruitful subject for commentary in its own right; critic Fiona Maddocks has described it as one of Mozart's "trio of masterpieces with librettos by Da Ponte". Composition and premiere The opera was commissioned after the succes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L’Africaine
''L'Africaine'' (''The African Woman'') is an 1865 French ''grand opéra'' in five acts with music by Giacomo Meyerbeer and a libretto by Eugène Scribe. Meyerbeer and Scribe began working on the opera in 1837, using the title ''L'Africaine'', but around 1852 changed the plot to portray fictitious events in the life of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama and introduced the working title ''Vasco de Gama'', the French version of his name. The copying of the full score was completed the day before Meyerbeer died in 1864. The opera was premiered the following year by the Paris Opéra in a version made by François-Joseph Fétis, who restored the earlier title, ''L'Africaine''. The Fétis version was published and was used for subsequent performances until 2013, when some productions and recordings began using Meyerbeer's preferred title, ''Vasco de Gama'', for performing versions with revisions based on the manuscript score. In 2018 the music publisher Ricordi issued a critical edit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Der Freischütz
' ( J. 277, Op. 77 ''The Marksman'' or ''The Freeshooter'') is a German opera with spoken dialogue in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind, based on a story by Johann August Apel and Friedrich Laun from their 1810 collection ''Gespensterbuch''. It premiered on 18 June 1821 at the Schauspielhaus Berlin. It is considered the first German Romantic opera. The opera's plot is mainly based on August Apel's tale "Der Freischütz" from the ''Gespensterbuch'' though the hermit, Kaspar and Ännchen are new to Kind's libretto. That Weber's tunes were just German folk music is a common misconception. Its unearthly portrayal of the supernatural in the famous Wolf's Glen scene has been described as "the most expressive rendering of the gruesome that is to be found in a musical score". Performance history The reception of ''Der Freischütz'' surpassed Weber's own hopes and it quickly became an international success, with productions in Vienna the same year f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Le Diable
''Robert le diable'' (''Robert the Devil'') is an opera in five acts composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer between 1827 and 1831, to a libretto written by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne. ''Robert le diable'' is regarded as one of the first grand operas at the Paris Opéra. It has only a superficial connection to the medieval legend of ''Robert the Devil''. The opera was immediately successful from its first night on 21 November 1831 at the Opéra; the dramatic music, harmony and orchestration, its melodramatic plot, its star singers and its sensational stage effects compelled Frédéric Chopin, who was in the audience, to say, "If ever magnificence was seen in the theatre, I doubt that it reached the level of splendour shown in ''Robert''...It is a masterpiece...Meyerbeer has made himself immortal".Brown, ''Robert le diable'', p. 572 ''Robert'' initiated the European fame of its composer, consolidated the fame of its librettist, Scribe, and launched the reputation of the new dire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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