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Henri-Étienne Dérivis
Henri-Étienne Dérivis (2 August 1780 – 1 February 1856) was a French operatic bass. For 25 years he was a leading singer at the Paris Opéra where he made his debut in 1803. He was born in Albi and died in Livry-Gargan at the age of 75. Life and career Dérivis was born in Albi, a town in southern France and entered the Paris Conservatory in December 1799. He made his debut at the Paris Opéra on 11 February 1803 as Sarastro in ''Les Mystères d'lsis'' (the French version of Mozart's ''The Magic Flute''). The same year he was also appointed a singer at Napoleon's court. During the course of his 25-year career at the Opéra, he performed all the leading bass roles and sang in many world premieres, including Spontini's '' La vestale'' and Rossini's '' Le siège de Corinthe''. His last appearance there was on 5 May 1828 as Œdipe in Sacchini's ''Œdipe à Colone'', a role he had sung to great success many times in his career. After retiring from the company, he continued to perfo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fernand Cortez
''Fernand Cortez, ou La conquête du Mexique '' (''Hernán Cortés, or The Conquest of Mexico'') is an opera in three acts by Gaspare Spontini with a French libretto by Étienne de Jouy and Joseph-Alphonse Esménard. It was first performed on 28 November 1809 by the Académie Impériale de Musique (Paris Opera) at the Salle Montansier. Background and performance history The opera was originally intended as political propaganda to support the Emperor Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808. Cortez symbolises Napoleon while the bloodthirsty Aztec priests are meant to represent the Spanish Inquisition. The emperor himself is said to have suggested the theme of the opera to Spontini and the premiere was held in his presence. The popularity of the piece declined with the waning of the French army's fortunes in Spain and Portugal. The 1809 premiere was famous for its spectacular effects, including the appearance of 17 live horses on stage. Critics complained about the adventurous harmo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operatic Basses
Opera is a form of Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor. Although musical theatre is closely related to opera, the two are considered to be distinct from one another. Opera is a key part of Western classical music, and Italian tradition in particular. Originally understood as an entirely sung piece, in contrast to a play with songs, opera has come to include numerous genres, including some that include spoken dialogue such as ''Singspiel'' and ''Opéra comique''. In traditional number opera, singers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
19th-century French Male Opera Singers
The 19th century began on 1 January 1801 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 (MCM). It was the 9th century of the 2nd millennium. It was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was Abolitionism, abolished in much of Europe and the Americas. The First Industrial Revolution, though it began in the late 18th century, expanded beyond its British homeland for the first time during the 19th century, particularly remaking the economies and societies of the Low Countries, France, the Rhineland, Northern Italy, and the Northeastern United States. A few decades later, the Second Industrial Revolution led to ever more massive urbanization and much higher levels of productivity, profit, and prosperity, a pattern that continued into the 20th century. The Catholic Church, in response to the growing influence and power of modernism, secularism and materialism, formed the First Vatican Council in the late 19th century to deal with such problems an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hippolyte André Jean Baptiste Chélard
Hippolyte André Jean Baptiste Chélard (1 February 1789 – 12 February 1861) was a French composer, violist, and conductor of the Classical era. He was born in Paris and studied composition with François-Joseph Gossec and viola with Rodolphe Kreutzer. Chélard won the 1811 Prix de Rome for his cantata ''Ariane''. He earned his living for much of his career as a violist at the Paris Opera. His 1827 opera ''Macbeth'' was a flop in Paris, but a great success in Munich. From that time on, he composed for the German market, his most popular work being ''Die Hunnenschlacht'' which premiered in Munich in 1835. The compositions of Chélard reflect a variety of stylistic traditions including the Gluck-Cherubini-Spontini and German Romantic schools. While some his work enjoyed limited success, particularly among amateur keyboardists, it is mostly notable in the development of southern German music at the time. Some aspects of Chélard's music are said to be echoed in the works of Berl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daniel Auber
Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (; 29 January 178212 May 1871) was a French composer and director of the Paris Conservatoire. Born into an artistic family, Auber was at first an amateur composer before he took up writing operas professionally when the family's fortunes failed in 1820. He soon established a professional partnership with the librettist Eugène Scribe that lasted for 41 years and produced 39 operas, most of them commercial and critical successes. He is mostly associated with opéra-comique and composed 35 works in that genre. With Scribe he wrote the first French grand opera, ''La muette de Portici, La Muette de Portici'' (The Dumb Woman of Portici) in 1828, which paved the way for the large-scale works of Giacomo Meyerbeer. Auber held two important official musical posts. From 1842 to 1871 he was director of France's premier music academy, the Paris Conservatoire, which he expanded and modernised. From 1852 until the fall of the Second French Empire, Second Empire i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henri Montan Berton
Henri-Montan Berton (17 September 1767 – 22 April 1844) was a French composer, teacher, and writer, mostly known as a composer of operas for the Opéra-Comique. Career Henri-Montan Berton was born the son of Pierre Montan Berton.Charlton 2001."Henri-Montan Berton" in Sadie 1992, vol. 1, pp. 453–455. He is principally remembered as a composer of operas, most of which were first performed at the Opéra-Comique. Riding a wave of anti-clericalism which arose at the time of the French Revolution, his first real success was with ''Les rigueurs du cloître'' (23 August 1790), "in which a young nun is saved from entombment at the hands of a corrupt mother superior." The work has been described as the first rescue opera. Later more notable operas include ''Montano et Stéphanie'' (15 April 1799), ''Le délire'' (7 December 1799), and ''La Romance'' (26 January 1804). One of his greatest early successes was ''Aline, reine de Golconde'' (3 September 1803), which was performed int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Mort D'Abel
' (''The Death of Abel'') is an opera by the French composer Rodolphe Kreutzer. The libretto, by François-Benoît Hoffman, deals with the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. It was first performed in a three-act version at the Salle Montansier by the Académie Impériale de Musique (the Paris Opéra) on 23 March 1810 under the title ''Abel''. A revival at the Salle Le Peletier in 1823, in which the second act was cut, impressed the young Hector Berlioz. Background ' was one of a number of French operas and oratorios on Biblical themes to appear in the first decades of the 19th century. This fashion was inspired by a performance of Haydn's '' The Creation'' at the Paris Opéra in 1800. Examples of the genre include Kalkbrenner's staged oratorios ''Saul'' and ', Lesueur's ' and, most famously, Méhul's ''Joseph'' (1807). Alexandre Dratwicki in the book accompanying the Van Waas recording, p. 62 The French Emperor Napoleon did not share the enthusiasm for putting Bible storie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicolas Isouard
Nicolas Isouard (; also known as ''Nicolò'', ''Nicolò Isoiar'' or ''Nicolò de Malte''; 18 May 1773 – 23 March 1818) was a Franco-Maltese composer. Biography Born in Valletta, Malta, Isouard studied in Rabat or Mdina with Francesco Azopardi, in Palermo with , and in Naples with Nicola Sala and Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi. From 1795 he was organist at Saint John's Co-Cathedral - the Conventual Church of the Order of Saint John in Valletta He moved to Paris, where he worked as a free composer and became friends with Rodolphe Kreutzer. The pair worked together on several operas, including ''Le Petit page, ou La Prison d'état'' (1800) and ''Flaminius à Corinthe'' (1801). Isouard adopted the pseudonym Nicolò (or Nicolò de Malte) and found rapid success in the field of opéra comique with ''Michel-Ange ''(1802) and ''L'Intrigue aux fenêtres'' (1805). He composed regularly for the ''Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique'', writing some thirty works for it. He composed masses, m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olimpie
''Olimpie'' (also spelled ''Olympie'') is an opera in three acts by Gaspare Spontini. The French libretto, by Michel Dieulafoy, Armand-Michel Dieulafoy and Charles Brifaut, is based on the by Voltaire (1761). ''Olimpie'' was first performed on 22 December 1819 by the Paris Paris Opera, Opéra at the Théâtre National de la rue de la Loi, Salle Montansier. When sung in Italian or German, it is usually given the title ''Olimpia''. Background The story takes place in the aftermath of the death of Alexander the Great, who left a vast empire, stretching from Macedonia (region), Macedonia through Persian Empire, Persia to the Indian Ocean. Diadochi, His surviving generals fought for control of the empire and Partition of Babylon, divided it up. Two of the historical characters in Voltaire's play and Spontini's opera, Cassander and Antigonus I Monophthalmus, Antigonus, were among the rivals competing for parts of the empire. Antigonus was one of Alexander's generals, while Cassander was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Abencérages
(English: ''The Abencerrages, or The standard of Granada'') is an opera in three acts by Luigi Cherubini with a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy, based on the novel ''Gonzalve de Cordoue'' by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian. It was first performed on 6 April 1813 by the Académie Impériale de Musique (Paris Opera) at the Salle Montansier, with Napoleon and his wife, the Empress Marie-Louise, in the audience. The opera was initially a success but its popularity waned after the fall of Napoleon. Because of its use of large choruses, spectacle and extensive dance music as well as its story line of a love affair played out against the background of major historical events, ''Les Abencérages'' is considered an important precursor of French grand opera. Almanzor's tenor aria, ''Suspendez de ses murs'', was admired by composers such as Berlioz and has been recorded by singers including Georges Thill and Roberto Alagna. The ballet music in the first act contains variations on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Amazones
''Les amazones, ou La fondation de Thèbes'' (''The Amazons, or The Founding of Thebes'') is an opera in three acts by the French composer Étienne Méhul with a libretto by Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy. It was first performed at the Paris Opéra on 17 December 1811 with the Emperor Napoleon and his new wife, Marie-Louise in the audience. The plot, which concerns the reconciliation of two warring peoples, was intended to symbolise the peace between France and Austria. Performance history The opera was a failure, its lack of success blamed on the weak libretto. Méhul's early biographer, Pierre Vieillard, was one of the musicians at the premiere. He wrote, "A bizarre occurrence added to the woes of this sorry work. The worst thing which went wrong was the denouement which, one might say, fell from a great height, since Jupiter himself appeared up in the air to recognise Amphion and Zethus as his sons. At the very moment when this revelation should have stopped short the Amazons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
