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Kari Løvaas
Kari Løvaas (13 May 1939 – 24 April 2025) was a Norwegian operatic soprano who made an international career. She performed at international festivals such as the Salzburg Festival and the Lucerne Festival in both opera and concert. She participated in complete recordings of rarely performed operas, including works by Haydn and composers of the 20th century, recorded ''Lieder'' and regularly appeared in choral concerts. Life and career Born in Skien on 13May 1939, Løvaas grew up near Brekkeparken in Skien where she also had one of her first appearances. In 1955, she was accepted by the Oslo Conservatory of Music, aged 16, studying piano and voice, under the mentorship of Ingeborg Vorbeck. She made her opera debut as "Nuri" in Eugen d'Albert's '' Tiefland'' in the opening performance at the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet on 16 February 1959 on the recommendation of Kirsten Flagstad who had sung the same role for her debut. She was then offered the role of Pamina in Moz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skien
Skien () is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Grenland, although historically it belonged to Grenmar/Skiensfjorden, while Grenland referred the Norsjø area and Bø. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Skien, which is also the administrative centre of the whole county. Some of the notable villages in the municipality include Åfoss, Hoppestad, Klovholt, Luksefjell, Melum, Kilebygda, Skotfoss, Sneltvedt, and Valebø. The municipality is the 147th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Skien is the 18th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 55,924. The municipality's population density is and its population has increased by 5.5% over the previous 10-year period. The conurbation of Porsgrunn/Skien is reckoned by Statistics Norway to be the seventh largest urban area in Norway, straddling an area of three municipalities: Skien municipality (about 62 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Günther Rennert
Günther Rennert (1 April 1911 – 31 July 1978) was a German opera director and administrator. Life and career Günther Rennert was born in Essen, Rhine Province on 1 April 1911. His brother was the conductor Wolfgang Rennert. He began his career as a film director in 1933, he then became involved in the operatic theatre, becoming an assistant to Walter Felsenstein at the Oper Frankfurt. From 1939-1942 he was a resident director at the Königsberg Theatre, and from 1942-1945 he was a resident director at the Berlin Städtische Oper. He directed a production of Ludwig van Beethoven's ''Fidelio'' for the opening of the Bavarian State Opera's 1945 season. He later staged that same opera at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1959. In 1946 Rennert was appointed the administrative head of the Hamburg State Opera. There he directed two landmark productions of operas by Gioachino Rossini: ''The Barber of Seville'' and ''Il turco in Italia''. These productions are credited with helping spark ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Munich Opera Festival
The Munich Opera Festival () takes place yearly in the Bavarian capital from late June to late July. Preceding on the calendar the two nearby festivals of Bayreuth and Salzburg, which both start in late July, the festival summarizes the concluding main season's work of the Bavarian State Opera, which administers it, and offers premieres of new stage productions by the company, Germany's largest. Venues used include the Nationaltheater, the Prinzregententheater, the Cuvilliés-Theater and the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche. Besides opera, concerts of chamber music are given to showcase the work of members of the Bavarian State Orchestra, which serves in the pit for all opera performances. The festival is formally opened each year with a choral concert performed as part of a full Roman Catholic church service at Michaelskirche; this is led by the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, with the opera company's music director overseeing the work of the musicians in the organ loft. A festival ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Die Feen
''Die Feen'' (, ''The Fairies'') is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. The German libretto was written by the composer after Carlo Gozzi's '' La donna serpente''. ''Die Feen'' was Wagner's first completed opera, but remained unperformed in his lifetime. It has never established itself firmly in the operatic repertory although it receives occasional performances, on stage or in concert, most often in Germany. The opera is available on CD and in a heavily cut, adapted-for-children version, DVD. Although the music of ''Die Feen'' shows the influences of Carl Maria von Weber and other composers of the time, commentators have recognised embryonic features of the mature Wagnerian opera. The fantasy plot also anticipates themes such as redemption that were to reappear in his later works. Background and composition ''Die Feen'' was Wagner's first completed opera, composed in 1833, when he was 20 years old and working as a part-time chorus master in Würzburg. He gave it the descri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zürich Opera House
The Zurich Opera House () is an opera house in the Swiss city of Zurich. Located at the Sechseläutenplatz, it has been the home of the Zurich Opera since 1891, and also houses the Bernhard-Theater Zürich. It is also home to Ballett Zürich. It received the "Opera Company of the Year" award at the 2014 International Opera Awards. History The first permanent theatre in Zurich, the , was built in 1834 and it became the focus of Richard Wagner’s activities during his period of exile from Germany. The burnt down in 1890. The new (municipal theatre) was built by the Viennese architects Fellner & Helmer, who changed their previous design for the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, theatre in Wiesbaden only slightly. It was built in only 16 months and was opened in 1891 and became the first opera house in Europe to have electrical lighting. It was the city's main performance space for drama, opera, and musical events until 1925, when the Bernhard Theater was built for separ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Die Walküre
(; ''The Valkyrie''), Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis, WWV 86B, is the second of the four epic poetry, epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Literary cycle, cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on 26 June 1870, and received its first performance as part of the ''Ring'' cycle at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 14 August 1876. As the ''Ring'' cycle was conceived by Wagner in reverse order of performance, ''Die Walküre'' was the third of the four texts to be written, although Wagner composed the music in performance sequence. The text was completed by July 1852, and the music by March 1856. Wagner largely followed the principles related to the form of musical drama, which he had set out in his 1851 essay ''Opera and Drama'' under which the music would interpret the text emotionally, reflecting the feelings and moods behind the work, using a system of recurring leitmotifs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baumburg Abbey
Baumburg Abbey is a former monastery of Augustinian Canons Regular in the northern Traunstein district of Bavaria, Germany. It was founded in 1107–1109 and dissolved in 1803. Today Baumburg is a Catholic deanery that covers the parishes of the northern Chiemgau. Foundation The monastery ''St. Margareth zu Baumburg'' was founded by Count Berengar II of Sulzbach in 1107–1109 to fulfill his oath on the death of his wife Adelheid von Megling-Frontenhausen. Count Berengar appointed Eberwin as provost of the monastery. He moved Augustinian canons to the new abbey from the Berchtesgaden Provostry, which he and Eberwin had previously peopled with canons from Rottenbuch Abbey. He also appropriated property from Berchtesgaden for the new monastery. However, around 1116 Berengar let Eberwin return to Berchtesgaden to lead it again as an independent monastery. The new provost Gottschalk (ca. 1120–1163) of Baumburg was not at all pleased with the detachment of Berchtesgaden. He c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (; 28 May 1925 – 18 May 2012) was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music. One of the most famous Lieder (art song) performers of the post-war period, he is best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, particularly ''"Winterreise"'' of which his recordings with accompanists Gerald Moore and Jörg Demus are still critically acclaimed half a century after their release. Because he recorded an array of repertoire (spanning centuries), musicologist Alan Blyth asserted, "No singer in our time, or probably any other has managed the range and versatility of repertory achieved by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Opera, Lieder and oratorio in German, Italian or English came alike to him, yet he brought to each a precision and individuality that bespoke his perceptive insights into the idiom at hand." In addition, he recorded in French, Russian, Hebrew, Latin and Hungarian. He was described as "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Schreier
Peter Schreier (29 July 1935 – 25 December 2019) was a German tenor in opera, concert and lied, and a conductor. He was regarded as one of the leading lyric tenors of the 20th century. Schreier was a member of the Dresdner Kreuzchor conducted by Rudolf Mauersberger, performing as an alto soloist. He became a tenor, focused on concert and lieder singing, well known internationally for the Evangelist parts in Bach's ''Christmas Oratorio'' and Passion. A member of the Berlin State Opera from 1963, he appeared in Mozart roles such as Belmonte in ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'' and Tamino in ''Die Zauberflöte'', and in the title role of Pfitzner's ''Palestrina'', among others. He appeared at the Vienna State Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, among others, as one of few singers from the German Democratic Republic to perform internationally. Schreier made many recordings, especially of Bach's works as both a singer and a conductor, even simultaneously. He recorded many lieder ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brigitte Fassbaender
Brigitte Fassbaender (; born 3 July 1939), is a German mezzo-soprano opera singer and a stage director. From 1999 to 2012 she was Theater manager, intendant (managing director) of the Tyrolean State Theatre in Innsbruck, Austria. She holds the title Kammersängerin from the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and the Vienna Staatsoper. Career Fassbaender was born in Berlin, the daughter of screen actress Sabine Peters and baritone Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender. The family settled in Nuremberg after World War II. She spent her early career in Munich. Fassbaender studied singing with her father, at the Nuremberg Conservatory. She joined the Bavarian State Opera in 1961, where her first leading role was Nicklausse in ''Les contes d'Hoffmann, The Tales of Hoffmann''. Fassbaender appeared as Octavian, the title role of ''Der Rosenkavalier'' by Richard Strauss, in Munich in 1967, the role that launched her international career. In 1971, she performed at Royal Opera, London and made her Metrop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolfgang Sawallisch
Wolfgang Sawallisch (26 August 1923 – 22 February 2013) was a German conductor and pianist. Biography Wolfgang Sawallisch was born in Munich, the son of Maria and Wilhelm Sawallisch. His father was director of the Hamburg-Bremer-Feuerversicherung insurance company in the city. Wolfgang's brother Werner was five years older. He passed his Abitur in 1942 at the Wittelsbacher-Gymnasium in Munich. At the age of five, he was already playing the piano and by the time he was ten, he had decided he wanted to become a concert pianist. As a child, he was greatly influenced by Richard Strauss and Hans Knappertsbusch. In his musical education he was generously supported by his family, especially by his widowed mother, who became active again because of him, and also by his older brother. At first, he studied composition and piano privately. This enabled him to prepare for his career as a pianist and conductor before and after the Second World War without financial worries. His profes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petite Messe Solennelle
Gioachino Rossini's ''Petite messe solennelle'' (Little Solemn Mass) was written in 1863, possibly at the request of Count Alexis Pillet-Will for his wife Louise, to whom it is dedicated. The composer, who had retired from composing operas more than 30 years before, described it as "the last of my ''péchés de vieillesse''" (sins of old age). The extended work is a missa solemnis (solemn Mass), but Rossini ironically labeled it ''petite'' (little). He scored it originally for twelve singers, four of them soloists, two pianos and Pump organ, harmonium. The mass was first performed on 14 March 1864 at the couple's new home in Paris. Rossini later produced an orchestral version, including an additional Movement (music), movement, a setting of the hymn "" as a soprano aria. This version was not performed during his lifetime because he was unable to obtain permission to have female singers in a church. It was finally performed at the Salle Ventadour in Paris by the company of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
