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Lucienne Bréval
Lucienne Bréval (4 November 1869 – 15 August 1935) was a Swiss dramatic soprano who had a major international opera career from 1892 to 1918. Although she appeared throughout Europe and in the United States, Bréval spent most of her career performing with the Paris Opera where she became a greatly admired interpreter of French grand opera roles and Wagner heroines. She also specialized in the works of Gluck and Rameau, becoming particularly associated with the title roles in Gluck’s '' Armide'' and Rameau's ''Hippolyte et Aricie''. A favorite of the composers of her day, such as Massenet and Dukas, Bréval sang in numerous world premières during her career. Biography Born with the name Bertha Agnès Lisette Schilling, Bréval initially studied to be a pianist at Lausanne and briefly in Geneva before deciding to pursue an opera career."Bréval, Lucienne", ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', Personenteil:3 p 874. She studied voice with Victor Warot at the Paris Cons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Meyer Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart and Richard Wagner, Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Robert le diable'' and its successors, he gave the genre of grand opera 'decisive character'. Meyerbeer's grand opera style was achieved by his merging of German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. These were employed in the context of sensational and melodramatic libretti created by Eugène Scribe and were enhanced by the up-to-date theatre technology of the Paris Opéra. They set a standard that helped to maintain Paris as the opera capital of the nineteenth century. Born to a wealthy Jewish family, Meyerbeer began his musical career as a pianist but soon decided to devote himself to opera, spending several years in Italy studying and composing. His 1824 opera ''Il crociato in Egitto'' was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hector Berlioz
Louis-Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer and conductor. His output includes orchestral works such as the ''Symphonie fantastique'' and ''Harold en Italie, Harold in Italy'', choral pieces including the Requiem (Berlioz), Requiem and ''L'Enfance du Christ'', his three operas ''Benvenuto Cellini (opera), Benvenuto Cellini'', ''Les Troyens'' and ''Béatrice et Bénédict'', and works of hybrid genres such as the "dramatic symphony" ''Roméo et Juliette (Berlioz), Roméo et Juliette'' and the "dramatic legend" ''La Damnation de Faust''. The elder son of a provincial physician, Berlioz was expected to follow his father into medicine, and he attended a Parisian medical college before defying his family by taking up music as a profession. His independence of mind and refusal to follow traditional rules and formulas put him at odds with the conservative musical establishment of Paris. He briefly moderated his style ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tannhäuser (opera)
''Tannhäuser'' (; full title , "Tannhäuser and the Minnesängers' Contest at Wartburg") is an 1845 opera in three acts, with music and text by Richard Wagner ( WWV 70 in the catalogue of the composer's works). It is based on two German legends: Tannhäuser, the mythologized medieval German Minnesänger and poet, and the tale of the Wartburg Song Contest. The story centres on the struggle between sacred and profane love, as well as redemption through love, a theme running through most of Wagner's work. The opera remains a staple of major opera house repertoire in the 21st century. Composition history Sources The libretto of ''Tannhäuser'' combines mythological elements characteristic of German ''Romantische Oper'' (Romantic opera) and the medieval setting typical of many French Grand Operas. Wagner brings these two together by constructing a plot involving the 14th-century '' Minnesänger'' and the myth of Venus and her subterranean realm of Venusberg. Both the histori ... [...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] |
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' ("total work of art"), whereby he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. The drama was to be presented as a continuously sung narrative, without conventional operatic structures like Aria, arias and Recitative, recitatives. He described this vision in a List of prose works by Richard Wagner, series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brünnhilde
Brunhild, also known as Brunhilda or Brynhild ( , , or ), is a female character from Germanic heroic legend. She may have her origins in the Visigothic princess and queen Brunhilda of Austrasia. In the Norse tradition, Brunhild is a shieldmaiden or valkyrie, who appears as a main character in the and some Eddic poems treating the same events. In the continental Germanic tradition, where she is a central character in the , she is a powerful Amazon-like queen. In both traditions, she is instrumental in bringing about the death of the hero Sigurd or Siegfried after he deceives her into marrying the Burgundian king Gunther or Gunnar. In both traditions, the immediate cause for her desire to have Siegfried murdered is a quarrel with the hero's wife, Gudrun or Kriemhild. In the Scandinavian tradition, but not in the continental tradition, Brunhild kills herself after Sigurd's death. Richard Wagner made Brunhild (as ) an important character in his opera cycle . The majority ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parsifal
''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is freely based on the 13th-century Middle High German chivalric romance ''Parzival'' of the '' Minnesänger'' Wolfram von Eschenbach and the Old French chivalric romance ''Perceval ou le Conte du Graal'' by the 12th-century ''trouvère'' Chrétien de Troyes, recounting different accounts of the story of the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his spiritual quest for the Holy Grail. Wagner conceived the work in April 1857, but did not finish it until 25 years later. In composing it he took advantage of the particular acoustics of his newly built Bayreuth Festspielhaus. ''Parsifal'' was first produced at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882. The Bayreuth Festival maintained a monopoly on ''Parsifal'' productions until 1914, however the opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1903 after a US court ruled ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monna Vanna (Février)
''Monna Vanna'' is a drame lyrique or opera in four acts by composer Henry Février. The opera's French libretto is by playwright Maurice Maeterlinck and is based on his play of the same name. The opera premiered on 13 January 1909 at the Académie Nationale de Musique An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ... in Paris. Roles References See also * Mary Garden External links Online French libretto Operas by Henry Février French-language operas 1909 operas Operas Operas based on plays Operas based on works by Maurice Maeterlinck Operas set in Italy {{French-opera-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Février
Henry Février (; 2 October 18756 July 1957) was a French composer. Biography Henry Février was born in Paris, France, on 2 October 1875, the son of architect Jules Février. He married and had a son, the pianist Jacques Février. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, where his teachers included Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré. He also took private lessons with André Messager. His first compositions were chamber music, but he is chiefly known for his operas and operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...s, among which are ''Le Roi aveugle'' (1906), ''Monna Vanna'' (1909), ''Carmosine'' (1913), '' Gismonda'' (Chicago 1919), ''La Damnation de Blanchefleur'' (1920), ''L'Ile désenchantée'' (1925), ''Oletta'' (1927), ''La Femme nue'' (1929) and ''Sylvette'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ariane (Massenet)
''Ariane'' is an opera in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Catulle Mendès after Greek mythology (the tale of Ariadne). It was first performed at the Palais Garnier in Paris on 31 October 1906, with Lucienne Bréval in the title role. History The subject of Ariadne was widely-used in opera during the Baroque and early Classical periods and then in the 20th century. The Massenet-Mendès version is one of very few which depicts the heroine and Theseus on Crete and then on Naxos. Massenet was publicly happy with his collaboration with Mendès, but his biographer claims that he disliked his librettist, whose words have been condemned by many critics; for example "Ariane suffers from a long, heavy libretto in the French Classical tradition by Catulle Mendès that contains much garlanded verse but little in the way of credible emotional realism". At the head of the score, Mendès offers quotes from his inspiration: Ovid, Jean Racine, Racine and Thomas Corneille. Alt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bacchus (opera)
''Bacchus'' is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Catulle Mendès after Greek mythology. It was first performed at the Palais Garnier in Paris on 5 May 1909. The story is based on the mythology surrounding Dionysus, Bacchus and Ariadne (Ariane). The Gods, among them the demi-god Bacchus, appear in human form in ancient India to attempt to persuade the people away from the pervading Buddhist influence. Ariane has followed them, convinced that Bacchus is in fact Theseus, her unrequited love. In the end, Ariane sacrifices herself to save humanity and in doing so, Bacchus becomes a God. Although not a proper sequel, as Ariane dies in both pieces, ''Bacchus'' is a companion to Massenet's earlier opera, Ariane (Massenet), ''Ariane''. Of Massenet's twenty-five operas, ''Bacchus'' is probably the least known, without a modern performance history or single modern recording. The ballet music has been recorded and issued appropriately by Naxos (company). T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
